THE ARTICLE
We all have occasional days where we are feeling a little down, when our mind starts to run on overdrive, when we are feeling a little flat....
What do you do when these days visit?
It's easy to get caught up in your mind with negative self talk and start over analysing things imagining senarios that may never ever come to pass. In fact, many of the things we worry about never happen!
What a waste of energy!
As I was driving along the freeway today I caught myself feeling rather flat and getting overwhelmed with my overactive mind. Once I realised what was happening I knew I needed to get out of my head (which is past or the future based) and INTO my BODY (where the present lives)...
... So I started practicing CONCIOUS SMILING, like I teach in our laughter workshops, and this is what I noticed....
As soon as I started CONCIOUSLY smiling
- I stopped THINKING about all those things that were worring me.
- I was totally in the MOMENT.
- I was aware of my breath.
- I started to feel INSTANTLY better!
The quickest way to CHANGE HOW WE FEEL is to MOVE OUR BODY.
And SMILING is a great way to start releasing NATURAL feel good chemicals throughtout the body!
Anthony Robbins is a great teacher of how MOTION creates EMOTION. During some of his teachings he refers to a study that was done at a university in America where they had 20 clinically depressed individuals stand tall in front of a mirror, breath fully and grin from ear to ear for 20 minutes a day over a period of 20-30 days.
At the conclusion of the study when re-assessed none of the study group were any longer clinically depressed. Food for thought! This proves how POWERFUL the position we put our bodies in has on how we feel.
Whilst practicing smiling with myself in the car, I also noticed every once in a while I would again drift off into my unconcious negative mind chatter... Whoops a daisy.... then I would refocus to my concious SMILE and be back into my feel good present moment.
So remember to keep re-checking yourself, and also doing this without judgement.... it is a natural construct of the human mind to get distracted.
Remember, the power is within YOU. So, next time you're feeling down, turn that frown upside down and CONCIOUSLY SMILE, it will turn your world around ;-)
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Mindbody Specialist, Kathy Popplewell is passionate about helping people to live, love and laugh, naturally. She is a national presenter, writer and personal coach on yoga, laughter, dance and mindbody wellbeing. Kathy is based in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. http://www.vibrance.com.au
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