Our Body Knows More Than We Think, And Thinks More Than We Know

First published on November 2, 2018

A client was late for a session this morning.

I have a practice that whenever someone is late, or cancels a session at late notice, I don't just dive into my inbox. Instead, I do something cool instead. Or something awesome. Or something exciting. Or something creative. My most-read article was mostly written after a client cancelled at the last minute. Thank you - from me, and on behalf of the 7,500 people who have read it - to the client that cancelled.

Today, I reflected on a workshop I went on with Loch Kelly, an author and teacher of Effortless Mindfulness. At the workshop, of the glimpse-practices he taught - ways to glimpse a different kind of awareness without having to spend many years practising meditation - the most powerful one for me was one which included movement. I have only used it once since the workshop, so in the 15 minutes I had, I did the practice three times, using this four-minute video. Something about it - the movement Kelly took me through at the workshop and in the video - connects me to my awareness, and alters the state, better than any other of his practises.

And this doesn't surprise me. One of my journeys of the last few years has been to lean into and deepen my understanding of my body. I feel this has - and continues to - unlocked wonders for me in my work and life, with signs about it coming to me from all angles.

I remember first reading about the psychology experiment where participants are instructed to hold the muscles in their face in the form of a smile (without telling them to smile). They report being happier. If they are instructed to hold their facial muscles in a sad expression, they report feeling more sad.

It's not just that, though. I've written before about the centring exercise I do before every coaching session. One of my clients has an aim to be more present in the evenings with their family, and I gave them the same exercise to trial on their commute home. The first part of the exercise is to stand in a physically centred position: feet flat, shoulders above hips, back straight but not overextended, to breath deeply and to breath out tension. The exercise goes on into a kind of mindfulness practice but she reported that just by changing her postureshe felt calmer.

Jordan Peterson, in his book, 12 Rules for Life, talks about how the one of the effects of the evolutionary dominance hierarchy that humans (and, interestingly, lobsters) have as part of us is that we get into positive and negative feedback loops, and part of this is posture. If we stand up straight, with our shoulders back, then our body gives us hormones which support us feeling better, even making better decisions. Not only that, but people treat us differently, which gives us even more of the good hormones. If we slump and slouch, instead, then we get hormones which tell us things won't work out, things won't be easy, they won't be possible. And people treat us in a way that encourages more of that. And as more of those hormones come in, we slouch even more.

When I am preparing myself for coaching, I have noticed that changing the position of my arms affects how I feel enormously. Out to my sides makes it harder to breathe. Down and curved out, with palms up, seems to welcome energy into me.

Ellen Langer, on this amazing podcast, says that the distinction of Body and Mind is arbitrary. There is no separation. It might as well, she memorably says, have been Mind, Body and Elbow. A group of people in one of the experiments she talks about act younger, live in an environment made to look like several decades ago, and then start to look younger. Isn't that extraordinary?

The message of this article is simple. Your body holds great intelligence (BQ?), it holds great intuition, and it affects how you think and how you feel. And vice versa.

Bring some more awareness to your body now. What do you notice?