 Shoulders down & frowning are signs of being under stress |  Shoulders relaxed,smiling and back straight instantly makes you feel in control |
We all experience emotions in our daily routine, such as happiness and sadness, and we also experience feelings of love, joy and grief during our lifetime but there is more to these emotions than just a feeling.
When we experience happiness for example a change occurs in our brain chemistry so small levels of hormones are released such as Serotonin, Dopamine and even Endogenous Opiates (the brain’s own version of morphine). When our emotions change so does our brain chemistry reflecting how we are feeling. Our muscles reflect our mood too; you smile when you feel happy, and tense your shoulders and frown when you feel under stress. Probably don’t even realise you are doing it! It’s all second nature and is happening because your muscles are communicating with the emotional part of your brain.
As well as emotion affecting our brain chemistry and muscles, it also affects our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) as this connects our brain to our heart and other organs of our body including the skin via sweat glands and blood vessels. A stressful situation can cause your skin to sweat, your muscles to tense up, your heartbeat to race and your breathing to change.
This chain of events starting from emotion affecting the brain chemistry, muscles and ANS also works the other way round with chemistry, muscles and the ANS affecting emotions too. For example if Serotonin can be increased, it can make you feel happier and by relaxing your shoulders, standing up straight and breathing confidently it can instantly make you feel more in control and ready to deal with that tricky situation, and by adding a smile too it can make you feel happier, relaxed and confident.
When we experience happiness for example a change occurs in our brain chemistry so small levels of hormones are released such as Serotonin, Dopamine and even Endogenous Opiates (the brain’s own version of morphine). When our emotions change so does our brain chemistry reflecting how we are feeling. Our muscles reflect our mood too; you smile when you feel happy, and tense your shoulders and frown when you feel under stress. Probably don’t even realise you are doing it! It’s all second nature and is happening because your muscles are communicating with the emotional part of your brain.
As well as emotion affecting our brain chemistry and muscles, it also affects our Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) as this connects our brain to our heart and other organs of our body including the skin via sweat glands and blood vessels. A stressful situation can cause your skin to sweat, your muscles to tense up, your heartbeat to race and your breathing to change.
This chain of events starting from emotion affecting the brain chemistry, muscles and ANS also works the other way round with chemistry, muscles and the ANS affecting emotions too. For example if Serotonin can be increased, it can make you feel happier and by relaxing your shoulders, standing up straight and breathing confidently it can instantly make you feel more in control and ready to deal with that tricky situation, and by adding a smile too it can make you feel happier, relaxed and confident.
Meditation helps beat stress Meditation, yoga and breathing exercises are all useful tools to combat stress and increase our Rest and Relax strand of our ANS and decrease our negative emotion in our Fight or Flight strand of the ANS. I also have other useful exercises to help combat stress and anxiety on a daily basis http://www.mind-bodywellness.co.uk/blog/do-you-know-how-to-exercise-your-brain-the-right-way
For more long term help and success, NLP, Hypnotherapy and Time Line Therapy are great ways to realign your mind, release the negative feelings and get you back in balance and better equipped to deal with stressful situations.
Please get in touch for a chat to discuss anything that is worrying you or making you anxious or stressed, call me on 01252 706995 or contact me at nicky@mind-bodywellness.co.uk I would love to help you with anything in your life that is causing you worry, as this emotion is unnecessary and unhealthy in the long term. http://www.mind-bodywellness.co.uk/mood.html
For more long term help and success, NLP, Hypnotherapy and Time Line Therapy are great ways to realign your mind, release the negative feelings and get you back in balance and better equipped to deal with stressful situations.
Please get in touch for a chat to discuss anything that is worrying you or making you anxious or stressed, call me on 01252 706995 or contact me at nicky@mind-bodywellness.co.uk I would love to help you with anything in your life that is causing you worry, as this emotion is unnecessary and unhealthy in the long term. http://www.mind-bodywellness.co.uk/mood.html
RSS Feed