Latest / The Kathie Owen Perspective Podcast / 57. Change Your State with a Smile

Transcript

57. Change Your State with a Smile · The Kathie Owen Perspective Podcast

• 0:00
  Changing your state of mind with a smile.
• 0:05
  That's what we're talking about today.
• 0:08
  You're listening to the Stop the Mind Screw Podcast.
• 0:11
  I'm your host, Kathie Owen certified fitness trainer and life coach since 2002, teaching others the Stop the Mind Screw Process on this channel, we talk about fitness, wellness, mindset, habits, and some Reality Transurfing.
• 0:28
  Today, we're talking about states of mind and a simple smile.
• 0:36
  A smile can change our state of mind in an instant.
• 0:40
  And I want you to stick around to the end because while I was working on this episode, I had a.
• 0:49
  PTSD trigger and smiling is something that was really struggling with.
• 0:54
  And I'm like, how can I teach this?
• 0:56
  So at the end of the episode, I will talk all about that and you'll learn more.
• 1:03
  When we smile our muscles contract, they fire a signal back to the brain, stimulating our reward system and further increasing our level of happy hormones or endorphins.
• 1:18
  In short, when our brain feels happy, we smile.
• 1:21
  When we smile, our brain feels happier.
• 1:25
  Smiling releases, endorphins, natural painkillers, and serotonin.
• 1:31
  These neurotransmitters make us feel good from head to toe.
• 1:36
  These natural chemicals, elevate our mood, relax our body and reduce physical pain.
• 1:42
  Consider smiling a natrual drug.
• 1:46
  Smile.
• 1:48
  Just like changing your posture, smiling sends positive signals to your brain.
• 1:54
  It can even trick your mind into thinking you are feeling better than you actually are.
• 2:00
  Smile at yourself in the mirror, or make eye contact with people around you and smile.
• 2:07
  A few years ago, I read the book, The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox.
• 2:13
  And she discussed body language, posture, and smiling as a way to improve your charisma.
• 2:22
  Let's discuss, she suggested trying out the following postures to see for yourself how powerfully the arrangement of your body can affect your mind and your feelings.
• 2:34
  First adopt the body language of someone who's utterly depressed.
• 2:38
  Let your shoulders slump your head, hang your face sag.
• 2:43
  Now without moving a muscle, try to feel truly excited.
• 2:48
  Go ahead, try and see if you can create excitement without moving.
• 2:54
  It's nearly impossible.
• 2:57
  Now do the opposite physically spring into excitement, jump up and down as if you just won the lottery and smile.
• 3:04
  The biggest smile you can wave your arms in the air.
• 3:08
  And while doing this, try to feel depressed.
• 3:12
  Again, it's nearly impossible.
• 3:15
  Here are a few more physiological changes to play around with, for confidence, assertiveness, and to be able to emanate gravitas and budge playing the role of a military general.
• 3:29
  Take the wide stance, puff up your chest, broaden your shoulders, stand straight and confidently.
• 3:36
  Put your arms behind your back.
• 3:38
  Feel the effect of this posture internally for a boost in both energy and warmth.
• 3:45
  Stand up, stretch your arms and hands as high as possible.
• 3:50
  Inhale as much as you can, and imagine your rib cage expanding, doubling in size.
• 3:56
  Make the biggest smile you can.
• 3:59
  And look upward, hold for a second and then relax.
• 4:03
  everything..
• 4:05
  You can use these quick tools in pretty much any situation.
• 4:08
  Anytime you'd like to change an internal state, whether just before an important business meeting or a social gathering.
• 4:18
  So a few weeks ago I talked about aging and mindset, and I did talk about the smile in aging, in mindset as well.
• 4:26
  And we're gonna talk about that a little bit more, but I also want you to understand your posture.
• 4:32
  As a certified fitness trainer, I preach posture because posture is everything in strength training.
• 4:43
  It's the balance of your strength training?
• 4:45
  Another thing that happens is I happen to train a lot of people who have injuries.
• 4:50
  Well, their posture gets off balance because of that injury.
• 4:54
  And if you are not careful with your posture, you are going to end up with an even worse injury.
• 5:02
  For example, take someone who's been limping for a little while because they had an injury in their ankle.
• 5:09
  Shortly thereafter moves up to their knee.
• 5:12
  And then shortly thereafter, their posture is just all bent over and they end up with injuries where they need to go to a surgeon to get that fixed.
• 5:22
  However, if you caught that when the injury was in the ankle or you started taking care of it, as soon as you were aware, oh my posture's off.
• 5:31
  I need to take care of this.
• 5:33
  You can start catching the muscles up on that side of the body so that they can take care of what they're supposed to do and help your posture, help your stance.
• 5:44
  Not only that, but your posture affects how people interpret you and how your brain interprets, how you're feeling.
• 5:52
  So just like I just discussed from The Charisma Myth your brain.
• 5:58
  Definitely senses your posture changes your posture feelings.
• 6:04
  When you become aware of that, you can start changing that for the better.
• 6:10
  It doesn't have to change overnight.
• 6:12
  If that injury is there, there's always solutions.
• 6:15
  Just remember that.
• 6:17
  And.
• 6:18
  Conveniently we move into what smiling does to your body.
• 6:23
  It is amazing to note that there is power in your smile.
• 6:26
  We already discussed this smiling increases, mood enhancing hormones, while decreasing stress enhancing hormones, including cortisol and adrenaline.
• 6:39
  Smiling also reduces overall blood pressure.
• 6:42
  Science has proven it.
• 6:44
  And because you typically smile when you're happy, the muscles used to trigger your brain to produce more endorphins, the chemical that relieves pain and stress, a smile, shares, hope, affection, and peace.
• 7:00
  A smile has the power to bring light into the darkness, bring positive energy into the day, reduce stress in your life and bring greater happiness to the world.
• 7:14
  One smile is all it takes.
• 7:17
  I'm gonna say it again.
• 7:18
  I was struggling with some PTSD triggers that I had over the last several weeks.
• 7:26
  Honestly, while I was working on this video, I had trouble smiling and just know that is okay.
• 7:33
  And stick around to the end, cuz I'm gonna tell, share with you the details of that situation.
• 7:39
  Smiling reduces stress and makes you feel more positive.
• 7:43
  More to the point.
• 7:44
  Researchers have found that people who smile are often perceived as being younger than their actual age while people who frown appear to be older than they really are.
• 7:57
  So improve your face value.
• 7:59
  Turn that frown upside down and put on a happy face.
• 8:05
  So when I was doing research for my aging video that I did a few weeks ago, I did talk about smiling and changing the state of mind..
• 8:14
  As it says here, researchers have proven that people who smile are perceived as being younger than their actual age, which is a struggle that some people face as they grow older.
• 8:26
  And just remember that, and also consider who you perceive as old, do they smile?
• 8:34
  What are their faces look like?
• 8:36
  How do you interpret their moods?
• 8:40
  To me when I come across as somebody who I think is old and cranky, they have a frown on their face.
• 8:48
  And when you learn how to genuinely smile, it improves everything.
• 8:54
  And we're fixing to talk about that.
• 8:56
  Frank Bettger wrote the book, How I Raised Myself From Failure to Success in Selling in 1947 in the book he discussed enthusiasm.
• 9:06
  While reading or listening to the next part.
• 9:09
  I want you to think about your facial expressions and how they relate to aging or your mood or your pain management, and also consider aging and the facial expressions you see on what you consider to be an old person.
• 9:27
  So Bettger tells the story of when he realized his face was continually in a frowning position.
• 9:34
  So he decided to change it..
• 9:37
  Every morning, he would practice smiling, a real warm, genuine smile at himself in the mirror before heading to work.
• 9:47
  At first, it wasn't easy and he had to make sure he came across as real, not plastic, like or fake.
• 9:55
  He smiled even when he didn't feel like it.
• 9:58
  Why?
• 9:59
  Because smiling makes people feel more comfortable with you and it shows you really care.
• 10:05
  The smiling habit was only the beginning of acting more enthusiastic.
• 10:10
  Many people think that your emotions control your outward behavior, but the process can actually be reversed.
• 10:18
  If you start to physically act more enthused, you'll start to feel more enthused.
• 10:23
  Just try it.
• 10:24
  So in conclusion, I have to admit that while preparing for this article or video or podcast episode, I was bombarded with triggers from my complex post traumatic stress disorder.
• 10:39
  My diagnosis came from years of psychological abuse that took place in childhood, during my marriage.
• 10:47
  And even years after my marriage, when my children were put through a severe custody battle at the hands of a man who had tons of money and did not, and would not seek help for his mental illness to this day, it has been extremely hard for me to smile in the last few days.
• 11:08
  My diagnosis of complex post traumatic stress disorder came in 2004 and I spent years in therapy to, I would say, become a survivor of complex post traumatic stress disorder.
• 11:23
  the triggers with post traumatic stress is they never ever go away.
• 11:31
  But what does change is your response to them.
• 11:34
  But sometimes these triggers can get overwhelming and cause painstaking anxiety.
• 11:40
  Like I felt like ants were crawling in my blood and I thought I was all over that.
• 11:47
  And it's funny because the triggers can be something as simple as a bank oddly enough, that was one of my triggers or it could be as simple as a four year old playing outside and having a wonderful time.
• 12:03
  And your memories just come flooding back to you where you just, they overwhelm you.
• 12:12
  And if you get hit with a lot of triggers, like I have for the last six weeks, I've been hit with trigger after trigger, after trigger.
• 12:19
  Some days as the past Saturday, I had triggers all day long.
• 12:25
  It was overwhelmingly impossible to me.
• 12:29
  It seemed like.
• 12:31
  But what happened was I was hit with grief and grief and the stages of grief are part of life.
• 12:39
  And we all hit that.
• 12:41
  And sometimes smiling is just not appropriate when you're going through a major trigger from that bank or that child and everything's flooding.
• 12:53
  And this is okay.
• 12:57
  The only cure for this is actually.
• 13:00
  Time and therapy and tons of self care.
• 13:05
  It's odd because smiling feels wrong in times like these.
• 13:09
  But, and I do know that there is power in this smile.
• 13:14
  However, right now I'm putting myself first and foremost, I practice kindness with myself first, before anybody else.
• 13:25
  And that is not selfish.
• 13:27
  That is called self care.
• 13:29
  I take time away from everything, especially the triggers.
• 13:35
  And like I said before, they can be things that are fun and appear loving to others, but they are very, very frightening and scary when you're met with a trigger.
• 13:49
  So the self care that I practice, I make to sure to spend.
• 13:55
  Lots and lots of time enjoying all the things that make me feel good and also getting plenty of rest.
• 14:05
  And it's not an escape.
• 14:07
  It is more like caring for yourself.
• 14:10
  It's almost like.
• 14:11
  And a lot of people do call it this it's caring for the child that's inside of you because that's, what's screaming out in pain.
• 14:19
  The child doesn't know how to handle it.
• 14:22
  So all you can do is play the adult and take care of yourself and spend time and hobbies.
• 14:29
  You enjoy spend time and watching fun shows or.
• 14:35
  Netflix are things that you enjoy like that.
• 14:38
  And also to get plenty of rest, take care of yourself, get exercise that makes your body feel better because that does relieve those ants I was talking about.
• 14:50
  And honestly, and conclusion, all of that is a true smile for the soul..
• 15:00
  And that's my episode for today.
• 15:02
  I hope you liked it.
• 15:03
  If you know someone who can benefit from this, please share it with them.
• 15:07
  And until next time I'll see you next time, Peace Out and Namaste.