Category Archive:Body Language

Sending Out Love or Hate Without A Single Word

Barbara post on March 7th, 2013
Posted in Body Language, Communication, Fear, Forgiveness, Health, Love, Perception

Have you ever wondered why you are instantly attracted to, or repelled by, some people? We’ve all met people who send out “vibes” that make us want to stay close and others whose vibes make us want to run away . . . quick.

Those “vibes” have now been scientifically located and are measurable. It turns out that research by the Institute of HeartMath has found that an electromagnetic field emanating from our heart is the source. Some people really do have “good vibes” (or bad ones) that the rest of us readily feel.

The brain in your heart

We’ve long known that the heart operates through electrical impulses. EKGs (electrocardiograms) have been measuring them for decades, diagnosing or monitoring how the heart functions.

But now more sensitive instruments used by neurocardiologists have shown that the heart isn’t just merely a pump that keeps our blood flowing. It is also a complex sense organ that processes information with its own brain-like “nervous system” that learns, remembers, and makes decisions independently of the brain in our head. And our heart’s “brain” routinely communicates with the higher centers involved with processing emotions, learning, and perception in head’s brain.

The “Vibes” of emotion

But the magic doesn’t end there. The heart’s “nervous system” also communicates information within and outside the body through the heart’s powerful electromagnetic field. Researchers have been able to measure this field up to five feet away.

Why is this important? The ancients long ago posited that emotions began in the heart. But whether they begin in the heart or the brain, the heart reacts to them sending signals, chemicals, and energy not only throughout the body but beyond it too.

Positive emotions like love and compassion create rhythmic, orderly heartbeat patterns and negative emotions like anger create erratic, disordered heartbeat patterns. These differing patterns spread throughout the entire body and into the world through the heart’s electromagnetic field. This has not only health consequences but social consequences as well.

Emotions radiate out

That our emotions affect the functioning of our bodies is not new information. But that they alter our heart’s electromagnetic field in a way that affects our interactions with other people up to five feet away without any other sort of communication is kind of startling. Perhaps this is an explanation for crowd behavior.

Imagine the different behaviors generated when one person’s heart sends out ordered, rhythmic, “loving” patterns of energy that are communicated to, and synchronized with others versus the angry or fearful person’s erratic, disordered, chaotic patterns of energy.

Do you know what kind of pattern is your heart sending out? We might be able to fool the brain in our head and deny our own perception about what we’re feeling but I doubt we can fool the brain in our heart.

The energy from your heart fills the world

The emotions that fill our hearts fill our worlds. So what is in your heart? Fear, judgment, criticism, anger, and frustration? Or love, compassion, forgiveness, calm and peace? That’s what we’re spreading not only by what we say, how we look, or what we do but also through the electromagnetic field that radiates directly from “the seat of our soul” . . . our heart.

Holding the energy of each other’s hearts is an awesome responsibility. Will you do anything different today knowing that your emotions may change everything?

 

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Body Language & Power: How Mimicking Power Postures Makes You Powerful

Can you fake it ‘til you make it? According to Amy Cuddy, not only can you fake it ‘til you make it, you can fake it until you BELIEVE it and BECOME it. Our ability to communicate non-verbally with ourselves is so powerful that it can it can change our thoughts, our physiology, and even our life outcomes. By adopting postures associated with confidence and power we can actually become more confident and powerful, changing the way we relate to the world and the way the world relates to us.

Amy Cuddy is a social psychologist, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, and an expert in the non-verbals—body language communicated through posture, gesture, and facial expression—of power and dominance. Social psychologists have long known that our non-verbals cause us to make judgments about each other but Cuddy wondered if our own non-verbals would affect our judgment of ourselves. Her research found that our bodies affect not only our thoughts and feelings, but our physiology (hormones) too.

Power posturing & hormones: the body changes the brain

Cuddy set up experiments to find out what happens to our brains when we pose in particular ways. Could someone feel more powerful or powerless simply by adopting a particular stance? In the experiment, researchers began by assessing the subjects’ levels of two key hormones: testosterone (regulates dominance, aggression, assertiveness) and cortisol (stress hormone) before subjects adopted postures known to researchers to convey either power or powerlessness. The subjects did not know the meaning of the postures, they were simply instructed to sit or stand in a particular way for two minutes. Subjects then were asked a series of questions related to feeling powerful; were given the opportunity to gamble; and then had their hormones measured again.

Cuddy found significant differences between those who adopted high-power and low-power poses. The high-power posers had increased testosterone (20%), decreased cortisol (25%), and were more likely to gamble (86%)—a risk-taking behavior. Conversely, the low-power posers experienced a decrease in testosterone (10%), an increase in cortisol (15%), and only 60% gambled. Cuddy concluded that the body does have an effect on how powerful we feel and this body-mind interaction quickly affects our physiology (hormone changes) with minimal stimulus (two minutes of posing).

In a second experiment, subjects adopted a high or low power poses in a real-world situation of applying for a job (simulated in the lab). Subjects posed in either high or low power postures before enduring a five-minute interview with judges trained to give absolutely no nonverbal feedback—an extraordinarily stressful experience. Just imagine—not a single smile, head nod, or acknowledgement of any kind for five minutes while trying to be your best self to get that job.

The body changes the mind, the mind changes behavior, behavior changes outcomes

Trained coders completely blind to the nature or conditions of the study analyzed the video recordings of the interviews to choose viable and non-viable hires. The result: subjects who had adopted high power poses before the interview not only were chosen as viable candidates to hire and were also evaluated much more positively overall.  Low power posers were judged not suitable. Cuddy’s experiments confirmed that “our bodies change our minds, our minds change our behavior, and our behavior changes our outcomes.” Cuddy now advises those she teaches and mentors to try power posing to boost their self-confidence and performance before important meetings or interviews.

“Fake it until you make it,” Cuddy tells them because “tiny tweaks can lead to big changes.”

Check out her TED video to hear her inspiring story that led her to this research

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