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How to Relax By Tensing Up!
Where your mind goes, your body will tend to follow; and where your body goes, your mind will tend to follow.
Your mind and body are completely intertwined.
At times, you may think something that makes your body physiologically respond. For example, let’s say you have to present a report in front of your team, and you spend the days leading up to that meeting telling yourself (and everyone else around you), “I’m so nervous!” Your body hears all of that, and responds accordingly; your stomach might feel upset, you might have a headache, and every time you sit down, your foot is going a mile a minute under the table!
When your thoughts tell your body, “I’m nervous,” your body says — oh, I know how to do ‘nervous,’ and it does it.
Other times, you may physically feel something first, and then you choose to label that feeling in your head. The label you choose will determine your behavior, response, or emotion. For example, you feel ‘butterflies’ in your stomach, and immediately label it as “I’m nervous,” even thought that exact same feeling can mean you’re excited.
The key to taking control in both of these situations it to starts with your thoughts and self-talk.
Try this — think of a time when you were incredibly stressed out. (That might be right now! After all…
