Managing Your Body

Boosting your confidence: Managing your body

I love watching inspiring speeches on http://www.ted.com/ and thoroughly enjoy one of the videos by creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson talk very entertainingly about how schools kill creativity. One of his analogies I found very amusing was that many University Professors use their bodies as a taxi service to get their heads to meetings!

This reminds me that sometimes we use our minds too much – we can over analysing situations, getting anxious and stressed. Sometimes we just need to get out of our heads and get physical. As the phrase goes “Fit Body, Fit Mind”

Our Messenger

I believe that our body is like our messenger. When I worked in the Corporate world, I suffered from chronic back pain for years. As soon as I left the industry to set up my business in 2005, my back has been pain free. When we are out of kilter and not listening to our emotions, that’s when we may start to feel aches and pains in our body or even become susceptible to illness or dis-ease.

There have been many neuroscience studies that have indicated a correlation with our Emotional Intelligence and our physical and psychological health. When you are calm in mind, you are also calm in body; our minds and bodies are inextricably linked.

Confidence and Exercise

The most obvious way and perhaps the first thing people think of when we talk about  ‘looking after’ our bodies. When we exercise, this stimulates the release of endorphins; chemicals in our brain that are believed to reduce pain, improve the immune system, reduce stress and also delay our ageing process. And apparently you don’t even need to strenuously exercise; endorphins can be released even when meditating or having a massage (My kind of exercise!)

A Confident Body

During the Confidence Workshops that I regularly run, we explore the effect on our bodies at the extremes of not being Confident (passive and aggressive) as well as when we do feel Confident. It always amazes people the difference in their stance and what this feels like. It can be quite powerful emotionally just by changing their physiology.

Think of a time when you truly feel confident (or imagine that you can step into the shoes of a Confident person). Notice what happens to your body stance…. It’s all about being balanced – having equal weight on each foot, standing upright, symmetrical, open and relaxed….and smile. Just by changing your body position can enable you to feel more confident – the reason? Simple terms – because you are sending messages to your brain at an unconscious level that you are “balanced” and so feel more confident.

If you are at a function and want to feel more confident – act as if you do. Then, you may find that you are genuinely feeling more relaxed and confident. It may sound silly, and it does work.

We’ve discussed, in previous blogs, how controlling elements such as Thoughts, Beliefs and Emotions will enable you to boost your confidence. Your physiology is also important as it not only affects your health, it also affects how you feel and how you influence others.

And if controlling our thoughts, beliefs and emotions can seem difficult, surely managing our own bodies is the easiest part?

Want to boost your confidence? My Confidence Home Study Programme gives you all the steps and information you need in order to manage your body and, in turn, take a big step towards boosting your overall Self Esteem. Click here to find out more.

Lindsey Reed is an experienced coach who specialises in boosting the confidence of professionals. Email Lindsey@glows-coaching.co.uk or call 01832 280168 to see how she can help to improve your working life.