How To Upgrade Your Mood And Brain Instantly (Using Embodied Cognition)

Most of us have heard of the Mind-Body connection, but what if it was the other way around? What if our bodies affected our minds?

Dr. Rob is here to explain why your body may be the key to improving your mind!

This concept is called Embodied Cognition which is one of Dr. Rob’s favourite theories. This theory states that our entire body controls what we think and feel on a deep level, so it’s more like the body-mind connection. Everything from our muscles to our gut to our nervous system and more has an influence on our minds and how we think. Pretty cool right?

A few cool examples of Embodied Cognition have been discovered in science. The Wonder Woman Study by Amy Cuddy found that if you pose in dominant postures like you’d see on the front of a comic book or movie poster that your cortisol levels (the stress hormone) actually decrease by 15% and testosterone levels (dominance hormone) shoot up. You can change influential hormones just by posing!

Another example is a study on people who received facial botox. Botox works by paralyzing tiny muscles in the face to reduce the look of wrinkles, but these muscles are also responsible for facial expressions. In a study that asked people to describe their feelings and reactions found that people with botox felt less depression but they also felt less joy, empathy, and compassion. Researchers think that facial expressions could have a big impact on our moods and emotions. Similar to the pencil-smile trick we talked about before HERE.

So how can you use Embodied Cognition to boost your brain?

Here are 4 things you can do to get yourself in a better mood using the Body-Mind Connection

Move Your Body

If you want to make a crappy day better get moving instead of moping around the house. It can instantly boost your mood even if it’s just a short walk or stretch. Movement releases feel good endorphins that give you a post-exercise ‘high’.

Eat Healthy Foods

If you really want to double down on feeling good, eat some healthy, nutrient packed foods! Our guts are the number one source of serotonin in the body, which may surprise you! So eating foods that will keep our guts happy can also make our brains happy.

Get Outside

70% of Canadians are deficient in Vitamin D which is not only important for bone health, immunity, and other functions, but is important for mood regulation! Anyone who’s spent some time outside this past week/weekend can probably vouch that a little sunshine really elevates the mood!

Meditate

Even 5 minutes of meditation or mindfulness can help alter your brain or mood. Set a timer for some deep breathing, sit for a few minutes without electronics, jot down some thoughts in a journal. Anything that works to increase your mindfulness can help improve your mood!

Doing any of these 4 things will not only help your mood and your physical health, they can improve your cognitive abilities, your mental health, and even how you think.

At Price Health our team wants to help you not only get out of pain, but to help you improve how you feel and function so that you can upgrade your life in general!

So call or click at the top of the page to book your appointment to upgrade your embodied cognition!