When it seems impossible, when it seems like nothing is going to work, you’re usually just a few millimeters away from making it happen
-Tony Robbins
I’m a huge personal development/self-help junkie, and I think many multipotentialites can relate.
The idea that you can literally trick yourself into success using your body language, posture, and physiology really fascinates me. Amy Cuddy talks about this and how “power posing”–imposing a more confident body language or pose even when you don’t feel confident–can help you become confident and successful. In essence, fake it ’til you make it. When we act confident, we start to become it.
Chest opening poses, arms outstretched in the air in victory, or the “Wonder Woman” pose are all great postures to feign confidence. Using your body to exercise these different postures at the start of your day or before a speech or interview could work wonders.
Incantation vs. Affirmation
Personal development guru Tony Robbins talks about incantations which I found to be similar. He says the difference between an affirmation and an incantation is that affirmations only use your voice. There’s no gusto in the feeling and emotion behind what you say, and it could turn out flat.
Instead, an incantation uses gestures, dramatic gesticulations, and loud, enthusiastic voice to shout your desires to the world. It’s emotion–energy in motion–using your body as movement. It pumps you up and makes you feel confident and in control. It shifts your energy and with these small shifts of approach, can shift your entire life. This technique helped Tony Robbins go from $36k to $1million in just one year.
Dancing to Abundance
This is my own technique I’ve adopted. I use dance and movement when I’m feeling stuck creatively or want to attract more opportunities/clients/projects into my life. I dance a*bun*dance in my room by myself usually to some electronica. The music selection doesn’t matter so much as long as you’re dancing.
Energy is movement, and money is flow. Money is also a type of energy, movement, exchange. If you want your life to flow, then dance. This is my philosophy and it’s a lot of fun.
Whenever I get a new client, I dance! I honor the new flow by moving my body. It is more of a ritual that I’ve started but it seems to work somehow, in magical ways. It’s acting out gratitude, rather than just simply acknowledging it or writing it down.
Take dance breaks throughout the day to break the time in front of a computer and get some movement in your day. Even 5-10 minutes of random dance, or movement, stretching in general, can help your day flow better and keep you from getting stuck. It will facilitate creativity, and the break away from the computer may even get your thoughts flowing into an epiphany or a-ha moment for a problem you were trying to solve, or a new idea you can implement. When you’re feeling stuck on something, movement literally helps.
Creating a Consistent Exercise Habit
I believe in a holistic approach to life with your body as foundation. Without a healthy body, and lots of energy, your productivity can also suffer. Many successful leaders and entrepreneurs get up early to work out at least 1-2 hours. They do so to meet the demands of the day and keep their energy levels up. Exercise becomes a top priority to maintain their lifestyles and be able to function in the most optimal way.
Your Turn
How do you use your body to aide in your success? What practices are you willing to try to incorporate?
Woo, I love dancing too!
Got some new ideas for it here!
I’ve often neglected my body and I need to start taking better care of it!
i’m glad you got new ideas. i also need to be mindful about taking care of my body. it’s easy to get out of track, but also just as easy to get back in track. 🙂
Awesome post. I can really tell when I’m doing something right because I feel the urge to move around and make noise. Love the idea of a dance break, especially since even my hobbies tend to be sedentary.
that’s a good point. when i’m doing something right or excited, i want to jump up and squeal and you can’t sit still. so the body knows… celebration. so why not feign that feeling and start to call more celebration in your life!
I’ll give a dance a try tomorrow and report back!
Yay! I want to hear all about it.
I’m totally down with the holistic approach. I feel like using the body approach is the only thing I can do right every time because the mind is so complex and full of crap. The body is so simple to control and it’s an easier route to feeling good and getting on the right path. I just started doing this in the last few years, I love dancing so much and I started things like Tai chi…which is kinda of like a dance 🙂
I love this post! Dancing is one of my passions. It definetly helps clear my head, evaluate how I am and gets me into a flow when I jump out of one. Although I am not a particulary “practical, hands on person” when it comes to learning. I crave creative and movement to learn and create. I need to move to think. I love these lines:
I honor the new flow by moving my body. It is more of a ritual that I’ve started but it seems to work somehow, in magical ways. It’s acting out gratitude, rather than just simply acknowledging it or writing it down.
For me, that is completely true. Recently, I have being religiously doing gratitude walks, however I don’t find that they are for me at all. I end up never really connecting with my gratitude and just left walking for the sake of it. I dance a lot so I know that I put tons of emotion in my dancing, so I know that I connect with myself and really, truely be grateful when I dance. I stead of power-walking while I think about all of the things I feel I should be doing at that moment. I have decide I will spend the same amount of time doing a gratiude dance with the same template as Emilie’s, only dancing. I also agree that dancing throughout the day to maintain a flow sounds really cool. Thank you so much for this wonderful post.
Oh, I so agree with this article! I recognise that I used to do a lot more when I was exercising, so I’d better start again soon. Also, I love the idea of dancing as a way to show gratitude&take a break!
yes, when you exercise you have more energy to do things… it’s a natural energizer. no need for red bull which is unhealthy!
I imagine a natural time dance. I think we have a lot of creativity in the arena of Time! A dance that pulses spirit to planet. That is mystical and practical: that kisses God regularly and also gets things D I D. It moves to heartbeats orbiting heartbeats. It is fluid and free, with just the right dose of fire-burning circuit-closing groundedness.
Great article! If I don’t move for at least 2 hours a day, I can’t think. Ususally combining walking when I can with swimming at the gym. Looking to add more dance soon.