The Added Advantage: Body Language

by: Kathy Gates, Professional Life Coach

Have you ever walked by someone’s office (or even in the grocery store) and noticed them just standing there smiling? They are practicing the ‘added advantage’ of body language to not only project a better image in the world, but to feel better and relieve stress for themselves.

Body language 101 is ‘sit up, look the other person in the eye, and smile’. We all learned it as children, and fine tune it to meet prospective employers, or prospective spouses and friends.

But let’s look at the added advantage of using these body language basics to help you feel happier and less stressed throughout your week:

(1) Sit up: The best way to exercise control over your present body language is to get up and walk around a bit. This is actually a bit of a cheat, because what getting up and moving around does is make you take a deeper breath. During stress, we have a habit of beginning to take shallow breaths, and that deprives our bodies of the oxygen it needs, and makes the brain muscles constrict and work harder.

When you consciously sit up – or better– stand up, moving your body around helps the blood to flow again. It gives your legs and backside a rest, as well as decompresses your lungs to help give the oxygen to your brain and body. It will return the color to your face, and help ease the strain on your shoulders.

(2) Look the person in the eye: Normally, you will find that you’re overwhelmed and stressed because you’re either spending too much mind-time in the past (“I haven’t done that yet”), or too much time in the future (“I’ll never get this finished on time”). And all that’s good for is a slumping posture and a scowl on your face.

Instead, use this advantage of body language to pull yourself back to the present moment. When yo

u feel yourself getting uptight and miserable, just for a minute, wiggle your toes, look at the color of your shoes, take a whiff of the air (coffee?), listen to the sounds around you. It’s looking yourself in the eye. Getting present with yourself. When you get yourself back to the present, then you can consciously and purposefully “choose your attitude”.

(3) Smile: Help along your body language by thinking of something that makes you smile. Remember the 70’s pop-psychology idea of going to your “happy place”? Have that happy place in reserve, or think about a funny thing you or a friend did, or even a funny scene from a movie. Smile in your mind, or if appropriate, on the outside as well.

Body language has always been used to send a signal to other people, but now you can use your body language to send a signal to your own brain, and take advantage of feeling better any time of the day.

Source

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The post The Added Advantage: Body Language appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

Smile! It will make you happy

Overview:

Theories of Emotion

An emotion, such as happiness or sadness, is a subjective experience that is associated with some phsyiological change in arousal and some characteristic behavior. For example, a feeling of happiness is generally accompanied by a decrease in heart rate, indicating a decrease in arousal, and a smile, an overt behavior. Fear is generally associated with, among other physiological effects, an increase in heart rate and clenched teeth.

Do we smile because we are happy or do are we happy because we smile? Theories of emotion differ in terms of whether the emotion leads to physiological and behavioral changes or the other way around. According to one theory, the facial feedback theory which has its roots in the writings and theories of Charles Darwin and William James , emotion can be regulated by behavior, particularly by facial expression.

Try smiling. Do you feel happy? Try frowning. Do you feel grumpy? Research from the 1970s and 1980s suggests you do – at least physiologically. In one study, participants who mimicked a fearful expression showed an increase in heart rate and skin temperature. Kleinke, Peterson, and Rutledge (1998) added to this theory by examining how mimicking facial expressions might influence mood.

Article Summary

A number of research studies have shown that making a facial expression, such as a smile, can produce effects on the body that are similar to those that result from the actual emotion, such as happiness.

Kleinke, Peterson, and Rutledge (1998) two scientific questions that extend the work on facial feedback theories of emotion:

* Do people who are more self-conscious show stronger mood effects from making facial expressions than people who are less self-conscious?

* Does facial expression have a stronger effect on mood when the person can see his/or her expression?

To study these questions, Kleinke et al. had students view photographs or slides of people with either positive facial expressions (smiling) or negative facial expressions (frowning). Participants in the control group just viewed the photos or slides, participants in the expression group were instructed to mimic the facial expression, and participants in the expression-mirror group matched the expression with the aid of looking in a mirror.

Mood was measured using a mood scale in which participants indicated their degree of agreement with statements reflecting their mood “right now.” The mood scale was administered before and after viewing the photographs/slides and change in mood was used as the dependent variable. In the first experiment, the participants also completed a self-consciousness scale in which they indicated their agreement with statements such as “I’m always trying to figure myself out.”

Happy Baby! I can’t help but smile every time I look at this picture. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As found in other studies, facial expressions did affect the participants’ mood: Mood did not change in the control group who simply viewed the expressions. Participants who matched the positive expressions experienced a positive change in mood (they were in a more positive mood after making positive facial expressions) and participants who matched the negative expressions experienced a negative change in mood.

Participants who were more self-conscious showed greater changes in mood following making the positive or negative expressions. Kleinke et al. conclude that this finding indicates that self-conscious people are more in-tune with themselves and therefore more responsive to mood-inducting experiences.

Participants who watched their expressions in a mirror also showed a greater change in mood. It seems that the visual feedback adds to the proprioceptive self-awareness of mood-related facial expression.

Overall, this study adds to the facial feedback theory of emotion by demonstrating that a personality characteristic of self-consciousness and visual feedback both add to the effect of facial expression on emotion.

Source

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The post Smile! It will make you happy appeared first on Robert JR Graham.

Humour On The Job

How and When To Make Humour at Work!

by: Lionel Estridge

A good laugh will do wonders for you as smiling and laughing lowers your stress levels, wins you a friendly reputation, and helps your usually tense co-workers and bosses to relax.

Humour on the job will do a lot for your career, but there are a number of things you need to know about laughter and humour in the place of work.

Feeling good and having humour in our lives can do wonders for our position and productivity, which means that there is definitely a place for some humour on the job. Having a smiling face will help your co-workers and supervisors feel better being around you, and you may well end up reaping rewards by laughing more in the workplace. But you need to know how to apply humour in your work environment.

Laughing has been proven to be a huge stress reliever, letting you feel better and becoming more productive. To be able to loosen up and have some fun is great, so why not take that approach to work each day and lighten up around the work place? Smiling can make your job easier, more than ever if you work in customer service or sales. But there’s certainly a right and incorrect way to use humour in the workplace.

One of the main rules with humour in the workplace is to avoid controversy when you are joking on the job. Stay well away from joking about political affairs, race and religion.

Sex is another unsafe topic because of sexual harassment in the workplace. Make sure that you stay well within the lines of decency.

Never make fun at other people within your organization, as you are trying to win friends with the people you work with, and not set against them. If you can’t help yourself, please be extremely careful.

Poking fun at the work you do or the industry you work in is a good way to earn some smiles from your co-workers and supervisors. While these types of workplace jokes may not be so funny at home or with friends, as they really don’t appreciate the pressures of your employment, the people who are around you in your job will definitely appreciate the humour about their frustrations and will be able to laugh over the situations instead of complaining.

Making jokes about the ups and downs of your trade is a safe way to add wit to the place of work. You will have the benefit of knowing precisely what your co-workers have to face each and every day, and it’s much better as it helps to let go of tensions and lower stress levels by getting them to chuckle about the situations they come across frequently.

The very best time for some humour is when you are not working, but still in the region of the people you work with, such as a coffee or lunch break. You can also make an effort to be funny on the job, but when you are working, it’s a good idea to use jokes much more thinly than you would normally do.

In general, humour in the workplace is a superb area to flex your creative muscles and give your job a little boost.

Humour in the workplace helps stress levels to drop, and your co-workers will feel better about working with you. Start gradually, and add a few more safe jokes here and there to incite a few smiles. Everyone will feel better because of your efforts.

Source

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Humour On The Job

How and When To Make Humour at Work!

by: Lionel Estridge

A good laugh will do wonders for you as smiling and laughing lowers your stress levels, wins you a friendly reputation, and helps your usually tense co-workers and bosses to relax.

Humour on the job will do a lot for your career, but there are a number of things you need to know about laughter and humour in the place of work.

Feeling good and having humour in our lives can do wonders for our position and productivity, which means that there is definitely a place for some humour on the job. Having a smiling face will help your co-workers and supervisors feel better being around you, and you may well end up reaping rewards by laughing more in the workplace. But you need to know how to apply humour in your work environment.

Laughing has been proven to be a huge stress reliever, letting you feel better and becoming more productive. To be able to loosen up and have some fun is great, so why not take that approach to work each day and lighten up around the work place? Smiling can make your job easier, more than ever if you work in customer service or sales. But there’s certainly a right and incorrect way to use humour in the workplace.

One of the main rules with humour in the workplace is to avoid controversy when you are joking on the job. Stay well away from joking about political affairs, race and religion.

Sex is another unsafe topic because of sexual harassment in the workplace. Make sure that you stay well within the lines of decency.

Never make fun at other people within your organization, as you are trying to win friends with the people you work with, and not set against them. If you can’t help yourself, please be extremely careful.

Poking fun at the work you do or the industry you work in is a good way to earn some smiles from your co-workers and supervisors. While these types of workplace jokes may not be so funny at home or with friends, as they really don’t appreciate the pressures of your employment, the people who are around you in your job will definitely appreciate the humour about their frustrations and will be able to laugh over the situations instead of complaining.

Making jokes about the ups and downs of your trade is a safe way to add wit to the place of work. You will have the benefit of knowing precisely what your co-workers have to face each and every day, and it’s much better as it helps to let go of tensions and lower stress levels by getting them to chuckle about the situations they come across frequently.

The very best time for some humour is when you are not working, but still in the region of the people you work with, such as a coffee or lunch break. You can also make an effort to be funny on the job, but when you are working, it’s a good idea to use jokes much more thinly than you would normally do.

In general, humour in the workplace is a superb area to flex your creative muscles and give your job a little boost.

Humour in the workplace helps stress levels to drop, and your co-workers will feel better about working with you. Start gradually, and add a few more safe jokes here and there to incite a few smiles. Everyone will feel better because of your efforts.

Source

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• Tail Wagging the Dog


• The guilty pleasure of laughing at jokes by a conservative if you’re not one


• Learning to be Funny


• The uses of humour


• What a laugh. What, a laugh?


• Hiring Creative Employees


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