As a hypnotherapist, there are several key themes that are deeply interesting to me in both my personal and professional life.  The mind-body connection is certainly one of these themes.  This article more specifically looks at the link between the mind-body connection and power dynamics through the lens of my own personal experience.

I was recently watching a TED talk that brought a particular aspect of power dynamics to my attention and I found it very engaging. Power dynamics relates to another integral model that exists in hypnosis; unconscious behavior, and the fact that it’s often hiding in plain sight until we bring our attention to it. Focusing on behavior that is generally outside of our conscious awareness is exciting to me.  Specifically, because it gives us the chance to be able to modify a level of reality that generally slips through our fingers, or makes us feel disempowered on some level.  Therefore, being consciously aware of power dynamics results in an opportunity to step directly into our own personal power!  On a daily basis I might add.  Sounds pretty sweet right?

This is because there is a strong/powerful/immediate feedback loop that exists between our physiology affecting our thoughts, and our thoughts affecting our physiology.  Let’s call it the physiological/ psychological feedback loop for the purpose of this article. This is essentially another function of the mind-body connection.  

The important point to note is that is doesn’t matter which side of the loop we step into, it will still effect the other intrinsically linked aspect of the loop.  For example, if we change our physical posture, our emotional state will begin to adjust.  Or if we change our thought patterns and beliefs, our physiology and posture will shift accordingly. Notice how we innately physically react to good news – by lifting our arms into the air, ready for hugs or high fives.  Conversely, when depressed or lacking motivation we tend to hunch more and take a smaller physical poses.

Let me share my personal experience, as it may well give you some insight on how you can change the way you feel by the way you think, or vice versa.  It’s my hope that you will be able to also see how these power dynamics play out in your own life and, furthermore, begin to modify your behavior to achieve more desirable outcomes each day.

I have been involved in martial arts for over almost 15 years and now, with this new found research and mind-body model in hand, I gleaned some wonderful insights into many of the power dynamics that typically would play out in the training sessions at the dojo.  The martial art that I am referring to is Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ), which generally involves two dudes rolling around on the ground in physical combat until someone ‘taps out’ and exits the round. It is all about skill, power, technique and persistence. And it’s about power dynamics. Although having many friends involved in both the Mixed Martial arts and Muay Thai arenas, I have also been able to observe the exact same power dynamics of the mind-body play out in an essentially identical manner in many different sporting modalities from table tennis to lawn balls and everything in between.  I will share how I have noticed how some of these dynamics have played out in my own life in the next post about disempowering power dynamics at play.

https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are?language=en

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