Reducing Your Stress: Sit Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back
My third blogpost aims to present the idea that you are not fully in control of the way you react to stressful situations. Your brain reacts automatically by releasing hormones before you even have a chance to think about it. We can employ a trick involving body posture and a bounce-back mindset to leverage our natural brain chemistry in our favour. It draws mostly on “12 Rules For Life” by Jordan Peterson who I met a couple of years ago and describes a way I used this trick before my Cambridge interview.
Lobsters
A man dressed in a lobster suit burst into the chamber of the Cambridge Union. It was the evening of the 2nd November 2018. The head of security and military-trained Col. (Ret.) William Bailey a.k.a “Bill” ran to the lobster and later recalled that he was about “take him out”. This was the evening of a talk by Jordan B. Peterson —a Canadian professor of psychology at the University of Toronto and clinical psychologist.
The reason I mention this evening was because it was here that I got a signed copy of “12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos” — I remember saying to Peterson while he was signing it “I’ve seen the book grow in popularity so I just wanted to see for myself what it’s all about” — not the exactly the most flattering comment in the world. He smiled, with pursed lips, trying to decide whether to take my comment as compliment or not. My time in the queue passed. I moved on. But I had the book now — that was the important thing. As part of the Union committee I was “senior guest liaison officer” a.k.a. the guy who picked up speakers from the train station. I got to pick him up from a nearby college, St. John’s, before the talk and had to drop him and his wife off after to a local dining club. As he exited through the backdoor, he signed a lobster poster. I explained the relevance of the lobster to a fellow guest liaison officer, Peterson concurred.
You’re quick, but the brain is quicker
I found reading about psychology for the first time quite exciting. The first chapter completely changed my perspective and gave me a framework to understand a basic principle of humans behaviour. I came to the conclusion that we are not fully in control of how we react. Let me explain. My original thinking was that the way we react to things / situations is down to our mindset. We can determine whether we react in a way that causes stress or causes calm or happiness. What you tell yourself is what matters. This is wrong. Your brain, in fact, reacts to your situation even before you have the chance to consciously register what is actually going on. Milliseconds actually. Mostly through what you see. You have 11m sensory receptors, 10m of which are in your eyes. You react unconsciously to the data that your brain processes. Without choice.
Your brain, in fact, reacts to your situation even before you have the chance to consciously register what is actually going on. Milliseconds actually. Mostly through what you see. You have 11m sensory receptors, 10m of which are in your eyes. You react unconsciously to the data that your brain processes. Without choice.
For example, stress. When faced with a stressful situation, a literal, physical change takes place in your brain. Your brain releases cortisol — your body reacts in a way such that you enter a state of heightened, physical readiness. But in the modern-day world, this danger that your brain is registering isn’t physical danger it might be an imminent deadline, a zoom panel your preparing for, a job interview etc. “The physical demands of this emergency preparedness will wear you down in every way”. You become more impulsive. Your immune system wears down. You are not in control.
Defeat and the Ancient Hierarchical Clicker
This mechanism, it is argued, is not distinct to humans. In fact the way this idea is explained by Peterson is through the example of lobsters. Lobsters compete with one another for hiding spots in the wild. The problem is there are too many lobsters and too few hiding spaces. The lobsters fight one another for land. The brain of the lobster who wins the fight has a higher level of serotonin (the happiness hormone) vs octopamine (the stress hormone for lobsters). This lobster, emboldened by its victory has more confidence, its body posture is more upright. It’s more likely to take on a bigger lobsters, bigger challenges. Whereas the defeated one walks around in jittery fashion, constantly on edge and is less likely to take on another opponent, shy ways from another challenge.
The brain chemistry of lobsters is interestingly not too dissimilar to that of humans. And the likelihood and amount of chemical released also depends on your own brain’s determination of your self-worth. Peterson talks about this idea of the an “ancient clicker” or “primordial calculator” deep within our brain that decides your level of status / self-worth and hence regulates the release of serotonin / cortisol based on this. Just like for lobsters. The clicker tracks our position within the hierarchy of society. When we experience a setback or defeat, “we very much act like defeated lobsters who have lost a fight”. We get anxious, we look down and defeated. Peterson interestingly takes these observations and turns them into peculiar, practical everyday advice. The recommendation is the first rule: “stand up straight with your shoulders back”. Research has shown that altering your body posture does have the effect of changing your emotional state. Smiling makes you happier. Frowning, the opposite.
The Power Pose
This reminded me of a TED talk by Amy Cuddy — where her research showed that simply changing your body position to a “power pose” reduces your cortisol levels by 25% whereas the defeated/nervous pose results in a 15% increase in cortisol. I actually tried this out before my Cambridge interview some 5 years ago. I stood outside the office of Prof. Eugene Terentjev with my arms in the air as though I had won the 100m finals. Luckily, no one saw, even the poor student before me who had the look of defeated lobster as he exited the room. The interview was stress-inducing situation to say the least. I remember Prof. Tertentjev asking me whether I thought he was an idiot when I gave a wrong answer.
But this rule to stand up straight with your shoulders back called for not just a physical but also psychological / metaphysical straightening of one’s back too. Getting up after defeat. Speaking your mind. Stepping up to the challenges and responsibilities of life. “Dare to be dangerous”. These have positive effects: reducing anxiety, boosting your confidence and increasing the probability that good things might happen to you. In this way you let the serotonin flow more easily. Defeated lobsters can’t easily bounce back as their actions are regulated by their natural brain chemistry. We as humans can recognise that our emotional state is determined by our brain chemistry. But we can choose to employ this physical and mental shift to enhance the chemistry we want to happen. The good chemistry.
Conclusion
Your brain reacts to stressful situations / defeats — the chemicals produced are out of your control. Stress puts you in a state of heightened physical readiness which wears you down. Recognising this means you cannot wish away stress with willpower alone. By standing up with your shoulders back, however, physically and mentally you can “encourage” and take advantage of better brain chemistry, which in turn, can make you happier. Don’t be a defeated lobster.
Last blogpost:
https://zehn-mehmood.medium.com/achieving-your-goals-the-power-of-non-negotiability-ae0884e4c066
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