Power Pose: You can consciously choose to stand powerfully by outstretching your arms and your legs and holding your head high. It has been proven that “power posing” for only 2 minutes can significantly lower your stress hormone levels (cortisol) and increase your confidence (testosterone).

How to feel good fast

Fake Laugh: Just like smiling, you can trick yourself into getting a release of feel-good hormones by fake laughing.

Forward Fold: Sitting in a chair or standing, fold at your hips and hang with your head below your heart for 60 seconds. This body posture is proven to release hormones that make you feel good.

Fake Smile: Smiling is proven to set off the biofeedback loop, so even if you aren’t happy, feel-good hormones get released when you fake a smile. You may in fact be authentically smiling sooner than you’d think. If you can’t muster a fake smile, try placing a pen horizontally between your teeth to encourage the corners of your mouth to lift up (yes, really – this works!).

Relax your Face & Jaw: Clenching your jaw, grinding your teeth, and furrowing your brow sends signals of distress to your brain and thus your stress increases. Sit tall, take a deep inhale all the way into your belly and on your exhale open your mouth as wide as you can, stick your tongue out as far as you can and open your eyes as big as you can. This is called Lion’s Breath. Do as many of these breaths as needed to relax your face and your jaw.

Yoga: In almost all yoga classes, you’ll notice there are big body poses, forward folds and an increase in your heart-rate that releases endorphins. The yoga recipe is chock-full of feel-good-fast-goodness (physical flexibility not required).

Being MindBodyWise means becoming compassionately aware, mindful and conscious about all parts of you, gaining tools and making choices to break the feedback loop of pain so you can live with more ease, freedom and joy.