WEBVTT - New Year's Life Hacks 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.720 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:13.600 Works dot com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:15.640 your mind. My name is Robert Lamb and my name 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:19.800 is Julie Douglas. Happy New Year's everybody. This is now 0:00:20.079 --> 0:00:22.360 and and we're gonna try not to raise the volume 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:24.360 too much because we know some of you may have 0:00:24.800 --> 0:00:27.880 some sort of adult skull regions going on right now, 0:00:27.920 --> 0:00:30.760 since uh, since you know, last night was the and 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:33.800 early this morning was the traditional time to celebrate the 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:36.240 coming of a new year. But now the celebration is 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:38.680 behind you. Now you've got a whole year ahead of you. 0:00:39.200 --> 0:00:42.440 This is like the the early morning period when everything 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:44.880 seems possible. You've got a whole year. You could you 0:00:44.880 --> 0:00:47.159 could just accomplish this about anything if you put your 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.239 mind to it in the next twelve months. Or it 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:52.560 could be the early morning in the cold dawn light 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:55.400 and you see the errors of your way and your 0:00:55.600 --> 0:01:00.840 poor alcohol shrunken brain is screaming for change. Either way, 0:01:00.880 --> 0:01:05.399 there's an opportunity here. There's an opportunity to to rebuild, 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:07.920 to accomplish great things. And we're not gonna get into 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:10.440 a whole bunch of just pie in the sky um, 0:01:10.600 --> 0:01:13.320 New Years revolutions, because that's always a trap. You say, 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:17.760 this is the year I lose two hundred pounds and 0:01:17.959 --> 0:01:24.520 learn I don't know, uh, Spanish and Hindi great American novel. 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:26.399 You know, you just set yourself up for failure with 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.280 those and um and by the time this, uh, this 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:32.279 particular episode publishes, we should have a really cool article 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.640 on housetof works dot com about ways to to make 0:01:36.040 --> 0:01:38.720 New Year's resolutions that you can actually keep some of 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.240 the strategies. So along those lines, what we're gonna talk 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.639 about today are some some simple life hacks, little things, 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:50.160 ultimately little things you can do with I won't say 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.560 minimal effort, but but but it's not gonna take, you know, 0:01:53.680 --> 0:01:56.320 an enormous amount of effort to apply yourself to one 0:01:56.440 --> 0:01:58.559 or some of these, but the payoffs can be huge. 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:02.160 You can ultimately change who you are, how you're perceived, 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:05.800 how your body functions, even just by making some minor 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.520 changes in your day to day. Yeah, and uh, you know, 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:11.920 normally we do like to go esoteric with topics, but 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.920 we did try to glean from our research this year some, 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.640 as you say, are these easy life hacks that are 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:21.360 practical but they have a lot of impact. So we'll 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:24.680 start with this the first example. And I'm trying to 0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:27.840 sit very straight as I say this, and um with 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:31.959 arms akimbo. And because this is the first one has 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:35.840 to do with posture. Yes, and and it's I should 0:02:35.880 --> 0:02:38.360 add when I podcast, I actually said on a stool 0:02:38.960 --> 0:02:42.120 in in this podcasting chamber, because I want to have 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:45.440 proper posture on podcasting. You do, You're like totally engaging 0:02:45.480 --> 0:02:48.320 your core over there. Because the the go to chairs 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.799 in this podcast chamber are awful. I don't know where 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.080 they came from. I think they were like salvaged from 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:58.079 like a shipwreck. And and if you actually lean back 0:02:58.080 --> 0:03:00.359 into them, they just it curves your spin into a 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.280 question mark. Um. I don't know. Maybe some people can 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:04.920 roll with that a little better, but I just I 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:07.640 find it tortuous because even then I'm all hunchback in 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:11.440 the chair, and I just I don't feel like I'm healthy, 0:03:11.520 --> 0:03:14.200 I don't feel confident. So if I felt outset on 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.679 the stool, I feel a lot a lot better. I 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:18.680 feel like, all right, I can actually do this. You 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:21.720 feel large and in charge exactly. Yeah, And that is 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:25.080 really what is at the heart of these postural changes. 0:03:25.120 --> 0:03:27.480 Because we're talking about is body language. And there's been 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:29.800 a lot of discussion about body language, how you can 0:03:30.000 --> 0:03:33.120 ascertain certain things from people by the way that they 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:36.840 are giving you nonverbal cues. But someone who's given us 0:03:36.880 --> 0:03:40.840 a fresh take on this is Harvard psychologist Amy Cutty, 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:43.520 and she actually has a great Ted dot com talk 0:03:43.640 --> 0:03:46.160 which is called your body language Shapes who you are, 0:03:46.680 --> 0:03:49.800 and she says, it's not just about communicating what you're 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:54.200 feeling your emotional states, it's really about changing your biochemistry 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:57.280 through this physical movement. Yeah, because the I mean the 0:03:57.360 --> 0:04:01.640 idea of don't slump set up straight that that's old everyone. 0:04:01.760 --> 0:04:06.400 Everyone's heard that their entire life. They're their old video 0:04:06.560 --> 0:04:09.920 not videos even, but old like educational films. Uh. There's 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:12.600 something called posture pals that they famously riffed on the 0:04:12.920 --> 0:04:15.280 mystery Siense Theater through thousand, where all the children are 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.719 being told how to how to uh gain their posture 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:21.279 so that they'll be better little children. I think we 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:23.120 all know on one level that that there are certain 0:04:23.160 --> 0:04:25.279 postures that just look better, and you're just gonna look 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:26.960 more like you know what you're doing and you're a 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.760 little more more confident, but Cutty has actually applied the science. 0:04:30.880 --> 0:04:33.760 And what I mean one of the sort of really 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.159 interesting things that you mentioned is that if she refers 0:04:36.200 --> 0:04:38.839 to it as non verbal expression of power and dominance, 0:04:39.240 --> 0:04:41.279 so this is taking it out of the whole, you know, 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:43.839 your mom's saying, don't slump, set up straight, and putting 0:04:43.839 --> 0:04:46.839 it in the context of the animal kingdom at large. 0:04:47.640 --> 0:04:50.400 I mean, it's kind of an overstatement of the obvious. 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.320 But the power dynamics of this, the non verbal communication 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:56.080 of power, I mean, you see that in dogs, You 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.800 see that in in cats and snakes, in insects, I mean, 0:04:59.839 --> 0:05:02.680 you you name it. That animals use their body language 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.200 to show, hey, I'm the top dog right now, I'm 0:05:05.240 --> 0:05:08.280 the one in charge. You need to back down. Well, 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.080 there was someone I used to work with at the 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.520 zoo and he was a keeper there and he actually 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:14.680 um worked with the gorillas, and he would tell me 0:05:14.720 --> 0:05:17.080 stories about how when he would go in to clean 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.760 their cages that the male silverback gorillas would bow up 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.359 at him as if to say, hey, man, I see you. 0:05:25.360 --> 0:05:27.120 You know what are you doing in my space? Which 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:28.600 I think is really interesting because, as you say, you 0:05:28.640 --> 0:05:32.560 can see that in nature Um, So it makes sense 0:05:32.600 --> 0:05:37.560 that as humans are doing the same thing, just sometimes subconsciously, 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:40.560 we don't realize it. And Amy Cutty saw this in 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:46.200 the classroom. Um. She went into classrooms full of MBA students, 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:50.000 and what she saw is that there is a gender 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:55.680 grade gap. Men slightly outperformed women and it's really competitive. 0:05:56.080 --> 0:05:58.000 And so she started to say, Okay, we'm gonna take 0:05:58.120 --> 0:06:00.479 a closer look at this, and she noticed that the 0:06:00.480 --> 0:06:03.479 women tended to make themselves small and hold their wrists 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.960 and wrap their arms around themselves, while the guys tended 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:11.040 to make themselves bigger. They leaned back, they stretched out, 0:06:11.080 --> 0:06:14.400 they drink their arms around chairs. And she said, you know, 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:17.240 we know from studies to facial feedback that if you smile, 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:22.000 you fake yourself into feeling happier. So what if what if, um, 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:24.800 you could do the same thing with body language, if 0:06:24.839 --> 0:06:28.120 you just physically spread out, would you feel more powerful? 0:06:28.760 --> 0:06:31.440 That was the thesis of these studies that she conducted. 0:06:31.880 --> 0:06:35.080 Now she's talking like actually, because at one point in 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:38.440 this description, I'm just imagining like some dudes played out 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:41.159 on the couch, and look, there seems like there comes 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:43.400 a point where it's no longer I mean, I guess 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:47.880 there is a certain communication via the body that says, hey, 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:52.280 I'm totally totally carefree, I'm completely in charge. The dudea vibes, 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:54.680 you know, But but it seems like there would be 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.280 a cut off point to where it's like I'm just 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.640 sit laying on a couch versus I'm setting up straight 0:07:00.640 --> 0:07:03.520 and in charge. You know. Well, and it's interesting to 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:05.920 talk she does kind of talk about the best ways 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:08.360 to use this posture. She's saying that if you want 0:07:08.400 --> 0:07:10.800 to feel large and in charge, but you're talking to 0:07:10.840 --> 0:07:13.440 your boss, it's best not to bow up and try 0:07:13.480 --> 0:07:16.000 to dominate him or her, because I would send the 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:19.400 wrong message. Um, you would then seem sort of as 0:07:19.400 --> 0:07:22.440 though you had some sort of evil agenda right right now. 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:25.320 Just to to to drive home just another another fact 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.200 about just how key this is to who we are 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:30.560 and just how how it's in our genes and in 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:34.400 our design um. She points out. Cutting points out that 0:07:34.520 --> 0:07:38.000 athletes who are blind from birth who say, you know, 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:40.080 go through the finish line, finish that race, win the race, 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:44.840 They've never seen ore other people do like a you know, 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:48.320 the victory arms in the air head back. They have 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.520 never seen that, but they do it like it's it's 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:53.600 just a natural response to to victory to just go 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:58.000 on and just hands, you know, hands held high, headheld high, 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:02.000 chest open. It's just a natural response to victory and 0:08:02.040 --> 0:08:04.640 dominance because they're assuming the power and the glory of 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:07.200 that moment. Yeah, which is really I forgot about that 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:11.080 point that she makes. It's really interesting. Um, yeah, there 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:14.560 are a lot of uh different instances that you can 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:18.080 bring up that really underscore the importance of it. Uh 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:22.720 Nalini Ambadi is a researcher at Tufts University and showed 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.000 that when people watch thirty seconds soundless clips of real 0:08:26.120 --> 0:08:30.480 physician patient interactions, their judgments of the physician's niceness i 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:35.800 you know, say, her body language or um predicts whether 0:08:35.920 --> 0:08:39.400 or not that physician will be sued. Isn't it interesting? 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:44.319 So it's more a questionable lickability in this instance where 0:08:44.360 --> 0:08:48.480 they're viewing these interactions as opposed to competence. So the 0:08:48.520 --> 0:08:50.520 people who are viewing that, they're not even really thinking 0:08:50.520 --> 0:08:55.720 about competence or liability or assuming this person. They're just 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:59.479 thinking whether or not that person looks approachable, seems approachable, 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:05.160 and predicts whether or not they're going to get sued. Uh. 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.480 So let's get to what she was actually doing, though, 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.000 Cutty when she was trying to do this quick little 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:15.600 life hack with people in their postures. Yeah, of course 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.120 she's she's interested in the science of this, not just oh, well, 0:09:19.200 --> 0:09:22.040 you know what's the cause and correlation here, but actually 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.400 what happens in the body when someone is is puffing 0:09:25.480 --> 0:09:28.120 up into this dominant stance. And as she found that 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:32.360 there are actual hormonal changes in the hormonal profile changes 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.760 you see higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of cortisol. 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:39.640 And she says that this ratio is really important, and 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:42.079 that if you look at a lot of quote unquote 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.960 effective leaders, that they all have this kind of cocktail 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:50.920 of configuration, the leader cocktail. So they wondered, well, if 0:09:51.000 --> 0:09:53.600 you could have someone assumed the alpha role, could you 0:09:53.720 --> 0:09:57.440 then game they are hormones to do the very same thing, 0:09:57.920 --> 0:10:00.600 And they in fact did that. They had people assume 0:10:00.880 --> 0:10:04.280 postures of powerfulness, and they had people assume postures of 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:07.200 what they call low power, and they found that the 0:10:07.280 --> 0:10:11.920 low power people were having a higher cortisol incidents as 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:16.320 opposed to the people who are the powerful posturers. So 0:10:16.320 --> 0:10:19.640 so they took the alpha the alpha dogs, and they said, 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.679 all right, now slump over now, just now, bring your 0:10:22.720 --> 0:10:25.480 your shoulders up around your ear. Okay, now hold your wrist, 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:30.240 and the chemistry and then changed. The alpha chemistry faded 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:33.840 and they took on the beta chemistry, whereas you took 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:35.880 the the other betas and you said, all right, I 0:10:35.920 --> 0:10:38.440 want you to, you know, roll your shoulders back, open 0:10:38.480 --> 0:10:41.479 your chest, stand up straight, and then the leader cocktail 0:10:41.679 --> 0:10:44.920 bubbles up inside. Yes, um, you know with in terms 0:10:44.920 --> 0:10:49.640 of testosterone increases in some cases. And um, the testosterone 0:10:49.640 --> 0:10:52.920 of course is important because this is that uh, this 0:10:53.000 --> 0:10:55.560 is what is giving that air of confidence, right. And 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:59.200 the cortisol levels is you know, correlating to your amount 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:02.400 of stress. So if it drops, then that's great. You 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.400 look confident, you look comfortable. And that's what she was 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:08.720 trying to do with these people who were of different 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.200 ages and genders and different positions in their own lives. 0:11:12.200 --> 0:11:14.400 She wanted to test this across the board and see 0:11:14.440 --> 0:11:16.480 if she could come up with something cohesive and low 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.480 and behold. When they then tested them their hormone levels, 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:24.360 they found that it did correspond with the postures that 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:26.760 they assumed. And now they were only assuming these postures 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.280 for two minutes, which is amazing. Beca, it's not like 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:32.000 go around like this all the time and your your 0:11:32.040 --> 0:11:34.280 chemistry will changes. No, you can just go into this, 0:11:34.280 --> 0:11:37.160 this this dominant posture for a couple of minutes and 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.760 it'll lift everything up. Yeah. And you know, she put 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.920 them in a couple of different scenarios to to see 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:44.240 how they would perform, so it wasn't just like, hey, 0:11:44.320 --> 0:11:46.880 let's look at your hormone profile. Now, let's see how 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.120 you actually perform. And what they did with one group 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:53.880 is they had them give a keynote speech and um. 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.200 Once they did that in front the audience and they 0:11:56.240 --> 0:12:00.760 had assumed again the high power poses. They came across 0:12:00.800 --> 0:12:04.480 as much more confident than their peers who had the 0:12:04.559 --> 0:12:09.400 low uh posture. And then they did the same thing again, 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.000 the same assuming of these postures. And they have these 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:17.760 people go in for interviews. Now, what's interesting about this 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:22.280 is that the interviewer wasn't giving them any sort of 0:12:22.280 --> 0:12:26.280 facial feedback, completely neutral, and she said that it didn't 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.000 matter if you had assumed a low or a high posture. 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:32.079 You all the people who participated in this hated it 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:36.080 because interviews. You know, there's so much fun anyway, Um, 0:12:36.240 --> 0:12:38.040 if you couldn't get a clue about how the other 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:42.400 person is perceiving you, it's that much more frustrating. But again, um, 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:45.920 when they had someone go through coding this because they 0:12:46.000 --> 0:12:49.680 taped these interviews, coding it to see how the people performed. 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.520 And again, the coder doesn't know what's going on here, 0:12:52.720 --> 0:12:55.560 doesn't know anything about the testosterone, doesn't know anything about 0:12:56.360 --> 0:12:59.520 the cortisol or the postures. The code ers time and 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.640 agamp would say this person is doing great, and invariably 0:13:03.800 --> 0:13:08.520 that person was the person who was arms at kimbo. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:13.240 You know, chest outward looking powerful. You know, it's interesting 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.280 to think about the I guess like I tend to 0:13:15.320 --> 0:13:17.480 focus more on the chest outward thing. And and part 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.200 of that is comes from yoga because that's that's one 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:22.000 of the things that's stressed a lot in yoga is 0:13:22.040 --> 0:13:24.920 to to you know, to open your chest, open your heart. Uh, 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:27.680 not only when you're just setting that in various other 0:13:27.720 --> 0:13:31.880 poses as well. And my my yoga instructors often brings 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.680 up examples of this in the say superheroes, because what 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.040 is the superhero they have that emblem on their chest 0:13:38.400 --> 0:13:41.719 as if in a way, well, like a superhero with 0:13:41.760 --> 0:13:43.600 an emblem on their on their chest, but it's Superman 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:47.240 or Batman or whatever. It's kind of a body dominance 0:13:47.559 --> 0:13:49.680 cod piece of sorts. You know. It's kind of like 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:51.600 they're saying, not only is my chest open, it's got 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.239 this symbol on, it's got a bad on it. Um. 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:56.400 It brings to mind han him On, the monkey god 0:13:56.480 --> 0:13:59.600 out of Hindu legend, who at one point proves his 0:13:59.679 --> 0:14:02.319 devot ocean to Ram by by ripping open his chest 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:04.640 and there's like a he had shows his fiery heart 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:07.200 and there's like a miniature Ram and Sita inside there. 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.480 So that's another example of the the open fiery chest 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:14.240 that's just kind of adorable too. Yeah, yeah, is great. 0:14:15.400 --> 0:14:18.200 But I'm also can't help but be reminded of a 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:22.200 conversation we had with Holly Frey last week, who is 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:25.680 of course the co host of Pop Stuff, Pop Stuff Fabulous, 0:14:26.520 --> 0:14:29.680 how sto Works podcast about all sorts of cool, geeky 0:14:29.720 --> 0:14:32.520 and pop culture things. But she was talking about getting 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:35.680 her photo taken and how like the photographer at first 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.600 was like, all right, open your chest, you know, don't swump, 0:14:38.600 --> 0:14:40.680 and then they were telling her don't open your chest. 0:14:41.040 --> 0:14:44.000 So too, I wondered, to what extent, because we're talking 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.640 about the gender dynamics here, to what extent does that 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.040 play into it? Okay, So I'm glad you brought that up, 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:51.160 because I was gonna say, one of the problems here 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:54.240 is that just the physicality of it, I think for women, 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:58.240 because sometimes if you are to put your shoulders back, well, 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:01.000 obviously your breasts are gonna be pushed out much more. 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:05.040 And you know it's going around like that, it looks 0:15:05.080 --> 0:15:07.640 a bit odd because it seems as though you're trying 0:15:07.680 --> 0:15:11.080 to um put that forward as the agenda, as opposed 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.560 to being like, hey, look how powerful I am. So 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:15.680 it may be one of the reasons that women do 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:20.120 sort of sometimes crouch in. Okay, I was wondering about that. Yeah. Yeah, 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.600 And it's obviously not true for all women because obviously 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:26.960 everybody has different body types. But it was interesting that 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:28.880 Holly brought that up, and then I was certainly thinking 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:34.080 about that. Now. One of the iconic poses that Amy 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:37.000 Cutty talks about is called the super Woman post that 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:40.880 they had everyone do, and in particular, she was interested 0:15:40.920 --> 0:15:44.280 in doing it with the females because she wanted to 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.440 see how that would work. But the super Woman pose 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:51.600 is you've got your hands on your hips, and you've 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:55.080 got your shoulders back, and you've got your feet you 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:58.000 know about I don't know, maybe like two ft apart 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:00.080 from each other. Okay, so you see wonder One and 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.800 in this pose and promotional skills from the old TV show. Yeah, yeah, 0:16:03.880 --> 0:16:06.400 with a cape floating in the wind behind her um. 0:16:06.440 --> 0:16:08.640 And so this is what she's talking about. She's talking 0:16:08.680 --> 0:16:12.720 about assuming a powerful pose. Now it's kind of hard 0:16:12.760 --> 0:16:15.280 to do this in your real life, but now she's 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.720 just that can't that doesn't won't stop you from going 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:19.960 into the bathroom before an interview, right, doing it for 0:16:20.000 --> 0:16:22.520 two minutes, and then coming out and at least having 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.920 that energy and confidence inside you, even if you're not 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:30.480 completely you know, storming into your boss's office with you 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:33.200 acting like your supergirl, right, which, hey, I don't know 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:36.040 where you work, but that might that might work. But yeah, 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:38.560 I mean she's saying you might return to the waiting room, 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:40.920 but now you're going to return to the waiting room, 0:16:40.960 --> 0:16:43.840 and you're going to be assuming a powerful pose as 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:46.400 you sit down and wait, as opposed to crouching together, 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.320 so very very easy life hack to do. Um and 0:16:51.640 --> 0:16:54.280 a very interesting talk by her on ted dot com. 0:16:54.360 --> 0:16:56.480 All right, so there's one little thing that you can 0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:00.000 do just tweak your life in the year ahead. Um. 0:17:00.120 --> 0:17:02.920 But we have a few more to mention, and one 0:17:03.320 --> 0:17:06.280 that certainly comes to mind, especially in the light of 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.639 some recent podcasts, is how we deal with what is 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:14.000 called the default mode network. Yeah, default mode network, just 0:17:14.080 --> 0:17:18.000 as a refresher, is a sort of a configuration of 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:22.119 the medial prefrontal cortex, the medial parietal cortex in the 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:27.680 medial temporal lobes, and these cortical associations between another are 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:32.160 really helping to shape, um, this concept of ourselves. Yeah, 0:17:32.200 --> 0:17:36.960 it's it's basically the neuroscientific understanding of vehgoic mind, of 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:40.480 that of that meani me voice inside our heads about 0:17:40.640 --> 0:17:42.879 you know, it's it's that it's that voice. When you 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.359 you're you're not busy with something, your mind busies itself 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:49.479 by thinking about the past and worrying about the future 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.479 and and just gnawing on itself like a like a 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:56.719 dog dealing with an each on its butt. Yes, as 0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:58.720 you have pointed out before, looking it to the point 0:17:58.760 --> 0:18:02.439 where it's now making a wound out of it. I 0:18:02.440 --> 0:18:04.119 mean when you stop to think about it, when you 0:18:04.119 --> 0:18:07.560 actually stop and become conscious of this, this the cycle 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:10.359 in your head. I mean, it's it's ridiculous, sympathetic as 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.000 a dog chewing its own thought because you're you're stop 0:18:13.000 --> 0:18:15.640 and you think this is doing no good, absolutely doing 0:18:15.680 --> 0:18:19.040 no good. Well, the point of this whole um cortical 0:18:19.080 --> 0:18:22.119 association is to maintain a balanced sense of consciousness and 0:18:22.160 --> 0:18:24.560 your ego. But as you say, sometimes you can chew 0:18:24.600 --> 0:18:27.600 on those thoughts a bit too much. And uh, it's 0:18:27.680 --> 0:18:30.480 this sort of hyperactivity in this region that you see 0:18:30.560 --> 0:18:33.400 in people who are clinically depressed. All right, so that's 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:36.399 where the problems come online. And you know, we should 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.560 say this is kind of obvious, but everybody deals with 0:18:38.600 --> 0:18:41.080 depression at some point in their life, either throughout their 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:45.280 life or different spots. So no doubt you guys listening 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.800 out there know what that feels like to be over 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:51.800 consumed in that part of your mind. So, uh, what 0:18:51.960 --> 0:18:54.560 is important to hear about this is that, as we 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:58.040 pointed out before, we spend half of our life day dreaming. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:00.280 And when we're day dreaming, no doubt we are thinking 0:19:00.320 --> 0:19:02.400 about ourselves and all of our problems and what we're 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:05.080 going to do about those, um So in order to 0:19:05.119 --> 0:19:08.560 try to quiet this part of the mind, meditation, it 0:19:08.600 --> 0:19:11.440 turns out, is one of the most effective things that 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.320 you can do. Uh. Dr Jasin Brewer, who is the 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:18.280 medical director of the Yale Therapeutic Neuroscience Clinic and his 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.960 colleagues as ten experienced meditators and thirteen people with no 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:26.400 meditation experience to practice meditation techniques. And he found out 0:19:26.400 --> 0:19:29.840 a lot of interesting things about this by using fm 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:33.560 R I to look at their brains, and uh, the 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:38.880 experienced meditators had decreased activity in that default mode network. 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.600 And even when the meditators weren't meditating, this region of 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:47.520 their brain was much quieter than the inexperienced counterparts. So 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:50.639 what's this telling us? Is telling us that a practice 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.159 of I mean something, even like I think that was 0:19:53.160 --> 0:19:56.440 a twelve minute practice or a fifteen minute practice a day, 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:00.680 can actually change your brain. It can sort of uh 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.960 tamp down all the wildness of the mind, uh to 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:09.200 the point where you know someone may suffer from that wildness. Yeah, 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.320 and you may be thinking, well, how do I how 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.360 do I start meditating? Right? I mean, you may think, oh, 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:15.639 I don't even know if there's a place in my 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.919 area that has meditation, and my schedule so busy, But 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:22.040 it's as simple as when you wake up in the morning, 0:20:22.480 --> 0:20:25.000 before you do anything, or after you're taking a shower. 0:20:25.040 --> 0:20:26.359 I don't know. I'm not gonna play in your day 0:20:26.400 --> 0:20:28.000 for you, but it is best to do it right 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:31.000 then because that you get it done right right right. Yeah, okay, 0:20:31.000 --> 0:20:33.040 So let's say, first thing, you get up, go to 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:35.520 a room in your house where there's not a TV on, 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:38.919 where there's not another person stirring, whether there's not a 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.919 cat or a dog, you know, playing for your affections. 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:46.240 Take your phone with you, set the timer for ten minutes, 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:49.840 twelve minutes, something like that, and then just set there 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:52.399 and just and and think about your breath, you know, 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:54.800 think of like put yourself in your breath, breathing in, 0:20:54.920 --> 0:20:58.160 breathing out. Doing a alternate nostril breathing is a great 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:00.680 way to do this too, where you're closing closing one 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.800 nostril and then the other, breathing in through one side 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.840 and out through the other. You end up focusing on 0:21:06.880 --> 0:21:10.439 that and then and then instead of worrying about what 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:12.280 the rest of your day is going to consist of 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:14.160 what you need to be doing at this moment. You're 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:18.920 just in that moment, experiencing that moment for say, ten minutes, 0:21:18.960 --> 0:21:21.360 without even thinking. Like certainly don't have the clock out 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.080 where you can watch it tick either, just because the 0:21:24.119 --> 0:21:25.800 idea too is not to be worried about how much 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:29.439 time is passing. And am I through with this meditation yet? Okay, 0:21:29.480 --> 0:21:31.720