+1: #600 Ballet, Anyone?

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Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Optimize plus one. In our last couple ones we talked about the lead up to a recent keynote talk I gave and some wisdom gleaned in the process, including practicing the Bring it on and I'm excited Tools the moment I experience doubt, fear, etc. And we talked about hanging towels over mirrors to reduce the old self consciousness Today I want to talk about being a ballet dancer. Well, actually I want to talk about some of my favorite feedback from the event. I had some great conversations with the people at the event, but one nice little comment really stuck. Here's the short story for some context. While I was holding Eleanor, while Alexandra and Emerson were enjoying a quick little hot tub session at the hotel on Friday night, a woman who attended the event strolled by. We had a nice little love 2.0 moment and she told me that she was trained in Russian ballet and that one of the first things she noticed when I started talking was my posture. She said that in her ballet training she was taught to simultaneously go up and down and that apparently I did that really well. She said I looked like I could be a ballet dancer. I said that's awesome. Thank you. But as awesome as that is, that's not quite the point of today's plus one. Today I want to talk about three things. Head threads, power poses, and Thor's hammer. Now I take my posture and my gait kind of seriously. I think it was Phil Maffetone who says that how we hold ourselves, how we stand and walk, etc. Is essentially the sum total of our overall well being and it communicates to everyone around us. So during my meditation this morning, the essence of this plus one bubbled up and I actually got up to capture the ideas, which is a very rare thing for me to do. There are three essential things I think we want to have in mind, posture wise. First, head Threads I like to remember to pull the thread through my head the way we discussed in recent plus one. We got a link to it in this one. Here's the quick recap. As per the Alexander Technique training I did on a tiny little island in Greece back in the day. Imagine having a thread that runs from the top of your head down through your spine. You want to gently pull it up, lengthening and widening your spine when you sit, when you stand, when you walk. All day, every day. Experts in that method say that's one of the keys to grace and poise. Then we have power poses. I also like to think of Amy Cuddy's research on the power of our posture. As it turns out, Amy was actually a ballet dancer as well. Recall her research on how to cultivate presence. One of her big things, of course, is to strike a power pose. Channel your inner Superman or Wonder Woman. When you sit, when you stand, when you walk. All day, every day. Experts in this field of research say this is one of the most effective ways to cultivate our presence power. Finally, we have Thor's hammer. Eric Goodman is one of the world's leading biomechanic experts. He wrote a book called True to Form. You know who wrote the foreword to his book?

Thor?

Well, technically, it was Chris Helmsworth, but he attributes his superpowers to Eric's wisdom. And the key tip from Eric, I have in my mind often throughout the day, he. He says, chest up, chin down. Try it. Chest up, chin down, all day, every day. Thor says it does a body good. That's today's plus one. Let's literally embody the idea of buoyancy by simultaneously having levity and gravity. Remember, head threads, power poses, Thor's hammer, simultaneously up and down, and most importantly, let's dance.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Optimize with Brian Johnson. To find out more, go to Optimize Me.