Imagine you are raising a glass of water. To do so you activate in your brain a sequence of specific neurons call them, say, A, B and C. Now it has been discovered that if you WATCH SOMEBODY ELSE raising the glass of water you activate exactly the same neurons sequence A, B and C. Namely your neurons mirrors the behaviour of somebody else doing an action.
These are called Mirror Neurons that are activated either when we do an action or when we see somebody do the same action. It is one of the most important discovery in neuroscience published in 1996 by G. Rizzolati, a brilliant Italian scientist.
It makes me think of a lesson in Scuba Diving where I was asked to “visualize” my whole diving, the different positions taken by the body in the water, before letting the air out of the jacket and actually do the dive. This visualization somehow “program” your neurons and it is then much easier to actually perform the same actions you have visualized.
At a presentation course the teacher asked us to “visualize” ourselves delivering the presentation, our standing, the tone of our voice, the pauses, the hand waving. And the same applies when you prepare in advance your sales call, a difficult negotiation.
Any time your body language is important to convey your message or you prepare yourself to deal with a situation outside your comfort zone, VISUALIZE yourself and program your mirror neurons.
Fascinating, isn’t it?
