The term weighty means significant. This makes sense because in order to lift something heavy you have to be alert and in good alignment. You have to take it seriously. In a new study presented in Psychological Science, psychologist Nils Jostmann and his colleagues claim that carrying a heavy weight, rather than a light weight, would make people give more weight to an issue. Apparently the pull of gravity provides a force that our minds reckon with. “Gravitational pull not only shapes people’s bodies and behavior, but influences their very thoughts” according to Jostmann.
This fascinating new study reinforces the mind/ body connection: the pull of gravity makes matters more important. In fact, volunteers walking around with clipboards reinforced the hypothesis. The heavier clipboards made them judge the issues more seriously as opposed to lighter clipboards. The experiment was duplicated with different scenarios and always with the same results.
The take home message
Language is symbolic providing clues to help us make sense of our thoughts. Often in making decisions we weigh our options. A person in a position of power has an opinion that carries more weight than the person lower on the totem pole. However, when it comes to the pull of gravity on our bodies, the opposite seems to be true – heavier people are discriminated against. We see evidence of the pull of gravity on the scale and a bigger number has the power to make us feel unhappy with our body image. In this case we seek to be lighter, weigh less, even though according to this study lighter means less substantial or less important.
Therefore use the results of this new study to reevaluate the force of external pressures which can influence or even distort how you think. A weighted clipboard does not really convey more importance to an issue or task and neither should what you weigh on a scale affect your self-esteem. Both are based on perception. Many possible perceptions can co-exist. For example, two people witnessing a car accident can have varying accounts based on where they are standing.
In stress management the optimum word is balance; for example, grounded, yet flexible. Stress always challenges our equilibrium. We can see how easy it is to get weighted down by past mistakes impeding our ability to move forward or become flighty with unrealistic expectations only to crash back to earth.
Don’t drag around a leg iron of worry or anger. Don’t wait for external circumstances to create inner peace for you. Watch your verbiage and talk to yourself using quality words. Serenity emanates from the inside out.
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