Kore Kast
Kore Kast is a Podcast dedicated to integrating health and wellness with an emphasis on Pilates and Functional Fitness. This weekly Podcast is hosted by Kris Harris, a Certified Pilates Instructor and Personal Trainer. Please subscribe and follow our journey...
Kore Kast
Breaking Barriers: How Movement & Mindset Unlock Your Next Level
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What if your next big idea isn’t hiding in your to-do list, but in your stride? We explore how moving your body can unlock mental clarity, creative problem solving, and a resilient identity you can trust under pressure. This isn’t hype; it’s a practical playbook backed by neuroscience, sports psychology, and hard-won stories from leaders, creators, and everyday high performers.
We break down the embodied confidence loop: small physical wins become mental evidence, which then fuels bolder actions across your work, relationships, and creative pursuits. You’ll hear why BDNF and increased prefrontal blood flow make walking, running, and even gentle stretching powerful tools for ideation and focus. We talk posture and presence, drawing on embodied cognition research to show how standing like a leader helps you think like one. From a tech executive who used boxing to transform stage fright into stage presence, to an entrepreneur who scaled past a revenue ceiling after rock climbing rewired his relationship with risk, you’ll see how courage and clarity transfer across domains.
Then we get tactical. Use the movement breakthrough technique when you’re stuck: step away with intention and let motion change your state. Try the power position reset before high-stakes moments. Practice the breakthrough breath to calm the nervous system and widen attention. Build physical anchors—simple gestures that cue confidence on command. If time is tight, micro workouts and walking meetings can deliver outsized gains in decision quality and creativity. Expect resistance and treat it as a signal to move. Choose one stuck area, one small physical practice, and repeat with consistency and intention.
Ready to build a body that your mind can trust? Press play, pick your next move, and let movement and mindset compound your results. If this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.
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Welcome back to season five of the Kore Kast. I'm Kris Harris, and we're diving deeper than ever into the core ideas that shape everything around us. This season, we're exploring the essential questions, the breakthrough discoveries, and the game-changing conversations that matter most. From science and technology to philosophy and culture, we get straight to the heart of what's driving our world forward. Season five is going to blow your mind, so let's get started. What if I told you that the key to your next breakthrough isn't just in your mind, it's in your body too. Welcome to Breaking Barriers, where we unlock the secrets to reaching your full potential. I'm your host, Kris Harris, and today we're diving deep into something that's going to change how you approach every challenge in your life. You know that feeling when you're stuck? When you've been grinding away at a goal, but you just can't seem to break through to the next level? Maybe it's in your career, your fitness, your relationships, or that creative project that's been sitting on the back burner for months. We've all been there. But here's what most people don't realize. The solution isn't always about thinking harder or pushing yourself mentally. Sometimes the breakthrough comes when you move your body. Today, we're exploring how movement and mindset work together like dance partners. One leads, the other follows, and together they create something beautiful and powerful. This isn't just feel-good motivation, this is backed by science, proven by athletes, entrepreneurs, and high performers across every field you can imagine. Let me paint you a picture. Imagine you're at work facing a deadline that feels impossible. Your shoulders are hunched, your jaw is clenched, and you're staring at your screen like it holds all the answers. Now imagine someone walks up and tells you to just think positive or get motivated. How does that feel? Pretty useless, right? That's because motivation without embodiment is like trying to start a car without an engine. It might look good on the outside, but it's not going anywhere. Let me start with something that happened to me last year. I was stuck on a major project, completely stuck. I'd been sitting at my desk for hours, days even, trying to force a solution. My mind was going in circles. Sound familiar? So I did something that seemed counterintuitive. I left my desk and went for a run. Not a gentle jog, but a real run. About 20 minutes in, when my body was fully engaged and my mind had quieted down, the solution hit me like lightning. Now, you might think that was just coincidence. But there's actual neuroscience behind this. When we move our bodies, especially through activities like running, dancing, or even walking, we increase blood flow to the prefrontal cortex. That's the part of your brain responsible for creative thinking and problem solving. We also release something called BDNF, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which literally helps grow new neural pathways. Movement doesn't just make your body stronger, it makes your brain more flexible. Here's what's fascinating about this science. Researchers at Stanford found that people who walked while brainstorming increased their creative output by an average of 60%. 60%? That's not a small bump. That's a massive leap in creative capability just from putting one foot in front of the other. But it goes deeper than that. The University of Illinois discovered that just 20 minutes of moderate exercise can improve your ability to focus and make decisions for up to two hours afterward. Your body literally becomes a performance-enhancing drug for your mind. But here's where it gets really interesting. It's not just that movement helps your brain function better. Movement actually changes how you see yourself and what you believe is possible. Think about it. When you accomplish something physically challenging, when you push through that moment when your body wants to quit but you keep going anyway, what happens to your confidence? What happens to your belief in your own capabilities? I think about David Goggins, the ultra-marathon runner and former Navy SEAL. He talks about how every time he pushed through a physical barrier, it taught him that mental barriers could be broken too. When you prove to yourself that you can run further than you thought possible, suddenly that impossible presentation at work doesn't seem so intimidating. When you lift weights that once felt too heavy, that difficult conversation you've been avoiding becomes manageable. The body keeps score, as they say, but it also keeps track of your victories. Every time you choose movement over stillness, action over paralysis, your body is building evidence that you're someone who does hard things. And your subconscious mind? It's taking notes. It's updating your self-image, rewriting the story about what you're capable of. This is what I call the embodied confidence loop. Each physical victory creates mental evidence. Each mental breakthrough makes you more willing to attempt physical challenges. It's an upward spiral that compounds on itself. I've seen this with everyone from CEOs who started marathon training to overcome imposter syndrome, to artists who took up martial arts to find their creative courage. The medium doesn't matter as much as the principle. When you prove to your nervous system that you can handle discomfort and uncertainty in one area, it generalizes to every other area of your life. Now let's flip this around. Your mindset also affects how you move and what you're willing to attempt physically. I worked with a client who was convinced she wasn't athletic. She'd carried this belief since childhood, and it showed up in how she moved through the world tentatively, carefully, always playing it safe. But when we worked on shifting her mindset first, something amazing happened. She started seeing herself as someone who was strong and capable. And guess what? Her body started reflecting that belief. She stood taller, moved with more confidence, and eventually started challenging herself physically in ways she never thought possible. So here's what I want you to understand. Movement and mindset aren't separate things. They're different aspects of the same system. When you change one, you change the other. When you align both, you become unstoppable. This is why the most successful people I know, the ones who consistently break through to new levels, they understand this connection. They don't just think their way to success, they embody it. Let me give you some practical strategies you can start using right now. First, the movement breakthrough technique. Next time you're stuck on a problem, don't just sit there struggling. Get up and move. It could be a walk around the block, some jumping jacks, even just stretching. But make it intentional. As you move, set the intention that you're opening your mind to new possibilities. You're not escaping the problem. You're approaching it from a different state of being. Second, use your body to anchor positive states. You know how certain songs can instantly change your mood? Your body works the same way. When you're feeling confident and powerful, notice your posture. Notice how you're breathing. Notice how you're moving. Then practice recreating that physical state when you need that confidence again. Your body becomes a resource you can tap into anytime. Let me give you some specific techniques you can use right now to harness this mind-body connection. The first one I call the power position reset. Whenever you're about to enter a challenging situation, whether it's a difficult conversation, a presentation, or even just tackling a tough task, spend two minutes in a power pose. Stand tall, hands on your hips, chin up, breathing deep. This isn't just about looking confident. Harvard Business School research shows this actually changes your hormone levels, decreasing cortisol and increasing testosterone, which makes you feel more powerful and less stressed. Here's another technique I love: the breakthrough breath. When you're facing a challenge that feels too big, your breathing becomes shallow and your thinking gets narrow. Instead, try this. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four, out for six, hold for two. Do this five times while visualizing yourself successfully handling the challenge. The extended exhale activates your parasympathetic nervous system, telling your body you're safe, while the visualization primes your subconscious for success. You're literally breathing your way to a breakthrough mindset. Third, embrace physical challenges as mental training. Don't just exercise for your physical health. Choose activities that push you mentally too. Take that challenging hike. Try that new workout class that intimidates you. Learn to dance or climb or swim. Every time you push through physical discomfort or fear, you're building what I call breakthrough muscle. You're proving to yourself that barriers are just temporary obstacles. And then there's what I call physical anchoring. This is where you create a specific physical gesture or movement that you associate with peak performance. Maybe it's a particular way you clap your hands or roll your shoulders, or even just how you sit down at your desk. The key is to do this movement every time you're in a state of confidence, focus, or success. Over time, just doing the movement will trigger that state. Athletes do this all the time. Think about a basketball player's free throw routine or how a tennis player bounces the ball before serving. They're not just going through motions, they're activating their optimal performance state. And here's something powerful. Practice moving through fear. Fear shows up in the body first. Tight chest, shallow breathing, tense muscles. Instead of trying to think your way out of fear, move through it. Literally, take deep breaths, shake out your body, change your posture. When you change how fear feels in your body, you change your relationship with fear itself. Let me share another powerful example. I worked with a tech executive who was brilliant at her job but terrified of public speaking. She'd avoid presentations, skip conferences, and basically limit her own career advancement because of this fear. We tried the usual approaches, practice, preparation, positive visualization. They helped, but not enough. Then I suggested she take up boxing. Not to become a fighter, but to learn what it felt like to face something scary and push through anyway. Within three months of training, something shifted. She stopped seeing public speaking as this insurmountable terror and started seeing it as just another challenge to face and overcome. The physical courage she built in the boxing ring translated directly into mental courage in the boardroom. The research on this is absolutely compelling. Dr. Amy Cuddy's work on embodied cognition shows that our physical posture doesn't just reflect our mental state, it actually shapes it. When you stand like a leader, you think like a leader. When you move like someone who's confident and capable, your brain starts producing the neurochemistry of confidence and capability. There's also fascinating research coming out of sports psychology about what they call cross-domain transfer. Skills and mindsets developed in one physical domain automatically transfer to other areas of life. The discipline you build in the gym shows up in your work habits. The focus you develop in yoga appears in your relationships. The persistence you cultivate in running emerges in your creative projects. I want to share one more story with you. There's an entrepreneur I know who was trying to scale his business. He kept hitting the same revenue ceiling month after month. Mentally, he knew what he needed to do, but something was holding him back. Then he started rock climbing. Now rock climbing has nothing to do with business, right? Wrong. Every time he faced a challenging route, every time he had to trust his abilities and push through the fear of falling, he was rewiring his relationship with risk and uncertainty. Six months later, his business broke through to the next level. Coincidence? I don't think so. Now I know what some of you might be thinking. Chris, this sounds great, but I don't have time for extensive workouts or physical training. Here's the beautiful thing: you don't need to become an athlete to harness this connection. Some of the most powerful breakthroughs happen with simple movements. Take micro workouts, 60 seconds of jumping jacks when you're stuck on a problem, five minutes of stretching between meetings, walking while you're on phone calls. These aren't just nice stress relief activities. They're strategic tools for enhanced performance. I know a startup founder who built a billion-dollar company while taking walking meetings for every major decision. Movement was literally part of his decision-making process. Because here's the truth: the way you do anything is the way you do everything. How you show up physically is how you show up mentally, emotionally, professionally. When you commit to moving your body with intention, when you use physical challenges as opportunities to build mental resilience, when you understand that breakthrough happens in your body as much as it happens in your mind. That's when everything changes. But here's where most people get stuck, and I want to address this head on. Your mind might resist this approach at first. You might think, I should be able to figure this out mentally, or I don't have time for physical stuff. That resistance, that's exactly the old pattern trying to keep you stuck. The same thinking that got you stuck isn't going to get you unstuck. When you feel that resistance to movement, to trying something physical, to stepping outside your comfort zone, that's your breakthrough calling. That's your body and mind asking you to expand beyond your current limitations. Don't ignore that call. Answer it. So what's your next move? Literally, what's your next move? Maybe it's signing up for that fitness class you've been thinking about. Maybe it's taking a walking meeting instead of sitting in a conference room. Maybe it's just standing up right now and doing some stretches while you finish listening to this episode. Whatever it is, make it intentional, make it a practice, make it part of how you approach every challenge and every opportunity. So here's your action plan for integrating movement and mindset. Start small, but start today. Pick one area of your life where you feel stuck or want to break through to the next level. Then choose one physical practice that challenges you just enough to make you slightly uncomfortable. It might be a morning walk, an evening yoga session, weekend hiking, or even just taking the stairs instead of the elevator. The key is consistency and intention. Every time you do this physical practice, remind yourself that you're not just working on your body, you're rewiring your relationship with challenge, with discomfort, with possibility itself. Remember, your body isn't just a vehicle for your mind, it's a partner in your success. When you honor that partnership, when you use movement and mindset together as tools for transformation, there's no barrier you can't break through. There's no level you can't reach. This has been Breaking Barriers. I'm Chris Harris and I believe in you. I believe in your ability to break through whatever's holding you back, to reach that next level you've been dreaming about. And I can't wait to hear about the barriers you shatter when you start moving toward your potential with both your body and your mind fully engaged. Until next time, keep breaking barriers and keep moving forward. Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Kore Kast. I hope you're feeling inspired and empowered to take your health and wellness journey to the next level. Remember, every small step counts, and I'm here to support you every step of the way. If you'd enjoyed today's episode, I'd love for you to share it with your friends and family. And if you're feeling generous, consider donating at the link provided in the description. Your support helps us to keep bringing you the core cast every week, packed with valuable insights and expert advice. For more resources, tips, and updates, don't forget to visit our website at www.kore-fit.com and follow us on Instagram at kore fitnessaz. Join our community and let's continue this journey together. Until next time, stay healthy, stay happy, and keep striving for your best self. This is Kris Harris signing off from the Kore Kast, and I'll see you next week.
