Obsessed with Human Performance, Experience & Emotion.
Shorts
The power of smiling for soothing your stress response is heavily underrated. Before every free throw in the Olympic final, USA player, Kelsey Plum, takes a deep breath and big smile. Why? According to Kraft and Pressman (2012), they found that smiling had a positive impact on reducing heart rate. As such, by smiling before the free throw shot, Kelsey Plum decreases her heart rate, increases her happiness, and even lowers her blood pressure before the shot without knowing it, by taking that big smile.