Change your state and you’ll change your life
I learnt something life changing in the last month. In order to create your best work you need to get into your ‘heart space’ rather than your ‘headspace’. Now bear with me – this idea could change your life.
I went to a Hay House event a few weeks ago. There were 10+ amazing speakers talking on topics as wide ranging as ‘lucid dreaming’ and ‘the freedom formula’ for living your dream life. I loved the whole day and was introduced to lots of new ideas through each 20-30 minute presentation. As I sat in the audience listening, watching, taking notes and thinking I noticed I was starting to fade towards the end of the day. A normal state of affairs, I know! But when the final speaker came on and opened with “Now, for the next 90 minutes” I have to admit my heart sunk…”90 minutes?”, I thought to myself “I won’t last”.
The speaker’s name was Sonia Choquette and she changed my life! Within 10 minutes she had us up laughing, dancing, singing, being playful and silly. I couldn’t believe it. I do not do things like this in public – in a crowd. I like to sit quietly, taking notes; safely in my comfort zone (believe it or not). But there was something about this woman. She was coming at this talk from a whole new space; a new realm. Her spirited had entered the building and we all felt it.
In her opening gambit, she made a bold statement: “So many of us are ‘tight butts’’’
“Tight butts? You can’t say that”, I giggled to Alice beside me. Sonia continued.
“You can always spot a tight butt”, she said. “They walk around like this”, she added, clenching her butt cheeks really tight and marching in a forced and uncomfortable fashion. “And they hold their lips like this – in a tight straight line”.
It was hilarious and I couldn’t believe it. “Where is she going with this?” I thought.
She said we’re all so up tight, walking round all wound up and stuck in our heads. “I can relate to that”, I thought secretly. I mean how many of us do this? We spend so long thinking about the exciting new project we should begin that by the time it comes to getting it started, we’ve exhausted ourselves in our minds?! Just me?
After explaining what a ‘tight butt’ is she asked for volunteers: three ‘tight butts’. Three incredibly brave souls actually volunteered to join her on stage where she proceeded to have them demonstrate how uptight there were. “Oh my goodness!”, my fear kicked in “She better not look at me!”.
I was the ultimate tight butt. So wound up, constantly planning in my head and stressing myself out with things that might never happen. Over time I’ve learnt new techniques to overcome this – meditation, mindfulness, affirmations, music – but I was still uptight. I liked a plan and I liked things to go to plan. I wouldn’t dance in public – are you kidding me? – and I wasn’t very spontaneous. Did I not just say I liked a plan??!
Through activity after activity Sonia showed us that our best work does not come to light in this state of mind – under the influence of ‘the barking dog’. In fact, we need to be in a completely different state to create: our spirit state; our heart space.
By the time I left Sonia’s talk (which flew by, by the way) I was absolutely buzzing. I was floating on air. I was excited and what’s more: my mind was quiet. Peaceful. Calm. I was in no rush. I didn’t need a plan and I was ready to create.
Watch episode #10 for a little peek at what we did at the event…
How did she do this?? I didn’t know for sure, I was still a bit taken aback, until two weeks later when I flew to LA to attend Tony Robbin’s event Unleash the Power Within. It was INCREDIBLE and if you want a taster of it you can check out episode 11 (part 2) of The Journey VLOG. Watch out for lots of shouting, screaming and energy though!
Tony Robbins is a master of many things. One thing he has mastered above all others is getting himself (and the people he works with) into a peak state: a state where you’re buzzing with energy, you’re positive, ready for action and…in your heart and not your head!
Watch Episode #11 (Part 2) to get a sense of this epic energy.
I got it immediately. Thanks to the wonderful introductory session from Sonia. This is about getting out of our heads and into our bodies. It’s about coming at it from our higher selves and not from our ego fears.
To get us in this ‘higher self’ state, then, Tony had us up and dancing and shouting (and I really mean SHOUTING!) nearly every 20 minutes. His co-speaker – Joseph – taught us to leap out of our chairs and shout ‘YES’ every time we stood up…or should I say lept up! Tony had us hugging and high-fiving 4-8 people while music blared in between each bit of new content he shared.
His logic is that we don’t learn in a passive state – sat still in our chairs taking notes for hours on end. We learn when we’re active, engaged, pumped. And it worked. Four days back-to-back 8am – 11pm at night and we all stuck with it – in fact none of us wanted it to end. The energy in the room was electric. He taught us lots of techniques too. Perhaps the easiest one is to blast the music and dance around for 5 minutes. It bloody works – have you tried it? But we also did ‘less physical’ meditation work, visualisation work and of course the hugging and high-fiving that releases surges of serotonin. All of this gets us out of ‘mind’ and into ‘body’ or ‘spirit’ or ‘heart’ and then our work can begin.
Tony also shared with us a technique he uses every single morning. He calls it priming. It’s a 10 minute process and if you want to experience a taste of the buzz we felt each day with my man Tony, visit this link and press play and try it now…Alice and I like to tack on a bonus song which we dance around to like no-one’s watching. Of course, we do it in private so no-one is watching.
In this high energy ‘heart’ state, we can accomplish anything…like walk on burning hot coals. And that’s exactly what we did on the first night. Tony had us all walk across 10 ft of burning hot coals in our bare feet…something we approached in a peak state, in the body and committed to the outcome. Imagine stepping up to burning hot coals with that barking dog rabbiting in your ears ‘wow that’s hot’, ‘that’s gona burn’, ‘step down’.
Nope – that won’t work. As Tony says ‘get in your head and you’re dead’.
Tony spent nearly an hour pumping us up, programming the process into our bodies and showing us how to stay in our bodies and ‘step up and commit’ when the moment came. This by far was the most exhilarating experience of my life. If I can walk on burning hot coals and not get burnt I can do anything.
And so can you.
So next time you’re about to get creative…or do anything in fact… pick your favourite high energy song and get dancing.