Enhance Focus and Presence With The 2 Minute Master Meditation
Have you ever experienced any of the following feelings?
- Totally 'frazzled' and out of sorts?
- Totally overwhelmed - too much to do too little time!
- You're caught off guard in the middle of a conversation and you lose your self-confidence!
- Suddenly you get a nervous attack - You're flushed, hot and anxious having to stand and or present to a group of peers.
Well if you have ever had any of these feelings you may have lost your center, your emotional balance, you sense of presence and personal power.
How would you like to recoup your mental emotional balance quickly and smoothly and pull yourself back to your calm still center? Or pull yourself back into present time instantly...
Here's a 2 minute meditation that can be used to do just that - help you bring yourself back into present time in any situation. It will help you recapture the 'moment of now' quickly by bringing the brain into a state that neuroscientists call 'neural coherence': a condition where every part of you is working together and aligned.
I've taught it to leaders, managers, and everyone I coach and work with. And personally...I use it all the time and it was taught to me many years ago by my meditation teacher.
Please enjoy it, practice it, and remember to remember to use it whenever you're feeling that you're losing your balance, your center, your sense of yourself......
If you are not seeing the video because you are viewing this in a reader, please visit http://trinidadhunt.com/2013/05/enhance-focus-and-presence-with-the-2-minute-master-meditation-with-the-2-minute-master-meditation
The 3 Minute Presence Plan
Do you know that your presence makes a powerful difference? I don't mean this flippantly like the "you make a difference" statement we are constantly bombarded with.
I mean this energetically. In other words, are you aware that your energy field changes the vibrational frequency wherever you go? And did you know your energy field raises the vibrational frequency or lowers it in a group or when you're with your professional team?
Your energetic field, your mindset and attitude make a tremendous difference to everyone you're with. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Who you are speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying."
Maybe who we are is who we believe we are. Maybe it our deeply held unconscious beliefs about ourselves that show up in how we BE. And maybe we can change the way we BE by changing our dearly held subconscious beliefs or even our subconscious programming.
This may not be as hard as you think! Here is a 3 minute power up, a practice I use and a practice that can help you to easily manage your mind or instantly change your perspective:
- Shift your awareness by imagining that you are the highest person in the land or someone that you greatly respect . You might imagine being the emperor, a president, a young royal, a martial arts black belt, or maybe even a great artist or writer. Use the wonder of your gift of imagination. As Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge!
- Ask yourself the following questions and allow your body and mind to respond appropriately:
- What would their posture look like? How would this person stand? (Stand that way.)
- How would they feel? (Imagine and feel the way they might feel.)
- How would you be when they were with someone? (Be that way.)
- And how do you think people might feel when in this person's presence?
- With what focus or presence would this person bring to listening? Would they listen deeply with all of themselves engaged in the conversation? (Listen and be that way.)
- How would they think? (Pretend you are that person and think that way.)
I think you get the idea. I love this exercise because I BE what I believe myself to be, even when I'm imagining it! I hope you have as much fun with it as I do! Enjoy!!
The 5 Minute Gift
If you had just 5 minutes with a person and you knew that you would never see them again, what would you want them to walk away with from having spent 5 minutes with you? How would you want them to feel after having been with you?
I am a breast cancer survivor so I know that every day is a gift. I learned in the long daily ride to and from the radiation treatment that hours in a day make a difference. I knew from the short snap of a few moments lying on the table receiving the radiation treatment how vital five minutes can be. Just 5 minutes a day can be life transforming! Five minutes a day can save a life!
- A 5 minute meditation
- A 5 minute yoga stretch
- A 5 minute pause in the middle of the day
- 5 minutes of self-reflection
- A 5 minute walk on the beach
- A 5 minute phone call
- A 5 minute encounter
What is the meaning of 5 minutes to you? Your life makes a difference. What difference would you like to make in the lives of others?
The Power of Questions
Could questions be more powerful than answers? Is it possible that there are questions powerful enough to change the course of our lives forever? Are there questions that can shape or reshape our destiny?
I have found that the asking of potent questions is like the 'Thomas Edison Attitude'. Ask not once, but ask until the answer reveals itself - even if it takes a thousand times. By using the Thomas Edison Attitude certain questions have transformed me over the years.
At some point, I discovered that there is a gap between a question and its answer or answers and I had to be willing to enter that gap. I had to allow the tension (that arises between the question and its answer) to pull me forward towards a newly emerging me.
Below are some of the questions that I still live with and I invite you to join me in the process.
- How can I live my life in a way that it means more than a flash of momentary physical existence ?
- How can I more fully express my potential in a way that contributes to the lives of all those around me?
- What are my core values?
- Is my behavior in alignment with my values?
- Where are there gaps?
- What do I need to do to close the gaps?
I invite you to get a little notebook and enter the answers to these questions. Become a journalist, an archeologist on a dig, or a scientist exploring the wonder of your own life. Then track the answers to these questions in your log book with date and time of your entry.
Reflect and revisit these questions daily or whenever you can, and add to your log. (My little log book is on the right. The saying in the center reads, "Think of the world you carry within you." By Rainer Maria Rilke)
Make it easy! Make it fun! Make it fast! Five minutes a day will deliver a positive transformation in your life!
Release the Past – Fast!
So how do you go beyond the oyster glue? How do you begin to let go of the past - quickly, easily, and with grace and dignity? How do we begin to create a new future that is not based on a reaction to the past?
Most people do one of 3 or 4 things:
- Say it doesn't exist. Go into avoidance, ignore it or sweep it under the carpet.
- Give up believing that things never change.
- Get upset, frustrated or angry when the old glue sticks.
- Rush in to fix it, change it or handle it.
In #1 and 2 above, the past does not disappear. It continues to rear its head in present situations. And it consistently shows up in various symptoms, manifestations or self-sabotaging results.
Self-sabotage usually occurs because of past beliefs or attitudes lying in the sub-conscious mind just below the surface of awareness. These sub-conscious beliefs or attitudes drive our behavior (remember Dr. George Pratt's flea on the back of the elephant)
In #3 and 4 above. Resistance creates persistence!
Try this: place your hands together in front of you as if in prayer. Then push your hands against each other as hard as you can. The resistance is obvious! Now drop your left hand. As you let go with the left hand notice that the right hand has no resistance. If you didn't stop your right hand, it would move on rapidly past the stuck point.
So there must be another way. We are not robots, programmed by our past. We are human beings and we can choose to change. So how do we do this?
Raise your sights. Look beyond the stuck moment. Create a vision that makes the situation obsolete by asking a few simple yet powerful questions:
- What would my life look like if this situation did not exist?
- How would I behave if my conscious mind was the driver of my behavior?
- What actions would I take if I (my conscious mind) were in command of myself?
- If I knew I could not fail, how would I like it to be in the future?
I always write my answers or mind map them on paper and I suggest you do the same. As you write the answers to these questions, it is imprinting the new vision more deeply in the subconscious mind. This starts the process by etching the new reality deep in the neural networks of your brain.
Then, notice if old behaviors come up again. Take a deep breath - reframe your experience (I'm in process now) and let it go!
In summation - you are not stuck with your past. Remember to remember who you are. You are a remarkable being with the power to create a future of your own choosing. There is a purpose for your life and the more you move beyond your past, the more you will fulfill that life purpose. Let the questions lead you there.
And let us know how you're doing! I love the stories you're sharing. Your lives make a real difference and I so enjoy it when you share your journey!
You can easily leave a comment by clicking the title of the blog post and scrolling to the bottom of that page until you see "Leave a reply". Your email will not be published when you submit a comment.
Old Habits Stick Like Oyster Glue!
I teach programs in Leadership and I coach business and school leaders. But I've noticed that 'oyster glue' often gets in the way of people's goals, plans and intentions! To me, oyster glue represents the old habits, beliefs, anxieties and fears that stick in the subconscious mind. So what's the big deal?
The secret to all of this is that our subconscious mind runs our behavior. The conscious mind would like to think it runs the show but it doesn't. In every case, the subconscious mind will direct our behavior.
In fact, Dr. George Pratt in his book, Code to Joy, compares the conscious mind to a flea riding on the back of an elephant (the subconscious mind). If the flea (conscious mind) wants to go to the ocean, he says, and the elephant (subconscious mind) wants to go to the mountains, it's obvious where they'll end up. And the flea will have no choice about it!
Further, neuroscience tell us that the subconscious mind is a million times faster and a million times more powerful than the conscious mind. It takes over and reacts instantly to events and situations moving us into action or causing us to say something we may regret.
Our conscious mind may have a lot of desires for change:
- I want to lose weight
- I want to make more money
- I want to stop procrastinating
- I want to improve my leadership skills
- I want to improve my communication skills
But in the moment, as life happens, the subconscious programming from the past, will run our behavior. These are the old habits, beliefs, anxieties or lack of self-confidence stored deep in the recesses of the mind. Once one of these is triggered, the amygdala lights up and causes a cascading of cortisol or stress hormone into the system.
However, the pearl in the oyster is that the scientific laboratories around the world are giving us an in depth understanding of how the brain and body work together. This is like having a manual for your car. Through fMRI scanning we can see inside of the human brain as a person is thinking.
Plus, or maybe as a result, new books as well as tools and techniques are showing up every day. So how do we free ourselves from the 'oyster glue' in the subconscious mind so that we can be everything we want to be and do everything we'd like to do?
It does take self-work. So I thought I'd share some of my eclectic readings as well as the tools I use for my own development (after all you can't teach what you don't know or don't do). I invite you to look into any of them for yourself based on your interest areas and needs.
Oops! As I started to do this, I ended up with 40 books on the list. So I took out all of the business books and kept it to brain change books for success!
Here's the really short list of the books that have touched me:
- Jack Canfield - "The Success Principles"
- Eckart Tolle - "The Power of Now"
- Norman Doidge - "The Brain That Changes Itself"
- Andrew Newberg & Mark Robert Waldman - "How God Changes Your Brain"
- George Pratt, John David Mann, Peter Lambrou - "Code to Joy"
- Nick Ortner - "The Tapping Solution"
- Marvin Oka & Grant Soosalu - "mBraining - Using Your Multiple Brains To Do Cool Stuff"
Here's the really short list of tools and Techniques I use for clearing subconscious barriers (for myself and others) that arise in the day to day living of life:
- Breathing (and other) techniques from Yoga
- Byron Katie's "The Work"
- Dr. Roger Callahan - Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT
- Nick Ortner - Tapping
- The 5 Step Clearing Method
- Meditation and centering
- Self coaching questions
- Visualization
Although I cut both lists markedly, this should give you a good start. I would add my book Learning to Learn: How to Maximize Your Performance Potential to your list. If your lifestyle, your relationships, or leadership style is being cramped by 'oyster glue', you may want to check out some of the books & tools I've listed.
And I'd love to hear about you - your challenges, the things you're doing on your journey... as well as your use of any of the things I've shared.
Water Wisdom – An Interview with Dr. Emoto
Last week I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with Dr. Masaru Emoto, author of the best selling book, The Hidden Messages in Water. Dr. Emoto is on an international tour and Kona was his first stop.
I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Emoto. In this video I asked about our relationships and how we can best empower one another given that our bodies are mostly made up of water. Dr. Emoto's answer speaks of 'resonance'.
One of my passionate interests happens to be neuroscience (from a layman's perspective) and I instantly understood his answer. However, I thought it might help if I clarified it a bit.
In almost every leadership course that I teach, I recommend centering, meditation or some form of mindfulness practice. The reason for this is that these practices create a state of relaxed yet focused awareness. The over arching word for this is known as 'neural coherence' in which the brain and nervous system are functioning in unison.
The BMED Report says: A coherent brain is a high performing brain.
As leaders, when we are in a state of neural coherence, it produces a condition known as 'harmonic resonance' in any person we may be coaching or working with. The implications of harmonic resonance are far reaching and encompasses much of my work over a life time. Each and every one of us make a difference and all of our self-development progress helps those with whom we interact, our families and coworkers as well as the world at large.
Given that there is something lost in the translation, this video is simple and to the point. It seems that Dr. Emoto is referring to this resonance that occurs between two people. In other words, as we keep our thoughts and energy positive, we have a positive affect on everyone around us.
Enjoy the video and leave a comment about your experience.
Take a Stand for You!
Take a stand for a vision of who you intend to be, even in the face of no physical evidence... until the evidence shows up!
Don't wait for others to show you who are. Don't wait for circumstances to dictate or define you! Define yourself!
This is not grand-standing. It is not wishing or wanting. This is the heart and soul of be-coming. I am speaking about living life as a creative act! At its worst, it's living with paradox on the creative edge of life... At its best, it's exhilarating, inspiring, heady and wonder-ful (as in 'full of wonder').
Human beings are deciding beings. Decide who you intend to be and how you want your life to be. Then, create yourself and your life in the image you envision in your mind and heart!
Ask yourself these three questions:
- Who do I intend to be? - In other words, who do you wish to be. But turn that wish into an intention.
- What qualities do I intend to exhibit in my life and in relationship with others? These might be things such as kindness, compassion, resiliency, optimism, enthusiasm and so on.
- What is my purpose and what will my life look like when I am fulfilling my purpose? (Envision what you will be doing and how you will be doing it.)
Heroes Who Inspire!
I am always thrilled and amazed at some of the wonderful people in our world. I gain strength and inspiration from so many men and women who are now, or have in the past, made a contribution to the world.
It is through the living of their lives and the overcoming of the challenges they face or have faced that I am reminded of the hero that lives in me.
I came upon this little piece of video a few days ago and it totally touched my heart and inspired my soul. It is a short interview with Bill Clinton about his friend Nelson Mandela.
Clinton tells a story of how the two would connect by phone over the years when they were in office. He said that if the call weren't to late at night, Nelson Mandela would ask to talk with Chelsea. And the conversation that he had with her always centered around her. Clinton said of this, "He was a person first," before he was head of state.
Clinton goes on to share what he learned from Mandela over the years. I love learning from the master teachers and this little snapshot into Mandela the man is food for the soul!
But rather then tell you about it, I'd like to share the clip with you. Remember to remember who you are is the message that whispers here beneath the lines. Click to enjoy.
Make Your Day
People ask me, "How do you make sure you have a great day - every day?"
I had to stop and think for a moment. "How do I make my day great every day?"
And then I realized that I have a daily ritual. And it starts the moment I get out of bed. I begin my day by making my bed. In fact, I make my bed every single day.
The first time I was asked this question, I hedged on the answer. I felt as if I was an obsessive compulsive bed maker. But then I realized that my bed is the first thing I see in the morning and the first thing I see when I come home at night.
As I started to analyze my feelings, I realized that I couldn't stand coming home to an unmade bed. No matter how good a day I've had, an unmade bed brings me down. I need to leave it fresh in the morning and find it fresh at night.
So if you don't do it already, start making a new habit tomorrow. It might seem like such a silly thing. But it works for me!
Test it. Try it. See what happens when you apply it. Think of it this way. It's not an exercise in discipline, it's an exercise in happiness. Make your day by making your bed!
Having a great day every day is as easy as 1, 2, 3 -
- Make you bed!
- Visualize a great and magical day with all things in flow!
- Give thanks for 7 wonderful things in your life!
