Larry was still thinking about the previous discussions about Anchors and he had doubts as to how he could control his mental states. His biggest concern was when you are down with some specific issue or situation, your energy levels are low, even though you know that you should access a positive state but at that point in time can anyone do it? There could be a need for a quick rebuttal. How do you do that? So he approached Guru for his advice and asked him his doubts. Guru appreciated the fact that Larry was applying the techniques discussed and trying to implement them at his work. He continued,” I will tell you about a new technique which can help you. I also used to experience something similar, then my coach told me about this technique.”
Guru said,” When I had become EA to the Director of Marketing, I was a young nervous, fresh out of college trainee. I used to feel very scared about our weekly update meetings. I had all the relevant data available but the moment I used to sit in front of the boss, I used to forget half the points and never used to tap into all my resources, felt very weak. Soon the coach realised this and suggested this technique. You can neutralise any fearful or anxious state of mind. Dissolve the weak feelings or fear or phobia. The beauty is that you can do all by yourself.”
“He suggested getting into a quiet place, maybe where you are alone and no one can disturb you. First access that feeling, may you could give any name to it say BYTE (you could any name). You close your eyes and try to imagine the BYTE. When you are meeting your boss, what do you experience in BYTE. What do you see in the room, what noises do you hear, do you feel anything in that room? Where do you get that feeling, is it in your belly? What is the weight attached? Is it heavy? No feelings are stationary so what is the movement? Is it circular? Try to capture as many details as you can. Having said that please don’t get too much into it, you should be able to come out of it also. Imagine that you have now shrunk that feeling into a small pebble and hold it in your left hand.”
“ Now you open your eyes, you need to come out of that state and quickly get into a neutral state. Maybe you can see around the room or try to say your mobile number backwards, you can make a mistake here, no issues, the idea is to come out of that state of mind. Then think of a feeling you want to replace the feeling mentioned above. Maybe you would like to replace it with ferocity or confidence. Give any name to it, here give a name say MSD. The coach knew that I used to play cricket at the University level and was considered a very aggressive batsman. So he only suggested that I could get into that frame of mind.”
Now repeat the above exercise with MSD feeling. See, hear and feel what is happening. Imagine you are on a cricket ground, where is MSD, is it in the chest? What is the movement? Is it moving outwards? Capture as many details as you can like you did with BYTE. Then again imagine that it is reduced to the size of the pebble and hold it in your right hand. Maybe to reinforce that feeling think of a couple of matches when you have excelled and as a result, your team won. In each match you have experienced MSD, it could be different every time but make a pebble of each and hold it in your right hand.”
“ To ensure that you have captured both BYTE and MSD correctly, test it a few times, press your left hand and notice whether you are experiencing BYTE, likewise for MSD. If you can not instantly experience the feelings, please do the above exercise multiple times till you can re-live the said experiences. Every time you need to close your eyes before starting and once you are done open your eyes and clear your mental state before starting afresh. At that point, you are ready for further action.”
“ Close your eyes again for the last time. Now you have BYTE in your left hand and MSD in your right hand. Imagine that your hands are magnetised and slowly getting attracted to each other, palm to palm. Irresistibly they are pulled towards each other and once they get closer the pull gets stronger and stronger just like a magnet until they are together.. CLAP. Hold it in that position for at least five seconds and then slowly open your eyes. He suggested that I repeat this last step at least 7-10 times. This way you are trying to replace your anxiety with ferocity.”
Guru said,” It is a very simple technique and once you start practising you can easily overwrite a negative state or a thought pattern with a positive state. Larry, I suggest you can start practising yourself, you don’t need anyone’s help. If you stumble on something please do let me know.”
