Have You Found It Hard To Stay Positive In These Uncertain Times?
I’m sure you’ll agree with me, we’ve recently been living in a time of:
- unprecedented challenges
- uncertainty
- overwhelming stress.
Frankly, the Coronavirus pandemic, and it’s after effects, have had far-reaching effects on societies.
Not to mention, the worry about the impact of wars and conflict raging around the world.
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We seem to be faced with constant catastrophes and disasters and we’re continually in “over-surviving” mode.
It’s so easy to drift into thinking “everything seems so bleak, what’s the point of it all?”
Has All Of This Uncertainty Affected You Personally?
And left you feeling :
- Anxious?
- Fearful?
- overwhelmed with stress?
- low?
- Demoralised?
- Unmotivated?
- a loss of hope?
- the need for mental strength?
- the need to adapt to a new way of life?
Or feelings of “flatness” with moments of sadness, that just appear out of nowhere?
Add to that, bouts of weariness, that even an early night doesn’t seem to cure!
Just getting through simple tasks may feel overwhelming and the ability to stay focused and motivated is proving to be a challenge for some.
Did you know that NHS data shows that 1 in 7 people in England were prescribed antidepressant drugs in 2020 – 21?
Shocking isn’t it?
Apparently, levels of depression nearly doubled during the pandemic with 21 per cent of people over 16 suffering symptoms.
What started as a health pandemic seems to have evolved into a psychological one!
And between October to December 2022, 22 million antidepressants were prescribed to an estimated 6.6 million identified patients (Source: https://media.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/news/nhs-releases-latest-mental-health-medicines-statistics-3)
What’s The Cost To Your Long-Term Mental Health & Wellbeing?
If you continue along this path and feeling this way, what will the cost be to your long-term mental health and wellbeing?
Fast forward your mind to next year ….
How will you feel if next year rolls around and you’re still disappointed and getting the same outcomes you’ve been getting over the last few years?
Are You Ready To Take A Quantum Leap And Make Some Positive Changes?
How can you develop the mental strength and resilience to be able to adapt to any fresh challenges you are faced with, so you can move forward with a new way of life?
Time Now For Tips & Exercises Shared By Paul McKenna At His “Positivity UK Tour”
‘Positivity can be learnt, and the results are life-transforming’
I was thrilled to learn that one of the 7 venues that Paul McKenna chose for his “Positivity UK Tour” was Birmingham – my home town.
With no procrastination or hesitation, I booked my tickets!
Having been lucky enough to attend one of Paul McKenna’s previous seminars in London, I knew this one would be just as powerful – and I’d be in for a treat!
I excitedly ventured into town, armed with my trusty note pad.
(Just to mention the tour was originally in 2022 – I’ve updated my Blog a few times since then – and the info’ shared here is still very relevant in 2023)
My main aim for the evening was to glean some really valuable “nuggets of info” that I could share with you here on this Blog!
Well, the evening didn’t disappoint.
Covid restrictions seemed to be in the long-distant past – 500 enthusiastic attendees filled the room.
How To Transform Your Life With Paul McKenna’s 90 Minute “Positivity” Session
Paul shared his exciting plan for the evening, we’d be learning how to:
- Take control of our thoughts and feelings now.
- Control our fears.
- Have a calm healthy, confident mind.
- Develop focus and mental strength.
- Adapt to problems and challenges so we could overcome virtually anything.
- Create our compelling future.
- Become powerfully motivated.
- Discover our drive, passion and power to go for what we truly want.
- Thrive in the new world.
- In these challenging times, these skillsets have never been more necessary.
- Turn off the fear, turn up our confidence and turn on our positivity.
I’m sure you’ll be thinking “well that all sounds great, but can you quickly get to the point, so I can start feeling more positive now?”
Paul Captured Our Attention Right Away
He shared that when you’re in “protection mode”, your “bandwidth of thinking” is taken up, making it difficult for you to feel joy, relaxation and creativity.
He seemed keen to get us taking some action right away.
Up came our first “exercise” of the evening.
You Can Try This Quick “HeartMath” Exercise Now Whilst You’re Reading This
Paul said this HeartMath exercise is regularly used by the 4 divisions of the military:
- Put your hand on your heart and draw attention to your heart.
- Take 3 deep breaths (this reduces cortisol in your body).
- On the 3rd breath think of a time you felt really good. For example: when you were laughing with friends, you’ve just fallen in love or one of your happy memories.
- Return to the memory, like you’re back there again now.
- See what you saw …. hear what you heard …. feel how good you felt.
- Make the colours rich, bright and bold ….
- The sounds loud and feelings strong.
Right now – are you feeling good? 🙂
That’s a quick exercise taking you from stressed to relaxed awareness.
It’s all about the way you respond to your stress, rather than the way you react.
And it’s helpful to look at your challenges in a resourceful way.
Get Fast & Astounding Results With “Havening”
In recent years, a new field of therapy called ‘psycho-sensory’ has developed that has become very popular – mainly because the results are so fast and astounding.
There are a number of other psycho-sensory techniques around, but Paul McKenna finds Havening to be a really powerful one that he’s had great success with.
Psycho-sensory techniques work by the use of specific eye movements, the touch of certain parts of the body and visualisations.
Psycho-sensory Techniques Are Successfully Used By The Military & Emergency Services
You’ll be interested to know that they are successfully used by the military and emergency services, first responders and leading clinicians worldwide for PTSD, stress, pain and a host of other disorders.
To demonstrate Havening, Paul asked for a volunteer from the audience who had recently experienced trauma.
A lady in the audience came forward expressing that her Mum had passed away the previous year and she was still feeling great sadness.
Paul sat her down and asked her to pay attention to the sadness around the loss of her Mum.
He asked her to rate the scale of sadness on a scale of 1 – 10.
She said her sadness was at level 9.
After that, Paul asked her to clear her mind and he stood in front of her and proceeded to stroke down the sides of her arms, from the top of her shoulders, down to her elbows and kept doing this in a downward stroking motion, again and again, continuously.
He asked her to visualise walking on a beautiful beach, with each footstep taking in the sand, and counting out loud from 1 to 20 – 1,2,3 etc ….
Quickly moving on, he suggested that she now keep her head still, whilst he continued to stroke her arms. He asked her to move her eyes laterally to the left and to the right 10 times.
He asked her to remember a time when she was laughing and happy. Perhaps out with friends dancing and feeling good. To really get into that happy feeling.
Then, repeat the eye movements mentioned earlier – move her eyes laterally to the left and to the right ten times.
Still stroking her arms, he asked her to imagine walking outside in a beautiful garden, with each footstep taking in the grass, counting out loud from 1 to 20 1,2,3 etc
Again, following that with the lateral eye movements.
Without hesitating he moved swiftly onto his third technique ….
The Apex Technique
This technique is inspired from the work of the brilliant zen master, Genpo Roshi.
Paul asked his volunteer to put her hands out in front with her palms turned up.
He asked her to imagine:
- putting her sadness in her right hand.
- In her left hand – bring the opposite feeling to mind of: peace, calm and comfort and notice how it feels.
- Then imagine placing that opposite, positive feeling in her right hand in front of her.
- Followed by moving her attention up to a few inches above her head and keep her attention in that position to experience both feelings at the same time.
- Continuing to feel the two emotions simultaneously with her attention above her head.
This allows her emotional system to re-calibrate, so she feels that difficult emotion at a lower level, as it reintegrates into her emotional intelligence.
Clever stuff hey?
When Paul asked his volunteer what her level of sadness was, remarkably, it had gone down to a level 2 – 3 and when he asked her how she felt, she said her sadness and overwhelm had all but disappeared and she kept smiling at Paul and at the audience. That’s the perfect result he wanted to gain from her.
Above all, the exercise had been a great success for his volunteer.
Paul added that her Mum would have wanted her to be smiling when she thought of her.
These are simple, transformative techniques that we can all practice to change the frequencies of the brain waves and reset the eco-system of our emotional intelligence.
A Book About Confidence – A Training Manual For A***h*l*s!
When Paul McKenna said he was writing a book on “Confidence”, people would say things like “oh, great, a training manual for arseholes!”
Paul defines confidence as “being comfortable in your own skin – authentic and natural”.
Confident people don’t have to try to pretend to be something they’re not.
They feel good as they are.
However, he considers confidence is ultimately a state of mind and body.
It’s also a habit. A habit that can be learned and turned on at will.
People have a tendency to practice “this and that” focusing on what’s going wrong, rather than what’s going right.
And don’t forget, you always get more of what you focus on!
Everything you do, be it boiling an egg or making a presentation at work, your confidence all comes from your brain and body state at that time – your neurophysiological state.
What Do You Say When You Talk To Yourself?
It’s a fact that we all use our internal voice to talk to ourselves all day long. We give ourselves powerful hypnotic suggestions with our internal dialogue.
Some of the stuff is positive, but what about when we make a mistake – do we say to ourselves “Oh another learning experience”?
No, we don’t we say “Oh shit” or “oh brilliant trust you to do that again!”.
We might be one of those people who look in the mirror and say “you fat face, you’re so old and ugly!”
Movies In Our Mind
We have a tendency to run “movies in our mind” that create the way we feel.
Paul asked for another volunteer from the audience, so that he could demonstrate another of his life-transforming techniques.
This particular lady shared her story with everyone ….
She said that at the age of 7 her dad’s exact words to her were “You’re a picture of bad luck and you’re stupid!”
Like A Broken Record Those Words Resounded In Her Head
She repeatedly heard those words resounding in her head for years and it caused her great sadness and a lack of confidence in herself.
Paul said right then, now recall your dad saying to you “You’re a picture of bad luck and you’re stupid”.
But, this time, say it in a really silly high pitched, fast tone of voice and keep repeating it over and over.
Keep thinking of your dad and visualise him and hear him using that extremely silly voice!
Of course, Paul’s voice sounded so ridiculous.
There were peals of laughter from both his volunteer and the audience.
Paul said to her “You’re the one running your brain.”
Now say to yourself “All is well, all is well. I love and approve of myself. I’m always good enough.”
He asked her how she was feeling.
She said she felt good and more confident in her mind.
Great result!
How Do You See Yourself In Your Mind?
Another example Paul gave of the “movies in our mind” scenario was :
“Imagine you’ve been invited to a party on Tuesday night. Get a picture going in your head that you won’t know anyone, be thinking “it’ll be busy, I’ll be out of my depth etc”. That “movie in your mind” will be making you start to feel anxious.
Try changing that picture to a voice in your head that says “Ooh this party’s great, all my friends are here, I’m having a glass of wine, I’m relaxed, I’m having fun etc.”. Think of everything that’s going right and you’ll be right back, feeling good again.
Is It Now Time To Change The Movie In Your Mind?
It’s just a different “movie that you’re running in your head” and you can change it with just your thoughts.
So, as you can see, that’s the difference with confident people – they just have different pictures and sounds resounding in their head.
Confidence is a habit. It’s the way we see ourselves in our mind. It’s our blueprint.
Visualisation & The Gradual Confidence Booster
Say to yourself “I see me looking good, confident, smiling.”
Imagine a slightly more confident ‘you’ standing in front of you.
Now imagine stepping in to that more confident you. See through your eyes, hear through your ears and feel the feelings of your more confident self.
This gives signals to your subconscious mind.
It’s about your physiology too.
Think about your body posture, the way you are breathing and standing.
As Paul says “nobody has ever marched into his office with their head held high and exclaimed “I’m depressed”!
Someone with a depressed posture tends to have a sluggish posture, with their shoulders down.
Think about how you’d feel if you won the lottery. You’d be like “wow, I’ve won the lottery” and you’d certainly have a confident, straight posture.
It makes sense that if you tense up your body, it will affect your thoughts. But, if you’re relaxed in your body, it does the same to your mind. Your mind and body are intimately linked.
Ding – Get The Colgate Ring Of Confidence!
Paul said if you really want to take it up a notch, then count to 3 and give your biggest smile and make a sound like “eeeeh and eeeeh” and “ding” – just like the “Colgate ring of confidence TV Ad” from years gone by.
He went on to make his audience laugh by saying “Get good at smiling. Sit in your office all day long smiling and no-one will bother you!” Ha ha 🙂
Remember the process is silly, not stupid, but it does the trick!
A Quick Recap
To be there in person and experience Paul McKenna sharing his incredible knowledge and insights is something that will remain with me forever.
If, in the future, he runs a seminar near you, go book yourself a ticket – you won’t regret it!
His systems have clearly taken him years of personal experience to develop.
They’ve been the subject of rigorous testing and I could see before my very eyes that they work for people.
Summing up – Paul shared how you can :
- Take yourself from stressed to relaxed with the Heart Math Exercise.
- Get fast and astounding results with the comforting technique of Havening.
- Recalibrate your emotional system with the Apex Technique.
- You can change your mind with your thoughts. Confident people just have different pictures and sounds resounding in their head. So remember to create the way that you want to feel by running a positive “Movie In Your Mind”.
- use the Gradual Confidence Booster to step into a more confident you.
These were just a handful of the techniques Paul shared with us that evening.
Just a taster of what the event was like.
There were a plethora of other topics discussed too :
- the fear of public speaking
- resilience
- adaptability
- dealing with specific problems
- becoming a direction setter
- self-sabotage
and so much more!
I highly recommend that you purchase Paul’s book, where he goes into much greater detail about each of these techniques :
CLICK HERE FOR BOOK & AUDIO DOWNLOADS :
“Positivity – Confidence, Resilience, Motivation” By Paul McKenna
It’s a slim book in a clear, concise, easy-to-read format and one that I’m sure you will be regularly dipping into, as a reminder, as and when you need to use the techniques.
Follow his system in the book.
And listen to his accompanying FREE AUDIO DOWNLOADS (there are download links for his techniques provided within his book).
CLICK HERE FOR BOOK & AUDIO DOWNLOADS :
“Positivity – Confidence, Resilience, Motivation” By Paul McKenna
Listening to the downloads is incredible value in itself ….
It’s just like sitting in a personal coaching session with Paul McKenna – without having to pay the thousands of pounds for his personal consultation!
It’s such a small investment in yourself and you’ll be amazed how the content of those pages can make a massive difference to your life!
Remember – Practice Makes Perfect
Paul McKenna says, it’s important to understand that “intellectual knowledge” is not the same as real, substantive change.
So, you can’t expect lasting results if you only read his book.
You must download and use the psychological techniques and his guided hypnosis to achieve that.
You will find the audio sessions so rewarding.
You’ll feel deeply relaxed, like you’re in a daydream or meditation.
And the beauty is, you can use the audios over and over again, especially at times when you need them the most and to reinforce your new mind-set and enhance your success and sow the seeds of transformation.
Paul McKenna’s toolkit of his book and audio downloads is the most powerful psychological process he’s made to date.
It allows you to tap into YOUR hidden transformative power – and that power is Positivity!
CLICK HERE FOR BOOK & AUDIO DOWNLOADS :
“Positivity – Confidence, Resilience, Motivation” By Paul McKenna
Did You Find This Blog Post Helpful & Of Value?
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