The Generative Power of Mind

The Generative Power of Mind

CHAPTER 1

YOU AND YOUR EMOTIONS

Introduction

There is more to the individual person than a physical body. There are energy fields, subtle and extremely complex, which are an important part of the whole person. These energy fields can be experienced in a variety of ways, one of which is as certain feelings. These feelings, although associated with the physical body, are actually forms of energy and are thus not limited to the body. As fields of energy they are also outside the body.

By becoming more sensitive to these energies and by becoming aware of what they actually feel like enables the individual to become more sensitive to similar feelings in others. However, being sensitive to the feelings in others does not mean merely to see sadness in another person’s face, for example, and thus deduce that s/he is unhappy. Rather, in the apparently empty space between two people the feeling energies of each are being transferred and thus experienced by the other. The result is that the first person feels the unhappiness of the other.

It is important to understand this process for a number of reasons. In the first place, you must understand and recognize that you are not always feeling your own feelings. When in the company of an angry person, you may begin to feel angry yourself for no apparent reason. What is happened is that you are feeling the other person’s anger through the transfer of the energies between you. However, the consciousness with which you experience that anger is the same as the consciousness with which you would experience your own, self-generated anger. Therefore, it may become difficult to distinguish just whose anger it is--yours or that of the person you are with.

Furthermore, if you spend time with an angry person and begin to feel his/her anger, the feelings that are generated may bring to mind things about which you could get angry. The result, of course, is that both of you are now angry. Fortunately, this process happens with pleasant feelings as well. Spending time with a happy person elicits a feeling of happiness in you as his/her energies are transferred across the space between you.

Too often, however, your everyday encounters are with people whose feelings are negative; who are experiencing undercurrents of vague fear, anger, worry, hostility. Their feelings may be confused, jumbled or chaotic, causing you to experience confusion, anxiety and unrest. You are then likely to believe these are your own feelings rather than merely feelings you have picked up from someone else. As a result you tend to lose your own sense of identity and authority and start to believe that you are a helpless victim of negative feelings in general.

Being less sensitive to others’ feelings may seem to be the solution to this problem. However, this simply deadens you to what is actually going on. Instead, it is imperative that you become more sensitive to the feelings that are being created through your relationship with others and constantly monitor your own reactions. In this way you are then able to distinguish whether your negative feelings are a legitimate report of your own inner condition--a signal that something needs attention, or whether they are the


result of the energy transfer of feelings from the person you are with. If you are experiencing someone else’s negativity, you are then able to use this knowledge to restore your own sense of balance. At the same time, you are now in a much better position to contribute to the other person’s well-being by transferring your own positive feelings across the energy field between you, allowing him/her to experience your sense of a clear and conscious balance.

Two Opposite Mind/Body Responses

For a generation now a Harvard team, headed by Herbert Bensen, M.D., has been working on the issue of mind/body relationships and the basic responses they generate. Bensen’s book, The Maximum Mind, summarizes the research done at Harvard in a clear and brilliant manner. He, like a growing army of medical researchers, does regard the mind as dominant in mind/body relationships. Therefore, in one way or another the mind ultimately controls whether a given person is expressing a stress response or a relaxation response. If mind and body collaborate in one or the other of these two basic responses, they can be clearly measured in terms of physiological processes and in terms of a variety of neurological events.

Some of my most admired physicians who have contributed enormously to improving the human condition are Gerald Jampolsky in San Francisco, Bernie Segal in Hartford, Carl Simonton in Dallas and Herbert Benson in Boston. Hundreds of clinics, a large number of medical schools and an army of individual physicians are expanding on the work begun so brilliantly by Hans Selye in Montreal. A world-class psychiatric centre in Topeka, Kansas (Menninger) has made a vast contribution to this field also during the last generation.

If the mind mobilizes a stress response, then the body physiologically expresses the stress response. If the stress response surges for coping with a life-threatening situation, then the price the body pays is minimal and the response is appropriate. However, if the stress response becomes chronic and if its trigger is frequently occurring or vaguely generalized, then the body pays a price, which escalates incrementally over weeks, months or years. A chronic stress response can literally destroy the body bit by bit, year by year, until the damage may be life-limiting or life-threatening. A great many physicians now believe that a chronic manifestation of the stress response may play a very large role in generating various forms of cancer, digestive tract diseases, serious circulatory problems, skeletal pathologies and a host of other debilitating medical issues. However serious the price may be that the body pays, it is also the case that relationships suffer dearly in every dimension of life.

If the mind generates the opposite response, namely the relaxation response, quite a different story unfolds. If a person can contrive to manifest the relaxation response as a dominant experience, then the body regenerates itself. The relaxation response is a healing response, and its power is just as significant as the stress response even though the effect is opposite. My experience with individual clients has demonstrated over the years many unbelievable stories of self-managed regeneration in both physical and mental terms. The relaxation response releases incalculable capacities for constructive and regenerative purposes.


The basic mind/body interface can be seen as a variety of emotional states. These emotional states are either negative or positive and are reciprocals of each other. If the emotional state being experienced is essentially negative, then the positive emotions are crowded out. Happily, the opposite is also true. These emotional states constitute the primordial soup out of which mental and physical events emerge. I see the situation as a four- link chain of causation, which helps me to understand the process much more clearly. The first link is the basic emotional state. Second, thought patterns emerge out of the emotional state. Third, patterns of behaviour are derived from thought. Fourth, consequences are manifestations of the behaviour. In short, consequences can be traced back through the four links of causation to the basic emotional state. If the basic emotional state is a stress response, then the four-link chain of causation will be a negative chain resulting in negative consequences. If the basic emotional state is a relaxation response, then the four-link chain of causation will be a positive one and the consequences are therefore positive.

These basic emotions not only have a mind/body expression, they also have an internal and external expression. The internal and external manifestations are just as important to comprehend because of their impact on the external environment as well as the internal environment. Just as the mind is dominant over the body, the inner manifestation is dominant over the outer manifestation. What you are inside you necessarily radiates outside even though you may believe that your talent for dissembling is flawless. Nobody dissembles with any significant degree of effectiveness. Usually the only one fooled in the process is the dissembler, and those around are not kidded even though they may pretend to be. Thus one’s inner emotional state radiates to the outer world in spite of it all. The four-link chain emerges from basic inner emotions to external consequences by way of either a positive chain or a negative chain of causation (see Table 1).

Table 1 looks at the relaxation response versus the stress response through five sets of emotional polarities. These emotional polarities make sense to me simply because they have emerged out of many years of working with individual clients as well as groups of students. I have tested this scheme involving the five sets of emotional polarities in a wide range of settings with people of many divergent backgrounds. My experience is that it has generally made sense to them.

TABLE 1FIVE EMOTIONAL POLARITIES

STRESS RESPONSE RELAXATION RESPONSE

Anger Self-AwarenessFear JoyGuilt TranquilityResentment AffectionSelf-Doubt Self-Esteem

There are two ways of looking at this table: first as the five sets of emotional polarities as reciprocal but opposing emotional states, second as two columns of emotional states under each basic response.


First, if you look at the left-hand column, you readily see an aggregate of five negative emotions, which, in their totality, are a formula for misery. Anger, fear, guilt, resentment and self-doubt can appear each in varying levels of severity or in a variety of combinations. Probably few people are smitten with all five negative emotions to such a high level that they totally crowd out any of the positive emotions. Yet, my experience leads me to believe that all too many of us manifest these negative emotions at levels, which are significantly limiting to our physical well-being and to our relationships.

It is even more unfortunate that these negative states can be deeply programmed at the subconscious level where the mischief potential is enormous because we tend to deal with them through the conscious devices of denial and avoidance. By doing this, any person experiencing these negative emotions at the subconscious level is, by the very nature of things, enslaved by them. This slavery precipitates the compulsive behaviours that a person fails to understand, the self-sabotaging strategies an individual engages in and a host of self-limiting barriers that all too many people generate.

Anybody can come up with a list of negative emotions that may be longer than my five or shorter. However, in my experience I find that I can deal with most issues concerning the stress response through exploring one or another of these five negative emotions whether they are consciously manifested or buried at the subconscious level. Obviously, if their manifestation is conscious, it is usually much easier to deal with them. However, if they are subconscious, their problem takes on a very different dimension. Through denial and avoidance an individual can seriously sabotage his/her own efforts of self-awareness, self-teaching or self-correcting.

To successfully deal with the stress response it is certainly necessary to draw on the mind’s innate capacity for self-awareness, self-teaching and self-correcting. This is the same mental resource drawn on for the creative process.

My experience leads me to believe that the two most dangerous negative emotions by far are anger and fear. In North America we tolerate high levels of aggressive, hostile behaviour. Our incredibly high level of domestic violence provides an alarming verification of this point. In the public arena hostile, aggressive behaviour is also extremely pervasive. The police, the courts and the legal system are clogged with the results of hostile, aggressive behaviour, which goes beyond the bounds of social and legal tolerance.

Most anger fails to reach the level of aggressive behaviour, which results in official intervention. For many people the anger remains relatively buried with its behavioural expression being more devious, indirect and non-specific. This sub rosa anger is extremely destructive to the body, crippling to relationships and debilitating to talent. This form of anger unnecessarily feeds arguments that are pointless, antagonisms that are groundless and barriers that are irrelevant.

Anger is contagious even if it is subconscious, just as any emotion is contagious. Thus willy-nilly subconscious expression of anger radiates to the external world with poisonous effects.

At this point you may say to yourself that I am trying to push you into being a Pollyanna, spreading saccharine in your wake. This most assuredly is not the direction of my


argument. Many people who exude a saccharine overlay are merely trying to cover up for deep and pervasive anger. The laugh of an angry person has a hard edge with a hollow ring. The laugh of a joyful person radiates warmth and delight. If you are in touch with yourself, you can tell the difference instantly.

Fear is as debilitating as anger. Many of the same points made about anger can be made about fear. Indeed, these two emotions are actually the flip side of each other. Through these two emotions the animal kingdom, as with mankind, has developed the “fight or flight” response as a survival mechanism. We have all seen animals which initiate an engagement with angry aggression only to turn tail and run. We have all seen animals who have run for it but when cornered turn on their attacker with ferocious savagery. Thus, fear and anger are, indeed, the flip side of each other. All of us have been in situations where a difficult meeting reveals certain individuals switching from fearful behaviour to angry behaviour, and vice versa.

Fear, like anger, can become deeply pervasive and generalized. Also, it can be buried at the subconscious level as well as being a conscious emotion. Some common fears I run across are fear of the future, fear of the past, fear of success, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of exposure and a galaxy of other fearful ghosts. These fears can come in elaborate combinations or they can be focused on a particular overwhelming circumstance. Male culture tends to be characterized by denial of fear and elaborate avoidance behaviour around this denial. On the other hand, female culture tends to deny anger and likewise engages in elaborate avoidance behaviour around this denial.

Fear certainly gives rise to a panoply of compulsive behaviour patterns which the conscious mind finds either aggravating or downright embarrassing. These subconscious compulsions emerging out of fear create incredible tensions with conscious, rational thought. Thus stress is born. All too many people see stress primarily as externally induced by way of a lousy marriage or a rotten job. My experience leads me to believe that stress is magnified vastly by internal tensions and contradictions between compulsivity and reason, between subconscious and conscious events, between negative and positive emotions.

I’ll quickly touch on the three other negative emotions that are less serious than anger and fear but do poison both individual and group environments. Guilt, resentment and self-doubt add interesting variations on the theme to the stress response. All of us experience these inner negative dynamics, yet they are not intractable or beyond resolution. It is true that some people can be crippled by self-doubt or guilt or even resentment, but these are extreme situations. Generally, people are merely diminished or limited by these ghostly negative emotions, which are making their contribution to the basic shape of the stress response.

Anyone who is made to feel guilty is diminished by the guilt, resulting in a self-perception of being flawed merchandise. Since nobody enjoys this experience, there is a subconscious tendency to convert heavy-duty guilt into a variety of fears or pervasive anger. Western culture has used guilt as a behaviour-control strategy. Consequently, many parents emerge with black belts and guilt-tripping, and just as unfortunately many teachers and others in authority guilt-trip. This behaviour-control strategy is extremely counterproductive and self-defeating. You may be able to induce guilt in others by shaming them, yet they likely will find a way to retaliate by continuing the behaviour,


which drew the shaming in the first place. As a result the behaviour persists, overlaid with the misery of guilt. There are far better ways to create cooperative human behaviour than by producing the stress response.

Another troublesome negative emotion is resentment. Generally, people resent other persons to whom they are closely related or involved with in prolonged association. In short, you resent those you know best. It’s hardly worth resenting strangers or emotionally neutral objects. It lies at the level of aggravation and annoyance. The tendency is to resent someone over a particular item of behaviour or mannerism. Being irritated by someone’s warts and foibles is a diverting pastime but it can become very serious and very destructive. I have been told by friends, in all seriousness, that toilet paper is loaded on the spindle only one way to do it right. Unfortunately, other members of the family insist on doing it wrong. Out of such nonsense serious conflicts gradually emerge, overwhelming the positive and the delightful elements of a relationship. If resentment is fed generously enough, it can be converted into pervasive anger with all the destructive consequences. If a relationship is worth preserving, it is worth identifying the resentments and releasing them before they fester. This is as true at work as it is at home.

The last negative emotion is self-doubt. The ‘impostor phenomenon’ draws its juice from self-doubt with all the inherent, self-limiting implications. Through self-doubt a person projects him/herself into the future with negative anticipations. Therefore, self-doubt provides the framework for writing a negative script and then acting on the script.

Self-doubt is definitely pervasive, and it is not difficult to aggravate this negative emotion. Male chauvinism not only fosters self-doubt among women, but it also feeds the self-doubt of the male chauvinist. No one wins.


CHAPTER 2

THE NEW AGE VIEW OF STRESS

Introduction

Today’s highly competitive world encourages the belief that people charged with leadership must not display weakness, vulnerability or personal inadequacies of many sorts. This belief system tends to create a most unfortunate condition whereby professionals and managers often deny the pervasive as well as serious manifestations of stress. Since stress cumulates month by month and year by year, it may be possible to deny the symptoms long after the considerable accumulation of physical and emotional damage, to say nothing of the destructive effects on personal relationships, has occurred.

Few adults in today’s environment escape the mental and physical depletion caused by stress. There are important signs that should be watched for which may indicate that the stress levels are well above the comfort zone. Some of these signs are:

1. Do you grind your teeth at night or do you flex your jaw muscles during the day?

2. Do you have frequent intermittent headaches for no organic reason?

3. Do you sometimes have visual disturbances for which your physician can find no cause?

4. Does your digestive system sometimes feel like a knotted cord?

5. Do you breathe in short, shallow breaths?

6. Are you plagued by disturbances in your sleep?

7. Do you chronically suffer from cold hands and feet?

8. Do you feel vexed by lapses in memory and concentration?

9. Do you often feel fatigue for which your physician can find no reason?

10. Do you frequently feel that your interpersonal relationships suffer from tension?

The 10 symptoms in the above list are extremely common. Any one of them can make your life uncomfortable and deplete your professional performance as well as your personal life. All too many people regard these symptoms as either normal or perhaps inescapable. If you take this view and simply let the tension and stress eat at your body, you may find yourself the unhappy owner of a serious clinical crisis.

The Harvard team led by Herbert Benson, a pre-eminent physician in this field, has provided a wealth of research that is extremely helpful in developing an understanding of stress as a group problem as well as an individual problem. Another team, equally useful, is located at Executive Health Examiners. Their book, Stress Management for the


Executive, is brilliantly clear and very much oriented to a New Age point of view. A few quotes from this book will be found in the following pages.

As discussed in Chapter 1, the stress response is a negative physical and mental state shaped and propelled by five basic negative emotions: anger, fear, guilt, resentment and self- doubt. These internal emotions are either hidden or manifest, severe or slight, but to some degree and in some combination are present in everyone. The problem is how to identify these negative emotional states and how to change them. The four-link chain of causation does mean that these negative emotional states take shape as negative thinking and are then expressed as negative behaviour, which then precipitates negative consequences. By way of the four-link chain of causation, the misery at the individual level becomes the disruption at the group level. A critical mass of such emotional conditions present in enough individuals can gravely disrupt any organization at the top or at the bottom.

Stress is not trivial even though by objective analysis many things, which trigger stress, are themselves quite trivial. This is the tragedy of stress: the magnifying of triviality into unwarranted crisis. The five basic negative emotions are the means by which we magnify problems and invent calamity. I would like to finish this section with a delightful quote from the book by Executive Health Examiners mentioned above. The quote was taken from a poem by Charles Bukowski.

It’s not the large things that send a man to the madhouse . . .not the death of his love but a shoelace that snaps with no time left . . .

The Cost of Stress

It is my firm opinion, after 30 years of experience in human resources work, that stress is pervasive throughout the marketplace, and that stress generates enormous financial costs as well as costs in human capital. For example, recent studies in the U.S. indicate that one-fifth of American professionals and managers are involved with the abuse of a wide range of chemicals and drugs. Suggested cost to the American marketplace is $60 billion annually. It is also estimated that headaches and other forms of stress-related pain generate approximately $50 billion of market place costs. Per capita in the United States, the consumption of physician- prescribed mood-altering drugs averages 80 tablets per year per person. Over half of the sales of any drugstore are in response to ailments which are principally stress-related.

Many experts believe that stress is an important component in aggravating acute or deteriorative diseases. Stress can reduce the ability of your immune system to fight off respiratory ailments. High blood pressure and other cardiovascular problems can be seriously aggravated by stress. Asthma and a variety of allergies appear often to be triggered by stress. Clinicians at the Menninger Foundation in Topeka, Kansas have for a generation treated migraine headaches as a straightforward symptom of stress.

The individual medical concerns that stress generates are real and they are serious. Problems of the mind do inevitably become problems of the body.

The Menninger Foundation has provided clinical leadership in this field for over a generation. The group significance generated from the medical symptoms of stress is


clearly seen by Menninger physician, John C. Connelly. A piece of his appears in the book by Executive Health Examiners.

Our society is quick to recognize the positive effects of change but slow to acknowledge and deal with the stresses and instability that invariably accompany it. There is no doubt in my mind that a significant part of the vague uneasiness and apprehension that so pervade our society is the result of all the changes taking place around us that we cannot control.

It’s easy to become overwhelmed so that we either throw up our hands and feel there is nothing that we can control, or we rigidly hang on to what we have, fearing that even that will be lost. It’s no wonder that people tend to resist change, and the more unstable a person’s life, the more desperately s/he clings to what he has even if what s/he has isn’t very good.

The list of such issues could go on and on, but the point is: Is there an alternative to the massive financial and human costs associated with stress?

Stress Management

Thousands of outstanding clinicians such as leading psychotherapists and physicians have created a vast amount of research and experience in the area of successful stress management without detriment to motivation, ambition or dynamic leadership. The previously mentioned Menninger Clinic pioneered this field, and today pioneers such as Gerald Jampolsky, Hans Selye, Dennis Jaffe, R. L. Woolford, R. Richardson, Norman Cousins and Neil Oleshan, to name only a few, are continuing the work.

It is now quite firmly established that 20 minutes of carefully coached daily exercises for a period of a few weeks to a few months can drastically diminish the physical and emotional damage done by stress. Although physical exercise is an important ingredient, along with a carefully designed nutritional program, the real key to successful stress management lies with mental exercises, which actually change physical and emotional conditions. For example, through mental power you can learn to raise the temperature of your hands and feet by 5-10oC. Strange as it may seem, you can even be trained to use your mind to voluntarily reduce blood pressure. In fact, the mind can be used as an unbelievably powerful agent to work positively for your benefit and your physical enhancement.

These mental exercises include a number of techniques, which are related in that they all draw on the vast resources of the subconscious mind. But the techniques do vary in emphasis and style. Some individuals, for personal reasons, prefer one technique over others even though all of them may achieve roughly the same results. These techniques all involve reprogramming the subconscious mind so that greater conscious control is generated over specific behaviours, which are proving to be a problem. The process is not so much a clinical procedure as would be performed by a physician through surgery or pharmaceuticals, but rather the techniques associated with mental exercises are best seen as a training process or a coaching program much like athletics.

Some of the best-known techniques are: biofeedback training, progressive relaxation, training in positive imaging, programmed meditation, creative personal affirmations and


hypno-training or self-hypnosis. If these techniques are performed for 20 minutes a day for a period of a few months, the resulting physical and behavioural changes can appear almost miraculous.

Through a wealth of research, Herbert Benson and the Harvard team, in parallel with many other teams across the nation, have clearly delineated the physiological and anatomical dimensions of the stress response versus the relaxation response. Such measurements include differences in respiration, blood pressure, heart rate, gastric fluid production, hormone production, brainwave patterns and innumerable other factors. Even though stress can be quantified through such measurements, it is not a sufficient understanding of stress. All these physicians realize that stress is essentially a mental manifestation with measurable physical consequences. Such physicians, therefore, approach the management of stress through mind- training techniques rather than through palliative pharmaceuticals. Indeed, mind training is very much the issue.

If appropriate techniques are used in mind training, the physical consequences of stress can be dramatically reduced or even more dramatically they can be reversed. The behavioural and social consequences of stress can be just as dramatically changed as physical symptoms.

There are many techniques for safe and effective training of the human mind for enhanced performance. In Your Maximum Mind, Herbert Benson provides an 8-step process for mobilizing the inherent qualities of the mind for self-awareness, self-teaching and self- correcting. His training process is simple and straightforward and certainly practical. In the following quote the 8-step process is clearly described.

Step 1. Pick a focus word or short phrase that’s firmly rooted in your personal belief system. For example, a Christian person might choose “The Lord is my Shepherd,” a Jewish person “Shalom,” a non-religious person a neutral word like “one” or “peace.”

Step 2. Sit quietly in a comfortable position.

Step 3. Close your eyes.

Step 4. Relax your muscles.

Step 5. Breathe slowly and naturally, and as you do, repeat your focus word or phrase as you exhale.

Step 6. Assume a positive attitude. Don’t worry about how well you’re doing. When other thoughts come to mind, simply say to yourself, “Oh, well,” and gently return to the repetition.

Step 7. Continue for 10 to 20 minutes.

Step 8. Practice the technique once or twice daily.


For many years now affirmations have been promoted as a technique by as diverse professionals as Lou Coffey-Lewis, a human resources specialist, and Gerald Jampolsky, a psychiatrist. From a human resources point of view, Lou Coffey-Lewis has done a great job in pulling the various training techniques together for rewiring subconscious pathways to improve performance and to heighten organizational effectiveness. She understands the simplicity of the training approach very well, and her most practical book, Be Restored to Health, clearly describes these approaches.

For many years I have used affirmations in both my personal and professional life with powerful benefits. I hasten to say that denial and avoidance hang-ups can sabotage affirmations just as they can sabotage any other useful approach.

If used properly, affirmations are so simple they seem almost absurd. Simple they are, but absurd they are not. Nevertheless, you need to follow a few simple principles to make affirmations work for you.

In constructing your affirmations, remember these points:

1. State your affirmation simply.

2. Keep the focus clear.

3. State the affirmation in the present tense.

4. State the affirmation as achieved perfection.

5. Repeat the affirmation to yourself on a scheduled basis.

6. Repeat the affirmation when you are most relaxed.

7. Maintain a passive attitude while repeating the affirmation.

8. Do not argue with the affirmation.

9. Write the affirmation for visual reinforcement.

You will find suggested affirmations for each day in the second part of this book. However, I suggest that you write your own affirmations for greatest relevance.

Another approach which I make extensive use of with myself and my individual clients I refer to as structured meditation. I encourage people to use this technique on a daily basis, targeting approximately 20 minutes for the exercise. I vary the technique for some clients by emphasizing such skills as biofeedback training, autogenic training, creative visualization, etc. Many people like to use an audiotape to guide the process, while others perform the exercise without the guidance of a tape. The approach is eclectic and very effective. The only serious self-sabotaging hazards are deeply pervasive angers


and fears. Anyone can learn to acknowledge these hazards and to passively deal with them rather than letting them sabotage the exercise.

Here is a point-by-point description of the structured meditation exercise.

1. Sit in a comfortable chair with head supported or lie prone on a comfortable surface.

2. Centre your body by moving about until the greatest degree of comfort is achieved.

3. Begin to breathe deeply and slowly and regularly with each cycle being approximately a count of 10.

4. Repeat the deep breathing for roughly 20 cycles.

5. Now, create a scenario in your mind that is positive, meaningful and even mirthful.

6. Let the scenario develop passively without forcing it or quibbling.

7. If something negative should intrude on the scenario, then use the four-step formula for release. First, passively accept the presence of the negative intrusion; second, permit yourself to learn something about yourself as a lesson offered by the negative intrusion; third, export the negative thought by metaphor, such as burning it in a furnace, pitching it into a body of water or releasing it attached to a gas balloon; fourth, redirect your energy back to the positive scenario.

8. Continue running the scenario in your mind for 2 or 3 minutes.

9. Begin to focus on the relaxation process by counting backward from 21.

10. When you reach the count of one, affirm to yourself that you are now completely relaxed and at peace.

11. Now that you have achieved a relaxed state, visualize important scenes at work, in the family or at play as a positive statement of desired conditions.

12. Practice one or more of these scenes in each exercise.

13. Acknowledge to yourself that you are ready to return to the external world by counting to three.

14. At the count of three take one last deep breath and affirm that you are glad to be alive and slowly stretch and resume normal activity.

Generally, the point is to reduce or eliminate the stress response and to greatly amplify the relaxation response.

The remaining part of this chapter is devoted to an instrument for identifying emotional and behavioural factors, which suggest the presence of stress. I call this instrument


STRESS- DEX. The scoring system has a maximum count of 100 which, of course, would indicate total flameout. This instrument is not a clinical tool for diagnostic work but rather it represents an approach for self-identification and self-instruction.

You will probably score yourself on each item at a lower level than your mate or your colleagues would do. In this matter, like many others, it is tempting to fudge the issue in order to con ourselves just a little bit.

STRESS-DEX

This is a list of symptoms you may encounter when you experience stress. Note each symptom and indicate the degree to which you experience it by placing the number on the lines to the left: 1 (not at all), 2 (a little), 3 (somewhat), 4 (moderately), 5 (very much).

____ 1. I have frequent headaches for no known organic reason.

____ 2. I am bothered by disturbances in my sleep.

____ 3. I chronically suffer from cold hands and feet.

____ 4. I frequently feel that my interpersonal relationships suffer from tension.

____ 5. My digestive system sometimes feels like a knotted cord.

____ 6. I feel vexed by lapses in memory and concentration.

____ 7. My heart often beats very fast.

____ 8. I feel jittery in my body.

____ 9. I worry too much.

____ 10. I get diarrhea.

____ 11. I imagine terrifying scenes.

____ 12. I pace nervously.

____ 13. I become immobilized.

____ 14. I can’t make up my mind soon enough.

____ 15. I perspire excessively.

____ 16. I breathe in short, shallow breaths.

____ 17. I grind my teeth at night.

____ 18. I am frequently angry or irritable.

____ 19. I often feel fatigued for no apparent reason.

____ 20. I feel guilty when I take time out to relax.

If you scored over 40 you very likely should be taking remedial action, such as a training program to relieve the underlying causes of your stress.


As mentioned before, the intent of this chapter is aimed at a better understanding of stress as both an individual debilitator as well as a form of disinvestment for the organization. This connection is crucial because it reveals the relationship between individual minds and the dynamics of organizational culture.

As discussed in earlier chapters, the four-link chain of causation is either a negative sequence or a positive one. If negative emotions dominate an individual personality and if there is a critical mass of such persons in an organization, then the effect can be quite disruptive to the organization. Negative emotions can give rise to patterns of behaviour which become strategies of life for a given person. In organizational terms a coalescence of such strategies can result in behavioural systems that become part of the organizational culture. Thus, negative behavioural systems become a capital disinvestment for the individual and for the company.

The next chapter will explore five major strategies that emerge out of the stress response and, in doing go, become inhibitory factors for the company or, in fact, any other social organization. Negative life strategies rarely are isolated to one particular social setting. Stressful patterns in the family can readily be transferred to the work setting, and vice versa. Few people segment life with any degree of consistency or success. In the following chapter these issues are explored.


CHAPTER 3

BLOCKS TO FULFILLMENT

Introduction

“An addiction is an emotion-backed demand or desire for something you tell yourself you must have to be happy. Addictions, or addictive demands, can be on yourself, other people, objects or situations. You can always tell when you have an addiction because:

1. It creates tension in your body.

2. It makes you experience separating emotions, such as resentment, anger, fear, jealousy, worry, anxiety and boredom. Look into your own experience and notice how the above emotions make you feel separate from yourself and others. Separating emotions are contrasted with unifying emotions, which give you experiences of acceptance, love, joy, happiness, peace and purpose in life.

3. Your mind is insistently telling you that things must be different in order for you to enjoy your life here and now.

4. Your mind makes you think there is something important to win or lose in this situation-- that your happiness depends on the soap opera.

5. You feel that you have a ‘problem’ in your life--instead of experiencing life as an enjoyable ‘game’ to be played.” (Reprinted from How to Enjoy Your Life in Spite of It All by Ken Keyes, Jr., Copyright 1980 by Living Love Publications)

This quote neatly summarizes a point of view toward addictions, which I have found to have enormous explanatory power and practical application. Ken Keyes has contributed, as much as anyone has done, to the understanding of addictions. Another important contribution has been made by John Bradshaw in a television series broadcast by PBS. The series is entitled Bradshaw on the Family. These two men and other people look at addictions from a New Age point of view focusing on the emotional dimensions of the various compulsivities which drive addictive strategies.

Ken Keyes focuses on three addictive strategies of life, which I have adapted and extended as a result of my own teaching and experience with individual clients. In this chapter I will explore the five addictive strategies as blocks to fulfillment and as major themes of the chronic stress response (see Table 2).


I will explore these five addictive strategies of life to better understand the disinvestment consequences of them along with some insight for unhooking from these strategies. More than you may realize these addictive strategies can become major organizing themes of behaviour in a wide variety of situations but always they will have negative consequences. The negative emotions discussed in Chapter 1 provide the primordial soup out of which these addictive strategies emerge. As systems of behaviour they can therefore be traced back to emotional states. It would be handy to remember the four-link chain of causation discussed in Chapter 1 and Chapter 2.

The Power Addiction

As Ken Keyes, John Bradshaw and others see it, this addiction and others are energized by states of compulsivity, which block judicious choice, normal prudence, a sense of discretion and a healthy free will. When you look at a power addiction with these things in mind, it is most likely that several friends or acquaintances pop into mind. All of us know people who have a need to dominate other people in a way, which lacks charm or sensitivity. It may be that such a person will target his/her efforts primarily on one or

TABLE 2

FIVE ADDICTIVE STRATEGIES OF LIFE

1.THE POWER ADDICTION

The compulsion to dominate others even though it may be counterproductive.

2.THE DEPENDENCY ADDICTION

A compulsive need to cling to one or more people even if it is self- sabotaging.

3.THE CONFLICT ADDICTION

Precipitating win/lose situations even when there is no need for it.

4. THE SECURITY ADDICTION

A focused or pervasive drive to eliminate risk even though you may aggravate it.

5.

THE SUBSTANCE ADDICTION

A periodic or pervasive dependency on one or more chemicals, foods, drugs, etc.


more family members, or it may be that the target or targets are primarily outside the family. This addiction, like all others, can be triggered by specific situations or particular individuals. Furthermore, the addiction may be episodic rather than continuously present. This addiction and the others can be anywhere from trifling to overwhelming.

The compulsivities, which drive addictions, by their very nature, have self-sabotaging consequences. The self-sabotaging consequences are there simply because of the absence of discretion, prudence, restraint, etc. The drive to dominate another person may so completely discomfort that person that s/he rebels or retreats completely from the relationship. Such a loss obviously sabotages the quest for domination.

It is impossible to escape in normal social situations’ power dimensions of relationships. This is obviously true at work, dealing with officialdom such as the police, and even in organized recreational settings. However, it is just as important to recognize the power relationships that exist between parents and children and other dimensions of the kinship systems. Even though power is pervasive, it need not be unjust, unreasonable, irrational or capricious. Ordinarily power is used with a sense of propriety and appropriateness to say nothing of prudence.

When power is manifested addictively, then it becomes capricious and irrational. The compulsivities driving the power addiction generate stress in the perpetrator as well as stress in the recipient. The compulsive capriciousness poisons the relationship and diminishes both the recipient and the perpetrator.

Recently I had a client who came to me because she wanted to quit smoking. During the training process I worked with her in regard to a number of dimensions of her life. She was a tough 45 year old who complained bitterly about the alienation of her children and hostility to her on the part of her employees.

It soon became evident to me, and somewhat later to her, that she had more than one addiction. Smoking was definitely a health problem and constituted a deeply fixed addiction. But the power addiction that she radiated toward family and colleagues had built within her an enormous reservoir of stress and vague apprehensions. The stress generated by her power addiction was complicating her efforts to detach herself from the nicotine addiction.

Her conscious struggle with her smoking amplified the stress and seriously aggravated the anger and power-tripping directed toward other people. It gradually became clear to her that she was in a bind of major proportions, which had been protected over the years by an elaborate network of denial and avoidance.

Gradually in my relationship with her the overwhelming question shifted from Why was she compelled to smoke? to Why was she compelled to dominate family and colleagues? Her power addiction resulted in an intense sense of loneliness and isolation as well as chronic and pervasive apprehensions. She decided herself that if she could unhook from her desperate need to dominate, she could then much more effectively tackle the problem of smoking.

I followed this strategy with her and taught her the necessary techniques to accomplish the first job. She used them successfully and began a process of profound changes in her style of relating to those around her. After this victory was achieved, it indeed was a


straightforward matter to teach her how to unhook from smoking.

She discovered that her power addiction was traceable to her childhood. In her family environment the parents were both weak and vacillating. They demonstrated affection erratically and ineffectually. Very early in her childhood my client developed the need to control the flow of affection and control its predictability. Over time the problem with affection emerged as a drive to dominate.

As what happens in these circumstances, the pattern became fixed at the subconscious level. As she matured it remained fixed, and through adulthood this childhood problem took shape as an organizing principle of behaviour, namely her power addiction.

As she developed her understanding of this deep-seated subconscious emotional hang- up, she was able to reprogram her subconscious fixation to a new program which allowed for relationships relatively free of the drive to dominate.

The Dependency Addiction

The dependency addiction is just another strategy which is generally anchored in childhood. Again, the childhood problem concerns the matter of affection. It is a truism to state that the most crucial issue in childhood is the matter of affection. Of course, nourishment and safety are critical to survival, but so is affection.

If one or the other parent is erratic or unreliable in demonstrating unqualified affection, then the child has a problem. If parents bargain with affection or if they are prone to be neglectful or even abusive, the child has a problem which escalates in severity.

The dependency addiction can emerge as a pattern of behaviour which tries to solve problems precipitated by the erratic flow of affection or the withdrawal of affection.

An important thing to remember is that children are powerless. In particular, infancy is a totally dependent condition actively shaped by the outside world. At this stage the need for reliable affection is fundamental and utterly essential.

Through the behavioural tactics of the dependency addiction, the child can attempt to manipulate the outside world by trying to get control over the flow of affection. This is done through a compulsive need to cling. The clinging becomes more frenetic and more insistent through time as an effort to assuage fear in regard to the possibility that affection will not be forthcoming.

Thus the subconscious program is set and the person grows up desperately clinging to those identified as sources of affection. The fear of rejection drives this compulsion in a relentless and desperate fashion.

When thinking of the dependency addiction, it is tempting to see it as a problem characteristic of women and half-grown children. Nevertheless, I have worked with senior male executives who have manifested this problem, particularly in the domestic arena. A few years ago a vice-president of a major oil company came to me for some training in preventing stress. Indeed, he was extremely stressed with many of the classic manifestations of a highly stressed life.


Although he functioned competently in his role as vice-president, he was, at age 50, very close to burnout. He was beginning to see himself as inadequate and vulnerable to some of the younger senior staff. While exploring various dimensions of his life, I discovered a revealing and crucial fact of behaviour, although the information did come with very grudging reluctance.

When work ended on Friday afternoon, he went directly home and went to bed. He stayed there until Monday morning and then with difficulty he tore himself from the bedroom to go to the office. Throughout his weekend he demanded that his wife pamper him in every conceivable way. She brought him meals in bed and even allowed the family poodle to stay in bed with him for comfort.

It turned out that his current wife had married him only recently, and she was number five. When I began working with him, she let it be known that he was very close to needing number six wife because she found his clinging suffocating and intolerable. He had obviously used the same strategy in earlier marriages, resulting in the disaster of divorce.

My client was an extremely bright man and responded very quickly to the training regime. As he developed insight into his clinging behaviour, he was able to use the training tools to unhook from his childlike dependency. As this behaviour pattern abated, the stress level began a dramatic decline. As the stress level declined and the offensive behaviour diminished, his wife became a good deal more affectionate.

As the domestic situation rapidly improved, there was a clear and dramatic effect on his situation at the office. His self-esteem flowered considerably along with a dramatically renewed sense of joy in his work. His work behaviour improved so much that after only 6 months he received a substantial promotion. Whereas before he began the training regime he was desperately fearful of a demotion.

It may have occurred to you already that the dependency addiction is as much a need to control as is the power addiction. That is true. Indeed, these two addictions are the flip side of each other. It is also quite true that a given individual can manifest both strategies, depending on the circumstances or the persons involved.

Many of us have married friends who engage in an elaborate dance of playing the power/dependency game. In one situation the husband plays a power-tripping role and his wife clings in an infantile manner. Change the situation and the couple may reverse the power/dependency relationship. The effort consumed in this game can be so enormous that it leaves little time or energy for more constructive pursuits.

The dependency addiction generates just as much stress as does the power addiction. Most assuredly dependency debilitates a relationship and diminishes the recipient and the perpetrator alike. The self-consequences of this addiction can easily result in the loss of the very person that the addiction is trying to control. Thus the addiction accomplishes the very opposite of that which the addiction is all about--the ultimate self-sabotaging consequence.

The Conflict Addiction

The cultural ethos of our society provides a social milieu which tends to disguise and to


cover up the pervasive conflict addiction. For millennia Western society has shaped its literature, its politics and its social relationships through institutionally sanctioned modes of conflict. A cliché of today provides a sample. A few generations ago the phrase ‘rule of thumb’ was much more than a cliché. In English common law, rule of thumb meant that you could beat your wife with a weapon so long as the weapon was not thicker than a man’s thumb. Many activists engaged in the animal protection movement of last century often observed that the new animal protection laws were more solicitous of horses and dogs than any legal recourse available to children. Only within the last generation has there been a serious effort to legally protect children against excessive parental violence.

However, the conflict addiction most often is not expressed in violent attack. In this era we are becoming far less tolerant of violence, even in such places as prisons. Although the media still foster violence as a problem-solving strategy, our legislative and legal systems are definitely waging a major effort to discourage this form of conflict.

Mostly conflict is demonstrated through disputation, competitive practices and other forms of abrasive relationships. Conflict can be manifested in indirect and disguised behaviour. Even though the conflict may be disguised and indirect, its effects are in no way limited. The counterproductive, negative and stressful consequences are just as present when conflict is socially controlled and socially sanctioned.

The essence of the conflict addiction lies in the compulsivity behind it. The driving need to foster win/lose situations removes the element of restraint, of judicious choice and of prudence from the behavioural context. The compulsivity brings about the self-sabotaging dimension of the conflict addiction. If a person enters into conflict without prudence, s/he is as likely to lose the contest as s/he is to win it.

Because conflict is so widely sanctioned, it becomes difficult to finger the addictive persons. This failure to identify the situation leads to a failure to correct the situation. Worse still, our view of ambition and success is fed significantly by the notion of relentless competition, struggle and conflict.

You may suspect that the alternative to the conflict addiction is wimpiness or the doormat syndrome. In no way am I suggesting such a thing. Some conflict is unavoidable. But much conflict is avoidable, and organizations would be healthier if we used successful techniques for avoiding conflict or effectively resolving it when it occurs.

The roots of the conflict addiction are much the same as they are for power and dependency. This addiction is just another childhood strategy for resolving the problem of affection. The powerlessness of childhood tends to promote the self-destructive strategies very early in the game when affection is withheld or erratic. I am sure all of us have had experience with children who have extraordinary talents for creating a tumult among the adults. Even though the tumult may result in punishment, the fact is the child obtains attention even if affection is lacking. Thus the self-destructive pattern of conflict is born and maintained.

The Security Addiction

Union contracts, retirement plans and insurance policies all seek to assure a future as free as possible from risk. These efforts are prudent and reasonable and certainly


necessary in our complex economic life. It is very natural and understandable that people should seek a variety of devices for reducing risk by making the future as secure as possible. Indeed, one of the main functions of a society is to promote and provide a sense of security for its members. In this regard North America is much more successful than a great many societies around the world. Yet it is a never-ending quest of both government and business to avoid unnecessary risk and all obvious hazards of life.

Unfortunately, mankind has not learned how to cancel all risk. Risk is part of the human condition even though our institutions may considerably reduce major hazards. Capitalism is based on the concept of risk, and indeed life itself is an unfolding tapestry of unforeseen risks.

The security addiction reveals a compulsion to deny risk. This strategy projects the individual into the future with the driving need to prevent risk. It is the denial of risk that is at the heart of this addictive strategy. The behaviour emerging out of the security addiction can be quite bizarre. Compulsive hoarding is one manifestation. I remember a businessman I knew casually who would walk blocks to get a free photocopy. Everyone has a favourite story about a miserly acquaintance whose behaviour provided considerable amusement.

Miserly behaviour can become so irksome to intimates that the behaviour destabilizes intimate relationships--thereby introducing a new form of risk. The same compulsion can lead to the need to make the big score and thus provide a safe future. This may lead to the self-sabotaging strategy of big stakes gambling and imprudent stock investments. In this manner millionaires can be made and unmade with astonishing frequency. I have heard acquaintances boast about making millions, losing them and making them again. When listening to such stories, I am prompted to think, “Isn’t once enough?” Part of the skill of making millions includes the skill of stabilizing the achievement. However, the security addiction can lead such a person to believe that any achievement is not enough, and the compulsion drives that person to take great risks in acquiring more. The irony is the millions can be lost that way.

The self-sabotaging consequence of the security addiction is the tendency to provoke risk. The compulsivity blocks prudence, and therefore an individual may achieve the opposite consequence to the presumed target of the addiction. As a result, stress is magnified, relationships suffer and life is diminished.

The Sensation Addiction

There is little need to discuss this dimension of addictions since there is such a vast literature on the subject. Addiction to food, to chemicals, to pharmaceuticals and to other substances is dealt with by the electronic and print media relentlessly. However, we are schizophrenic about various addictions to substances of many kinds. At the same time the media promotes awareness of addictions, they also foster addictions. The golden era of Hollywood certainly fostered smoking as a sophisticated practice.

One of the most insidious substance addictions concerns sugar. Western society is truly addicted to sugar and has been for more than a century. A splendid book on the subject, Seeds of Change, was written by an English journalist named Henry Hobhouse. As an example, 300 years ago the average European consumed approximately one pound of sugar per year. Today the average consumption is 150 pounds per year.


Hypoglycemia and diabetes appear to be biochemical consequences of excessive sugar consumption. The behavioural consequences for children and adults can be extraordinary. Many people yo-yo between apprehensive and depressive moods to exaggerate frenzies. Recent research in North American prisons suggests that a great deal of pointless conflict and violence is fostered by sugar consumption which may be as high as 7 or 8 pounds per person per week among these populations. When experimental diets have been introduced, removing sugar from the diet, behaviour within the prisons improves enormously. Many school boards across North America have had the same experience with student populations.

Generally, the addiction to sugar and caffeine is taken lightly. However, Dr. Janice K. Phelps, a Seattle physician, argues differently in her book, The Hidden Addiction: How to Get Free. She argues, with some potency, that alcohol and drug dependency constitute a secondary stage of addiction from an earlier sugar and caffeine dependency. Whether this is true or not, Western society does have a very serious sugar problem. The biochemical aspects of addiction provide a general focus of research and therapy in regard to addictions. However, I believe that the emotional dimension provides the driving energy for this addictive strategy just as with the four previous ones.

During my early adulthood I was a very heavy smoker. Before I quit a couple of decades ago, I reached a habit level of about three packs a day. During the 20 years I was an active smoker, I quit several times, sometimes for a few weeks, sometimes for a few months and twice for over a year. My return to smoking was nearly always precipitated by a self-destructive, defeatist and depressive emotional state. I clearly remember the state of mind precipitating the return to smoking. The simple phrase, “Who gives a damn?!” neatly summarizes the emotional climate.

Nearly everyone struggles with a sensation addiction in regard to one substance or another. As a matter of fact, it is reported that some joggers become addicted to the oxygen high from jogging. There are those who become addicted to the adrenalin high of daredevil sports. All too many deaths and serious disabilities derive from this behaviour.

Suffice it to say that the sensation addiction is pervasive and serious, even though we know a great deal about it. Unhooking from this addiction is as much a mind problem as it is a body problem. The social and personal stresses precipitated by this addiction are obvious to all of us. However, these stresses can be reduced by the same techniques of emotionally unhooking as with the other four addictive strategies.


CHAPTER 4

CAPACITIES OF YOUR MIND

Introduction

In the early years of my career as a conventional social scientist, I struggled with the understanding of human culture and its relationship to human mind. During the 50s, 60s and 70s, I was exposed to every school of thought imaginable. Early in my career I was heavily influenced by Freud and his view of the subconscious mind. In more recent years I have been influenced by psychologists such as Stanley Krippner, James Fadiman and Frances Vaughan and the concept of mind as a transpersonal reality as well as an individual reality.

Although Freud’s influence is rapidly dwindling, much of the popular view of the subconscious mind is a legacy of Freudian thought. The popular view of the subconscious mind is characterized by the metaphor of the dirty basement--a dark place full of junk from the past, much of which is at best fearful or more likely obscene. During training exercises to teach clients and students how to use techniques to mobilize the power of the subconscious mind, I typically must deal with this popular perception of the subconscious mind as being a fearful and unpleasant reality. Much of Western religious belief has given theological support to this unflattering view.

The Three Dimensions of Mind

The New Age view of the subconscious mind is very different from the traditional view. It is important to note that the New Age view adds a crucial third, dimension, that of the transpersonal mind (see Table 3). This school of thought recognizes that most human behaviour, meaning internal, physiological events as well as social behaviour, is governed by subconscious wiring. According to the current cliché, 90-95% of all behaviour is governed more by subconscious wiring than by conscious deliberation.

TABLE 3

THE DIMENSIONS OF MIND

1.SUBCONSCIOUS MIND: “Inner Awareness”

a) The controller of sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systemsb) The archives of total experiencec) The automated stage centre

2.CONSCIOUS MIND: “Outer Awareness”

a) The referee of ethical standardsb) The filter for unfamiliar experiencesc) The voluntary messenger centred) The guide for skill development


e) The manager of voluntary action

3.

GROUP MIND: “Transpersonal Awareness”

a) The source of intuitive insightsb) The focus for creative thinkingc) The realm of archetypal ideasd) The source of psi phenomena

The subconscious mind is simply a total record of all experience within an individual’s lifetime. Some contributions to the subconscious mind are processed through an individual’s consciousness, but a great deal of experience simply bypasses the conscious state. The subconscious mind is neither good nor bad, logical or illogical, right or wrong, beautiful or ugly. It simply is total experience. Some experiences become hardwired into habits, rituals, automatic responses, or unfortunately, cravings. Some of the hard-wired patterns are extremely helpful to the individual, giving the job of managing a wide range of necessary activities to the subconscious mind so that the conscious mind is not paralyzed by an overload of choices. This aspect of the subconscious mind is absolutely essential and extremely valuable to the human animal as a facet of survival.

The job of the conscious mind is to process matters involving ethics, problems requiring logic, experiences which are unfamiliar, and techniques for developing skills. Therefore, the conscious mind becomes the arbiter, the analyzer, the negotiator, the communicator. If the conscious mind and the subconscious mind are in congruence, and they generally are, then behaviour is consistent and the inner state is free of turbulence. However, if these two facets of the mind are not in congruence, then the personality is disrupted by self-sabotaging and self- defeating inner struggles.

If the subconscious mind is hardwired for negative behaviour or disadvantageous behaviour, then conscious processes are thwarted, diminished or seriously crippled.

As an archive, the subconscious mind constitutes a storehouse of images, memories, feelings and experiences, some of which are wonderful and some of which are a bit ugly. However, it simply is not necessary to focus on the ugly and thereby ignore the beautiful and the wonderful dimensions of subconscious reality. The conscious mind can be taught to gradually access subconscious material for constructive purposes. Moreover, the conscious mind can be taught to release that which is negative. This does not mean repressing or denying the negative; it means releasing it. And this is a very important distinction.

The process of releasing negatives and affirming positives is a simple process relying on step-by-step training over a period of time. Some preliminary discussion of this point was made in Chapter 2.

The training process is aimed at reducing the energy devoted to negative emotions and raising the energy devoted to positive emotions. In this process the trainee does not repress, deny or forget unpleasantness or negative emotions; he simply removes the energy from them. The energy thus saved can be more profitably invested through affirmations to the constructive and positive elements of mind.


This training sequence switches emotional orientation from the stress response to the relaxation response. As the trainee mobilizes the relaxation response, his/her abilities are enriched in a profound way through this redirection of energy. The investment enables each person to build skills more easily, to focus on talents without sabotage and to expand innate capacities without diverting struggle. As each individual masters the technique of mobilizing the relaxation response, s/he enables him/herself to draw on the third dimension of mind, group mind, in a more direct and focused manner.

Group mind in Western tradition is as suspect as subconscious mind. However, during the last decade in both Europe and North America there has been a dramatic and profound change in academic circles and among scientists in their perceptions and research regarding group mind. More and more we accept the idea that our personality does not end with the skin. As discussed in Chapter 1, your mental energy extends well beyond the limitations of your body. By virtue of this extension individual minds relate not just to each other but with each other through transpersonal awareness. This inner relationship among individuals becomes the essence of group mind and the capacity for transpersonal awareness.

By releasing the negative blocks in the inner self it is possible to expand the connections with transpersonal awareness. Creativity, intuition, flashes of insight, appreciation of others become a new enriched dimension of mind which vastly increases availability of ideas and receptiveness to innovation.

To the degree that an individual is able to mobilize the relaxation response, s/he opens her/himself to group mind and the personal advantages inherent in transpersonal awareness.

The synergism of individual contributions to group efforts is magnified to an almost limitless degree by unfettered transpersonal functions of mind.

Before talking about the seven states of being which comprise the last section of this chapter (see Table 4), I need to make a couple of connections. The seven states of being are the essential elements of group mind which offer a focus to life and the value, purpose and meaning necessary for group relationships. The simplest way to focus on the seven states of being is through affirmations. If you recall, this subject was briefly dealt with in Chapter 2. Now, a more thorough discussion of affirmations will help you understand the means by which the seven states of being are made more clearly manifests in life.


Affirmations

First and foremost, affirmations are a positive statement about some aspect of your physical, emotional or mental being. They can also be positive statements about situations, about other people or about aspects of work performance or even of performance in sports. Elizabeth Manley, a silver medalist in ice skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics, described her use of affirmations in clear detail in many of the interviews given to journalists. It may be fair to say that the sports world has been a major leader in the use of affirmations to enhance performance.

Even if reality falls short of your affirmation of perfection, this is no reason to qualify your affirmation with negative references. Affirmations are meant as a device for changing the aura of expectation, rather than as a way to delude yourself. When affirmations are stated as achieved perfection, you build the anticipation of moving toward that perfection, careful step by careful step. The aura of expectation provides the goal orientation, even though the affirmation itself is presented to yourself as though you

TABLE 4THE SEVEN STATES OF BEING

BeautyThis state expands the awareness and acceptance of the miraculous and wondrousdimensions in life. Indeed, beauty is in all things, including oneself.

JoyThrough joy the individual mobilizes laughter and an engagement with life that is full of zestand pervasive pleasure.

AffectionThe inner focus of affection is as essential as its outer manifestation replete with caringgenerosity, non-judgemental acceptance and a connecting sense of kindness.

CreativityThe state of creativity requires openness and receptiveness achieved through the creation ofpeaceful and harmonious emotions.

KnowledgeThe affirmation of knowledge is the awareness that the universe is overflowing with thebuilding blocks of life, and affirming knowledge focuses the mind on this availability.

HealthPhysical health needs affirming as an abundant and perfect state of being, as with all sevenstates. The aura of expectation is thereby focused in a constructive fashion.

Material AbundanceWealth is a greater concept than money. Material abundance recognizes the plenitudeoffered by the universe and the availability of this plenitude to everyone.


have already achieved the goal. If you qualify the affirmation with acknowledged limits, shortcomings, difficulties or other limiting conditions, you sabotage the aura of expectation and your clear focus on that expectation. Consequently, each affirmation must be stated as a condition or state of perfect being in regard to the particular matter being dealt with.

Another principle to be remembered concerns the time reference of affirmations. They must always be presented in the present tense; never qualified by past shortcomings or future difficulties. Again, the aura of expectation is important in regard to time frame. The aura of expectation is irrelevant to the past since the past is dead and gone and therefore cannot be changed. It follows, then, that connecting the aura of expectation to past events is a major self- sabotaging error. Likewise, if the reference for the aura of expectation is placed in the future, you have thereby removed it from your grasp because the future is the future and it is ever receding. To hang the aura of expectation on future references is just as much a self- sabotaging error as on past references. Therefore, the affirmation must be stated in the here- and-now of the individual’s experience. This practice connects the aura of expectation to the rewiring process of the subconscious mind in a direct, relevant and effective manner.

Affirmations are not only useful in rewiring negative, subconscious connections, but just as importantly the aura of expectation created by the affirmations focuses the mind on transpersonal awareness. The seven states of being are integrated into the mental state through disciplined use of affirmations when correctly expressed.

The message in this section is very clear: there is a right way to do affirmations and there are plenty of wrong ways. Thus, it is necessary to make sure that you carefully follow the principles of constructing affirmations for your own use.

The power of each affirmation is greatly enhanced if you repeat them to yourself during a meditative state. By slowing the body and mind down through meditation, all dimensions of mind are much more receptive to the impact of the affirmation. Moreover, the meditation itself trains the body and mind to experience the relaxation response, and by experiencing this state there becomes a growing acceptance of it as well as a desire to achieve it throughout the day.

It is possible to focus attention on each affirmation by writing it out and placing it where it will be seen on a regular basis. The posting of affirmations is certainly useful, yet it should be understood that this approach is not as effective as stating the affirmation to yourself in a totally relaxed state--provided by meditation or other techniques.

The Aura of Expectation

A few more words are required regarding the aura of expectation. This concept, the aura of expectation, is essential to the understanding of affirmations and how they work. Superficially, the idea of the aura of expectation appears to be in some ways self-contradictory. However, if you follow the argument carefully, you will probably recognize that this concept possesses enormous power in writing your personal scripts for your own life.

An everyday example will make this concept regarding the aura of expectation quite clear. Imagine a young person receiving for a springtime birthday a full outfit for trout


fishing. The fly rod, the waders, the hat, the net all create an instant image of the accomplished fly fisherman deftly making each perfect cast. This is what the youngster has in mind at the moment he begins his frustrating career as a fly fisherman. This youngster, being bright and alert, will start the process by acquiring some books and magazines on the subject. Next, he will seek out some friends who are already well into trout fishing. Then the day comes when they go out to a carefully chosen stream for the big initiation. The equipment is carefully donned, the fly rod prepared and the first cast is made. Horror of horrors, the line arcs out over the water and then swings back over his left shoulder and hooks firmly in the back of his hat. So much for the perfect cast! The second cast reveals the line disappearing altogether and captures a willow 10 yards behind. Something has got to change if the perfect cast is ever going to occur.

The difference between the notion of the perfect cast and the slightly tragic initiation reveals a vast gulf. The idea of a perfect cast is the aura of expectation. Reality is the hooked willow. If the young trout fisherman says to himself, “I know what the perfect cast is but I will never achieve it,” chances are the waders and the rod will be relegated to the attic and that will be the end of his fishing career. However, he may say to himself, “I know what the perfect cast is and I am perfectly capable of making it.” Now he has made the right affirmation to enable him to launch a successful fishing career.

His idea of the perfect cast is not lodged in his mind to delude himself but rather it is there as an aura of expectation which he can affirm for himself day by day and accomplishment by accomplishment. If he qualifies his aura of expectation by focusing on his first halting casts, he will corrupt the area of expectation by writing a script crippled by qualifications. If his affirmations remain clear and without qualification, then his script focuses on excellence and success and the aura of expectation is thereby pristine.

Moreover, his aura of expectation is a current concept, not a future concept. If he places it in the future, then the target is ever receding and ever receding. Therefore, he affirms his goal as an aura of expectation in the here-and-now, devoid of time reference and absent of judgmental criticisms. Again, this is not to delude himself but rather it is an effective method of getting all of the junk out of the way so that skills and talent and capacity can be realized.

Another example may add further light. An elderly gentleman, 101 years old, goes off to his physician complaining of a very sore knee. The physician examines his elderly patient and after careful diagnosis the doctor proclaims gravely that there is nothing medicine can do for the sore knee. George, the elderly gentleman, greets the diagnosis with utter scepticism. The doctor assures George that he must expect such untreatable ailments to occur because, after all, George is 101 years old. Then a sudden flash occurs to George and he says, “My left knee is 101 years old, too, and it’s just fine.”

The doctor and George clearly reveal two opposite ideas about health. The aura of expectation of the physician is that if a person is 101 years old, then physical breakdown is to be passively accepted. George’s aura of expectation is that even though he is 101 years old, he might as well be healthy and therefore he regards the defective right knee as an aberration to be dealt with by remedial action. Given the two auras of expectation, George and the physician write two opposite scripts regarding the problem knee.

Now you can apply the idea of affirmations and the aura of expectation to the seven


states of being as presented in Table 4. Again, these seven states of being are beauty, joy, affection, creativity, knowledge, health and material abundance. A hard-nosed manager or professional in the fast track may look at these seven concepts as wimpy. However, my rejoinder is, in no way are they wimpy; instead, these auras of expectation focus on excellence in life that write scripts free of crippling and corrupting junk. Through affirmations, the auras of expectation are given focus and clarity. This enables the auras of expectation to provide purpose, value and meaning for each individual. A further consequence generates behaviour that expresses dignity, integrity and continuity. The effect on personal and professional life is an ongoing expression of excellence.

The simple and effective techniques described in this chapter and the next two chapters are meant to be applied in daily life. If affirmations are used to build an aura of expectation for each one of the seven states of being, then excellence is made manifest. It is a training process and it does take time, just as is true for fly fishing. The training process, set in motion by affirmations, pushes debilitating junk aside. Although the junk remains present, you do not need to qualify your affirmations by intruding it on the scene. The fly fisherman does not preoccupy himself with the willows on the bank; instead he focuses on the trout in the pool.

If you build an aura of expectation around the seven states of being, you automatically focus your energy in the most efficient fashion on your inherent skills, talents and capacities. Just as automatically, your individual investment in your own human capital is likewise made manifest.

Now the time has come to quickly look at each of the seven states of being as an expression of excellence. Of course, it is possible to devise your own list which might identify any number of such states of being. In my own experience I have found these seven adequate and particularly relevant.

As identified in Table 4, the first state of being is the concept of beauty. Of course, this is not a cheesecake notion of beauty, but rather an appreciation of the miraculous and wondrous qualities of life. Obviously, the marketplace, the neighbourhood and democratic government offer a wide variety of warts, blemishes and assorted ugliness. If you wish, you can expend your energy focusing on the ugliness and thereby poisoning your inner space. The alternative is to devote your energy to appreciation of the wondrous and miraculous aspects of life and thereby enrich your inner space. Focusing on beauty is not a process of self-delusion, repression and denial; rather, it is merely making a choice about how your energy is to be spent. If you affirm beauty, you build an aura of expectation which allows for script writing in harmony with the aura of expectation.

The second state of being is that of joy. The essence of joy is laughter and a sense of connection with life. This sense of connection expresses a relish of life and a zest for life. As Warren Buffet, the Omaha billionaire investor has often said, he likes people around him who feel like dancing when they get to the office. Since Warren Buffet’s aphorisms are repeated around the world with great mirth, it is obvious that this billionaire understands laughter as the essence of joy. One of my favourite sayings concerns his views of whiz-kid MBAs as compared to seasoned, successful managers. “I don’t hire young MBAs because in my experience you can’t teach a new dog old tricks.” This quote comes from an interview on the television program, Adam Smith’s Money World.


Affection is the third item in the seven states of being. Affection focuses on kindness, generosity and non-judgmental acceptance. Your first reaction may be to say that affection so defined would be crippling to ambition and destructive to competition. However, if each individual would approach himself with affection, the critical mass of such individuals, through the connections of group mind, would radiate affection as a quality of social life. This becomes the main means to eliminate internal friction caused by “we” and “they” thinking. By reducing adversarial relationships within the group, creativity and innovation are left unfettered, and the energy of the group is not negatively diverted by internal friction.

If the first three items in the list are systematically affirmed, then the fourth important state of being becomes much easier. Focusing on creativity is infinitely easier if you can first affirm as states of being in your life beauty, joy and affection. When the negative junk is pushed aside, then creativity can flower as a natural condition.

Affirming the seven states of being is definitely a cumulative process. That is why I put knowledge as number five. Being open and receptive to information, learning easily, retrieving effectively all make use of knowledge in a more dynamic and efficient way. The four previous states of being open the individual to learning skills and the units of information in a very powerful way. The capacity of the human mind to gather information and to analyze data is nearly limitless. As wonderful as the computer is, the human mind is infinitely more miraculous in its capacity for acquiring and comprehending a wide array of knowledge. To do it effectively you don’t have to be a genius, but you do need to push the negative junk out of the way.

Health is the sixth item on the list. I see this state of being as a holistic concept involving mental, emotional and physical dimensions of self. Of course, the aura of expectation begins as a mental presence which then becomes expressed in emotional and physical states of being. Everyone is aware that the North American marketplace suffers dearly from absenteeism, avoidable illness and physical debilitation. To invest in health as an aura of expectation once again contributes not only to the well-being of the individual but in direct financial ways it contributes to society. Avoidable health problems cost American companies hundreds of millions of dollars each and every year. Eleven percent of our GNP is committed to medical services, and yet avoidable health problems debilitate the North American economy. When the U.S. is ranked by well-accepted health measures in comparison to other developed countries, instead of being number one it is approximately number sixteen.

If the first six states of being are affirmed with discipline, then the seventh and last state of being falls into focus with some ease. The concept of material abundance is much broader than bank account numbers. Material abundance starts as a state of mind, accepting the availability of material things for individual use. This point of view is contrary to placing your sense of worth and value in external material objects, such as a mink coat or a Mercedes. This state of being begins as an internal acceptance and appreciation of material things as being available for use. This is not a concept of enslaving oneself to external items of property, but a concept to liberate oneself from property as a reference point for internal value. When you are free from hang-ups about property, it is much easier to appreciate the abundance of material goods and the easy use of them as a joyful dimension of life. Money and property are useful and they can offer a deal of pleasure as long as you approach them in a liberated mental state. This state of being becomes a capstone to the six previous states of being and their


accumulated effect through their auras of expectation.


CHAPTER 5

THE CAPACITY OF FREE WILL

Introduction

Do you believe that your mind is your own?

Are you capable of controlling your own feelings?

Are you motivated from within rather than without?

Are you free from the need for approval?

Do you set up your own rules of conduct for yourself?

Can you accept yourself and avoid complaining?

Are you free from hero worship?

Do you welcome the mysterious and the unknown?

Do you love yourself most of the time?

Do you grow your own roots?

Have you eliminated all dependency relationships?

Have you eliminated all blaming and fault-finding in your life?

Are you free from ever feeling guilty?

Are you able to avoid worrying about the future?

Can you give and receive love?

Can you avoid immobilizing anger in your life?

Have you eliminated procrastination as a lifestyle?

Have you learned to fail effectively?

Can you enjoy yourself spontaneously without having a plan?

Can you appreciate and create humour?

Are you motivated by your potential for growth rather than a need to repair your deficiencies?

At any given moment of your life, you can choose to say yes to all of the questions above if you are willing to repeal many “shoulds” and “oughts” that you have learned throughout your life. The real choice is whether you decide to be personally free or


remain chained to the expectations that others have of you.

Adapted from Your Erroneous Zones by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. Published by Avon Books, New York, 1976.

Wayne Dyer has contributed significantly to New Age thinking regarding personal problem solving and the role of free will in life. The best-selling book, Your Erroneous Zones, is a guide to identifying personal junk with practical suggestions for pushing the junk out of your personal space. He understands the practical value of doing this as a process for building personal excellence.

The New Age approach does emphasize free will as a way to improve your personal and professional qualities. What most thinkers offer are strategies for training yourself to activate free will in a definite, deliberate and disciplined manner.

To make a point I’ve made before, the enrichment of human experience lies in the individual mind mobilizing purpose, value and meaning for your personal script. Such enrichment frees your creativity and releases blocks to performance. If your life is governed by an awareness of your own dignity, integrity and continuity, then problem-solving becomes a clear, quicker process.

Free will is not only relevant to the issue of excellence; it also expresses ethical choices. Probably the hottest topic in today’s marketplace concerns ethics, performance and profits. The object, therefore, is to use your own innate free will in a definite, directed and disciplined way to make choices which release negative mental baggage in preference for choices which affirm positive auras of expectation. To carry this idea one step further, the goal is to minimize the five basic emotions that generate the stress response in exchange for the five basic emotions that maximize the relaxation response (see Table 1, Chapter 1).

In the following sections I will explore the five basic positive emotions as a way to mobilize the relaxation response with all of the physical and mental benefits which are automatically generated.

The relaxation response is not torpor nor is it a vapid state. Ironically enough, the relaxation response releases creativity and mobilizes energy effectively and efficiently. It enables you to focus on priorities without diverting strategies which are energy-expensive. This very lesson is the most difficult point to get across to fast-trackers. If you operate on hyped-up willpower, you most likely are expressing the stress response. Achievements acquired through hyped-up willpower are energy-expensive to the point of being self-destructive. Whereas achievements accomplished by way of free will are energy-efficient and expressive of personal excellence. The use of free will to achieve positive basic emotions mobilizes the relaxation response. The overall effect of the relaxation response generates an improvement in performance, a release of creativity and a manifestation of self-esteem.

Now it is time to look at the five basic emotional polarities focusing on the positive investment mobilized by the relaxation response. In the following five sections a practical guide will be offered for using free will as a means for shifting from a negative basic emotion to its opposite positive emotion.


Anger vs. Self-Awareness

The polarity of anger vs. self-awareness may not strike you as a self-evident polarity. However, my students and clients find that this juxtaposition makes sense to them once it is explained. Usually the great reservoir of personal anger is so deep and pervasive that you deny its presence or its effect on relationships. However, if you are able to explore your inner space to enhance self-awareness, then you achieve several important things.

The process of expanding your self-awareness allows you to get in touch with your anger and to understand its personal derivation. Through expansion of your self-awareness you are able to perceive how utterly misplaced most anger is. As you recognize the irrelevancy of your anger, you are able to take the next step toward releasing the useless and self-destructive anger.

As discussed in Chapter 2, there is a four-step formula for accomplishing this crucial act of free will. First, you recognize the presence of the negative issue to be dealt with, such as anger. Second, you allow yourself to learn something about yourself by virtue of its presence. Third, you mentally export the negative issue through one of many metaphors (thus releasing the negative energy). Fourth, you affirm the opposite positive emotion, such as self-awareness. This four-step formula for activating free will is best done during meditation.

To accomplish this act of free will, it is necessary to do two things. First, through meditation it is necessary that you let go of trying to force matters. The process of letting go is one of the most difficult lessons for many people to learn. If you try to force issues during meditation, you completely sabotage the process. Once you have learned to accomplish the first step, then the second step is much easier. Again, during meditation the second step requires that you activate the four-step formula in a passive, non-judgemental manner. Again, this is contrary to our culture; however, it does work.

For some strange reason, free will works best when you are physically relaxed and mentally at peace. When you are in this state it is much easier to choose to release the anger and to affirm a state of self-awareness. The more self-aware you become, the more anger is pushed out. This is why I regard them as polarities. The reciprocal effect of affirming self-awareness automatically assists in releasing anger. You may find this process difficult in the beginning, but through repeated practice it becomes easier and easier to accomplish.

As you build self-awareness as a basic positive emotion, you accomplish a number of important things. An inherent capacity of self-awareness is intuition. This capacity now only allows for insight into others, but just as importantly it allows for insight into oneself. This is why I regard it as the primary basic positive emotion.

Not only does intuition emerge as a dimension of self-awareness, but you also will discover an awareness of your physical self that will probably startle you. Through this basic positive emotion, mind becomes aware of body in a conscious way that allows for greater mental control over your body. All too many people in our society are grossly out of touch with their own body. This lack of engagement is not normal. However, through self-awareness you become in touch with your body and are therefore more able to control physical behaviour in a desired direction, such as reducing blood pressure,


anticipating and avoiding migraine headaches, and reducing the requirements of insulin for diabetics.

Fear vs. Joy

The second level in activating free will is achieved by releasing fear and affirming joy. You cannot be joyful if you are crippled by fear. Conversely, if you are joyful, fear is driven out as a basic emotion.

Many conventions in our society support the view that fear is more characteristic if women, whereas anger is more a male province. Although we support this distinction in a great many forms of social convention, I believe the distinction to be an erroneous one. I believe that men are as full of fear of women, even though they may struggle hard to hide it.

Fear, like anger, can be deeply subterranean and extremely diffuse. Even though you may be unaware at the conscious level of your many fears, that in no way means that you are without fear. Fortunately, when you learn to release anger and to affirm self-awareness you take an important step toward understanding and recognizing your fears. Once you recognize your fears, you can begin the process of releasing them. You then discover that joy is a very natural and automatic replacement for fear. As you gradually become more in touch with joy as an inherent capacity, you are able to release the fears in a progressively easier manner.

To learn to release negative emotions and affirm positive emotions is not something to be done instantly or magically. To do it takes time and it takes discipline. Through meditation you gradually, step by step, learn how to activate your free will by choosing to let go of a negative emotion by replacing it with a positive emotion.

Once you accept the idea that you can simply choose whether to be fearful or joyful, the motivation for joy becomes much more focused. No one consciously or voluntarily wishes to be crippled by fear. Fear, like anger, is lodged deeply in the subconscious mind due to childhood experiences which were frustrating, disappointing or hurtful. These basic negative emotions do not go away through the passage of time. They remain at the subconscious level until you decide to deliberately and purposefully remove them by releasing them and to replace them with the opposing positive emotion.

In my experience, anger is more difficult for people to learn to release than is fear. That is why I start with anger. Once you learn to release anger, it seems considerably easier to learn to release fear.

Fortunately, the payoff is the discovery of joy as an inherent capacity. The essence of joy is laughter. The recognition that life as well as your own self is a tad ridiculous. In the recognition of the ridiculous comes the gentle chuckle or even the merry laugh. Laughter is a healing phenomenon which cannot be overemphasized. A generation ago Norman Cousins demonstrated that principle in a book which is still popular, The Anatomy of an Illness. Norman Cousins became a well-known lecturer in many medical schools where he taught the healing power of laughter.

At the same time Norman Cousins wrote The Anatomy of an Illness, Arthur Koestler wrote The Act of Creation. Many years ago these two books launched our modern


understanding of laughter and its profoundly healing effect. I would like to quote a delightful story from Arthur Koestler’s book.

“Two women meet while shopping at a supermarket in the Bronx. One looks cheerful, the other depressed. The cheerful one inquires:

‘What’s eating you?’

‘Nothing’s eating me.’

‘Death in the family?’

‘No, God forbid!’

‘Worried about money?’

‘No . . . nothing like that.’

‘Trouble with the kids?’

‘Well, if you must know, it’s my little Jimmy.’

‘What’s wrong with him, then?’

‘Nothing is wrong with him. His teacher said he must see a psychiatrist.’

Pause. ‘Well, well, what’s wrong with seeing a psychiatrist?’

‘Nothing is wrong. The psychiatrist said he’s got an Oedipus complex.’

Pause. ‘Well, well, Oedipus or Schmoedipus. I wouldn’t worry so long as he’s a good boy and loves his mamma.’”

Since this story deals with a profound social taboo, namely incest, it therefore becomes appropriate to ask, “Why is it funny?” It is funny because the point made in the story is unexpected and ridiculous. Through a twist of logic the story turns normal into abnormal, thus inverting relationships. It is this unexpected inversion that fosters a zesty engagement through a burst of laughter. For those who wish to laugh, it is fortunate that most things which are ridiculous are unintentional. It is not necessary to rely on canned humour to punctuate the day with frequent bursts of laughter. The greatest humorist of all is daily experience.

A contemporary psychologist of some considerable stature is an expert on the healing power of laughter. Dr. Annette Goodheart in a Science of Mind interview spells out her approach in a fascinating manner. She makes a point worth quoting.

“. . . [they] become trapped in fear, afraid to laugh, when ironically laughter is the one thing that will release them from the fear. There’s a saying that if fear is the lock, laughter is the key.”

Also in the September 1988 issue Annette Goodheart makes another important point.


“We may have relatively little control over the events in our lives, but I think we really do have a choice about how we respond to them. If there’s something we’re miserable about we can still inject joy into it . . . We can be serious about problems or enjoy them. If we’re going to have a problem, mightn’t we just as well enjoy it?”

By now I hope you are convinced that you can, by free will, replace fear with joy. The healing exuberance of laughter is the essence of joy. As you affirm joy, your daily laugh-rate may explode from 10 to 15 laughs a day to the awesome rate of 400 or more. Ironically this very high rate of daily laughs is in keeping with the laugh rate of childhood.

Joy is not only therapeutic to the individual, but it is contagious in any social group. Joy, as a group expression, is money in the bank.

Guilt vs. Tranquility

A long line of Jewish comedians have joked about Jewish mothers and the art of guilt- tripping. This genre of humour strikes familiar chords in most people born to a Western heritage. My own mother possessed a black belt in guilt-tripping and I, like many people, have spent a lot of energy unloading the childhood burden of sabotaging guilt.

In my framework guilt is not as basic a negative emotion as are anger and fear. However, it does contribute very destructively to the stress response with the ensuing debilitation. The wellspring of guilt lies in childhood as much as the other negative emotions do. Through persistent, demeaning guilt experiences the subconscious mind becomes suffused with guilt with a ride range of irrational and unspecific linkages. Since the subconscious mind knows nothing of logic, it is easy for a basic negative emotion to become linked with all manner of issues, whether they have a logical connection or not.

Therefore, guilt becomes deeply pervasive and unspecific, just like fear and anger. During adult life it is possible for guilt to be triggered in all kinds of settings which logically should not trigger guilt at all. It becomes possible for people in intimate relationships and work colleagues to push your guilt buttons without knowing they are doing so. Some people with a malevolent streak may discover your guilt buttons and push them deliberately as a control strategy. Thus you lose your own personal control to some degree and hand that control to outside forces who deliberately or accidentally trigger your guilt.

Under these conditions it is easy to convert guilt into fear or anger. When guilt is converted into these more basic negative emotions, then the damage is multiplied. The irrationality of guilt and its easy conversion into more destructive modes indicate the uselessness of guilt as a way to control behaviour. Our culture does invest heavily in guilt as a strategy for behavioural control. It is unfortunate that this strategy becomes so self-defeating, self-destructive and self-sabotaging. If behaviour is to be controlled by a basic emotion, better it should be by a positive emotion. I see tranquility as the positive reciprocal to guilt.

The idea of tranquility must compete with some deep-seated cultural attitudes. Western tradition supports the idea that ambition and success are fed by frantic activity--the more frantic, the better. As I have mentioned many times before, such frenzy is energy-expensive with heavy costs to the body and to relationships. It is possible to be


successful with frenzy, but the costs can be astronomic.

The idea of tranquility appears to many as a plea for indolence and a career of being a couch potato. Nothing could be further from the truth. Tranquility can manifest as much high energy as any stressful state can do. Instead of tranquility being torpor, it is rather a state of inner harmony, of inner peace, and of inner calm. Tranquility is a way of focusing positive healing energy in a balanced and generative mode.

A crucial, inherent capacity of tranquility is creativity. I have had many artists and academics for clients who have reported that the state of tranquility throws open the floodgates of creativity in a way that they found verging on the miraculous. Endless writers and lecturers have reported that the quality of their effort is enhanced enormously by generating a state of tranquility before they begin producing.

True creativity is, in fact, an expression of qualitative effort in the most fundamental sense. In any team the synergy of basic, positive emotions magnifies productivity and minimizes the “sturm und drang” of cooperative effort. A critical mass of tranquility in any group releases the creative flow and the collaborative effort. Remember, though, that tranquility is built on top of the two earlier positive emotions: self-awareness and joy. Self-awareness, joy and tranquility can mobilize the relaxation response in a powerful, generative direction with endless practical benefits.

However, it seems to me that you cannot be tranquil if you are guilty. Guilt drives out tranquility in a very direct and destructive fashion. Conversely, if you are able to choose tranquility, this positive emotion dissolves guilt. The manifestation of tranquility and its inherent creativity simply render guilt harmless by taking the energy away from guilt and investing it in inner harmony.

Resentment vs. Affection

How many of you have had domestic tiffs over such things as the correct way to load a dishwasher, how to squeeze a tube of toothpaste, proper closet organization and the most divisive issue of all: Which way does the toilet paper go on the spindle? Everybody possesses enough personal blemishes, warts and imperfections to offer many targets for resentment. Obviously resentment is a judgemental process. First you declare someone flawed, and then your next declaration concerns remedy. Fix the flaw! becomes the war cry.

Anyone who is judged to be flawed merchandise and then told that acceptance depends on fixing the flax is likely to be a person who counterattacks with his own resentment. Attack and counterattack becomes the essence of the resentment game. There is a considerable likelihood that the participants in the resentment game are not so much interested in fixing their own flaws as they are in identifying the flaws of the attacker. This process adds wound upon wound without anyone being fixed. As the wounds grow, so the relationship is diminished. This game can be stretched out over a period of years with an enormous accumulation of shared damage. Thus the relationship erodes through time, and through erosion the relationship ultimately disintegrates.

The resentment game constitutes a no-win situation for all participants. It adds to the stress response, and it certainly diverts constructive energy. Resentment is an acid which consumes the web of associations that provide for healthy relationships.


The antidote to resentment is affection. Affection dissolves resentment just as self- awareness dissolves anger. Just as resentment contributes to stress, affection mobilizes a healing mode, physically and socially.

Like all basic emotions, there are internal and external manifestations which are inextricable and automatic. What you express inside you automatically radiates outside, no matter how much you may attempt to dissemble.

If you generate affection as an internal state, you necessarily radiate it as an external presence. Affection is a state of being which you require for your own well-being and thereby positively affects all relationships.

The macho image and the male ego are suspicious of such qualities as affection. However, affection is the essential oil of a civilized social machine. Without this essential oil, any social machine begins the process of disintegration through friction.

If you are affectionate toward yourself, you do not become a doormat for a bully or a wimp amid controversy. Rather, when you are affectionate toward self, you are able to detach yourself from the resentment game by offering a contrary emotion of a healing nature. Any prudent person does not offer himself as a victim in any business relationship or personal relationship. The manifestation of affection does not cripple prudent behaviour; it merely changes the aura of expectation in and around yourself.

When you are manifesting affection, you opt out of the destructive judgement game and the debilitating selfishness of feeding your own ego. Affection is a state of being generous to self and others and of being considerate to self and others. The non-judgementalness does not throw away prudence, but it does allow you to see others and yourself without the intervening screen of resentment. This clarity of vision can be extremely important in anticipating consequences and prudently selecting options in regard to the anticipated consequences.

Self-Doubt vs. Self-Esteem

This section is about personal script writing. I have mentioned script writing before in this book as an expression of individual scenarios which are self-generated.

Consider these questions:

What is the aura of expectation that pervades your personal script?

Do you tend to underwrite your script or overwrite it?

Do you feel in control of your script or do you feel that others write it for you?

Is your script full of doubting references and negative anticipations?

If your answer is “No” to the previous question, then is your script replete with self- actualizing references and expectations?

Does the aura of expectation in your script reveal a high level of self-trust or is the aura self-diminishing?


What are your key words in future references? (“What if . . .” “Yes, but . . .” “It won’t work.” “I can’t do it.” Or, “I’ll give it a try.” “I never thought of it that way; it’s interesting.” “That’s a skill I’d like to develop.” “I have a talent for that.”

Does your script writing reveal a security addiction?

Is your script targeted with focus and balance or is it blurred with many side issues?

When writing your personal script do you feel dependent on others or do you feel completely comfortable in writing your own script?

The concept of script writing is, of course, a metaphor. Very few people are likely to carefully put such matters to paper except for time/management logging or proposals for specific duties. Personal script writing mostly goes on in the mind and mostly at the subconscious level. Therefore, a great deal of your behaviour may respond to thought processes outside of conscious decision-making.

As a result there are often many inconsistencies and discrepancies in behaviour vis-à- vis conscious decision-making. Through denial and avoidance you can fail to notice much of the self-damaging and self-sabotaging script writing which you activate at the subconscious level. All too many of us know how to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. However, it is quite possible to learn how to get in touch with this subconscious process and then to deliberately and purposefully change the script writing process. Through self-awareness you learn to identify the issues, and through free will you become able to change the issues. As mentioned earlier in this book, a basic inherent capacity of the human mind is to be able to study itself, to teach itself and to change itself through effective techniques of mind training which are self-actualizing.

Earlier I discussed meditation and the use of affirmations as a way of getting in touch with your inner state and deliberately changing this state. When it comes to switching from self-doubt to self-esteem it is crucial that you understand the script writing process and your innate capacity for improving the process in a positive direction.

Self-doubt is a projection of yourself into the future in a negative and a self-limiting fashion. Self-doubt represents personal script writing contaminated with self-defeating anticipations and self-sabotaging judgments. In this manner self-doubt becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy which is inherently self-limiting.

The essence of self-esteem, on the other hand, is self-trust. Through self-esteem you project yourself into the future with a positive aura of expectation. Your personal script writing in this mode will be replete with self-trusting and self-actualizing references. In this manner the self-fulfilling prophesy becomes just as automatic but in the direction of growth and personal excellence.

Self-doubt adds to the stress response whereas self-esteem contributes to the relaxation response. When your control process is free of junk and addictive hang-ups, your free will can function in an unencumbered manner. When you are in full control of your free will, you are able to recognize the symptoms of self-doubt and then deliberately and purposefully release the doubt through affirming self-esteem.


CHAPTER 6

SELF-GENERATING RESOURCES OF THE MIND

Introduction

This chapter is about techniques. None of the techniques described in the following pages can be termed ‘new’ or ‘revolutionary.’ All of them have been around for some while. Yet it has only been within the last number of years that the world of sports, the profession of medicine and the North American marketplace have accepted these techniques and are increasingly making use of them. There is nothing magical about the techniques and there is nothing very complicated about them.

Some professionals attempt to draw a white coat image around these self-generating human capacities and thereby make them a bit mysterious. However, mysterious they are not, and fortunately, simple they are. Like affirmations described earlier, each of these techniques must be used in a disciplined manner with a long-term commitment. If you follow the rules carefully, then the results do appear, and sometimes the results seem almost miraculous.

Each and every day, every individual either engages in strategies of disinvestment in personal human capital or strategies which are self-enriching in terms of human resources. You are doing either one or the other of these strategies every moment of every day. Your investment or disinvestment may be haphazard or subconscious. If your efforts are haphazard, then your personal control is relatively limited. However, if you become conscious of investment strategies or disinvestment strategies, then you can make use of specific techniques to enhance your personal control and, therefore, be able to choose between investment and disinvestment in a purposeful, directed and disciplined manner.

Commitment and discipline must be central to your efforts. There are no magical shortcuts; there are no instant fixes. You can either take conscious, day-to-day control of your personal strategies or you can leave them as a relatively haphazard state of being. None of the techniques described in the following pages will be equally appealing to all readers. So the trick is to experiment with each of them and then select the approach that seems to be most useful for you at your current stage of development. Most people start with one approach and then move to others as sophistication grows. I have not included the more sophisticated Oriental techniques since there are many specialized books on yoga, etc. The techniques in this book I believe to be more congruent with the North American cultural ethos. However, Oriental influences are certainly present.

Lou Coffey-Lewis’s book, Be Restored to Health, as mentioned in Chapter 8, provides an excellent supplement to this chapter. As a sample of her work, I offer the following quote.

Being able to change is essential to health and happiness. Life is change. Happiness comes in growing, meeting challenges, and feeling successful in our ability to grow and respond in life.

You are ready for change and growth when you experience some dissonance between your beliefs, concepts, and expectations of the world and your own


perception of the world. When you are bored, guilty or anxious, you are ready for change. When you want to try new ideas, solve new problems, serve in a greater way, you are ready for change.

***

To grow is to become aware of new inner strengths and potentials we did not know we had. It is to learn new things about ourselves--to find new talents, resources, and resiliences. To grow and to change is to let go of the fixed idea of who we are. It is to loosen the rigidities of our behavior and personalities.

***

As you grow and change, you will find within yourself a world that is much greater and more wonderful than you believed it to be. You will learn to be amazed at yourself and your own ability to transcend your limitations and to develop the highest potentials you have.

Progressive Relaxation

This technique is meant for those individuals who are relatively out of touch with the physical self. You would be amazed at the number of people who have lost touch with the subtle dynamics of the body. This explains the strange fact that so many women can be unaware of PMS symptoms even when they are fairly significant. For males and females alike, symptoms of stress can be ignored or denied to an amazing degree. If you are out of touch with your body, you can manifest the stress response to a level which is extremely destructive without recognizing it.

Progressive relaxation is meant to teach you how to engage yourself with your physical being in a disciplined manner. The amount of sensitivity and physical awareness which you can develop with this technique is quite considerable. You can use this technique in conjunction with an exercise program such as 5BX or 10BX for women. If you are a sophisticated fitness buff or skilled in tai chi or yoga, you may wish to ignore this technique and move on in the chapter.

Before beginning progressive relaxation and any corollary fitness program, you should first consult your personal health care professional. Most especially you should do this if you are aware of any cardiovascular problems, respiratory ailments or musculoskeletal impairments. Never go at any regime, such as this, as though you were killing rats. Be sure you do it in a measured and carefully structured style.

Progressive relaxation is such a simple technique it verges on the absurd. However, there is one caution: While you are doing it, family members may be convulsed with laughter should they see you in mid-exercise. Once you get comfortable with the technique and your family is comfortable with what you are doing, the giggling will likely dissipate.

Step 1: Lie on a comfortable floor surface or stand against a wall.

Step 2: Start breathing as slowly and deeply as you can while maintaining comfort. This step is meant to teach you diaphragmatic breathing which is crucial


to all the techniques in this chapter. When you are using your diaphragm adequately in this breathing technique, your belly should protrude about two inches with each inhalation. Each breath cycle should last for a minimum of five counts or a preferred maximum of 10 counts.

Step 3: Do this deep breathing for at least 10 cycles or as much as 20 cycles. While you are breathing in this manner, do a simple affirmation such as: My body is relaxed and my mind is at peace. This step is meant to focus your attention and also to diminish your awareness of external and internal static.

Step 4: Divide your body into eight major muscle groupings. 1 – The small muscles of the face and scalp. 2 – The large muscles of the jaw and neck. 3 – The major muscles of the shoulders and chest. 4 – The muscles of upper arms, forearms and hands. 5 – The muscles of the lower back and belly. 6 – The huge muscles of the rump and thighs. 7 – The muscles of the calves. 8 – The muscles of the feet.

Step 5: As you breathe in, select the first group of muscles and tighten them as much as you possibly can; then as you release your breath, gradually release the muscle tension. The breathing and the muscle flexing should be coordinated so that they begin at the same time and end at the same time. You should go through the eight groups in the same pattern for each exercise period. For your first week of exercises, I would cycle through the body at least three times for each exercise period. You can add additional cycles in subsequent weeks as long as you are not overtaxing yourself. The exercise period should take from 10 to 15 minutes.

When you do the scalp and facial muscles, your countenance becomes quite grotesque, but you should not let this bother you. At first, you might feel quite awkward with the other seven groups as well, but this awkwardness does usually disappear. When you learn to discover the difference between muscle tension and muscle relaxation, you are well on your way to a focused awareness of the difference between the stress response and the relaxation response. The more you practice this technique, the more subtle your awareness becomes.

Autogenic Training

This technique is more sophisticated than progressive relaxation. It presupposes that you do have an awareness of your body which is sensitive and subtle. Although this technique is meant to have direct and significant effects on your body, it is a technique which engages the mind to a much greater degree than progressive relaxation.

Autogenic training makes extensive use of the power of affirmations. It is also based on your ability to engage diaphragmatic breathing as an integral part of the exercise. Through this technique, you can focus and balance physical functions to a remarkable degree. This technique allows you to gain greatly enhanced mental control over physical functions.

Step 1: Lie or sit in a comfortable position which also allows for privacy.

Step 2: Begin your diaphragmatic breathing as described for the previous


technique.

Step 3: While you do 10 to 20 cycles of deep breathing, you repeat a simple affirmation.

Step 4: Identify a number of basic body functions so that you can make clear affirmations about each of them as you cycle through the body and as you breathe diaphragmatically.

Step 5: Begin with your pulse. While breathing diaphragmatically, offer this affirmation: My pulse is slow, even and normal. Repeat this to yourself half a dozen times: All my blood vessels are pink, pliable and normal.

Step 6: Now move to your digestive system with the idea of dissipating any discomfort and affirming a healthy and effective alimentary canal. In the same pattern as above, make this affirmation: My digestive system is smooth-functioning, comfortable and normal.

Step 7: While envisioning the myriad of glands in your endocrine system, focus on their balanced and normal functioning. Affirm to yourself: My endocrine system is balanced, functioning smoothly and functioning normally.

Step 8: Continue this pattern through such systems as your nerves, your urogenital system and your respiration.

It can seem silly to repeat these simple affirmations to yourself over and over again, day after day. However, I can say without hesitation that the results you can obtain in terms of harmonizing and balancing your physical functions are anything but silly. This technique does work if you use it in a disciplined, non-judgemental manner. It is important that you do the exercise passively and slowly. Never, never try to force the process.

The lesson to be mastered with this technique is to learn how to let go of the jangling clamour of willpower and to learn how to passively affirm a positive state of being. Through this technique, you change the aura of expectation in a desired direction for your own gradual improvement. The more practiced you are, the easier it is to move from a stress response to a relaxation response with all of the physical and mental benefits that are inherent.

Biofeedback Training

Many hundreds of medical clinics, hospitals and medical schools are now using biofeedback training as a rehabilitative strategy for people recovering from some acute illnesses or accidents. For those who have serious involvement with chronic pain or many debilitative problems, this technique has proven to be extremely helpful as part of the therapeutic regime.

Because of the medical application, the white-coat aura is particularly present. However, this technique, like the others, is ridiculously simple and quite applicable for many uses in the home or office.


Biofeedback training, like the other techniques, requires your ability to establish the relaxation response so that you can channel greater mental control over specific physical functions. Diaphragmatic breathing is crucial to the process, as is your ability to let go of willpower and to passively manifest a much slowed-down mind/body state. In this approach, like the others, your brainwave pattern should slow down 75%, and your breathing rate should slow down by 50%.

When these two things occur, vital messages are sent to your nervous system, to your endocrine glands and to all of your muscles that you are shifting into a relaxation response. When you have shifted into a relaxation response, the great irony of life occurs. In this relaxed state your voluntary control is magnified enormously. Consequently, your free will operates effectively, efficiently and relevantly. It is this liberation of the free will, allowing for focused and disciplined control, that mobilizes your inherent capacities. When your inherent capacities are mobilized, free of jangling static and debilitating diversions, you are able to express your natural talents in ways that will astonish you.

With appropriate health care supervision, you can learn to reduce symptomatic blood pressure, reduce insulin requirements, reduce dependency on painkillers and many other valuable techniques. Just as importantly, some very simple versions of this technique can be used at the office or at home to avoid migraine headache, reduce digestive distress or reduce a number of stress-response symptoms.

Biofeedback training uses three pieces of equipment which passively measure basic functions. A fourth machine can be used which, because of its controversial application, I tend to ignore. This fourth machine is used in lie detection, based on electrical currents and skin moisture which, in my opinion, is a social abuse of a harmless piece of technology.

The three pieces of equipment which I do focus on are the electroencephalograph (EEG), the electromyograph (EMG) and the thermistor. There is nothing magical about these three machines, and they all measure, in a passive way, the degree of stress response you are expressing. The difference is that they choose three different functions to passively measure. However, all three are relevant to the issue. Hospitals use highly sophisticated machines, worth tens of thousands of dollars, which can measure all these responses together or singularly. At home, you can use very simple machines, costing at most $100, to passively measure the same thing.

The EEG passively measures dominant brainwave patterns. By watching the dials or lights on this machine, you can learn to slow your dominant brainwaves from 40 or 50 cycles per second down to 10 cycles per second or even less. Once you have slowed the brainwaves, you can then give your attention to blood pressure measurements and their reduction. You can even learn to rebuild neuromuscular control in your tennis arm which may have suffered some damage. However, the real issue is to slow your brainwaves down as a means to learn how to accomplish the relaxation response in a measured and controlled manner to liberate all your inherent capacities. There are many companies which manufacture EEGs for home and office use without medical prescription or medical clearance. However, as a matter of common sense, you should seek competent health care supervision. Obviously, it should be from someone who is familiar with this technique as a self-training strategy.


The EMG measures the muscular response derived from brainwave activity. If you are in a relaxation response, then your muscles are relaxed and vice versa. The degree of muscle tension expressed while you are quietly sitting provides a relative insight into your degree of stress response. By watching the lights and dials of this machine, you can learn to voluntarily relax your muscles which thereby breaks the stress cycle. The stress cycle involves brainwave patterns, hormone output and muscle tension. When you voluntarily reduce muscle tension, you break the causal circle of the stress response. Again, you can get EMGs which are cheap and simple to use for private, self-training regimes.

The thermistor is a third machine which can be the simplest device of all. It measures the temperature of the surface of your skin, usually your fingers or hands. For a modest price you can get an attractive machine with lights, dials and audio responders to make this measurement. This type of machine requires that you lightly hold a probe between your fingers and then learn to respond to the machine’s measurements in a desired direction. You can measure the same thing by buying rings for your fingers which give you a constant reading of your skin’s temperature by chemical reactors in the ring. You can accomplish the same thing with a Velcro strip with a built-in chemical reactor. Many inexpensive variations on the idea are on the market. The issue is to learn how to raise your skin temperature voluntarily. Barring organic damage, the temperature of your hands and feet reveals the body’s reaction to either the stress response or the relaxation response. Cold hands and feet are a signal that you are experiencing a stress response. Under stress, the small blood vessels of the hands and feet constrict as an overall strategy of the body to move the blood supply to the inner organs for an emergency. This is fine for an emergency, but if it becomes chronic then you have a serious stress problem. You can learn to voluntarily raise the temperature of your hands and feet as much as 10oC or 20oF. You can even learn to raise the temperature of your hands and feet as a voluntary countermeasure to a cold environment. Buddhist monks learn to use this capacity to such a degree that they can avoid hypothermia which would otherwise occur in some of their rituals involving physical exposure.

All methods described in this chapter require slowing brainwaves, slowing respiration, relaxing muscles and raising the temperature of the hands and feet. When these things happen, you are achieving voluntary control in a directed, disciplined and purposeful manner.

Focusing

A few ardent exponents of focusing promote this technique as though it is a “mystery religion.” There is nothing mysterious about this technique even though it draws heavily on metaphor, imagination and creative connections. In my experience I have found that some of my clients are very pleased and excited about the technique while others respond indifferently to it. For those who connect with it, the technique seems to be extremely useful in tapping the subconscious reality and exploring mental connections which were previously unrecognized.

Focusing requires eight simple steps, the first two of which are common with all techniques. In the six steps particular to focusing the exercise is essentially a mental one. As with physical exercise, the more you practice it the more you increase your competency and your comfort level. Each exercise period can be done in less than 10 minutes. If you decide to do it more than once a day, it is comforting to realize that you


cannot overdose on this approach. I do think, however, that twice a day is a sufficient commitment for the mental exercise of focusing.

Step 1: Get yourself physically centred, that is, comfortable, safe and private.

Step 2: Begin your diaphragmatic breathing and gradually clear your mind of static.

Step 3: Identify a place in your body that you can focus on with comfort, perhaps in your head, perhaps in your trunk.

Step 4: Imagine an emptiness in the body locale you have chosen. This emptiness can be as an expanding balloon.

Step 5: Passively allow the space to be filled with a substance, an image or some quality or characteristic such as a person’s face or a feeling such as silkiness.

Step 6: After you have filled the space with the image or substance, then passively give it a name, maybe something as abstract as corruption or as specific as your current boss.

Step 7: Test the name for validity by searching for another name or by resonating the name with that which fills the space.

Step 8: Allow this awareness to permeate your inner space and circulate through your total being. This process may incur a physical shudder or a sense of shifting in your inner space.

When you do this exercise passively, you discover all sorts of subconscious connections that you were previously unaware of at the conscious level. You get insights into hidden angers and fears which you have previously denied, repressed or ignored. As I have mentioned before, these hidden angers and fears are incredibly destructive even though they are subterranean.Of course, you cannot deal with something that you do not recognize consciously. To release or change deep-seated angers and fears requires that you first get in touch with these emotional states. The mind cannot engage in the self-teaching and self-correcting functions until it goes through the process of self-awareness. The technique of focusing does help some people to dramatically increase crucial aspects of self-awareness. These insights are the first essential steps toward generating new connections and new strategies.

Creative Visualization

In the locus land of the west coast, many fads have come and gone which deal with personal development. There is a tendency for the fast-trackers to regard this intellectual hubbub as merely California flaky. To dismiss it as weird is to trash some very useful and very valuable techniques. That which once was regarded as marginal and culty has, in some cases, moved to mainstream, middle-class life. In the last 20 years this shift has been so profound and so dramatic that there is a tendency not to recognize the cultural implications and the social changes induced by these innovations. When looking at some of the California contributions, there is no need to abandon your critical faculties or your analytic skills. What you should abandon are rigid preconceptions or arbitrary


judgements before looking.

Creative visualization, as a technique, is incredibly powerful and extremely useful as a fundamental tool for enriching your human potential. Creative visualizations, along with affirmations, appear to me as the two most powerful tools for exploring your mental resources and expanding your mental control.

Creative visualization seems like child’s play because it focuses on the human imagination. This purposeful use of imagination can be confused with daydreaming or with self-delusional fantasy. However, when used in a disciplined, directed and purposeful fashion it provides an easy method for changing the aura of expectation and for redefining self-fulfilling prophesies. Creative visualization is a script-writing process which you can deliberately use to stop writing negative scripts and begin writing positive scripts. When you change the aura of expectation through creative visualization, you do not engage in self-delusion or child’s play, rather you engage yourself, in the most basic sense, to change your self-perception in a positive direction.

Creative visualization provides you with a technique for letting go of self-doubt. As self-doubt dwindles and dissolves, you simultaneously create and establish an aura of self-esteem. When self-esteem builds your aura of expectation, your personal script-writing takes on a dramatically different character. You begin projecting yourself into the future with self-trust and a heightened sense of comfort and confidence.

To become expert at creative visualization requires daily practice and it requires a quiet, confident commitment. This is a mental exercise that focuses on image and role. Although you can derive enormous insight from creative visualization, the central purpose of this technique is to redefine your self-image and your personal role.

As with affirmations, the use of creative visualization is guided by several important principles. These principles are as follows:

1. The exercise should definitely be done while you are in a state of relaxation.

2. It is okay for you to focus on one scenario; however, most people generate several scenarios during an exercise.

3. It is desirable to choose your shopping list before the exercise and have the shopping list clearly in mind.

4. Whether you choose a personal issue, an aspect of a relationship or a particular role, be sure to run the scenario in your mind in a passive and non-judgemental manner.

5. Be precise and clear about the issues you wish to visualize so that you can repeat each scenario with each exercise over a period of many days or several weeks.

6. Keep each scenario free of quibbles or negative references or personal imperfections.

7. To shift the aura of expectation in a desired direction, it is essential that the


scenarios envision yourself as you most want to be; in fact, as a perfect expression.

8. Presenting the scenario as a perfect expression of your being frees you from corrupting the exercise with the very problems you are attempting to correct.

9. If you find that your scenarios are being corrupted by negative references, use the four- step formula for releasing the negative thought and returning the scenario to a perfect, positive version.

Keeping in mind these principles, you can now explore a couple of sample scenarios. I do encourage you to devise your own scenarios; however, the samples can assist you to get in tune with the process. To begin with, you may find it difficult to keep your focus for more than a few minutes. As you become more comfortable with the process and more expert through practice, you will be able to keep your focus for an exercise lasting 10-20 minutes.

Sample 1: Imagine yourself in a theatre where you will be watching a scenario unfold. You may imagine the scenario as a live play or as a private screening. Take a specific sense from life that you are concerned about and allow it to be presented as a drama going on before you. The issue may be one which involves relationships at work which you feel could be improved. It may involve relationships within the family which have previously generated tension or resentment and which you wish to improve. It is important to keep the scenario simple and focused. However, do not use willpower and do not try to force a predetermined solution. While you are visualizing the scenario, allow yourself to perform the scene perfectly since it is this perfected image that shifts the aura of expectation. Be sure to maintain diaphragmatic breathing throughout the exercise and also let your eyes close during the exercise. This diminishes external static. Allow each scenario to be expressed as a story with a beginning, a middle and an end.

Passively watch the performance which will, in fact, include yourself. You may see yourself split into more than one presence, performing different roles. This split in consciousness is perfectly okay and not dangerous to your health unless you fixate on it in a negative fashion. In this technique you can explore issues in your many relationships, either in the past or currently. Let the scenario run until it begins to fade, whereupon you can voluntarily choose another scenario to explore.

Sample 2: When learning new skills, many people feel inadequate. Sometimes this inadequacy is derived from the self-perception of not recalling learned material accurately or easily, not learning new material quickly and easily and not being able to perform tests calmly and comfortably. This exercise can be used to improve your performance as a student or on the job training which you may face.

Before you begin the exercises, take a single sheet of paper and write two or three very short paragraphs about your concerns as you currently perceive them. Take a second sheet of paper and very simply list the characteristics or qualities which you would like to achieve for yourself and which are very meaningful to you, relative to a learning environment. Go over this list a number of times, making adjustments where necessary. With this latter list clearly in mind, create in your mind a view of yourself which expresses these qualities. Now you are ready to do the exercise.


Begin breathing diaphragmatically, allowing your eyes to close and your body to go limp. When you feel that your mind is free of internal and external static, you then create in your mind the classroom or the learning situation which is important to you. Now begin the drama, keeping in mind the list of positive characteristics you made for yourself and the earlier image of yourself based on the list. Allow your mind to go through a sequence of events by seeing yourself learn the information effortlessly, retaining the information perfectly, recalling the information quickly and performing an examination about the information with total comfort. Throughout the scenario, maintain diaphragmatic breathing and a relaxed body. If you feel yourself tensing, you are probably reacting to a deep-seated fear of learning which is likely part of your original problem. Don’t try to deny the reaction; instead, use the four-step formula for release. Practice the scenario until you feel totally comfortable with it and utterly free of any physical reactions to it. This may take several weeks to accomplish, but the investment is more than worthwhile.

Structured Meditation

I discussed structured meditation in Chapter 2 as a technique for managing stress. Since this chapter is dealing with the generative capacities of the human mind and the techniques for self-investment, I thought it timely to look at structured meditation in this broader light.

As mentioned in Chapter 2, this technique is one is most favour since I made personal use of it as well as extensive use with clients. Structured meditation employs affirmations and creative visualization as primary agents of generative input. However, you can certainly make use of autogenic training, progressive relaxation and other vehicles as elements of structured meditation. Nevertheless, once you learn how to mobilize the relaxation response, I believe that affirmations and creative visualizations are particularly powerful in their capacity for personal investment.

In Chapter 2 I delineated the steps to be used during structured meditation. You can use these steps as a personal guide for performing this technique or you can use one of the many commercial tapes as a coach and guide. If you decide to use a commercial tape, make sure that the tape does not contain negative references or disagreeable avoidance suggestions. I believe that negative references complicate the process by fixating on the very issue you may be wishing to release. I deeply believe that you should always focus on positive alternatives along with the four-step formula for releasing when they appear in your mind.

Earlier I discussed the three dimensions of mind that constitute the basic mental capacities of everyone. When you see structured meditation in the light of these three dimensions of mind, inner awareness or the subconscious mind, outer awareness or the conscious mind and transpersonal awareness or group mind, then structured meditation becomes quite clear in its generative function. What you accomplish with structured meditation is the enlargement of the conscious process through an expanded control over subconscious programming and interpersonal communication.

Be very clear about one important matter: You cannot control or voluntarily choose that which you either are unaware of or that which you refuse to recognize. Structured meditation allows you to expand your awareness as a self-teaching or self-enlightening process. As you get more in touch with the subtleties of your body and the deep connections in your subconscious mind, you thereby gain expanded conscious control.


When free will is made more reliable, then your innate capacity of self-correction is released.

Although it is important to understand that you can rewire subconscious programs through structured meditation, you can also open yourself to the creative and the innovative powers of the transpersonal awareness. The resources of group mind are unbelievably vast. The innovative process is freed of fear and freed of blockage due to preconceived judgements. It is the release of creativity that constitutes the truly massive dimension of personal investment. You have no greater capital asset than your innate creative capacity. In today’s competitive world, creativity is definitely money in the bank.

The Generative Power of Mind

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