By Andy Harrison
EBook. Discover the root of every problem and the simple steps to solving any life issue.
By Andy Harrison
EBook. Short Coffee Table type ebook whimsically taking you to the core of enlightenment. Illustrations by E.J. Baeza
The 3 Cs and Our Changing World
My youngest daughter Given was having a challenging time last night. She wanted to watch a TV episode online after it was time to be in bed and I told her no. Then something happened between her and her sister and she got mad and was having a less than easy time calming down. Through the process of attempting to help her get calmer, a few insights came to me that I wanted to share here.
In watching Given try to get what she wanted, I noticed a larger pattern of behavior and in the moment realized the importance of my staying present and introducing another option. The basic strategy she was using broke into these three steps:
1) Conceptualize: she had a mental idea of what she wanted that was different from what was.
2) Conceal and or Confuse: She was choosing not to tell me what was bothering her and was attempting to make me angry by throwing things around the room when I wasn’t looking.
3) Conquer: She was attempting to get what she wanted by having me change my position out of frustration.
The basic pattern she was using, I realized, was a universal approach that humans and human organizations have used to gain power and reach goals. I also was aware of the parent in me noticing the obvious downsides of this strategy and the need for my child to learn a different one. In the heat of the moment I introduced a new strategy, one that just seamed obvious once I said it. It broke into these three steps:
1) Connect with you True Feelings: Not just have a mental concept of what you want but be in touch with your emotions and body sensations in the moment.
2) Communicate: communicate openly and honestly your experience and desires.
3) Cooperate: synergize with others to gain what you want.
Of course I said it differently to Given who is 8. I woke around 4AM last night realizing that these basic strategies for humans creating change in the world were at the core of what appears to be massive global changes happening today. For centuries, the first strategy has been used by individuals, governments, private organizations, corporations, pioneers, etc. to create outer change, and for the most part, this strategy has worked for the parties using it. It appears that many of the massive current upheavals in society are due to strategy number one no longer working as well as it did. Examples of this are plentiful and seam to be growing in number over the past 10 years.
Whatever is going on with the overall state of human consciousness appears to have disrupted the ease with which 3C strategy (as I’m calling it) number one has operated for so long. One of the cool things about humans is that when a strategy no longer works, we can use a different one. Could it be that we are at a point where 3C strategy number two will start to produce better economic and political results than 3C strategy number one?
-Andy Harrison
I’ve been developing some trainings for our promotion department at American Guitar Academy using NLP, some ideas based on Quantum Physics research and a some other stuff. I’m posting a small piece of it here cause I think it’s really cool and it’s been a real practical way to handle state management for our promotion team that you can apply to pretty much any situation. We’ve also been using this in the Andy Harrison Band to engrain peak performance physiology. Let me know what you think!
The Confidence Switch
What if you had a switch, just like a light switch, that enabled you to turn on confidence in an instant anytime you wanted it? What if it was as simple, easy and consistent as turning on a light? If you had such a switch, how might it improve your life? When would you choose to use it?
Well guess what? You do have such a switch. You and everyone else were born with it and have carried it around for years probably without even knowing you had it. In fact you may have used it in reverse to turn off confidence at times when you really needed to be confident. So what is this switch?
Modern neurological research has discovered that our emotional states are produced by a combination of 2 main things: how we hold our bodies (our physiology) and the mental representations (or mental pictures) we choose to focus on. The one primary way we change our emotional states instantly is by changing our physiology or how we are holding our bodies. We have a specific physiology or way of holding our body that triggers every emotion that we experience. We have a sad, a mad, a happy, a disappointed, an excited and a confident, etc. physiology. As soon as we hold our body in any given physiology, we instantly feel the corresponding emotion. It works as quickly and effectively as turning on a light switch.
So if it’s so easy and reliable, why do so many people experience ongoing emotions that they don’t want? Great question, isn’t it?
One reason is that shifting your physiology hasn’t been a subject taught in most schools, so it’s not widely known. Another reason is that we have developed patterns in all 3 areas of the triangle; heart, mind and body. We have also misinterpreted these patterns to be who we are, our identities. For example, most people have developed a handful of emotional patterns, thought patterns and corresponding physiologies that all work together, and these patterns are experienced so often that they are mistakenly believed to be who we are.
Remember you are the space in which all emotions, thoughts and bodies exist. You are no patterns. You are the possibility of all patterns. So knowing this, why not choose to experience the feelings that you want to have rather than simply falling back into any old unwanted patterns that you may have unconsciously accumulated?
Try it
1) Walk up to your ES Trainer as if you are truly scared to meet them. Notice how you hold your body to produce these feelings.
2) Now walk up to your ES Trainer as if you are the King or Queen of the World – we’ll call this your peak state. Notice how you hold your body differently to produce these feelings. Pay particularly close attention to your upper body, shoulders and chest.
3) Repeat your peak state walk several times. How are feeling now?
The X Factor Principle
In AGA live coaching sessions, AGA coaches use the X factor principle to help AGA experts understand how physical skills are developed in playing the guitar. The X factor principle states that in order to master any skill, you simply need to do the following:
Repeat the position or motion correctly X number of times until it is memorized by the muscles.
The result of applying the X factor principle has also been called muscle memory or mastering a skill. This is exactly how you learned to do any physical activity in which you no longer need to think (use your mind) in order to do it. Everything from walking to tying your shoes to playing a musical instrument uses the same process; repeat the position or motion correctly X number of times until it is memorized by the muscles.
In AGA live coaching sessions, the AGA coaches use a coaching method called the X factor tool to take experts quickly through their X number of times to master skills on the guitar. This is one of the unique techniques used in the AGA method that speeds up the learning process dramatically. We usually recommend that an expert do 50 X factor repetitions in order to completely master a skill. This usually only takes 5 to 10 minutes of quick repetitions.
You can apply the X factor principle to developing any physical skill. Let’s apply it now to your Peak State physiology.
Flip the Switch
1) Get into what you call normal physiology
2) Snap quickly into your Peak State physiology
3) Now get into your “old” (what used to be normal) physiology
4) Now snap into your Peak State physiology
5) Repeat this switch 10 times
6) In blocks of 10, repeat the switch 4 more times for a total of 50 repetitions.
Here’s a video of my great friend John Overdurf and I performing at the Nero Energetics NLP Trainers Training this July. John is one of the world’s best NLP Master Trainers, author and inventor of many new life enhancement technologies, a good songwriter and musician and an all around incredible person. Enjoy!
I just turned 42 yesterday and on the way to the beach I wrote this song summing up a bunch of things I learned in the last year. I woke up today kinda groggy and recorded a rough video of it. Let me know what you think! –Andy
