Pump Up The Volume!

Happy Day! 🥳

Warning: Very loud scream around minute 4:30

As life unravels all those knots you have been creating for years, the path forward can feel a bit bumpy at first. How long the undulating journey lasts for you depends on how many knots need to unravel and how big your Intention is. Let life fill in the details.

When you are not used to taking control of your mentality a lot of the simple unraveling part can feel a bit like knock-backs. It is impossible to predict the path forward, but when we get our Intention and revise how it showed up we discover that everything happened for a reason. What we once thought were knock-backs were actually life filling in the details.

It takes experience to get used to it. In the meantime, we turn to two useful tools that we execute any time we feel knocked-back. One is screaming and the other is laughter.

They are fun and not offered here as any type of medical advice or therapy. Only fun, a way of getting right back up when you feel knocked down or knocked-off your path. Here is a great example of screaming.

I learned this valuable lesson from a stressful period in my life when I was a young man. My relationship with my father had deteriorated after I discovered he was responsible for illegal and immoral activities both in business and in his personal life, and I got dragged into the mess because he had used my identity for these activities.

At the same time, my wife had been admitted to hospital for an emergency situation and the prognosis was not positive. Her sibling didn’t like me and her parents were abroad, so it was very much a “handle it all alone” situation. I was feeling knocked-back.

I am sure every one of you doing this course has a similar war story from some part of your life. Perhaps you are facing such challenges now. If so, this exercise is for you.

One day, I was driving while listening to a radio station that was famous in the UK for carrying arts and culture programs, radio 4 for those Brits here. I was learning to shut off the talking heads and headline news and instead tune into programs that could be beneficial.

A psychologist was being interviewed about how to deal with stress. He said that one of the best techniques was to climb a hill, stand on the summit alone and scream as loud as you can into the wind. He said the stress relief from scream therapy had been scientifically calculated as statistically significant.

I was nowhere near a hill, but I had reached the end of my tether. So, I just screamed as I was driving. I screamed and screamed and screamed until I was afraid I’d pass out and crash. I pulled over, checked no one was in the vicinity and screamed and screamed again. I punched the steering wheel and kicked under the dashboard.

Boy, did it feel good.

Laughter yoga is a modern exercise involving prolonged voluntary laughter. This type of yoga is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides similar physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter. It is usually done in groups, with eye contact and much playfulness between participants.

Laughter Yoga (LY) is not a comedy. It is an exercise program developed by Indian physician Dr Madan Kataria where anyone can laugh without relying on humour, jokes or comedies. It is practised in more than 110 countries.

It combines laughter exercises with yoga breathing techniques (Pranayama) which brings more oxygen to our body and brain making us feel more energetic and healthy. Ten to fifteen minutes of LY exercises can reduce stress, make your immune system stronger and keep your mind positive during challenging times. Here is an instructional TED talk.

From Lakota text:

As my Heyoka grandfather, John Fire/ Lame Deer and my Heyoka son, Wiconi Was’te have spoken throughout their lives, laughter is a key ingredient to the healing of a soul, identity and nation. Grandpa John spoke of the days when the Heyoka’s humorous exploits filled the soul with laughter and hope when empty stomachs, poverty and hopelessness cast their shadows upon the people. Today with the Heyoka nearly extinct within all of our people, I find more and more the need for their presence to live on. These sacred clowns within our people were the truth tellers who pointed out through their “clowning” and commentary those sensitive or controversial topics which would otherwise not have been addressed. Our beloved Heyoka helped us to question some of the very underlying social issues concerning our own hearts and identities. At times the Heyoka humor was pointed and it shamed people into correcting their mistakes or ideals. The Heyoka also helped to reshape, redefine and renew our relationships with our creator and each other. My son has taught me that laughter is as loud as thunder and for it has the power to pierce through one’s surroundings. The Heyoka know that laughter resounds in a spiritual way, like an echo. Laughter is contagious. When you laugh, others may laugh along with you.

Here is what I do regularly to get back up after getting knocked down:

1. When my mind gets taken over by fearful thoughts (company struggling, wife unwell, investors rejecting my every idea etc… you fill in your own angst) I wind up the car windows, imagine my life as I want it to turn out (super car, *** million on the bank statement etc … again you fill in your own dream) and then I pump my fists and scream as if I just scored the winning point in the final of all finals.

Of course it is a lie, but it works. It switches our emotion from fearful thoughts to powerful achievement and winner attitude. Our hormones and then our thoughts follow. Trust me it works brilliantly. The louder you scream and the harder you pump the better the effect.

2. When things seem to turn against you take a drive alone in the car or walk to a peak. Scream and curse to your heart’s content. Get it out. Get rid. Purge it. The video clip is exactly like it should be.

This ’emotional pumping’ is also something we can use everyday to help us imagine our future as already here. If I feel my energy is lower than I would like I’ll stand in front of the bathroom mirror and simply watch myself pumping me up.

How?

I pump my fists and say something like “I am Trev and I am f****** spectacular.”

Let’s say that you are walking across a parking lot toward the grocery store or workplace. Use this mundane time to pump yourself up. Play you mini-mind movie. Imagine your arms pumping, fists closed, body swaying as it would be when you achieve your dream. Would you still be walking, head bent, shoulders slumped, breathing shallow? No, you would have your head high, chest out, arms pumping. Would you ignore the person who just passed you as you usually do? No you would greet him or her like the reawakened Scrooge on Christmas day greets the world.

All the time your voice would be screaming inside your head… “YYYYeeeeeeesssssss I did it I’m a multi-millionaire and I’m free.” (or whatever your dream is)

Pumping up has a profound effect on rewiring your neural pathways. It also changes your mood so dramatically that you can’t help but connect with the world around you in a different way. You feel happier, you make others happier, you come alive and all with just a little mental trick. Your dreams will arrive a lot quicker when you do these things… and yes, I still do this. In fact I just got back from the butcher store having imagined something amazing… while buying sausages!

3. I laugh a lot. I sometimes put the TV on in the background but only on the comedy channel. Watching a few minutes of a re-run of one of my favorite shows from the past perks me up, makes me smile. Serotonin is released, and before long my energy is back at the frequency I need.

4. I never watch any news or current affairs program… never. If you have a habit of getting a news fix, please break the habit. Your life is at stake. Getting knock-backs after watching sensational media headlines will hurt twice as much and take more than twice the energy to recover.

Think this is tough to do?

Here is the best example from an inspirational woman.