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What to do when life is spinning out of control | Ryan Mazurkivich | TEDxHartford


imagine going to Disney World’s okay and
for most people maybe remember the
characters from the movies or maybe the
Magic Castle for most people this is a
very happy pleasant memory this happy
memory and experience almost didn’t
happen for Taylor because there she was
on an airplane afraid panicked and
terror and it wasn’t until a flight
attendant came over and asked have you
considered using hypnosis before you see
but Taylor’s life had been spinning out
of control for a long time all the way
back to those teenage years the fighting
with the parents getting in trouble to
law never really finding her place to
fit in or her place of peace and comfort
in her life but Taylor learned one thing
about her emotions is that she was
actually in complete control of them the
entire time the good ones and the bad
ones and all she did was take three
minutes to learn one simple technique
and she mastered the art of turning her
life around and tonight I’m gonna share
with you that same technique just as a
brief question how many people have
experienced what we perceive as those
bad emotions angry afraid anxious
stressed depressed I get everybody all
right good I think we’ve all experienced
these feelings many times throughout our
life but what if those feelings weren’t
a bad thing what if they were a good
thing and Cal Banyan’s book the secret
language of feelings he says that all
feelings are good even the bad ones
because what they are is a motivation to
take action towards fulfillment so just
in your mind right now just think of the
last time you really stressed out about
something okay say the last time you’ve
really stressed out about something and
just hop back into the experience is if
you could see it again through your own
eyes here at your own ears feel in your
own body and you can notice that that
feeling of tension that you had at that
moment in your body and I’ll tell you
what that physical feeling was a hundred
percent real it was a hundred percent
there but there’s not a surgeon around
who could actually cut you open
find that emotion and remove it for good
so interestingly at the same time that
those feelings are a hundred percent
real and a hundred percent they’re
they’re also a hundred percent not real
and not there
and it was Richard Bandler the
co-creator of NLP neuro-linguistic
programming he discovered that we feel
feelings as though they’re circulating
throughout us for some people they’re
coming towards us or away from us
for some people it’s clockwise or
counterclockwise and he realized that
the quickest way to interrupt those
patterns is to simply imagine it
spinning in the opposite direction
that’s where hypnotist Mark Carlin would
like to say we can actually stretch the
mind in a different direction change
those unhelpful feelings into something
more helpful now when I was a little
little boy I had this dream I want to be
a professional baseball player I want to
play in the big leagues and I worked
really hard and I played in high school
I played in college but I’ll tell you
what the most proudest moment of my
career was was when I played for the
Cardinals the very first time I saw my
picture on a baseball card now I didn’t
play for the st. Louis Cardinals my
little league team was the Cardinals but
still that was that was my picture on a
baseball card and that passion and love
for the game of baseball has stayed with
me ever since and in order to get that
fulfillment that joy today I coach co-ed
softball it was after one of our games
this year I hung around to watch the
game after us the team over here they’re
trying to cheat they’re trying to pull a
fast one get an illegal player in the
game and the team over here was coached
by twin sisters and they were not having
it and not only can I hear the anger in
the rage and feel it as they ran off the
field I knew I had to get between
because if they got over here they’re
gonna cause some damage so I went up to
Karen I said Karen are you feeling angry
right now and after almost getting my
head ripped off she does of course I
feel angry I said great on a scale of
one to ten how angry do you feel she was
I’m a twelve all right do you feel as
though that feeling is coming towards
your going away from you she was
definitely coming towards me so that
transition from anger and rage to
peacefulness and relaxation took only
seconds I said Karen imagine you take
that feeling right here in your throat
and just bring it right out in front of
you she was okay I said that feeling
that you feel coming towards you imagine
just spit in the opposite direction
okay great take a deep breath and notice
what feels different she owes what just
happened I went from being very angry to
now almost kind of want to laugh you see
we can always take back control of our
emotions anywhere anytime so again in
your mind just bring back that stressful
moment that last time you’re really
stressed out okay good and now as you
replay that in your mind hop into there
as if you can re-experience it three
Rowan eyes through your own ears through
your own body and as you replay that
stressful moment in your mind notice
where you feel strongest inside you and
on a scale of 10 where is that number at
how severe is that good so now do you
feel as though that feeling is spinning
towards you or going away from you do
you feel as spinning clockwise or clown
or counter clockwise great so now
imagine you can take that feeling from
right inside you and just bring it right
out in front of you great and now as
it’s spinning just slow that spin down
just a little bit great and now imagine
spin it in the opposite direction okay
and now once it’s spinning in the
opposite direction take a deep breath in
and when you exhale notice what feels
great how many people had a lower number
now from one to ten than when they
started
excellent great so in just an instant we
can all get this relief anywhere anytime
no one knows what you’re doing you could
do this at home at work in the car no
one will know so question here how many
people here are parents great kids are
great right they’re smart they’re
lovable they’re funny
my little guy keeps me laughing all day
long but I don’t have to tell you that
at times it could be tiring it could be
exhausting you can get out of gas and my
son it seems like he’s the second coming
of the Energizer Bunny at time she just
keeps going and going and going
so I’d often find myself at this
uncomfortable place of internal conflict
where there’d be a couple hours of
daylight left
we could still go to the park we still
go to playground we can go have some fun
but I’m out of gas I got nothing left
I’d rather just go home and relax and
interestingly when I would go home and
relax I would sit on the bed instead of
you know recharging and recovering I
would feel sad like I took some time
away from us that we can never get back
you know and I felt sad to the point
sometimes I even felt a little depressed
and what helped me out the most is I
realized I wasn’t alone to occasionally
feel depressed according to a CDC study
nine percent of the population
occasionally feels some depression then
what really helped me out was the late
great hypnotist Michael Allen there I
heard him reframe depression as fun
deficiency disorder and I realized he
was a hundred percent right the reason
why I’m sitting on my bed feeling sad
and feeling depressed is because I took
that fun away from him and I needed to
get that fun back into my life and I
need to get it back into my son’s life
and here’s how I did it over the summer
sitting at a traffic light in the post
Road and week either turn left and go
home like we’ve done so many times
before or we can go right we go down to
the beach we can have fun we can make a
memory and as I’m sitting at a traffic
light I felt that feeling that didn’t
like and I simply just took it out in
front of me turn it around and when I
brought it back in I made that right
hand choice we went down to the beach
and there we were at the beach we were
running through the the sand we had seen
in our shoes staying in our pocket
staying in our hair
we found every Shell we could find we
threw it out into the water to see which
one made the biggest splash it was that
though that moment my son saw my phone
sticking on my pyre he was dad can I
take your picture
and I thought this is brilliant he gets
it he realizes a shift just happened
something that normally doesn’t happen
we usually go home but tonight is
different of course we should document
this moment so I get all excited I
handed my phone I strike that victory
post go on take my picture say cheese
my son was three at the time so even
though I’m barely in that picture it’s
still one of my favorite pictures and it
belongs right up there on the fridge
next to my baseball card so this
technique that you learned tonight you
can absolutely use it for yourself
and the reason why I want to give this
message to you is so that you can not
only use it for yourself but pass it
along because what if you can help just
one other person what if you could help
one other person who’s afraid of an
airplane to feel relaxed what if you
could help just one friend may be
nervous about a job interview to feel
confident in their skills what if you
can help one teammate anxious with the
game online to feel cool under pressure
what if you helped one person that just
feels a little sad and a little
depressed
could you help them get that fun back in
their life what if that one person you
helped was even yourself so this is
simply a tool a technique and you can’t
buy a number-two pencil bring it back to
the store the next day and say this
doesn’t work you have to know how to use
the tool you have to sharpen it so the
next time that maybe your emotions your
work your home life or maybe just life
in general seems like it’s spinning out
of control what will you be able to
accomplish when you take back control
over your life thank you
[Music] [Applause]
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