“Unleash The Power Within” with Tony Robbins

“It’s not the events of our lives that shape us, but our beliefs as to what those events mean.” - Anthony Robbins

Exactly one week ago, Daryl and I attended the first day of Tony Robbins’ 4-day seminar “Unleash The Power Within” with Peak Performance Strategist Anthony Robbins. The seminar is about learning how to live an extraordinary life on all levels by applying proven tools of success. The seminar was held at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, California from July 29 – August 1, 2010 and had over 3,500 people from over 20 countries. The entire seminar is 50 hours of training in four days. The days were broken up into segments and different learning experiences.

Day 1: Turn Fear Into Power – The Firewalk Experience

On day 1, we learned how to annihilate our fears. We had the opportunity to walk across a bed of hot coals between 1,200 and 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and in doing so, we learned to understand that there is absolutely nothing we cannot overcome.

One of the first principles we learned was the power of emotion. Emotion is the driving force of all change, weather good or bad. At the very root level, emotion is divided into two categories: pain and pleasure. We are either trying to avoid pain or seek pleasure in all things, all the time. And when it comes down to pain or pleasure, our body/mind will always choose to avoid pain over seeking pleasure. It’s a survival mechanism and its happening constantly. When one learns how to master their emotions, they can create conscious and powerful change.

The second principle we learned was the importance of changing our state. By definition, being in “state” refers to being in a certain mental or emotional condition. Tony taught us how to create a powerful state for ourselves by stimulating our entire nervous system. We did this by by using our physiology, language and tone of voice while simultaneously creating a powerful “move.” The move can be anything one chooses. Mine was making a fist in the air while yelling “YES!”

When repeated over and over with absolute certainty, your body conditions your brain to change state instantaneously. And when you can change state instantaneously, you can avoid pain and seek pleasure more readily. Motion creates emotion! You can act your way into a feeling, but you cannot feel your way into an action. You must first change your physiology to change your psychology. Make sense?

Example 1: If someone is on the sofa feeling depressed, they may want to feel better, but by simply “feeling better” they will not change their depressed state. More often then not, they cannot “feel” their way into an action. It is hard for them to “feel” great when they are already depressed. It is very difficult to change state just by thinking about it.

Example 2: If the same depressed person on the sofa takes a different approach and chooses to stimulate their physiology, he or she has a much greater chance of changing their state. When they change their physiology, they change their mood instantly. Why? Because motion creates emotion! When you act, emotion follows.

During the last 2-3 hours of the seminar, Tony conditioned us to feel strong and certain for the upcoming firewalk. We all laid on the floor with the lights off and Tony guided us in visualizing the outcome while also enjoying the process. It was an amazing experience that cannot be described. After the 2-3 hour firewalk prep, all 3,500 of us walked a outside barefoot at midnight to the firewalk grounds which were a few blocks away. Once there, we discovered there were 26 firewalk stations with 1,200 – 2,000 degree coals. We walked on the coals by applying the following: (1) get into a powerful state (2) focus on the end result (3) walk normally (4) celebrate when done. It was amazing.

Day 2: Turn Dreams Into Reality – The Power of Success Conditioning

Day 2 gave us the clarity and power we needed to accomplish whatever we set ourselves to do. We gained insight into what really matters and set new goals that enriched our lives at the deepest level. Then, we developed innovative skills and techniques that helped us stay on track while garnering exponential results in both wealth and personal relationships. We worked our way through the given workbook and worked on exercises that helped us realize our goals in a crystal clear vision. During all the exercises and speakings, we took many breaks and had fun getting into “state.” We danced to music, made lots of friends, got massages and acted like a kid with no limitations.

We learned how to activate the driving force inside us which moves us to action. We learned how to move through limitations and toward resourcefulness that all great leaders and entrepreneurs tap into.  We found our psychological state of strength and activated the emotional fitness to overcome obstacles that hinder us from achieving success. We learned how to instantly place ourselves in peak emotional, mental and physical states to achieve whatever dreams desired.

Day 3: Break Through To Your New Life – Transformation Day

Day 3 was by far the most powerful day of the entire seminar. It was designed to integrate our key decisions and to ensure that we move forward with so much strength that we never look back. We learned how to successfully model others to master absolutely anything and to trigger global changes in all areas of our life. The entire day was all about recognizing and changing our belief systems. A Belief System is the actual set of precepts from which you live your daily life, those which govern your thoughts, words, and actions. They are the fundamental beliefs that are use as a guide to do all things. Most of us have limiting belief systems such as “I’ll never make a lot of money” or “I’ll never lose weight” or “I’ll never find the right person.” These are all limiting belief systems. They are faulty beliefs that can be changed. How? Well, it all goes back to pain and pleasure.

To manke a power change, we have to first get disturbed. You have to feel pain first to get pleasure later. If we do not get disturbed, then we will get comfortable and never take immediate action. And what separates the successful from the failures? Answer – The ability to take action! When someone gets really disturbed about something, that person will feel pain and will be flooded with emotion. Once they are in that very painful state, you can then condition yourself to associate pain with what is disturbing you, a.k.a. your limited belief.

So for a few hours, Tony shut off the lights and made us first get into a painful state by guiding us with his voice, language and music to focus on how our limiting beliefs have damaged our lives. We then visualized, while using our entire physiology, the worst that could happen to us in 5, 10, 20 years if we kept doing the same thing; if we kept using our limited beliefs. Once we associated extreme pain to our specific limiting beliefs, Tony them conditioned us to feel pleasure about our new belief systems that we desire. We stimulated our nervous system through music, language and our physiology. This day was extremely powerful and it really did change my belief systems. A truly amazing experience.

Day 4: Power Of Pure Energy – 12 Master Principles Of A Vital Life

Day 4 was about stepping into a fresh new life with vitality and inexorable energy. We learned how to care for our body—life’s most precious gift. We enabled ourself to prosper and live life to the absolute fullest. Robbins talked about the Acid/Alkaline balance of our diet. We need to remain at least at a 7.34 Ph level to remain Alkaline. And we want to remain Alkaline because acid is what causes degenerative disease, lack of energy and excess weight. We must remain Alkaline. Here is a video of Robbins explaining why.

So what are acid-forming foods? There are a ton of them! Too many to list but here are a few: all meats including chicken and fish, cooked foods, cooked oils, and even too much fruit if your body is already acidic (most americans are) as the sugar converts into acid when being metabolized. This is called having an “acid ash.” There is a ton of valuable information about the Acid/Alkaline balance on the internet and I highly suggest you look into it for optimum health and weight loss. I have experienced this myself just within the last 3 months. For the last 3 months, I have lost 40 lbs by eating a 90% Raw Food Diet and exercising at the gym 3 times a week. The best diet to consume as a human being is the Raw Food diet as all the phytonutrients, minerals, vitamins and life of the plants are still active. When foods are cooked over 46 °C (115 °F), most of the phytonutrients and life is killed. What about the protein right? I get that a lot. The truth is your body does not need as much protein as you might think. What we really want are an abundance of amino acids which are found in nutrient-dense food like kale, broccoli, Spanish, apples and every other type of fruit and vegetable.  For more information on Raw Foods, here are some resources:

Raw Food Resources

Hippocrates Health Institute
http://www.hippocratesinst.org/

Tree Of Life Rejuvenation Center
http://www.treeoflife.nu/home-index/

Lou Corona
http://www.loucorona.org/

Dan McDonald The Life Regenerator
http://www.youtube.com/user/liferegenerator

Go Raw Now
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3xOU2tLl7g

Raw For 30 Days
http://www.rawfor30days.com/index4.html

Tony Robbins Biography

By the way, if you want learn how Tony Robbins transformed himself from washing dishes in his bathtub and being homeless at times to starting 15 companies and now making over $30 million a year and reaching millions of people, you must watch these two videos. They are truly, truly inspiring.