Be here now- we’ve all heard that one, right? For some of my friends who had more cash floating around in college, the ‘be here now’ mantra ranked right up there with their own personalized mantra that they had been taught in pricey sessions on Transcendental Meditation. Being a working girl during those college years, I couldn’t resist, when one night my friends and I had ingested a little too much of- well, we’ll leave that ‘the secret’ and while we did not inhale, we did eat a lot of brownies… - and I put the question right out there- “So what is your mantra?”

Between wolfing down huge amounts of ice cream besieged by “the munchies” brought on by ingesting ‘THE brownies’, each friend carefully disclosed her mantra. Except by the time two of them had let go of their personalized word, the rest of them blurted out, amidst ‘the giggles’, that that was THEIR word too. It was all about “the OM”- and it had worked for each and every one of them when they accessed the blissful state of meditation with legs crossed and eyes closed each morning.

I decided to put it into play in my own morning meditations- my early morning run. (Even back then, I slept only five hours and during that stage when everyone else could put down some serious ‘Z’s’, I decided to put my early morning time to good use pounding the pavement in gerry-rigged not-made-for-prime-time-running shoes purchased at Bradlee’s…

Off I went, one foot in front of the other, enjoying the sensation of the air on my arms and the sun on my face, powered by the free mantra of “Om” that others had shared. Soon I found myself straying in my focus, to words that seemed more relevant to my day, to my challenges- words like ‘empowered’, ‘inspired’, ‘proactive’. These mantras worked better for me- they became my personalized- and free- version of ‘Om’.

I wanted to see if they worked on other playing fields. So I tried them out during the days when I swam laps rather than running. And they worked beautifully. I set myself into a meditative state in motion – in the zone, fully engaged, where three critical elements of experience – I later called them “The Three A’s” of my “Winner’s Way” self-coaching system- were aligned for the challenge-at-hand:

-My ACTIVATION*see footnote*- the physical tensions and physiological signs of living (heartbeat, breathing) were adjusted at just the right level: my energy, my breathing was adjusted at just the right tempo.

- My ATTENTION was matched to the moment. My focus, too, was right on- I tuned out the pressures of exams or typing someone’s paper to earn some cash and focused, instead, on my breathing, on the sensation of moving myself through space, on my personal power. (This is the second A of the Winner’s Way- Attention- focusing on the moment enables us to see and deal with the ‘as is’ so we can move on).

- My ATTITUDE was one of belief- self-confidence, self-efficacy. Even when I felt fatigued before I started a run or a swim- or an exam- I assured myself that I was prepared, that I had the right stuff to get it done, and I used goals that empowered and motivated me- motivated- i.e., moved me to action- rather than debilitated me.

And with each run or swim or exam or dealing with a customer (I typed papers for other students and cleaned homes of Professors and their families while also serving as a Teaching Assistant for my mentor/professor Dr. Diedrick Snoek- had to sneak kudos to him in), I felt inspired and empowered and proactive. And afterwards, I enjoyed a sense of pride and satisfaction and felt a new rejuvenation that I had not felt before. Later, when I did research on the peak performance state, I realized that this state had a name in the world of sports- I had been “in the Zone” – and I decided that I wanted to spend as much of my life’s time living there as was possible!

Inspired- Empowered- Proactive. Those same words held up under fire during my years of working street corners and courtrooms. They helped me make a few life-saving sales when I ‘influenced without authority’ as they say in business today a few people, in separate incidences, who wanted to take my life because I was threatening theirs in visiting their homes at request of The State or The School re alleged abuse or neglect of their kids. Quickly I learned to take my heartbeat down and, given that this is contagious, the speed at which they were waving their guns or switchblades slowed too to a point where they could actually hear my ‘pitch’ and see my ‘vision’ that if they continued down their intended game plan, it wasn’t going to be good for anyone, including their kids.

Often those same people witnessed me using the same strategies and mantra in the Courtroom where I testified on behalf of the children and teens who were my clients who had been abused and treated in terrorizing ways that no person should endure especially at the hands of adults to whom you entrust yourself (though I can testify to you today that many of the corporate clients with whom I work find themselves beat up by those to whom they have entrusted their lives too).

‘Inspired, empowered, proactive’ I recited to myself when the attorneys representing the ‘alleged abusers’ got up close and personal in my face, yelling and pointing fingers at me as if I was the one being accused. To keep my heart in check- to keep my activation aligned for the situation rather than let it soar to cardiac arrest levels where I could not think clearly or could not think at all- I used breathing. Reciting my mantra helped to slow my breathing down to levels where I was not sweating- rather than perspiring, I was respiring and inspired.

To maintain control of my focus and purpose - attention and attitude alignment, I focused on the second and third verses – empowered, proactive.

No matter how loudly those attorneys yelled or how close they got, I was in control. I could breathe and ask to have a question repeated, focused intently on my mission- to assist the kids- and powered by confidence and self-talk to adjust my attitude and keep it proactive. And, guess what? When I stayed composed, ‘in the Zone;- that drove their heartbeats and breathing over the edge- they had lost the edge and were no longer ‘in the Zone’. I could see it when I saw a bead of sweat at the tip of one of those attorney noses that was up close and personal to me in the witness box. And my heart soared- I was inspired; I was empowered; I was proactive- I was living in the Zone powered by purpose and meaning and passion of the beating heart.

Inspired, empowered, proactive, OM- what are your personal words that connect you to life?

REALLY DO IT!!!!!- as strategic as the number 3
1. Get the Beat!
Awareness is Key. As you go through your day, get a reading on your beat, on your ACTIVATION levels.
When is your activation, as felt in the beating of your heart and pace of breathing, a good match? When is it too ramped up? And when is it too ramped down?

2. Get a Read and Take Note!
What are the triggers that send you into overdrive or into asleep-at-the-wheel states?
Are there particular situations or people that seem to hurl you into the overramped or underenergized states- perhaps even the mere thought of those situations or people can set your heart beating at cardiac arrest levels or send it to new lows where you barely have a pulse.

Make mental notes- better yet, jot it down in your moleskin journal or handheld or on a napkin. What are the aspects of your life, from morning traffic to after-dinner dishes, that easily engage you and what are those that set you out of the Zone?

3. Get a Mantra!
Inspired, empowered, proactive, OM- what are your personal words that connect you to life? Write them down and try them out- give them a roadtest on your real world roadways.

Looking forward,
Pam Brill

FOOTNOTE* In The Winner’s Way system for coaching yourself and others to do and feel your best no matter what the challenge (published under same title by McGraw-Hill), I use the behavioral science term for the physical tensions and bodily indicators of whether you are engaged or not- it’s called Activation, one of the 3 critical factors that you can learn to tune into and control up or down to face your life challenges. For full disclosure, let me tell you that the term ‘arousal’ is also used in the world of science and that is the term I used when practicing in medical settings teaching the system to people facing trauma and life-threatening illness. When I moved the game to coaching competitive athletes and their coaches on how to coach yourself into the zone and back again – resilience- my first team was the Dartmouth Men’s Swim Team. Faced with twenty some twenty-something year old guys in their Speedoes, I decided to avoid the term ‘arousal’ and used, instead ‘activation’…

So whether you consider yourself aroused or activated- the message is this: there is an ideal level of physical tension, of energy, of heartbeat- of VIBRATION- for each situation that you face. It varies- it’s not one-size-fits-all. I am going to teach you how to tune into this and match it to your situations in the next few segments.