October 5th, 2016
I was first introduced to Anthony Robbins as a teenager. I don't know how I ended up with his cassette tape, Awaken the Giant Within, but I listened to it over and over again. I had to decide on my Magnificent Obsession and figure out what was keeping me from it. Tony stated that all our behaviours are about avoiding pain or getting pleasure. This was how you understood behaviour. What is the payoff? What am I avoiding?
I have since read some of his books, watched him on You Tube and, recently, I noticed a documentary about Tony on Netflix, I Am Not Your Guru. The documentary is all about his six day Date With Destiny Seminar in Bocca Raton. He offers this seminar every year in different locations and each seat costs just under 5G but the place is packed!
The documentary takes you through each day and you get to witness one or two interventions per day. This is really powerful work. Granted, some parts are a bit flashy, like a Las Vegas show but the people are doing some deep thinking about the life they want to lead. Tony says the goal of this seminar is to teach people "how to re-shape yourself so you can enjoy yourself. To Uncover who you are, reclaim who you are, meant for anyone who is hungry for more".
Day 1 is Preparation Day. He explains that we go through problems in life but they are gifts because problems keep us moving and we are meant to grow. When we stop growing, we are not happy. His aim on day one is to get to the source of problems because when you address the real issue, not the tiny stuff that you use to distract yourself, you can change your whole life in one moment. He asks the audience what is keeping them from reaching their dreams, from achieving their vision.
Day 2 is Evaluation Day. He gets people into teams. They share insights from day one and he has them examine patterns that they are not aware of but seems to be controlling them.
Day 3 is Discovery Day. They show a very poignant intervention with a young lady who was raised in a sect and taught that all she was good for was sex, this was how she served God. Tony obviously feels a connection to this woman. He sees her pain and helps her see that she now has the power to make different choices. He hooks her up with some training and support and has her pick three men in the audience that feel safe to her. They are tasked to check up on her once a month for six months. They created a bond that lasts beyond the seminar.
Day 4 is Relationship Day. Tony addresses the challenge of relationships, where we feel deeply, where we are raw, where we grapple with not being "enough". He says we develop visions for our business but not for our relationship. We need a vision of what we are creating together. He works with a couple who is off balance. The woman is more masculine and the man is more feminine. She wants him to be more masculine. He also desires this but he has had no male role models. He feels lost. Tony works with him and, we are told, they go home and have some pretty wild sex that night.
Day 5 is Transformation Day. Tony starts the day by talking to audience members who have not had one insight since the start of the seminar. He warns them to get out of their heads. The groups create posters with their vision, goals, mission statement and primary question, the question they ask most often that directs their life. He has people imagine their ideal life and describe it.
Day 6 is Integration Day. The groups work on anchoring their vision for their life into their nervous system. They jump, attach this vision to each sense and proclaim their intention at the top of their voice. Tony asks them to think of early memories and figure out what stories they created from these experiences, the meaning that was assigned to them. He takes them through a visualization exercise. They each recall three times in their life for which they feel gratitude. Again, he attaches these memories to the five senses. He then has participants stand, stretch and make their joyful sound.
You can tell that these people are feeling energetic, re-born and changed from this experience. As the crew follow Tony from Day 1 to Day 6, you can see that he is very focused and disciplined and that he is energized by his work. His wife is also very compassionate. She stands with him at the end of the seminar and she is seen hugging and interacting with people throughout the seminar. Tony's last directive to his devoted fans is "Leave the past behind and go make your life a masterpiece".
Very inspirational work!!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
Showing posts with label transformation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label transformation. Show all posts
Wednesday, 5 October 2016
Wednesday, 22 June 2016
Only Her Hairdresser Knows
June 22nd, 2016
I am not a girly girl. It was a fluke that I ended up in a posh hair salon back in 2002 where I met my husband. I rarely get my hair cut, I didn't have a preferred hairstylist and I used to just get fed up and go to a cheap walk-in place to get my hair trimmed.
When I started dating my husband who is a Vidal Sassoon trained hairstylist, I had no clue just how invested some women get with their stylist. I had no clue how important hair was to these clients. To me, hair is hair, no big deal but to many women, their hair is very serious business. We met clients all the time when we were dating. These women would give me a once over and I knew they were deciding whether or not I deserved to be with Vincent. It felt like having hundreds of mother-in-laws. When I was pregnant with our first daughter, I went into labour on a Saturday (bad day when your husband is a stylist). Four of the eight women who were booked on that Saturday never returned to get their hair done after my husband cancelled their appointment on that Saturday.
Hair salons are notorious for gossip. Clients dish it out in the styling chair. My husband knows who is cheating, bankrupt, alcoholic, abusive and newly unemployed. He hears about women's frustrations with their husbands and applies this knowledge to our relationship (thank you clients!). When we are struggling with one of our daughters, he generally has at least one client who has been through it or works in an office where they deal with this and we get free advice all the time. This has come in handy.
His clients are on a six week rotation and changing these appointments is punishable by death (almost). So, when we go away for ten days every year in March, my husband returns to a packed house, trying to juggle people who are on their schedule while fitting in the clients he missed while we were away.
There is something about the fact that clients are not looking directly at my husband while they talk that leads to deep, revealing discussions. I have often wondered if it is the impact of speaking their truth while facing themselves in the mirror that lends itself to this intensity. Vincent has had women crying about childhood traumas, revealing deep, dark family secrets and admitting to feeling lost and off track in their lives-all in the stylist chair. I often joke that he is more of a therapist than a stylist because he deals with some pretty heavy-duty issues.
When we first met I thought of hair salons as a place of gossip and where women spent money on their looks. It all seemed shallow to me. However, through my husband and his clients, I have learned to see his work differently. The same women come to him every six weeks. Some of them came to see him as children and now they have their own. They connect with other clients, with Vincent and his assistant. They exchange contacts and advice. It is a safe, familiar place where people care about what is happening in your life.
On a deeper note, I have watched women go into his shop hunched and come out tall and proud. When he first takes on a client whose hair has been neglected or misunderstood, he cuts and colours it to complement the woman's skin tone and features. The result is that the client looks younger and sexy. The client stares at herself in the mirror in disbelief. Is this really me? There have been quite a few tears shed after such transformations and several babies conceived.
I am proud of my husband's work. He is competent and compassionate and he has taught me that hairstylists care about their clients, that they make a difference in their lives and that their services can be therapeutic as well as aesthetic. Long live the hairstylist!!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
I am not a girly girl. It was a fluke that I ended up in a posh hair salon back in 2002 where I met my husband. I rarely get my hair cut, I didn't have a preferred hairstylist and I used to just get fed up and go to a cheap walk-in place to get my hair trimmed.
When I started dating my husband who is a Vidal Sassoon trained hairstylist, I had no clue just how invested some women get with their stylist. I had no clue how important hair was to these clients. To me, hair is hair, no big deal but to many women, their hair is very serious business. We met clients all the time when we were dating. These women would give me a once over and I knew they were deciding whether or not I deserved to be with Vincent. It felt like having hundreds of mother-in-laws. When I was pregnant with our first daughter, I went into labour on a Saturday (bad day when your husband is a stylist). Four of the eight women who were booked on that Saturday never returned to get their hair done after my husband cancelled their appointment on that Saturday.
Hair salons are notorious for gossip. Clients dish it out in the styling chair. My husband knows who is cheating, bankrupt, alcoholic, abusive and newly unemployed. He hears about women's frustrations with their husbands and applies this knowledge to our relationship (thank you clients!). When we are struggling with one of our daughters, he generally has at least one client who has been through it or works in an office where they deal with this and we get free advice all the time. This has come in handy.
His clients are on a six week rotation and changing these appointments is punishable by death (almost). So, when we go away for ten days every year in March, my husband returns to a packed house, trying to juggle people who are on their schedule while fitting in the clients he missed while we were away.
There is something about the fact that clients are not looking directly at my husband while they talk that leads to deep, revealing discussions. I have often wondered if it is the impact of speaking their truth while facing themselves in the mirror that lends itself to this intensity. Vincent has had women crying about childhood traumas, revealing deep, dark family secrets and admitting to feeling lost and off track in their lives-all in the stylist chair. I often joke that he is more of a therapist than a stylist because he deals with some pretty heavy-duty issues.
When we first met I thought of hair salons as a place of gossip and where women spent money on their looks. It all seemed shallow to me. However, through my husband and his clients, I have learned to see his work differently. The same women come to him every six weeks. Some of them came to see him as children and now they have their own. They connect with other clients, with Vincent and his assistant. They exchange contacts and advice. It is a safe, familiar place where people care about what is happening in your life.
On a deeper note, I have watched women go into his shop hunched and come out tall and proud. When he first takes on a client whose hair has been neglected or misunderstood, he cuts and colours it to complement the woman's skin tone and features. The result is that the client looks younger and sexy. The client stares at herself in the mirror in disbelief. Is this really me? There have been quite a few tears shed after such transformations and several babies conceived.
I am proud of my husband's work. He is competent and compassionate and he has taught me that hairstylists care about their clients, that they make a difference in their lives and that their services can be therapeutic as well as aesthetic. Long live the hairstylist!!
Anne Walsh
www.artnsoul.org
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