02 Emotional Mastery MAIN

Okay, welcome to the main audio for “Emotional Mastery.” So let’s talk about emotional mastery in more detail now. How can you manage your emotions, how can you control, I don’t like the word control, but let’s just say manage your emotions so that you feel better and stronger while you’re learning English. So it’s easy to say that “Oh, feel good when you’re learning English,” but unfortunately a lot of people feel bad when they’re learning English. A lot of people feel bored. Or maybe just in your life in general, you’re tired, you’re working hard, and it’s difficult to learn English also and still feel energetic and happy.

So we have to learn some techniques, some methods to manage our emotions, to make sure our emotions are feeling strong while we’re learning. And remember, again, that emotion and psychology are 80% of success. And a lot of people talk about this in the academic world. Dr. Stephen Krashen, again he’s the top expert on language acquisition, language learning and language education, and he talks about this idea of non‑linguistic factors. Which basically means psychological and emotional factors, that they’re more important than the method you’re using. Tony Robbins, the famous peak performance coach, talks about this as well. He says directly success comes from emotion, 80% of success is emotion. The other 20% is the method, it’s how you do it.

So we’ve got to master our emotions to master English. How are you going to do to that? Let’s talk about that now. There are two keys to emotional mastery. One is your physiology, again it’s your body, how you use and manage your body. And second is your focus, your mental focus. Now a lot of this comes from again Tony Robbins and Joe Vitale and some other peak performance coaches so I’m using their information and I’m applying it, I’m focusing it on this process of learning English and how can you take those ideas and use them to increase your English learning power, so you learn faster, so that you speak better. So again we have two ways to manage our emotions. One is physiology, through the body. And the other is through focus, mental focus. What you think about again and again and again.

In this lesson we’re going to talk about physiology, managing physiology. So this is an easy way to change your emotional state. So let’s imagine that you are tired. You’ve gone to work, you’ve worked a very long day. You’re tired. And you’re thinking “I don’t want to study English.” How can you change that feeling? Well you can try to talk to yourself “Oh, I should study, I should study, I should feel better,” but usually that doesn’t work, right? Usually you still feel tired. What you have to do is start with your body.

Change your body. What does your body look like when you’re tired?

Usually your shoulders are going to be forward. Is your head going to be up or is your head going to be down? Well, usually when you’re tired you’re head is going to be a little bit down, your chin will be kind of down. What about your face?  Will you have a big smile on your face or will your face be kind of loose? Well, it’s usually going to be more use, right? You’re not usually smiling big when you feel tired. And your eyes, where are your eyes looking usually when you’re tired? Again, down. So the whole body tends to be forward and down when you feel tired. So an easy, very simple way to change how you feel, how you physically feel, your emotion and in your body is to just make small changes in the way you’re using your body.

Try it now. Lean forward. Put your shoulders forward. Put your chin down. Look down. Put your body into a tired position, notice how you feel. Now let’s change it. Pull your shoulders back and your chest up. Bring your chin up. Bring your eyes up. Look up.

And now, even if you don’t feel happy, I want you to smile really big. Put a big smile on your face, fake it. Look stupid. Okay, so a big smile, shoulders back, chest up, eyes up and a big stupid smile, a big grin, on your face. Do you feel differently now? You probably do.

Just by changing the position of your body, I’m doing it right now myself, I can feel that I feel more energetic. I feel happier just by shifting my body. When I go back and I put my shoulders forward and my chin down and my eyes down, I can feel some energy going down, right? The energy in my body gets less. When I pull my shoulders back, my chest up, my chin up, my eyes up, I’m smiling big, just faking it, acting like a crazy person, I feel much better. And you do, too.  So that is such an easy way to change how you feel, to change your emotional state just by shifting your body. It’s a simple way to get control of your emotions and to master your emotions.

So here’s what I want you to do. Every time you listen to these lessons or any English lessons or any kind of English studying, I want you to first change your body. Before you listen to those lessons and while you’re listening, I want you to think about, consciously think about pulling your shoulders back, pushing your chest up, chin up, eyes up, and make yourself smile. You probably didn’t smile much in your English classes when you were younger but this time I want you to smile even if you feel like you are being stupid. It doesn’t matter, do it.

You’re going to change your body and by changing your body you’re going to feel better, you’re going to have more energy. And when you have more energy, when you feel better, you learn faster. There’s a lot of research about this. And it shows that people who have more energy, who are feeling good emotionally, learn faster. People who are tired and bored learn much more slowly.

What’s another way that you can change your emotion by changing your body? Well another very easy way is through breathing. How you breathe determines the energy in your body and how you feel. So for example if you have a very shallow breath, you’re breathing very shallowly…small little breaths…tight chest. You’re going to feel different than if you’re taking big breaths that are deep…that was just two breaths, already I can feel in my body a lot more energy. So taking deep breaths, it’s such a simple way and yet it’s very powerful. That’s why in a lot of spiritual traditions, in Buddhism for example, and also in martial arts, in sports, you find that they will focus on breathing.  They will tell their students to breathe more deeply. They have a very kind of controlled way of breathing because they know by breathing very deeply they can change their emotional state and their physical state. Increase their energy. Increase the aliveness in their brain, the alertness in their brain.

So this is another thing I want you to do before you learn English. Any kind of studying, these lessons or a book, anything, I want you to focus on breathing deeply. Maybe just two minutes, for two minutes I want you to take deep breaths. Hold it for maybe 2, 3, 4 seconds and then let it out. Then do it again. Hold it…and breathe out…and again and again, 1 or 2 minutes deep breathing. Of course at the same time remember you’re changing how your body is moving and how you’re sitting.

You’re changing your posture. Of course posture means body position so you’re going to have a strong posture. It means you’re going to have the shoulders back, your chin up, your eyes up, chest out. That’s number one. And then number two you’re going to breathe deeply. Hold…and out…and again. So again, strong posture, shoulders back, chin up, eyes up and then deep breathing. Do this for 1 or 2 minutes every time before you study English. I know it seems crazy, it seems so simple and yet it will totally change the way you feel while you’re learning. Because you will feel differently you will learn differently.

Just this simple, simple technique can increase your learning by two or three times, two or three times faster because your brain will be awake when you’re listening to English. When you’re bored, when you’re tired, your brain is half asleep. You’re just not learning efficiently. When you’re breathing deeply and your body is in a strong posture you feel better and you learn faster.

Of course the next factor we already talked about a little bit is your face. You gotta control your face. Why? Because your face shows emotion. But your face also can create emotion. Just by smiling big, pretending, looking like a stupid person, it doesn’t matter. Just by faking it, just by making yourself smile bit you’ll actually change your emotion. You’ll change your feeling. It’s very hard to feel depressed and tired when you have a big smile, even if you’re forcing the smile.

So that’s another thing I want you to do. Everyone on the train will think you’re crazy while you’re listening to Effortless English but I want you to have a big smile every time while you’re listening to the lessons. Right now, do it. So you’re going to have a strong posture. You’re going to breathe deeply. And you’re going to smile big, every time, before, during and after your English lessons.

What’s another way we can control our physiology and therefore influence our emotional state? Well another thing about the body is the body likes to move so we’re going to talk about movement. You’re going to have a strong posture. You’re going to breathe deeply. You’re going to have a big grin on your face, smiling. And then you’re going to move. Because movement creates energy and energy wakes up your body so that you learn faster. I mentioned this in the introduction a little bit. We’re going to talk about it more now in detail.

You should always be moving your body while you’re learning English. This is the opposite of everything you learned in school. In school they told you “Don’t move. Sit in your chair.” Right, so you’re sitting in your chair and what happened? Your body became stiff, you became tired. You were bored. Well this is the opposite. You’re not in school anymore. You’re learning independently and it means you’re in control now. And so I want you to do the opposite of what happened in school.

I want you to move your body every time you’re learning English. This can be very simple. If you’re sitting in a train, okay, it’s hard to walk around. So you could just stretch your body. Consciously stretch, stretch your leg a little bit. Stretch your arm. Move your head around in a circle. Small little stretches, just make sure your body is moving even a little bit. Even better is to go for a walk. You have an iPod. You’re listening to the lessons. Get outside. Walk on the street. Walk in the country. Walk in the woods. It doesn’t matter. Get out and walk. Move your body. Keep your posture strong while you’re walking. Shoulders back, chin up, eyes up, chest up…breathe deeply while you walk. And of course, smile big while you’re walking.

Everyone will think you’re crazy. It doesn’t matter. Use this system. I promise you you’re going to have a totally different experience while you’re learning English.

Nothing like the schools you went to before. So it’s very important. If you want to, if you love to exercise, you can run while you’re learning English. Put on your running shoes. Get some exercise in your body at the same time that you’re learning. You can do two things at the same time. So walk or run. Keep that body moving at the same time always. It’s going to keep energy coming into your body, flowing into your body. That wakes up your brain and that makes you learn so much faster. Another idea is go to the gym. Bring your iPod again and work out, lift weights or do whatever you do at the gym. Again you’re using your body, engaging your body at the same time.

Okay so let me just review very quickly how you’re going to use physiology to master your emotions. Number one, posture. Shoulders back, chin up, eyes up, chest up. Number two, breathing…deep, deep breathing. Number three, your face. A big smile every time you’re learning English. Even if you feel terrible, I don’t care. Smile big while you’re listening to these lessons. And then finally, number four, movement.

You’re always going to be moving your body somehow. If you’re in your car, if you’re in the train or the bus, you’re going to maybe make small movements. But ideally the best thing to do is to be outside walking, moving that body, or in the gym, or even running.

So you’re going to change your physiology. Now what happens if after maybe 20 minutes, 30 minutes, you start to feel tired again. You’re listening to the lesson and you’re starting to get a little bored “Oh, AJ keeps talking…oh god…oh I’m getting bored with this.” Well, you can just quit…that’s what most people do. But don’t do that. What you need to do is just wake your body up again so pause. Pause that lesson. Stop. Give yourself a little break. Change. Listen to some exciting fun music again. Get up, dance around, move, smile big, get your posture strong again, breathe more deeply.

Wake up your body, maybe for 5 minutes…and then back to the lesson again. Do this every time.

Anytime during a lesson you start to feel tired or bored, just pause. Take a break, a 5 minute break and wake up your body. So anytime during a mini‑story, during a main article, during a vocabulary lesson, it doesn’t matter. Pause anytime you feel your energy going down. Change, listen to your favorite music, jump around, move, make your posture strong again, smile bigger. Start feeling great. Get that energy in your body then return to the lesson again.

Okay, so that’s it for the main article here of “Emotional Mastery.” You’re going to focus on your physiology. You’re going to focus on mastering your body, using your body to change your emotions. Using your body to change the energy that you feel and therefore using your body to learn English much, much faster.