Breathing Life - Joshua Roy's Blog

While attending school in Tamworth New South Wales I was selected to travel to Sydney and participate in a statewide leadership seminar.  Having just become an Australia karate champion meant that I had the opportunity of travelling to Sydney to participate in a personal development initiative.  The event was several days long, and excited teenagers arrived at the venue anticipating making new friends and gaining inspiration from the event. There were many seminars and presenters.  My favourite was the comedy night, in which we listened to an exceptional comedian who caused me to laugh so hard that could barely contain my tears.  Perhaps the biggest impact came from a man who was dressed poorly and acted extremely nervous.  He stuttered and stammered and was doing a hopeless job of keeping the attention of the highly judgemental teenage audience.  After immediately feeling empathy for this man, having dealt with my own nerves, fear and anxiety around speaking, I recall that I was annoyed at my disrespectful peers.  Having dealt stuttering at the age of 14, I felt sorry for this man who was trying to deliver a talk and having what appeared to be distressed.  To make matters worse, more students became restless and began to have private conversations….

When I was 14 years old I had a stuttering issue.  I found it very difficult to communicate, especially in large groups.  The worst letters for me were W’s and R’s. I found this to be huge hurdle that was inhibiting my ability to make friends, enjoy social settings and enjoy the experience of being a teenager. It was around this time that I participated in my first seminar.  It was a 4 day seminar that ran for long hours.  During this seminar I learned about affirmations and the power of the mind.  After this seminar I decided that I had the power to control my mind and speech by repeating the affirmation, “I speak clearly and well”. Each time I found myself with in group of people and felt that I had something to contribute I repeated the words in my mind, “I speak clearly and well”.  I would then speak, and unfortunately much of the time my words would come out wrong. I would stutter and stammer and trip over the words. Often I was annoyed or frustrated at the inability I had to manage and control my tongue. Often I was frustrated with myself and would repeat…

I was with a friend at school and he really wanted to be a great fighter.  I remember that he had a fight after school one day and that I showed him how he could win the fight using the power of his mind.  I remember that day like it was yesterday.  I still remember the look of confidence on my friends face as he marched out onto the battleground.  I had shown him how powerful the mind could be, using the tools of a recent seminar. I was 14 years old when I attended an introduction seminar for “mind power” in Tamworth NSW with a man named Peter McMahon.  A woman was at the front of the room with her back to a white board.  The audience then came up with 20 random items for her to commit to memory.  I was amazed at her skill and ability as in a matter of minutes she learned and repeated back all 20 items.  Even more impressive was the fact that she had learned every item independently of any other item.  What I mean by this is that she could immediately recall item 7 or item 18.  Finally the audience was asked…

Russian Psychologist Ivan Pavlov learned that Dogs salivate at the sight of food.  He retrained this automatic response to salivate, by ringing a bell immediately before feeding time.  This was repeated over and over again.  These dogs were trained that the sound of a bell meant that food was on its way.  In preparation for the food the dogs began to salivate.  Because they believed that food was on its way, over time the sound of the bell alone would cause the dogs to begin to salivate. What if you could train your autonomic nervous system?  The autonomic nervous system is broken up into two main parts.  The sympathetic nervous system that controls our fight/flight response?  And the parasympathetic nervous system that controls our appetite and sexual desire. These are automatic responses to stimuli. It is believed that self-control is lowered when we are sleep deprived or low amounts of glycogen in the body. When stimulus hits one of those 4 responses, we immediately have an automatic response. Anger (fight), Fear (flight), lust (sexual desire), hunger (gluttony). Think about antisocial behaviour and crime.  Is not all of crime attached to one of these primal functions? How then can we train our autonomic nervous system to…

I had a friend visit come to me on Sunday and tell me he had a headache.  He told me that it had been with him all day and that he could not seem to shake it. I was happy to help.  We used 3 techniques and the headache was completely gone. As I have thought about this experience I have come up with 4 steps that ensure that you will eliminate pain from your body. 1/ First he came and asked for help. 2/ He believed that the process would work. 3/ He did the process in a positive way. 4/ The first technique did not fully resolve the issue, so I had him continue to work and utilised a 2nd and a 3rd technique. What do we learn?  1.  Ask for help.  If you want to get past something, you may not have the tools and beliefs to overcome it on your own.  Often we can lean on someone who has a different level of knowledge and experience.  This requires humility and a realisation that we do not know it all.  Sometimes this will also cost us time, money, effort and energy.  It may cost us our pride and ego. 2.  Believe…

How do the rich, highly motivated and successful start their day? Tony Robbins starts his day with a routine that includes visualisation, a prayer of gratitude, and breathing exercises. Tim Ferris has a morning routine, and so do thousands of really successful people worldwide. Joe Dispenza has a 2 hour meditation routine. Wim Hof does breathing techniques and cold exposure as his morning routine. How about you?  How do you begin your day? Having done a 2 hour morning routine for more than 18 months, I have created an effective way of creating success in my own life.  This one routine has been responsible for keeping the transformation I had at the Tony Robbins seminar in 2015 going.  Is it hard to consistently do a morning routine?  How does one create an effective routine that puts one into a winning mindset, and also does the following. – promotes great health. – stretches yourself emotionally. – Gives purpose and creates meaning for life. – puts you into a winning mindset. Please join with me at my workshops and seminars, or look into some private coaching sessions so that we can discuss these key issues, and make plans and goals around implementing a more empowering way…

As a teenager I had a stutter, and the worst fear in my world was speaking in front of a group of people.  I recall that at age 12 or 13 I was assigned to speak in front of a class in a debate.  The fear was so intense and I thought that I would avoid doing this most uncomfortable thing (public speaking) at all cost.  As it turned out I did not have to give that talk.  I was in a car accident that incapacitated me for about a week.  As a result I avoided this speaking assignment.  I was in hospital and in pain, yet I was happy that I did not have to face my big fear of public speaking.  I was happy that I did not have to do something that would likely embarrass me, cause me yet another failure, and leave me feeling fearful and low. Looking back I realised that my unconscious mind helped me to avoid this event by creating an accident.  Looking back I realised that fear and limitation were ruling my life and my outcomes.  I felt like I was not in charge of my life, and that my unconscious mind…

Well it seems to me that when you change the way you use your body, life changes……for a time.  Anything new becomes old over time.  It really does not matter what it is.  Any big change to your life, once repeated about 1000 times becomes normal.  Wow who would have thought that jumping with excitement would become like breathing or riding a bike.  That it would become normal to be excited every day. How amazing is that?  looking back over the last 18 months of my life have been like a dream. Life has changed more dramatically than ever before. It really is such an inspiration to myself and others and as a result many new opportunities have presented themselves. It really is incredible that Contributing to the lives of so many other people, coupled with personal growth has really produced a high level of fulfilment. Much joy is the result of giving so much of myself to others.  Furthermore the consistency of focus on the things that matter most in life has also been incredible, and has assisted with the feelings of fulfilment. Now it is time to move to the next level, as each of us must continue to…

Many years ago I was at work and a senior employee said to me, “you need to switch on”. I was new to the job and did not know what to do, yet there must have been an overriding attitude of disinterest. I was there physically, yet in reality I was a thousand miles away. He did not just say this to me once. I acknowledge that as an absent minded child I was often not present when being spoken to. I was often distant and aloof, and would zone out regularly. It was not that my brain was inactive, rather I was thinking, wondering, or pondering. This would sometimes annoy my teachers who were trying to get me to take action. When I started an action I would become easily distracted and a simple task would take me a long time to complete. I have sat down to read something and I found that I could not concentrate. I just couldn’t seem to get my mind to read in a way that I could absorb the material. It did not help that the content of the material my have been very boring, and I found my mind wondering. Therefore…

Advertisers have spent years understanding the relationship between sex and the functions of the brain. Sex is tied to our primal instincts and is a function of the lizard brain. Many are not aware at we have three brains, not just one. There is the lizard brain or the paleo cortex, the mammalian brain, and the new brain or Neo cortex. Sexually stimulating pictures, stories and sounds affect the mind in a huge way. The lizard brain is located at the tip of the spine. It is directly connected to the nervous system of the body. This is why when a person is sexually stimulated there are very intense feelings that permeate the body. Even if the body is not moving and you are in a resting position, when exposed to sexually stimulating material the heart rate will accelerate, adrenaline can enter the body and tiredness can be dispelled. Advertisers are aware that by exposing men to sexual images and provocative sounds, feelings of excitement, adrenaline and euphoria are created. In this way, they are able to link those feelings to their product or service. The unconscious mind may falsely associate the product or service being advertised, to the stimulated…