| THE MAGIC OF MANTRAS |
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I recently performed a version of my TOUCH THE SKY musical motivational keynote at a beautiful health and wellness center, for an event honoring National Women's Health and Fitness day. The meeting planner made it clear that my job was to inspire the women in attendance to stick to a path of consistent workouts in spite of crazybusy schedules. In order to accomplish this task, I decided to put on my sweats, join the members on the health club floor and ask the following questions: What motivates you to work out in the first place? What stops you? And, when you are in the middle of a tough workout, how do you keep yourself from quitting?" It was the answers to the last question that got my attention. Every single person I interviewed told me they invoke a mantra - a commonly repeated word or phrase-to keep them going when the going gets rough. "I CAN," they say, "THIS IS MY TIME! ONE MORE LAP! ONE MORE SET! FIVE MORE MINUTES!" or, as one lovely elderly woman told me, "you start, you finish, you do a great job."
As an actor, a professional speaker and an executive presentation coach, I know all about the magic of mantras. I use mantras as part of my pre- and post presentation "toolkit." I invoke and repeat my mantras before going on stage to present or perform, or before an important meeting or interview when I stand to gain or lose an important client. And I exhort my coaching clients to do the same.
I started to invoke mantras in my 20's when I began to audition seriously as a professional actress. I so agonizingly wanted each and every role I auditioned for that it shocked me to not get cast in the part, which happened more times than not. To help me embrace the uncertainty of the outcome that is a part of every audition situation, I began to repeat some words shared with me by my then husband- an actor with a few more years of rejections behind him: "It's up to the casting gods." I would say these words after every audition. And it helped.
After a while, I decided to apply this "self talk" while I was waiting to go into an important audition or interview. I borrowed the mantra of an actress friend of mine: "this, or something better," I would say to myself while I sat in the car, driving to the audition, or in the waiting room or the wings, on deck to audition. "This, or something better." And that helped too.
To this day, I still invoke those mantras. And I've developed new ones as well, borrowed from my actor training, that I apply to my speaking engagements. For example, an hour or so before each and every speaking gig, I take some time to check out the room or platform on which I'll be speaking, stamp my feet firmly on the ground and say loudly and with authority "I AM HERE!!!" It not only wakes up my voice, it literally helps me feel that I'm claiming the space around me. And, as a result, I give a better, more in-the-moment presentation.
Another mantra I use to help calm pre-presentation jitters or anxiety is one suggested to me many years ago by my wonderful spiritual counselor, Sanda Jasper, at Osani Holistic Health Care in Pacific Palisades, California: I cross both palms over my heart and repeat (out loud, if possible) "I am safe, I am loved" over and over until I really mean it. (This is a great thing to do on airplanes when the turbulence gets nasty).
And then there is my personal mantra: "it is what it is." Those words go a long way to defuse an unpleasant situation, when the control freak in me needs to give over and let go and trust that all is as it should be.
Mantras are powerful things. The more you repeat them, the more you believe them. And when you believe something, you make it real.
So use a mantra when you need to: before that job interview, the stressful presentation, or the tricky sales meeting. Borrow a useful mantra from your friends or colleagues, or make up one of your own. Just remember to keep it short, snappy, memorable and to-the-point. And repeat it, out loud if possible, until you absolutely mean it! |
| THE SOUNDED BREATH |
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"Say Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!" 
I laughed out loud the other day when my dear friend, Lily, said she'd just used "Eleni Breaths" to get her relaxed and centered during a stressful day. I'd never before heard the sounded breathing exercise (or, more specifically, the sounded EXHALATIONS exercise) I teach my coaching clients referred to as "Eleni Breaths." But those who know me well, know I swear by them.
I learned the value of releasing the tension or "armor" in my physical body through sounded exhalations while lying prone on the dustry floor of the Michael Howard Acting Studios in New York City. We started each class tensing and then releasing- with a sounded exhalation -areas of tension in our body. Michael called it "getting our instruments ready to work." As actors living and working in New York, we spent our days loading ourselves up with "armor," fighting traffic, congested streets, stressful auditions, long hours at support jobs. By the time we came to class we were armored to the gills, our bodies locked up, our emotions buried beneath. In order to become available, to have access to our "instruments" (our voice, our physical and emotional apparatus) we needed to release whatever and wherever we were holding onto. And release we did. Lost in our own little worlds, oblivious to one another, lying side by side on the floor, we scanned our bodies to find the tension, then tightened the muscles in that specific area, releasing those muscles with a sounded exhalation. The sound we made as we exhaled was like the sound the doctor asks you to make when she presses your tongue down with a stick to look at your throat: A deep, extended "AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!". I liked to imagine that every time I said "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH" any and all of the toxins or tension I was carrying in my mind, heart or body poured out with the sound. Sometimes this tensing and releasing of the breath with sound triggered tears, or laughter, which we simply released into the room around us. After ten of fifteen minutes of this individual work, our vocal chords warmed up, our "armor" released, we were fully ready to get on with our classwork as actors.
To this day, I do "Eleni Breaths" in the car when I'm stuck in traffic, or when I need to release tension before a stressful presentation or meeting. They have kept me sane, loose, open and available during the worst of times. I continously encourage my clients to learn and regularly use "Eleni Breaths," especially if they suffer from severe fight or flight symptoms when they speak in front of groups. Because an open and relaxed body is the key to open and effective communication!
I recently recorded an extended version of my "Breathing and Relaxation Exercises" (a.k.a. "Eleni Breaths"). It has detailed instructions, and comes with a silicone wristband to help you incorporate the exercise in a practical way during your daily life. If you'd like to order a copy of the CD ($10, including shipping and handling), click here to write to me; or fill out and mail the coupon below.
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| BUY ELENI'S
BREATHING
AND
RELAXATION
EXERCISE CD!!!!! |
To order a CD copy of Eleni's BREATHING AND RELAXATION EXERCISE, with an accompanying BREATHE silicone wristband, fill out and mail the form below with appropriate payment (checks or money orders). CDs are $10 each, including shipping and handling.
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Please make payment to Eleni Kelakos Enterprises, Ltd.
Mail to: Eleni Kelakos Enterprises, Ltd.
P.O Box 3827
Ann Arbor, MI 48106-3827 |
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Under the banner of ELENI SPEAKS, and with her flagship program TOUCH THE SKY!, Eleni is a passionate and provocative musical motivational keynote speaker, inspiring people-especially women-to reach for the best within them and to perservere in the face of challenge or change. Under the auspices of SPEEK, she's also an executive speech coach and presentations expert, incorporating tools learned over 25 years as a professional actress, singer, songwriter and recording artist.
ELENI SPEAKS and SPEEK (Speaking Powerfully and Effectively, with Eleni Kelakos) are divisions of Eleni Kelakos Enterprises, Ltd. | |
Autumn smacks of endings. Leaves are green one day, brown, crinkled and dangling on the tiniest of stems the next. All the more reason to embrace each sweet moment before it passes you by!
