The Five Tools

Tools come in every shape and size. Each has a different purpose depending on the job at hand. You get to pick. I'll illustrate with an example... Here's a situation you might actually encounter: say you're marched into a conference room and told that your company is going to downsize. If you want to keep your job, you're going to have to move to another state. Your senses are heightened. You smell the musty room. You hear your boss's words. Your heart is pounding, and a wave of nausea rises in your stomach.

How are you going to react? You can burst into tears, withdraw and zone out, become shell-shocked and despondent, or resist and counter-attack. You can tell yourself, "I knew this job was too good to last" or complain to your friends, "I'll never find another position with such good benefits." You can light up a cigarette, have a stiff drink, or decide not to show up to work the next day. Or, you can start thinking about a creative solution, ask copious questions, and make a plan. At every moment, you choose which tools to use and how you'll use them, destructively or constructively.

Tool One -- Emotions

The first tool, your emotions, is probably a bit of a new concept, but the healthy way to express these emotions is to emote, physically and constructively. That doesn't mean you get to poison a loved one with your venom. It means you allow the pure energetic sensation to move out of your body. What does that look like? It could involve crying, pounding, or shivering. You're just looking to release pent up emotions so you don't have an internal nuclear melt-down that burns you and the atmosphere, with toxic waste. Physically expressing your emotions in a healthy way is the fastest method to get rid of the energy and halt the destructive core attitudes.

"This is the barn where we keep our feelings. If an emotion comes to you, bring it out here and lock it up."

Tool Two -- Thoughts

Thought is the second tool. You can stay in your old rut, or you can choose to replace your negative thoughts with new ones that are unequivocally true, such as "People are the way they are," or "We all make mistakes." You'll keep yourself from sinking when you repeat helpful thoughts, interrupting destructive chatter, and physically and correctly expressing emotions. I only half-jokingly tell clients that one hundred thousand repetitions will bring the new concepts into focus and offset all the times you've told yourself the contrary. Repeating constructive truths eventually works magic, even if it just feels like repeating formulas for calculus right now. Just be sure that you're focusing on something that contradicts the old and is indisputably true.

Tool Three -- Intuition

The third tool is that nebulous thing called intuition. Consulting this well of wisdom allows you to tap into your heart and find what's indisputably true, at lightning speed. It's an unfailing guide for making sound decisions. Intuition helps with everything from simple things, such as what you really want for dinner, to the heavy hitters such as breaking up with your girlfriend of ten years. It's that sense of knowing in your gut about what's right, right now. For example, perhaps you know that even if your company downsizes and offers relocation 400 miles away as the only option, you can't leave your aging parents and move, no matter how lucrative the offer.

Tool Four -- Speech

Tool number four is your speech. The words and tone you use will either cause separation and fear or create connection and solutions. When you feel upset or off center, your communication skills can go out the window. What can be done to prevent this? Rather than accusing the company of being heartless, you can calmly talk about the implications this turn of events has for your situation.

Tool Five -- Action

Finally, with your actions - the last tool in the box - you can counteract those worn out and harmful ways of behaving by taking little steps aligned with what you know will bring you toward more joy, love, and peace. In the example of the layoff there are several possibilities to consider: you might offer to take a cut in pay, put in applications at other firms, start checking the classified ads, or consider job retraining.

No. You can move to the light side in a flash by using any one of the five tools. However, for maximum clarity, whenever you're stuck, cycle through all five. By first using emotions and thoughts (tools one and two) as a base, you can easily hear your intuition (tool three), which will reveal the truth you know within. Then it's easy to speak up and take action (tools four and five). As a result, feel the joy, love, and peace pour into your world.

If you don't have the desire or time to emote (that is, to express your emotions physically), find freedom by aligning your thinking with what is constructive, or by pausing for a minute to consult your intuition. If you already know what you need to communicate, you can just speak up, as long as you abide by the Attitude Reconstruction rules for good communication. If a certain tool isn't working for you, go back around to an earlier one and take it from there.