Five Seconds At a Time by Denis Shackel

Author:Denis Shackel [Denis Shackel, PhD with Tara Bradacs ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781443400305
Publisher: HarperCollins Canada

The Mount Ruapehu experience taught me the overwhelmingly important truth that I will become what I spend my time thinking of. The brain simply believes what you tell it most often, and it will create that reality. With our minds, we control most things in our lives, including our health, relationships, careers and leadership abilities. Since the night on Ruapehu, I have had countless hours to reflect, recall, dream (although they’re sometimes nightmares) and analyze that experience minute by minute. What I prayed, what I focused upon—specifically, how I talked to myself and what I said—I now understand, provided the fundamental key to my survival and the ability to accomplish what seemed impossible.

My own self-talk that day and night was simply a dialogue with God. It included prayer, often literally yelling to (and at) God and listening to his voice inside me, and talking to myself, often out loud in spite of being alone. To claim that I self-talked my way out of crisis and away from the clutches of death would be an exaggeration. But as I look back at the details of that night, I see that what I said was profoundly significant. Whether it was said aloud or silently, to God or to myself, I intuitively did not believe it to be irrelevant, although the particulars are blurry in my memory. And that’s okay with me because what I recall most vividly is the peace and internal calm that flooded through my near frozen body when I read and dwelt on the words that jumped out from the Gideon Bible: “I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me.” This idea reverberated inside my head for the duration of the night. It became the script for and source of much of my self-talk. I remember repeating the line out loud, emphasizing a different word each time I spoke it. (Language studies suggest that 38 per cent of meaning is translated via intonation.35) To the people who are tempted to dismiss this part of my story as “brainwashing,” I confidently reply and challenge, “So? What’s your point?” I took responsibility for choosing my thoughts and focus. I intentionally controlled my mind’s activity as much as I could by deliberately repeating countless times that affirming and energizing line. I learned that I do have control over what I say to myself and how I say it and that, therefore, I must take responsibility for the content and tone of my self-talk.

Another example of my self-talk on Mount Ruapehu was repeatedly counting, “one, two, three, four, five,” before I released the air from my lungs. I also thanked God for getting me through each five-second period. I told myself—and I believed—that I would make it through the next five-second breathing phase. The principle underlying this repetition was that of breaking the time down into manageable bites. I got through the longest night of my life five seconds at a time.

I am convinced that it was because of the underpinnings of this particular “programming vocabulary” that my self-talk got me through the night.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.