An Open Chest

Transcript

Let’s talk about an open chest. I am not talking about a treasure chest at least not a literal one.

I am talking about our literal chest, the top of our trunk. I am talking about what is discussed in that great book the Way of the Superior Man by David Deida where he talks about facing the world head on. Facing it with an open heart and I notice sometimes what happens when someone is dejected, disappointed or perhaps heart broken their physiology moving in a bit like Golem or something like that.

My shoulders pushing forward and it contracts my chest so I can’t breathe quite as much. What happens alternatively?

We open up our chest, push our shoulders back and breathe deeply. Now these are techniques discussed at length in Tony Robbins Awaken the Giant Within.

He talks in detail about how physiology affects our mental state. Talking about how he took a champion tennis player who is having a bad streak and he says “How does a champion stand? Show me how a champion stands.”

When you start to stand how a champion stands things start to change. We used to do things like for motivation stamp with our feet a few times. Jump on the floor, clap our hands, shout out and start to feel a little burst of energy and you start to get a little motivated when you change your state like that. You can begin to feel inspired or motivated.

Normally when you are motivated it is quite easy to feel inspired, just follow the motivation and the inspiration follows.

So when we do feel like that, disappointed or heart broken we can open our chest. It’s not going to mean the pain will go away, or not immediately. Of course we still have pain and are still heart broken however how much better to face it with an open heart, with an open chest, ready to receive these things, these unusual gifts that come in the form of pain.

Its much easier to accept it and embrace it to treat them well, perhaps treat them with respect that they truly deserve.

We are ready to receive, face the world bodly something like a warrior ready to explore our inner world.

This is something I have talked about with my friend Doug Barbieri in an episode where we talked a lot about masculinity, the ability to explore the inner world, like an adventurer, like an explorer.

Yes open the chest and feel the breath, that is how you face the world boldly.