- One of the ways you can help create
a better mental environment for yourself
is called affirmation cards.
Affirmation cards are taking a three-by-five card
and in present tense, positively,
and succinctly put down
what you wish to manifest,
something, let's just say you have trouble playing
in the high range.
Instead of focusing and saying,
"I will not mess up in the high range."
You would put down on a piece of this three-by-five card.
I play all registers of the instrument
with ease and security.
And the interesting thing about this is
that there's two psychological principles here.
You have the law of reality,
and you have the law of accommodation.
The law of reality inside your brain,
on the left part of your brain, which is very analytical.
It says, "Warning!
Error, you do not play well in the high range.
Your high range is horrible, you can't play!"
The law of accommodation says,
"No, there's new information here.
This information says,
I play with security and confidence
and ease in the high range."
Guess which is the stronger of the two laws.
The law of accommodation is stronger
than the law of reality.
So we literally can program ourselves to start
to manifest the changes that we wish to have in our plan.
It's a good case
of the law of accommodation being stronger
than the law of reality.
When you look around mental wards in the country,
and you'll see that there are people
that actually believe they're like Satan's,
second cousins, dog.
And the reason why is
because they've convinced themselves of that,
they've somehow, something in their brain told them that.
And if you put a lie detector test to them,
they pass it because their sense of reality inwardly
became their reality.
It may not be the reality that the world around them sees,
but really what's important.
We have to create our own sense of a reality
of where we are.
And then by doing so,
I'm not saying that you need to be unrealistic,
but by creating a new reality for yourself,
it creates an environment that your body can adapt
and manifest it.
In using your affirmation cards,
which are three-by-five cards,
with present tense, very positively stated,
wishes we can say.
One way to use this that's very effective
is to take that card,
and the first thing you do in the morning,
when you jump out of bed is you go
to the bathroom and you hold it up
and you look yourself in the eye
'cause really it's yourself that you have to convince.
And you say, whatever the card says.
So let's say it says, "I feel strong.
I feel confident.
I feel relaxed."
Or something to the extent,
if we're talking about auditions saying, I love to perform.
And an audition is a performance,
and you say it aloud 10 times in a row,
looking yourself in the eye.
And then you go about your day,
and you take your card
and you put it in your instrument case.
And maybe when you're having a rehearsal,
you stick it on your stand.
So you have to stare at it in the side
of your stand while the music is going on.
Then at night, before you go to bed,
you take that card again.
And the last thing you do before you jump in bed
is you look yourself in the eye.
And 10 more times you say it.
I feel strong.
I feel confident.
I feel relaxed or whatever it is,
your message that you're trying to manifest.
And by doing this,
it is a basic visualization technique
that combines a declarative attitude, positive self-talk,
and confronting one's own self by looking at yourself.
So it's a very, very strong and powerful motivator.