Written by: Rudi Ayden Riekstins, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
From decades of experience coaching companies, executives, and high-performing individuals, I have discovered that the basis of nearly every goal is a desire to elevate to the next level. Regardless of what specific goal one is moving towards, increasing personal power is key to achieving it. Understanding the true nature of power is precisely the place we begin the work.
Today, I'll begin with you asking the same simple question I would pose to my clients in our first meeting.
"In any given room, who is the most powerful person in that room?"
After a brief moment of silence, I typically get one of the two following responses:
"It should be me, but it's not"
or,
"The person with the most money."
What I continued hearing in these sessions were expressions of the deeply ingrained belief that power in business is contingent upon a title, status, or income level. I quickly realized that transforming this belief was the most impactful way to help these individuals expand their being and reach their specific goals. The understanding we would work towards was that power is one's ability to remain calm and centered, regardless of outside influence. This knowledge was followed by training exercises that helped create brain and body coherence by remaining neutral, allowing inspiration and intuition to flow, especially when others aren't holding this mindset.
Think back to the last time you were stressed, nervous, or even argued with someone. Did you find that your tongue felt thick, dry and you struggled to complete your sentences? Only to later be in contemplation wishing that you had said so much more, frustrated that the words escaped you at the moment. The reason for this is that in moments of heightened emotion, like stress, nervousness, insecurity, fear, or anger, the body goes into a state of fight or flight.
To self-preserve, the brain releases cortisol and goes through a series of reactions to protect the body. The brain compartmentalizes with the left and right brain no longer communicating, causing erratic thought impulses, drastically decreasing focus and concentration. The brain and body enter a state of incoherence with elevated heart rates, accumulating distrust between the mind and body. In states like these, it is impossible to have a rational, logical thought. This is why all those things you wish you'd said come flooding back once you've had time to calm down and think. Being in your personal power is remaining in a state where you are intentionally calm, creating optimal brain and body coherence.
The most influential person in any room is always the person with the soundest mind - Rudi Ayden Riekstins.
Intimately knowing how your body feels when calm and centered, without being emotionally charged, positive or negative, allows you to be consciously aware when emotionally shifting. Being mindful allows you to be in observer mode, thus controlling your thoughts and feelings, which organically drives behavior. The power is in staying neutral, level-headed, keeping inspiration and intuition flowing through a clear connection of mind and body.
The experience of being in your own power is best identified by the ability to think clearly, receive inspiration and rationally filter all thoughts. Preparing your inner foundation will allow for personal power to grow and become unwavering. With consistent practice, you will feel it every day, in the moments of both calm and chaos.
To begin developing mastery over your inner state, engage in the five following practices:
Observe your thoughts and feelings daily. Make it a practice to question why you feel the way you do, when it began, how often you feel like this, and what you could do to shift that feeling to a lighter, more expansive feeling.
Label your emotions: Scientific research shows that simply naming negative emotions reduces the emotion within the body. When you feel angry or frustrated, stating, "I am feeling angry" or "I am frustrated" decreases activity in the brain's emotional centers. This act of naming you or someone else's emotions allows for space between the event, the person experiencing the event, and the emotional reaction itself, bringing coherence back in the brain and body.
Meditation: Purposefully calming your emotions each morning lets you know what you feel like without heightened emotion. Knowing, what I refer to as your center point, helps you get back there later when stresses are coming up throughout your day- a roadmap to get back to a calm and serene place regardless of outside influence.
Assign emotional value: When you are at your center point, calm, you have optimal coherence and can thus view the world objectively. Understanding that all events are neutral and you get to assign positive or negative emotional value to the situation is truly powerful. An adverse event is an event that we give a negative value to. When you realize your power lies in how you decide to respond to that event, you tap into a higher, more robust awareness and approach.
Intention: Everything in life started first with a thought. Whenever you want to achieve anything, first hold the vision of the desired outcome once achieved. Feeling the successful outcome before you've taken action aligns the mind, body, and energy (coherence) on a unified point of focus, which will align the thoughts, additional feelings, and then organically the appropriate actions towards the ultimate goal of successfully completing the outcome. I refer to this as mind-mapping. You are creating an emotional and mental roadmap within the mind to achieving the outcome. Having already experienced it within the mind exponentially increases your likeliness of achieving your goal as you take the appropriate steps that align with the feeling.
Rudi Ayden Riekstins, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Rudi Ayden Riekstins is an entrepreneur, author, international speaker, and a Top 10 Business Coach and Mentor. Riekstins is known globally as a disrupter of old patterns by bringing spiritual truths into everyday life, especially business. He has spent the last twenty-five years building and developing high-performing teams, leaders, and whole organizations through transformational keynotes, training, and mentorship. In addition, he is the co-founder of InPower University, a platform that offers online training, courses, and coaching to individuals wanting to create purposeful businesses. Bloomberg and Business Insider considers Riekstins a Top Twenty Mindful Thought Leader to follow. His mission: Inspire everyone to thrive, not survive.
