Welcome to Life at Altitude with Kyle Mercer,
A podcast about upgrading the way we participate in life through changing our behaviors and raising our consciousness.
Looking forward to talking to everybody today.
The subject today is what I call the switching exercise.
And the switching exercise is really powerful understanding.
We do it at the mountain experience as kind of a beginning exercise,
But it's also an advanced exercise.
And it has a really particular point,
Which I'll talk a little more about after we do it.
But the switching exercise is a way to kind of recognize a capacity you have that most people don't really realize they have.
And so let's try it out together and then we'll kind of debrief it and talk about it a little bit.
So to begin the switching exercise,
What we do,
I find it's helpful to close your eyes.
And there's a reason why I have people close their eyes when we're doing things on a feeling level because your eyeballs,
Your sight is connected directly to your thinking brain.
And one of the things that we recognize in that is when we close our eyes,
We tend to be able to get in touch with our feelings a little better rather than our thoughts.
So I use that all the time.
Like when I'm checking into my feeling,
Knowing rather than my thinking.
So even like ordering food,
Like I'll close my eyes and I'll just feel what feels right to me or making a choice,
I'll close my eyes and feel what's right.
Even like with employees,
I oftentimes they just kind of know now that sometimes they'll ask me a question.
It could be as a raise or it could be a question about a client or how to take care of a situation.
And I'll often just close my eyes and actually instead of thinking about it,
I'll just create space,
A blank open canvas.
And I'll sit there until something comes into it.
And it's an amazing way of getting into your feeling knowing.
This is going to be a little different.
This is like a guided meditation.
So let's all close our eyes together.
And as I close my eyes,
I usually just find my breath as a way to get out of my thinking and into my feeling body.
So I'll just take a breath and often kind of ground down,
Like feel the gravity underneath you.
In a way,
It's kind of beautiful how the earth holds us so close.
We're always held.
And you can just feel that we're held close.
And as you close your eyes,
You can kind of let your thinking go and kind of drop down.
I kind of dropped down,
Dropping down into our bodies,
Into your belly,
Maybe just bringing your awareness down into your belly.
Now what we're going to do is we're going to bring our attention to all the things that we're worried about or concerned about or feel heavy about or are bothering us.
The usual things that are going on inside your mind,
Or maybe there's some certain things going on inside your mind right now.
Could be about finances,
Concern about finances,
Stock market,
Something about work,
A client,
A boss.
If you have kids,
What are your kids doing right now?
Are they okay?
Relationship.
Maybe there's something broken in your house or something needing repair in your car or about your body or aging.
Pile that on and see how heavy you can get with all your worries and concerns.
Now we're going to switch.
Now imagine bringing your attention to like a beach and it's sunny out and just imagine looking up and just seeing the blue sky,
The vast blue sky.
Maybe there's a fluffy cloud.
Just start to notice the vastness.
If you were to go up and up higher and higher,
Eventually it'd get black and stars would come out.
Just imagine the vastness of space,
The vastness of the universe.
Just notice what that means.
Now we're going to switch again and just start thinking about all the things that worry you,
All your concerns,
All your earthly concerns,
Heaviness,
Concerns,
Worry.
Are you going to be okay?
The termites are eating the foundations of your house right now.
The dishes haven't been done.
The garbage isn't out.
Your kids doing your relationship,
Your business,
Just all the things that you're worried and concerned about your bank account.
Pile it on.
All the things that you think about and burden,
The burdensome.
The messy garage.
Okay now switch again.
Go back to the beach or your,
Maybe a meadow and just the vast blue sky above.
Fluffy white clouds.
Imagine yourself floating up and up and up.
None of those things are out here.
Then switch again.
Just start bringing back all the things that you worry about,
All your concerns.
Be creative.
Feel what all that heaviness feels like in your body.
Switch again.
Imagine the expansive blue sky and the fluffy white clouds,
Sun shining down,
Elevating up and up.
And what the stars emerge in the vast Milky Way.
All the infinite vastness.
And then come back down,
Come back to the beach and then slowly come back into your chair or your seat,
However you're seated and slowly come right back into the room.
And as you're ready,
You may open your eyes.
Very good.
And just notice like this is a good time to reflect.
What was that experience like for you?
How did it affect you?
What did you notice?
What was it like to feel heavy?
What was it like to feel light?
What did you notice is creating heaviness?
Maybe you haven't even noticed that those things are creating heaviness.
So those are great things to even note down.
Say,
Oh,
These are all the things that are creating heaviness.
Like when we're coaching,
When I'm working with a coaching client,
Those are the things we bring in every week and we get to the bottom of those things.
Sometimes it's really practical.
There's such a wonderful feeling like cleaning out a closet,
Cleaning out the garage,
And that I didn't even know it was like taking up emotional space or mental space.
And just every time we start to clean up one of those things,
It's like it's easier to stay light.
It's why it's useful to clean up.
There is a way that your mind is letting you know that things that need addressing.
And the more we address those things,
It's easier to stay at altitude.
But the other really interesting thing to notice about this is if you were able to switch,
Sometimes people get stuck and that means that it's kind of critical mass that we can't switch.
But if you did notice that you can switch at all,
It lets you know where the heaviness is coming from.
Because if you can switch,
The heaviness isn't coming from those things that you're thinking about.
The heaviness is actually coming to how you're holding and thinking about them in your mind.
And the point of this exercise,
It's kind of like yoga.
It starts to stretch us and starts to remind our consciousness and remind our body that we are actually in charge of feeling light or heavy at any given moment.
Like there's this weird way that we're choosing to feel heavy because we think it serves us.
So the more we get into a choice,
We actually go up a level of altitude because we are now the one witnessing that thing rather than believing it's a real thing.
It's not that it's not a real thing,
It's a real thing.
But when we get to the level of consciousness that we're not treating it like a real thing,
That we can see it from outside of it.
That's when we can really work with it.
So that sets us up for amazing coaching.
This is the basic skill for letting go is that we have to get out of the consciousness where we identified with the heaviness.
Because then if we can get out of that,
Then we can look at it and then like much more objectively and usefully find ways to address that.
So it's just a really powerful exercise.
It's like anything like doing yoga.
If you were just to do this exercise on a daily basis,
You know,
For a month,
30 days would be a good time,
Is you would be really retraining your system to be in choice about whether you're heavy or light.
One of the ways I use a similar thing is like if I'm going to a party or social gathering,
You know,
Like if I just step in without setting myself up or without choosing my mood,
Like then it will sometimes not quite in the spot where I want to be.
Like,
Before I go into a party or gathering,
If I stop for a minute,
Kind of like the switching exercise and get my intent to be lovingly connected with people.
And if I go,
I'm going to be lovingly connected with people,
Then there's a way that I just automatically do it when I walk into a party.
And you'll be really surprised.
So the more that we practice with the stretching or switching exercise is the more we can consciously create moods or what we're paying attention to.
So it's a very deliberate process.
And it's amazing because that really gives us a whole new set of agency when we're doing things.
So recommend practicing this.
It's the first step,
Like I said,
When I lead the mountain experience and teach the process for letting go of emotional pain.
And the more people practice with it,
It's the more like we can bring something up,
Identify the things that are important,
Recognize the underpinnings.
And all my clients over a period of time,
The more they practice it,
We'll bring something up and then they'll just let it go automatically.
But at first,
We kind of have to just like learning a new dance step,
We kind of have to go through each one of the steps.
So the more you practice with things like the switching exercise,
At some point we'll do a video on how to let go,
How to identify and let go of things and practice with that.
And then we practice and we'll be really transformational in your life.
I'm just so pleased we started doing these things and they're a lot of fun.
As I'm doing it,
I kind of have a sense of all of you out there and a sense of being with you in a way.
And just really glad you joined us.
I hope this has been meaningful and I can't wait to see you again.
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Once again,
This is Life at Altitude with Kyle Mercer inviting you to enlighten itself.
