Last week, I returned home after the most powerful week of my life. I visited the biofeedback meditation skunk works that is Biocybernaut for the third time, for 7 days of intensive biofeedback meditation.
I woke up on Day 7 of that training and felt flat. The previous day, I’d had the biggest breakthrough of my life. I let go of something huge. So, when I woke up the next day, I expected to feel incredible – and yet, I didn’t. Something didn’t add up. I realised that I have done a huge amount of personal development work in recent years, yet something inside still did not feel quite right. A huge part of me hadn’t take the time to enjoy the fruits of my labour. To appreciate myself completely.
I set out to run an experiment. I decided to spend a whole day in the meditation chamber ‘pouring honey over myself’. It sounds strange, but I set out to repeat the phrase “I love all of you unconditionally, Marc Winn” to myself – all day.
No matter what came up, I was determined to keep saying it over and over again. I literally said it tens of thousands of times. And lots of things came up.
In the Buddhist tradition, the five hindrances or mental barriers to progress – in daily life and meditation – are:
- Sensory desire: the particular type of wanting that seeks happiness through the five senses of sight, sound, smell, taste and physical feeling.
- Ill-will: thoughts of wanting to reject, feelings of hostility, resentment, hatred and bitterness.
- Sloth-torpor: heaviness of body and dullness of mind that drag one down into disabling inertia and thick depression.
- Restlessness-worry: the inability to calm the mind.
- Doubt: lack of conviction or trust.
There is a 6th hindrance recognised by the folks at Biocybernaut: forgetfulness. Ironically, the Buddhist tradition seems to have ‘forgotten’ that one!
For me, on that day of repeating that phrase of unconditional love for myself, it was like attracting moths to a flame. A tidal wave of thoughts, feelings, desires, doubts and fears were triggered by this act of direct unconditional self-love. I didn’t have to go looking for these things any more. The words helped them find me. The more I said the phrase, the more it brought out all that lay deep within myself. And the best part of all this is that the machine-gun of that unconditional self-love melted them all away, as fast as they appeared!
It wasn’t just my personal observation. The great thing about biofeedback meditation is that you can measure the performance of what you are doing. And for me, the results were astounding. This gave the highest results I have ever recorded, by a long long way. In fact, it was the best-performing group training ever at Biocybernaut. Similar results were produced by a fellow trainee on the day, and have since been replicated by others, outside of the facility.
So – the new highest-performing meditation in the highest-performing meditation institute in the world is so very simple: Unconditional Self-love.
What if it was easy? What if, to love and transform the world around you, all you have to do is love yourself, first?
This blog post is not for information purposes, and nor is it a valid scientific experiment. It’s my personal experience. It worked for me, and for others I know. I wonder if it will work for you, now?
I’m curious to see if these results can be replicated. This is a request for you to experiment – as little or as much as you like – and to feed back on your experience in the comments below.
I am interested to know:
- Does saying the phrase trigger the 6 hindrances?
- If so, how fast do they occur within you?
- Does the act of repeating the phrase melt those hindrances away?
- What else happens?
I have run lots of experiments on this in the past few days, adding variations to the theme, to explore what works and what doesn’t.
Examples, and my own findings are:
- Traditional meditation with eyes closed – effective
- Eyes open – less effective but can be used in real time in daily life
- Staring at a small dot whilst doing it – very fast processing
- Staring into your own eyes in a mirror – very powerful process
- Using different phrases, in different languages – Romance languages like Italian seem to work better.
I ask you to set aside an hour of your life to have a go, no matter what. Share with me what you learn below. Please run a variety of experiments and tests and share what works and doesn’t work.
If this blog post is triggering you in any way or you are struggling to do the exercise, re-read the 6 hindrances again. You are on the right path. Do the exercise, and say the phrase, no matter what. 🙂
Please get others to try the experiment, too.
Have fun! Let me know what happens in the comments section below or getintouch@marcwinn.com
Marc
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You know I love this one, Marc. I’ve been running the algorithm since you taught it to me. Happy to report it calms my mind and my heart every single time. 🙂
Wise words, Marc. Thanks for this. The technologies and scientific ‘reductionist’ quantifiers are catching up with the age-old traditions…
I first discovered self-affirmations through Louise Hay, powerful stuff! I feel that you’ve heard of her work.
Keep unconditionally loving,
Phoebe
Hey Marc, you know this is right up my street, we are off on a 2 week meditation retreat on the 5th so I will experiment, and what a joyful experiment to embark on.
BIG LOVE X
Marc,
Thank you for teaching me the Love Algorithm too. I practice daily in the car. I must admit as a London Airport Chauffeur I’m more forgiving towards fellow Road users. On a serious note – I will share my experiences.
Thank you once again!
Sounds about right. There will be a way for everyone, love is key, loving thyself the absolute key, amazing to have science to validate your felt experience, the truth is in the (quality of) living. Keep searching and experiencing the truth. Thanks for sharing. X
intresting may try? always end up in these cycles so worth a go. thanks
Have scheduled this one in Marc – will let you know the results!
I was in conversation with someone on Tuesday of this week. We were talking about a memoir I am writing and the through line or thread that wove the story together. He asked me what it was for me and I said “that everything boils down to love, and more specifically self-love”. If we can teach that lesson to ourselves and others ~ then we’ve given the greatest gift to ourselves and the world.
I start every day with breathing (priming) exercises and then a few rounds of EFT tapping while I affirm “I am enough, I am abundant etc…” Gets me there every time…
It was a very surprising exercise. Triggered all hindrances, mainly ill will, diatractability and doubt. But I also had moments where my higher self could express all the love my ego did not allow itself to feel. In some moments I could not even force myself to say it, because without connection to the feeling, it would just wlbe words. But in this way, I meant so much more, when I could freely say it. I also learned that the unconditional part was a but harder, when I started to list things why In love myself. But unconditional love is such a beautifully easy concept, that it prevailed.
Hi Marc thank You , One year befor I had use ” I love life and myself ” worked well , I will try yours , I will let you know in two weeks how works
with Love
Jacek