“I came to realize the panic attacks were not uncontrollable once I understood how they started and grew. I was basically creating my own panic by bouncing back and forth between past guilts and fears, to future non-existent terrors. Back and forth, again and again.

“Now I anchor myself in the present. I force myself to think about what I’m saying, force myself to stop recalling past ‘nasties’ and force myself to stop imagining them as even nastier future outcomes. I stay right here, right now, in the present. It takes determination and effort, but it works.”

Read the Full Health Sciences Institute News Letter Article

In my experience the more tools you have at your disposal the greater your chances of drug free relief. If a small dose of a supplement can help I’m not against it. I am against the pattern in our culture of treating the symptom but doing nothing for the cause.

The work I do with clients one on one and in my “Crush Anxiety” calls is all about clearing the root cause and having a full arsenal of easy to use tools to master your mind for a change. Using the NLP and Time Line Therapy™ processes I teach as well as Self Hypnosis and EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) it is often possible to eliminate phobias, anxiety and panic attacks in a very short period of time. Everything I do is designed to put the client in a place of power where you are in charge of your own mind. Another point I want to make is that by working with your unconscious mind instead of fighting it, you don’t have to necessarily use “force” to control your mind.

A recent example of this is the client I worked with on Friday. Emily had been physically attacked in a public place some 14 years ago and up until Friday, whenever she went anywhere she fully expected to be attacked and hurt. Here’s the voice mail message she left me a day later:

“I feel great! I walked to the bank today and had no feeling of fear about getting shot. And I owe this to you. The old pattern is just a distant memory. I’m feeling really excellent and really happy.”

Notice she did not say, that as she walked to the bank she forced herself to think positive thoughts. The changes we make sometimes require conscious awareness but almost never “force”. The beauty of NLP and hypnosis is that once the changes are made on the unconscious level things just become different.

BTW Emily and I had a great time doing her foundation breakthrough session from 10 am-4 pm. The way i work is relaxed and safe. She has agreed to write about her experiences working with me so watch for a several part article by her in the near future.

If you or someone you know needs help with panic attacks, anxiety, phobias, self sabotage, procrastination, PTSD etc. I can be contacted at: mark[at]markshepard.com or 203-495-8808.

I’m also doing two “Crush Anxiety” teleseminars this week Wednesday at Noon and Thursday Evening at 7:00 pm US Eastern Time

The cost is $97 and comes with my “Crush Anxiety” e-book and audio series. There are also a few scholarships available so please contact me by phone or e-mail if cost is an issue for you.

Register for this month’s CRUSH Anxiety Call
Wednesday, March 11 at Noon Eastern Time

or

Thursday Night, March 12 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time

For a one time fee of only $97 you get to work with me over the phone in a small group as well as get my Crush Anxiety E-book and complete audio set as my gift ($197 value). If you’ve been on one of these calls before you are welcome to come back any time or as many times as you want for free. Lines are limited so register now.

Courage!

Mark

p.s. If you or someone you love is suffering from phobia, anxiety, or panic attacks please stop waiting to contact me. In light of our economic crisis I am willing to consider payment plans, barter or any other creative way to value the help I offer and create a fair exchange that is a win/win for both of us.

E-mail: mark[at]markshepard.com

Telephone: 203-495-8808

Even ‘Dr. Doom’ Is Scared: Economy Much Worse Than Roubini Predicted

Don’t follow the link above! I only put it in here to improve my search engine ranking. )

So a few thoughts and some options that I am using myself to stay hopeful and positive

1. STOP LISTENING TO THE NEWS! or at least use a grim news story to improve your search engine rankings like I did above. After all that’s what the news folks are using to make their businesses prosper. Think about it! What businesses do you know are still doing really well? Who benefits if you are freaked out? The more eyeballs the News media can get the more advertising they can sell. So I’ll say it again. STOP WATCHING AND LISTENING TO THE NEWS! BTW do you know what city is booming and growing in these hard times? Washington DC! Talk about thriving in a crisis!
2. Listen to positive, hopeful stories and music. I posted a special, hopeful song for you this week at www.MarkShepardSongs.com called Rose Colored Glasses. Download it FREE to your mp3 player or burn it to a CD and play it all day. Burn it into your Rostromedial Pre-Frontal Cortex. While you’re there check out some of the other tunes I’m giving away free for your spiritual refreshment. I’ve also posted a hilarious “Trickster Tale” called “Monkey & Leopard” at www.DrumSongStory.com
3. Make a list of the miracles in your life and all the abundance you have right now. I’ve said this before but it bears repeating. You did not have to mine your own salt eh? You have people who do that for you! If you are reading this that means you have a computer and access to the world wide web! You are RICH. Focus on right now. At this very moment do you have clothes? Do you have running water? Do you have enough food for today? Do you have heat? Got shoes? Socks? It sounds simple but it’s all about shifting your focus from one of lack to one of abundance. Speaking of the internet, there are huge opportunities for people who understand the new Web 2.0 social media and how to connect to prospects and customers on line. BTW if you are interested in learning what I’ve spent the last year absorbing and implementing in order to get the word out about my various projects, let me know. To date I’ve had over 50,000 views of my stop anxiety series as well as thousands of visits from 53 countries to my music site. I’m thinking about offering an affordable weekly coaching club for small business peeps so you can avoid all the dead ends and time wasters I had to work through. Web marketing costs almost nothing and can take your business or career to the next level despite the gloom and doom boys dire forecasts. Interested? E-mail me at mark [at] markshepard.com or call me at 203-495-8808
4. Say this to your self and write it out by hand 100 times (yes 100 times): “Why Does It Work Out Better Than I Can Possibly Imagine?” This will begin to re-program your unconscious mind to filter for good news rather than bad. Go ahead. I dare you. No. I double dare you. No. I double dog dare you! This is one of my own most used anti-anxiety practices
5. Go to www.ClearFear.com and watch the How To Stop Anxiety in 10 Minutes or Less Video. It’s Free and it works: 50,000 people have already viewed it . The whole thing takes a little over 10 minutes. What do you have to lose? In addition to the video I have a lot of other info there that might be of help to you.
6. Register for this month’s CRUSH Anxiety Call
   Wednesday, March 11 at Noon Eastern Time 

   or

   Thursday Night, March 12 at 7:00 pm Eastern Time

   For a one time fee of only $97 and get my Crush Anxiety E-book and complete audio set as my gift ($197 value). If you’ve been on one of these calls before you are welcome to come back any time or as many times as you want for free. Lines are limited so register now.

7. If you need serious help ask for it. Either from me or from another NLP practitioner. Sometimes a big part of making significant changes is simply the act of asking for help.Even though most of my focus these days is on my Life In Song Project and my DrumSongStory performances, I am still working with a select few clients one on one over the phone. Many of my clients have learned how to destroy their fears and anxious thinking patterns and gone on to double, triple and even quintuple their incomes (even in these scary times). If you need help I can often get people significant relief in just one or two NLP phone sessions. Some folks need more support. I charge either by the hour or a flat fee. I will also consider barter. So please do not let your current beliefs in “lack” stop you from getting help. E-mail me at mark[at] MarkShepard.com or call my office at (203) 495-8808

So just a few thoughts and resources for you. Please take advantage of whatever feels right for you. Remember:

• We can not change the world but we can change how we respond to the world.
• We can change how we perceive the world.
• We can change how we interact with the world.
• We can use these challenging times as a motivational tool to think outside the box of our old patterns and routines.
• We can use these times as opportunity triggers.
• Are there problems you can help other people solve?
• Are there talents and abilities you’ve always wanted an opportunity to use?
• Now’s the time to start giving yourself permission to explore them.

I love you all and send you my best wishes and hopes for you all day every day!

Mark

I’ve just finally “got” what twitter is all about. And I think it justifies a post so that I can share some of what I’ve learned and some of the resources I’ve discovered which may help you to get right to it. If you are wondering what twitter has to do with NLP or the Way of the Modern Jedi, it’s this: Tiwtter is a powerful tool to build your practice, and to rapidly build a community of people who are interested in what you have to offer. For folks like Noah St. John and Tony Robbins it’s a way to stay in touch with “the faithful” without clogging up their e-mail in-boxes. For me it’s a way I can reach out to people with specific interests in Music or NLP or who may be local. It’s flexible and a lot of fun.

The other day I saw a short post from some one I’m following on twitter it said: “I just ran with scissors!”

I wrote back “I just stood on a chair!” It was something that took only a moment and it made me smile. I also recently had lunch with some folks here in New Haven who I met on twitter. You never know till you get into it.

So here are some basics:

First things first:

Go to http://twitter.com and sign up for an account.

It is best to use your real name if you can get it. (Use upper and lower case so your first and last name stand out.) The new social media is about being real and accessible. If you advertised your practice in a holistic publication like “Natural Awakenings” you wouldn’t use some silly user name would you?

Make sure you fill out your location and short, one sentence bio. Make sure that you leave the box for “protect my updates” empty. You want to be in the public stream.

Next. Follow me. You can do that by using the twitter search function or just use this link: http://twitter.com/MarkShepard

The next thing you need to know about Twitter is that it is considered polite to follow those people who follow you. And unless some one is completely objectionable it’s a good idea. You can tell almost instantly from a persons follow/following ratio whether they “get” twitter or not. If someone’s following about the same number as are following them they are most likely going to follow you back when you follow them.

There are a couple of programs that can even automatically follow people who follow you and send them a welcoming message. You should get one of those when you follow me. It has a link to my http://MarkShepardSongs.com site where they can get free downloads of my songs.

I use http://www.SocialToo.com but I like http://www.TweetLater.com also. Check them both out.

Some people make a business pitch in their auto follow e-mail. This is not about making a sale. It’s about building a community and contributing something to that community. The best one’s offer some kind of legitimate help. Like the guy I followed who in his follow back pointed out I could change my twitter username from markshepard to MarkShepard. Just  a helpful little tip. I appreciated it. Most of what I’m sharing with you here today I learned from short little tweets on twitter.

And that’s what twitter is all about. It’s people helping other people and making themselves useful.

It’s not what it first appears to be, which is a platform for the self absorbed to trumpet their every moment of their dull mundane day. It’s about having conversations and making connections that gracefully lead people to what you have to offer.

Once you have a twitter account and have followed me, click on the link on your twitter home page titled “Everyone”. Just take a few minutes and read through the most recent posts.Any time you see someones user name preceded by an @ symbol you can right click and open their twitter page in a new tab. If they seem interesting to you go ahead and follow them by clicking the “follow” button. You can unfollow them at any time by clicking the same button on their page.

Please note: if you follow a bunch of people who have fewer than 100 followers and who are following a small number they most likely are newbies and will not have set up the auto follow process. You mostly want to follow people at this point who have a strong likely hood of following you back. One of our goals is to rapidly build social proof as well as a community of people who we can tweet to.

The best resource I found for getting a massive number of followers in a short time is Scot Mckay’s short video. Scot is also one of my favorite dating and relationship coaches and he is a master of the new Web 2.0 social media world. So if you’re not into dating or healthy relationships just focus on what he has to say about twitter. I have watched him go from 1,000 followers to over 25,000 followers in the last three weeks or so. Following his advice I’ve gone from 100 to well over 1,000 followers in about 2 weeks with very little time or effort spent on it. Plus I’ve connected with some great info about music marketing on the web etc.

How To Get 1,000 Twitter followers in 12 Days by Scot Mckay

Also his video “Why Follow Everyone Back On Twitter” is excellent as well.

Scot McKay also offers a free e-book called “Twiduction” that has a lot more nuts and bolts of how to pimp your twitter profile. You should do that even if you are not trying to attract dates. Just take his “how to” advice and use it in your own context. Everything in it works perfectly well for attracting business clients. After all business networking is a lot like dating…(I know, material for yet another post at another time)

Any questions? I’d be happy to answer them. Just leave a comment below. I look forward to Tweeting with you soon!

Mark

Just so you have them in one place here are some additional twitter resources to check out once you get going.

http://www.friendorfollow.com this enables you to see at a glance who is not following you back, who you are not following and who are your mutual followers/following folks.

http://www.twitter.grader.com this enables you to search specifi key words like NLP or localities like New Haven or Connecticut so you can find people who you might want to follow.

http://www.TweetDeck.com this handy application is actually much easier to use than the regular twitter home page. you can see all your follows tweeting by you in real time. it also does some handy things like automatically shorten any long URL that you might be passing on to your Tweets.

So I’ll just jump in and hope you’ll join me for a few moments because this is one of the most important announcements I’ve ever made.

By now it’s pretty hard to avoid the panic and the fear all around us. It seems in so many ways to be the worst of times…We may know intellectually that within each failure there lies the seeds for greater success but sometimes it’s really hard to feel it. It’s a full blown “Crisis”.

A wise man once pointed out to me that the Chinese character for “crisis” is a combination of the symbols for “Danger” & “Opportunity”.

As the blanket of Christmas slowly gets pulled up around us and the stories of hardship and uncertainty gather like storm clouds, some of it is hitting pretty hard and close to home. For me personally, the holiday season has always been bittersweet. This year even more so.

In fact the very nature of the traditional Christmas is solemn and beautiful and sad.

A family of meager means, finds lodging in a stable. A child is born without proper medical attention who would soon be the target of assassins, and who would grow up to meet a painful and harsh end.

Even if you are not remotely religious, you can not help but relate to the story.

And so in the face of what can only be called a “major financial challenge” I found myself at the end of my savings. All the marketing and advertising I’d done had basically fizzled. Staring at my bank balance and the pile of unpaid bills on my desk felt really bad.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. I’d learned NLP in order to increase my income as well as to clear the junk that was holding me back from getting my music out. Unfortunately it seems like in order to properly honor NLP it would mean putting my music back on hold.

So here I was not feeling very resourceful. It felt like the end of a road that didn’t take me where I thought it was going to take me. Still there was the glimmer that perhaps it had taken me where I needed to go.

As I sat pondering how to pay my past due rent, how to stay positive and hopeful…

As I contemplated how I was going to feed my 3 kids who were coming to visit next week…

As I contemplated how I was going to feed myself…

I got an e-mail.

It was from my friend and mentor, Kathy McAfee, who had commissioned me to do a video of “Motivation” (the song I wrote inspired by her work). She had just sent it out to her list and one of her contacts, Fran Capo, had seen it and wanted a theme song too.

So I got in touch with Fran and began to learn more about her and what her mission and message is.

Get this: she’s the Guinness book of world records “Fastest Talking Female” she also holds the records for deepest book signing (at the Titanic) and highest book signing (on Mt. Kilimanjaro).

So I got inspired. I wrote her a song in a very short time. Because everything about Fran is about speed, and just getting stuff done. And living every day as if it is your last. I sang it to her over the phone and she loved it. By chance, my recording engineer, Joe Mennonna was available that afternoon so I drove over and recorded it. By 6:00 pm the song was mixed and ready to play.

You can hear it here. Listen To Adventure Girl – Fran Capo Theme Song

But that’s not the point of this post!

For me the message was clear. As I was sitting that morning asking for guidance, I was going back and forth between what I thought I “should” do and what my heart was “calling me to do”.

I have worked my brains out the last 5 years to build an NLP practice and an NLP training program. I’ve helped quite a few people and the work is rewarding. But the business model doesn’t work very well. I help people transform their lives and then they don’t need to come back any more! Many of the people I want to help can’t afford me. And I couldn’t help them for free and still pay my bills…In NLP we call that a “double bind”.

The talk therapy business model where the client comes back every week for eternity is much better (at least for the therapist).

But the fact is that when I asked myself a very specific question the answer got my attention.

Here’s the question: “If I had only 6 months to live what would I spend every one of those last precious moments doing?”

The answer had 3 parts:

1. I would record every single one of the almost 400 songs I’ve written that have yet to be recorded. I don’t write the music down so in order to preserve them I need to record them. Even if only my kids were able to listen to them it would be worth it.
2. I would get my butt out and perform every chance I got even if it meant going from Starbucks to Starbucks or finding a street corner.
3. I would spend as much time with my friends and family as possible.

That’s it. Pretty simple.

And I actually am doing that on a small scale. I’ve gone into the studio a lot recently and I just did my first concert in 2 years. But I wasn’t truly giving it 100% because I was so busy with all the other things…

But the main reason I hadn’t given 100% of myself to it was a limiting belief. It was a belief that I couldn’t make enough money to pay my rent and all the other bills I had by merely singing my songs.

But at this point, all the marketing and promotion and advertising I’ve been doing to attract people to my NLP trainings and Anxiety clearing work wasn’t paying the bills either.

In NLP we have a concept that basically says: “You get what you focus on. So focus on what you want.”

So I asked the universe for a sign. What do you really want me to do with my life? How can I serve the most people in the highest way while taking really good care of myself and my family? How can I honor this gift I have of writing songs? (I mean it’s really kind of a “healthy compulsion”. I write songs like a horse gallops or like a bird flies. It’s just totally and complete natural for me. Duh! )

Moments later I got the e-mail that Fran Capo wanted a theme song.

If that isn’t an answer I don’t know what is.

So in the next few weeks I will be packing my stuff away and putting everything I own in storage.

I will be letting go of my beautiful apartment overlooking Wooster square and I will be staying with a series of generous friends and family members (see number 3 above).

And I will be using all of my NLP skills to book myself at coffeehouses, and colleges and churches and libraries and yes…Starbucks.

I’m going to be asking you for your help.

• It may be as simple as asking you to pass a song along to a friend who might need to hear it.
• It might be as affordable as downloading a single song for $2. bucks.
• I’m definitely going to ask you to invest in one or more of my CD’s. And when you do I’ll send you a 2nd one for FREE that you can share with a friend. 
  Mark Shepard’s CD’s Available Here
  
• I’m going to invite you to come see me perform and I’m going to ask you to bring a friend. Please join my mailing list at the top right hand corner of this site so you’ll get advance invitations.
  
• If you have a big enough house, I’m going to ask you to consider having a house concert and inviting all your friends. Together we can change the world. Call me today to get started. 203-804-1208

If you’ve been reading my stuff for a while you know my message is about hope and empowerment and healing and transformation and joy.

Yes, I’m a little scared. Not of performing any more (thanks to NLP that’s totally gone) but of moving out of my comfort zone. And that’s a good thing. We all tend to get comfortable and it soon becomes a rut. Eventually a rut can feel like a prison.

So let’ use these challenging times to challenge ourselves. What would you do if you had only 6 months to live? Leave a comment below and let me know.

And ask yourself honestly “How can I start doing that now? How can I start even in a small way living my life on purpose today?”

Thank you for your support and encouragement!

Mark

p.s. Please leave me a comment below and “stumble” or “dig” this or e-mail it to a friend.
Thanks!

Whatever the outcome of the election, there is a lot of uncertainty, worry, and anxiety swirling around us here in the United States as well as around the world.

What continually amazes me though is that we have the tools through NLP and Time Line Therapy™, Ericksonian Hypnosis and EFT to totally eradicate anxiety and the physical, and emotional cost it takes.

If you are interested in truly addressing this negative pattern in your life Pay Attention:

Between now and the end of the year I will be offering a 50% discount on phone sessions.

So if you are anywhere in the world struggling with anxiety, worry, phobias, panic attacks or any thing else that is holding you back, hurting you and costing you financially, emotionally, physically, contact me now. I can help.

Available appointments are limited so either e-mail me at modernjedi [at] gmail.com or call my office at 203-804-1208.

and one more thing…remember to Vote! )

Mark

Now normally I advise my clients to stop watching or listening to the news because it bombards your unconscious mind with a constant stream of negative, anxiety provoking, panic attack inducing input.

Anxiety is created by vividly imagining (consciously or unconsciously) the worst possible scenario. Your unconscious mind does not know the difference between what is real and what is imagined so it creates all the same fight or flight chemicals in your body as if it was real. That’s the mind body connection.

Those of us who suffer from anxiety are especially vulnerable to the negative news because we have powerful and vivid imaginations. So  if you take into account the huge amount of bad news to come out of the financial markets in the last few weeks before the upcoming presidential election, it adds up to a massive voter anxiety attack.

So, even though I follow my own advice and avoid actively watching or listening to the news,  the fear is all around us: The economy is in trouble. What’s going to happen? Is it the end of the world as we know it? Will there be mass hysteria? What is the collective power of millions of anxious minds focusing on the worst possible scenario or negative outcome?

There is so much fear surrounding all of us right now that you can not help but be aware of it.

All that being said, what can you do right now to lower your own anxiety or to help the people you love who may be suffering from anxiety?

Here are a couple of links to some NLP techniques you can access for free that might be of help:

How To Stop Anxiety In 10 Minutes or Less Without Drugs or Endless Therapy

How To Change Limiting Beliefs With NLP

My suggestion for today is to visit the links above, watch the videos and actually put the NLP techniques into practice. Right away. Once you lower your anxiety you can then install a new belief or “program” that there is more than enough, that you are okay, that you can even thrive and prosper in these exciting times.

Please comment below and let me know if this was helpful for you.

- Mark Shepard, NLP Master Practitioner and Trainer