Ten Zen Seconds: Twelve Incantations for Purpose, Power and Calm

by Eric Maisel PhD

Overview

In the midst of life's ongoing pressures, a powerful, ten-second technique can change fear or worry into calm, strength, and centeredness. The basis of Ten Zen Seconds lies in using a single deep breath as a container for a specific thought. Blending Eastern principles of breath awareness and mindfulness with Western principles of positive psychology, this guide presents meditative incantations that offer powerful antidotes to stress, procrastination, and anxiety.
The technique is simple to grasp, simple to use, simple to practice, and simple to master. It can be used anywhere, anytime, by anyone, and it provides profound benefits. You'll find yourself able to do things that previously felt too painful or too difficult to attempt and discover how to quiet and center yourself before an important meeting or conversation. Ultimately, you'll change your basic attitudes about life, becoming peaceful and upbeat instead of anxious or pessimistic.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780486821610
Publisher:	Dover Publications
Publication date:	10/17/2018
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Eric Maisel has a doctorate in counseling psychology and has served as adjunct faculty at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California, for ten years. He has lectured and conducted workshops for the American Psychological Association, the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, the Paris Writers Workshop, and many other venues. His books include The Future of Mental Health: Deconstructing the Mental Disorder Paradigm, Rethinking Depression, The Van Gogh Blues, and many others.

Read an Excerpt

Night I am going to teach you a centering technique that verges on the miraculous. You can dramatically improve your ability to center, become more calm and more powerful, and radically improve your life by taking ten-second pauses of the sort that I'm about to describe. You'll be amazed to learn that such a life-altering strategy can come in a span as small as ten seconds, but it can! Hundreds of my clients, and hundreds of volunteers, have used this technique to center, calm, and ground themselves while waiting in traffic, sitting in the dentist's office, preparing to record a new album, or readying themselves to talk to their teenager. They know firsthand that this technique works.
This ten-second technique has two components: a breathing part and a thinking part. The basis of Ten Zen Seconds is using a single deep breath as a container for a specific thought. First you practice deep breathing until you can produce a breath that lasts about five seconds on the inhale and five seconds on the exhale. Learning to do this will take you only a few minutes. Then you insert a thought into the breath, silently thinking half the thought on the inhale and half the thought on the exhale. This, too, will take you only a short time to learn. In an afternoon you can familiarize yourself with the program outlined in this book.

Table of Contents

Contents

One. Introducing Ten Zen Seconds........................................
Two. Breathing and Thinking...............................................
Three. The Twelve Incantations..........................................
Four. Incantation 1: I Am Completely Stopping....................
Five. Incantation 2: I Expect Nothing.....................................
Six. Incantation 3: I Am Doing My Work................................
Seven. Incantation 4: I Trust My Resources.........................
Eight. Incantation 5: I Feel Supported.................................
Nine. Incantation 6: I Embrace This Moment.........................
Ten. Incantation 7: I Am Free of the Past..............................
Eleven. Incantation 8: I Make My Meaning..........................
Twelve. Incantation 9: I Am Open to Joy............................
Thirteen. Incantation 10: I Am Equal to This Challenge.....
Fourteen. Incantation 11: I Am Taking Action..................
Fifteen. Incantation 12: I Return with Strength..................
Sixteen. Using the Twelve Incantations.............................
Seventeen. Choosing Incantations...................................
Eighteen. Combining, Customizing, and
Creating Incantations....................................................
Nineteen. Bookends........................................................
Twenty. Ten Zen Seconds Centering Exercises.................
Twenty-One. Introducing the Centering Sequence............
Twenty-Two. Practicing the Centering Sequence.............
Twenty-Three. Customizing the Centering Sequence......
Twenty-Four. Centering in Public...................................
Twenty-Five. Centering and Healing................................
Twenty-Six. Centering for Performance............................
Twenty-Seven. In the Vanguard.....................................
Twenty-Eight. Your Centering Practice...........................
About the Author................................................................