The Key to Human Minds
Eqthinking: The Key to the Human Mind©
Eqthinking is a globally congruent method of thinking. It combines the western thought process of filling the mind with positive thoughts with the eastern thought process of emptying the mind of negative thoughts. It is also about filling the mind with positive emotions like calmness, joy, thankfulness, gratitude, kindness and emptying the mind of negative emotions of anger, depression, bitterness. We fill the mind with positive intentions and get rid of negative intentions. We fill the mind with positive imagination and get rid of negative imagination.
Equilibrium is a multidisciplinary concept that exists in Economics, Biology, Physics, Chemistry and Psychology. Indeed there is a strong case for starting a new branch of Psychology called Equilibrium Psychology. Equilibrium or homeostasis is a common concept and phenomenon in many disciplines and in much of nature. When you are thirsty, you drink water to restore equilibrium or a stable condition that enables you to function normally or at your optimum level. When you are hungry, you eat.. When you are tired, you rest, when you are feeling hot, you find a shade or a fan to rest under. Similarly, the human mind is a dynamic state of equilibrium that is affected by a variety of internal and external factors. Eqthinking will strengthen the internal factors to restore the mental equilibrium in all of life's situations. In inanimate matter, the equilibrium is based on the co-existence of positive and negative while in the human mind, the equilibrium is based on augmenting the positive and negating the negative.
Every human being has a positive mind that makes him or her think positive, feel positive, choose positively, speak positively, act and react positively. Every human being has also a negative mind that makes him or her think negative, feel negative, choose negatively, speak negatively, act and react negatively. Eqthinking simultaneously reinforces our positive mind and counters our negative mind. The result is higher spiritual, emotional intelligence, higher productivity, greater joy, better health and greater creativity, success, wealth and relationships.
The optimal point at which both positive thoughts, feelings, words, decisions, actions and reactions are reinforced to the maximum extent possible and negative thoughts, feelings, decisions, words, actions, reactions are negated to the maximum extent possible and necessary is called equilibrium. The frequency and intensity on a scale of 1 to 5 of either positive or negative thoughts, feelings, decisions, words, actions and reactions determines how high or how low the equilibrium is reached.
There are two kinds of equilibrium: static equilibrium that happens when a body is at rest and dynamic equilibrium when though a person is in motion, every moment he or she is at equilibrium. For dynamic equilibrium to happen there has to be an inward pull or "be at it" movement and an outward push or" beat it "movement. When a person excels he is in dynamic equilibrium, every moment he or she is thinking how to do better and every moment he or she is pulling inwards more energy to give it more thrust the next moment. This kind of dynamic equilibrium is the composite of multiple intelligences- intellectual, emotional, spiritual, social, creative. It applies as much to a sportsperson, a scientist, a leader, a writer, or a student.
Eqthinking deals with and enhances the mental-emotional states inside the individual. It deals with a more fundamental game than John Nash's Equilibrium theory. While the Nash equilibrium is about the game between two or more entities. Eqthinking is about the game within each of us and how to consistently win it. In Nash equilibrium, one player's best option is contingent on another person's best option. It is between two players. It is the basis of game theory. But in eqthinking, it deals with the game going on within one person- the play off between one's positives and negatives. Equilibrium or the best option is obtained by affirming or reinforcing the positive and negating one's negatives.
Mankind is designed for success but programmed for failure. We are designed for health and happiness but the program running in our minds is" be sick, beat health." be unhappy, beat happiness. In eqthinking, people are taught to reverse the program or software to read; be healthy, beat sickness, be joyful, beat sadness. be successful, beat failure. Now who does not want such a program to work all our lives in our minds. But, our existing programming will not let us even acknowledge that the current program running is be sick, beat health, be unhappy, beat happiness. The reality is that the vast majority of people world-wide do not consider themselves in the pink of health nor in a state of happiness. The vast majority do not consider themselves successful. Failure predominates, Unhappiness predominates. Sickness predominates.
Values are the software of the human mind. Eqthinking is a tool to be able to access the software. The mind too operates on a " on-off switch " system when it comes to emotions like anger, anxiety and so on.
Genesis:
I discovered the whole process over a period of nearly fourteen years between 1981 and 1994. In this period, I was in search within myself of a key to the human soul. I thought to myself that if I can discover a simple master key to unlock the secrets and treasures of the mind, it would be so useful to myself and others. I discovered eqthinking by imitating the art of the heart. The heart beats unceasingly. Therefore, I told myself I need to find a thought process that works in human minds unceasingly. The heart beats rhythmically. I decided to discover a thought process that is based on a similar binary rhythmic pattern of expanding and contracting. The result was the discovery of " be at it:beat it." Later on a physicist who worked on the electricity of the human heart told me that the heart works on the same pattern as Eqthinking: plus plus or reinforcing positive ions with positive ions and negative negative or negating negAtive ions with negative ions. Eqthinking imitates other continuous biological and natural processes like the respiration process, the consumption-excretion process, the heart beat, the day and night cycle,
Need and Relevance:
Events and incidents all over the world confirm the need for a mind software like Eqthinking- the suicide of otherwise outwardly successful people is a case in point . Success in today's world kills as much as failure. We should learn equally how to deal with strength and weakness, friends and foes, success and failure, health and sickness, prosperity and depression. This is the skill that eqthinking equips the average human being with. Eqthinking is an unique process as it enables one to meditate or to go slower and to be motivated or to go faster at the same time. When people are struggling to find a little relief, a simple solution, the thinking class of the world produce solutions that are so complex that the former prefer to live with their present troiubles without adding to it an even more tedioous struggle to learn a new complex technique, concept or method to deal with it. Eqthinking through its sheer simplicity resolves this challenge
The WHO stated in its report that by the year 2020, nearly 40 per cent of the world's population would be suffering from depression. That was the projection before the economic recession started in the past three-four years.
Focus on the Locus©
The word 'be' is a simple word but a complex verb. It implies the integration of thinking, feeling, speaking, acting, reacting, creating, working, resting, exercising, relaxing, and indeed all of living. The word 'beat' similarly implies a combination of defeating, overcoming, conquering, reducing, weakening, winning, vanquishing, eradicating. Life involves two simultaneous processes in constant motion: sustaining, building or in one word edification and removing, overcoming or in one word - eradication. Equilibrium of life is achieved on a continuous basis by reinforcing the positive process of edification and while simulaneously negating or weakening the negative or eradication. Eqthinking is a dual process or binary process that altenates between : be at it and beat it.
It is not mere positive thinking but goes far beyond even in its positive implications. Be at it means be positive which implies not just think positive but to feel positive, to speak positive, to act positively, to react positively, to create positively, to work positively, to rest positively and to set positive goals and to live positively. The edification process which is itself only one half of eqthinking is far more comprehensive and significant than positive thinking. The eradication process leverages on negative forces, factors and values to also create a positive process through a " negative-negative" effect. Eqthinking can also be called the " be " or breathe excellence method as it invokes the same processes involved in breathing, one breathes in oxygen, an essentially positive process and one breathes out carbon dioxide, also an essentially positive process as it negates the negative. Hence, eqthinking is a life enhancing capsule that can be practised coterminously with life itself or with breathing. Eqthinking breaks down life to its basic binary building blocks and causes self growth to happen from breath to breath, moment to moment. All the complex processes of the human mind, the complex memories, the complex motives and motivation, the complex thoughts, the complex goals, the psyche are reduced to the irreducible minimum of a binary process. Reducing it to a binary process is not an oversimplification but a breakthrough for humanity as it lends itself to easy comprehension and practice by down to earth practical methods like breathing, exercising, walking or any other activity that is binary in nature. The congruence of the intellectual, emotional and spiritual with the physical and practical represents a breakthrough for humanity. It lends itself easily to daylong and lifelong learning and practice. Eqthinking makes meditation and motivation as simple as breathing. It barely needs to be taught. It can be practiced all the time. It meets all needs of the mind. The entire process is broken down into just two movements. Eqthinking or Equilibrium Thinking enables a person to focus on his mental, emotional and attitudinal goals. The mind is put on auto pilot by constantly using binary commands like “be calm, beat anger; be relaxed, beat stress; be wise, beat folly; be joyful, beat depression; be strong, beat weakness…” These paired or binary commands to self are in a similar pattern as our respiration pattern wherein we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. When we continually use similar paired or complementary commands, it becomes over a relatively short period of time the default pattern of our minds. The untrained intellect and the emotional brain works on a default pattern of “ be angry: beat calmness; be depressed, beat joy; be weak, beat strength; be foolish, beat wisdom…” If even a relatively positive minded person examines his own normal thought process, he/ she would discover it to be tending more to the negative than to the positive. That default pattern is reversed so that we adopt healthy patterns of thinking, feeing, acting and reacting. The pattern of thought in eqthinking is based on the paradigm: be strong, beat weakness and be positive, beat negative. It is the same pattern on which our breathing process is based. Hence, the thought process can be synchronized with breathing and it lends itself to practice all the time and life-long. The focus is on the positive and the reinforcement of the positive in the “ be at it” process alternating with the negation of the negative in the “ beat it “ sequence. The idea of deepening the brain grooves or neural pathways through continual repetition enables the subconscious mind to take over the dual process after the period of initiation of about three weeks. To quote Napoleon Hill, the well known author on self development, “ It is an unconscionable fact that the subconscious recognizes a command only after several repetitions.” The repetition of binary commands leads to re-programming the sub conscious mind which is a bio computer that works round the clock even while we are sleeping on a binary principle of “Yes/No.” An average human being hears more “Nos” than “yeses” in the course of his formative childhood as well as later in life. In eqthinking, the programming is changed to “ Yes-Yes/ No-No.” The “yeses” or affirmations translate into our strengths and possibilities while the “Nos” translate into our weaknesses. In the “ beat it” sequence of the eqthinking thought process, the negatives are reduced, neutralised, eliminated or turned into a strength. Our Positive-Negative Thought patterns translate into Strength-weakness patterns and these in turn translate into Succes-failure patterns. Hence, Eqthinking by changing our thought patterns, changes our Strength-weakness patterns and ultimately changes our success-failure pattern. We are what we are because of our strengths but we are not what we ought to be on account of our weaknesses. In order to achieve our full human potential, we need to tap into the areas of our weaknesses. Even if we are not able to turn all our negatives into positives or strengths, eqthinking will help us rein in or control or keep under check our weaknesses like excessive anger or lack of self control. Daniel Goleman in his book “Emotional Intelligence” rightly states that EQ or emotional intelligence can only be enhanced through a continual inner dialogue. Dr Shad Helmstetter, a psychologist whose work “ What We Say When We Talk to Ourselves” has called this continual inner dialogue as “ self talk”. He stated in his book that self talk is the inputting device for the human brain or mind just as the keyboard is the inputting device for the computer. Dr Shad Helmstetter also found that the more precise and simple the self talk, the more effective it is. He discovered that self talk is the key to self change. If self talk is the keyboard for the human mind, eqthinking, that relies on a binary thought process, is the key to the human mind, the key to developing strengths vis-à-vis weaknesses, the key to enhancing emotional intelligence, the key to improving the success to failure ratio of individuals, the key to anger management, the key to improving holistic health, overcoming stress and enhancing creativity. Even a very complex lock needs only a simple key to open it. Similarly the extremely complex human mind can be opened with the simple key of eqthinking. A key is used not only to unlock but to also lock. Similarly, eqthinking is a key to unlock the creative power of the human mind and to lock its destructive potential. The key to turning a monkey mind into a monk mind is to find and use the key to the human mind : eqthinking - the key to the human mind- to lock destructive potential of anger, hatred, bitterness, lack of focus, laziness, jealousy, fears, greed, lust, pride, insensitivity, violence and to unlock the creative potential of the mind: love, joy, peace, patience, faith, kindness, humility, focus, self control, contentment, determination, goodness, gentleness, nobility. “ Be at it:: beat it” is the source code of the human mind. Each individual depending on his own SWOT analysis of his strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can derive apt paired or binary commands of which examples have already been given. We can focus on using our strengths to overcome our weaknesses and avail opportunities while neutralising threats. The change in the pattern of our self talk from being predominantly negative to completely positive through the reinforcement of the positive and negating the negative results in a change in our neural patterns or brain patterns. This results in brain patterns supporting self change instead of impeding it through a weak will, lack of persistence and procrastination. Eqthinking enables a practitioner to keep trying again and again, learning from failures till he or she reaches the breakthrough point. PRATEEP v PHILIP © According to Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence consists of the big five : SSMESS or Self Awareness, Self Regulation, Motivation, Empathy and Social Skills. Eqthinking contributes or enhances each of these aspects in the individual practicing it over a period of time. Self awareness is not only awareness of our strengths but also our weaknesses. Once we know our strengths and weaknesses, we should find a way to further develop our strengths and overcome or at least minimise our weaknesses. Eqthinking makes us equally aware of our strengths and weaknesses. We then move on to use the binary commands for self regulation. Eqthinking enables us to tap into our ATM or Any Time Motivation. The resources for self change lie within each of us. To quote Peter Davies, “Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top up's."Eqthinking provides continual, regular top ups of motivation to the individual practicing it. By continually issuing binary commands to oneself, he or she motivates self to achieve the goal set. The fact that we are aware of and are working on turning our weaknesses around makes us more empathetic particularly in not judging others. Eqthinking also has impact on developing our social skills like listening, problem solving, sensitivity, problem solving, creativity and so on. Bio-rhythms and Eqthinking The human body or for that matter all organisms keep to certain bio-rhythms to maintain equilibrium. The human mind too can find and sustain equilibrium by following a rhythmic thought pattern. The heart follows a pattern of the systolic and diastolic- the alternating pattern caused by its expansion and contraction. If the human mind can imitate the heart and follow a certain pattern of thought, it would certainly stabilise our thoughts, emotions and decision patterns. It was this thought that led me to ultimately discover equilibrium thinking or the thought pattern or process that alternates between thinking positive and thinking negative-negative. Our breathing pattern also alternates between breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. The heart and lungs work continuously, ceaselessly and alternates sequentially between two types of movements. For several years, I tried to replicate this binary pattern using the verbal tool, “ be at it.” This tool implied that one needs to persist in using one’s strengths, to persevere till one achieves a goal, to stay positive. But in reality, the negative interferes with this pattern. Therefore, I found it necessary to alternate the positive thought process or “ be at it” with “ beat it” or a negative-negative thought pattern. “Be at it” or the positive process implies that one needs to utilise and reinforce his strengths while “beat it” or the negative-negative thought process implies that one needs to identify, negate, reduce, overcome and turn one’s weakness into a strength. The advantage of a binary thought process like equilibrium thinking is that it will enable one to synchronise one’s thinking with even basic physical activities like breathing in and breathing out, walking, exercising, cycling, swimming and so on. The simplicity of the concepts and its correlation with day to day physical activities enables a person to blend thinking or meditation with his or her daily routine. If one can practice it all day long, one can practice it lifelong. It becomes a tool for lifelong learning and lifelong development. The way the human being is configured in spirit, mind and body, each of us in order to move forward towards our goals need to reinforce positives or strengths as the right limb and as the left limb, overcome negatives or weaknesses in us and in the environment . Leadership and life itself is a two way process. If one wants to change his condition, he or she should change his conditioning. The conditioning is usually very deep rooted in one’s psyche or subconscious. Equilibrium Thinking provides a programming language to de-condition the negative conditioning of the past that causes a person to be angry, depressed, fearful, nervous, suspicious, tense or anxious. These negatives are deeply ingrained and cannot be impacted by mere positive thinking. Equilibrium Thinking overcomes the usual embedded negative triggers that are set in motion when we say, “ Do not be afraid” or “ Do not worry.” The thought process is expressed in terms of a set of paired or binary commands, for example: be calm, beat anger are the two commands to address the issue of anger. Another idea that led me to the discovery of equilibrium thinking is that of “ auto-pilot.” If a thought process is made habitual, our minds would be on “ auto-pilot” and it would be second nature to be positive and beat negative. Constant and continuous repetition of the simple paired or binary commands would lead a person practicing eqthinking to be automatically positive and automatically “ negative-negative.” How Does Eqthinking Alter the Paradigm of Thinking: Our thoughts lead to emotions,emotions lead to decisions, decisions lead to actions and reactions,actions lead to results, results lead to happiness or satisfaction. By default, the untrained human mind is predominantly and automatically negative. We are caught in an Automatic Negative Thought Process. By practising eqthinking, our thought process gets transformed into Automatic Positive Thought Process leveraging even on a negative negative thought process(beat it). Where earlier, our automatic Negative Thoughts led to Automatic Negative Words, our expression will now get transformed into Automatic Positive Words. Our Automatic Negative Attitudes will get transformed into Automatic Positive attitudes. This is the second level of equilibrium. The third level of equilibrium is that our automatic negative emotions will get transformed into automatic positive emotions. Our automatic negative decisions will get transformed into automatic positive decisions. Our automatic negative results or fruits will get transformed into automatic positive fruits or results. Our automatic negative relationships will get transformed into automatic positive relationships. Thus, when we practise eqthinking, we begin to experience breakthroughs or transformation Eqthinking will improve decision making as decisions are often made in a split second but the inputs that go into decision making are made over a long period, if not a lifetime. In dealing with a provocative situation, a person will be enabled to decide to contain his anger and reveal appropriate amount of anger in the appropriate way. When we are constantly thinking on the same lines for instance, be calm, beat anger the related mental grooves or neural pathways get broadened into highways and the highways into superhighways just as a dirt track that is constantly used develops into a wider road over time. Eqthinking employs the method of repetitive reinforcement as the subconscious mind understands a command only after several repetitions. Mankind collectively and individually are designed for success, happiness, progress but we are programmed for failure. Eqthinking seeks to correct the programming by addressing the hitherto untapped potential of the negative. The binary code or binary process enables us to address the challenge of reinforcing the positive on a continual basis and to also simultaneously addresss the challenge of changing the negative into positive. Once the self talk changes on these two lines, automatically, the programming changes, our thought pattern changes, our emotional pattern changes, our decision pattern changes,our actions change and our outcomes or results change for the better. The relationships between individuals, organisations and nations will also change for the better. Eqthinking not only enhances your Capabilities but it also simultaneously enhances your Copabilities or your ability to deal with the negative, negatives in us, negatives in the environment, in society, in situations, in organizatons and in relationships. Eqthinking overcomes the problem in human psychology of the embedded negative. It also overcomes the problem of the ingrained negative. It balances courage with dealing with fear, calmness with dealing with anger, strength with dealing with weakness. More than 50 per cent of our psyche is constituted by the forces and factors of negativity. When we ignore such a large part of our selves, we end up allowing these negatives to grow in the backyard of the mind like weeds that overrun an untended garden. Instead, we must acknowledge, accept and deal with the negatives. Eqthinking teaches one to lead from the positives and deal with the negatives In my discussions with heads of training research in some major corporate firms, they felt that the major challenge in training interventions is the difficulty of internalisation. Eqthinking enables internalisation of learning instantly and lifelong. It presents “zero complexity” combined with comprehensiveness of all the essentials. Normal training interventions are at the behavioural level and hence due to the honeymoon effect of training trickles off or wear off quickly. In Eqthinking the intervention is at the subconscious level and hence, produces long lasting effect. A tiny change at the subsconscious level produces a massive change at the behavioural level. Eqthinking enhances human productivity and profitability. Daniel Goleman explained how EQ has a direct co-relation to profitability. He said that billions of dollars are being spent to find a way to enhance EQ. But, no method has been found. Eqthinking in fact not just enhances EQ but it enhances, SQ or Spiritual Quotient, Persistence Quotient, Imagination Quotient and Attitude Quotient . Small doses of power over a long period of time are more effective than a large dose of power over a short time. Eqthinking is based on continuous, lifelong learning and practice. It produces a tiny change at the deepest level- the subconscious level. Like the cascade effect, a tiny change at tne subconscious level produces a massive change at the conscious or behavioural or surface level. Eqthinking leads to creativity being unleashed and tapped. The reason is that two seemingly opposite thoughts are being held continuously like polar opposites in the human mind. As the physicist Niels Bohr said, "It is the swirling of opposites in the human mind that produces creativity." Eqthinking unlike any other method in psychology uses auto command instead of auto suggestion based on the assumption that an individual alone has authority over self and he/she can best exercise it only through commands to self. Why is it Called Equilibrium Thinking? Equilibrium is the balance of competing influences. Eqthinking reconciles the competing influence of the positive and negative factors by reinforcing the positive and negating the negative. Positive thinking ignores the negative stating that it is enough to be positive. The competing influence of the thesis and the antithesis produces synthesis. Both these complementary processes are incorporated in the two processes verbalised as " be at it" and " beat it". Multiple Quotients and Composite Ethics Composite Ethics summed up in 4 C's - Calmness, Courage,Compassion and Creativity and Multiple Quotients like Imagination Quotient, Persistence quotient, Attitude quotient, Emotional Quotient and Spiritual Quotient are enhanced through eqthinking. It spurs our creativity and puts a damper on our self destruction buttons, a safety catch on our volatile emotions. Unlike Lateral Thinking that is ethically neutral and can be used by criminals and terrorists to be imaginatively destructive, eqthinking is pro-life, pro-ethics. Ethical values are emotional and spiritual intelligence encapsulated. Hence, through eqthinking, you can literally inhale or imbibe positive ethics and exhale or throw out the negative values. Ethical values like love,joy, peace, patience, humility,kindness, goodnessm, faithfulness, self control and wisdom are the metaphoric oxygen that our human minds should breathe in and their opposites are the used up carbon dioxide that we should breathe out. Values of humanity cutting across all boundaries of religion,culture and nationality like love,joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control and wisdom are emotional and spiritual intelligence encapsulated. Like oxygen is breathed in, we can breathe in these life-giving and life enhancing values and breathe out their opposites all the time. There are millions of real life situations where eqthinking enabled and enables real people to overcome and triumph. In real life we tend to give up too easily particularly when we encounter opposition, difficulties and obstacles. A person known to me needed to get the details of his first passport of some twenty years back for applying for a PIO card or Person of Indian Origin card. His several enquiries at the local passport office drew a blank as they said they do not maintain records that long. But he kept telling himself " be at it , beat it" or keep trying. He got the idea of trying in Australia where he lived for some time. He went to the passport office and they had all the details he wanted. He attributes his success in this matter to practicing eqthinking. A young student was afraid of staying alone or to go out in the dark. Her aunt taught her to apply eqthinking. She used the binary eqthinking commands: be bold, beat fear; be strong, beat weakness; be courageous, beat fear. Over a period of weeks, she overcame her phobia and went on to be confident and successful. A marketing manager was quite addicted to smoking. At a particular point in his life he wanted to kick the habit. He learnt eqthinking and applied it to his specific situation and goal using the binary commands: be self controlled, beat smoking. He wrote it on a small slip of paper that he kept in his shirt pocket. Every time he was tempted to resume smoking, he looked at the slip. He was able to give up smoking and even is a lead campaigner against smoking in a CanStop or anti cancer initiative of a NGO. A senior officer was unfairly scolded by his boss for some work done not to the latter's satisfaction. He was visibly upset and stressed. He recovered by using the binary commands: be calm , beat stress; be relaxed, beat anxiety A Vice President of a leading financial corporate was worried about the poor or sluggish sales and the demotivated sales team. He organized a short eqthinking workshop for his 100 strong sales team. Within the quarter the total sales shot up by a record 800 per cent. Each of the 100 used eqthinking to address his or her own personal issues affecting motivation and performance. The result was an astonishing quantum leap in sales with any other factor like incentives or ad campaign not being in play. The best performers improved while the poor performers improved drastically. Each of the 100 who attended my workshop on eqthinking used the tools differently to overcome issues they were facing or were ignoring till then. One of the sales managers had low self esteem or self belief and would give up trying with potential clients quite quickly. After learning eqthinking, he used the binary commands: be persistent, beat giving up; be positive , beat negative ; be confident , beat failure. His success rate zoomed up phenomenally in the weeks that followed as he was led to try more and get better each time he made an attempt. A sales representative used to have a low level of confidence. He would give up easily after a weak attempt. He developed his confidence using the binary commands : be confident, beat failure; be persistent, beat giving up. His sales performance improved drastically thereafter. A small scale industrialist was getting very worried about the financial performance of his unit in that quarter. He practiced breathing in calmness and breathing out anxiety. He experienced immediate and complete release and relief from his fears and worries. A company secretary was short tempered, irritable and difficult to please. He learnt about eqthinking. Thought that it was too simple to work but he anyway told himself he would try it during his daily twenty minute walk in a park. He used the binary commands: be calm, beat tension; be relaxed, beat stress; be contented, beat dissatisfaction. He repeated internally these binary commands coordinating with the binary movement of his feet. He experienced change within a few weeks and continued to be an eqthinker. A middle aged person developed a morbid fear of dying after a bypass surgery. He used the binary commands : be brave, beat fear; be confident , beat panic, be strong, beat weakness and over the next few weeks regained control of his mind. A young police trainee was suffering from extreme hypertension as she was under a lot of pressure in her earlier job as a news reader. She used the binary commands: be calm, beat stress; be relaxed, beat tension, be joyful, beat depression. She was able to overcome her stress and her BP came under control over a period of time. Another police trainee suffered a nervous breakdown. She recovered her equilibrium by using regularly the paired commands: be healthy , beat sickness; be happy, beat sadness; be calm, beat stress; be relaxed, beat tension; be confident, beat fear.
It is not mere positive thinking but goes far beyond even in its positive implications. Be at it means be positive which implies not just think positive but to feel positive, to speak positive, to act positively, to react positively, to create positively, to work positively, to rest positively and to set positive goals and to live positively. The edification process which is itself only one half of eqthinking is far more comprehensive and significant than positive thinking. The eradication process leverages on negative forces, factors and values to also create a positive process through a " negative-negative" effect. Eqthinking can also be called the " be " or breathe excellence method as it invokes the same processes involved in breathing, one breathes in oxygen, an essentially positive process and one breathes out carbon dioxide, also an essentially positive process as it negates the negative. Hence, eqthinking is a life enhancing capsule that can be practised coterminously with life itself or with breathing. Eqthinking breaks down life to its basic binary building blocks and causes self growth to happen from breath to breath, moment to moment. All the complex processes of the human mind, the complex memories, the complex motives and motivation, the complex thoughts, the complex goals, the psyche are reduced to the irreducible minimum of a binary process. Reducing it to a binary process is not an oversimplification but a breakthrough for humanity as it lends itself to easy comprehension and practice by down to earth practical methods like breathing, exercising, walking or any other activity that is binary in nature. The congruence of the intellectual, emotional and spiritual with the physical and practical represents a breakthrough for humanity. It lends itself easily to daylong and lifelong learning and practice. Eqthinking makes meditation and motivation as simple as breathing. It barely needs to be taught. It can be practiced all the time. It meets all needs of the mind. The entire process is broken down into just two movements. Eqthinking or Equilibrium Thinking enables a person to focus on his mental, emotional and attitudinal goals. The mind is put on auto pilot by constantly using binary commands like “be calm, beat anger; be relaxed, beat stress; be wise, beat folly; be joyful, beat depression; be strong, beat weakness…” These paired or binary commands to self are in a similar pattern as our respiration pattern wherein we breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. When we continually use similar paired or complementary commands, it becomes over a relatively short period of time the default pattern of our minds. The untrained intellect and the emotional brain works on a default pattern of “ be angry: beat calmness; be depressed, beat joy; be weak, beat strength; be foolish, beat wisdom…” If even a relatively positive minded person examines his own normal thought process, he/ she would discover it to be tending more to the negative than to the positive. That default pattern is reversed so that we adopt healthy patterns of thinking, feeing, acting and reacting. The pattern of thought in eqthinking is based on the paradigm: be strong, beat weakness and be positive, beat negative. It is the same pattern on which our breathing process is based. Hence, the thought process can be synchronized with breathing and it lends itself to practice all the time and life-long. The focus is on the positive and the reinforcement of the positive in the “ be at it” process alternating with the negation of the negative in the “ beat it “ sequence. The idea of deepening the brain grooves or neural pathways through continual repetition enables the subconscious mind to take over the dual process after the period of initiation of about three weeks. To quote Napoleon Hill, the well known author on self development, “ It is an unconscionable fact that the subconscious recognizes a command only after several repetitions.” The repetition of binary commands leads to re-programming the sub conscious mind which is a bio computer that works round the clock even while we are sleeping on a binary principle of “Yes/No.” An average human being hears more “Nos” than “yeses” in the course of his formative childhood as well as later in life. In eqthinking, the programming is changed to “ Yes-Yes/ No-No.” The “yeses” or affirmations translate into our strengths and possibilities while the “Nos” translate into our weaknesses. In the “ beat it” sequence of the eqthinking thought process, the negatives are reduced, neutralised, eliminated or turned into a strength. Our Positive-Negative Thought patterns translate into Strength-weakness patterns and these in turn translate into Succes-failure patterns. Hence, Eqthinking by changing our thought patterns, changes our Strength-weakness patterns and ultimately changes our success-failure pattern. We are what we are because of our strengths but we are not what we ought to be on account of our weaknesses. In order to achieve our full human potential, we need to tap into the areas of our weaknesses. Even if we are not able to turn all our negatives into positives or strengths, eqthinking will help us rein in or control or keep under check our weaknesses like excessive anger or lack of self control. Daniel Goleman in his book “Emotional Intelligence” rightly states that EQ or emotional intelligence can only be enhanced through a continual inner dialogue. Dr Shad Helmstetter, a psychologist whose work “ What We Say When We Talk to Ourselves” has called this continual inner dialogue as “ self talk”. He stated in his book that self talk is the inputting device for the human brain or mind just as the keyboard is the inputting device for the computer. Dr Shad Helmstetter also found that the more precise and simple the self talk, the more effective it is. He discovered that self talk is the key to self change. If self talk is the keyboard for the human mind, eqthinking, that relies on a binary thought process, is the key to the human mind, the key to developing strengths vis-à-vis weaknesses, the key to enhancing emotional intelligence, the key to improving the success to failure ratio of individuals, the key to anger management, the key to improving holistic health, overcoming stress and enhancing creativity. Even a very complex lock needs only a simple key to open it. Similarly the extremely complex human mind can be opened with the simple key of eqthinking. A key is used not only to unlock but to also lock. Similarly, eqthinking is a key to unlock the creative power of the human mind and to lock its destructive potential. The key to turning a monkey mind into a monk mind is to find and use the key to the human mind : eqthinking - the key to the human mind- to lock destructive potential of anger, hatred, bitterness, lack of focus, laziness, jealousy, fears, greed, lust, pride, insensitivity, violence and to unlock the creative potential of the mind: love, joy, peace, patience, faith, kindness, humility, focus, self control, contentment, determination, goodness, gentleness, nobility. “ Be at it:: beat it” is the source code of the human mind. Each individual depending on his own SWOT analysis of his strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats can derive apt paired or binary commands of which examples have already been given. We can focus on using our strengths to overcome our weaknesses and avail opportunities while neutralising threats. The change in the pattern of our self talk from being predominantly negative to completely positive through the reinforcement of the positive and negating the negative results in a change in our neural patterns or brain patterns. This results in brain patterns supporting self change instead of impeding it through a weak will, lack of persistence and procrastination. Eqthinking enables a practitioner to keep trying again and again, learning from failures till he or she reaches the breakthrough point. PRATEEP v PHILIP © According to Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence consists of the big five : SSMESS or Self Awareness, Self Regulation, Motivation, Empathy and Social Skills. Eqthinking contributes or enhances each of these aspects in the individual practicing it over a period of time. Self awareness is not only awareness of our strengths but also our weaknesses. Once we know our strengths and weaknesses, we should find a way to further develop our strengths and overcome or at least minimise our weaknesses. Eqthinking makes us equally aware of our strengths and weaknesses. We then move on to use the binary commands for self regulation. Eqthinking enables us to tap into our ATM or Any Time Motivation. The resources for self change lie within each of us. To quote Peter Davies, “Motivation is like food for the brain. You cannot get enough in one sitting. It needs continual and regular top up's."Eqthinking provides continual, regular top ups of motivation to the individual practicing it. By continually issuing binary commands to oneself, he or she motivates self to achieve the goal set. The fact that we are aware of and are working on turning our weaknesses around makes us more empathetic particularly in not judging others. Eqthinking also has impact on developing our social skills like listening, problem solving, sensitivity, problem solving, creativity and so on. Bio-rhythms and Eqthinking The human body or for that matter all organisms keep to certain bio-rhythms to maintain equilibrium. The human mind too can find and sustain equilibrium by following a rhythmic thought pattern. The heart follows a pattern of the systolic and diastolic- the alternating pattern caused by its expansion and contraction. If the human mind can imitate the heart and follow a certain pattern of thought, it would certainly stabilise our thoughts, emotions and decision patterns. It was this thought that led me to ultimately discover equilibrium thinking or the thought pattern or process that alternates between thinking positive and thinking negative-negative. Our breathing pattern also alternates between breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide. The heart and lungs work continuously, ceaselessly and alternates sequentially between two types of movements. For several years, I tried to replicate this binary pattern using the verbal tool, “ be at it.” This tool implied that one needs to persist in using one’s strengths, to persevere till one achieves a goal, to stay positive. But in reality, the negative interferes with this pattern. Therefore, I found it necessary to alternate the positive thought process or “ be at it” with “ beat it” or a negative-negative thought pattern. “Be at it” or the positive process implies that one needs to utilise and reinforce his strengths while “beat it” or the negative-negative thought process implies that one needs to identify, negate, reduce, overcome and turn one’s weakness into a strength. The advantage of a binary thought process like equilibrium thinking is that it will enable one to synchronise one’s thinking with even basic physical activities like breathing in and breathing out, walking, exercising, cycling, swimming and so on. The simplicity of the concepts and its correlation with day to day physical activities enables a person to blend thinking or meditation with his or her daily routine. If one can practice it all day long, one can practice it lifelong. It becomes a tool for lifelong learning and lifelong development. The way the human being is configured in spirit, mind and body, each of us in order to move forward towards our goals need to reinforce positives or strengths as the right limb and as the left limb, overcome negatives or weaknesses in us and in the environment . Leadership and life itself is a two way process. If one wants to change his condition, he or she should change his conditioning. The conditioning is usually very deep rooted in one’s psyche or subconscious. Equilibrium Thinking provides a programming language to de-condition the negative conditioning of the past that causes a person to be angry, depressed, fearful, nervous, suspicious, tense or anxious. These negatives are deeply ingrained and cannot be impacted by mere positive thinking. Equilibrium Thinking overcomes the usual embedded negative triggers that are set in motion when we say, “ Do not be afraid” or “ Do not worry.” The thought process is expressed in terms of a set of paired or binary commands, for example: be calm, beat anger are the two commands to address the issue of anger. Another idea that led me to the discovery of equilibrium thinking is that of “ auto-pilot.” If a thought process is made habitual, our minds would be on “ auto-pilot” and it would be second nature to be positive and beat negative. Constant and continuous repetition of the simple paired or binary commands would lead a person practicing eqthinking to be automatically positive and automatically “ negative-negative.” How Does Eqthinking Alter the Paradigm of Thinking: Our thoughts lead to emotions,emotions lead to decisions, decisions lead to actions and reactions,actions lead to results, results lead to happiness or satisfaction. By default, the untrained human mind is predominantly and automatically negative. We are caught in an Automatic Negative Thought Process. By practising eqthinking, our thought process gets transformed into Automatic Positive Thought Process leveraging even on a negative negative thought process(beat it). Where earlier, our automatic Negative Thoughts led to Automatic Negative Words, our expression will now get transformed into Automatic Positive Words. Our Automatic Negative Attitudes will get transformed into Automatic Positive attitudes. This is the second level of equilibrium. The third level of equilibrium is that our automatic negative emotions will get transformed into automatic positive emotions. Our automatic negative decisions will get transformed into automatic positive decisions. Our automatic negative results or fruits will get transformed into automatic positive fruits or results. Our automatic negative relationships will get transformed into automatic positive relationships. Thus, when we practise eqthinking, we begin to experience breakthroughs or transformation Eqthinking will improve decision making as decisions are often made in a split second but the inputs that go into decision making are made over a long period, if not a lifetime. In dealing with a provocative situation, a person will be enabled to decide to contain his anger and reveal appropriate amount of anger in the appropriate way. When we are constantly thinking on the same lines for instance, be calm, beat anger the related mental grooves or neural pathways get broadened into highways and the highways into superhighways just as a dirt track that is constantly used develops into a wider road over time. Eqthinking employs the method of repetitive reinforcement as the subconscious mind understands a command only after several repetitions. Mankind collectively and individually are designed for success, happiness, progress but we are programmed for failure. Eqthinking seeks to correct the programming by addressing the hitherto untapped potential of the negative. The binary code or binary process enables us to address the challenge of reinforcing the positive on a continual basis and to also simultaneously addresss the challenge of changing the negative into positive. Once the self talk changes on these two lines, automatically, the programming changes, our thought pattern changes, our emotional pattern changes, our decision pattern changes,our actions change and our outcomes or results change for the better. The relationships between individuals, organisations and nations will also change for the better. Eqthinking not only enhances your Capabilities but it also simultaneously enhances your Copabilities or your ability to deal with the negative, negatives in us, negatives in the environment, in society, in situations, in organizatons and in relationships. Eqthinking overcomes the problem in human psychology of the embedded negative. It also overcomes the problem of the ingrained negative. It balances courage with dealing with fear, calmness with dealing with anger, strength with dealing with weakness. More than 50 per cent of our psyche is constituted by the forces and factors of negativity. When we ignore such a large part of our selves, we end up allowing these negatives to grow in the backyard of the mind like weeds that overrun an untended garden. Instead, we must acknowledge, accept and deal with the negatives. Eqthinking teaches one to lead from the positives and deal with the negatives In my discussions with heads of training research in some major corporate firms, they felt that the major challenge in training interventions is the difficulty of internalisation. Eqthinking enables internalisation of learning instantly and lifelong. It presents “zero complexity” combined with comprehensiveness of all the essentials. Normal training interventions are at the behavioural level and hence due to the honeymoon effect of training trickles off or wear off quickly. In Eqthinking the intervention is at the subconscious level and hence, produces long lasting effect. A tiny change at the subsconscious level produces a massive change at the behavioural level. Eqthinking enhances human productivity and profitability. Daniel Goleman explained how EQ has a direct co-relation to profitability. He said that billions of dollars are being spent to find a way to enhance EQ. But, no method has been found. Eqthinking in fact not just enhances EQ but it enhances, SQ or Spiritual Quotient, Persistence Quotient, Imagination Quotient and Attitude Quotient . Small doses of power over a long period of time are more effective than a large dose of power over a short time. Eqthinking is based on continuous, lifelong learning and practice. It produces a tiny change at the deepest level- the subconscious level. Like the cascade effect, a tiny change at tne subconscious level produces a massive change at the conscious or behavioural or surface level. Eqthinking leads to creativity being unleashed and tapped. The reason is that two seemingly opposite thoughts are being held continuously like polar opposites in the human mind. As the physicist Niels Bohr said, "It is the swirling of opposites in the human mind that produces creativity." Eqthinking unlike any other method in psychology uses auto command instead of auto suggestion based on the assumption that an individual alone has authority over self and he/she can best exercise it only through commands to self. Why is it Called Equilibrium Thinking? Equilibrium is the balance of competing influences. Eqthinking reconciles the competing influence of the positive and negative factors by reinforcing the positive and negating the negative. Positive thinking ignores the negative stating that it is enough to be positive. The competing influence of the thesis and the antithesis produces synthesis. Both these complementary processes are incorporated in the two processes verbalised as " be at it" and " beat it". Multiple Quotients and Composite Ethics Composite Ethics summed up in 4 C's - Calmness, Courage,Compassion and Creativity and Multiple Quotients like Imagination Quotient, Persistence quotient, Attitude quotient, Emotional Quotient and Spiritual Quotient are enhanced through eqthinking. It spurs our creativity and puts a damper on our self destruction buttons, a safety catch on our volatile emotions. Unlike Lateral Thinking that is ethically neutral and can be used by criminals and terrorists to be imaginatively destructive, eqthinking is pro-life, pro-ethics. Ethical values are emotional and spiritual intelligence encapsulated. Hence, through eqthinking, you can literally inhale or imbibe positive ethics and exhale or throw out the negative values. Ethical values like love,joy, peace, patience, humility,kindness, goodnessm, faithfulness, self control and wisdom are the metaphoric oxygen that our human minds should breathe in and their opposites are the used up carbon dioxide that we should breathe out. Values of humanity cutting across all boundaries of religion,culture and nationality like love,joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self control and wisdom are emotional and spiritual intelligence encapsulated. Like oxygen is breathed in, we can breathe in these life-giving and life enhancing values and breathe out their opposites all the time. There are millions of real life situations where eqthinking enabled and enables real people to overcome and triumph. In real life we tend to give up too easily particularly when we encounter opposition, difficulties and obstacles. A person known to me needed to get the details of his first passport of some twenty years back for applying for a PIO card or Person of Indian Origin card. His several enquiries at the local passport office drew a blank as they said they do not maintain records that long. But he kept telling himself " be at it , beat it" or keep trying. He got the idea of trying in Australia where he lived for some time. He went to the passport office and they had all the details he wanted. He attributes his success in this matter to practicing eqthinking. A young student was afraid of staying alone or to go out in the dark. Her aunt taught her to apply eqthinking. She used the binary eqthinking commands: be bold, beat fear; be strong, beat weakness; be courageous, beat fear. Over a period of weeks, she overcame her phobia and went on to be confident and successful. A marketing manager was quite addicted to smoking. At a particular point in his life he wanted to kick the habit. He learnt eqthinking and applied it to his specific situation and goal using the binary commands: be self controlled, beat smoking. He wrote it on a small slip of paper that he kept in his shirt pocket. Every time he was tempted to resume smoking, he looked at the slip. He was able to give up smoking and even is a lead campaigner against smoking in a CanStop or anti cancer initiative of a NGO. A senior officer was unfairly scolded by his boss for some work done not to the latter's satisfaction. He was visibly upset and stressed. He recovered by using the binary commands: be calm , beat stress; be relaxed, beat anxiety A Vice President of a leading financial corporate was worried about the poor or sluggish sales and the demotivated sales team. He organized a short eqthinking workshop for his 100 strong sales team. Within the quarter the total sales shot up by a record 800 per cent. Each of the 100 used eqthinking to address his or her own personal issues affecting motivation and performance. The result was an astonishing quantum leap in sales with any other factor like incentives or ad campaign not being in play. The best performers improved while the poor performers improved drastically. Each of the 100 who attended my workshop on eqthinking used the tools differently to overcome issues they were facing or were ignoring till then. One of the sales managers had low self esteem or self belief and would give up trying with potential clients quite quickly. After learning eqthinking, he used the binary commands: be persistent, beat giving up; be positive , beat negative ; be confident , beat failure. His success rate zoomed up phenomenally in the weeks that followed as he was led to try more and get better each time he made an attempt. A sales representative used to have a low level of confidence. He would give up easily after a weak attempt. He developed his confidence using the binary commands : be confident, beat failure; be persistent, beat giving up. His sales performance improved drastically thereafter. A small scale industrialist was getting very worried about the financial performance of his unit in that quarter. He practiced breathing in calmness and breathing out anxiety. He experienced immediate and complete release and relief from his fears and worries. A company secretary was short tempered, irritable and difficult to please. He learnt about eqthinking. Thought that it was too simple to work but he anyway told himself he would try it during his daily twenty minute walk in a park. He used the binary commands: be calm, beat tension; be relaxed, beat stress; be contented, beat dissatisfaction. He repeated internally these binary commands coordinating with the binary movement of his feet. He experienced change within a few weeks and continued to be an eqthinker. A middle aged person developed a morbid fear of dying after a bypass surgery. He used the binary commands : be brave, beat fear; be confident , beat panic, be strong, beat weakness and over the next few weeks regained control of his mind. A young police trainee was suffering from extreme hypertension as she was under a lot of pressure in her earlier job as a news reader. She used the binary commands: be calm, beat stress; be relaxed, beat tension, be joyful, beat depression. She was able to overcome her stress and her BP came under control over a period of time. Another police trainee suffered a nervous breakdown. She recovered her equilibrium by using regularly the paired commands: be healthy , beat sickness; be happy, beat sadness; be calm, beat stress; be relaxed, beat tension; be confident, beat fear.
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