Ten Zen Seconds: An Interview

For the millions of people who want to reduce anxiety and become more aware and alert, the Eastern practices of meditation, yoga and tai chi have become just as commonplace as the Western solutions of psychotherapy and prescription drugs. Until now, however, no one has married the best of Eastern and Western thought into a simple technique that produces breakthrough results with only a few seconds' effort. In his new book, Ten Zen Seconds, Dr. Eric Maisel has created a powerful ten-second centering tool perfect for the contemporary person. A result of his work with thousands of clients in his creativity coaching practice, and field-tested worldwide, Maisel's Ten Zen Seconds technique is the answer that busy people everywhere have hoped to find.

HappyNews: What is Ten Zen Seconds all about?

Eric Maisel: It's actually a very simple but powerful technique for reducing your stress, getting yourself centered, and reminding yourself about how you want to live your life. It can even serve as a complete cognitive, emotional, and existential self-help program built on the single idea of "dropping a useful thought into a deep breath."
You use a deep breath, five seconds on the inhale and five seconds on the exhale, as a container for important thoughts that aim you in the right direction in life —I describe twelve of these thoughts in the book— and you begin to employ this breathing-and-thinking technique that I call incanting as the primary way to keep yourself on track.

HN: Where did this idea come from?

EM: It comes from two primary sources, cognitive and positive psychology from the West and breath awareness and mindfulness techniques from the East. I'd been working with creative and performing artists for more than twenty years as a therapist and creativity coach and wanted to find a quick, simple technique that would help them deal with the challenges they regularly face— resistance to creating, performance anxiety, negative self-talk about a lack of talent or a lack of connections, stress over a boring day job or competing in the art marketplace, and so on.
Because I have a background in both Western and Eastern ideas, it began to dawn on me that deep breathing, which is one of the best ways to reduce stress and alter thinking, could be used as a cognitive tool if I found just the right phrases to accompany the deep breathing. This started me on a hunt for the most effective phrases that I could find and eventually I landed on twelve of them that I called incantations, each of which serves a different and important purpose.

HN: What sort of hunt?

EM: First, I tried to figure out what are the most important tasks that we face as human beings, then I came up with what I hoped were resonant phrases, each of which needed to fit well into a deep breath, then, most importantly —which moved this from the theoretical to the empirical— I tested the phrases out on hundreds of folks who agreed to use them and report back on their experiences. That was great fun and eye-opening!
People used these phrases to center themselves before a dental appointment or surgery, to get ready to have a difficult conversation with a teenage child, to bring joy back to their performing career, to carve out time for creative work in an over-busy day in hundreds of ways that I couldn't have anticipated. I think that's what makes the book rich and special. As useful as the method and the incantations are, hearing from real people about how they've used them "seals the deal." I'm not much of a fan of self-help books that come entirely from the author's head; this one has been tested in the crucible of reality.

HN: Which phrases did you settle on?

EM: The following twelve. I think that folks will intuitively get the point of each one (though some of the incantations, like "I expect nothing," tend to need a little explaining). Naturally each incantation is explained in detail in the book and there are lots of personal reports, so readers get a good sense of how different people interpret and make use of the incantations. Here are the twelve (parentheses show how the phrase gets "divided up" between the inhale and the exhale):
1. (I am completely) (stopping)
2. (I expect) (nothing)
3. (I am) (doing my work)
4. (I trust) (my resources)
5. (I feel) (supported)
6. (I embrace) (this moment)
7. (I am free) (of the past)
8. (I make) (my meaning)
9. (I am open) (to joy)
10. (I am equal) (to this challenge)
11. (I am) (taking action)
12. (I return) (with strength)
A small note: the third incantation functions differently from the other eleven, in that you name something specific each time you use it, for example "I am writing my novel" or "I am paying the bills." This helps you bring mindful awareness to each of your activities throughout the day.

HN: Can a person use this method for any specific purposes?

EM: As I mentioned, folks are coming up with all kinds of special uses. One that I especially like is the idea of "book-ending" a period of work, say your morning writing stint or painting stint, by using "I am completely stopping" to ready yourself, center yourself, and stop your mind chatter, and then using "I return with strength" when you're done so that you return to "the rest of life" with energy and power. Usually we aren't this mindful in demarcating our activities— and life feels very different when we do.

HN: Is there a way to experience this process in "real time?"

EM: By trying it out! But my web master Ron Wheatley has also designed a slide show at the Ten Zen Seconds site (http://www.tenzenseconds.com) that you can use to learn and experience the incantations. The slides that name the twelve incantations are beautiful images provided by the painter Ruth Yasharpour and each slide stays in place for ten seconds. So you can attune your breathing to the slide and really practice the method. The slide show is available at www.tenzenseconds.com

HN: How can people learn more about Ten Zen Seconds?

EM: The book is the best resource. You can get it online at Amazon. www.amazon.com/Ten-Zen-Seconds-Eric-Maisel/
Or you can ask for it at your local bookstore. The Ten Zen Seconds website is also an excellent resource: in addition to the slide show that I mentioned, there is a bulletin board where folks can chat, audio interviews that I've done discussing the Ten Zen Second techniques, and more. It's also quite a gorgeous site, so you may want to visit it just for the aesthetic experience! I would also recommend that folks check out my main site, www.ericmaisel.com, especially if they're interested in creativity coaching or the artist's life.

HN: What else are you up to?

EM: Plenty! I have a new book out called Creativity for Life, which is roughly my fifteenth book in the creativity field and which people seem to like a lot. I also have a third new book out, in addition to Ten Zen Seconds and Creativity for Life, called Everyday You, which is a beautiful coffee table book about maintaining daily mindfulness. I'm working on two books for 2008, one called A Writer's Space and a second called Creative Recovery, about using your innate creativity to help in recovering from addiction.
And I'm keeping up with the many other things I do: my monthly column for Art Calendar Magazine, my regular segment for Art of the Song Creativity Radio, the trainings that I offer in creativity coaching, and my work with individual clients. I am happily busy! But my main focus for the year is on getting the word out about Ten Zen Seconds, because I really believe that it's something special. So I thank you for having me here today!

Dr. Eric Maisel is widely regarded as America's foremost creativity coach. He is a licensed family therapist and the author of more than thirty books, including Fearless Creating, Creativity for Life, Sleep Thinking, Coaching the Artist Within and The Van Gogh Blues. His books have appeared in a dozen book clubs, among them Quality Paperback and One Spirit, and he has conducted hundreds of radio, television and print interviews. He lives in San Francisco, where he maintains a creativity coaching practice.