Your Intended Message
Peak Performance and positive self talk: Wayne Lee
by George Torok
Positive self talk for peak performance
My guest today is Wayne Lee. There are three important facts to know about Wayne one he was a five-time Canadian wrestling champion. If you look at him you might not believe it but he was at two he loves he's an avid collector of crystals and that includes crystals like amethyst and quartz and three most importantly Wayne has delivered to over presentations to over 6,000 audiences around the world over the past 25 years and in particular Wayne uses hypnosis as a tool to entertain and more importantly help people achieve peak performance. Wayne welcome to your intended message.
George: Delighted to have you here. I’ve been in your audiences watched your presentation and no I didn't get up on the stage and bark like a dog but a lot of people did things up on stage that they might not normally have done.
How does that make you feel when you're seeing people who are pretending they're playing an instrument or doing a dance, do you feel like you're I don't know intruding on their trust or how did they you know what's the exchange after do they come and say why did you make me do that?
Wayne: Yeah, well, it's a great question and you know doing it for so long first of all it's been a passion like an absolute privilege and an honor to be able to interact with people so, I’ve always respected people's feelings as well as just the openness that they share. So, my whole goal and the intention is for them to come up after and say you know that was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done and I feel so good right now.
Where it's led is into a place of me discovering a whole bunch of tools about how to help people but really to let people not so much about me I think in the beginning it was more me like this powerful feeling of oh my goodness I’m controlling these people but ultimately that's an illusion in a sense that we have this great power to influence this great power of persuasion. Yet ultimately people are letting go of their own fears and doubts to become the former performer they're meant to be. I really believe people are great performers. So, up on stage when you see somebody go from a shy quiet type person to being one of the greatest dancers in the world or at least they think they're the greatest dancer in the world that is absolutely mind-blowing and more than that it gives people in the audience permission to do the same.
George: So, is hypnosis a means to convince somebody to do something they don't want to do or is it a means to actually discover what they really want to do?
Wayne: Both. It's really a term that's a misnomer hypnosis meaning sleep the Greek word and at no time are people sleeping. The way I like to say it is that people are still aware they just don't care. So, what happens is they do one thing and out of the, you know 60 70,000 people that have hypnotized is I can boil it down to this is that people are more receptive and more responsive to the suggestions that I give them. So, if that's the case what's the case when they're not hypnotized well a lot of people are then in a state where they're rigid and they're in their own way. So, people carry around and all of us carry around these self-limiting beliefs and walls that we put up that are subconsciously held and they become habits and because they become habits we are so close to them we don't even know that they exist and that's why they call they call it subconscious or in the subconscious. But the subconscious is much more than that it's infinite intelligence that you can tap into.
So, hypnosis is really a means to get people to move out of their way to relax their mind to relax their body which is in and of the of themselves the same thing body mind is all one and we can talk about that about how moving your body is so important to creating a peak state so you perform better. Yet what I’ve realized is that they're more responsive.
So, if they're out of their own way and I can give them a suggestion to become a great dancer what if I was giving them a suggestion to hit a greater sense of performance in sales in leadership in becoming a more effective communicator then that's the suggestion they'll take. So, although the entertaining part is really one of the most fascinating things if it's done you know in the right way in upbeat and it's fast paced and it's got the elements there and I’ve always been driven by that and I had some great mentors to begin with. I also know that it's about how you can translate that to in your own life so, you can start to give yourself suggestions as well as you can influence others with the suggestions that you're giving other people.
George: So, when you are giving or using hypnotic suggestions, who are you really talking like, who in me are you talking to? What part of my brain are you reaching?
Wayne: It's a great question and I don't think that it's completely understood I think there's a lot of people that will give you scientific answers and they will give you all sorts of factual you know based evidence but you can talk to different experts like myself and all these people and they're gonna talk in different language and they might have different answers. So, the best way I can describe it is that it's still a bit of a mystery because we can talk about left brain right brain I like to say it's more confusing than ever. So, why don't just say that it's infinite intelligence is that if you take on the belief that when you're talking to your subconscious and some people call it super conscious or unconscious that you talk to it in a way where you're requesting. That you're you know the same things that have supported you in creating beliefs that are limiting you it was just in the time that it happened years ago it was a way to support your reality or meaning to create reality that same subconscious that same inner power that you have is what can let it go. So, you're talking to the part that's beyond the conscious that's just beyond our awareness of the you know seven bits of information that we take in and that we can process at any given time it's what's playing in the background which is magical.
George: Now, I hear you talking about the subconscious so, are we guided more by our subconscious than our conscious or is, our subconscious kind of a safe place that we go when we're threatened or excited?
Wayne: It's both I think okay so, I have an acronym for the subconscious it's your GPS it's your great programmable subconscious it's also your great powerful subconscious I’m going to be throwing these out there but I love the acronym so I’m going to make them stick here the three parts to your subconscious are they're there to guide you which is G to protect you which is the P and the S is to support you. And what I mean by that I’ll make these distinctions very clear is first of all they guide you in relation to your authentic self in every moment not just in the future not just in the past not in the present in every moment your subconscious is always letting you know that you're on course with who you are. And you might be asking well how does it guide you here's the answer your feelings you're on a feeling scale where some people are fighting their feelings they're like I don't want to have this feeling or they'll grow up thinking they have to be a people pleaser.
So, they stuff those feelings in and that'll show up in your body as illness disease down the road or some form of rage of emotional anger. But when you're in a state of joy you're in a state of excitement you're in a state of empowerment you are fully connected to who you are it's your guidance system your GPS, your great programmable subconscious always letting you know that you're on course and that's what excites me so much you know how people can shift into a state like that. It doesn't take years but a lot of these subconscious beliefs that people have picked up it may take just a little bit of time to work on them to let them go because they're so used to having them or they also have a fear that if they let them go they're going to have to change their identity they're going to have to shift. When that subconscious is letting you know your feeling state is always letting you know that you're aligned or you're misaligned.
George: So, is it fair to say that if someone isn't feeling good about a situation or a problem they're dealing with or how they've been told to deal with that the reason they're not feeling well is because it's not aligned with their subconscious, their GPS?
Wayne: Yeah, it's not aligned with their authentic self their GPS is in the background saying we're going to do everything to support you, it's like a genie. And it's letting you know that you're not aligned now, here's one of the things that I want to make absolutely clear is it's not about always feeling good it's not always being in a state of joy it's about moving up the scale. So, when somebody is in a skate a state of depression or hopelessness that's pretty low on the run. If they get to a state of anger they've made some improvement they're channeling that energy but the more that you make it a habit of anger you'll stay in that anger. So, make it a happy happen a habit of happiness you know condition your mind and just do some disciplines every day where you do gratefulness practice you know appreciate things create a visualization because aren't we looking for one thing no matter if we have more money, we have a great relationship we're always looking for the end result and here's the prize answer of how it makes us feel.
George: Now, I want to come back to that because there was something you mentioned earlier that I also don't want to forget I want to bring it up before I forget you talked about the connection between the body and the mind and how they is there some sort of synergy or a way that we can better coordinate the body and mind?
Wayne: Yeah, you bet you. Movement, I think a lot of people get so caught up in their head that they are replaying and re-patterning this limiting belief whatever it may be I’m not good enough or this won't happen to me other people can do it but I can't do it and people will try they try to fight that by you know picking a better thought. And the quickest way to get out of that is move your body and I have a belief yeah like exercise right now if you look at the research and the evidence and I’m not the expert on it but you look at the people that have done all the research they will tell you that movement, exercise is one of the most powerful ways to de-stress. Breathing movement that's it you know all the meditation the hypnosis is always great to layer that and it's always great but people have to find something that works but if people move their body and they create, I say shake up you know shake it off or wake up they shake off whatever energy is there because really our mind and body are one.
George: So, when we move whether it's exercising, running, walking, jumping, dancing it loosens up the cobwebs in our mind?
Wayne: That's a great way to put it. We've created walls and blocks and I talked about the flow state and there was a book called the flow the author hard to pronounce his name. So, I’m not going to even attempt yet the flow state the acronym that I have for flow is feeling life operate within.
George: Feeling life operate within.
Wayne: Yeah, feeling life operate within. You feel it operate within now at a deeper level it's feeling love operate within everything at that base of love but for some people that's a little fluffy but if you look at the vibrational sense of us always being guided if you're in a state of flow the only thing that stops that state is your own self through a belief that puts up a wall. And then it clashes in that clash you'll feel it in your body so how do you deal with it move your body get your cobwebs out like you just said go for a run do whatever exercise that feels good or do some sense of movement. And if you look at top performers whether it's you know Anthony Robbins has been doing this for years that your physiology creates your psychology and it's so true. William James talks about you know smiling you know that makes you happy happiness doesn't make you smile well it does yet when you smile you change your state immediately. So, it's easier to change your body state in terms of movement many times. A great way to prime yourself to program your subconscious is through what I’ve been doing for years is the hypnosis as well as meditation to quiet your mind because that also makes room and peace for the channel of flow to come through.
George: Now, you use hypnosis to offer suggestions to people to help them to either you know make them perform to move make them feel better, can people do it to themselves?
Wayne: Without a doubt, in fact they've been hypnotized throughout their whole life by social conditioning. So, we have what we call mind triggers and the moment that we wake up we are setting the intention or not the intention we're continually doing on a habitual level. So, the habitual levels that we're operating at have been hypnotized into us maybe not by stage hypnosis on stage but by our programmers when we were young whether it's teachers, parents you know authority figures and so people just need to reprogram themselves by creating different mind triggers. Something I’ve been doing on stage for years is getting people to visualize and really here's the trick is feeling as though they've achieved their goal.
And when they do that they are actually hypnotizing them into a state of programming their subconscious and your subconscious is saying I accept let's go to work and when they're at this peak state which is full alignment they will and this is the process I guide them through is having think of a color. It's a color that just comes to them by their subconscious and putting their hand to their heart which is a physical movement. So, that right there is hypnosis is five minutes six minutes people hypnotize themselves through the use of getting aligned, feeling empowered and being able to do that on a daily basis. The challenge is that because we're dealing in the invisible realms of thought and creative visualization people dismiss it. But if you ask any like Olympic gold medalist how they visualize getting to that level and I guarantee you they all had a process of creating absolute certainty, confidence and visualizing the outcome as well as the methods to get there.
And that's my experience I mean now talking not about other people but my experience was in the sport of amateur wrestling I remember when my coach asked me you know how well I wanted to do this year and I said I want to make it to the finals of the national championships and sure enough I my mantra which was just a couple words saying I want to make it to the finals, I want to make it to the finals, I’m going to make it to the finals. I could clearly see myself on the podium, I could visualize myself doing all the techniques which I love to do and then we make it to the national championships and I win the three matches. I wrestling to go to the finals and sure enough you know I was a three-all tie but I made it into the finals don't even remember how I got the extra point and then I’m wrestling somebody in the finals that I thought was pretty good but I thought I could beat that person and I lost and the reason why and my coach laid it out he says what did you focus upon getting to the finals not winning? So, it was very evident right there about just the whole process of how I hypnotized myself to create an expectation which became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
George: How does one expose the negative thoughts that are hypnotizing us to be self-destructive how do we find them and how do we overturn them?
Wayne: Great question, George. First of all I think that what you focus upon expands I live by that saying so, if people are continually focusing upon what they don't want that's going to show up in their life more so asking the question what do you want you know specifically or generally what do you want and get them to focus upon what they want and some people actually resist that because they've been jaded in the past they won't even go there because then they have to commit to doing it. It's a whole bunch of reasons but that's one of the great questions you can ask and it's so simple is what do you want and they will usually tell you what they don't want all these things and in there is a lot of self-limiting beliefs and things that they don't want.
But more than that when you get somebody to a point of what they do want and then you can say well how will that look once you've achieved it they'll tell you then just ask the question how much doubt or fear do you have in getting there or how confident are you any one of those questions will then indicate or gauge I like to say it's a gauge of what's stopping them because they're like oh I like on a scale of 1 to 10. 10 being like I’m highly doubtful like it I’m just so worried it won't happen and if they're at a 9 and a 10 I’ll say well what's beneath that feeling because the feeling is always indicating the self-limiting belief and then they'll start to talk about it. They'll say well you know I was told I couldn't do this and that's the voice that's playing out in my head. So, it usually is boiled down to I’m not enough, I’m not worthy enough that then will show up as hesitation, procrastination people-pleasing the appearance of being happy and joyful but really you're just you know stuffing down your own thoughts and feelings and looking for approval and that's why self-love and self-acceptance of who you are right now with all your flaws is the flow.
So, I think a really important key in this is for people not to think that they need to fix themselves they never do and that will be a lifelong journey of misery I know very highly successful people that have continually searched for the void they've made a lot of money they've had a lot of success and they feel so unfulfilled. So, I say you can feel fulfilled right now you don't need to delay your success come from a place of where you're whole complete and perfect right now and anything else that gets in the way is just a self-limiting belief that you can let go of. And it's a beautiful thing because we we're in this ecosystem of our mind body our body mind with the great programmable subconscious always letting us know that we're on course or off course so we can choose to create from a level of that and we can choose to let go of the things that are stopping us.
George: And Wayne how did you use these principles, these techniques for yourself for your own life where's it had the biggest impact?
Wayne: You know I think it's had the biggest impact on some of the obstacles like I’ve had to overcome and just my big goals that I created. So, I’ll share a couple like first of all one of the main influences in my life was the sport of amateur wrestling. So, one of my goals was to make the Olympics I remember in grade nine I made a promise to myself I said whatever I’m gonna do later on in life it's because I was involved in wrestling for a year and a half at that time and I just loved it I was obsessed with it was a great obsession and I also knew that whatever I was gonna do later on in life I’d have to feel that way I’d have to feel that passion. So, I set the bar high for myself and that was the first part of understanding that we have this beautiful power within us that's always there never leaves and we need to dig deep especially in times when we need it most.
So, I made that promise and I think that promise was really profound not knowing that it was such a profound thing at the time but now I look back and I’m like wow that set the bar that was a great promise. And then as I went through I remember you know I did first in wrestling I got beat up a whole lot but I stuck with it for whatever reason and then I was around some amazing coaching and some amazing trainers and the best of the best and I got to a level where I won the nationals a number of times. But my ultimate goal was making the Olympics and unfortunately over the years I had some really serious neck damage and it came to the point where it was an injury of a c5 c6 c7 herniated disc. I lost feeling in my arms I was partially paralyzed in my arms and I went to the doctor and the doctor said that I needed surgery there was no way I was going to regenerate or heal.
And it was in that moment that I was devastated because pretty much my goal was gone. Wrestling was taken away and when I went home I just completely let go I did not obviously go back on the mats, I didn't practice I had to just you know ease up and relax and in that process there was something within me that kept visualizing all of the wrestling and all of my movements and the things that I loved to do and it felt really good and as time went on I regained feeling in my arms strength and the time that I went in for the surgery the doctor did some muscle testing and some testing to see about the surgery about prepping and he says Wayne you don't need the surgery. And so, the experience that I had is that you know whatever I wanted to call it I call it the invisible forces within you that it's the infinite intelligence that it had the power to heal within me and it's not like I you know intentionally like I’m gonna heal myself I just did one thing that I love to do I visualized wrestling and my body knew what to do on its own.
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And I went on for a couple more years I won a university title I did not make it to the Olympics and I knew that I you know lost a lot of the desire just even from that injury but it allowed me to propel on to becoming a school teacher and then when I felt there was something missing there lo and behold I’m in a nightclub watching a hypnosis show and my goodness I was like I think I’m hypnotized I want to know more about that. So, just having that openness and that sense of my mindset in getting over obstacles and the healing that happened from within it's been it's been a beautiful journey and trust me there's been some big roadblocks along the way not making you know not achieving certain goals and just being able to use the same tools and techniques that I’m teaching other people not only to get over but to start creating at another whole other level.
George: Now, Wayne this is during the COVID crisis it'll end at some point or it not and there will probably be other crisis that comes up as well. During this time what advice what suggestions if you could be suggestive right now and hypnotize the world what would you say how would you help them?
Wayne: I would say go within and start creatively visualizing what you want as opposed to seeing what's happening. Myself I’m in a good example of that primarily my income and the revenue was at live events where I had some of the biggest live events booked in April and that was completely wiped. I had to say what's next, I asked myself a better question so the quality of your questions really do help like what's next how am I going to deal with this in a great fun way be real about it you know like take it in do the stuff that you need to do to take care of the nitty-gritty but set the intention of what you want now. I think time has passed now and creating the daily disciplines to keep you in a great state your state of being how you feel moment to moment again that's your GPS guiding you letting you know to create the great state no matter what. Out of this for me came me really refining a method which I’ve developed called the ally mind method that's going to help you know millions I really believe that and I need faith to have that too.
So, people that have the faith and when I say faith I don't mean it in a religious context faith is actually an acronym that I created called you know feeling and imagining total harmony or feeling and imagining things happening. You have to feel it, you imagine it and you have to let it go because so many people are trying to fight and force things and so, that's some of the advice I would give people is create some time on some practices that help you visualize help you clear the mind help you stay focused and stay in a good state. A good state you know my son's eight and I now use the hypnotic powers on him because when he's going to sleep he's like daddy can you hypnotize me and so, he and he coined this great phrase he goes can you put me into the good state and I thought that was beautiful. So, in my book I’m going to call it the good state because it really is it's about being in a good state is a state of relief a state of being better than you where you just were and we're all looking for that and we're all looking for it in serving one another helping each other. I’m kind of going a little bit off topic other than you know we need to connect in a time like this we need to help others and support others and be kind. So, those are some of the other things that I think are very important during this time.
George: Wayne, I look forward to seeing your book when it comes out. Have this final question for you if people want to find out more about what they can learn from you and this method about making them reach the good state more often what can they do?
Wayne: Well, they can definitely go to Facebook. I have a private Facebook group that's called conscious creators and it's really about helping people wake up to their unlimited potential and create a life they love and doing that in a way where they understand how their subconscious, conscious mind works and how more importantly that they are the ones to empower themselves and their brilliant creators. So, that will be something in the Facebook private group they can also come and find me on Facebook and I can get them all set up there.