The Tools shares five “life-changing techniques to unlock your potential” developed by psychiatrist Dr Phil Stutz. Through working with his clients to overcome symptoms of panic and avoidance, he discovered and fine-tuned these techniques. He also observed that they began to be more confident, creative, and impactful in their lives. Dr Stutz discovered what he called “a completely new vision of human potential.” These tools tapped into these new abilities, using the problem as a catalyst.
Blocks, weaknesses, failures, problems… what if we pivoted and saw these as signposts, opportunities, potential?
Below briefly describes these give tools. If you resonate with them, check out the book for more instructions, details, and background information.
The 5 Tools to Unlock Your Potential:
1 The Reversal of Desire (Pain into Possibilities)
The Comfort Zone is supposed to keep your life safe, but what it really does is keep your life small.
The Tools
We all have a comfort zone. Staying where we feel safe is fine as long as we don’t stay there all the time and indulge what Barry Michels and Phil Stutz call “warm baths.” The thing is most people don’t see that they are living small. With what they named “Force of Forward Motion”, people who dare venture out move with a sense of purpose. They live with a higher force.
The Reversal of Desire is to help someone move towards pain, to dissolve it. It’s reversing the desire to flee from the pain, and thereby enlarging it as a result.
Use this tool when you are trying to avoid doing something or when you start thinking about it, turning it over and over again, instead of just going ahead.
2 Active Love (Resentment to Love)
Resentment builds when we don’t let the initial hurt go. We go deeper and deeper, into “the Maze.” The further someone goes into the Maze, the more they turn away from people over small disagreements and the more trapped in the past they are. The resentment grows, because people believe the world is meant to be fair and just. As children we were rewarded for being “good” and punished for being “bad.” As adults, the focus may have become to restore a sense of fairness, even at the cost of alienating people.
The way to escape from the Maze is through love, the kind that unwavers in face of external circumstances. This is outflow, “an infinite, spiritual force that gives of itself without restraint.”
Active Love involves surrounding ourselves with infinitely loving liquid light which we take into our heart. We can then visual the person who triggered us and see and feel this light enter their solar plexus. By feeling it, rather than just observing, we can become one with them.
The thing with Active Love is it transforms our inner state. We also no longer feel the need to prove ourselves. This means we can live from truth, rather than avoid confrontation or using unhealthy emotions to stand our ground.
3 Inner Authority (Confidence)
This tool helps with insecurity by connecting a person to the Force of Self-Expression. Rather than being frozen as the Shadow self, a person is able to live from their inner authority, a place that requires no approval from anyone.
Confidence emerges when we become bonded with our Shadow. This part of ourselves we’ve learned to distance from, to negate and hide. It’s what we are ashamed of. When we see and accept our Shadow, it is transformed through our ongoing relationship. We are also able to express our vulnerabilities and have our needs met in a whole new way.
4 The Grateful Flow (Peace of Mind)
The Black Cloud, this energy of negativity and constant worry, keeps people waiting for the other shoe to drop. It keeps out all that is positive and bright. People living under a Black Cloud finds it challenging to connect to Source, which is beyond the five senses. Gratefulness, on the other hand, bridges to Source and as a higher force, it allows us to perceive the world through spiritual eyes.
To activate the Grateful Flow, think of at least five things you are grateful for. Feel this energy swell in your heart and feel gratefulness emanate from you. This is akin to HeartMath techniques that build resilience and coherence.
5 Jeopardy (Unstoppable Willpower)
This is the deathbed perspective tool. You look at your present moment from the end of your life and understand that not to waste time. This willpower comes not from the belief that we can control the universe. This tool also helps someone concentrate on the present moment.
The Tools by Phil Stutz and Barry Michels are psychological techniques that have helped Dr Stutz’s patients move beyond negativity, panic, and stuckness. These five techniques are meant to connect people to higher forces and shift their perspective of what’s possible. Will these tools unlock your potential?
