THE STORY
It was a unseasonably coolish day in San Diego. We were inside a stuffy but decently nice hotel conference room, where the smell of perfumes had their way with my senses…and not in a good way.
I sat at the back of the room, watching this larger-than-life New Yorker man show a petite woman from Egypt how to become a “fighter”…in the terms of boxing. All the women in the room – and there were LOTS – were pumped. The few men (weren’t they the lucky ones?) were all laughing at the man on stage as he joked about the real state of men in regards to modern day women.
Me? Well, I was not as amused or pumped – and that is a different story for a different day.
The next thing I know we are being asked to all stand up – all 150 of us in the room – and to move over to one side of the room. The Goliath sized boxing coach was going to have us do something in regards to learning how to “Walk our Tiger”. In other words, “Strut your stuff women, strut it!”
Well, if dancing for 3+ years on Ecstatic Dance floors has taught me anything – it is how to strut my stuff as a woman. That, that I can do.
We start slowly, some unsure, others a bit confused… all going in the same direction. All of us in one big circle, causing an energy cyclone in the room. 
After a few circles in one direction, I got bored. That is when I heard a voice. A literal voice – yes.
Okay, not really. But it is the nagging, annoying voice (not really, I actually really love this voice!) that often pushes me out of my comfort zone and into the Danger Zone (Top Gun folks – what woman wouldn’t like that Zone!?).
She exists more and more for me outside of the dance floor. This time, she existed in this room of almost complete strangers with a rather famous man leading the charge of all these women.
Did I really have the guts to do what this voice suggested?
My throat started to close up a bit. Yet then I remembered that I ain’t here to live the common, comfortable ordinary life of no risks. I am here to break through my patterns, to go beyond what I think I can do in this body. To create new ways of being and to give permission to others in the process.
So, as I talked to that scared one inside, with my heart pounding and the energy surging through my veins like the hot vampire blood that surged through Bella as she died to her human life (Twilight Saga, I know horrible huh?), I
- *Stepped out of the cyclone of energy,
- * Took pause long enough to center myself,
- * TURNED AROUND and started walking on the outside of the circle.
I thought I might pass out, not from nervousness exactly, but from the massive amount of energy I was now walking against. To be that one person that takes all that energy of sameness and DOES SOMETHING NEW with it.
Wham. Baam. Thank you ma’am.
Yes, there were nerves. Massive nerves I haven’t heard from in a long while since I practice this stuff regularly. But they got a hold of me that day: “What would they think of me? They must think I am such an odd ball! Or maybe they think I am full of myself…”
For since day two of the Retreat, I had decided not to sit at the neatly lined tables and chairs, but instead sit at the back of the room on the floor where I could move and stretch and not smell all the perfume that my body did not like.
Where I could break the patterns of society that are all around us.
For that is my motto.
That is my life’s passion.
To break the patterns.
Even when there are nerves.
Even when my heart is beating so hard I cannot hear myself think.
Even when I think I might pass out or throw up.
Or cause awkwardness….for me or others.
I seek to see the patterns in our society, both the obvious and subtle…then try them on for size.
And then I SHATTER THEM to oblivion. 
Why?
Because that is how we as humans learn. We Learn by DOING. By getting dirty and experimenting.
And when we learn, we change our entire Being.
We change the chemical reactions in our bodies and in those bodies around us.
This is how we Evolve. Grow. Mature. Save the Planet. Save ourselves. Save the World.
By playing at the little experiments life gives us each and every day to run. If we don’t want the same result – run a different experiment.
How? By changing one part of that pattern.
It starts in the small moments of our daily lives. And then grows to bigger ones…until there are massive Movements of Society.
To be honest – once you get the hang of breaking patterns – it is freakin fun – and a bit addictive. You become that powerful woman that keeps others on their toes, shocks the bejeebers out of them, keeps them guessing as to what you will do next – and gives them permission to do the same.
You can be her, or him, too.
Because if ONE PERSON can change a pattern of a cyclone of energy moving in one direction – then ANY ONE can change a pattern like this – or any other pattern. That is what the brain science teaches us.
Let’s use it.
Let’s get MOOOOVIN’ folks!
THE DUMMIES WAY TO BREAKING PATTERNS
“The map is NOT the territory.”
This is a little saying that NLP people use. It means that the reality of the world around us is not what it is in our heads. If we change that which is in our heads…we will start to see a different reality.
Knowing this, know that your patterns are NOT the territory of the world around you. Your patterns are simply the current pre-programmed maps that your body is used to firing off from one synapses to another between cells. Yet, yet our bodies are these amazingly adaptable living beings that can instantly change with one new experience.
As Matthew Hussey (the aforementioned man from above) often says, if we want new beliefs, the quickest way is to go out and have new experiences. I couldn’t agree more.
Here is my easy way I do this:
1) Observe: Choose a simple place to start. I.E. go to a rather busy cafe (where I am now) and then sit back, maybe way back and observe the room, the people around you, the tones of voice being used. Look for any patterns you see. What is the “popular” or most chosen way that most are taking?
For example, in this cafe most on on their computer, or talking with others while on their computer. Some are fidgety. Most are sitting hunched, shoulders forward, some with feet flat, others not. All with rather serious faces.
Notice the energy when someone does something different then the rest. How does that feel in your body? What happens to the energy in the room?
2) Try it on for size: In this example, most of us know what it feels like to sit in front of a computer. Go ahead tho and try it on for size. This will give you more insight into others around you, and to the energetic world at large. It will help you help others break their patterns of being. For example, the man sitting right next to me – we both put our left hand up to our face at the same time. Wow…that felt cool. He might be feeling contemplative and focused, for that is what it feels like in my body when I try that on for size.
3) Break that pattern: Now, do something, anything to change any of the patterns in the room. Even just a tilt of the head, a smile, a stretch, stand up and squat down – will break the energy pattern for you – and thus for another. Movement, baby, Movement! Whatever it is, do something just one little step outside of your comfort zone – so you are creating the pattern break for yourself while creating a new comfort zone in your world. If nothing else, it will give you a new perspective of the room and of life at this moment then you had before.
AND REMEMBER: People don’t have to change their pattern to feel the effect of you changing your pattern. The subconscious mind is picking up EVERYTHING around us – so your pattern break will register in their subconscious brain.
It just happened next to me! I changed my posture by tilting my hips forward arching my back, pulling my shoulders back so I could breathe in deeper. Within a few moments the man next to me paused, did the same and then went a step further to stretch his arms up. Then he got up and moved.
Wash. Rinse. Repeat!
Most of all, pick up the attitude of a child and remember to PLAY with this tool. If it ain’t fun, then that is the first pattern to break!
P.S.
I actually got a few positive feedback responses to the little experiment of moving the opposite way of the cyclone of energy. I got a high five from the aforementioned “famous” fearless male leader of these women. I heard a few positive comments. And after a few tentative rounds of being the outsider…I actually decided to take myself inside the circle, like a fish swimming upstream or running up the down escalator. Good thing I have practiced that on the dance floor so much! I safely navigated the stream without hurting myself nor anyone else…while either making others scratch their head or remember me with fondness. Truth be told I will take either reaction!
And then I went and took a nap…cause that is what changing patterns will do to you…
