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16 Seconds to Change Your Energy

Sheila Franzen
16 Seconds to Change Your Energy

I recently finished listening to Lynn Grabhoorn’s book, Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting: The Astonishing Power of Feelings. A friend had recommended listening to it. I’m sure that I used to own this book and one of her other books, but they had long since departed my library as I’m always letting go to bring more in. I’m really glad that I chose to listen to the book as my friend has suggested. Lynn reads the book herself and you get to hear and experience her energy and passion around what she is talking about! Her intonations in her speech and sharing make all the difference. She doesn’t read the book. She reads it with passion! You feel the ups and downs of her story and her life.


What I loved about this book was how many truly practical exercises and examples are given to actually shift and create change in your life. One of the ones that I find myself thinking about almost every day is the her research that it takes 16 seconds to shift your energy, to get into the ‘buzz’ state. I’ve tried this quite a few times over the past weeks of reading the book and even when I have found myself in a really frustrated state or bad mood, if I just force myself to smile for 16 seconds, something shifts. You can’t smile and stay mad. It’s really, really hard. Try it! Smile right now and see what happens. Time it and see when you start laughing because you are doing something goofy or smiling bigger because you just got that this is silly, but it worked. It’s crazy, but holding a thought or a smile or your heart for over 16 seconds shifts something. Sometimes that 16 seconds seems like forever! The other concept she talks about frequently is flip-switching. It’s an interesting concept and practice to get yourself out of a down cycle or a bad vibration. We all end up in those places where we know we are off and don’t know how to get out of it. I know I end up there more than once a day. I’m aware of it now after many years of practice, but I still have a hard time getting out of that place sometimes. She shares her journey through the same and how she found ways to get out of these states quickly. She named it flip switching. The biggest concept with this is that you have to have something in place, so that when you need it, you can use it! One of the simplest is that of gratitude. This falls in line with many gratitude practices, yet her focus is on self-gratitude. Find something you appreciate about yourself and focus on that for as long as it takes to feel the shift. I love this idea and have been practicing it. I haven’t mastered it yet, but it sure does give a focus to getting into a higher vibration when you want out of the funk that you are in! Add it to your listening library! I know I will be listening to it again!

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