How the 2 'Robbins' Shook Up My Recent Vegas Trip!

Can I be vulnerable for a minute? 2024 has been a really rocky year for me so far. Instead of being mostly excited for all the big plans in store for the year, it's been a season of loss... a "death" of sorts, as my Therapist put it. Grieving a relationship that I thought would be forever, and trying to wrap my mind around the fact of having to find my 'new norm'...

So as much as I usually love seeing all my Agent friends from across the country, during this last event (KW's Family Reunion Conference in Las Vegas), my anxiety was on high alert and my emotions were all over the place. It's not a space or a sense of being that I'm used to, and it takes me for a loop every time I begin to experience it. We had two amazing keynote speakers at KWFR: Tony Robbins and Mel Robbins (no relation lol). I've seen Tony speak in person before, and he is phenomenal. His energy and his spirit are truly next level! He talked a lot about "changing your state"... like literally. If you're in a funk and need to change it up, then literally moving, walking, forcing yourself to laugh... doing "something" to change your physical state will help change your mental state. He correlated your physiology to your focus.... and how learning to get the two to work together can lead to action, which will influence your behavior, that then will lead to positive improved results!

It might sound simple, but when you're in that negative headspace, it can be really hard to find your way out of it. By the end of his speech, Tony did this exercise where he has you focus on several wonderful thoughts and memories... the goal is to fill your heart up so much and then lock those memories and those feelings there. When you embody the emotions so completely, it should give you a sense of calm and abundant joy that you can hold onto and revisit when you need that feeling again. I've done this exercise in the past with him, and it can work. I remember brimming with feelings of love, acceptance, gratitude, and joy.

Unfortunately - that was not my experience this time. My anxiety crept up little by little instead of thinking of happy thoughts... I simply could not focus in the way he was saying to. By the end when everyone was cheering, I found myself wiping tears from my eyes. I felt defeated to say the least... I remember saying "If Tony Robbins can't get me out of this funk, then I'm in bigger trouble than I realized." So I went about my evening and through all my classes the next day... going through the motions, hugging all the friends, truly enjoying seeing them but while also feeling like my mind and heart just weren't with me. Then comes Wednesday morning and Mel Robbins. Now, I honestly didn't know too much about her. I started following her on Instagram at some point last year based on a friend's recommendation. She often posts short concise quotes that I like... a lot of messaging about being your own person, not trying to please the crowd, being true to yourself, etc. She comes across as very real and very authentic. In her speech, she tells us a little about her backstory- in a humorous way. She was relatable and funny... the kind of person you could cry with while laughing at yourself too, and be totally ok with all of it.

Mel goes on to tell us how she came up with her 5-4-3-2-1 method... and how it not only helped her get back on track with living her life, but how it greatly impacted so many other people too. It was the simplest concept... counting down 5-4-3-2-1 then GO... get up, move, "change your state". And there was that theme again... maybe this was God trying to get through to me. But again, "the Go" part is not easy to do when you're trapped in that headspace... and yet following this method made it a little more manageable because she emphasizes NOT waiting for the hesitation. Just move after you reach the count of 1. Once you've taken that first step/ movement, then it's easier to take the next and the next. And go figure, that message helped me! These last few weeks when I feel the anxiety creeping up and that tightness in my chest, I try to take a deep breath and count in my head... 5 -4-3-2-1 then I go. It doesn't mean that I lose the anxiety or sadness, but I'm able to not stay paralyzed in the fear. There will always be excuses to NOT do something, but the number 1 excuse TO do it? It's my #1 affirmation that I share every week- "you ARE enough"... "I" am enough, and I deserve more than the anxious state I've been allowing myself to get caught in.

So if you're going through a personal struggle and not able to find your way out, I encourage you to give the 5-4-3-2-1 method a try. Change your state as Tony says, and get up and GO as Mel says. Clearly, 2 Robbins are better than one, and I'm so grateful that I had the honor to learn from them both in Vegas.

Author: Josie Ambroise