By Alexia Melocchi
What is a breakthrough? It is a moment in time when everything changes. When the impossible becomes possible.
It is a Thursday evening, a day of any week, but not like any other. I am standing in front of two chairs with a karate board perched in the middle. The music is pumping loud to the words of
EMINEM. “If you had one shot, one opportunity, to seize everything you ever wanted, would you capture it or just let it slip?” I am jumping up and down, like Rocky, before getting ready for a fight. I am breathing like a dragon, moving my arms like Bruce Lee. I keep yelling YES, YES, YES. I strike. For one brief moment, I lose track of time, until I see the board broken in two on the floor. I start sobbing. I never thought that breaking a karate board with no training would have created such a powerful shift in my life outlook. But it did. And this was just the beginning of a four-day marathon attending the first-ever Virtual Event of UNLEASH THE POWER WITHIN, together with twenty-two thousand souls from every corner of the world.
Tony Robbins is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and motivational speaker who has put up personal development events that transformed the lives of millions for more than four decades. A few months back, before COVID hit, I was celebrating his 60th Birthday at the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles together with Derek Hough, Dr. Oz, Melissa Etheridge, Pitbull, Andy Grammer, Leona Lewis, and Gerald Butler to name a few. In one single night, he raised over 18 Million Dollars for Operation Underground Railroad, to fight human trafficking. It was there that I saw for the first time and in-person how many raving fans he had.
et me preface. I am not a Tony Robbin’s groupie. Though I have many friends who have been die-hard followers and repeat attendees at his events, I never needed to experience his teaching as I had read the books and listened to his motivational podcast. I had seen I AM NOT YOUR GURU on Netflix. That was plenty for me.
In pandemic times, I, like many of us, found myself questioning my values, standards, and beliefs. I must admit I have been experiencing waves of hopelessness, loneliness, and emotional paralysis.
Somewhere on Facebook, I had seen an announcement that Tony Robbins was doing a Facebook Live every day for a few hours daily to help inspire and mentor us on how to have a better handle of our emotions. Before the end of the first day, over 300,000 people were showing up online for him. And whatever he had to say, it felt good and hopeful and relatable. Towards the end, he announced UNLEASH THE POWER WITHIN, a four-day full immersion virtual event suitable for the entire family. I immediately signed up, with another twenty-two thousand human beings. My reason and goal were to crush some limiting beliefs I had carried with me for many years, and I was finally ready to let go. But I needed to know how and I needed a guide.
“Life is a gift. It offers us the privilege, opportunity, and responsibility to give something back by becoming more.”
~Tony Robbins
I woke up at 7 am on day one, intent to play full out, and be open to the process, loud music, and all (for which he is known for at his live events). I had a lot of earth-shattering moments, and breaking the board by sheer will power was one of them. Beyond the teaching, some of the most powerful highlights for me were the actual practical processes. On Thursday, we connected to our hearts, with a powerful guided meditation that created a profound sense of gratitude within me. Tony believes in the “stacking process.” Just like we stack negative thoughts and experiences, which brings us into a cyclical state of worry and stress and fear, we have the power to stack positively by connecting to our hearts and visualizing with all our senses moments that create positive emotions within us. Eyes closed, we are told to reach out to grab those memories and to bring them to our hearts. It is amazing how easy it is to tap into those feelings if we open our hearts to bring them in.
“Trade your expectations for appreciation, and
your whole life will change in a moment.”
~Tony Robbins
On day two, we got a lot of education on how our lives’ quality is the quality of emotions we live every day. We were put into breakout rooms, as small as six people shuffled randomly to do the written exercises. During these sessions, what was fascinating to me was that almost everyone I met virtually had similar patterns of feeling insignificant, fearful, uncertain, unworthy, and believed those disempowering statements. How we speak to ourselves has such a lasting effect on our physiology and all areas of our lives.
“You do not change you. You change your patterns”. ~Tony Robbins
Day three was Transformation day, and it was brutal, in a good way. After many hours of teaching, that were interrupted thankfully by some dancing around the room to shake up the energy, we did the key process of this entire event, called THE DICKENS. It’s inspired by A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Scrooge is visited by ghosts of past, present, and future, as full consequences of his choices, decisions, and behaviors are reenacted. Tony advocates that to break a habit, we have to experience the painful effects of continuing the habits, stretching to the extreme, much like a sling. The further you bend it backward, the greater the momentum to propel you forward. And when you can’t take it any longer, when you realize you will no longer be held back, and you can no longer stay the same, that is the most significant moment to choose to “unleash the power within” and change the identity you held on to for too long.
The fastest way to do so? To decide to live in a BEAUTIFUL STATE. That is accomplished through choosing new and empowering words, like YES, breathing, gratitude.
I challenge you to make your life a masterpiece.
I challenge you to join the ranks of those who live
what they teach and walk their talk.”
~ Tony Robbins
The event ended Sunday night with the Meditation of the Two Hearts led by Master Co, a Pranic Healer, and Tony’s wife, Sage. The sight of twenty-two thousand souls, emitting love energy from their heart, and spreading it out to the entire Planet, was nothing short of miraculous. Tears were shed, lives where changed. Hope was reborn. As Tony’s wife Sage chanted OM MANI PADME HUM, I glanced at my broken karate board on my desk. On the top side, I AM UNLOVEABLE,
a disempowering belief I held on to since I was a child. On the other side, I AM WORTHY. Before this experience, my board would have been just an amusing experiment.
Now, I have broken through, And I know that not only all in life is possible, I know that I am possible.
