The Power of the 3M’s
Frank Fitzpatrick 07/02/2020
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“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
— Leonardo Da Vinci
While I was preparing to speak at the Wealthy Visionary Conference in Los Angeles, host Marcia Wieder called me to make a request and offer some sound advice. Marcia said: “People are overwhelmed with information. I want you to give them something so powerful it can transform their lives, yet so simple, that they can write it down on a sticky note (post-it), take it home, and stick on their bathroom mirror.”
Marcia was right: Maintaining the energy one needs to create lasting change and new habits is hard enough without adding more layers of complexity to our lives.
There are thousands of self-help solutions, each with a different twist on the seven or ten new habits you have to learn and change in order to receive the benefits they promise. It’s no wonder so many people give up, while others turn to the quick pop of a pill that makes many of the same promises.
Taking Marcia’s challenge to heart, I took a long pause to ask myself: “What are the fundamental daily ingredients that I have found most essential to maintaining my own personal energy, creative output and personal wellbeing?”
The answer came far faster than I anticipated. Almost immediately, I took out a sticky note and wrote down the first thing that came to my mind: The 3Ms.
The 3Ms are Music, Movement and Meditation. If I start my morning with a few minutes of practice from each of those three disciplines, I am guaranteed to increase my capacity for joy, balance and creativity throughout the remainder of the day. The scientific evidence makes it clear that they can do the same for anyone.
WHY Music?
For me, growing up as a sensitive kid in Detroit in the early 70’s, in the midst of violent social upheaval, runaway political corruption, and unexpected economic collapse, music became my lifeline—an escape from the chaos around me and a “go-to” solution for maintaining sanity and channeling my emotions, and a gateway to an inner sense of balance and belonging. If joy had a sound, it was music.
Even today, to help me center, stay inspired and start my day off on a positive note, I use music. I have changed that jarring alarm sound to a soothing piece of music that helps me more gracefully transition into wakefulness. One awake, I may sing a song I love, spend a few minutes playing an instrument, chant a mantra or listen to my own inspiring playlist while doing my morning workout.
Beyond my own personal experience, music has a history of contributing to the wellbeing of humankind for as far back as we know.
WHY Movement?
Like music, there are many kinds of movement. I have a few preferred practices that I try to add to my morning regime. I might go for a bike ride on the beach one day, attend a class, do a workout, or take a quick jog around the local park when I have less time. Movement is critical to optimizing my energy and maintaining my well-being, if not my sanity.
The meaning of movement took on a new level of significance when I faced the threat of becoming physically disabled at 25. After a year of intense pain, the doctors recommended they put a rod up the center of my spine to help offset the worsening effects caused by scoliosis. I had to find another path.
That led me to my first yoga class. The stretching, breathing, strengthening and mindful movement that come from my yoga practice have become a mandatory part of my daily routine, resulting in both physical strength and reduced pain, but also more access to happiness, reduced levels of anxiety, and greater mental clarity.
More broadly, the 3Ms include understanding the science and sharing and experiencing the benefits behind the simple and essential act of moving our bodies. When you consider that 90% of our psychology is physiology, the beneficial impact of physical movement on our mind and mood is not so surprising.
WHY Meditation?
Meditation and Mindfulness seem to be the trending buzzwords for wellbeing these days. Some say meditation is the “new yoga.” My hope is that meditation becomes the new medication—one without the negative side effects.
There are many documented benefits of meditation, including reducing blood pressure, lowering the risk of heart attack or stroke, decreasing stress and anxiety, improving memory and awareness, and increasing our capacity for joy and gratitude.
While I recognize the long-term effect of my own meditation practice on my improved capacity to stay calm in the eye of the storm, I also feel the immediate benefits in the quality of my energy and mood, and the way I experience the world every day.
For me, meditation has been essential to helping me stay highly creative, productive and centered, through years of working around the clock and traveling back and forth across the globe—often under extremely stressful, unpredictable conditions.
3MRevolution.com
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Marcia’s insights proved to be true. The simplicity and power of the 3Ms clearly resonated with the audience of 400 attendees at the Wealthy Visionary Conference. The positive feedback from this conference, in fact, inspired the development of a workshop and series called 3MRevolution. The 3Ms even became the framework for teaching alternative therapeutics (music, yoga, and meditation) as scientifically-proven preventive health and healing modalities at our Los Angeles Yoga for Hope launch with City of Hope – helping patients and their caregivers dealing with life-threatening diseases, and to world leaders in health and technology at the 2014 Exponential Medicine Conference. In 2016, I integrated the 3M framework to help children, when our EarthTones team produced the first successful Music-infused SEL and Mindfulness program for at-risk middle school students in the Los Angeles public school system.
Want to Learn More?
Over the next few weeks, I will be presenting a series of articles and free sessions to provide you with scientifically-proven ways to optimize and amplify your energy so you can have all the internal resource you need to navigate the unpredictability and turbulence of the external world with greater CALM, Confidence, and JOY.
To learn more about upcoming programs, books, music, and film releases, Sign up here.
Looking to book me as a speaker? Learn more here.
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About the Author
Frank Fitzpatrick is a Creative Visioneer, Engagement Expert and High-Performance Coach on the Faculty of Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine.
To connect, go to FrankFitzpatrick.com
To learn more about working 1-on1 with Frank, go to BeyondPerformance.Life
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