This simple lemon exercise will teach you how to build self confidence | @MarisaPeer

The most important word you will ever hear to yourself in your whole life. And not for some hot girl or some hot guy or even a teacher saying, gosh, you're smart, you are the best kid I've ever had in my class. Even a parent saying, wow, parenting you is the joy of my life. No, the most important word you will ever hear in your whole life come from you. People think praising yourself is arrogant, but if we had a scale, if this was a scale, and that was arrogance and that was feeling insecure, they're kind of the same, they're just an opposite. Thing in the middle is confidence. I like myself self esteem. I believe in who I am. You see, self esteem doesn't mean what I think of you. It means what you think of you. If I said I hold you in the highest esteem, that's what I think of you. But self esteem is what you think of you. And when you have self esteem, you're not arrogant, but you're also not insecure because you understand that it comes from in here. And you have the power to change in here massively when you learn how to dialogue with yourself. So we want to be the CEO of our own mind. How do we do that? Well, it really is very easy. Don't complicate it. It all comes back to how do you talk to you. Because if I said to you, oh, you're so smart, I love what you're wearing, I love your hair, I love your shoes, you're amazing. Could you stay behind today and help me empty out my stuff? I've totally manipulated you with praise. And the mind understands that if someone is mean, we go, well, my dad was really mean today, but he's got some issues. He's fighting with my mum, he's got some problems at work. He's just having a bad day. We can actually work out where someone is mean or nice, but our mind believes whatever we tell it. If you're mean to yourself, it's true. And if you're good to yourself, it's true. So let me show you how your mind tunes into whatever you say and makes it real. Put your hand in front of your mouth as if you're about to eat something. Put it right up here. Close your eyes and I want you to imagine you're holding in your hand half of a big fish. Fat, juicy lemon. A gorgeous, ripe, juicy lemon. It's in your hand and I want you to squish that lemon and breathe in that amazing lemon smell and feel that kind of waxy surface of the Lemon. I want you to squeeze that lemon more so lemon drops come to the surface. I want you to stick out your tongue. Literally stick out your tongue and lick off those lemon drops. And now open your mouth and shove that entire half a lemon in your mouth and eat it with your eyes closed. Bite into the flesh. Start chewing it, sucking it, swirling it around your mouth. Bite into every lemon segment. Chew it, suck it, pump it around your mouth. Eat that entire half a lemon. Eat all the flesh. Chew it, suck it, swirl it around. And notice your taste buds are puckering, your taste buds are swelling. You are pumping out saliva to a thought. You're thinking about eating a lemon, and already you're making it real. Open your eyes and here's a question, and you cannot get this question. People say, I don't want my hand up in case I'm wrong and I look like an idiot. You can't get this question wrong is a bit of a trick. Whatever you say is right. Put your hand up. If there was no lemon, by the way, you can't get it wrong. Put your hand. If there's no lemon, it's okay. Put your hand up. If there was a lemon, it's also okay. And put your hand up. If you never put your hand up, whatever the question is, put your hand up. Okay, so here's the answer. You're both right. There wasn't a lemon at all. There was no lemon. But there was a lemon. Where was it? Where was the lemon in your mind? Your mind didn't go, oh, come on, there's no lemon. This is silly. Even though it knew there was no lemon, your mind began to pump out saliva to have thought, why did it do that? Well, you know, 500 years ago, you needed your teeth. If you couldn't bite, There was no pureed stuff. There was no shakes and bulletproof coffees and smoothies. You had to bite stuff. And with lemons eroding tooth enamel, that was a problem. So when you eat anything acidic, your mind starts to pump out saliva to protect your teeth. You might notice sometimes when you feel a bit sick, the first thing you notice is lots of saliva in your mouth. Who's noticed that? When you're going to be sick, your mind pumps out saliva to protect your teeth because your mind is working all the time to keep you alive. So that's a kind of neutral thing. But if you can tell your mind you're eating a lemon and make that real, then you can do anything. Let's do another one. Everybody stand up. And I want everyone to point their left arm towards me. Just like that. Let's all use the same arm. Left. I'm using the opposite because it's the mirror opposite. Left arm, left arm to face me. And all we're going to do, don't do it yet, is that please don't poke someone in the eye or touch any part of their body. So make sure you've got a bit of space and let's practice it first. Take your left arm and keeping your feet facing forward, just swing your arm as far behind you as you can get it to go. Push it to its absolute limit. Push your arm as far as it will go. And then take a look at where it is. Look behind you at how far you've moved your left arm. Bring it back. And I want you to talk to your arm. You might think that's kind of weird, but it's a great thing to talk to your body. Say to your left arm, you're super flexible, like a bendy rubber doll. And you are going to go a third further. I need you to say it. Look at your arm and say, you are so flexible. Repeat over me. You're so flexible, you're going a third further. You're like a bendy rubber toy. Go a third further because I'm telling you to. And now swing your arm back and watch as it goes a whole third further because you told it to. Let's do the other one. And we can speed it up now because you know you can do it. Put your right arm out, swing it behind you, mark. It'll go further because you really can mark how far it's gone. Bring it back. Look at your arm and say to your arm, you are going way further. Way, way, way further. More than a third further because you're so flexible, because I'm telling you too. And even see in your mind your arm going so far it almost does a 360 degree move. Close your eyes and see it just for a minute. Wow. My arm is going so far I can see it. And I'm telling it go further and I know it will. And now swing your arm back and watch as it goes way, way, way further because you told it to. And bring it back. So what happened then? What happened is you put different pictures and words in your mind. You know, I work with a lot of athletes and the Olympic Committee has stated many times, only athletes you can visualize will ever make it to the Olympics because they have such an advantage over those that can't. And many times you'll see a Bodybuilder lift a weight and they close their eyes and they see themselves lifting a bigger weight. Someone doing yoga will stretch their leg out like that and hold it and then close their eyes and find, wow, I can do it so much better the second time because I'm seeing it. You'll believe it when you see it. Seeing is believing. So let's just do one more. I want you to put your feet together and just put your hands by your side. These are completely safe. They're not harmful. They're totally neutral. They're just to show you the power of your incredible genius mind. Because if you have a mind, you have a genius mind. Your mind is brilliant. And you gotta learn to tap into its brilliance and help it with better words, better thoughts. Because I promise you, it will change your entire life. So put your hand by your side, close your eyes just for a minute, and I want you to imagine you've got a little magnet implanted in your chin. And in front of your chin is the biggest magnet ever, one of those huge red magnets, and it is pulling you forwards from the chin. There is a massive magnet in front of your chin, your little magnetic chip in your chin. And that magnet is pulling you forwards, forwards, forwards. Your chin is moving forwards. Your head is leaning forwards, Your body is tilting forwards, Your shoulders being pulled forwards, forwards, forwards. You really want to bend at the waist as you move forwards, forwards. And you actually notice that you really want to come up onto your tiptoes as that magnet pulls you even more forwards, even more forwards. Your knees are locking. You're coming up onto your tiptoes. You're bracing your legs as that magnet pulls you more forwards, even more forwards, even more forwards. You are moving forwards, bending forwards, leaning forwards. Because that magnet is so powerful. It's pulling you forwards, forwards, forwards. Only now that magnetic chip has actually gone to the back of the back of your head and the magnet's gone behind your head. And this time, the magnet is pulling you backwards. You are bending backwards. Your head is going backwards. Your chin is coming up into the air. You are locking your knees, your toes are coming forward. You're arching like a bow as that magnet pulls you backwards, backwards, even more backwards. Your shoulders, your head, your ears are pulling backwards, backwards, backwards. Only now the magnets move to the left of your left ear. That little magnetic chip is in your left ear, and that magnet is pulled, pulling you to the left. You're like a tree in a gale. You are being pulled over to the left. Your head is moving to the left. Your shoulders are moving to the left. You desperately want to come right onto the side of your left foot as you lean and move and sway and get pulled like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, all the way over to the left. Only now the chips move to your right ear, and immediately you are being pulled to the right. A magnetic force, a powerful, irresistible magnetic force is pulling you over to the right. Your head is moving to the right. Your ear is moving to the right. Your shoulders are moving to the right. You are leaning over to the right. Like a tree in the wind, you are moving to the right, wanting desperately to go onto the side of your right foot, leaning, moving, pulling to the right. And just be aware of what your body is doing and open your eyes and straighten yourself up. And of course, here's a question again. There was no magnet. But your mind doesn't know, and I promise you, it doesn't care. Take a seat. This is what is so important about your mind. It doesn't know. And it doesn't care if what you tell it is good or bad, useful or pointless, beneficial or not. Your mind doesn't know, and it doesn't care. And you just proved it with a lemon. You proved it with your arm. You proved it when you started to do that and that and that and that to a thought. Because your mind makes your thoughts real. Every minute of every day, your mind makes your thoughts real. And if your mind makes your thoughts real, you better learn to make better thoughts.