My Interview with Eric Maisel, author of Ten Zen Seconds.

Here it is!  

My interview with Eric Maisel, godfather of creativity training.  Enjoy!  

NOTE:  The URL for the book isn't showing up properly in the following text.  Simply go to this shortened link 

to order the book through Amazon.com:  http://tinyurl.com/33p4eh

MTF:  Welcome, Eric!  And thanks for joining us on your blog tour.

EM:  It’s my pleasure, Maya.

MTF:  Eric, in your new book, Ten Zen Seconds, you offer a 

very simple but powerful technique for reducing stress, 

getting yourself centered, and reminding yourself about 

how you want to live your life.  

I love your idea of “dropping a useful thought into a deep breath”!  

You use a deep breath, five seconds on the inhale and five seconds 

on the exhale, paired with a thought that sort of points you in 

the right direction for dealing with whatever you are facing.

Where did this idea come from? 

EM: It comes from two primary sources, cognitive and positive psychology 

from the West and breath awareness and mindfulness techniques from the East. 

I’d been working with creative and performing artists for more than twenty 

years as a therapist and creativity coach and wanted to find a quick, simple 

technique that would help them deal with the challenges they regularly 

face—resistance to creating, performance anxiety, negative self-talk about a 

lack of talent or a lack of connections, stress over a boring day job or 

competing in the art marketplace, and so on.

MTF:  Eric, how would you describe TZS to someone who has never worked with 

affirmations or breath control?

EM: Taking a deep breath is not mysterious and thinking a thought is not 

mysterious, and marrying the two is child’s play. The basic idea of Ten Zen 

Seconds is that you can “drop” certain useful thoughts into ten-second-long 

deep breaths and in so doing provide yourself with a simple tool and a 

complete system for centering and reducing stress.

Because I have a background in both Western and Eastern ideas, it began to 

dawn on me that deep breathing, which is one of the best ways to reduce 

stress and alter thinking, could be used as a cognitive tool if I found just 

the right phrases to accompany the deep breathing. This started me on a hunt 

for the most effective phrases that I could find.

MTF:  Eric, you call these thought/breath combos “incantations”—

how did you decide to use this particular term?

EM: Well, Maya, it was a tough call whether to use a word from the 

world of magic, which “incantation” is, where it stands for a “verbal charm” 

meant to produce certain results. I very much liked this idea  

and so ended up going with the word, despite the fact that it 

comes from the “woo-woo world.” Maybe there was 

just a touch of irony at play there, too.

MTF:  When you started to select your incantations, how 

did you go about finding the ones that would resonate with people?  

EM: First, I tried to figure out what are the most important 

tasks that we face as human beings, then I came up with 

what I hoped were resonant phrases, each of which needed 

to fit well into a deep breath, then, most importantly—which 

moved this from the theoretical to the empirical—I tested 

the phrases out on hundreds of folks who agreed to use them 

and report back on their experiences. That was great fun and 

eye-opening!

MTF:  Oh, we like things that are eye-opening here.   And I 

love the fact that we are free to tweak the incantations and 

come up with the phrases that work for us, depending on our

circumstances. 

EM: Of course!  People used these phrases to center themselves 

before a dental appointment or surgery, to get ready to have a 

difficult conversation with a teenage child, to bring joy back to 

their performing career, to carve out time for creative work in 

an over-busy day—in hundreds of ways that I couldn’t have 

anticipated. I think that’s what makes the book rich and special: that, as 

useful as the method and the incantations are, hearing from real people 

about how they’ve used them “seals the deal.” I’m not much of a fan of 

self-help books that come entirely from the author’s head; this one has been 

tested in the crucible of reality.

MTF: So, you tested and came up with a list of a dozen incantations.  

Tell us about them.  

EM: Naturally each incantation is explained in 

detail in the book and there are lots of personal reports, so 

readers get a good sense of how different people interpret and 

make use of the incantations. Here are the twelve (the parentheses 

show how the phrase gets “divided up” between the inhale and the exhale:

  1. (I am completely) (stopping)

  2. (I expect) (nothing)

  3. (I am) (doing my work)

  4. (I trust) (my resources)

  5. (I feel) (supported)

  6. (I embrace) (this moment)

  7. (I am free) (of the past)

  8. (I make) (my meaning)

  9.  (I am open) (to joy)

10. (I am equal) (to this challenge)

11. (I am) (taking action)

12. (I return) (with strength)

A small note: the third incantation functions differently from the other 

eleven, in that you name something specific each time you use it, for 

example “I am writing my novel” or “I am paying the bills.” This helps you 

bring mindful awareness to each of your activities throughout the day.

MTF:  It’s a very creative way to find your own best message! 

What are some of the ways you and others are using TZS?  

EM: Maya, folks are coming up with all kinds of special uses. One 

that I especially like is the idea of “book-ending” a period of work, say 

your morning writing stint or painting stint, by using “I am completely 

stopping” to ready yourself, center yourself, and stop your mind chatter, 

and then using “I return with strength” when you’re done so that you return 

to “the rest of life” with energy and power. Usually we aren’t this mindful 

in demarcating our activities—and life feels very different when we do.

My web master Ron Wheatley has also designed a 

slide show at the Ten Zen Seconds site (http://www.tenzenseconds.com)  that 

you can use to learn and experience the incantations. The slides that name 

the twelve incantations are beautiful images provided by the painter Ruth 

Yasharpour and each slide stays in place for ten seconds. So you can attune 

your breathing to the slide and really practice the method. The slide show 

is available at http://www.tenzenseconds.com/test_photo_slide.html

MTF:  Eric, many people are searching for ways to pop into mindfulness 

mode throughout the day.  They’re not necessarily interested in 

meditation, but they do want to learn a quick, simple technique for 

centering during times of stress and chaos.  How does Ten Zen Seconds 

support us in shifting gears during the day?

EM: So much of it is attitudinal. You can either feel pushed and pulled by 

everything—or not. You can get a grip on your own mind and not make “big 

deals” out of small matters—or you can turn them into dramas and crises. 

Stress has to do not with the doing of things but with the thoughts we are 

holding as we do those things: the thought, for instance, that we have fifty 

more things to do, rather than just being present with the thing in front of 

you, peacefully doing it, without a thought as to those other fifty things. 

The incantations support this attitudinal shift by helping you completely 

stop, by helping you trust yourself, rather than worry about what’s not 

going to work or what’s not going to turn out well, and so on. This is all 

about the art of “getting out of your own way”—of making things cognitively 

easier and better.

MTF: How can people learn more about Ten Zen Seconds?

EM: The book is the best resource. You can get it at Amazon by visiting:

http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Zen-Seconds-Eric-Maisel/dp/1402208537/sr=1-25/qid=1167239458/ref=sr_1_25/102-5337867-2282549?ie=UTF8&s=books

Or you can ask for it at your local bookstore. The Ten Zen Seconds website 

is also an excellent resource: in addition to the slide show that I 

mentioned, there is a bulletin board where folks can chat, audio interviews 

that I’ve done discussing the Ten Zen Second techniques, and more. It’s also 

quite a gorgeous site, so you may want to visit it just for the aesthetic 

experience! I would also recommend that folks check out my main site, 

http://www.ericmaisel.com, especially if they’re interested in creativity 

coaching or the artist’s life.

MTF: Eric, in addition to training others to be more creative, you’re 

always coming up with new projects for yourself!  What are you up 

to these days?

EM:  Plenty! I have a new book out called Creativity for Life, which is roughly 

my fifteenth book in the creativity field and which people seem to like a 

lot. I also have a third new book out, in addition to Ten Zen Seconds and 

Creativity for Life, called Everyday You, which is a beautiful coffee table 

book about maintaining daily mindfulness. I’m working on two books for 2008, 

one called A Writer’s Space and a second called Creative Recovery, about 

using your innate creativity to help in recovering from addiction.

And I’m keep up with the many other things I do: my monthly column for Art 

Calendar Magazine, my regular segment for Art of the Song Creativity Radio, 

the trainings that I offer in creativity coaching, and my work with 

individual clients.

MTF:  Whew!  Sounds like you have plenty of opportunities to practice the

“I am completely stopping” incantation.   

EM: I am happily busy! But my main focus for the year is on 

getting the word out about Ten Zen Seconds, because I really believe that 

it’s something special. 

So I thank you for having me here today!

MTF:  Thank YOU, Eric!  We really appreciate your wonderful work.  

Best of luck on your new projects!  

EM:  Thanks, Maya.  It’s been a pleasure to talk with you.