I recently had the pleasure of speak with author Bill Crawford about his book entitled “Life From The Top of Mind“.  I think we are all aware of the incredible amounts of stress that fills our world, and I found that Bill’s book does a wonderful job of not only explaining how stress effects us, but provides a layman’s explanation of what happens to our bodies and what we can do about it to counter act the stress.

I think that for most of us we want to know what techniques are available to us in learning how to cope with stress.  But what is equally important is to understand what Bill refers to as “The Cycle of Stress/Frustration”.  It truly starts with the “Stressors”, economy, deadlines, customers etc then moves to our “Reactions” frustrated, stressed, anxious, angry etc. I think you got it!!

Bill outlines three ways to change, which are 1) Change the cause 2) Change the effect or 3) Become the cause.  It is the third option which is very unorthodox but is the main point of “Life From The Top Of The Mind“.

Bill is advocating that we look at the three C’s, Clarity, Cconfidence, and Creativity which means living our lives  from the “top of mind”  taking full responsibility for our lives.  Bill states that when you combine what he calls the POWER Model with the three C’s we can begin to see how they support one another.

The POWER model is an acronym for Purpose, Our Past, Wisdom of Serenity, Energy, and Responsibility.  When we become clear about our purpose we become more powerful. When we have more clarity about our past, meaning old habits, learned reactions and preconceptions that are incongruent with our higher purpose we can change the beliefs that are driving these habits. When we become clear about the wisdom of serenity, or value of using serenity as a precursor to accepting what we can’t change so that we have the courage to change those aspects of our live ove which we have the most influence we become more powerful. When we become clear about the type of energy we want to drive this process, and actively choose this energy to motivate our thoughts, emotions and behaviors we become more powerful.  And finally when we are willing to take full responsibility for our ability to respond so that we need nothing to change in order to practice this “Top Of Mind” perspective, we become powerful.

So to sum it up, the more control you are of your emotions, feeling and thoughts the less stress will invade your life.  Bill’s approach is so accurate but requires tremendous practice and diligence to recognize what state of mind we are in.  As he advocates if you can maintain a “Top of Mind” perspective your stress will be reduced substantially.  I highly recommend this book and the approach the author takes to help the reader reduce stress.

If you would like more information about author Bill Crawford please click here to be directed to his website .  Enjoy this wonderful interview with author Bill Crawford.