What does the word potential actually mean? Potential is a possible output, strength, energy, or that which lies there and can be achieved.

A few years ago a book came to me. I was in a bookstore and on the shelf in the finance section I saw The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra. This sparked my curiosity. I had noticed Deepak Chopra’s name in the alternative/holistic section, but I had never read any of his books before. I thought it was awesome that his book was in the finance section. This corresponded with my own belief that when we use our mental abilities, it is just as important to use our spiritual insight and abilities to achieve the best result.

I glanced through the book and bought it. This book confirmed what I myself used as a tool in my personal life and when professionally guiding others as a coach.

What impressed me the most was a paragraph from Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.4.5, which is on the first page and is as follows:

You are what your deep, driving desire is.

As your desire is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.

These words describe so well how we all possess endless possibilities within ourselves to turn thought into action in the direction we desire. The Potensia Guide is based on thought becoming action in harmony with all aspects of our being so that we are congruent.

To begin with, these are thoughts that we see as pictures in our

head that finally become real actions, i.e. from the abstract to the

concrete in terms of ideas and emotions. When we become aware

of what lies behind our ideas and emotions, it becomes easier to

make conscious decisions. The content of the Guide is no recipe.

Fortunately we are all different to start with, and you can determine

what feels right just for you.

I have experienced that by using the exercises and thought process in the Potensia Guide, you will be able to make changes on your own terms. Some want to get off at all the stops along the way, while others choose to stop where it feels right for them at that moment, based on where they are in their lives just then. When you look at the Guide and choose where it feels correct to stop, you look into what it can lead to and choose an exercise in order to move forward, and that in itself is a conscious action.

For a long time I tried to find a name for my work. I thought about the possible capacity, or the potential we all possess. I thought to myself: “This is a guide that shows that by listening to our feelings, we can follow a path that leads to permanent changes in relation to what we desire!” In this way the name was born:

Potensia – Living according to your heart

My hope is that the Potensia name will be associated with everything having to do with potency and potential, and with the importance of listening to your feelings in order to bring forth your potential.

It is like the little seed that lies in a box in the cellar. If it is not planted in the earth, it will dry up and disintegrate. If it is planted in the earth and cared for, it will blossom and become what it has the potential of becoming. It is this force in the tiny seed which, for anyone desiring it, can develop to become a plant capable of living. The idea is to bring forth the unused life force.

I have an acquaintance who came to me one day beaming and told me the following story. He and his girlfriend were making a little inspection round in their garden to make sure all was fine. They decided to go see how things really looked furthest out in the garden where the compost pile was situated. In the middle of this pile was a tomato plant bearing the most wonderful fruit. A little seed that had decided it would not perish. This is the power we all possess. If we decide to, we can make changes and create many things in

our lives.

If our feelings and thoughts harmonize with our desires, we have indeed come far. However, we are often in situations where this is not the case. Our feelings are heading in one direction, while our thoughts are moving in another direction. Stopping at various places within the Guide helps us harmonize our feelings and thoughts. Think how many times in life we have all thought: “Darn, I should have done/said it this way, like I felt was correct from the start!” Through having worked with ourselves, it is then wonderful when we arrive at the point where we actually know what we want. Then we dare to live what we feel.

In reality we all possess an inner strength and wisdom that can be used in a positive way both for ourselves and those around us. No one way is better than another. Everything depends on who we are, our background, who we meet along our path, how conscious we are and where we live on the planet.

In some areas of my work, I come into contact with young people being educated in the field of dance. To use one’s full potential to become a good dancer, one must be aware of how one uses the body and thoughts in interaction. In order to be aware of how one uses the body, it is necessary to have knowledge about the body and what influences it. Thoughts influence the physical body. If you understand this, then it is easier not to block full use of your body’s abilities and capabilities.

During all these years, I have seen that those who already accepted this knowledge when they were young students are also the ones who have become good dancers. Already as students they had created conscious thought and a picture of who they wanted to be as a dancer, and how they wished to use their body in the best possible way. In other words, reality was created from thought in a conscious, knowledge-based manner.

If we create a picture of what we really want and hold onto this image, feeling how it feels to be in that picture and never letting go of it in full belief that it will happen, we will then be able to create what we have longed for in our inner picture. This is a “self-creating” process, which is what the method in this book describes.

If you like, imagine that this is a travel description that follows a guide. Some of the stops in the Guide will take longer depending upon who you are, while you will feel that other places are not so relevant for you. By following and working with those parts of the Guide which you feel are correct for you, you will be stimulated to be able to find the next step along your path. Through working with this Guide, solutions will often pop up that you did not foresee. Allow yourself to be surprised by yourself!

What this book describes are universal thoughts and feelings. All of us have experienced the feelings described here in one connection or another. These are stories that happen around us every day, and many will recognize themselves in parts of the book. The question remains: “How can I manage this in my life, so that I am able to move further along my path?”

This book is about women and men, old and young, from different backgrounds that needed to move on in their lives in one way or another. There are many examples of how many of us are unaware of the possibilities we have, and as a result have not used them. This occurs mostly because we do not know how to do this and we do not appreciate ourselves. But we can! If you appreciate yourself, you will never doubt whether you have the possibility to create what you want, because then you know you have the inner strength to accomplish what you desire.

It is easy to think: “I will never be able to accomplish this because this and that must first be in place”. Or we can say to ourselves: “Appreciate myself. Okay. But how can me, little old me be worth so much!” As soon as we think like this, we have already blocked our inner driving force from doing what we want.

You do not know how it will happen, but this is actually unimportant in the long run. What is important is to know that you want something, to believe in it, and envision it in your inner picture as a fact. Then each day you will have the inner driving force to focus everything in yourself on accomplishing what you desire.

Throughout this book I will at times recount what I have personally had to do in order to reach that which is my journey. I do this so you the reader will understand that these are not simply written words, but words that are based on personal experience. Otherwise I could not be congruent when I teach, when I provide guidance as a coach or when I write. I also recount situations from clients who have given me their permission to share the experiences they had with the Potensia Guide.

I myself have been at that stage where I was blocking my own progress, by thinking about all the hindrances in the way. Certain persons in my life have been very important correctives in relation to my beginning to see what I really knew and how I could use my knowledge in a constructive manner. They have helped me to understand that I had not used my potential. But of course I had to see this myself first, then I had to appreciate myself in order to understand that I am actually capable.

Deepak Chopra explains this so well on page 72 of The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: “Your intent is for the future, but your attention is in the present. As long as your attention is in the present, then your intent for the future will manifest, because the future is created in the present.” In the next paragraph he writes: “The past, present and future are all properties of consciousness.”

This means always looking at the possibilities we have and the strength that lies therein. Most of the time we do not do this. Usually we live from day to day in our old and unaware ways. I want to inform you that it is worthwhile to do both the mental and emotional exercises mentioned in this book – every day! No one around you needs to see or hear what you think or do. Look upon it as a game. Eventually those around you will notice the positive changes

happening to you.

The Potensia Guide has been used by psychologically healthy persons that needed help in relation to thoughts, feelings, the body, pains, work and relationships to other people, among other things. In other words, conditions that most of us are acquainted with, to a greater or lesser extent, in our own lives or in the life of someone we know. Whether we are individuals or groups, thoughts and emotions can be difficult to talk about and it can feel hopeless to find solutions to our problems.

In this book I have not emphasized passing along details aboutthe mental and emotional tools that have been used by my clients. I describe the system so that you will be able to use it in your life.

The clients who come to me have used me as their coach. One coaches others so that they can find their own way in relation to the potential they possess. It is the coach’s job to ask questions that make the clients aware of how they can make changes in their lives based on their desires. It is the coach’s job to provide exercises that initiate a self-development process in the client. Having been educated as an NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Master Practitioner makes me qualified to coach. I am knowledgeable in anatomy because I am an assistant professor of anatomy. I have knowledge about the body and health because I am a physiotherapist. As a physiotherapist I meet people daily who not only have physical ailments, but also body pain due to ‘mental affliction’.

In addition, I work as a UHM® Pilates training instructor and educate UHM® Pilates instructors. UHM® is a physical instruction methodology that is also based on the same knowledge conveyed in this book, and it is done to Pilates-based exercises. This has resulted in positive physical and health-related changes in those who train. In other words, this knowledge has allowed me to connect our physical, mental and emotional abilities so that we can systematically use them as functional tools. My daily experience with clients has shown that if the body and mind are stimulated in such a way that

the brain’s network and memory are activated in a way that feels right, then both body and mind are quite self-regulating. The contents of this book are one way to make us aware of this.

How can one be a good parent, partner, friend, company leader, colleague or neighbor if one does not know oneself and does not have the ability to go within and feel? By this I mean feel in terms of situations, people, products and decisions, and whether one is loyal towards what one feels.

In the end all situations revolve around this: If you do not communicate with your own feelings, it is impossible to communicate with others in a credible manner. This is what this book wishes to convey to you.

Oslo, February 2011

Tina Hessel

We are what we think,

All that we are, arises with our thoughts,

With our thoughts,

We make the world.

Siddhartha Gautama (The Buddha, 563–483 B.C.)