REACH is one of the most popular Switchwords, because it’s specific, and you can use it nearly every day – to find lost objects, to solve a problem, and even find inspiration
Tom’s REACH for lost luggage
Tom, a student, had just arrived in the UK from Rio, where he had been studying for a year – only to be told that his luggage was stranded, sent on to some other airport. He phoned the airline again the next morning, and still no news was forthcoming. After nine days, it looked as though there was little hope, and he would have to set about making an insurance claim. Cath, his mother, knew about switchwords; she’d used REACH to find the TV remote (in her handbag!) and a lost shopping voucher. ‘it was worth a go, so I chanted REACH for Tom, visualising his luggage turning up at Heathrow airport.’ Forty-eight hours later, they got the call – his luggage had been found.
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Jarrett’s REACH for the stars
A professional songwriter, Jarrett was working through one of his occasional creative blocks – although this time, the deadline for lyrics was just two days away, when the artist he wrote for would take the song into rehearsal. The last verse still wasn’t right, he didn’t know how to fix it, and his usual remedies – taking a long walk, meditating a bit, reviewing other lyrics he’d written years ago to see if anything would fit – hadn’t solved his problem. He’d used the switch phrase GIGGLE–DONE – the one in my book that helps you hit a writing deadline – but something was missing. This wasn’t a tome he had to churn out. It wasn’t a PhD thesis; just a couple of lines of lyric. And it would not come.
Jarrett chanted REACH ten times, took a breath, then found himself trawling through Facebook Messenger. There were a few messages and pics from his old school friend, Kyle, from earlier in the year when they’d met up for a reunion weekend. One of the messages, sent with a pic of Jarrett and the others, beers in hand round their camp fire, read: ‘Got the fire, got the friends’… Jarrett took that line, gave it a tweak, and got the missing lyrics.
Why does REACH work?
REACH is an instantly visual word – ti’s almost impossible to say or think it without seeing a hand reaching up or out. When you say, think, or chant REACH, you might get a very clear mental picture of the item you want to find – a much more vibrant, and effortless image, than than if you tried to visualise it without saying REACH. It’s as if REACH makes a connection with the object and searches our memory database for us. In fact, REACH is like the ‘search’ function on a computer: it scrolls through information in your subconscious and delivers the search result to your conscious awareness. (Given that the subconscious mind directs a whopping 95 percent of our beliefs and there’s a lot to sift through!) If an item can be found, REACH finds it. If there’s a problem to solve, or inspiration to find, REACH is the verbal bridge to our unconscious creativity – the part of us that invents, imagines, plays, draws, dances, sings, designs and tells stories. In other words, our true, creative self.
How to use REACH
The secret of REACH is to say, think or chant it, then tune in to your next impulse. Our body expresses these impulses often before our conscious mind does, so notice the direction you’re facing, where your feet are pointing, where your hands or arms are moving, for example.
For more REACH stories, check out my Switchwords book here!
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