When your mind is racing, it can feel almost impossible to trust your intuition.
Self-doubt gets louder, fear presents itself as logic, and every decision starts to feel loaded with consequences.
Executive coach and author Steve Barton has built his work around helping people move out of that mental noise and back into awareness. His Game of Ten framework offers a simple way to quiet the mind, release the habits of fear, guilt, shame, and self-doubt, and take action from a clearer place.
Table of Contents
Key Takeaways
- The Game of Ten uses six affirmations to interrupt overthinking and return to a sense of enoughness.
- Fear, self-doubt, guilt, and shame are thought patterns you can observe and release rather than identities you must carry.
- The altar visualization creates a simple practice for letting go of limiting thoughts and becoming willing to see differently.
- Awareness supports ambitious goals, healthy boundaries, and the ability to trust your intuition.
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From External Success to an Inner Awakening
What led you toward coaching, spirituality, and your own awakening?
I took over my family’s flower business after my father had a stroke. About 12 years into running it, books began showing up in my life, including A Course in Miracles and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. I was also curious about therapy because my wife worked at a major corporation, and many people in the C-suite were going.
So I thought, why not? I wanted to see what therapy was like.
The therapist asked me why I was there. I said, “I have everything in the world that I want, and I am not happy.” Then I asked the practical question: What can I expect, and how long will it take?
He said that after about three months, people are often halfway there. He also said I could expect mental health. At the time, that phrase meant absolutely nothing to me.
But within a week or two, something started opening. I had an awakening, and I had no idea what was happening. Everything was coming together at once. I became highly intuitive, had experiences that felt like channeling, and naturally wanted to share what was happening with everyone around me.
That was not always received well. My family thought I had gone completely crazy.
The lesson is simple: find your people. There are many people who understand this kind of shift, and finding that community matters. A lot of people I once considered strange are now my friends. I have learned to accept where people are, and that acceptance is a big part of why I coach.
Breaking out of the matrix of old thinking is difficult. It is a whole new world. But I am deeply grateful I went through it.
The Game of Ten: A 30-Second Practice for Overthinking
How can someone move from stress and overthinking into clarity and confident action?
The first tool is the Game of Ten, a framework I created about 10 years ago. It is designed to quiet the mind in about 30 seconds.
The core idea is that every person is already a 10. A 10 is the divine being within you, the part of you that is whole and aware. You are doing the best you can with the awareness you have at any given moment.
When you feel anxious, tense, or trapped in thoughts about what people might think, repeat these statements slowly:
- I am 10.
- I am doing the best that I can with the awareness that I have.
- I am always right with the awareness that I have.
- I am enough.
- I do enough.
- I have enough.
These phrases address the questions the ego keeps asking. Am I good enough? Have I done enough? Do I have enough? Am I making the right choice? When those questions are answered, the mental noise has far less to work with.
This is not about pretending life is perfect or denying difficult feelings. It is about returning to a stable inner place before deciding what to do next. It becomes much easier to trust your intuition when the mind is no longer screaming for reassurance.
How often should someone use the Game of Ten?
Memorize the phrases and say them at least five times a day. This is the first homework assignment I give clients.
Most people spend much of their lives playing what I call the Game of One. That inner game sounds like this:
- I am not enough.
- I do not do enough.
- I do not have enough.
- I am not doing the best I can.
- I am not right with the awareness I have.
The Game of One is familiar, but familiarity does not make it true. Repetition is powerful because the mind has been conditioned by years of fear-based thoughts. The Game of Ten gives it a new pattern to practice.
Understanding the Matrix of Fear, Self-Doubt, Guilt, and Shame
What is the Game of One, and why does it keep people stuck?
The Game of One is built on four categories: fear, self-doubt, guilt, and shame. Each category has levels from one to nine, creating 6,561 possible places to live mentally and emotionally.
That is the matrix. It is the thought system many people unconsciously inhabit for their entire lives.
Guilt says, “I did something bad,” or, “They did something bad.” Shame goes even deeper and says, “I am bad,” “You are bad,” or “Everything is bad.”
A rejection might take someone to a nine. A major trauma, especially repeated trauma, can pull someone down into the lower levels of one, two, or three. Those experiences are real. The pain is real to the person carrying it.
But the thoughts that were formed to protect us can become the very thoughts that limit us for the rest of our lives.
That is why learning to trust your intuition is not only about getting better at decisions. It is also about recognizing which internal voice is responding from awareness and which one is responding from old protection.
Do we need to forgive people, places, and situations?
People often believe they must forgive a person, place, or situation. But the deeper work is to forgive the thoughts about what happened.
You may not be able to change the past. You may never agree with what occurred. But you can release the thoughts that continue to keep you trapped in it.
We have thoughts, feelings, emotions, a mind, a body, and skills. These are things we have. They are not who we are.
Think of them as tools in a toolbox. They can be developed, refined, used, and put down. Awareness is the one using the tools.
The Ego Is a Tool, Not the Master
Is the ego something we need to get rid of?
No. The ego is not bad. It is a useful tool.
Some spiritual teachings can make people think they need to destroy or dissolve the ego entirely. But your ego is also your identity. It is the part of you that can walk into a bank, state your name, and manage the practical realities of life.
The issue is not that you have an ego. The issue is whether the ego is serving awareness or running the whole show.
If the ego is using you, it is like allowing a three-year-old to drive your car to work. It may be energetic, but it will not lead to good decisions.
The goal is to use the mind, body, emotions, skills, and identity from awareness. Some thoughts are useful in the moment. When they are no longer useful, let them go. They do not need to become your permanent identity.
When you trust your intuition, you are not rejecting the rational mind. You are putting it in its proper role. The mind can support insight, discernment, boundaries, and action without becoming the master.
Stillness, Alignment, and Free Will
Why are the answers we seek often found in stillness rather than striving?
The Game of Ten helps align you with awareness, and awareness is silent. That silence is not boring. It is where creativity, intuition, and flow arise.
When your identity, thoughts, emotions, ego, mind, and body are aligned with who you are, life begins to flow differently. You can still have challenges. Everyone does. But you are no longer automatically defined by those challenges.
I believe free will is truly free only when we are aligned with our 10, our divine self. When we are living in the levels from nine down to one, everything begins to come at a cost.
The farther you move from 10, the more likely you are to attract people, situations, and systems that match that level of awareness. Someone in a very low state may feel depressed, anxious, suicidal, or convinced that life cannot get any worse. From there, it can be difficult to hear someone at a 10 say that life is good.
But a person at 10 is not naive. They simply understand that situations will arise, and they have tools for releasing what does not serve them. They can trust your intuition, respond rather than react, and stay connected to a deeper sense of self.
The Altar Visualization for Releasing Limiting Thoughts
What is the altar visualization technique?
This practice is a powerful way to let go of thoughts that keep you stuck.
First, recognize that we are all aspects of the divine. We are special, but not more special than anyone else. No one is an 11, and no one is fundamentally a nine. Ten is the sweet spot.
Then, create a sacred temple in your mind. This is your inner temple, and it can look however you want it to look. It needs to feel divine, safe, and sacred to you.
Inside that temple, create an altar.
Now choose a thought that is weighing on you. It might be overthinking, people pleasing, fear, guilt, a painful memory, or the belief that you will only be happy once you achieve something.
Place that thought on the altar and say:
I am willing to see things differently.
That willingness matters. We are often unconsciously willing ourselves to be upset, separate, worried, or convinced that we need to do a better job than the universe. We create mental terms and conditions such as, “I will be happy when…”
The mind accepts these contracts without questioning them. Like a supercomputer, it follows the programming it receives.
The good news is that programming can change. The difficult news is that much of it was installed subconsciously. Awareness is what allows you to notice the program and release it.
The altar is a place to let those thoughts go. Use a thought when it is useful. When it is finished, put it in the trash. This practice makes more room to trust your intuition instead of constantly negotiating with fear.
Spiritual Brainwashing and a Clean Mind
What do you mean by spiritual brainwashing?
I tell clients that I am going to teach them how to brainwash themselves. If you do not consciously brainwash yourself, someone else will do it for you.
That may sound provocative, but think about it. The mind is continually being conditioned by fear, social expectations, family patterns, media, guilt, shame, and the critical inner voice. A clean mind requires intentional practice.
Spiritual brainwashing means repeatedly washing away fear, self-doubt, guilt, shame, and negative self-talk. It is not about becoming detached from reality. It is about clearing the mental clutter that stops you from living in alignment.
Repetition is essential. Sometimes a teaching must be heard again and again before the conditioned mind is ready to receive it. The insight may not be new, but your capacity to hear it can be.
Your soul and spirit are not what need healing. They are untainted. The work is to heal and retrain the mind and body so they can become aligned with that deeper truth.
Big Goals Without Leaving Awareness
Can we pursue ambitious goals while remaining spiritually aware?
Absolutely. Being aware does not mean withdrawing from life, abandoning goals, or sitting in a cave pretending nothing matters.
Once you get to 10, the next question is: What will you do with it?
You get to set big goals. You get to ask for what you want. You get to use your mind, body, thoughts, feelings, and emotions in alignment with your vision.
At 10, you receive 100 percent of what you ask for, so be careful what you ask for. Ask in the present moment and in the affirmative. Understand that receiving what you ask for may change your life in practical ways.
If someone asks for a billion dollars, they may also need financial advisers, lawyers, systems, responsibilities, and a completely different lifestyle. The question is not whether you can ask. The question is whether you are ready for the reality of what you are asking to receive.
At the lower levels of awareness, you may receive a small portion of what you ask for and a great deal of what you did not ask for. As awareness rises, what you attract changes.
This is the benefit of being at 10, but it comes with responsibility: the ability to respond from awareness.
What does responding from awareness look like in everyday life?
It includes practical skills, knowledge, discernment, and boundaries. Being loving does not mean becoming a people pleaser.
Sometimes love says yes. Sometimes love says no. Sometimes love says stay. Sometimes love says pack your bags and go.
Boundaries are not a failure of love. They are often an expression of it. Put people pleasing on the altar when it no longer serves you. Return to your 10. Then make the choice that aligns with truth rather than fear.
That is how you begin to trust your intuition in real life, not as an abstract spiritual idea, but as a grounded way to make decisions, pursue meaningful goals, and live with more clarity.
Continuing the Practice
If someone takes only one thing from this conversation, what should it be?
Memorize the Game of Ten phrases. Repeat them until they become familiar enough to meet you in a difficult moment.
When anxiety rises, come back to: I am 10. I am enough. I do enough. I have enough. I am doing the best I can with the awareness I have.
Then use the altar practice for the thoughts you are ready to release. You do not have to identify with every thought that enters your mind. You can recognize it, place it down, and become willing to see things differently.
For coaching support and a free copy of The Father, the Son and the Aha Moment, visit Steve Barton’s coaching website. You can also connect through Steve Barton’s LinkedIn profile.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Game of Ten?
The Game of Ten is an awareness-based practice created by Steve Barton to help quiet overthinking. It centers on affirmations that remind you that you are enough, do enough, have enough, and are doing your best with the awareness available to you.
How can I trust your intuition when I feel anxious?
Start by reducing the noise before demanding an answer. Repeat the Game of Ten phrases, return to stillness, and notice whether fear or awareness is driving the thought. A quieter mind makes it easier to trust your intuition.
What should I put on the altar in the visualization practice?
Place any thought, belief, memory, or emotional pattern that no longer serves you on the altar. This could include overthinking, fear, guilt, shame, people pleasing, or the belief that happiness can only come after a future achievement.
Does spiritual awareness mean I should stop setting big goals?
No. Awareness can help you set and pursue meaningful goals from a clearer place. The practice is to ask consciously, state what you want affirmatively, and be prepared to respond responsibly to the changes your goals may create.
