1: Set reasonable goals.

If you are paralyzed from the waist down, you might never be able to climb Mt. Everest. If you set a goal only because it sounds good, you might never get there. Your desires for yourself should be a stretch, but not a high jump, over your head.

2: Forget about will power.

Will power is crap. Will power is a sham. You do not need the conscious ability to overcome your own mental inertia. You can work with your subconscious mind to push your conscious mind forward into action.

3: Use self hypnosis to plant your resolutions in your mind.

Using these steps, put your goals into your subconscious brain as suggestions. (aff link) Tell yourself your goals in positive terms each time you put yourself into a trance. If a man can forget his name and the number 7, you can make yourself exercise more, eat only when you are hungry or be more productive in your work activities. (aff link)

Not My Actual Chest.

The decision of whether or not to get your body inked is, and should be, a private and well thought out one. Many folks have asked why a sweetheart good girl would ever want to do that to her body. It is worth mentioning that I am also a marketer and a writer (link to a page on this blog). We tend to be a bit of a kooky bunch as a general rule. (not an aff link)

However, the reasons why I wanted to have a butterfly made out of a pink ribbon needled onto to my left boob are, I think, fairly universal to most folks who choose to be inked. They are:

Because you want to cover an ugly scar. Mine was a biopsy scar.

Because you want to feel better about yourself. Having an unsightly scar made me feel a bit disfigured.

Because you want to honor one or more persons. Wearing a lovely pink ribbon reminds me of my friend who died of breast cancer and my best female friend and mother who are both survivors. (Shout outs to Heidi and Sharon!)

Because you would not want to live without it. If my new ink washed off tomorrow, I would run back to Kory at Tried and True Tattoo (another shout out ’cause he’s an awesome professional artist). Most of the folks I’ve spoken with who truly gave their tats a lot of thought feel the same way.

If you want a tattoo but find that none of the above apply to your situation, I would strongly advise against it. If you regret your ink the day after you get it, there is no easy or cheap way to remove it.

The Fine Print: Depending on where you get it, a much desired tattoo will feel like anything from a moderate scratch to a searing burn. I experienced the full gamut as my breast, armpit and scar had ink applied to them. If you want to hurt less, you must listen to this before you get a tat. (aff link)

So why should you choose to refuse pain, sleep or tranquilizing medication in favor of hypnosis or another complimentary therapy technique? (link to a post on this blog) While it is true that these treatments do work slightly differently for each person who uses them, they hold one huge advantage over most of the traditional therapies on the market.

In two words…

Side Effects

When you take a narcotic for pain, you experience a stomach ache. After you eat a tranquilizer, you feel off balance for several days afterward. A sleeping pill can make you groggy for hours longer than you want to be.

What if instead of having side effects, you could experience…

Side Benefits

You can feel good instead of bad after you complete a treatment for a primary condition. It’s true! Individuals who use hypnosis to relax before they go in for surgery report a lesser need for pain medication after they awaken from anesthesia. (not an aff link) After you come out of trance, you will feel comfortable, not sick to your stomach.

Do not be afraid to refuse a drug if you know you will not need it. Your brain and body will thank you.

Why Hypnosis Can Put You To Sleep

It is well known that a good hypnotist can quickly cure your insomnia. Hypnosis is one of the best cures for this common, irritating and hazardous condition. It encourages your mind to fall into an early sleep state.

Hypnosis is a brain wave state. Normally, as you relax in bed at night, your mind drifts into a state in which you imagine yourself in a comfortable place. You might find yourself more aware of creaking attic boards or a dripping bathroom faucet. These are all normal characteristics of a light trance state. (You reenter that state as you wake up. This is why you might hum the tune from your alarm clock for the entire day.)

When you suffer from insomnia, your conscious mind blocks the ability of your subconscious brain to enter that state. In more clinical terms, your involuntary brain functions are overridden by the activity in your frontal lobes. However you phrase it, you temporarily lose the ability to drift into a sleep state.

A hypnotist can help you drop into a bedtime trance state.

He can encourage your mind to purposely drop into that state, assisting it in its natural effort to do so. This is one of the most common hypnosis session requests on YouTube. Thousands of folks turn to hypnotists to put them to sleep every night which begs the question:

Do I Need To Listen To A Hypnosis For Sleep Session To Beat My Insomnia?

No. But do not get me wrong. Videos like this one (not an aff link) are awesome for helping you get your rest. Do you absolutely need to hear one every time you have too much caffeine before bed? Not necessarily.

You can put yourself to sleep anytime you need to using self hypnosis. Lots of people use this simple technique to lull themselves to dreamland. If you have ever napped (or daydreamed) while listening to a plane or car motor humming, you have experienced this simple but effective phenomena.

You can learn a self hypnosis technique with which to purposely put yourself to sleep in this Jnspire video. (aff link)

PS. If you fall asleep during a hypnosis video that is not designed to put you to sleep, you will not get the full benefit. Despite the “sleep” suggestions you are often given while being induced (hypnotized), you should not actually go to sleep.

Ask me questions in the comments about how hypnosis and sleep work together. I love questions and constructive comments! Thank you so much to Facebook fan Tracie W. for suggesting the topic for this post.  :)

They are also the most misunderstood part of the process. When people say they do not believe in the power of hypnosis, usually they really mean they don’t believe that suggestions can radically change their behavior.

The truth is that we are all susceptible to the power of post hypnotic suggestions to a certain degree.

Here are 4 more truths about post hypnotic suggestions.

They slowly fade away if not regularly reinforced.

It is almost impossible to get a suggestion stuck in your brain. The few incidents of this occurring are few and far between. The right notion can make you cluck like a chicken for a few hours after it is given if not immediately removed. You need not worry about repeating that behavior for several weeks or months if you only hear it once.

A hypnotist cannot make you do things you’d never do if you were conscious.

No one can force you to perform actions you are not willing to do. Your subconscious mind will reject a suggestion if you are opposed to it. You won’t love an orange highlighter (not an aff  link) against your will.

Post hypnotic suggestions can make you forget the most basic facts.

A talented hypnotist can help you loosen all of your mental barriers. Your mind can be opened so far that you will accept anything as fact to the greatest extent that you are willing. This includes the reality of forgetting your name. (not an aff link)

Post hypnotic suggestions can make you relax when you’d normally be restless.

This is not a myth. If you are willing to calm down and enter a trance  in response to an idea, you will be able to do so whenever the time is right.  (aff link) Depending on the suggestion, that right time might be in a dentist chair, on an airplane or even while you are delivering your child. With the right hypnotist helping you, you can be superhuman.

Ask me questions about the power of post hypnotic suggestions in the comments! I love hearing from my readers.

~~~

The client sits in the chair with hair that needs a trim. The student coming at her with the scissors is friendly. And new. She’s got the parts correct but is having trouble cutting the bottom. “Your hair is kinda curly back here. It runs away from my scissors when I try to trim  it.”

She steps away for a minute to get her educator.  He calmly inspects the student’s work and begins to take a bit more off with her tools. The client can feel a different approach as the instructor combs and trims. He is faster and more confident than the student.

“Why can’t I cut hair like that?” she says.

“It is hard to do it this way. You need to know exactly how to get the angle you want.” he reassures her.

The client realizes that she is, at last, going to look better.

~~~

The client has a mind that is anxious. The symptom comes from a childhood that was full of harassment. She has attempted to change her behaviors by brute force. She wants to pluck the anxiety out of her brain but has failed numerous times.

She thinks “I want to change. My mind squirms away from me when I try to do it.”

Eventually, she realizes she needs therapy and listens to  a hypnotist to help her.  He uses an approach that is different from her own. His voice is calm, steady. It is more confident than hers is. She listens to it everyday.

The words “You are ok.” come gently and insistently through the headphones.  She realizes that she is, at last, going to feel better.

~~~

Click here for relief from your overwhelming anxiety and stress. (aff link)

Do you have questions about hypnotherapy and haircuts? Post them in the comments!

If you missed the first post in this series on whether or not you can be hypnotized, click here!

Now that you know what happens when you go into trance, here are the basics of  what happens during the induction phase…

The Truth About Hypnotic Induction

The induction phase of hypnosis gets all the views on YouTube. (not an aff link) It, so often, is the star of the show. But what actually happens during this relaxing stage?

Hypnosis myth number 2: You lose all mental control when you are induced.

Truth: Hypnotic induction is always a shared experience.

When you see someone being put into trance, the subject only seems to be responding to the will of the hypnotist. (aff link) He appears to be exacting his desire on her to place her into a deep, sleep-like state. She looks like she can’t help but submit to his whim.

This makes for a host of wonderful television shows and YouTube videos. The reality of the experience is very different. It is much more shared than it may appear.

An induction is always a shared endeavor.

You agree to have your brain waves slowed down. The hypnotist or hypnotherapist agrees to relax you and put your nervous system to sleep. That mutual agreement is essential for the process to be successful.

If you resist the relaxation messages you are given, you won’t be hypnotized.

If you chose to remain conscious, you cannot go into trance. By counting purple dogs as they walk backwards in your head, you can avoid being induced (unless yellow cats are your thing,  in which case they will keep you conscious too.)

You will only be susceptible to a hypnotic induction if you choose to be.

Once you decide you want to be put into trance, you will be able to accept post hypnotic suggestions. What are they? Check back next month to find out!

Feel free to ask me questions in the comments!

Hypnosis myth number 1: Not everyone can be hypnotized.

Truth: Hypnosis is a state we all enter into every day.

Trance is a natural state we all enter into everyday. It is the brainwave state we all enter into when we daydream, when we lose track of time while driving or reading and when we fall asleep and wake up (not an aff link). You often drop into the trance state accidentally and are not fully aware of it.

What is a brainwave state?

Hypnosis is a brainwave state (aff link). But what exactly is a brainwave? It is a pattern of electricity that is emitted from the nerves in your brain. Every time a neuron fires, it sends out a very small charge. How fast and how regularly the neurons emit their signals directly corresponds with how awake and aware the person is.

When you are consciously focused on a task, your neurons fire at one rate (or state). When you are relaxed, a different rate occurs. When you are in trance, another state is occurring.

Not every brainwave state has been identified. What is known is that hypnosis is characterized by the firing of your neurons in a specific pattern. We all experience this pattern every day. It is a normal, natural part of falling asleep.

Why do I need a hypnotist if I go into trance every day?

Most people aren’t able to go into a very deep hypnotic state on their own. Even when you’re going to sleep at night, you don’t enter a very deep trance state. A professional can get you deeper than you can get yourself.

The other advantage to being hypnotized by someone else (also known as being induced) is that it is easier to be given post hypnotic suggestions by someone else. You can give yourself a message while in trance (aff link).  It is much easier for someone who is still conscious to give you an effective post hypnotic suggestion.

What exactly IS a post hypnotic suggestion? You’ll find out next month.

Got a question about the special brainwave state that is hypnosis? Ask me in the comments!

Key 1: Find A Way To Take What You Love And Make It Useful To Others

When I first started working online, I had no idea what I was doing. I flailed, desperately trying to bring a business plan I loved to fruition. I had the passion but  a failing plan. The first thing I did right was to change my service from an activity I wanted to sell into an activity people wanted to buy.

Key 2: Define Your Notion Of Rockstar

In order to know when you have achieved rockstar status, you must know exactly what it looks like. For me, success means making enough money to supplement my husband’s income. It also means earning sufficient dollars to buy the services and few things I want for myself. Once I reached it, nothing could make me feel inferior.

Chasing a vague notion of rockstar will leave you forever unhappy. KNOW exactly what you want and work hard until you reach it. No matter what your goal is, when you reach it you will command the stage.

Key 3: Network, NetWork, NETWORK

No one reaches the stage by himself. You need other people who are willing to collaborate with and support you. If they do not pop out of the woodwork, you must go look for them. You can start conversations with them on Twitter (not an aff link), Facebook  and other social media networks. No one becomes a rockstar without a team around them. If you do not have one, you must go find or build one.

PS. If this sounds like a lot of work, it is! Ha! I promised simple, not easy.

And you would be wrong. I am the anomaly, the weird one. It took people asking me for my cell phone number (and A LOT of prodding from my best friends and husband) to get me to keep it on. Most of the time.

I’m totally not joking. If you see me out in public, you can bet my phone will probably be switched off, tucked away in my purse.

It is precisely because I am a writer that I keep my phone turned off. To be constantly plugged in does not allow my brain the time it needs to think, to daydream, to imagine.

Without those breaks,  I would quickly run out of ideas to write about. The writing I do for pay would eventually grow dull and flat. My mind needs that time to just “breath” and wander.

I also enjoy being present in the moment when I am out and about. I love taking in every detail whether I am at church, in a concert hall or even at the grocery store.  Unless I am on vacation, totally freaking out, or expecting a message,  I (usually) like to not be at everyone’s beck and call when I am away from home.

This does make me old-fashioned. I know. But it also allows me to “give it a rest” and let my mind take a breather.  I often get my best ideas in those moments of silence.

So many people complain that they run out of topics to write about. (NOT an affiliate link)  My poor draft file is so full I’ve stopped adding to it. Inspiration, more often than not, seems to flow through and out of me like too much water being poured onto a dripping washrag.

The more you let your mind rest and wander, the more ideas will pop into it. That cannot happen when you are constantly sending messages or playing with pissed off sparrows.

(Caught the reference? Good! Now turn off that phone and break out the notepad and pen for half an hour. Let me know how it went in the comments!! )