Contrast (the difference between what you want and what you have) is necessary in order for you to get real clear about what you really do want. If there was no contrast, how would you know what you prefer?

Preferences are being born within you every moment as you walk through life. Identifying what you want to do, and who you want to interact with is easy. It’s determined by how you feel when you think about it. Does it feel good or bad? Your built-in emotional guidance system will tell you what you really want–then it’s up to you to consciously take action to make that happen. But, getting clear about what you want is the first step.

For many years, you may have been told that you can’t have what you want because you can’t afford it, or because you don’t have the smarts, the training or the necessary opportunities. They’ve said you might as well “settle for” what you have and stop making yourself miserable by wanting something different. Society, culture or family may have programmed you to believe that what you want is really out of reach.

But is it? Can you see yourself doing it? Can you feel how you would feel if you were living it? Thoughts are things, and beam out beyond our bony skulls to affect everything around us–especially thoughts accompanied by emotion. They attract to us the people, conditions and situations that can make our dream come true or prevent it from ever coming true. However, most of us engage in such chaotic thinking that we’re sending out opposite signals instead of focused intentions of what we really want. Our thoughts are mostly disorganized, flitting from one subject to another and therefore attracting more chaos and disorganization.

We think about 50,000 thoughts each day, but they’re almost always the same thoughts. As a result, we create the same day over and over. In the process, our lives go by, while we experience mostly boredom or mediocrity. If you don’t like what’s going on in your life right now, you can begin to change it by consciously focusing on what you do want–by pivoting your mind to a clear picture of what you want to experience, instead of thinking the same old thoughts, telling the same old stories or focusing on what you don’t like about your life.

That emotion you feel when you’re thinking unhappy thoughts is your emotional guidance system clicking in. That discord, that feeling of frustration or aggravation is telling you what’s coming! The emotions you feel in response to your thoughts are a quick clue to what you’re attracting, and therefore what will be showing up in your life, depending on how often you think those thoughts. Wow! A built-in guidance system you’ve had all your life, but didn’t know how to use? Well, better to know about this late than never!

Okay, so how do I change what I’m attracting? Change your thoughts. Decide on a goal so juicy and delicious that when you think of it, it’s strong enough to override the usual tapes that repeat in your head. Focus on it; smell it; feel it, hear it, see it. Use colors and shapes, spatial relationships, and feel how it would feel to experience it! Remember, desire is the engine, but emotion is the fuel. Use positive emotion to attract your dream even faster. Regularly pivot your mind to what you do want, focus on it as often as possible every day and leave the complaining and negative stories behind. Appreciate the positive qualities, situations and people in your life now. And take some physical action every day to make your dream come true. Some little (or big) action that will propel you further along on the track toward what you want.

If you’re really serious about reaching your goals, you’ll have to leave most distractions behind. Are you watching too much TV, associating with negative people, overeating or drinking too much? Those are all immediate gratification, or “habit” distractions. Leave the “bread and circuses” behind. Focus only on what you want, appreciate the positives in your life and take action every day.

The following story is a perfect example of someone who made a fabulous life out of a miserable start:

An out-of-work and broke actor once drove to the top of the hill that overlooks Hollywood. As he gazed over the movie lots, he reminisced about his hard life as a teenager, when he went to high school in the daytime and then worked as a janitor in a factory at night. Then there was the time his family was forced from their home and had to live out of a VW camper van. He refocused his attention into the present moment, and then did something really provocative: he wrote himself a check for ten million dollars! On it he wrote, “For services rendered as an actor” and forward-dated it five years. He then carried that check with him everywhere to remind himself of his goal, and then simply got on with doing what he loved most: acting!

Five years later, on the very date that he had written on his check, that young actor was earning well beyond ten million for each film that he starred in. And the name on that check? Jim Carrey.

Not everyone is into millions of dollars or lots of bling, but you can use the same tools he did to reach your goal. Just decide what you want, focus on the goal instead of the negatives, appreciate your talents and abilities, take some action toward your dream every day, and you can be, do and have what you want too!

References:

1.  Harrington, Paul. The Secret to Teen Power. Simon and Schuster. 2009.

2.  Hicks, Esther and Jerry. Ask and It Is Given: Learning to Manifest Your Desires. Hay House. 2005.

For years, practitioners of acupressure (no needles, just gentle tapping or pressing) have known that there are certain acupoints on the body that have a very rapid, powerful, releasing-effect on negative emotions created by past trauma. Due to the way our fight-or-flight brain functions, any time an event even remotely like the original trauma occurs in your life, those original emotions and body sensations come flooding back. If the event was particularly emotional (like the loss of a job, a natural disaster or an automobile accident), or happened many times (such as a parent or spouse repeating a negative statement or calling us names) then we experience the emotions and the body sensations (throat tightening up, feeling sick to our stomach) that we experienced when it first happened. We wish we could forget that experience for good, but no matter how much we try to forget, it sticks like glue–until now. Finally, we have learned how to coax the subconscious mind into changing the past.

You may remember quantum physicist Fred Alan Wolf from the movie What the Bleep Do We Know. He is considered one of the most important authors and pioneers in the field of consciousness. He says, “The world is malleable, infinitely changeable; not only are we capable of changing the present, but also the past.”

We have recently learned that by pressing just a few acupoints on the body, while saying very specific words that the limbic mind understands, the negative scene or memory disappears completely, or changes into another scene, something the mind considers more pleasant. When the scene changes, the emotions that were associated with the trauma also change into pleasant or neutral emotions, or just register as relief. At any rate, you feel at peace. But that’s not all.

When the emotions change, the trauma leaves your body as well. You can actually feel the change. It’s like a domino effect. The scene changes, then the emotions, then the body sensations. So what’s left in the way of that original negative memory? Sort of a foggy pale scene or nothing at all, with no emotional charge attached. Your body feels peaceful, relieved or just nothing. That neck and shoulder tightness disappears, or the knot in your stomach, your lower back pain or the pressure in your chest…is gone.

Sometimes the scene disappears immediately; sometimes it morphs and changes into a peaceful or delightful scene; you may now see yourself walking through a field of flowers, or flying away with a flock of geese; or being picked up by an angel and carried to safety. It’s different for everyone. The most amazing thing about this Remove and Rejoice process is that whenever one is prompted to think of the original traumatic scene, it isn’t clear any more. The flock of geese or the angel, or the fields of flowers come to mind, bringing the emotions to match the new scene. If you try really hard to bring back the original scene (I don’t know why you would want to), it may reassemble itself indistinctly; like a faded old photograph, but the negative emotions will be gone for good, as well as the anxiety response from your body.

If you have experienced many traumas, or have developed a belief or attitude that has been created by living through those traumas, then instead of a scene, a simple shape can be used to represent the belief. The same acupressure points are used, the same magic words repeated, and voila! In your mind, the shape changes color, texture, size, and simply disappears or becomes something else…another shape or a pleasant scene, which of course results in different emotions as well as a feeling of release and freedom in your body.

This process works with any kind of trauma, any scene, memory, fear or phobia, and takes only a few moments. We may have negative scenes and memories that keep coming to mind, causing a lack of self confidence; a general anxiety, sadness, nervousness, fear of public speaking, fear of risking, test anxiety, fear of social interactions or countless other feelings of unhappiness or unworthiness that block us from reaching our full potential.

Acupressure has been used for healing and soothing purposes for over five thousand years. Through recent university research, we now know that the meridian (acupressure) system, those lines of energy with almost 400 points, is directly connected to the limbic system; the part of our brain that stores all our traumas (thinking we may need them someday). When we remove the negative scenes and memories held by that part of our brain, we will be improving our health and healing our emotions. We will have taken our power back; and as far as our subconscious mind is concerned, it has changed the past.

This process is easily done over the phone. One of the best features of this quick little procedure is that the practitioner doesn’t have to know what the scene or memory is. If it is an embarrassing scene that you don’t want to tell anyone, that’s fine. You are the only one who needs to know what it is. It can be quickly neutralized without anyone else ever having to learn about it. Unblock yourself now by removing scenes and memories you never want to think about again.

References:

1. Gach, Ph.D., Michael Reed. Acupressure For Emotional Healing. Bantam Books, 2004.

2. Wolf, Ph.D., Fred Alan. Dr. Quantum’s Little Book of Big Ideas. Moment Point Press, 2005.

3. Hicks, Esther & Jerry. The Astonishing Power of Emotions. Hay House, 2007.

For more info, contact June Milligan, specializing in helping people learn how to let go of dysfunctional thinking, at (775) 786-9111 or visit online at www.joyfulchanges.com

Our daily lives are ruled by suggestions that we can either accept or reject. As adults, we have the choice whether or not to accept the suggestions made to us by our culture, peers or family. If these suggestions are repeated often enough our minds accept them as facts and they become beliefs, whether they’re true or not. As children we do not have much choice about the barrage of suggestions and demands we receive every day. If offered by authority figures, we usually need to accept them in order to psychologically survive, or at least feel comfortable.

These suggestions stack up in variety and repetition; until we are convinced they are true. In fact, if we heard something several hundred times it would be astonishing if we didn’t come to believe it.

So what is a suggestion? It is whatever makes us change the way we think and therefore change what we focus on. One definition of hypnosis is “suggestions accepted.” We are already hypnotized. We believe the suggestions we’ve accepted. As a child you may have heard statements like, “There is never enough money to pay the bills,” or “You are stupid; you’ll never amount to anything,” or “Everyone in this family gets heart disease.”

These statements are suggestions. If you hear them often enough, they become beliefs. Beliefs give birth to expectations, which become our reality. We “think” about 50,000 thoughts each day, although they are usually the same thoughts as the previous day. By thinking the same thoughts every day, not only do we create the same day over and over, we are reprogramming (hypnotizing) ourselves with the same suggestions. We do this whether they are true or not. We are reinforcing these suggestions every time we think them, hypnotizing ourselves into believing they are true.

There is a saying among those who work in brain research, “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” In other words, repetitive thoughts actually change the way the brain wires itself.

If you believe there is never enough money to pay the bills, that thought ran through your mind so many times it created its own connection. That belief has then become an expectation, or self-fulfilling prophecy, affecting a big part of your life. Now that it created its own connections, it becomes difficult to think a different thought. You have to work at it. However, by thinking an opposite thought, you are creating a different connection. This reinforces a new belief and will come to expect something entirely different.

A trip to the hypnotist is an effort to reprogram your bad habits; it is actually a “rehypnosis.” Dr. Tim Brunson, founder of the International Hypnosis Research Institute, calls it de-hypnosis. The effort to determine why it is so difficult to change bad habits is a major focus in brain research. Studies show that people become accustomed to what is familiar, even if it is unpleasant and unproductive. In other words, by repeating the same thoughts and behaviors over and over, we become hypnotized and continue to repeat those behaviors.

As you come to understand your programming, you can identify which beliefs are life-affirming and which are life-denying. Any suggestion or belief that says, “I can’t” simply stops you in your tracks. Look into your thoughts with a critical eye and determine what your deepest beliefs actually are. They are forecasting every day in your life. Begin to give yourself different suggestions. Weed some of the limiting thoughts out; nourish the ones that make you feel empowered. The beliefs of others do not affect your life until they become your beliefs. Rewire your brain, free yourself from old unproductive suggestions and watch your life change. Let positive, life-affirming suggestions in and refuse negative suggestions from anyone. Take your power back!

A certified clinical hypnotherapist is able to teach you self-hypnosis or offer effective hypnotic suggestions and directions to get you back on track.

Written by June Milligan, M.Ed., CCHt |

Those who benefit from hypnosis know that truly astonishing results can be obtained through this process. According to James Stewart, MD, “despite variations in hypnotic techniques, patients treated with hypnosis experienced substantial benefits for many very different medical conditions.”

The purpose of medically supported hypnosis for diabetes is to bring about subconscious changes so that you are improving your health and experiencing better diabetes management. Evidence shows that hypnotic relaxation can have a significant influence on a person’s body.

“Emotions are intimately involved in the initiation or progression of cancer, HIV, cardiovascular disease and auto-immune disorders,” said Yoram Barak in Autoimmunity Review. “An increase in secretory immunoglobulin A and a decrease in salivary cortisol (the stress hormone) were induced by deep relaxation accompanied by pleasant emotions.”  Deep relaxation accompanied by pleasant emotions is a perfect description of the feelings generated during hypnosis.

Dr. Richard Surwit of Duke University has proven that deep relaxation over time helps people with diabetes to lower their blood sugar levels. Therefore it seems important for a diabetic to learn and practice the deeply relaxing practice of self-hypnosis on a daily basis. It’s easy to learn.

Regarding many ailments, not only diabetes, sometimes a solution to one problem creates another. For example, if a diabetic patient is depressed, then anti-depressants may cause insomnia. This is sometimes called a “hidden condition” and frustrates health care providers as well as patients. To be more specific, poor sleep robs people of their health in general. But for diabetics, it can actually worsen their condition.

At the 2005 annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, a study was presented warning that a chronic lack of sleep may cause diabetics to become less sensitive to insulin over time. In fact, chronic sleep deprivation – six and a half hours (or less) of sleep a night – has the same effect on insulin resistance as aging.

Insulin is a storage hormone produced by the body to lower blood sugar, but over time the imbalances may stress the system and the cells may become less responsive. This condition is known as insulin resistance. Learning self-hypnosis to assist in getting a good night’s sleep is an excellent medication-free method, a reasonable, first effort treatment for insulin resistance.

Working together with a health care team, a hypnotist who is also a stress management consultant and motivational coach can help a diabetic significantly reduce stress levels and thus become much more efficient in the management of their condition. Just the ability to sleep better can make an enormous difference in one’s quality of life. Be aware that whether you are in robust health or dealing with a challenging condition, you must remember to speak well to yourself because your deep mind is always listening.

References:

1. Dr. Stewart: Mayo Clinic Proceedings 2005; 80-511-524

2. Autoimmunity Reviews, Volume 5, Issue 8, October 2006

3. Duke University Hospital Echo Newsletter, January 2007

For more info contact June Milligan, specializing in personal empowerment counseling, medical support hypnosis, and eliminating emotional blocks to success at (775) 786-9111 or june@joyfulchanges.com.

Written by Nancy Pfaff, CCHt, NLP |

Have you noticed that some people seem to speak to groups like they were born for it?  Don’t believe it. For most of us, it takes overcoming a lot of anxiety in order to take the chance of presenting ourselves in front of either strangers or colleagues. This anxiety is also known as stage fright. Quite often stage fright arises in a mere anticipation of a performance, often a long time ahead. It has numerous manifestations: fluttering or pounding heart, tremor in the hands and legs, diarrhea, facial nerve tics, dry mouth and more. Any of you who watched the head of General Motors being grilled in a congressional committee recently noticed the tic he had of repeatedly squinting his eyes. Even the most experienced leaders have their times of anxiety.

What is that anxiety all about?  “Why do I feel like such a wimp when I notice my legs shaking as I go up to a podium to speak?” you may ask.

First, you’re not a wimp. You’re just human, and need an inner shift in your subconscious mind. The theory of mind provides some insight for us. About 12% of our mind is consciousness, our waking self. The other approximately 88% is our subconscious mind. Down in that subconscious twilight is the reason for our anxiety—a memory of some fearful experience that has coupled itself to public self-presentation. Using hypnosis, can relax the conscious mind enough to access the subconscious mind and uncouple that experience. Then a person’s anxiety can be transformed. After that the person is only minimally bothered by anxiety if at all.

Meghan had a terrible experience as a young child, at least viewed from her young perspective. Her piano teacher had her students preparing for a recital, and they had to memorize their pieces. Meghan was so proud to have her piece memorized and able to perform it perfectly. She was eagerly looking forward to showing off at the recital. Then the teacher told her another student would play her piece, and she had to choose another one. The wind went out of Meghan’s sails. She tried to memorize the new piece, but couldn’t always get it right. At the recital she made many mistakes in front of a large crowd. She told about feeling her face burning with embarrassment until she could escape back into the audience.

Now an adult wanting to speak to large groups, Meghan’s anxiety was stopping her. Here is how she worked with uncoupling this shame from public performance through hypnosis. First she went into trance facilitated by her own hypnotherapist. Trance is a state in which one is very relaxed and able to focus in a powerful way on whatever issue is presented. Then she was helped to find that experience in the subconscious mind. Her  hypnotherapist asked her, “What did the child need?”, and then said,  “Give her what she needs.”  As the scene replayed itself in trance, Meghan the adult, went to the teacher and said, “Meghan (the child) will be playing the piece she has worked on and is ready to play. It is not fair to her to change her piece so late in the game.”  Then as the adult, she viewed herself, the child, playing her piece perfectly, with great joy. Her adult self grabbed her up as she ran happily down the isle after performing and celebrated her victory. Today Meghan’s anxiety when performing publicly is quite manageable.

Here is the secret why hypnosis works. The subconscious cannot tell the difference between something vividly imagined and experienced reality. So when a person is in trance, deeply experiencing a healing “re-do” of an experience, the subconscious mind accepts this as experienced reality. The old memory is replaced with the new experience. The conscious mind still remembers the old experience, but all the emotional power and trauma to the nervous system stored in the body is released. It can seem like magic to the person freed from the old traumatic experience.

If anxiety in speaking to large groups is blocking your advancement in your job, hypnosis may be just the therapy needed to free you from limiting patterns in the subconscious mind. A good, practiced hypnotherapist will help you get to the root of the problem, and release it through a healing “re-do.”  There are several good hypnotherapists locally to choose from. Don’t wait. Take action to remove this obstacle of anxiety from your life, and go after that promotion.

References:

1. NLP, The New Technology of Achievement. Ed. Steve Andreas and Charles Faulkner. Harper New York: 1994.

2. The Coherency Factor, Professional Training in Hypnosis and Neuro Linguistic Psychology. Donna M. Hamilton. New Vistas: 2008

For more info, contact Nancy Pfaff, CCHt, NLP at (775) 560-3030, specializing in Clinical hypnotherapy and Neuro linguistic psychology.

by June Milligan, M.Ed., CCHt |

Do you remember watching the old movie The Three Faces of Eve? It was based on a true story about a woman who had three distinct and separate personalities. The movie was well known for another reason because it was Paul Newman’s first glimpse of Joanne Woodward, who played Eve. Paul has said that he fell in love with Joanne while watching that movie, and you know the rest of the story.

One of the most important activities of the subconscious mind is that it “runs” your body. Most of the time it’s in complete charge of your physiology—you keep breathing whether you’re awake or asleep. Your heart keeps beating and thousands of other functions continue to take place whether you’re awake or asleep. You don’t have to consciously think about any of them.

In fact the subconscious mind is powerful enough to alter the physiology of the body instantly. In the case of multiple personalities, let’s say the one called Eve is personality number one. That personality may suffer from allergies. But when personality number two takes over (let’s call her Ann) there are no allergies. Instead, she may suffer from high blood pressure, or be perfectly healthy. When personality number three takes over, that one may suffer from diabetes, or be perfectly healthy. How amazing, that the subconscious mind can instantly alter the physiology and function of the body to that degree!

After learning this, the first thing that comes to mind is, “If the right words, the correct instructions and directions were conveyed to the subconscious mind through hypnosis, then any ailment should be able to be healed.”

Deepak Chopra was one of the first medical doctors in the country to understand and write about the extent of the mind-body connection. He believes that mind is in every cell. Recent research by Dr. Bruce Lipton (cellular biologist) and other scientists have shown that this is so. In Chopra’s book Quantum Healing, he relates the story of Timmy, a child with eleven different personalities.  One of the personalities is allergic to orange juice.  If that personality drinks orange juice, hives will immediately appear. If another personality “comes forward” while the orange juice is still being digested, the hives will immediately begin to disappear.

To quote Chopra, “This implies that the cells themselves are intelligent. Moreover, the intelligence is wrapped up in every molecule, not doled out to a special one like DNA, for the antibody and the orange juice meet end-to-end with very ordinary atoms of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. To say that molecules make decisions defies current physical science—it’s as if salt sometimes feels like being salty and sometimes not.  But to cross over from one event in the bodymind to another is always a projection of intelligence; it is only the remarkable swiftness and intensity of Timmy’s case that stuns us. Once we absorb the fact that he is “choosing” to be allergic—for how else could he turn his hives off and on—then we confront the possibility that we too, are (subconsciously) choosing our own diseases. We are not aware of this choice because it takes place below the level of our conscious thoughts. But if this is the case, and the choice has been made, we should be able to change it.”

Our conscious attitudes and beliefs can have as much of an impact on our health as our subconscious beliefs. While doing research for his book, the story of Timmy reminded Deepak of an incident within his own family. He tells the story of his mother who certainly was not plagued with multiple personalities. But she was terribly allergic to the pollen from certain flowers in their home state. Because of this, his father took her to another part of India every spring, where those flowers did not grow. One year they had to come back early, and on the way back, the plane made an unscheduled stop, causing Deepak’s mother to think that they had arrived home. She immediately broke out into hives and was having such a difficult time breathing that the flight staff became worried. When she was told that they were not yet landing at their home city, she immediately began to breathe normally, and the hives disappeared. Her belief that she always had hives and breathing problems in the spring at home, actually created them.  That conscious belief became a subconscious belief, a self-fulfilling prophesy, and created the changes in her body which led to such discomfort.

There is much more to learn about the effect our conscious and subconscious minds have on our bodies, but we already know that the subconscious mind will take hypnotic suggestions and directions to reduce anxiety before surgery, to reduce blood loss, to decrease the amount of anesthetic needed, to reduce the time spent in the recovery room and to reduce the time necessary for healing. Your subconscious mind is your friend, and tries to keep you safe. The problem is, most of the time we are feeding our subconscious minds with anxieties and negativity. And since the subconscious mind can’t tell the difference between real and pretend, it believes that what you’re thinking is really happening, like Deepak’s mother, who thought she was back home, causing her body to react to an allergen, even though there was not one bit of pollen inside the aircraft.

This is an extremely exciting time to be alive. So many new findings and discoveries about the human mind-body connection are making it possible for us to be able to understand how our thoughts and feelings, both conscious and subconscious, are controlling our bodies. Scientists now believe that the human body may contain more than fifty trillion cells. And according to research at Harvard Medical School, each cell is busy conducting over a hundred thousand functions per second. What an incredible thing, to know that we’re able to consciously and subconsciously affect those cells every second by our thoughts, attitudes and deep beliefs. Through that knowledge, we are able to alter what Dr. Caroline Leaf calls our “thought-life” so that the thoughts coursing through our mindbody system are beneficial to our cells rather than toxic.

References:

• Quantum Healing by Dr. Deepak Chopra; Publisher: Bantam Books
• Who Switched Off My Brain by Dr. Carolyn Leaf; Publisher: Switch On Your Brain USA Inc.
• Medical Hypnosis by Tim Simmerman; Publisher: Peaceful Planet Press

For more info contact June Milligan, specializing in personal empowerment counseling, medical support hypnosis and eliminating emotional blocks to success at (775) 786-9111 or  june@joyfulchanges.com.

The Mind-Body Connection

By June Milligan, M.Ed., CCHt |

While conventional medicine saves lives daily, using medical hypnotherapy can relieve suffering even more, help regain health from disease, speed recovery from injury and prevent illness.

This is because therapeutic hypnosis mobilizes the inner healing resources lying dormant in every person. These resources are activated and harnessed through hypnosis.

We know that trance has been used for healing throughout history. It is perhaps the oldest form of healing. When shamans held rituals and ceremonies with their colorful dress, magical potions made from secret ingredients and mysterious chants designed to harness the power of the unknown, what were they actually doing?  They were inducing an altered state of consciousness, and delivering therapeutic suggestions, thereby freeing the body to heal itself. As hypnotherapists, our work is to empower people to help themselves.

Dave Elman, one of the pioneering teachers of medical hypnosis, would sometimes refer to therapeutic hypnosis as a form of “medical relaxation” that helps with healing and pain control.  He understood that hypnosis is a team effort in which the client is the “co-operator” because when the client becomes fully involved with the hypnotic instructions, the body responds. Just think of biting into a lemon and notice the responses in your body. So by engaging the imagination, establishing belief and creating positive expectancy, the subconscious mind is prepped to make the desired changes in the body.

By getting the conscious mind out of the way and allowing the subconscious to focus powerfully on healing, amazing things can happen. The mistake is in thinking that either the hypnotherapist or the hypnosis will be doing the healing work. Medical hypnotherapy emphasizes self-empowerment. So while we refer to this as medical hypnosis, it is not the practice of medicine. These carefully worded and masterfully crafted techniques are completely “self-help,” and they activate the inherent healing intelligence present within each and every person.

We were designed for health and wellness. Stress and/or lifestyle is the cause of 85% of all visits to the doctor. One of the essential rules of the mind is that we get what we focus on. So when we engage in chronic worry or negative thinking, we “make it real” for ourselves. The negative pictures in your mind make a clear impression, and every impression made on your mind has its physical expression. This is known as the Law of Impressed Thought.

For instance if we mess up the punch line while telling a joke, we may feel embarrassed and start to blush. The thought of being made fun of causes an immediate increase in blood flow to the surface of the face, and may cause an increased heart rate and shallow breathing. That’s the Law of

Impressed Thought in action. The nervous system simply reacted to a thought. If we think of the subconscious mind as the software and the body as the hardware, we realize that the hardware always does just what the software tells it to do. Suggestion therapy (medical hypnosis) can be thought of as reprogramming the subconscious software to get the brain-body hardware to do something new or to do it differently.

Imagery is often very effective during hypnosis. A trained effective hypnotist knows how to create personalized imagery that heals. This healing imagery causes the conscious mind to communicate information to the subconscious intelligence about what to heal and even how to heal it. In medical hypnosis, the use of suggestions, innovative techniques and healing imagery support the immune system, to overcome road blocks to healing and to assist in pain relief.

We may have become more sophisticated in our techniques during the last few thousand years because of what we know about the mind-body connection, but we’re still utilizing suggestions for healing, just like the ancient shamans. However, our suggestions today are much more specific and to the point. Each day we gain more knowledge as to how we can assist our bodies toward regaining that health and wellness that we were originally programmed to enjoy.

References:

1. Hypnosis: Medicine of the Mind by Dr. Michael D. Preston

2. Medical Hypnosis VI: The Principles of Hypnotherapy by Lewis R. Wolberg

3. Hartland’s Medical & Dental Hypnosis by Michael Heap

For more info, contact June Milligan, specializing in personal empowerment, medical hypnosis and eliminating emotional blocks to success at (775)786-9111 or june@joyfulchanges.com.

By Brittany Russell |

From far-away places and a life of variety, June Milligan of Joyful Changes Hypnosis has made Reno her home for the past three years. June offers her clients relief and release from such things as smoking, weight gain, anxiety, stress, self esteem issues, pain and addictions.

June discovered this career path while dealing with her own experience of pain while living overseas. She was diagnosed with a serious spinal cord problem, but in her research, discovered the issue to be a simple carpal tunnel problem. June experienced constant wrist pain at night and therefore had trouble sleeping, so was referred to a hypnotherapist in the U.S.

She has carried this personal experience into the business she now owns, “I figured that if hypnosis worked for me over the telephone, it would work for anyone.” June first teaches simple acupressure techniques to relieve stress and remove emotional charges – such techniques make hypnosis much more effective and powerful.

“By introducing advanced Law of Attraction techniques while teaching acupressure (to relieve emotional pain) then doing hypnosis, the result for the client is powerful, freeing and extremely effective.”  With this multi-faceted approach to relieving the personal ailments and issues of clients, her success has been tremendous.

June is a certified clinical hypnotherapist and certified EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) practitioner. EFT uses specific acupressure points on the body in order to clear subconscious emotional blocks that have been recently created or built up over the years. This clearing is effectively achieved using the mind-body medicine technique known as acupressure (no needles).

She attended the University of Ohio Medical School for advanced acupressure classes and has had additional training in Australia and Korea. June has Bachelor of Science and Master of Education degrees and is currently working to earn her certification in Matrix Energetics.

June’s continued education is a testament to her dedication to the health and well-being of current and future clients. She says, “Learning new techniques helps me to become a more effective personal empowerment therapist because people often need different approaches for different issues.”

Outside of Joyful Changes, June is currently working on two books. The first is a children’s book on Greek and Latin roots, and the second book covers how to use the Law of Attraction more effectively by first relieving emotional issues and mental blocks through acupressure. Consciously combining these processes will empower readers to more easily create what they want in life.

Traveling is another of June’s passions. Her more recent trips included Vietnam, Borneo and Brunei. She has collected art, artifacts and carpets from around the world. Describing her years of living overseas as “hilarious or bizarre, but never dull,” June and her travel buddy are writing a book entitled “How I Found Myself Naked among Strangers in Istanbul.”

June’s path has led to distant lands; however, her current location is much closer to home. She grew up in New Mexico and enjoyed that high desert climate so much that after returning to the States she searched for a medium sized city with a low humidity level located near the mountains. When asked why she chose the university town of Reno, she simply said that “it feels comfortable.”

What to do about Procrastination

By Tonda Adams, JD, CCHT |

Have you ever put off something that needed to be done and then felt guilty? Simply put, procrastination means “to put off intentionally and habitually” or “to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done.”  Do you know of anyone who has not procrastinated at some time in their lives?  Procrastination is not always a bad thing. When it creates stress, guilt and even crisis in your life then it becomes a problem.

If you consistently put important things off until you have a crisis in your affairs and then feel stressed or guilty, you may need help. However, even the worst procrastinator does not procrastinate in every area of their life. In fact, there are activities you wouldn’t dream of procrastinating: watching a Super Bowl game or going to your favorite restaurant to eat your favorite food.

Procrastinators are made, not born. There are many reasons a child may grow up and label themselves as a procrastinator. One such reason is a response to an authoritarian and controlling parent, which keeps children from developing the will to regulate their own behavior; it can even be a form of rebellion.

Perfectionists may use procrastination to avoid failure because they feel they must do the job perfectly the first time, so they unconsciously put off starting a task. Perhaps you wait to the last minute before doing a task, and get embroiled in a kind of last minute rush; you are stimulated by working under pressure, or maybe you are someone who avoids the task for fear of success. Then there is the person who can’t make a decision, so procrastinating absolves them from responsibility for the outcome.

Procrastination is often caused by associating some form of pain or unpleasantness with the task you are considering. You can change the way you perceive the task by rewarding yourself with something fun after completion, thus anchoring pleasure instead of pain.

Aristotle said, “The end of labor is to gain leisure.”

If you have labeled yourself a procrastinator, and you believe you are a procrastinator, then, you will surely be a procrastinator. Your UNCONSCIOUS mind believes what you tell it and then it sets out to create what you believe about yourself.

Regardless of what motivates you, changing that old programming is possible. Your mind is like a computer with different types of memory.

It takes information into a temporary file and then if it is perceived to be believable and true, it is stored on the hard drive, i.e., your memory bank. If your mind has been programmed with negative thoughts about yourself and your abilities, you can reprogram it to function in a more efficient manner. A certified clinical hypnotherapist or other professional may be able to help you change the old programming.

Your repetitive thoughts have a very powerful affect on your unconscious. In fact, you can change your behavior by changing your thoughts.

One of the most important aspects of accomplishing a task is trust in yourself – trust that you have what it takes to accomplish any given task in an efficient and timely manner. You will be amazed at what happens when you place your unwavering attention on an objective with the strong desire to accomplish it. It takes focus and desire or emotion held firm that creates the energy to accomplish it. If you do not trust and feel good about yourself and the task at hand, you are defeated before you begin.

Decide on a task and determine how you wish to accomplish it. Stay focused and determined. Your desire is like a balloon. The more air you breath into it the bigger it gets. When it finally reaches a critical mass, you let it go and it is propelled by its own energy. When you puncture the balloon with doubt fear and resentment, it bursts and all the energy is dissipated, useless, and undirected.

Change the way you perceive yourself and your world will change to accommodate your perceptions. You can do it. Why Not Now?

References:

1. Your Body Believes Every Word You Say, by Barbara Hoberman Levine

2. When Your Heart Speaks Take Good Notes, by Susan Borkin

3. My Voice Will Go With You, by Sidney Rosen

For more info, contact Tonda Adams at 775-825-2588 or mtnquest@mtnquestinc.com.

By Sara Piccola |

If you’re suffering from a phobia, fear, addiction, self-esteem issue or other type of trauma, Tonda Adams might be the person for you. Tonda is a hypnotherapist. She focuses on empowerment and personal change using hypnosis and therapy as tools to get to the core of the problem.

Adams is a Certified Master Hypnotherapist, a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist, and a Certified Alchemical Hypnotherapist. Alchemical Hypnotherapy focuses on our inner guides and the balancing of archetypes.  Tonda has been interested in hypnotherapy most of her life, getting her first taste of it as a psychological tool in a business class in college. She pursued a degree in accounting and eventually wound up in law school.

Two years into law school, Tonda’s husband, an attorney, died of a sudden heart attack.  Between finishing law school and managing the law firm she shared with her husband, Adams found herself unable to grieve for her loss.  She sought counseling through conventional therapy, grief therapy, medications, but nothing worked. Finally she encountered hypnotherapy and found the experience so powerful and healing that she decided to become a certified hypnotherapist. She opened her practice, MtnQuest Hypnotherapy, in Reno, and has been practicing here for 7 years.

Hypnosis expands your everyday consciousness so that you have greater awareness of past events, feelings, and hidden motives. There are four levels of hypnosis; light, medium, deep (or somnambulism), and very deep. Most hypnotherapy is done in a light or medium state.

During light and medium states your awareness is heightened and you are able to converse easily with the therapist. A light state could be used on a specific phobia. Tonda takes the client back through the experience and reframes the situation, empowering the person to eliminate the phobia. It’s similar to deleting an old computer program.

Deep states are best used for direct suggestion. The client no longer converses with the therapist. Deep hypnosis may be used on a client who wants to quit smoking. Tonda begins by putting the client into a medium state where they are still able to communicate. Slowly the client enters a deep state of relaxation during which Tonda begins direct suggestions. Direct suggestions consist of sayings such as, “You are no longer a smoker,” and “Smoking is poisonous to your body.”  A very deep state of hypnosis is used by doctors for performing surgery without anesthesia.

The necessary level of hypnosis varies from client to client and their reasons for seeking therapy. To determine the appropriate level of hypnosis Tonda discusses concepts of the conscious and unconscious mind with clients, including their thoughts, beliefs, and expectations about hypnotherapy. Therapy begins shortly after.

Interestingly, Tonda believes that we all function in trance-like states of mind everyday as we perform activities such as driving, working, and eating.  We are essentially in an altered state much of the time.  So it’s fairly easy to slip in and out of a trance, sometimes just by hearing the sound of someone’s voice. I really didn’t believe this until I found myself in Tonda’s office being lulled into a trance-like state as I listened to her talk. At one point I realized I had a whole page of notes and didn’t remember actually taking them!  Tonda assured me that similar things happen with her clients, and I believe it!

Tonda’s passion for hypnotherapy comes from a longstanding belief in empowerment.  If you are dissatisfied with something in your life it takes motivation, desire, and willpower to change. Tonda has found that many people don’t believe they possess these abilities and therefore feel unable to overcome trauma and other obstacles.  However, because she experienced empowerment in her own life through hypnotherapy, she is now dedicated to helping others experience the same thing.

In addition to office therapy, Tonda creates therapeutic CD’s for use at home and on the road. She is in the process of creating a new product, “Healing Stories on CD” which are designed to directly contact the unconscious part of the mind.

By Tonda Adams, JD, CCHT |

Imagine a pendulum moving slowly in front of your eyes. Keep your focus on the pendulum…slowly moving back and forth…back and forth…Maybe you are experiencing something…Perhaps a feeling… or nothing at all… Eyes getting tired and heavy… so heavy… eyes wanting to close and it is okay to resist….Perhaps it’s just easier to simply let them close. Hypnotist or Snake Oil Salesman? If you are a skeptic about Hypnosis, you may want to read further.

The first experience of Hypnosis for many people is the fun and entertaining Stage Show Hypnotist. The hypnotist, at the very beginning of the show, has a few simple tests to see who will be most responsive to suggestion. He/she then calls those individuals to the stage. Those who go on the stage have an underlying desire to be part of the entertainment and enjoy themselves, otherwise the suggestions would not work. Those who choose to stay in their seat, no harm; they simply remain in the audience and enjoy the rest of the show.

A common myth about hypnosis is that you are unconscious or unaware during hypnosis. Generally you are not unconscious or unaware during hypnosis. In fact, if a fire started in the building the hypnotized person would most likely be aware before the hypnotist.

There are four levels of hypnosis: (a) Light, (b) medium, (c) deep or Somnambulism, (which is best used for direct suggestion; the greater the depth, the more awareness, and the better the results of hypnosis), and (d) very deep which is a comatose state. This state is used for performing surgery without anesthesia. It is rarely used outside of a surgical context and only a small fraction of clients can ever reach this level. Most hypnotherapy is done in a light or medium state. You are completely under the control and direction of your own free will at every moment. No one can hypnotize you without your consent.

Hypnosis is the temporary quieting of the rationalizing mind and an expanding of the greater consciousness so that you experience things happening in two or more places at the same time. It is similar to that which you experience in your everyday conscious state.

You can become aware of that which is near and that which is distant at exactly the same moment. The expansion or contraction of your consciousness is dependent entirely upon your desire. You can choose to be conscious of a certain tree or flower in a park or of the entire park at the same time. You can use the same faculties of sight to see both. When you wish to see both, you enlarge its activity until it takes in all you desire. Much like a camera. You can expand the focus to take in the entire park or zoom in on one little flower.

The larger expansion still includes the smaller, so you see, you can be conscious of the full control of all your faculties in both places at the same time. By exactly this same process, you can be conscious of sounds in a room and also be aware of sounds outside, i.e. cars going by, dogs barking, or wherever you place your attention. You can expand it or contract it. Hypnosis expands your everyday consciousness so that you have an even greater awareness of past events, feelings and hidden motives. This greater expansion of your own consciousness enables an awareness that is not available through ordinary everyday limited consciousness.

Anytime a suggestion or posthypnotic suggestion is given that is contrary to the wishes or beliefs of the client, it can be voluntarily rejected. If the suggestion were of such a nature that harm might result, there would be an immediate return to the ordinary conscious state.

Another common myth is, you are weak minded if you can be hypnotized. The susceptibility to hypnosis has nothing to do with a strong or a weak mind or the intelligence of the individual. In fact the stronger minded or intelligent person often has the most beneficial results, primarily because once they experience the power of their greater consciousness during hypnosis, they drop all defenses and trust in the process.

Can you be hypnotized?  Most people can be. In fact we all are in trance everyday. When you drive your car, watch TV, eat, drink, even having sex, you are generally in an altered state. Have you ever driven your car, reached your destination and wondered, “How did I get here?” having no memory of getting from Point A to Point B. You were in trance. It is like being in the movie the Matrix, you think you are really conscious, but you are not.

The average person spends most of their time in an altered state. The body is on autopilot while your mind is continuously thinking about your job, taking the kids to school, what chores need to be done that day etc., and you are not present. A qualified Clinical Hypnotherapist can assist you to relax the body and quiet the mind so that you have greater clarity and peace; in addition, for those who have insomnia, fifteen minutes of hypnosis is equal to approximately three hours sleep.

One of the greatest myths is that hypnosis is some kind of magic and you come in for a session in a conscious state and are hypnotized and go unconscious and awaken miraculously healed. Believe it or not this can happen; however, the person is usually in trauma or has an addiction and is already in an altered state of unconsciousness when they come in. The Hypnotherapist can put them into a deep state of relaxation and bring them back into the conscious state. This process can often create spontaneous healing. It is the awareness of taking back ownership of your own life that creates the healing. It only seems like magic. It is not unusual to have a profound insight in the first session and want to return to continue working on other blocks to your sense of wellbeing.

Two things are required for hypnosis to be affective: you must (1) have the sincere desire to do or change something and (2) trust in the process. Hypnosis does not work for everyone because not everyone has the sincere desire to change or the trust in the process.

Hypnosis, like alternative medicine, is rapidly moving into the forefront of healing modalities in conjunction with conventional medical treatment. Many well known psychotherapists and psychiatrists used hypnosis in their practice such as Sigmund Feud, Carl Gustav Jung, and Milton Erickson, just to name a few. Milton Erickson, a psychologist and psychiatrist, pioneered the art of indirect suggestion in hypnosis. Erickson is primarily responsible for shaping our modern view of hypnosis and its official acceptance by the American Medical Association.

Myths are a fictitious story often having some historical basis. Hypnosis myths have been exaggerated by the strange behavior of those participants who seemed to be mysteriously controlled by the mad scientist with a pendulum. In fact, little was known about how hypnosis worked until Richard Bandler and John Grinder studied Milton Erickson, Virginia Satir and other notable geniuses. They succeeded in making explicit the syntax of how people avoid change and how to assist them in changing. They developed a model of communication, visual, auditory, olfactory, and kinesthetic, that has broken the spell of ignorance about hypnosis. You can now open your eyes.

References:

1. Frogs into Princes, by Richard Bandler and John Grinder,

2. The Magic Presence, by Godfrey Ray King and Innerquest School of Hypnotherapy.

For more information, contact MtnQuest Hypnotherapy at 775 825-2588.

Self esteem is the key to achieving what you want to accomplish. The belief that you can do it will make the difference between success and failure. That belief depends upon your concept of yourself, which comes from childhood programming, from your experiences growing up, from your ideas of how you measure up against others who are trying to achieve the same things, and from the support you receive from family and friends.

Even when we have high self esteem in certain areas of our lives, we may get “stuck” in other behaviors or in negative habits of thought. Those places where we become stuck may be an indication of internal emotional blocks or mistaken beliefs. If the emotional block or belief is subconscious, then you won’t be able to identify it. You’ll just keep repeating the same behavior, no matter how hard you try to change.

Why is this?  Because we’re all doing the best we can (indeed the only thing we can) at any instant with our own particular motivation, awareness and knowledge. What’s that again? I’m always doing the best I can and so is everybody else?  Whoa! How can that be? Sometimes I know what I should do but I still engage in the same old behavior. Sure you still do it, because your motivation, awareness or knowledge hasn’t changed. All three don’t have to change, just one.

Let’s take the example of organizing that collection of stuff (some might call it junk) that you see every day in every room including the garage. It’s draining your energy, it’s making you frustrated, you can’t find anything you need and you can barely walk between the piles. You want to get it organized, but it’s just too big a job. You don’t believe you can ever do it.

Now here comes the magic. You’re motivated, and you have the knowledge of how to do it, if you could ever get started. In this case the self-awareness isn’t there, so you have no confidence in your ability to get this done. So how do I change my self-awareness? You’ll probably not be able to do it consciously because your conscious mind doesn’t know how. But your subconscious knows, so under hypnosis, you’ll tell exactly why you can’t get started. Ah-ha!  It’s because there’s a big goal you always wanted to achieve, a big dream…maybe writing a book…maybe starting that little business in your garage, and if you get that mess cleaned up, you’ll have to go ahead with your dream, your goal. And that’s scary. So your subconscious mind keeps you “safe” by keeping you from attempting a serious clean-up effort. You are then safe from the possible disappointment of failing at your dream.

But now you’re aware of why you’re keeping yourself from cleaning up that mess. Now you’re empowered and you can decide whether you really want that goal or not. If not, stop thinking and talking about it, stop torturing yourself with it, stop using it as a subconscious excuse to live in a junk pile. If you do still have that dream, or any dream, now you can take action to make it real. You’re empowered!  Action leads to accomplishment and accomplishment leads to self-esteem, which leads to more action, which leads to more proud, good feelings, and on and on. An upward spiral is born, and now you’re riding it with joy, enthusiasm, freedom and energy. And only one thing changed…your self awareness, because through hypnosis you became aware of what was blocking you.

Additional suggestions and directions about your ability, your worthiness, your health, your energy level, your enthusiasm, your creativity and many other positive attributes can be instilled in your subconscious mind through hypnosis – often while you’re discovering what’s blocking you. Sometimes it takes only one session. So do yourself a favor and uncover your inner blocks so you can BE ALL YOU CAN BE. Time’s a-wastin’!

References:

1) Tom Nicoli, hypnotherapist on the Dateline Weight Loss Challenge 2) L.S. Barksdale, Building Sound Self Esteem program, launched in 1976.

For more information contact June Milligan, Certified Hypnotherapist, at 775-786-9111.

The body does not think.  Only the mind thinks, thus, when the mind accepts or perceives something as reality, the body must respond. An example of this is the Fire-Walk experience.  With just a few hours training, a person can walk through a bed of coals with no burns or physical pain.
“If this were a drug, everyone would be using it”, says David Spiegel MD a psychiatrist at Stanford University.  “Changing your mental set can Change what’s going on in your body”. - Quoted from “Hypnosis for Pain” by Evelyn Strauss, WebMed Medical News.

Acute pain is physiological and organic.  It is caused by physical injury or illness.  The   intensity and the severity depend on the nature of the injury or illness and the pain tolerance of the injured or ill person.  It is a signal that something is wrong in your body and needs to be evaluated by a Physician, Dentist or Chiropractor before consulting a Hypnotherapist.

The body is connected by nerve endings to the brain. When the nerve endings are stimulated by something, an impulse is sent to the brain.  If an injury has occurred, the nerve endings send the message that something is wrong. The subconscious mind then determines what to do with the impulse.  A qualified Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist can make alternative suggestions to inhibit the pain response.  This process is called Inhibition of the Autonomic Nervous System.

Chronic pain is on going and is considered chronic after a specified duration of time.  It is a combination of physical and psychogenic factors.   The longer a person has been in pain, the greater the psychogenic component.  External stressors such as tension, fear and anxiety, intensify and influence the chronic pain cycle.

The reaction to pain results in the tightening of the muscles causing tension in the body. The tension increases the severity of the pain.  Pain is approximately 25% physical and 75% emotional.  Tension, Anxiety and fear are factors in how an individual experiences pain.

Tension is a protective response.  When an individual experiences something unpleasant, physically or emotionally, they resist, causing tension in the body.  The muscles tighten and exacerbate the pain.  Muscle tension associated with pain can be alleviated with physical relaxation exercises using self-hypnosis techniques.

Anxiety is a critical element in the experience of pain.   It makes the pain more difficult and intensifies the severity.  Preoccupation with the pain creates further tension and constriction of the muscles causing inflammation of the central nervous system.

Anxiety patterns are caused by the structure of the subject’s personality characteristics and experiences.  How one deals with pain is a learned behavior. These patterns must be identified and changed to effectively reduce pain.

Fear is the most insidious of the components of pain.  It is important to understand how fear and pain react in the chronic pain cycle.    We learn early on that pain is an unpleasant experience, something to be avoided.  If trauma is associated with pain, the unconscious mind imprints fear with pain; then pain is the trigger for fear.  As people grow older the fear of pain increases.  The feeling of helplessness and vulnerability create tension and anxiety, thus, exacerbating the pain experience.  It is important to stop the impact of the pain and fear cycle, thus significantly reducing the subjective experience of pain.

Suffering is another element of pain.  It is emotional in nature and is processed differently by the brain.  Suffering is psychogenic and intensifies the experience. The suffering element of pain should be dealt with during the Hypnotherapy session.

Somatization of emotions is a further complication of pain.  It is the internalization of the feelings into physical discomfort.  The physical discomfort is a real experience of pain, however, the basis of the pain is psychological and emotional.  The subject is feeling pain generated by their painful life experiences.  Hypnotherapy helps these individuals remove painful emotions and the underlying psychological issues that cause them.  Pain of this nature often appears as headaches, gastrointestinal issues or disease.

One very effective technique to assist in pain relief is a process using the Control Gate Theory.  Although  rather complex,  an explanation of this theory is important to the understanding of  how it works.  The Control Gate Theory is the acceptance of the anatomical distinctiveness between two neural conducting systems from the spinal cord, to the higher centers of the brain, after impulses have entered the spinal cord as a result of the stimulation. The Sensory-Discriminative System is primarily informative and carries information about the location and the intensity of the stimulation without the unpleasant qualities. The Motivation-Affective System relates to the center of the brain structure that processes the suffering aspect of the physical sensations of pain.  Both conduits allow pain and suffering to exist at the same time because they have separate processing systems. The longer pain and suffering continues, the stronger and more enmeshed they become.

The Gate Control Theory suggests that the experience of pain can be changed by impulses transmitted through the two systems. The Hypnotherapist, creates a deep trance experience and then gives direct suggestions so the mind can re-identify experience as pressure or discomfort rather than pain, in addition, visualization and suggestion are used to eliminate the emotional component of suffering.

“Most patients benefit from the use of hypnotic suggestion for pain relief”, according to Guy Montgomery, PhD, a behavioral scientist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. (Montgomery published a meta-analysis on the subject in the April 2, 2000 issue of the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis.)

A qualified Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist will have many different techniques to eliminate pain. Each person is unique and may require a series of processes until one is found that works. There is no one magic pill. Hypnosis is a solution for living healthier and pain free without the use of drugs.

Tonda Adams, JD, CCHT, MtnQuest Hypnotherapy, ( 775) 825-2588, www.mtnquest-hypnotherapy.com.

But because of derogatory input from the people who matter most, we are often programmed to believe that we are not capable of doing much with our lives.  This is an extremely unfortunate situation, but the psychology profession believes that about 85% of all families are dysfunctional, so if we have low self esteem, we are certainly not alone.

Parents, teachers or other authority figures in our lives may not have MEANT to handicap us in that way, but they didn’t realize the impact their words had.  Siblings and peers have a huge influence on our self-esteem as well.

Your subconscious mind is a non-valuing organism.  It just accepts everything you hear, feel, read, see or experience as the absolute truth.  As we grow older, our conscious mind learns to reason, and to reject certain statements as untrue, but the subconscious mind lacks that reasoning ability.  In addition, when you hear words that are delivered with great emotion, either positive or negative, that emotion embeds those words even deeper into your subconscious.

So if you were told over and over that you were stupid, lazy, unattractive or whatever, the emotion those words evoked caused you to believe them even more, and the repetition sealed the deal.  On the other hand, if you were told you could achieve anything you wanted, then you have a completely different view of life.  Those positive thoughts will help you to consider new ideas, to risk, to step out into life knowing the positive truth about yourself, that you can achieve anything you set your mind to.

People with higher self esteem are more inclined to focus on their strong points rather than their flaws, and have a general sense of happiness.  They tend to choose more compatible mates, friends and careers.

People with low self esteem are inclined to have perceptions of guilt and helplessness and are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol.  Depression and suicide are also associated with low self esteem.  As children, those with low self esteem are more likely to become bullies.

The good news is that you aren’t permanently stuck with the negative programming that you may have received.  Through hypnosis, new positive ideas about yourself can be instilled, which will cause you to act in completely different ways.  During hypnosis, suggestions and directions are given to your subconscious mind, which can cause the original programming to have less and less effect.  The new positive programming seems to reduce the impact of the old words of lack and limitation.  Science does not know exactly why that works, but scientists in this field know that it does work.

Shirley McNeal, Ph.D., recipient of the 2003 Milton Erickson Award for Scientific Excellence, is the author of more than 20 scientific papers.  Her recently published work on the use of hypnosis for “Ego Strengthening” is recognized nationwide as the standard by the clinical hypnosis community.

As an example of how negative programming can work, if you verbally admired an especially beautiful home when you were a child, and your parents said, “Oh, rich people are unhappy,” or “rich people are crooks,” then those statements are in your subconscious mind, continuing to quietly tell you that rich people are unhappy or unethical, so your programming won’t ALLOW you to be wealthy,   because of those words spoken so long ago, words which your conscious mind actually may have forgotten.  In the meantime, you don’t understand why you have such a hard time making sales calls, why you are uncomfortable around wealthy people, or why you can’t seem to get beyond a certain salary.

Hypnosis for self esteem can help because it focuses on replacing negative emotions and fear with positive emotions and confidence, in any given situation, by changing your thoughts and feelings.  You are totally in control and you choose what you want to change.

Hypnosis is not a weird state where you give away your control to someone else.  That happens just on stage or in the movies, and there are some very simple well-studied reasons why people act that way on stage. The truth is, you go in and out of hypnosis all day.  For instance, when you watch TV, you’re participating in the most powerful trance inducer in our society.  Advertisers are well aware of that.

Hypnosis is very natural.  It’s simply a state of deep relaxation where your conscious mind, although always listening, gets out of the way for awhile so your subconscious mind can become more alert and listen up.  Suggestions and directions given during that deep state of relaxation go directly into the subconscious mind and assist you in becoming more of whom you want to be.  With higher self esteem you feel better, carry yourself with more confidence, emanate a can-do attitude, are much happier plus you feel that there is nothing you cannot accomplish.  This change in attitude leads to more productivity, more positive actions, which lead to more self esteem.  It’s a wonderful cycle which spirals up and up and up.  This is a built-in capability.  We are hard-wired to remove negative imprints and to improve ourselves in this manner.  Why not use it so you can live your very best life?

June Milligan, M.Ed.CHt, is a Certified Hypnotherapist. Visit www.joyfulchanges.com or call (775)786-9111 for  more information.

These two types of hypnosis are similar in that they take you back to find the cause of your current blocks and to clear past traumas.

Age Regression is an effective way to go back to a previous time in your current life to the incidents and traumas that may have left an indelible imprint on your personality.  In this way you can finally deal with them and move on.

Past Life Regression is Age Regression taken further back to a previous life.  Reincarnation is a belief that we have lived many times before and that our spiritual development evolves with each lifetime.  In some religions, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, reincarnation is part of the belief system.  Millions of people in India and Asia believe in reincarnation but in America, it has started to gain acceptance only in the past 100 years.

In an altered state, you can access your subconscious mind, which is similar to a vast video tape library.  Everything you’ve ever experienced is stored there, along with all the associated sounds, smells and emotions.  As a child you may have sat on your dad’s lap, feeling his love and having his attention, while he was smoking.  Another memory might be when you were included in your big brother’s gathering of friends for the first time, and were admired because you began smoking with them.  You felt “big” and self-assured.  When these and many other incidents reinforced your link between smoking and a feeling of love and acceptance, it becomes very hard to stop.  Understanding that link through Age Regression hypnosis and exploring the many ways of being loved and accepted today would help you to stop smoking.

The subconscious mind remembers behaviors that we have used to protect ourselves and repeats them until we tell it not to.  The problem is, we’ve consciously forgotten why we needed these behaviors, or that we ever “did without them.”  By allowing our subconscious mind to surface, through hypnosis, we can re-frame our outmoded behaviors and realize that we don’t need them anymore.

Past Life Regression adds the assumption that you have had past lives and that by going back to view one or more of them you will understand your soul’s path in the past, present and future.  This type of regression is used to discover causes of fears, repeated dreams, undesired tendencies, even “psychosomatic” pains.  Some people have found their “aha” moments when seeing or reliving a past life incident.  Current problems can be understood and dissolved by seeing where they originated.  During a Past Life Regression you are guided to “be” a past personality, and experience or view the incidents from that era that have influenced you in your current life.  In this way you resolve issues and integrate the experience into the present.

The subconscious holds emotional memories from past traumas, which we are mostly not aware of.  Through hypnosis you can choose to access that emotional memory and deal with it.  You can get to a point where you see the big picture.  You learn how you created the situation you are in, and can then see how to get out of it.  We all want to change and move forward, clearing whatever is blocking us.  We want to see our future path clearly.  Age Regression and Past Life Regression are two methods to achieve that goal.

June Milligan, M.Ed., CHT, Joyful Changes (775) 786-9111