You Are Getting Sleepy? Hardly.

I do Wellness Hypnotherapy both in my Hypnotherapy Internship training, as a subject, and I do it with my clients as a Wellness Hypnotherapist. So, I've learned a thing or two about my own "trances." Actually, the way I see it, Hypnotherapy helps us to "snap out of" the trances we chose to put ourselves in long ago. Trances like "I'm-Not-Good-Enough" or "I-Am-Nothing-Without-A-Partner" or "I'm-Too-Dumb/Unattractive"or, probably the most frequent trances: "I-Can't-Take-Feeling-This" and "I-Am-A-Victim."

Now, it's not that these "trances" were set in place for nothing. There was a reason in our pasts we developed these defenses. We made decisions that these were the ways we could survive some of our more
vulnerable feelings and life-moments. And those might have been the very decisions that brought us through some very difficult times. The question is, as Dr. Phil might say, "How's that workin' for ya'?" I would only add: "How's that workin' for ya, now?"

Truth be told, it may be that very trance that saved our life back-when, is the trance that, today, is keeping us from moving ahead in relationships, in our work, in our dreams-not-yet realized. Often the trances we are in may have to do with not feeling, staying numb. And, of course, if we don't feel; are we really in our lives at all? And, if we're not in our lives, aren't the people in our lives: our partners, our children, our friends, lonely? Ever been with someone who comes home, but isn't really there? I'm told it's worse than being alone.

It isn't just alcohol, marijuana, over or under-eating, relationships, gambling, debting, cocaine, heroin, money, overwork or pills that put us into a state of apathy (and atrophy--use it or lose it. If we don't learn to cope by practicing; doing it again and again--we may just stay frozen in apathy) and if we do that we are not living courageously. It might be said we are in a state of suspended animation: not feeling, so that we won't be hurt. But, if we can't feel pain; we are numbing life's pleasures, too.

Is there a block in our lives? I believe for most of us, there is one or another block. Why not move it aside and then see if our lives improve? Hypnotherapy isn't the thing you see in shows: "You will act like a chicken." or "You think you're five years old." No, Hypnotherapy is a healing method that opens up the subconscious to re-make decisions we made long ago. Picture 40 bites/regular therapy vs. 40 billion bites/Hypnotherapy. It may not be instant, but it doesn't take a long time to make useful realizations about what therapist call our "projections."

Like a blank movie screen and a movie projector. There is nothing on the screen but what's being projected by that film machine you see at the back of the theatre. Just like the projector and the screen, perhaps the person who annoys you is really simply triggering a significant experience you had long ago--or maybe even not-so-long-ago.

I do, in my work as a therapist, Hypnotherapy. I find, however, that many people are afraid of Hypnotherapy because they misunderstand it. It's simply focused attention that allows us to concentrate and remember more accurately our past experiences. And in doing so, we can understand where our old decisions (the ones that aren't serving us now) came from. And, then, we can consciously choose to change those decisions: Am I still a victim? Don't I want to attract people into my life who are not reactive, but proactive? How will I do that if I believe I am a Victim-- a Victim is reactive.

How? By waking up from the Victim trance and seeing ourselves differently, behaving differently---and finding we get different results. Are you getting sleepy? Maybe for an hour, but then, there' s waking up to the rest of your life. Not a life that's happening to you; but, one in which you have chosen to be an active participant, attracting more of what you want in your life. We've been asleep is the thing. And now we can choose to live more consciously--Be more alive. Hardly, like listening to someone else control us. In fact, just the opposite. Instead of being asleep throughout our lives, we can choose to be awake.