Getting those Butterflies to Fly in Formation

Printed in Good New Magazine, January 1998

Does public speaking strike terror in your heart? Do your palms sweat and your stomach churn? If so, you are in good company. Most people are uncomfortable to some degree with being in front of an audience. I speak from personal experience.

When I began my hypnotherapy practice back in 1989 I was often asked how I would attract clients initially. I would say, "I am going to teach." Then I would look over my shoulder to see who in heaven's name had said that! Surely not me. I was terrified to speak to any size group. Back then, talking to even two people at once seemed overwhelming. I wanted to blend into the woodwork during hypnotherapy school. Talking in front of any group was a nightmare.

Right after I graduated I taught a self hypnosis class to two women acquaintances. You would think that I would be comfortable, wouldn't you? Nope. I was so nervous that I could hardly get through the material. It did not get easier as the class progressed.

I have definitely changed that early experience. Here I am, eight years later, not only speaking to groups but enjoying it. I now I speak comfortably to groups of 150. What caused this tremendous change, you might ask. I overcame my fears by using hypnosis. While in self hypnosis I began by visualizing myself as an effective speaker. I saw myself easily connecting with the audience and holding their attention. I learned that, deep down, I really loved being the center of attention!

I practiced this image in my mind for five or six weeks. Then, one day, I imagined my usual image and couldn't hold onto it. It seemed strange until I realized that perhaps I could now speak to groups without my former fears. It was true! The next speech I gave went very well. I was a bit nervous at first, but I quickly settled down and actually enjoyed myself. My subconscious mind not only resolved my fears about speaking, it also knew when we were finished creating my new behavior.

So all of you out there who need public speaking skills to further your personal or professional growth, take heart. With the power of your subconscious mind, you too can overcome your fears and enjoy those presentations!

All Stressed Out and No One to Choke??

Printed in Good News Magazine

Ever felt so stressed that you wanted to strangle everyone who crossed your path? I know that I have been caught in that feeling. I would like to share with you how I learned to relieve my reaction to the daily stress in my life.

As I am sure you know, life is filled with stress. We can't always alter the outside events that cause our stress but we can change how we respond to those events. For me, relief came in the form of learning self hypnosis. I took a self hypnosis class in 1981 and found that the process created an incredible feeling of deep mental and physical relaxation.

It was unlike anything that I had experienced before. The first few years I used the technique sporadically. Initially I used it to improve my self-esteem, but once I had accomplished that goal I let my daily practice slide. Then I was hospitalized for two weeks with a serious illness. Out came the only (at the time) self help tool I had -- self hypnosis.

The doctors had some very unpleasant procedures to perform to aid my recovery. I would ask for a reprieve of 20 minutes and put myself into a hypnotic trance. Once I was deeply relaxed I felt much better about the necessary medical treatments. I reduced my anxiety, raised my pain threshold and made the process more tolerable for myself. I am certain that I was also an easier patient to deal with in this state.

After my recovery I still did not incorporate self hypnosis as a daily tool. However, life has a way of bringing certain ideas back into our awareness. At a time when my life had become incredibly stressful, both personally and professionally. I was guided to attend hypnotherapy school. Suddenly I was working full time, managing the home, children and marriage and going to school out of town on the weekends. I could no longer avoid using some sort of stress relief daily. As a test, I got up a bit earlier than usual every day and spent 15 minutes in hypnosis before I got ready for work. That short time equals an hour of deep, restful sleep so 1 never felt the effect of getting up earlier. In fact, I would awaken and think "Oh yeah, once I'm up I can go into trance!" Once I had discovered the peace and tranquillity that comes with hypnosis, I wanted to repeat it often.

The rewards of making this one small lifestyle change were enormous. I had more energy to start my day and I stayed calm and relaxed even when those around me were busy reacting to their stressful jobs. It really hit home when I missed practicing self hypnosis for several days in a row. That is when I realized the impact it had made in my life because suddenly I wanted to choke everyone who crossed my path! It was an excellent reminder that I needed to continue daily forever. It is really a small amount of time to devote to making a positive difference in our lives. If we keep doing what we have always done, we will continue to get what we have always gotten. I would encourage you to make this one small change in your life and reap the benefits!

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Stressed by College Life??

Printed in the Experimental College (UC Davis) catalog, Fall 1997

Welcome to college life: moving away from home, meeting new people, standing in line, condensing your prized possessions into one small dorm room, feeling pressured, making friends, finding your classes, feeling overwhelmed, finding the bookstore, Hickey gym, the Rec Hall, standing in line, taking notes, feeling frantic, finding your notes, finding time (if you're lucky) for a social life, feeling tired, studying, taking exams, losing sleep, writing terms papers all with the same deadline! It all boils down to one word: stress!

Read on... it doesn't have to be this way.

There's a very simple tool that keeps you relaxed, creative, focused and in control. This natural, simple to learn tool helps make college life manageable. Suddenly, things come back into focus. You focus and concentrate more easily. Test anxiety is gone. You even feel more cheerful because you now have a way to manage the pressure.

The magic formula is self hypnosis. You benefit tremendously from spending as little as 15 minutes a day in this deeply relaxing state. In fact, those 15 minutes of hypnosis is equal to an hour of deep, restful sleep. Imagine that, no more late afternoon naps that leave you feeling groggy! Hypnosis always leaves you mentally and physically rested and alert.

This is not a new form of therapy; history shows that hypnosis has been used successfully for at least 6,000 years.

Each of us has an incredible amount of power within our subconscious mind. Hypnosis creates a bridge from the conscious mind so that you can tap that power. Faced with the stresses of modern college life, you need an advantage. Practicing self hypnosis gives you the power to create the optimum learning environment within your mind.

If you are tired but need to study, a short self-induced hypnotic trance can give you the energy and mental clarity to easily absorb the material. If you are tired but want to go out with your friends for a little R&R, hypnosis gives you the same lift as a nap but in much less time. If you want to reduce stress, overcome insomnia, improve your self esteem, lose weight, focus and concentrate, improve your athletic performance, become an effective public speaker -- in short if you want to make any positive changes in your life, self hypnosis can help.

Remember, when you are relaxed you accomplish twice as much work as you do when you are tense and nervous with HALF the effort! Hypnosis gives you that relaxation.

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Have you ever watched a stage hypnosis show? They are very funny. But afterward, you may have wondered why anyone would volunteer to look so silly. And beyond that, what practical, therapeutic application is there for hypnosis?

First, let's dispel any negative ideas you may have from seeing a stage hypnosis show. Stage show volunteers make a subconscious agreement to go into trance by the very act of volunteering. There are always one or two who volunteer to prove that hypnosis will not work for them, but a good stage hypnotist will spot them.

If the subjects act silly during a show they can blame the hypnotist, "He made me do it!" Whether they realize it consciously or not, they were perfectly willing (at some level) to do whatever was suggested or they would not have done it!

The number one fear people have about hypnosis is thinking that they will be out of control. If I could use hypnosis to control others I would have the world's most cooperative teenager. He would cheerfully do the dishes and empty the trash. Naturally, he'd get straight As and never talk back. Hypnotherapists would make a fortune turning the rest of the world's teens into perfect specimens!

The truth is that you are in complete control during a hypnotic trance. No one can hypnotize you against your will and no one can make you do anything that goes against your morals, beliefs, ethics or principles while in a hypnotic trance. If you find a suggestion to be offensive, you can simply bring yourself back to full awareness. You are able to lie while in trance, so you are unlikely to tell the hypnotherapist your deepest secrets.

Hypnosis is simply a natural state of deep physical and mental relaxation. We pass through the hypnotic state daily as we go to sleep at night and as we awaken in the morning.

We are often in a light hypnotic trance when we are engrossed in reading a good book or watching a movie. And we certainly experience highway hypnosis when we are driving that same stretch of road for the 1,000th time! How many of you have noticed that you sometimes lose your awareness of time and your surroundings while driving?

Benefits abound during a hypnotic trance. For example, 15 minutes of hypnosis is equal to an hour of deep, restful sleep. A two hour afternoon nap can be accomplished with a 30 minute trance. A relaxed person accomplishes twice the work of a tense, nervous person with half the effort.

There are many uses for hypnosis. The two which have received the most attention are smoking cessation and weight reduction. 30% of the people who use hypnosis to stop smoking never think about cigarettes again! And as most of us already know, diets do not work. Hypnosis works to uncover and eliminate the underlying cause of the excess weight.

Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool for self-improvement because it helps us tap our inner resources. Each of us has the answers to our problems within our subconscious. Hypnosis creates a bridge from the conscious mind to the subconscious. Your answers are then easily accessed.

I am often asked what issues interest people who seek help from a hypnotherapist. There is an endless list of areas that can be addressed with hypnotherapy besides smoking and weight loss. Clients often wish to work on improving self-esteem, enhancing creativity, improving sports performance, relieving insomnia, tapping into their spirituality, overcoming issues of codependency, and for healing past traumas, to name just a few. I always recommend that my clients learn self hypnosis. It reinforces the work from their private sessions and speeds their recovery process. At the same time it will reduce their stress immensely.

During hypnosis you are tapping into the power of your subconscious. The subconscious accepts suggestions without evaluating or analyzing. New positive information can easily be added and our experience of life permanently altered. The subconscious cannot tell the difference between a visualization and an actual event. We can visualize what we want in a given situation and the subconscious will match our inner reality (what we have imagined) to our outward experience.

I'll give you an example from my my own life: I have had a hip replacement. As a natural part of healing, my body has surrounded the prosthesis with scar tissue. It's good because it keeps my hip from rattling around. It's bad because sometimes the scar tissue becomes inflamed. There is no cure so I just need to wait it out. Several years ago I used hypnotherapy to heal my inflammation. During trance, I imagined that the scar tissue looked like the La Brea tar pits. In order to feel better, I "knew" that I needed to drain the pit.

The colleague I was working with couldn't even imagine how I could do that. Luckily, the imagination is full of ideas. I imagined that there was a stopper at the bottom of the pit (like the one in the bathtub), so I pulled the plug. To complete the process, I filled the empty pit it with dry, warm soil. Within 24 hours my discomfort had stopped. None of what happened in my imagination makes any sense to my conscious, analytical mind. But it stopped the pain. There is no logical reason why this imagery should work, but it does.

You can use the power of your imagination to create coping strategies for whatever life hands you. For example, creating the image in your mind of a beautiful garden or a tropical island during an dental visit would be an excellent way of coping with a potentially unpleasant activity.

Take a moment right now to think of an area in your life which could be improved through positive programming and deep relaxation. My clients consistently report that they sleep more soundly and they are better able to cope with stress following their sessions.

These are just two side benefits to resolving core issues permanently with hypnotherapy.

Why not give it a try?