You began your life walk with your very own unique first step. While this may have been your first walking step, every experience in your entire life had a first step as well, and you have many more first steps to experience.
Tune into the world and you will hear lots of moaning and groaning about having to begin all over again. If you take a moment to dissect these complaints, you will find the errors in these thought patterns, for every experiential moment on the path of life begins in a different place. A failure experience is simply a step in a different direction. Later as we explore the subject of failure, you will come to find that it really isn’t a bad thing, but instead a good one. We are surrounded with a multitude of teachers on these subjects. Take toddlers for example. We can learn quite a bit from them. Observe what happens when they fall down. They may cry or not, but then they get up, center themselves, look around at their immediate environment, then movetowards where they want to go.
Your own breath is your teacher in residence. As you learn to observe it, you will begin to find that each inhalation and exhalation is different from the one before. Therefore we do know how to live with ongoing change. This realization can help you to shift out of the fear surrounding change, right into action.
KNOWLEDGE HOOK - DEEPENING
The tools you have learned so far are multi-faceted. They work to reduce your stress chemical production just by their sheer presence. The slowing of your brain waves is called deepening trance. You already know how to reach the alpha brain wave state right in the moment, even when others are around. When the brain waves are slowed, the body becomes balanced. This is called homeostasis. Your blood pressure normalizes, as does your heart and hormone production. This act of mental shifting begins changes within every cell, delivering you to the door of your subconscious mind that is located at the alpha brain wave level.
You can slow the brain waves even more, going to a deeper level of trance. Many people have the idea that it is necessary to be at much lower levels in order to practice effective hypnosis. Some believe they must be asleep in order for suggestions to be planted. Nothing could be further than the truth. We tend to be in self-hypnotic states all day long, but unfortunately most of these are negative mind programs, going towards negative goals instead of positive ones.. In purposeful self-hypnosis, you will be waking from these, releasing them and then programming your mind for what you want.
There are times when you might like to go to a deeper level, perhaps during a dental appointment or medical procedure. Deepening is also beneficial for releasing high stress levels, either in the moment or in time put aside for this purpose. There are many ways to experience deepening. While all of these can be applied in the moment, it is best to practice them in a solitary environment, without time pressure.
MIND EXERCISE – MAGNETS
A simple exercise for deepening is the utilization of mind magnets. Most of us are familiar with the sensation of magnetic pull. For example, if you have flown in a plane you do know the feeling of being pulled down and back into the seat.
Start this exercise with a deep yawn breath, holding it in your mouth for the count of four, letting it out slowly. Settle into the chair, tilting your eyes up slightly. When practicing you might like to close your eyes, but you can practice this with them opened or closed. Allow your buttocks to be pulled gently down, sensing your spine sinking into the back of the chair. You can work with an imaginary dial. Notice that as you turn it to the right, the magnetic sensation enhances. A turn to the left allows you to experience a decrease in magnetic sensation. This imagery gives you full control of your depth of trance or level of relaxation.
This exercise is very easily adaptable to any situation in the real world. For example, if you find yourself becoming anxious in the moment, simply turn your dial to the right. You will be turning off your stress chemical production, slowing your brain waves, and going right to the door of your subconscious mind where you can request information or plant suggestions. As you tilt your eyes up just slightly, your programming screen will be available for subconscious mind communication. You can also release emotional cravings in the same way. Of course, physiological cravings need to be managed with the food connection.
MIND EXERCISE – MAGIC NUMBERS
This exercise appears a bit more cumbersome, but each part of it can be utilized as a separate mind program in the moment. Sit upright and allow your body to sink into the chair. Take in a very deep yawn breath, holding it in your mouth for the count of four, allow it to exit slowly as if you were a balloon at the end of a party. After reading this exercise, close your eyes and tilt them up about twenty degrees, just as if you were sitting in the second row of a movie theater. Notice the placement of the mind screen and the number four slowly coming in from the distance. Remember imaging is different than seeing with normal sight. It’s more of a felt sense. Allow the number to touch and enter your forehead and begin to feel it absorbing down throughout your body.
Bring your eyes back to the screen and notice the number three is coming in and now entering the center of your chest, finding the door to your heart and now pumping throughout your body taking it further down. The number two is coming towards you now, entering your belly button door and disseminating down into your lower abdomen and both legs. Allow yourself time to feel the joining of the numbers, as they take you deeper. The number one is coming forward in the form of a paint brush coated in white sparkling paint and outlining your entire body. Notice you can take the outline off and place it back on. Each time you do so you go deeper down. You can utilize this portable outline at any moment, as it is now programmed. Once you are inside your outline, you are separated or disassociated from the action of the moment and in the powerful position of the observer.
KNOWLEDGE HOOK
In a strange paradox, the release of the high stress states actually opens the subconscious library door, readying the mind for programming. Your creative power is right where you want it. Each and every time you wake up to an aspect of your disorderly eating, addiction or any other stressor, choose to release it. Now program your mind for what you want. See or sense it on the mind screen “as if” you already achieved this. You could also choose to edit the inner scene that is playing out, especially if it is related to your addictions. Pretend that you are the writer, producer, director of this production and change whatever you want. Then observe as it goes forward with your new programming.
Your subconscious mind loves inner organization. To oblige, you will be building some working metaphors or inner structure that will encompass your entire life. This will make it easy for you to build multiple goals in different areas of your life, as well as manage the emotional children that either help or hinder. While this work may appear like a child’s game, make no mistake. Your subconscious mind loves pictures, especially stories that are both humorous and imaginative. You are in the process of engaging your mind to assist you in managing your specific problems, but you can utilize this to organize other areas of your life as well. Remember, everything is connected. Your disorders do not exist unto themselves.
LIFE CONTAINMENT
We need an over-arching image that will encompass all areas of your life. This is a major containment. I like to utilize an image of a goal-den path, with separate gardens for each major life area. I’ve presented an image below that represents my inner over-arching image. I teach this image to my patients and students. It seems to work quite well. Once this major containment is in place, the next step is to fill in the details “as if” you already had all of these present in your life. This is called future-pacing and is a major subconscious mind program. The more specific you can be, the better your outcomes will be for the mind will have more to work with. Remember, this is a work in progress. You will continually be adding to it.
Here is a drawing of my goal-den path. You can see the positioning of the separate goal gardens. Notice how the major garden sits on it’s own. This is not just important when managing addictions. It is crucial for high level health and optimum performance in any area of life.
The bricks are twenty-four carat gold, sparkling their value. Beautiful gardens emerge on each side of the path, each having a signpost. The gardens extend back to the horizon, filled with flowers of every conceivable variety and color. The plants are healthy, the colors vibrant. These plants represent my achievements, my resilience, as well as my new desired goals. I image my feet standing on the path, sensing them tingle from the sparkling gold. I look up at the sky, noticing a few clouds moving slowly, feeling the heat of the sun touching my face gently, coupled with the coolness of a slight breeze. I enjoy allowing my body to fill with feelings of happiness, expectation of good things to come, including the total management of any specific addictions or disorderly behaviors I may have in my life.
I then sit quietly, allowing all of this to settle inside of me. Each time I repeat this in the theater of my mind, my subconscious mind programs the changes. It doesn’t matter what my current reality is. The mind will prefer the newly designed images and will work to bring those into my life. That’s why positive details are so very important, even if they sound ridiculous.
Remember, mind imagery or sensing is different from actual experiences, but your subconscious mind will follow what you present “as being true.” Be as detailed as you can, knowing that each time you do, these very programs will be etched further into your subconscious mind. Do not worry if you feel awkward or feel like nothing is happening. Be patient with the process and you will receive the benefits. I like to use my journal for this purpose. Writing the details down, further etch them into the subconscious mind.
A NOTE TO NEW READERS:
This experiential blog/workshop is based on my new book, "How Many Cookies Will It Take to Make Me Happy?" This book is not published as yet, but you have the opportunity to read it in it's unpublished state. If you are new to my writing, you might want to read the earlier mini-chapters. They are available on FaceBook, The PublishersMarketPlace & at the following link. Remember to scan down to find the earliest chapters & work your way up. http://beyonddisorderlyeating.blogspot.com/
A bit of background.... we are working with creative Interactive Self-Hypnosis imagery, planting suggestions directly into the creative subconscious mind as you read along. What appears like a story is a series of self-hypnotic sessions, designed to bring about desired lifestyle changes. The inner mind is creative & rather child-like, loving to play with images, especially when they are emotionalized. Just like the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words", well-planted mind images, can be worth hours of therapy. We can actually change or motivate in 1/200th of a second. So come along & look forward to some lifestyle-changing events.
Copyright 2009 Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
May not be copied or reproduced without permission of the author.
Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is author of Sugar...the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It. She is also the writer/producer of over 350 mp3/CD programs in the areas of medicine, health, prevention, addictions, self-development & sports for adults & children.
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