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Hypnotist Help Thyself
By: Celeste Hackett
If you read my last article your eyes probably bugged out of your head. I mean, even if you see hypnotic phenomena every day, it can still be so exciting to hear stories of the wonders it works. Well, you better watch them old eyeballs again as you read this article, because fellow hypnotists and friends, you are about to learn about an amazing method to help yourself with your own issues and it only takes a few seconds to do!
If you don’t know him already, let me introduce Stephen Gruber. Stephen and I have studied hypnosis together and have supported and encouraged each other in the growth of our businesses through an exclusive mentorship group we formed with a couple of other hypnotists. In one of our recent meetings Stephen shared a self hypnosis technique with us that made me laugh. How can I still be such a skeptic? It’s something I often wonder.
Well, a few days passed and I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so finally I had to try this thing out, and I must say, I was impressed at how it seemed to help me. I used it to overcome a bout of lethargy I was having about my business. After using the method, my business took a climb for the better. My calendar got booked up weeks in advance!
After, my own experience, I just had to ask Stephen if he’d be willing to share his own experience with it and he graciously agreed. I hope you enjoy the following interview as much as I enjoyed conducting it.
CELESTE: Stephen, recently you revamped your diet and you tell me you used a self hypnosis release method to do it. Can you tell me about the method and how it helped you?
STEPHEN: I'd be pleased to. It is a simple method which anyone can learn to use. The method is based on a couple of strong assumptions or beliefs that I hold. I think it would be helpful to first explain these if you would let me Celeste.
First, it is my firm belief that we have access to a vast amount of information contained in that super computer we refer to as the Subconscious Mind. Basically, it has recorded everything that we have seen, heard, touched, tasted or smelt since the first day of birth. This assumption is demonstrated to me several times a day in my office when clients recall all sorts of things from their youth that are relevant to the issue they have come to consult with me on.
Secondly, we also have a Conscious Mind that we use to evaluate and analyze situations. The Conscious Mind is limited as to the amount of data it can hold or be aware of at any one time. Basically we are limited to juggling about seven bits of data at anyone time. Further, we can only actually think of one thing at a time. This assumption is easy to demonstrate to yourself. You know the Happy Birthday song and you can count from one to ten but you can not sing and count at the same time. Try it and you will see what I mean!
The Subconscious Mind has no such limitations on its processing capacity. It can be aware of many things at the same time. For example, the subconscious mind can easily carry out all the complex set of functions necessary for you to drive your car on automatic pilot as it were, allowing your conscious mind to think about something completely different from driving.
Imagine then the massive amount of information that you have been collecting and storing in your subconscious mind since you were born, much of which you were never even conscious of while it was being collected. In addition, your subconscious mind also has a clear understanding of what is going on internally with you at the cellular level.
Now think what you could achieve if you could have your subconscious mind sift through all that information and recombine it in ways that you have never consciously thought of before to achieve your goal; then you would be on to a good thing, right? And now imagine that all this can happen literally in seconds - then it would be even better! Well this is exactly what you can have happen using hypnosis to open the channel of communication with your subconscious mind.
Further, once the subconscious mind understands and accepts your goal, you can have it develop computer like programs that run automatically to help you achieve your goal. This process is happening whether or not you have consciously set and communicated goals to your subconscious mind.
That is because we naturally go into hypnosis several times a day. During those periods, whatever is being communicated to our subconscious Mind stands a good chance of developing into an automatic program that causes us to behave and react in ways with out us thinking about it. For example we go into hypnosis when becoming engrossed in a movie on TV. Don’t think the corporations who spend millions on TV advertising don't understand this! Life gets a lot more interesting when you choose your own goals.
However, I don't want anyone to conclude from all this that the Conscious Mind is inferior compared to the Subconscious Mind because of its limitations in processing power. It has a very important function in analyzing situations and deciding on what goals you wish to achieve.
The point of understanding all this is to know that if you use your conscious mind to set a goal for yourself, for example, losing weight, and learn to communicate it to the Subconscious Mind you will then unleash all the processing and automatic program making power of your subconscious mind to help you achieve your goal.
One such simple way to do this is to use the finger drop technique. This is what I used when I decided I wanted to find an easy and healthy way of letting go of 20 lbs to get into shape for the upcoming cycling season. I was confident that my mind had access to all the external and internal information it needed to have me achieve that goal. Here is what I did in this case. Note that you can apply the same technique to many other behaviors you wish to change.
1. I made the following statement; Even though a part of me is causing me to carry 20 lbs of unwanted fat, I honor and respect that part of me, knowing that it has positive and caring intentions for me.
2. Then, resting my hand on a firm surface, I raised my index finger and addressed the finger saying; I will not be able to return my finger to its starting position any more quickly than my subconscious mind generates and begins to utilize at least three ways of behaving that I feel are superior to what it had been doing and which are totally appropriate and acceptable to all parts of me and I will be wonderfully surprised how easily I will get the outcome that I want.
3. I then waited patiently for my finger to return to the resting position. This can typically take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. You will also most likely feel it moving down with little “twitchy,” or “clicky” movements.
I then went about my daily business, confident that the process was in motion (after all, I have successfully used self hypnosis to achieve just about every major goal in my life over the past 30 years).
Within a day for no particular reason that I can recall, I found myself re-reading a very interesting web site on the subject of health and diet. Long story short, within a week I found that I had effortlessly cut out meat, eggs and dairy from my diet and was happily feeling very satisfied eating a diet based on complex carbohydrates and plant derived foods.
The 20 lbs just melted away, I found that I had more energy than ever and was never feeling hungry. That was the beginning of last March and has included a vacation period during which I still I found myself preferring to eat in my new, very healthy way.
Now, there are several things that people can learn from this experience if they choose. Perhaps the biggest though is to be thoughtful about what change you want to bring into your life! Once you have engaged your “super computer” it will go on seeking a way for what you are asking for until it finds one.
In my case you need to understand that I was a real “meat and potatoes” guy. And I started everyday with at least one egg. I loved to BBQ and the like - you get the picture.
Given this, you can imagine the surprise (and some resistance even?) from family and friends when I just went with this new way of eating that I was being guided to. But “ask and you will receive” so just make sure you really want what you ask for!
To others this process can seem so mysterious. How can you change just like that? But when you understand that my subconscious already had the information it needed to have me achieve my goal and I was prepared to go with its guidance the mystery evaporates. You are just using your mind that way it is designed to be used.
CELESTE: I remember when you told me about this how excited you were. Would you recommend this self hypnosis method to our fellow hypnotists and friends to use?
STEPHEN: I certainly would Celeste.
You do not know what you can achieve until you try. Now, this as you know is not the only way to enter into self hypnosis. But whatever way we use, we can achieve much with self hypnosis methods. In fact as I think you mentioned in a previous article, people can download a free self hypnosis mp3 from my web site which comes with a lot of support on how to use it if they are interested in exploring the power of self hypnosis further.
With self hypnosis much can be achieved but sometimes we will need the guidance of a competent Consulting Hypnotist. As a respected colleague, Roy Hunter, once put it to me - with self hypnosis we can easily lift a chair but we are going to need help if we have to lift a couch!
There is also a question of practice. Self hypnosis is a skill. Like any skill, some of us have a natural talent for it; others take longer to learn it. But be assured, anyone who wants to can learn the skill quite easily.
I should mention that if people would like help in choosing a competent hypnotist locally to work with they can also download a free short report from my web site that will help them. It contains over 15 questions they might like to ask of someone before they decide to work with them.
CELESTE: It’s great that you give so much away for free. What other ways have you used self hypnosis on yourself?
STEPHEN: In many different ways! For example, I have had three very different careers. One in Community Development as the Director of a provincial agricultural organization, one in business as the Chairman of an international consulting company and my current one as a Consulting Hypnotist.
All three have been successful. I have moved pretty seamlessly between each one, never even having had a job interview in my life thanks to the use of self hypnosis. I am telling you this to demonstrate the power that comes from learning to listen to the guidance from within available to you through using hypnosis. Once I had changed careers, in all of them I have constantly used self hypnosis to achieve my goals. Still do to this day of course.
I also have used hypnosis in other ways, such as for my health. For example, I used to have terrible hay fever but have had it well under control for several years now through hypnosis.
I also used it years ago very successfully to improve my academic performance. Again to show the power of self hypnosis, in this case I went from someone who had flunked high school to successful graduate level studies.
I always think that not knowing about (and using of course) self hypnosis is worse than going through life with both arms tied behind your back. Life is a struggle like that.
CELESTE: Steve, I know you are a hypno-junkie like me and we all seem to get bitten by the hypno-bug in different ways. I hear all the stores from my students who come for their hypnosis training at Dallas Hypnosis Career training Can you tell everyone a little about how you became a hypnotist?
STEPHEN: Well, I first took some training in it over 35 years ago. That was enough for me to use it very effectively for myself in the kind of ways I have already described. But about 10 years ago I got the feeling that I should be bringing this wonderful but little known about tool to the attention of more people who could benefit from it.
That led me to seek more training here in Canada and the US along with a lot of reading and self education and to finally setting up my practice at the Queen Elizabeth Health Complex in Montreal several years ago now. And I am happy to say that I have not looked back since opening the doors, as I enjoy running a very thriving practice. I want to mention that some of that training I did was in 5 Path Hypnosis which I found very helpful indeed. I mention that because I know you are a respected instructor in this approach to Hypnotherapy.
I would like to point out that self hypnosis was very important in guiding me through this process. As I just mentioned, at the time that I made the decision to set up a Hypnosis practice I was chairman of a 30 person international consulting company, travelling all over the world etc. You can imagine perhaps the reaction (disbelief?) of my colleagues and family when I announced my intended career switch! Hypnosis can give you guidance and the strength or perseverance to follow through on what you want to achieve!
CELESTE: Can you tell us a little about the clients and/or issues you work with?
STEPHEN: On the surface of it, a wide range of client issues. These include Weight Loss, Smoking Cessation, Irrational Fears, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Sports and Academic Performance Improvement, Insomnia, Stress Relief, and Improving Self Confidence. However, underlying these and other issues is a common theme of dysfunctional programming picked up by the client’s Subconscious Mind, usually at a young age. So from that point of view there is a unity to the type of issues that I work with clients on.
CELESTE: Now for the extra good part. Can you share with my students, friends and other hypnotists an interesting case study you’ve had?
STEPHEN: Well that’s a hard one because they all turn out to be pretty interesting and different in each case! But to give your readers an idea of the work I could tell you about one client who came to me because of a fear of flying. This is a common reason that people seek out Consulting Hypnotists for.
Although this client had the means to fly off on holiday to wherever he wanted he had never been able to do so because of his fear of getting on an aeroplane. He and his wife would drive (sometimes for days) to the nearest port where they could pick up a cruise boat holiday.
After we had done the Hypnotherapy we found that the initial cause of the fear was from his early childhood when he had seen his dead Grandfather exposed in an open coffin. There was understandably much emotion surrounding the event but no one explained to him as a little boy why his dead Grandfather was being locked away in this very enclosed space of a coffin.
Once this, and some further instances that had reinforced his Subconscious Mind’s association between confined spaces and death, had been cleared up he was able to fly with no problem at all.
CELESTE: Do you consider yourself a full time hypnotist?
STEPHEN: Yes, I typically see clients 5 days a week. I am also running my hypnosis web site (www.ask-the-hypnotist.com) and developing an on-line program for using hypnosis for healthy eating that will be available soon.
CELESTE: What do you say to people who complain that you can’t make a living as a hypnotist?
STEPHEN: Providing you have the right aptitude and training I firmly believe you can make a living as a Consulting Hypnotist. However, I have even had people tell me in Montreal that they can't make a living at this career. This in a city where I am pre-booked with clients for 4 months ahead or more at any given time.
The point is that the “market” for hypnotists is unlimited. Every one can benefit from hypnosis. The question is, how are you going to let people know how you can help them?
This means that you have to have some marketing and other business skills as well in order to be successful. It is after all, a business that you are setting up; albeit a very satisfying business to work in. People sometimes forget this and that leads to early problems and them dropping out, convinced that you can not make a living in this career choice. Once you are established, the marketing becomes much easier as satisfied clients will refer new people to you.
CELESTE: Stephen Gruber, you are a dear friend of mind, oops! I MEAN mine, and I am so happy that you took the time to let me pick your brain. Hypno-hugs to you Mister!
STEPHEN: Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts with your readers.
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