What is Hypnosis? (Part 3: Algebra II and Hypnosis)
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What is Hypnosis? (Part 2: Reading and Hypnosis)
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What is Hypnosis? (Part 1: Watching Football)
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Taking Responsibility: Living at Cause
“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom” (Victor Frankl).
When I was teenager, I remember telling my father that a friend of mine had offended me. I said bitterly, “He made me so mad.” After a thoughtful pause, my father looked me directly in the eyes and said, “Remember, son, your friend can’t make you mad. You choose your response. You are choosing to lose your temper and resent him. If you choose to stay angry, you are really choosing to give him power over you, aren’t you?” I will admit that right then, I didn’t necessarily appreciate his advice, but I spent several weeks thinking about the conversation. I decided that choosing responsibility for my circumstances, emotional states and response empowers me.
Victor Frankl was a prisoner of war in the Nazi concentration camps of World War Two. In “A Man’s Search for Meaning,” he writes about how all of his freedoms were stripped from him: the freedom to choose what to eat, what to do and where to go. Often, he even lost control over his own body as he was deprived of the most basic resources: food, clothing, bed and adequate hygiene. Sometimes he was even brutally tortured by his captors. As he writes in his book, one day when the Nazi prison guards had effectively stripped him of everything, he realized that there was one thing that captors couldn’t take from him: Freedom to choose his response. He stated his discovery poetically in his book:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way” (A Man’s Search for Meaning).
Hopefully, none of us will ever have to experience the horrors that Victor Frankl and others experienced in the Nazi death camps, but all of us have faced challenges and disappointments. What if we did CHOOSE to respond to our challenges and disappointments in a new way? What if we did TAKE RESPONSIBILITY now for our actions going forward? What would happen if we did choose to MOVE POWERFULLY in a new direction? Is there a downside? What happens if we don’t choose new behaviors and attitudes? The decision resides inside us, so let’s TAKE ACTION NOW and make new connections and produce new results!
An ancient philosopher observed that the highest gift that people possess is the ability “to act and not to be acted upon.” As I read it, this another way of saying that there are causes and effects. Until we change the causes, the effects remain constant.
How do we change the causes? That depends. In my case, it meant taking charge of my emotions and choosing to relate to my friend in a new way. For Victor Frankl, it meant finding inner liberty in a concentration camp. I don’t know what it would mean for you, but I do know that taking responsibility for your life and responses can change your circumstances, your emotions and results.
For more resources on how to retake control of your mind and life, you can book an appointment with me at my office in Ogden, Utah, or remotely via Skype: contact me at william.wood@northernutahhypnosis.com or 801-203-3405.
I wrote this article as part of a continuing education course at www.ModernJedi.com.
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Toast, Miley Cyrus and the Rostromedial Prefrontal Cortex
About ten years ago, I came home in a really bad mood. I was in my masters program and I was letting school stress me out. I also owned and operated a business and nothing seemed to be going quite right at the moment. I walked in the door and slumped down at the kitchen table as my wife greeted me lovingly with a kiss. Immediately, she could sense that I was in a really sour mood. Rather than ask me how my day was, she asked me, “Would you like a piece of toast? I just made some bread.”
Toast? I like toast, but I LOVE warm, homemade bread. “Yes, I would like some toast,” I said somewhat forlornly. I slumped my shoulders forward and put my head on the table. I felt the cool, smooth wood against my cheek, as I sighed. I was doing my best to feel sorry for myself. I heard the toaster click and lock into place. I glanced over in the direction of the toaster. I could see a red glow just at its top, as the toaster fired up. A moment later, I smelled that glorious smell: fresh, homemade bread, warmed in a toaster oven.
The smell wafted across the room and washed over me. Instantly, it transported me back to a time when I was eight or nine, standing in the kitchen with my mother. The oven was on, and we were forming loaves with our hands.
My head was still on the table, but my breathing had already started to change and my shoulders weren’t so slumped anymore. That smell…so good—pop, the toast was done! A smile broke over my face. I knew what was coming next: warmed bread, unsalted butter and honey. Before my wife put the toast in front of me, I could feel it on my tongue, savoring and salivating.
She put the plate in front of me. She stood behind me and put her hands on my shoulders while I took a deep breath, filling my lungs with glory. I sat upright. Suddenly, everything was going to be okay.
At the time, I was amazed that toast could almost instantly change my mood. I learned an important lesson. If we know what triggers us, positively and negatively, we can take instant control of our moods and attitudes.
I have two daughters that are Miley Cyrus fans. I can’t say that I always share their enthusiasm, but I think that Miley’s song “Party in the USA” illustrates a similar experience. She sings about flying to LA, an unfamiliar place, where she is surrounded by people who dress and act differently. None of her friends are around. She sings:
“My tummys turnin’ and I’m feelin’ kinda home sick
Too much pressure and I’m nervous
That’s when the D.J. dropped my favorite tune
and a Britney song was on (…)
So I put my hands up
They’re playing my song,
And the butterflies fly away (…)
They’re playin’ my song
I know I’m gonna be ok”
(Miley Cyrus, Party in the USA, omissions noted with ellipses)
Notice the commonalities between my experience with toast and Miley’s experience with her favorite Britney song: an external stimulus triggers a feeling or memory, which is followed by a shift in posture and a more resourceful mental state. Miley’s response to music is not unique. How many people hear a song and are instantly transported back to another place and time. A couple says, “That is our song,” as they hear and remember dancing on the night that they fell in love.
Functional imaging studies tell us that this experience of hearing and remembering is probably linked to an area in the brain known as the rostromedial prefrontal cortex, which is part of the medial prefrontal cortex in the diagram below. The rostromedial prefrontal cortex—along with the primary auditory cortex—is one of the areas that perceives tone and then communicates with the amygdala (limbic system), mediating negative emotions. Theoretically, the rostromedial prefrontal cortex may be the system that gives music its powerful effect on emotion and memory. (http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Primary_auditory_cortex).
Functional Map of the Brain
(jpg from http://universe-review.ca/I10-80-prefrontal.jpg).
For more information on powerful tools to control your emotional states and take charge of your life, contact me for an appointment in my office in Ogden, UT, or via Skype.
William Wood, Certified Master Hypnotist
801-203-3405 office
william.wood@northernutahhypnosis.com
I wrote this article for a continuing education course: www.ModernJedi.com
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Eye Patterns and Communicating Clearly
Eye patterns can give us clues about which internal representation system a person is accessing in the moment. Practically, that allows a communicator to communicate in the clearest way possible. Taking some time to study this eye chart and see what you can learn about whether someone tends to prefers to see, hear or feel information. While these eye patterns can vary slightly from person to person, they can help you gain information on how to best help that person understand the information you have to present, by noticing what kind of process they might be running inside their mind: visual, auditory, kinesthetic or self talk or criteria.
These are some of the typical eye patterns you might notice in a right-handed person by watching them communicate:
- If someone’s eyes move up and to their right (your left as you watch them), they are trying to make a picture in their mind
- If someone’s eyes move to their right (your left), they are trying to construct a sound
- If someone’s eyes move down and to their right (your left), they are accessing feelings
- If someone’s eyes move up and to their left (your right), they are trying to remember a picture
- If someone’s eyes move to their left (your right), they are trying to remember a sound
- If someone’s eyes move down and to their left (your right, they are probably talking to themselves internally or reviewing criteria.
For more ideas on how to better communicate, contact William Wood CHt at 801-203-3405 or email at william.wood@northernutahhypnosis.com. Visit me at www.northernutahhypnosis.com
This article and drawing were made as part of a continuing education course at www.modernjedi.com
Predicates
We experience the world through our five senses: eyes, ears, feelings, smells, taste and self talk. Inside our minds, we tend to re-present the world with our five senses. It has been observed that some people prefer different senses to create an internal representation of their experiences. Listening carefully to how someone communicates gives clues to how someone might represent their inner world.
For example, you might hear one person say, “That looks good to me,” while another person might say, “Sounds good” or “That feels about right to me.” Carefully listening to the predicates that someone is using can give you clues about how to more carefully communicate your ideas. For example, if you heard a person using visual predicates, you would want to illustrate your point to help the person “see what you mean.” On the other hand, if you hear someone using auditory predicates, you would want to help that person tune in to what you have to say by speaking loud and clear. If the person uses kinesthetic predicates, you might want to help them get a handle on your ideas by helping them understand how you feel about the situation.
For more information on how to effectively communicate or teach other people within their learning styles, contact William Wood CHt at 801-203-3405 or william.wood@nothernutahhypnosis.com. Visit me at www.northernutahhypnosis.com
I wrote this article as a part of a continuing education course I am taking at www.modernjedi.com
Feeling Familiar
There is an old adage that people who like each tend to be like each other. Years ago, when I was a teenager, I wanted really hard to assert my independence, so I started to dress differently than my parents. I wore a jeans jacket and faded blue jeans with rips in the knees. I wore my hair in a mullet, although I am embarrassed to admit it now. One day, my mom came to visit my junior high school and she observed wisely, “Will I saw hundreds of kids all trying to look different in the same way. They all wore jeans with ripped knees, all had jean jackets and the boys all had mullets.” I was irritated with my mother, but she was absolutely right. As a group, we were all just reaching the age where we were starting to assert our identity as a group—so we all started to match our clothing and dress patterns, we all started to use similar language to describe things, coining our own terms, such as “wicked, bad, and radical.”
I am sure that there are many lessons to be learned from this episode, but the most important one is this: at my junior high, we started to establish our identity through similarities. If someone wanted to be part of our group, that person would have to wear a jean jacket, jeans with ripped knees and cut their hair into a mullet. I suggest that the same holds true in business. The clothes we wear, the language we use affects our feelings of “feeling familiar.”
Think about the last time you met someone at a social event. Maybe you wanted to establish rapport. How did you do it? Most people try to find some kind of common background or content to start talking about a similar interest, therefore matching content. Consider the findings of this research in context of building rapport:
Communication is seven percent words, 38 percent tonality and 55 percent physiology (Birdwhistle, “Kinesics and Communication”, University of Pennsylvania, 1970).
If being similar to the other person helps us build rapport, when building rapport in a social situation, why do we focus solely on finding similarity in the words we speak, which represents seven percent of the meaning of our communication, and ignore the remaining ninety three percent of tonality and physiology?
To learn new long-term and short-term strategies to learn to connect with people at work and home contact William Wood CHt at 801-203-3405 or william.wood@nothernutahhypnosis.com. Visit me at www.northernutahhypnosis.com
I wrote this article as a part of a continuing education course I am taking at www.modernjedi.com
Increasing your powers of observation
Learning to observe people more closely can pay great dividends. If you have a minute, I want you do play a quick game with a friend. First, have the person think of a person that they don’t like. Watch their eyes, the tilt of their head, their body posture. Notice if there is a change in their body posture or the tilt of their head. Notice any micromovents in their face or their eyes. Are their pupils dilated or contracted? Is their mouth pursed or relaxed? Was there a change in their skin tones, eg did they blush or blanch white? Ask them to clear their mind and then have them think of someone that they really like a lot. Notice the changes to their body posture, skin color, eye dilation, etc.
What were the differences that you observed? Now ask your friend to think of one of the two people that they had previously imagined, but don’t have them tell you which one. See if you can guess which of the two friends they were thinking about based on your observation alone.
The reason we want to use sensory acuity to increase our powers of observation is because there is a wealth of information passing us by every day that we never notice. Imagine how increased powers of observation could help you at work with you coworkers or clients? Imagine how it could help you at home with your spouse. I had a friend who cut her brown hair to shoulder length and died it blonde, just to see if her husband was paying attention.
If you need to increase your powers of observation, contact William Wood CHt for help: 801-203-3405 or william.wood@northernutahhypnosis.com. Visit me at www.northernutahhypnosis.com
I wrote this article for a continuing education class at www.modernjedi.com
Learn to learn better
Hypnosis has a variety of techniques and strategies to enhance someone’s ability to learn. I have worked with a number of people to help them enhance their ability to spell or do math and had wonderful results. One thing I teach all my clients who want to enhance their learning is how to use the learning state.
The learning state is a state of expanded awareness that helps someone notice more. The best way to access the learning state is to fix your eyes on the horizon, slightly above eye level and then slowly expand your awareness into your peripheral vision. Once you have expanded your awareness into your peripheral vision, maintain your expanded awareness and bring your eyes down to the front of the room where the teacher is teaching. Because all learning is unconscious in nature, the learning state allows you to quickly access the unconscious mind, preparing for the ideal learning experience.
To learn more about the learning strategies and how to improve your math and spelling skills, contact William Wood at 801-203-3405 or at william.wood@northernutahhypnosis.com. Visit me at www.northernutahhypnosis.com
This was written as part of a continuing education class taken through www.modernjedi.com
Tobacco Cravings and Submodality Changes
The most dramatic experience I have had with a submodalities change is with a client that came into me for tobacco cessation. At the client’s request, I changed the submodalities of tobacco so that the client no longer desired tobacco. By the end of the hour session, the client could not stand to even think about using tobacco without experiencing a powerful feeling of disgust.
If you would like to learn how submodality changes can help you quit tobacco, contact William Wood CHt at 801-203-3405 or william.wood@nothernutahhypnosis.com. Visit me at www.northernutahhypnosis.com
I wrote this article as part of a continuing education class at www.modernjedi.com
Three applications of submodalities
Submodality changes can be used to change a like to a dislike. For example, if you currently crave ice cream to the point where it has become a problem, in hypnosis, we can change the submodalities so that you no longer crave ice cream. Another application of submodality changes is to learn to change old beliefs that no longer serve us. Many people have the fear of success. Through a submodalities change process and hypnosis, that belief can be positively changed. A third application of submodality changes is to help reduce the feelings of test taking anxiety.
For more information on how to use submodalities to positively change your mind, contact William Wood CHt at 801-203-3405 or william.wood@nothernuathhypnosis.com. Visit me at www.northernutahhypnosis.com
I wrote this article as part of a continuing education class at www.modernjedi.com