Health & Medical Addiction & Recovery

Hypnosis Is All Around You

You can notice it as daydreaming, a wandering mind or being hyper-focused. Hypnosis is around you every day. It is used when you communicate, both verbally and non-verbally.

Hypnosis is NOT a secret power. It's NOT a special Jedi mind state. It's just the method your mind uses to access your emotions, memories, and learned behaviors. It generally feels relaxing, mellow and focused. But, can also feel distracting, angry, stressed, and depressed. That depends on your current mental state.

Hypnosis is used on most of us very effectively by politicians, and advertising executives. And used poorly by most "pre-owned" car salesman. And yes, it's used on you by friends and family. And yes, you use it on them too.

When you first meet someone you like and smile at them, that is you attempting to manipulate a smile from them. Maybe your response to the previous sentence is "I smile because I'm happy". You smile because you're happy and want others to respond by being happy. And if someone doesn't smile back, aren't you slightly offended or put-off? Probably. A smile helps increase the odds that the other person will remember you with good emotions attached to the memory. Sounds complicated until you start seeing how common it is.

The popular cola drink advertisement shows video that stimulates feelings of happiness, satisfaction, and companionship. People want to feel good and this ad's emotion combined with repetitive exposure to the images will tend to make you think of that brand with good feelings. When you next see that brand of cola in the store, how do you immediately feel? Below the surface of your thinking? It may only be a subtle feeling, but it's there. That's emotional association at work.

This is evident in all aspects of your life. Your mind began collecting these associations soon after you were born. It is the same for all of us. Of course, it is common sense, but we don't always realize how powerfully it influences our behaviors and choices.

A habit, once formed with emotional association can become more deeply rooted with repetition. The more repetition, the stronger and more automatic the reaction is. Once deeply rooted, it becomes more difficult to change an emotionally based habit.

This basic premise applies to all kinds of behavior, from your posture, to your food preferences. A smoker is often aware of when they started and why. Knowing this they may be fairly aware of the emotional associations involved. But, this doesn't mean all smokers can just stop. Some can and do. Some stop smoking and replace the smoking activity with another. Like food, gum or candy. The behavior is still there and active, and still has the potential to cause trouble.

Once you start seeing the key elements of behavior creation, you will better understand yourself and others. Hopefully, if you have a habit you're having trouble changing, you can be less frustrated. You're fighting your own mind's nature after all. Most importantly, know the habit CAN be changed. If you aren't able to do it yourself, find a trustworthy professional to help you. I recommend finding a good hypnotist.


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