Passing Thoughts

December 21, 2004

Some brave souls came and left highly rewarded from my December Sugar Workshop.  BRAVE because this is a party month, and people often boldly come in with the notion that they are never going to eat sugar again!! While this is a noble goal, even the most dedicated find it impossible to avoid sugar completely.  For example, did you know that dextrose is the second ingredient in iodized salt?  If you have a container with the girl holding the umbrella in your cupboard, go take a look. I honestly never thought to look at the contents of salt.

The goal of the Sugar Workshop is to help you change your relationship with sugar.  Most of us have many layers of memories, some good, and some not so great, which can drive us to eat certain things. In conflict with that subconscious notion, our conscious mind reminds us that eating some of those tasty treats may not be in our best interest.  In hypnosis, we say that the conscious mind is ten percent and the subconscious is 90 percent.

I recently had a very personal life-changing experience with hypnosis, which is a good example of how powerful the subconscious mind is.  For years, I have wanted to be able to swim laps.  In high school we did not have a team. I remember going swimming with my tiny and perfectly beautiful friend; she had a nice stroke and glided back and forth effortlessly. No matter how hard I tried, I was not comfortable, and I found myself grabbing for air.  Until just over a month ago, I remained unable to comfortably keep my face in the water. The crawl was getting a little easier, thanks to Darcy’s coaching at AllStar fitness, but it still took a conscious effort and it wasn’t fun.

I was visiting a hypnosis class taught by Michael Gershman, who is a highly regarded teacher of hypnotherapy; I JUMPED at the chance to be the class guinea pig, because getting hypnotized is a real treat for me. He asked me to work on something.  I didn’t tell him that my question was, “Why am I so uncomfortable with my head in the water?” My breathing problems, including my asthma and allergies weren’t on my mind. I was so completely relaxed.

We did a regression and I went back to my memories as a six-months old.  This caught me by surprise. I felt suffocated. My mind raced, I thought, “I am going to die in front of this classroom.” He had brought me back to the memory that had inhibited my ability to breath without fear in the water.

When I got home I called my mother and inquired for an explanation, “What happened?”  I didn’t get an answer.  Something must have happened to me. I could feel it in the regression, I felt fear on a very deep level and I was struggling vehemently for breath.

I went swimming a few days later and  I suddenly realized I wasn’t struggling.  I am thrilled!  I can breathe! I don’t even wake up in the morning with shortness of breath from allergies. This is especially amazing because the Christmas tree is in the house (achoo!).

I do not know what happened when I was six months old, but I have been freed of it.  The role of our subconscious mind is to keep us safe. And as is often the case, it can hinder our ability to change something we desperately want to change. Thank goodness there is hypnotherapy!

Have a wonderful holiday.

P.S. I am offering a new CD for Grief.

October 5, 2004
Can a person have too much fun?

In last week's Discover U Fear and Phobia class, we laughed, as we worked on a mother's mean tone, which had set up a fear of authority figures. We giggled, as we tapped with a man who had a fear of asking women out. And we encouraged, as a lovely woman shared her fear of panicking while public speaking.

Well, the lovely woman called to say she spoke at her husband’s retirement party, without a hitch. The gentleman, who feared asking women out, was accused of doing just that, right after class. The young woman, who was afraid of authority figures, was finally able to giggle at the idea of her mother yelling at her, for no good reason. But most thrilling, was the absolute collapse of the spider phobia. This was a woman who had invested in special screens and had a can of Raid in every room. She looked terrified at the mere mention of the word SPIDER. Once we collapsed the traumatic childhood memory of falling into a spider nest (I love this stuff!) she happily sang "ITSBY Bitsy Spider". Whew! All of that in just two hours! We didn't get a chance to test those that came in with a fear of driving. Drivers, please get a hold of me if you are reading this.

The combination of Gary Craig's EFT and hypnosis is amazingly effective.

I also had an opportunity to hypnotize a group of business people at a 7AM breakfast. I'm not sure the 7AM part was that much fun! But, getting very positive feedback from people who never experienced the quick and immense relaxation of hypnosis was very rewarding. My favorite memory is a certain banker, who every two minutes would, with some difficulty, open his eyes. I teased him about "checking to see if I was still there". I was! Hypnosis is a very powerful tool for relaxing and changing your mind; it is not a tool for someone to get you to do what you do not want to do!

Also, the talented web designer, Jennifer says that you will be able to listen to a portion of my CDs online in a few days! WOW!

There's more, but I'll save it for next time. I hope you have a wonderfully productive and prosperous week.

In thought,

Lisa

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