Have you ever had something in your life you’ve wanted to change? That something could be a behaviour, thought or feeling you’re experiencing in your life right now, or something you’ve been wanting to change for a while; perhaps there’s just one pesky thing you can’t be free of, perhaps there’s a few things or perhaps there’s many… but no matter how hard you try… You. Just. Haven’t. Been. Able. To. Change.
No matter what you do or how much you want to you just can’t be free of the unwanted behaviour, thought or feeling. When you’re alone and calmly reflecting you have no idea why you keep doing it because it seems ridiculously simple not to and yet you find yourself very much doing it again (not to mention with tremendous aptitude and gusto) the very next time the circumstances under which you do it come up. Maybe you don’t even realise you’re doing it until you’ve done it. Then after you’ve done it (yet again) if you’re like most of us the shame and the frustration part come in and you find yourself re-promising that this time is the last time, that somehow this time is different because this time (this 102nd time) you really mean it. Mmmmmm feeling unsettlingly familiar now?…
Why Is This Such A Familiar Story?
This is familiar because sometimes our responses (behaviours, thoughts and feelings) are logical, useful and rational whereas, sometimes they’re not.
Why? Because not all problems have the same cause and therefore not all problems have the same cure. Some of our problems are purely biochemical or physical (for example a neurotransmitter imbalance in a part of your brain or a broken arm) and for these problems we have incredible resources, systems and opportunities to deal with and treat them successfully, quickly and easily. Still other problems are the result of misinformation or no information and in the case of these problems education and counselling can help.
However, some problems are not the result of biochemical, physical, misinformation or lack of information and therefore no amount of chemical, physical or educational help will indeed help. Have you ever had all the information and education you needed to not do something or to do something different and still couldn’t? This is because some problems are neurological. Some problems are learned and become automatic responses of our brains and for these problems it is a little harder to find mainstream, widely accepted ways to treat them but that does not mean they don’t exist (both the problem and the treatment that is).
Uncommon Solutions for Common Problems
These “other” problems are thought of as a bit more whimsical or intangible even though they’re really not at all because we all have them and they’re far more common than imbalances in brain chemicals or broken arms! Yet petulantly we insist on treating them just like the logical problems and we stubbornly continue to throw information and education at others and ourselves on the pretence that by sheer force and repetition this will eventually work and fix the problem (graphic cigarette packages come to mind). Breaking News: more information and more education is not going to work because just as it’s not a lack of information, knowledge or education keeping the majority of people from quitting smoking I doubt very much it is a lack of information, knowledge or education keeping you from stopping doing that thing you don’t want to be doing (thinking or feeling).
When a response happens automatically out of your conscious awareness no amount of knowledge or desire to do differently (or self-promises in safe moments when you are far from the problem) can give you the choice to actually do differently (just as no amount of knowing your arm is broken will actually heal your arm). To be capable of doing differently you must address the right level and a compulsive thought, feeling of behaviour that you no longer want (probably never wanted) exists at a deeper level. To change automatic responses there’s another part of you which you must welcome to the party. A part of your consciousness that is truly running the show whether you know it or not, always has been and always will and will continue to do so in ways that aren’t always the way you want the show to run until you welcome it and work with it. Both hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming (NLP) are tools which work with your deeper level processes to facilitate you to get them in syn with your conscious wants (that is so what you think, what you feel and what you do are in complete congruence).
Welcome to The Party; Your Marvellous Unconscious Mind
Imagine if you were to accidently touch a hot hotplate right now (or perhaps you have a memory of having done this) you’d pull your hand away before you’d even had the conscious thought that you touched something hot right? Or consider the case of how many times driving you’ve automatically stopped at a red traffic light without being fully aware that you’ve even noticed it was red? These things (and many others) happen automatically out of your conscious awareness. Most of them stay there and some of them, those that are important are brought to your conscious awareness as in the case of the hotplate burn so that you can then run your skin under cold water, learn to never do it again and also just to rationalise out what happened because as human beings we like to have reasons, justification and understanding for everything we do (exhausting being a human isn’t it?).
However, long, long, long before any of the reasoning for why you were doing what you were doing (pulling your hand away, stopping at the red light or that thing you don’t want to be doing, thinking or feeling for example) you’d already done the action (thought the thought or felt the feeling). It was unconscious and automatic hence why I said above that this is the part of you which truly runs the show. It is your unconscious processes that keep everything going. It is your unconscious processes that keep you breathing, your heart beating, your neurotransmitters firing, your gastrointestinal tract digesting and so on all in a coordinated, never ending perfect symphony. Imagine if you had to consciously coordinate all this?… It’s a great thing then that you’re not running the show alone right!? Most of the time this part of you gets it right but there are times when it doesn’t, and those times are usually when it involves higher level functioning (those things you’re interested in as an intelligent human being beyond the basics of keeping you alive). This is important because this is the reason why there can be a discrepancy between what you want to do (think and feel) and what you, in reality do (think and feel). You can spend your whole life wondering why things are this way or that way or what’s wrong with you or why you can’t do x, y or z or you can learn how to get your unconscious and conscious mind in sync and take control and both hypnosis and NLP offer direct and effective means of the ‘how to’ part of taking control.
Why Would My Automatic Responses Be Out of Sync with My Conscious Intentions in the First Place?
The unconscious, automatic part of you is not concerned with the quality of your life. It is concerned only with the fact that you are alive. What you’ve done in your life up until this point has kept you alive therefore as far as this part is concerned it’s best to stay with that. It is best to go with what is familiar and what is familiar is what was there first, what has been there most or what has the most emotion attached to it (a significant emotional life event doesn’t take any repetitions for us to be hugely impacted by it and remember it forever!). This is the default of your body however that doesn’t mean you’re not stuck with this and you can create new defaults but only when you update this unconscious part of you so that it is onboard with what you want consciously. When you do so you will automatically think, feel and act in the ways that you want to and in the ways, which only make your life better, more enjoyable for you and all those around you. Can you begin to appreciate now why hypnosis and NLP might be worth exploring?… When you welcome your unconscious mind rather than shut it out or fight against it and instead get your conscious and automatic responses working together this is when a whole new level of existence opens up to you, this is when magic happens.
What This Feels Like in Real Life
Think about it like this would you rather get into the panic attack and then have to try to get yourself out of it or would you rather just not get into it in the first place? The latter is what working with your brain feels like, what having your unconscious and conscious minds working together and the resultant behaviours are evidently incomparable.
As another slightly less dramatic example would you rather dread the sound of your alarm going off all night and then come up with one-million-and-one reasons not to go to the gym while you’re driving to the gym and while you’re at the gym and even while you’re showering after the gym or would you rather jump out of bed in the morning and head to the gym immediately AND happily?… Again, the latter is what working with all levels of your brain feels and looks like (and hypnosis and NLP are tools which can help you get there more swiftly and with far less pain than you likely think possible).
How Can I Get My Unconscious & Conscious in Sync?
The best tools I have ever experienced to get your unconscious and conscious mind working synergistically are hypnosis and NLP. The simplest way I can explain it is to say that NLP gets you unstuck and moving and then hypnosis gets you moving in the direction you want to be moving (but because both therapies are based in feelings it is always best to have an experience to make your own assessment of the value).
How Can Hypnosis and NLP Facilitate Easy Harmony and Change?
Both hypnosis and NLP work directly with your unconscious and are more effective than anything else in creating new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving purely for the fact that this is where the majority of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours are generated. You can continue to fluff around at the surface with information, willpower, intellectual understanding, motivation and grit trying to determinedly fight yourself into doing or not doing something but if that goes against your unconscious it’s going to continue to be a fight. It’s not suddenly going to one day feel good just because you’ve thrashed it out 75238.999 times (and if it does eventually well great but you’ve still had to endure the suffering of those 75238.999 times, you’ve still lost time and life and time and life are all you have).
What It Feels Like in Everyday Life to Have Your Conscious and Unconscious in Harmony
- You figure out consciously what outcome you want.
- You generate your behaviour to get that outcome.
Simple.
When you remove all the things which overcomplicate it, it truly is this simple. You don’t need to over complicate it; you don’t even need to complicate it. Unfortunately, all that complication stuff happened long before you realised you had a say in what went into your brain and what it did to your brain. You are now beginning to realise more than ever that you do have a say in what happens in your brain and therefore in your world for the remainder of your life and two tools at your disposal to facilitate exceptional growth are hypnotherapy and NLP.
Hypnosis and NLP Are Tools Which Gives You Choices
What I really want you to take away from this more than anything else is that hypnosis and NLP are tools which open a world of choices because when you work with your brain you have choices in how you think, in how you feel and consequently in how you respond. When you work with your brain you are no longer at the mercy of compulsions or living in reaction to the outside world. Don’t worry you can still choose the panic attack if you want but it is a choice (and no one chooses a panic attack when they have far better options available) and you can still choose to sleep in and not go to the gym but again it is a choice and a choice that feels good and you’ve happily made it, there’s no guilt of I “should” or “shouldn’t” be doing this or that. Imagine the time and brain space that would free up for creativity and growth…
When you work with your brain, we stop it before that thing you don’t want to happen happens. In fact, we stop it before it’s even a blimp on the radar, not during because that would mean you’ve already felt the horrible feelings and had to fight your way out and that’s draining, that’s exhausting and that’s not the quality of life you deserve nor the quality of life the universe intended for you. Besides if you’ve ever had a panic attack, you’ll know it’s impossible to actually willpower or motivate yourself out of it once it’s consumed you because your prefrontal cortex (logical, rational brain) goes offline and there is no reasoning with a prefrontal cortex-less brain (that’s like expecting to reason with a crocodile in a death roll). We need a better method than that and this is what hypnosis and NLP can offer you, straight up; take it or leave it.
Take Home Messages
If you’re not getting the results you want, feel like you’re at war within yourself, frustrated or ashamed of something you’re doing (thinking or feeling) which you just can’t seem to stop doing (thinking or feeling) no matter how much you want to and no matter what you try please know you’re far from alone (and you’re definitely not broken).
It’s not a lack of willpower, you don’t need more motivation, more information, more insight, a new face cream, more puppies, a daily green smoothie or coffee shot up your bum. All you need is to learn how to use your brain (in a different way than anyone has probably been able to teach you so far). You know that massive rich electrical thing, more powerful than anything else in the universe that sits atop your shoulders and which you largely ignore until it causes you problems, yep that thing, it is time you learnt how to use it because you’re the driver. This should really be at the top of every bodies to do list unfortunately we’re kind of made to believe we’re at the mercy of whatever the world throws at us and whatever our brain generates in response. Well we’re not. There very much are real and true methods for getting your unconscious and your conscious to work together in synergy so that health and happiness are your default and when health and happiness are your default and take care of themselves in the background of life you can focus your time and energy on the things which are truly important to you.
Hypnotherapy and NLP are tools I’ve used personally and professionally to produce results where other methods have failed. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because if those “problems” we’re trying to fix are caused by a miscommunication or lack of communication between the conscious and unconscious no other tools are going to fix them than tools which work to increase communication between your conscious and unconscious (aka hypnosis and NLP).
Can you now appreciate that in order to get control over this “problem”, this thing you do (think or feel) that you don’t want to do (think or feel) but which happens automatically will take a little more than motivation, knowledge or willpower because motivation, knowledge and willpower were never the problem?
As you come to the end of this post if any of this makes sense to you or if it’s a little clearer to you why the mere identification of and desire to change a problem doesn’t mean you have the skills, resources or capabilities to fix it and you are intrigued to experience how hypnosis and NLP may be the very ‘how to’ pieces of the puzzle you’re missing give me a call today (or now) because I’m in it for future you, future you who gets it. Future you who gets it in your head, heart and belly.
Ps.
The answer to the question “What can hypnosis and NLP do for me?” is nothing. In and of themselves hypnosis and NLP can do absolutely nothing because hypnosis and NLP are simply tools and is what happens during their use which will bring you more than you can likely yet envisage. Imagine if all those niggling little or monumental problem thoughts, feelings or actions just weren’t a part of your life any more… You be the judge of what that would mean to you, what that would allow you to achieve and experience and most of all who that level of freedom would allow you to be.
With my whole heart I trust you found this information useful and inspiring
Become Great. Live Great.
Bonnie.
