Albert Einstein Was One Smart Cookie!

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Connie

Albert Einstein said: “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” This idea is the core and essence of hypnotherapy.

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life!

When you think you cannot do or achieve something, that is what I call a LIMITING BELIEF. You know those little monsters that get chomped up in PacMan? Well, that’s how I approach limiting beliefs in my Neuro Linguistic Hypnotherapy work. They’ve got to go! “I can’t do it.” “I’m not good enough.” “I’m not smart enough.” “I don’t deserve it.” What if all that was absolute baloney, and yes, you can, and yes, you do?

Another truism of my life, and my work: what you think, you become.

Hypnosis (when done right by creative people) helps you see beyond and imagine success. That change in thinking, leads to change in doing and being. Trust me! It works! Who are you not, that’s happy and successful? Let me help you become that person.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan, CHt. & Licensed Trainer of NLP®
Professional Conversational Hypnotherapist
Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP
Accredited Member of the Better Business Bureau
“Best of Bellevue” 2011 and 2012

Green is Good – Settling into the New Office Space

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Connie

In the Bellefield Office Park

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

The polling results are coming in, with clients who have seen office old and office new. They say they prefer office new and especially it’s “quality of light.” It’s got more natural, and less artificial light. Feels more open and air-y. I liked the “nest” feeling of the full, leafy tree right next to my window in office old. In this one, the trees are more at a distance. More panoramic! Still beautiful, still green, still trees. These trees dance. Whole lot of life and swaying going on out my office window.

The setting in Bellefield Office Park is a world away, so calm and peaceful and full of life. What a nice place to refocus your mind on success.

Warm Regards,
Connie

PS: More pics of the office are here: http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net/Bellefield%20Office%20Directions.html

Positive Transformations With Neuro Linguistic Hypnotherapy

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Connie

: Life is Good!

It’s February! Yay! And I’m of a musing mind. Here’s a story:

Another client reports to me that she has said “adios” to her years upon years long counselor after working with me a few sessions. Now, I’m not saying that talk therapist counselors are inept, wrong-minded and wrap people deeper and deeper into their problems, with an endless quest for “why,”…obviously my client is feeling so much more empowered and happy in her life that she simply doesn’t feel the need to go sit and whine about problems anymore. She agreed with my plan: get rid of them instead!

Everything about this girl has changed, and it’s so beautiful to see. She came in hiding under a hood, so filled with anxiety and fear and paranoia in her life, face twitching and chewing her lip, insomnia, jealousy … She looks different now, her hair, her makeup, her clothes, her posture, her tonality (confident!!), her face is smooth and beautiful, she smiles, she reports that she is sleeping “better than she ever has,” she’s glowing, says this has impacted her kids, they’re laughing and smiling and enjoying life more, too. That’s what a little creative NLP/hypnosis will do for you. It’s been less than a month since I began working with her.

I often notice that the people with the quote unquote ”biggest problems” are the ones to have the easiest, most dramatic transformation. They’ve hypnotized themselves into having problems, and we re-direct all that creative power in a new direction, one that feels better and leads to achieving their goals instead. I love what I do!!!!!!!!!!!!

A new client was paying me yesterday and made a semi-snarky comment about how getting the money must be my favorite part. No way. You’re mistaking me for some other Seattle area hypnotist(s). The above description of a positive transformation is my favorite part. That’s why I do this.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Stop Hiding the Hypnosis!

Posted on January 28, 2013 by Connie

: Hiding the truth about hypnosis!

Hi, Hypnosis Friends and Enthusiasts!

Hypnosis is a larger field of study and practice than what is generally known. It’s being used all over the place, and not by “hypnotists.” There’s more to it, than the world commonly acknowledges. You know why that is? People hide the fact that what they’re teaching and doing IS hypnosis.

The word hypnosis has a negative, perjorative, fear-infused connotation in some people’s minds. Unfortunate, and absolutely ridiculous! And that generates fear, and hiding on the part of hypnosis sellers. There are teachers and change workers creating fancy new words and titles and acronyms for the work they are doing. Hey, buddy ….pssst. Some of us do know. It’s all hypnosis.

I attended a training last year on enhanced reading and rapid absorption of information that was absolutely, 100% hypnosis. They never used the word, in their literature, in their marketing, or in the course itself. They called it something else, which they had created to hide the fact that it is hypnosis. They even hawked self-hypnosis CDs which they also called something else. I asked the instructor: “Why don’t you call this what it really is?” He never responded.

I don’t hide my hypnosis. I am PROUD to be a hypnotist. I’d rather change the misconceptions in the world rather than try to camoflauge what I do.

What is hypnosis? It’s communication on deeper levels within our own brain, it’s a doorway to resourcefulness. To creativity. To power. It’s 100% organic and natural, it’s amazing, and lovely, and pure positive goodness.

I wish these practitioners of hypnosis who sell it as something else just in order to get more students and to make more money would stop that. You’re helping to keep the ridiculous myths alive. How will the understanding of hypnosis in the world change for the better if you continue to hide it’s power and success?

Stop hiding the hypnosis!

Warm Regards,
Connie (Hypnotist, and proud of that!)

http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net/

When Disgust is Useful

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Connie

I bought some chicken yesterday from a local supermarket deli. Got it home, and opened the packaging. Found THIS! Yikes. Battered and fried feathers.

: I’m not eating feathers.

How repulsive, obviously they lacked the big picture on plucking the chicken before you cook it. If you look up the word “grotesque” in the dictionary, this chicken wing could be there. I didn’t even want to touch this thing, but I had to, to toss it into the garbage can. I’m not eating THAT!! Ick, and yick!

In my Neuro-Linguistic Programming work with clients “ick and yick” can be useful. People come into my office wanting to stop smoking. People come into my office wanting weight loss, which means, behaviorally, eating less to no sweets, pastries, cookies, chocolate, candy of all varieties, brownies, twinkies, donuts, ice cream, sugary sodas, french fries, potato chips and other carb-laden, junky processed foods that pack on the poundage on the body. I can help with that! Ick and yick finds a home.

When I was a kid my mom tried to make me eat liver. It’s a nightmarish recollection. I hate liver. As an adult, I would never choose to eat liver, because it’s horrendously repulsive, in looks, taste, smell, in every way invented. My response to the thought of liver is this: “get it away from me! No way in hell is that thing going into my mouth!” Like that chicken wing yesterday.

With NLP we can take this feeling “get it away from me, ” capture it, and attach it to anything, where it’s useful to do so. We can attach it to chocolate. To cigarettes. To brownies. To anything. If you don’t like it, you’re not going to eat it, or smoke it. This is called “aversion” anchoring. It’s another piece of the work, and it helps! On the flip of away from, I create good feelings that people prefer over cravings, things like calm, happy, joy, satisfied, healthy. Towards something wonderful and away from something disgusting, now we have a propulsion system of change.

I walk the talk, and use the tools for my own success. I took that chicken wing, and captured the revulsion, and now that’s how I feel about chocolate brownies (my former weakness). I’m not buying or eating any brownies today. None. Not interested. I’m not eating any brownies tomorrow, either. Nor the next day. When will I want brownies? Possibly never. And I’m OK with that.

This is called taking control of your life, and it’s a good thing!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Do the Healthy Changes from Hypnosis Last? Ask Kristen!

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Connie

: Pop the Cola Addiction, with Mindworks Hypnosis!

One of the concerns and worries often expressed by potential clients is the question: Do the changes last? If we end the habit (or the fear, or the urge or what have you) will it stay gone long term? YES!!! Once you upgrade the program in your mind, it stays upgraded, unless you change it again.

Here’s more evidence. Kristen Oulten of Renton, WA came in for help with a cola addiction. That was MONTHS ago. Here’s her current report:

“Hello again Connie, Well, it’s December and I haven’t had any Coke or Pepsi since my session with you last February (woo hoo!). My first experience with hypnosis and NLP was a success! Thank you!”

– Kristen Oulton, Renton, WA

Yay, Kristen!

I know it works myself. As I’ve often spoken about, I had a SEVERE spider phobia for most of my life–we’re talking decades. In one brief NLP session, fear and panic was changed to calm and clear-minded. And it’s been six years now. Six years and the calm is still in place. NLP works! Hypnosis works.

Find out for yourself. I know it’s a leap of faith to believe change can happen so easily and permanently. Hypnosis when skillfully wielded (that’s the clincher–based on the skill set of the hypnotist helper) is AMAZING. I like to share outcomes that people have experienced with me and my work. Because I love hypnosis and I know its power and I’m good at it.

Someone told me, you know, people don’t usually talk that way. Confident, she meant. Yes, I’m confident. I know what I know and the proof is in the pudding. Kristen, above, is more pudding.

I hope you’re all having some happy holidays, and when you’re ready to see some positive changes in your life, well, we can do it!

Warm Regards,
Connie
http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net/

How Do You Draw A Rabbit?

Posted on November 13, 2012 by Connie

: Creativity through Hypnosis

When I was six years old, in my first grade class, we were doing an art project. They asked us to draw a rabbit. Now, we didn’t have a live rabbit to look at, so they taped a photograph of a rabbit to the front board. We sat with our crayons and went at it!

Something different happened during that art project, which I noticed at the time but didn’t understand. I drew that rabbit perfectly. REALLY, really well. As I was drawing, I was looking at the photo at the front of the room, and concentrating. Really concentrating. Inner focused concentration, connecting with the photo and following the curves.

When we were done, I was astonished at how perfect my rabbit drawing looked. Amazingly life-like. The teacher was walking around the room, looking at our work and made a big fuss over my rabbit, complimenting me. She held it up it to the entire class, and asked me if she could keep it as an example of good work for future classes.

I let her, which I’m sort of regretful about, because I wish I could look at that rabbit drawing again right now! (Actually, I could see it again, using hypnotic regression, but that’s another story for another time.)

All well and good, the teacher kept my picture. Now, here’s the interesting part of the story. A string of students then came up to me afterwards asking ”show me how to draw a rabbit.” Apparently, I was now the rabbit-drawing-expert. And I couldn’t do it.

I remember taking a piece of paper and CONSCIOUSLY trying to replicate my rabbit for the first kid in line. No way. It was a pathetic squiggle. And the student took it, and walked away looking like he held a treasure.

I drew more pictures for my fellow students, and they were nothing like a rabbit, non realistic and just bad caricatures.

I understand this scenario now. I used self hypnosis to draw the rabbit. Like that book, “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain,” I tapped into my unconscious mind, my creative mind power using a focused attention. I had no idea what I was doing at the time, however I did recognize that I had a different state of mind while drawing my rabbit initially, and when asked to show how. No way could I just “draw a rabbit” quickly on command. That activity involved my six year old conscious mind.

Our conscious minds are linear, logical, limited. We can and do astonish ourselves with our own abilities when we utilize our creative mind. Not just a tiny part of our mind. That’s hypnosis–a doorway into more power! Who knew? I was already a hypnotist in first grade!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Good Feelings – Good Decisions

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Connie

: Give guilt the heave-ho, with hypnosis.

You know, “Dear Abby” died. And that’s a sad thing. I grew up reading her advice column, and it was always pretty sound common sense type answers for all of life’s dilemmas. I loved Dear Abby. Her daughter has now taken over the pen name, and is writing that same advice column. However, she is NO Dear Abby.

I was reading the column today, and her advice was wayyyyy off the mark. Bad advice. Stupid advice.

She was promoting GUILT. A woman wrote in about her massive guilt over past relationship mistakes, and the answer was: “You appear to be carrying a large burden of guilt. And that’s a good thing.”

In polite parlance, I beg to differ. What really went through my mind in reading that answer: “Puritanical bullshit nonsense!”

I help clients release guilt all the time. It’s one of those corrosive, self destructive emotions that doesn’t need to hang on for years, decades, life times. We let that go. We grab onto the learning and wisdom from the past experiences (so we don’t repeat the mistakes), and move on in a new direction with new better feelings and concomitant new better choices and behaviors.

As my teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, says: “Good feelings, good decisions. Bad feelings, bad decisions.” Right on, Richard! I agree wholeheartedly!

Holding guilt would lead to more guilt-inducing behaviors. Bad, bad advice, Dear Abby 2nd generation. I miss your mom and her common sense.

Another wisdom I’ve learned from my many teachers: “What you focus on expands.” When you focus your mind backwards and wrap yourself tighter and tighter into mistakes and the negative emotions there, that does not create positive change. That creates more mistakes and more negative emotion. When you focus somewhere else, you get something else. That’s what hypnosis helps with: a new focus. And new feelings. And new choices that lead to happy and successful and healthy.

Warm Regards,
Connie

What is this picture really saying?

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Connie

: How do you feel about this picture?

SUCCESS! Great word, fabulous idea. Seeing the word in print should spur positive feelings, should it not?

Look at this picture. A friend shared this on Facebook, as an inspirational thing. No, it isn’t! I delve daily into the world of unconscious communications. I find and study (and change when useful) what is being communicated under the surface, which absolutely does affect us. A facet of my job is that I have trained myself to look for and listen in particular for “limiting beliefs,” ideas which stop us from success.

This picture has a very limiting belief embedded within. It’s an unconscous communication, and it’s quite negative.

Look at this picture. The tide is out, and the sand is fairly dry but still moist. What’s about to happen? Soon, that word will be washed away, vanish, be obliterated. You know it’s going to happen, it’s a function of the location of the word and the ephemeral manner in which it is written in the sand and the inevitability of the tide. Messages in the sand do not remain. They go away.

“Success does not last.”

NOT a message I like for my unconscious mind!

I’d rather believe success is something we control and keep for as long as we want it. Not subject to the whims of nature. I’d rather have a message of empowerment (I create success) rather than disempowerment (you’re going to lose it soon and there’s nothing you can do).

Beliefs are not just ideas. They are movement operators. They create action and activity in us. Or they stop us. This picture is a stopper! Something to muse upon!

Warm Regards,
Connie

High-Five!! to the Unconscious Mind

Posted on September 14, 2012 by Connie

: High-Five to the Unconscious Mind!

Hi, Hypnosis Friends!

I was on a hypnosis forum this morning, and a hypnotist-wanna-be (he’s not there yet) was espousing on the evils of the unconscious mind. He called it “sad” and “destructive” and didn’t think it should be involved in decision making. Wrong! Wrong and double that for more wrong!

Wow, this guy doesn’t know what hypnosis is, and he doesn’t know how the mind works. All decisions come from the unconscious mind. All of them. Contrary to what we “think,” all our behaviors and decisions are driven by unconscious processing. That’s why we “think” we want to change something (like quit smoking), and yet we don’t do it. You have to get into the level of the unconscious mind to make changes, and there’s where hypnosis and Neuro Linguistic Programming NLP come into play.

Here’s what I believe: the unconscious mind is pure positive energy and it’s ALWAYS moving toward what it perceives as the best way to achieve positive goals. When new (more useful) choices are introduced, via our work–hypnotists & Nelpers–the unconscious mind says: “YES, yes, yes, that’s better and I’m going for it.” Fear becomes calm. Bored becomes motivated. Depressed becomes joy…and so on. And new behaviors flow from there.

I LOVE unconscious minds, and it’s such a joy and privilege to communicate with them. High-Five to the unconscious mind!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Obesity – Helping through Hypnosis!

Posted on August 22, 2012 by Connie

: Seattle, hypnosis helps for obesity.

Hi, Hypno Friends!

Obesity! That’s an ugly word! What is it? The dictionary says it means “excessively fat or fleshy”, originating from latin words meaning “intensive eating.” Good news: It’s really NOT an immovable monolithic THING, it’s a cumulated effect of choices, patterns, behaviors and actions–which are moveable objects, not monoliths.

Obesity is a huge problem in Seattle and the world. I was musing today on the mindset of healthy eating, healthy movement and exercise, and reshaping the body, and how easy those things are to create and sustain through hypnotherapy. It really comes down to focus and frame of mind. When you successfully change those, you change everything.

“Habits” don’t control us, it’s the UNconscious drivers of habits that are important. With hypnosis, those things can be located and changed. And I mean EASILY. With skilled hypnosis and NLP – supercharged powerful conversational hypnosis – ideas, feelings, and habits that lead to “obesity” can change in a heartbeat.

If you do emotional eating, binge eating, have tried fad diets and worse in a fail after fail attempt at weight control of obesity, well….there’s a new kid in town. Only she isn’t new. She’s been there all along, you just haven’t noticed her. Her name is HYPNOSIS. She’s starting to flex her muscles. Yay!

Hypnosis is a powerful, powerful tool in the battle with obesity. How do I know this? I’m living it, baby! And I help people in the Seattle area and beyond with my hypnotherapy and Neuro Linguistic Programming work and hear and see their weight loss results.

Cut through all the gimmicky crap (like, eat grapefruit for a week), artificial diets that don’t sustain any real changes, or radical and RIDICULOUS ideas like body surgery for obesity, pills to alter your chemistry with who knows what awful side effects, and think for a moment about what really has the power over you and your choices. (dramatic pause) NOTHING! You have the power, only you aren’t currently connected to it. Hypnosis and NLP (done well by someone creative and skilled) can do that, connect you to your power. Goodbye, Obesity!

There’s a reason Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP has been awarded “Best of Bellevue 2011″ and “Best of Bellevue 2012″ for WEIGHT LOSS AND CONTROL PROGRAMS. Because hypnosis works best for obesity. Obesity isn’t a body state (as medicos keeps insisting), it’s a mind state. And you can change your mind anytime. Now is good.

Find out more here about how to beat obesity: http://www.loseweightseattle.com/. And I invite you to read and SEE some very nice testimonials of success with Seattle area’s Mindworks Hypnosis here: Seattle, there’s help for obesity.

When you’re ready to change your thinking and your feeling and your doing around your weight, call me! (425) 564-8608. I AM the Best in Bellevue and Seattle, too, for that matter. Discover hypnosis for helping with obesity!

Warm Regards,
Connie

How Do I Find a Good Seattle Hypnotherapist?

Posted on August 19, 2012 by Connie

: Seattle Hypnosis – Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP is the real deal.

Hi, Seattle Hypnosis Friends!

“How do I find a good Seattle Hypnotherapist?” I’m a Team Member representing the professions of hypnosis and NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming on a popular internet forum board. I’m often asked for advice on finding and choosing a hypnotist. Someone who’s “the real deal,” and not an unskilled fly by night.

Yes, the true, skilled, passionate “this is my life” successful hypnotists are out there. This is how you find them. Word of mouth is great, but failing that, you’re going to be looking at the internet.

Focus on the focus. It’s all comes down to a person in my profession’s focus and primary goal. Is it about marketing ploys and making money, or is about the joy of developing a skill set and making client successes? When you look at a person’s web presence, and/or meet them face to face, you’ll be able to notice the difference. I call it puff vs. passion.

Here’s a direct quote from a hypnotist visiting my forum board who said his goal was marketing himself for “truckloads of clients”: “I WANT MONEY AND LOTS OF IT. I WILL TRADE MY WIFE FOR MONEY. I WILL BETRAY GOD FOR MONEY. I WILL SELL MY KIDS. I HATE CLIENTS AND I DON’T CARE ABOUT ANY OF THEM. I WOULD EVEN GIVE MY MOTHER A PHOBIA AND CHARGE HER A “TRUCKLOAD OF MONEY” TO GET RID OF IT. I DON’T CARE.”

This attitude disturbs me greatly. Hypnosis is a helping profession, and people with such a money grubbing focus shouldn’t be in it. It’s not about the “dough re mi” for me. It’s about doing something worthwhile, and making a difference in people’s lives. I figure that the financial rewards are a given, if I devote myself to the pursuit of excellence and helping people achieve their goals and their potential.

This guy quoted above: I’m sure he’s hired a good SEO (search engine optimization) person to help him get ranked high on Google–because that’s what it’s about for him. Or he’s paying for Google ads.

Here’s a tip: Ignore those paid ads. In my opinion, many times those listings at the top of the google pages which are highlighted as “paid ads” tell me the person is either brand new and/or not very good. The real deal people rise in those listings as an “organic search” because of the substance and quality and CONTENT of their website. My listing is organic.

Here are a few more clues to find a serious professional hypnotist vs. an unskilled hypnotist.

Certifications. I know it’s difficult for the lay person to know the difference between “printed this in my basement” certificates from newly created fake “professional orgs” vs. the real trainings that a professional would have from respected sources. Here’s a clue, the number and dates of certification. A dedicated professional keeps learning, and would have a variety of trainings under their belt. Studying a website, do your research on the hypnotist’s credentials.

Check out the organizations listed. How long have they been around and continuously active? Are they national? International? How many members, tens vs. thousands? I’m a member of the NGH (National Guild of Hypnotists). We have been around since the 1950′s–it’s the oldest and most well respected professional organization for hypnotists in the US. If they are hyping an NLP certification, find out if it’s through Dr. Richard Bandler or John Grinder or Steve Andreas. Those are the originators of NLP. Other “schools” (some legitimate, some a joke) offer far lesser versions of this power. The real deal people have paid the training bucks and spent the time honing their craft. And continue to do so.

Testimonials. How many, and in what form? Do they ring true? Do they contain details? Real clients don’t sing praises in generics, they tell stories.

Does the hypnotist share their passion and their interest in hypnosis on their website through a “blog?” Does it seem to be a real blog or a fake blog? Does it have any original content, or just recycled stale articles written by somebody else that may or may not be on topic but have some keywords in them for the search engines? Do they create it themselves, or do they just pay some outsourcer $5 for silly entries like “What is a hug?” How frequently do they post? A blog (like mine here) is another indicator of passion. I LOVE hypnosis, I LOVE my blog, and I love writing and sharing my passion with you.

More things to examine to find the perfect Seattle hypnotist. How long has a hypnotist been in business. If you can’t find any history, that’s a red flag.

Are they registered with Washington State Dept. of Health as a professional hypnotherapist? To do business in our state, that’s a legal requirement.

Are they an Accredited Business with the Better Business Bureau? This shows a dedication and commitment and adherence to ethical business practices. If they are with the BBB, what is their ranking? Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP is an accredited business with the BBB, with an “A” ranking.

In any profession from auto mechanic to teacher to doctor to hypnotherapist, there are the “real deal” professionals and the also-rans. “How do I find a good Seattle Hypnotherapist?” Here’s one last tidbit to help you. TRUST YOUR UNCONSCIOUS MIND. I recommend meeting your prospective hypnotist face to face. Intelligence shines. Passion shines. Trust your gut as to whether or not this person can help you. If anything feels “off,” run for the door.

Hypnosis works. Best in the hands of a skilled and passionate and professional practitioner. They’re out there. Me, for example. My husband, Michael, for another. Call us and meet us, check out our credentials, judge for yourself, and find the best hypnotherapists in the Seattle area.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Problems: A Vanishing Act

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Connie

: Find your confidence with hypnosis & NLP.

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

Here is another story. A client came in to enhance her business success. Her problem? A feeling of not being “good enough” or “smart enough” — in a nutshell, a lack of confidence. She found herself feeling anxious and unable to speak up during business meetings–even when she had valuable things to say.

I found out what she wanted instead. We began the work. Suddenly, she burst out angrily at me:

“Why are you laughing? You’re trivializing my problem.”

I answered her: “That’s right. I am. And so will you. It IS trivial. Ridiculous, in fact.”

That’s what we want to create! A “problem” so small and trivial that you can’t even see it or experience it. When she feels more confident and “good enough,” in fact, there is no problem. It dissolves.

What she didn’t yet realize is that the work was already unfolding and being successful…we were working on confidence building. The presenting problem: she was unable to speak her mind. Yet, suddenly, here she was speaking her mind, to me. Loud and clear. Yay!

I’m remembering an episode of Star Trek. (I LOVED that show.) In it there was an alien creature which fed on negative emotion. The more angry and violent negative emotions it could generate in the people around it, the stronger it got. When Kirk & Spock et. al. started laughing (with the help of Dr. McCoy and his “laughing gas”) well the monster weakened and decided to leave.

Here’s what clients begin to understand via my work with them: A problem is not REAL. It is conjured in the mind and body. It is merely a frame of mind, a way of thinking. And that is very, very subject to change. A problem can be reframed to the point it is un-conjured. That’s what we do in my office.

When the woman left, she commented that her breathing felt easier. We tested her new responses. She thought the previously “anxious-making” thoughts, and anxiety was a no-show. Her body language had changed, as well. She was speaking louder and sitting taller. Her eye contact was more direct. I notice these things. Confidence seeds sprouting all over. I guess it really was a trivial non-problem after all, wasn’t it?

Warm Regards,
Connie
http://www.seattlehypnosisforconfidence.com

Limiting Beliefs – Be Gone!

Posted on June 24, 2012 by Connie

: Unleash your amazing, with hypnosis.

“You is amazing!” — says Lucky Larry, an animated character of my acquaintance. He waves his arms, a beautiful chorus sings behind his words, and he congratulates the winner: “YOU is Amayyyyzing!” Hey, I take wisdom anywhere I find it, even if it’s grammatically incorrect. Today I told a client about Larry and his words: “You is amazing!” Yes, she is.

Client had a limiting (and ridiculous) belief: “I’m not smart enough.” Sound familiar to any of you out there? Well, with Neuro Linguistic Hypnosis processes, we healed her of that notion, past present & future. Ripped every shred of it out of her life. She also had held a secret fear of future dementia, which runs in her family. Goodbye to that idea. In our work, we innoculated her brain against future dementia, as well.

Reconnecting someone to their own brilliance and power. Safeguarding a brain! Sounds like a worthy way to spend a rainy Saturday afternoon.

“Limiting beliefs.” That’s hypnosis jargon for any thought, idea, sensation which makes a person feel bad and holds them back from their goals. “I’m not smart enough.” “I’m not good enough.” “I can’t do it.” “It’s too difficult.” “I’m not worthy.” Limiting beliefs suck. If you’d like yours to be removed and replaced with more useful beliefs, we can do that!

I love my work.

Warm Regards,
Connie

When Doubt is Good – Mindworks Hypnosis

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Connie

: Stop stopping yourself.

You know what the biggest challenge in my work is? It’s not helping people with nicotine or alcohol or sex “addiction,” or genetic obesity” or a prevailing sense of anxiety, or “chronic” insomnia, or twitching or nail biting, or any number of problems which SEEM insurmountable.

It’s DOUBT. It’s a mindset that keeps problems in place. It’s the “I can’t.”

Why do I slather this blog and my websites with client testimonials of success? It’s to challenge doubt.

However, doubt doesn’t have to be a negative thing. What if we could flip doubt on its head and begin to doubt the problem? Doubt the staying power of the problem. Doubt the potency of the problem. Doubt your own mental limitations on having the life you want. When you change your thinking in this way, you change everything.

Hypnosis helps you adopt useful beliefs. Like “I can! And it’s easy.” What you believe becomes true.

I successfully install the RIGHT doubt, the one that moves you to success. If you would like to stop doubting yourself and your capabilities and begin to doubt the problems in your life, and thus end them, hypnosis works!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Celebrate!

Posted on June 10, 2012 by Connie

: Celebrate life – How much joy can you stand?

One of my first hypno-mentors asked me to consider this: “How much joy can you stand?” He let me know that hypnosis would change my life. Yes, it has!!

Hypnosis is a tool to maximum joy, maximize success, maximize the happy celebration called life! Effective immediately, and until further notice, I encourage all of you to begin celebrating the moments of your life more and more.

Warm Regards, Connie

Talk to the Brain about what you Really Want

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Connie

Disbelieve the negative suggestions fed to you every day. I’m going to share a personal story today. Medical stuff. I had a cut on my “great toe” (big toe). It got infected. Not so great!!

I went to the doctor to check it out. Man, that woman bombarded me with negative suggestions. I have an ear for limiting beliefs and negative suggestions. That’s my work. This Doctor spewed one negative, damaging idea after the next. Such as: It may never heal. Toes heal very slowly, if at all. People take antibiotics and it still doesn’t heal. We may need surgery to remove the toenail. Your toe considers your toenail a foreign object. She also suggested to me that the current state should be painful when I told her it wasn’t.

WOW!! I’m listening to her, sitting in the examination room being bombarded with essentially a message called: it won’t heal. Is that a good message to hear from a doctor? Hell, no. If I took that on board, unconsciously, and believed it, then no, it wouldn’t heal. Luckily, I blocked her suggestions and fed in my own.

Of course it will heal. And perfectly. I used self hypnosis to focus my mind on healing that toe. Guess what, a week later, and it’s perfectly healed. And, of course the antibiotics helped! (Contrary to the messages that Doc was TRYING — and failing — to feed me that even those wouldn’t help.).

Really, when I think about Doctors and their negative suggestions (telling your mind what to do and what SHOULD happen in a way that leads to a bad outcome) it’s frightening. On the extreme end: you have xx months/years to live. If your mind takes that on board, you will die on schedule. If there are such a thing as “evil hypnotists,” that’s doctors who unknowingly spew messages of illness, doom, gloom, dismemberment, and death.

Your body creates what you believe to be true.

Hypnosis is a way to “talk to the brain” and instruct it in what you really want. I wanted a healthy toe. I’ve got one. Time to go for a walk.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Tulips are Joy Hypnosis!

Posted on April 17, 2012 by Connie

Hi, Hypnosis Friends!

Hypnosis is everywhere. It’s an everyday piece of our experience (we go repeatedly into and out of trance every day) however, we don’t always recognize it. I had a hypnotic experience on Sunday. It’s called looking at TULIPS! Michael and I went to the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival.

Rows upon fields of bright color. From a distance, beautiful. Up closer, beautiful. With your nose two inches from a blossom, beautiful. Tulips are hypnotic. Anything which brings an emotional change into your heart and body, that’s hypnosis. Tulips are pleasant hypnosis. Joy hypnosis.

The festival runs through April 30th. If you’re in the Washington area, I recommend it. Here are some joy-making photos I took last weekend.

Warm Regards, Connie

Irritation to Joy in 30 Seconds or Less

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Connie

: Our mind creates our world.

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

Michael and I are fond of Redbox, renting movies from a kiosk for about a dollar. Last night we rented a strange, but good one. “Another Earth.” It’s about alternate universes and the intertwining of lives and how life can change in a heartbeat.

There was one scene in particular that was “very NLP.” The heroine of the movie was sharing a story about space travel. Now, I don’t know if this story in the movie is “true” or not, but as it unfolds, it’s massively hypnotic and indicative of the power of the mind. I’ll share it with you.

She told the story of the first astronaut in space, confined inside a tiny little capsule, basically a cupboard in space. He’s all alone. He has a tiny porthole/window through which he can see the stars. He’s also the first person to see our Planet Earth from an outer space perspective. The blue against blackness, the curvature. The exquisite beauty.

Our astronaut journeys to the cosmos, captures the information he has been sent to capture, and now he’s coming back home. He’s in the middle of his ride home, and a loud slow ticking sound emerges from the control panel. Like a tapping. Like a ticking. He can’t identify the source. Everything seems to be functioning perfectly, yet the sound continues. He can’t figure out how to turn it off. Tick…tick…tick…tick…tick…tick. Endlessly. It moves from a question to an annoyance to a larger annoyance. He sits in the tiny space, listening for hours upon hours to tick…tick…tick…tick…tick…tick, to the point it becomes an absolute maddening sound that threatens his sanity. Like water torture. Drip…drip…drip, only it’s tick…tick…tick. He’s sure he’s about to go insane!

He has days left in the capsule and no way to stop the sound. It continues. “Noooooo! make it stop!!” He’s on the verge of absolutely losing it. Tick…tick…tick. Tick…tick…tick.

Finally, in a moment of desperation, he decides that the only way to survive is to fall in love with the sound. To transform the sound in his mind to something enjoyable, beautiful even. He focuses his mind. Suddenly, the ticking is music, it’s music to his ears. Lovely, haunting, beautiful music, an appropriate backdrop to the stars and glow of the earth out his porthole window.

He rides home in a state of utter bliss.

I like this story!! It’s true, in that WE control how we interpret our world. We choose how to understand and react to anything. I once lived in an apartment near a very busy street, with constant traffic noise. It was bothering me! I decided NOT to be irritated anymore and to not even notice the sound. And it vanished. Not really, only to me. No longer an irritant.

My dad snored. To me it was a hideous sound. To my mother, it was a sound of comfort. “He’s home, he’s safe, he’s with me.” We can make our world what we want. It’s all in the interpretation, which we control in our minds.

The mind is amazingly powerful. That’s what hypnosis does, it’s a tool to focus the mind more powerfully and more effectively. We all use hypnosis every day, whether it’s formally induced or not. We can change our perceptions, our perspective, our thinking. And that changes everything. How we feel, and what we do behaviorally in the world.

It’s all moveable furniture!

Happy Sunday to you, find some time to create a moment of enjoyment Your mind can do that!

Warm Regards,
Connie

I invite you to sign up for my FREE electronic newsletter “The Monthly Trance.” Learn more about how you can use hypnosis and NLP to change your mind and change your life in ways that bring joy.

Get Tranced!

Find Your Power

Posted on February 6, 2012 by Connie

: We learned from the best.

Hi, Hypno-Friends! I’m sharing a “musing” today.

My teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, in addition to being mega-uber famous, is a nice guy. Very nice guy. After conducting intensive seminars, he also makes time to make himself available for his students. He’ll answer questions people are too reticent to ask in class, he’ll pose for photographs, and he’ll autograph any of his dozens of published books. I did all of those things with him, including asking him to sign a copy of one of his books for me, “Frogs Into Princes.”

He kindly did. He wrote in my book, “Connie, find your power.”

I was and am thrilled. “Find your power.” Dr. Bandler gave me a direct suggestion. Yay! I’m doing it. I made a photocopy of that page, cut out that sentence in Dr. Bandler’s distinctive writing and stuck it under my acrylic desk blotter at Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP. I look at it every day, and I remember to continue to find my power more and more.

Dr. Bandler IS NLP, he is co-inventor of it, and named it. What is NLP? Neuro Linguistic Programming is the study of successful thinking, it is a type of conversational hypnosis that creates positive changes fast faster fastest. It’s been called “hypnosis on steroids.” I live it. I love it! I use it. I teach it. It’s the basis of my personal success, as well as all the positive changes my clients have enjoyed, and the clients of my students as well.

“Find your power.”

I use social media, primarily FaceBook, not as a search engine optimization gimmick (as some local hypnotists do) but because I think it’s fun and a wonderful way to share and connect. I mentioned on FaceBook about Dr. Bandler’s directive sitting under my desk blotter. Someone posted in reply criticizing Dr. Bandler–thinking it was a negative comment about me. “Why? Is it lost? That implies you don’t have power.”

If someone says to you “find your keys,” does that imply you don’t have keys? No, it means you have them and you want to get them in your hand so you can use them to turn on the car and get going! I think “find your power” means connect with your power, grow your power, and the premise there is, you have power. I know I do. I know we all do.

One of the presuppositions of NLP is that we, every one of us, do indeed have infinite resourcefulness and power. Everything we need is already inside us to create change in ways that we find useful. NLP, it’s a methodology of continued empowerment. If you don’t like where you’re at, you choose and do something else!

Thank you, Dr. Bandler. “Find your power.” It’s an ongoing joy-filled process, and I’m working on it!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Protection from The Power of Pie

Posted on November 13, 2011 by Connie

Hello, Hypno-Friends!

How to you like the new look of my blog? I wanted a new “Fall Into Change” banner, as I LOVE this time of year and the colors of autumn leaves. This is my time of year.

Pumpkin Pie Overdose?

I was reading an article about Thanksgiving, and about PIE in particular. America’s love affair with pie. Apple pie, pumpkin pie, rhubarb pie, you name it. Blackberry pie. The pie council conducted a survey about America’s pie habits, who likes what and how often. I read a shocking and startling statement, right there in bold ink:

“1 in 5 Americans have eaten an entire pie by themselves.”

Wow. Pie is homey, pie is celebration, but a whole pie??? Was it in one sitting, I wonder… Wow. Sounds like overindulgence.

If you’re one of the 20% of Americans with that kind of eating capacity and proclivity, and if you also have packed on any extra pounds by way of pie overdose…guess what? Hypnosis can help. I can help. Hypnosis works! My company is Mindworks Hypnosis and I’ll get you back on track to healthy eating faster than you can imagine.

If you’re worried about overindulging this Thanksgiving, think about this: Hypnosis for weight loss and weight management. It’s what I do. It’s what I know. It’s my own story as well, although I have never eaten a whole pie. Check out the before and after picture of me! This is how I know hypnosis works, I’ve used it.

Hypnosis works for weight loss.

I was fond of those little individual Hostess pies–lemon in particular. Haven’t had one in years, and that’s a good thing.

If you need pie protection in advance of November 24th, I can help! Absolutely yes. If you want to be satisfied with one piece, we can do that. I you want none, we can do that. If you want to be motivated to go exercise on Black Friday, we can do that. Tell me what you want, and I’ll help you do it.

Here is more information about my services to help with weight management hypnosis: http://www.loseweightseattle.com

Have a happy and healthy Holiday!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Seattle area hypnotist, Connie Brannan, CHt. & Licensed Trainer of Neuro Linguistic Programming

Michael’s and My Excellence Quest – More Fun and More Learning!

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Connie

Never stop learning!

Hi, Guys!

I’m so excited. Today is a day of FUN, and learning. Those are one and the same thing in my book. Michael and I are taking advantange of a rare opportunity to learn today from one of the best hypnotists in the US, Don Mottin of the National Guild of Hypnotists. He’s in Seattle offering a course in client-based weight loss.

National Guild of Hypnotists

Now, hypnotic weight loss is already my expertise, but you can ALWAYS learn more, fine tune and enhance skills. Michael and I are members of the National Guild of Hypnotists, the oldest, and best recognized Professional Organization for hypnotists in the US, and as such we have a committment to continuing education. This is a piece of that!! Learning more. Yay!

I don’t settle for good, I want to be the absolute best hypnotist I can be. Learning is a never-ending process, and a never ending joy. Last year Michael and I attended two of Don Mottin’s live training courses: Rewiring the Brain For Stroke Survivors and Pain Management–all full of useful ideas that I have incorporated into my work. More learning with Don = more excellence for me, and better results for my clients. That’s what it’s all about.

Pearls of wisdom.

We just had Halloween (one of my favorite holidays). Here is how I see learning. It’s like trick or treating! (Honestly, some programs I’ve spent money on are a trick, not a treat!) Don is a treat. He’ll be offering up a basket of cool ideas like a basket of gems and pearls. I prefer a basketful of ideas to a basketful of snickers and M&Ms and jelly beans. The currency of excellence here is creative imagination, not sugar. I’ll take some!!!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Workplace Sanity – What this article is not telling you, and you need to know.

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Connie

Is your work stressful?

Hi, Guys!

We do get a newspaper delivered to our home, but I don’t look at it. Michael likes the feel of paper, the tactile experience of reading a newspaper. I get my news on the internet. Which seems easier to me, more immediate, and doesn’t feed the landfill.

Here’s an article I read today which I’d like to share with you. It’s good advice. It’s about how to stay sane in a stressful work environment. (I’ve had plenty of those over the years, when I worked for other people before I found my life’s calling.) Here’s the article, on yahoo: Seven Tips to Stay Sane at Work.

In a nutshell, it’s telling you to adopt specific FEELINGS which assist you in maintaining sanity in the face of stress: calm, humor, dissassociation (feeling separate), empathy, positivity. Good feelings. Wonderful ADVICE. But HOW to DO all that? How to create and capture states of mind/body in yourself and use them when you’re not feeling them?

That’s where hypnosis and NLP shine! Because it’s absolutely true. Changing how you feel changes how you think and how you experience life, how you interact with others, and what you do behaviorally. We can all change our lives by feeling how we find it useful to feel. That’s NLP’s bread and butter. It’s called anchoring. Finding the positive state in yourself, growing and expanding it, and then capturing for future use.

The article doesn’t tell you HOW to feel calm. I can. How to maintain calm when Joe at work is doing his best to get under your skin. I can. We’ll set you those stimulus responses in your body so that they flow automatically. Where stress used to trigger negative emotions, it won’t. This is what I do. And I love it.

If you’ve got stress, and want to FEEL differently, like this article advises, but haven’t a clue how to DO that…let me help. And remember, Michael and I are offering an event just for stress release on December 10th called “Banish Holiday Stress.” You’ll learn anchoring, and more. More info is here:

http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan, Master Hypnosis & Licensed Trainer of NLP

It’s Time for Change!

Posted on October 15, 2011 by Connie

Now is a good time for hypnosis.

Hi, Guys!

I found this pic today, and it’s so perfect. As a metaphor, and an idea. Yes, it’s now. And it’s now again. Wait. Wait for it…tick, tick, tick, tick…now it’s now again. Grab ahold of NOW. It’s time for change.

Smokey Robinson is one of my favorite singers and songwriters. He wrote a song I really like called “More Love.” (Good title, good idea.) Some of the lyric goes: “Let it be soon. Don’t hesitate. Make it now. Don’t wait. Open your heart and let my love come in, I want the moment to start when I can fill your heart with more love, and more joy than age or time could ever destroy….” Smokey knows what’s important.

This could be a hypnosis song. Let the joy come in is right. Joy attached to positive and long-lasting change. Hypnosis opens a life to joy and a myriad of other good feelings. Good stuff. Do it now.

Wishing you a joy-filled now.
Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie & Michael

The Art of Strategic Change

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Connie

NLP for strategic change.

Hi, Guys! I have a riddle for you!

What does a military strategist and a skilled NLP change worker have in common? Answer: A LOT!!

Here’s my goal in the work I do with clients: strategic change, elegant change, fast change, helping clients get the most bang for the buck, finding the key strongholds of the problem, and taking them out in strategic, rapid fire sequence. Using imagination, strategy, and fire power to win “the war” against the issue at hand.

My “strategic change” blitzkrieg is a different approach than traditional “talk therapy” counselors. They’re all about discussion, about rolling around in the muck, accentuating and revivifying negative thoughts and emotions over and over and feeling bad. Metaphor: A counselor would want to figure out WHY an unwashed person smells so bad, uncover the origins and chemistry of body odor and what the person did to create it, whereas I would say: You smell bad. Take a shower. And I’d show them the shower, and even turn it on for them.

Let's TALK about it: Pig rolling in the mud.

Talk therapies: It’s not about movement, and it’s not about change. It would not be unusual for a person to see a counselor for YEARS on a particular issue. To me, that’s absolutely ridiculous. RIDICULOUS! Unconscionable, really. Is it about the money, about milking people for money? There’s no way in hell change takes years. It takes minutes. That’s the firepower of NLP and hypnosis.

And I’m always working to increase my personal firepower! To increase my arsenal of weaponry. How? I am continuously learning more, and becoming more and more skilled, mastering the work of hypnosis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, conversational hypnosis, energy work, and more. It’s a different focus than some hypnotists.

Some of my colleagues spend their money on marketing guys to help artificially pump up their web presence and SEO (Search engine optimization)–one guy pays someone else who is not even a hypnotist to write his blog and the posts are insipid!–you know where I spend my money? On learning, on live trainings with the best of the best! To become better at the work I do. To me that’s massively more important and I believe leads to true and legitimate success. My arsenal is knowledge and skill, not fluff and puff.

Another hypnotist friend of mine (and he’s wonderful and I love him) tells clients: “it will require at least three sessions and possibly six before results start to show.”

Frankly, that’s not good enough for me. No way. I expect some level of positive results to show after a single session with me, and complete success on any specific issue in at MOST four sessions. What happens though, is that an array of issues are interlinked (for example confidence and self esteem and weight loss), and all of that is sorted through in around four sessions.

One of my clients yesterday used this phrase describing his desire to quit smoking NOW: He wanted “One and Done!” It’s not always possible to complete the work in a single session depending on the person and his situation, but in his case, we did that for him. “One and Done!” Many of my clients experience this!

Am I better than my friend who takes up to six sessions for a change to appear? Apparently I’m more skilled. And I know what makes the difference. It’s the NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (my specialty) is what makes the difference. It has been called “hypnosis on steroids.” It’s faster than traditional hypnosis. More powerful. It’s the BIG GUNS in my arsenal for your strategic change.

I enjoy being a military strategist. Every day is different, and every person is different, and I get to use my creativity and fire off the big guns. Yay! Take that smoking! Blam! Take that, overweight! Blam! Take that, fear! Blam! A talk therapist will not take the stronghold. A hypnotist reading a script at you will not take the stronghold. I can. Let’s do it.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan, Master Hypnotist & Licensed Trainer of NLP

Dumb and Dumber – Just Say NO to Weight Loss Surgery

Posted on August 25, 2011 by Connie

Slicing and Dicing--Dumb!

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

I offer hypnosis services for weight management, and periodically I get asked questions about “bariatric hypnosis.” I’d like to answer those questions here and explain why I believe it’s ill-conceived, not likely to be successful, and something that I would NEVER do to my clients in a million years.

“What is bariatric surgery?” It’s a variety of invasive medical procedures that involve the slicing and dicing of the human body to artificially create a reduction in stomach capacity, fraught with all the pain, dangers, and complications of surgery, plus the aftermath of nausea, vomiting, dehydration and potential malnutrition, with dubious longevity or long term benefit. What’s the point of all this? To achieve weight loss. (Hint: there’s an easier way!)

The goal: physically creating a situation wherein you’ll eat less–because you can’t physically eat. That removes choice, doesn’t it? And it fails to address whatsoever the core unconscious issues that lead a person to obesity-inducing behaviors–those remain, even after surgery. It doesn’t change feelings, thoughts, beliefs, it’s an artificial and unpleasant restriction on behavior. I like choices for people. What is bariatric surgery? A limiting of choice and just plain dumb.

What would it be like if there were far simpler ways to achieve and maintain a healthy weight? Ways that are pleasant, natural, non-intrusive, and encourage healthy choice? That in addition make a person feel good, not just about their body, but their whole life?? Feelings of high self esteem, accomplishment, power, joy, and so on?

Well, we’re all in luck, because there are such ways, when skillfully delivered. They are called Hypnosis and NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming (a specialized high-tech hypnosis, which is conversational in nature). These things, when used with artistry and creativity and skill, lead a person to a healthy weight naturally. With surgery, there are still cravings that are present yet denied due to artificial restrictions. With hypnosis and NLP, there are no cravings period. Gone. Which sounds more appealing? To me, that’s the definition of purgatory, wanting and wanting and being unable to have. After bariatric surgery, suffering an eternity of feeling deprived? NO, THANK YOU! That’s like dieting.

Hypnosis is not dieting. It’s life change. Changing how you feel, and how you think, and what you do, and even what you believe to be true. Changing your life. In ways that are useful. No scalpels required.

Unless you are a bariatric hypnotist. Dumber. A bariatric hypnotist chooses to engage in a process of hypnotic change work which involves the client undergoing the aforementioned bariatric procedures hypnotically, while in trance. Trance is meant to be a pleasant experience, not something horrific!! They have au de operating room, ether smells, and sound effects of being cut open so that the person will experience it all as real, and the body respond accordingly. This idea disturbs me greatly. A true hypnotist (one who has had legitimate training and was paying attention and has a modicum of intelligence) has tools to help, that don’t create an artificial fix. Bariatric hypnosis isn’t a “fix,” it’s another f-word, followed by an e-d.

The whole mindset around this “work” disturbs me. The other day I got a mailing soliciting bariatric hypnotists. The language appalled me. It read: “Calling All Hypnotists Seriously Interested in Helping The Morbidly Obese Client Rejoin The Human Race.” Oh!! Really? Those with weight problems are not human? What are they? Aliens? Hey, just a guess, but this does not sound like a compassionate or empathetic point of view. I guess if you’re going to cut them open, it’s easier to do if you think of them as nonhuman. Maybe it’s like dissecting lab rats.

Bariatric surgery? Dangerous, dumb, dubiously effective, and not necessary for successful weight loss. Hypnotic bariatric surgery? In my opinion, that is exponentially dumber, and absolutely wrong-minded–what a waste of a powerful and positive tool for life change–hypnosis. I KNOW how people successfully lose weight and maintain a healthy weight. And I know that they don’t require surgery to do it. Now…how do I know?

Because I’ve lived the transformation from fat to fit, and maintained it for 5 years. Without being sliced open, in reality or in my unconscious mind. Hypnosis and NLP, used properly, are all you need! Here’s what I’ve accomplished:

: Before and After.

And I help others to achieve and maintain a healthy weight as well. Here are some comments from some of my successful weight loss clients:

“I have been committed to lose weight for my health for years. However, the actual first step was almost impossible. So before I tried more radical methods, I thought I would try hypnosis. Connie Brannan, and Mindworks Hypnosis worked wonders. The day after my first session, new behaviors emerged and became habits. The amazing thing is – it was so easy.

Late night cravings – gone.

Drinking 8 glasses of water/day – new habit.

Portion control – easy.

A real desire for healthy foods – a new habit.

Feeling full with the right amount of food – a new feeling.

Neuro Linguistic Hypnosis works and fast. I have been losing a consistent 2.5 pounds per week. In the first six weeks, I’ve lost 18 pounds and counting.” –Cynthia Sullivan, COO of a local Bellevue company, Bellevue, WA Update: Cynthia has lost 50 pounds now!

“Hi Connie,
Just wanted to thank you again for your wonderful help. I’ve lost 40# in 4 months, and I feel confident that I’m going to lose at least 40 more. It’s truly remarkable what a few easy sessions with you have done for my life.

As a health care worker, I’ve always known healthy diet and exercise were key to losing weight, but I never seemed motivated to seriously make those long term lifestyle changes. I grew so obese that I even considered surgery. But the risks scared me, so I decided to try calling you instead. Even after one session, everything changed. I found myself craving healthy foods, appropriate portions, and daily exercise. My sweet tooth and chip obsession disappeared overnight. My self esteem skyrocketted. I finally knew I could conquer my lifelong struggle with my weight. It’s been months since I’ve seen you and yet I’m still right on track with my goals. Hypnosis is easy and it truly works. You’ve changed my life. Thank you!” –E, Seattle, WA.

”The choices aren’t hard anymore.” – Anonymous client, Duvall, WA. (She lost 6 pounds in 2 weeks.)

“Thank you, Connie! The work we have done together has truly changed my life. I have found “my happy” and am now on the journey to a stronger, slimmer, healthier me.” — Kelly, Renton, WA.

“I’ve lost 8 pounds in 12 days!” –Don B., Issaquah, WA.

“It’s amazing! I’ve lost 17 lbs in 3 weeks. I’m happy! I’m sleeping like a baby. My stress level has decreased. I’m making very healthy choices. (Before my last session) I was dancing in the shower, couldn’t wait, eager to come see Connie. She’s guided me to opening my gate to freedom.” –Julie, Mercer Island, WA.

“I will have you know I’ve lost 30 lbs. Girl, you are my absolute idol!” –Lisa B.

“I’m not so glued to the food!” Liz, Redmond, WA.

“I don’t crave ice cream at all now! Or chocolate. I am in shock!!!”– Saliha B., Issaquah, WA.

“Dear Connie: Thank you so much for working with me to help me lose weight. I had just one session, and the positive effects are nothing short of amazing! The cravings that so plagued me are just gone! I feel better and have more energy and just feel more positive since I am not constantly telling myself no. I did not realize the energy I was expending either refusing certain foods, or feeling bad after having eaten them! I cannot wait for our next session. I wish I had found you earlier as I would have saved myself so much grief and disappointment. Thank you for sharing this life altering experience with me.” –Fondly, Monica Anderson, Bellevue, WA.

“I love hypnosis…my knee cracking, painful problem is GONE. I feel a foot taller. I feel thinner. I feel lighter. I feel like a superstar!…Go see Connie! She’s magical!” – Nicole, Seattle, WA.

”I’ve been loving the results and new freedoms from my first round of NLP: 10 pounds gone, much less stress in my life, and I’m saving a ton of money at the grocery store. Yay me! People have been asking me what’s up with the changes and I send them your way.” – K. Dolan, Seattle, WA

”I experienced the most wonderful shift regarding my weight. You said something during the hypnosis that has allowed me to feel much more in touch with my true desires and beliefs about my weight. I feel the change and it has a wonderful ease about it. So I just wanted to let you know and to tell you how much I appreciate your work!” –C., Bellevue, WA

“I lost 4 pounds the first week since our hypnosis session!” –Ms. J., Woodinville

”I’ve lost 3 pounds in the past week since our session. I no longer feel the need to clean my plate.” –Marilyn H., Seattle, WA.

“Thank you for working with me. My eating habits have changed and I’m full much sooner. I haven’t weighed myself, but I haven’t done that in years. My clothes feel better!” –Sheri Parker, Topeka KS

“I haven’t had a donut since I last saw you (3 weeks), which is a MIRACLE!!” – Nichole L., Bellevue, WA

“It’s been 3-1/2 weeks, and I’ve eaten no junk food or candy! None. I’ve never done that before in my life! I’m impressed!” –Jeff J., Seattle, WA.

“I’ve lost 12 pounds!” — Naomi V., Mercer Island.

“It’s amazing. I’m such a different person from who I was. I’m happy, confident, very positive. People around me are noticing and commenting. Best of all, I’m not so hard on myself, I’ve learned to say nice things to myself. I’m so much happier. I feel like I can do anything.” – K.J., Renton, WA.

“Connie, I can’t begin to thank you for the ways you’ve made things better for me. I originally sought out Mindworks as the result of a glowing recommendation from a trusted friend and health professional in an effort to curb my neurotic eating. Connie was wonderfully professional and patient with me even when I lost confidence in myself or the process. I was able to dramatically reduce my nervous/neurotic eating, let go of self-loathing thoughts, gain some peace with difficult parent relationships and feel so much more hopeful and positive about the direction in which I was headed. I absolutely plan to return to do a little more mental house-cleaning and have recommended her so several others.” — Bree, Seattle, WA.

“I went to MindWorks for weight loss but ended up getting so much more out of my sessions with Connie. I have reduced stress, increased confidence and put past dysfunctional relationships in the past. Connie is a warm, caring, professional. The work we have done together has absolutely changed my life. I highly recommend Connie / MindWorks.” –Kelly, Seattle, WA.

“I cannot even begin to say all I want to say about Connie and the work she does at Mindworks Hypnosis. I’ve worked with Connie on a couple different occasions, and she has changed my life completely. I went to her for my lack of energy and enthusiasm for working out and losing weight. I’ve lost 50lbs and am now 10lbs from my goal!” –N, Seattle, WA.

“I was so happy to find Connie. Over the past 50 years I have spent thousands tracking down my constant, and health damaging weight problem. I talked until therapists felt we had gone as far as possible and still weighed over 250 pounds! (and growing) Three short treatments from Connie and I have been losing between 15 and 20 effortless, happy pounds a month. My Life has totally changed for the better. Folks don’t even recognize me from the back! She is a REAL LIVE miracle worker.” –GG, Redmond, WA.

I could go on… Do you get the idea here? Ethical hypnosis performed by skilled and creative hypnotherapists and by credentialed, Licensed Practitioners and Master Practitioners of NLP works for weight loss. It’s natural, pleasant, non-intrusive, and makes your whole life better. Why consider anything else?

Warm Regards, Connie

“Hooo” is ready for some positive changes?

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Connie

He chose my tree!

“Tahooo, tahooo, a merry note!” That quote is something Shakespeare-ian that Michael likes to say, but it’s also my imagination of an owl’s sound.

Owls! My office is just south of downtown Bellevue, a minute beyond the land of skyscrapers and cityscape, but you wouldn’t know it from the views out my window. You’d think you’re in a woodsy park. Or, as a colleague recently called it: “An enchanted forest.” It’s a very wetlands. The ducks and squirrels and rabbits are constant companions, but look who came to visit me this week, also!! A giant wild owl.

Owl at Mindworks Hypnosis He was magnificent. Dark gray, and sat in the tree right outside my office window most of the day. You couldn’t miss him–I think he was two feet tall. Riveting! Beautiful. Magical.

I’ve never seen a wild owl before in the flesh/feather, only zoo owls and stuffed ones in nature museums.

I love my office! There’s a peaceful and warm energy there. And so much green. To me, this setting epitomizes LIFE. Fresh, green, changing, alive, growth, movement, joy. I wonder what that owl thought, sitting there watching me do hypnosis with my clients. He looked relaxed, sleepy even. Maybe the hypnosis bounced out the window and he could feel it, too. He probably felt very comfortable, because that’s what hypnosis brings to a person. Much the same list. Comfort. Life, growth, movement, joy, movement in desired directions.

It’s nice to love what you do and where you do it.

Have a wonderful Fourth of July weekend, everybody!

Love, Connie

: Connie Brannan, CHt.

PS: I thought of a pun. It’s groan-worthy! Hypnosis for “owl” of your positive changes.

Connie and the Ducks

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Connie

Duck Crossing

Hi, Hypno Friends!

The ducks love me. And, rightly so! My office is in the most beautiful location, trees, water, fresh, green, lush, and…sinking. It’s a wetlands. And it’s wetter than usual. We’ve had some flooding.

What used to be the tenant office parking area for my building is now part of a giant mud puddle, or as I call it, “the swamp.” While it’s harder for us humans to scrounge for parking spaces, the ducks and other wildlife love it! And the ducks love me.

I feed them. Duckbread.

Yesterday I was walking to my office by way of the swamp, and in it were 7 tiny baby ducks, several adults and one “half-pint” sized duck. I see them every day! Those are “my ducks.” They were all hungry, apparently. I had made a special trip to the Orowheat bakery thrift store (again) here in Bellevue to get a big package of bread for the ducks, and now…feasting time. Duck frenzy. A happy frenzy.

It is so cute to see those baby ducks eating. And the happy sounds! One thing I’ve noticed about ducks, though, they stop eating when they’ve had enough. I’ll be tossing out the breadcrumbs and they’ll be scarfing them down, then suddenly they’re swimming away, totally disinterested. Done! Time to preen, time to sit in the sun. The rest of the bread gets picked up and whisked away by the giant crows that also live in the area.

These ducks look VERY healthy.

What a good lesson for humans, too. Stop eating when you’ve had enough. In fact, that’s part of the “Naturally Slender Healthy Eating Strategy” I help install in clients during hypnosis. NLP studies excellence and “what works.” I help people take on the unconscious patterns of naturally slender people–and my clients become slender. It works! Goodbye, bored eating. Goodbye, stress eating. Goodbye, I have to finish my plate eating. Goodbye, I see it so I have to eat it eating. Hello, healthy eating. Hello, in-tune-with-the-body eating.

Ducks know things. Useful things. And they know that I’m a friend and want the best for them. I want that for my clients, too. If you would like to eat healthier and take on the habits, thoughts, feelings that go along with healthy and result in weight loss and ongoing weight management, maybe it’s time for hypnosis.

Hypnosis for weight loss!

I know whereof I speak. I live the “healthy eating strategy” and it’s a huge part of how I lost 80+ pounds. Now, whether you’ve got 8 to lose, or 80, these tools will reshape your life and body. Call me and find out more: (425) 564-8608. http://www.loseweightseattle.com.

Warm Regards,
Connie

How Would You Rather Feel?

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Connie

Dad and the Fish!

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

I have a photograph of my dad on my desk. Here it is! I’m sharing it. This is my dad the day he caught a fish–and what a fish!– and won a salmon derby in Canada. That’s a 70+ pound salmon!! In my mind, it was the happiest moment of his life!

Now, of course I didn’t know my dad his ENTIRE life, I showed up when he was around 30. But in my mind, it captures the essence of happy. What do you think? And, thanks to Kodak, it’s captured forever. This moment in time. Framed. On my desk. When I see it, I feel happy, too.

Kodak is cool. Photography, allowing us to capture a moment in time visually, terrific. Well, we have something inside us that does even more than that. We have a wonderful ability to not just capture but recreate a moment in time as well. It’s called “memory.” And it’s not just visual. Not just a picture. It’s got the vibrancy of full-sensory LIFE. Re-LIVING. Our memories capture all of it, sensory rich full-bodied experiences, with movement, scent, taste, breath, energy, sound, emotion, thought, etc. It’s all in there. Captured in our minds and in our memories.

Guess what? This is useful!!

Thoughts are attached to feelings. Memory is attached to all of it. If my dad were still alive, and I asked him to remember that moment, that day he caught “the fish” (as it’s known in family lore), he would re-experience all that emotion you see in the picture in his body now. Just as vividly and richly. He would “get happy.” Guess what? This is useful!

Our unconscious minds (accessible more than we know) have stored the experience. We can capture it again via memory and use it NOW.

One of the things I do for clients is create good feelings and capture them for specific contexts. In a problem situation, I ask them: “How would you rather feel?” We can do that. Capture and bring those good feelings to where they are useful. If it’s fear, bring calm. You can’t have both, fear and calm operating in your body at the same time. If it’s tension, bring relaxed. You can’t have both, tense and relaxed at the same time. If it’s sad, bring some happy. You can’t be both, sad and happy at the same time. As the old song goes: something’s gotta give! It’s the negative, unwanted feeling which goes. And the positive, desired feeling which stays.

That’s NLP. Simple processes which make that happen. So fast!

And when you change how you feel, you change how you think, and you change what you do.

Have you ever made soup “from scratch?” Adding and blending spices and seasonings, salt, pepper, oregano, what have you, and tasting, adding a little more of this, and tasting, a little more of that, and tasting, until it’s JUST RIGHT. Alchemy happens, the flavors meld and merge in the pot into something brand new, something perfectly delicious. Well, we can do the same thing with feelings. Create new ones. Good ones.

I do this with clients! I’m a master chef and my spices are feelings, and I custom blend new, useful feelings for clients, feelings that advance them in new directions. We even give these new feelings new names. I’m often amused with the names my clients create for them. Two recent examples: girl’s resourceful new feeling a few days ago was called “Yay, me!” and man’s yesterday was “Quiet confidence with a smile.” I like both of those!!

What’s really useful is bringing these designer, resourceful feelings into life to change things. That’s NLP.

It’s a simple process and enormously powerful. To feel good, I mean.

Finding out how to feel good in ways and places you want to feel good is really, really easy. Call me.

http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan, CHt., Master Hypnotist

Aha!

Posted on May 17, 2011 by Connie

Shift your life with Hypnosis!

My mother often had moments she called “Aha!” moments–when some insight was gleaned and something suddenly made sense to her, or shifted her thinking. She turned these moments into poetry. She was a poet, as well as an artist!

I just had an “Aha!” moment. My “Aha!” moments turn into stories for my hypnosis clients, and blog entries! Here it is.

I was on Facebook, which I enjoy, when I encountered an unexpected difficulty, an undesired “shift.” I was typing away, and out of the blue my computer keyboard screwed up, and began typing symbols instead of letters. I couldn’t “undo” that weirdness, the shift functionality was ON and I couldn’t figure out how to turn it off, and couldn’t finish and “publish” my thought for Facebook. What’s going on? I wondered, what strange combination of function keys did I accidentally touch and activate??

I tried hitting several varieties of keys to undo the problem, alt/caps lock, function number keys, etc. Nothing. It kept with the goofy symbols instead of writing. Then I noticed, there was a crumb, a hardened crumb, somehow wedged in the side of the “shift” key, holding it down.

I brushed it off, and everything worked perfectly again. Sometimes the best solutions are the easiest, straightforward, and overlooked.

That’s right!

Warm Regards,
Connie

“Splurge, Princess, Splurge!”

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Connie

A message from the Universe?

Hi, Hypnotic Friends & Enthusiasts!

This morning when Michael and I were admiring his wallet and the contents therein, I noticed this: a $20 bill with intense red lettering on the front: “Splurge, Princess, Splurge!” I said: “That’s for me!” and I grabbed it. (With Michael’s permission, of course.) Immediately, questions and possible stories filled my mind.

How old was the Princess who was presented with this gift? Who was it from? Was it a single $20 bill or a stack of 20′s and/or other denominations as well? What was the gift-giving occasion? I conjured this: a little girl, aged 8 or so, given a no-occasion gift of $20 by her loving dad.

There’s clearly a story here! What it is, we’ll never know, unless someone reads this and recognizes the writing, and tells me. This is more than a story about a $20 bill, however. It’s also a story about the mind and how it functions.

It doesn’t end with the Princess and her gift. Between waking and work (about an hour) I was presented with at least 4 more ”princess” messages–out of the blue. I turned on my computer to check my email as I do every morning, and there was a story about the upcoming royal wedding and Princess Diana’s legacy…a princess-to-be and a real princess, Ok. That’s 2, or 3 depending on how you count. (I didn’t read the story.) Then I got dressed, and remembered that my shoes are “princess” reboks. 4. And then the next one. I got in the car, and immediately noticed the truck parked next to me and it’s large sign bolted on where the license plate should be. It read: “I’m the PRINCESS – That’s why!” 5. Five Princess references in a just a few minutes–forcing themselves into my conscious awareness.

It must mean something.

One more time, with emphasis!

I told the story before of how the universe gave me a message to get a new office space. I heard, and I obeyed, and I’m massively happy as a result. I wrote about the unconscious mind as a meaning-seeking device, making order out of chaos. What does the universe want me to know and/or do now regarding “Splurge, Princess, Splurge!”? Is it randomness and coincidence? Or is it synchronicity, and serendipity making sense of out chaos?! I choose to believe it’s the latter!

We all have something called “The Reticular Activating System” inside us, inside our brains. Basically, when it turns on, we notice things in our environment that are important to us, and give them an added level of attention. That’s a wonderful survival skill! For example, we notice where in relation to our cave that the sabertooth tigers hang out, and we’re careful and watchful in those areas. I had a very active reticular activating system around spiders, for the decades of my spider phobia. Hubby called it “bug radar.”

Today, my reticular activating system got “activated” again, with a new noticing, a princessly noticing. As I was driving this morning, I found myself scanning every word, every sign, every piece of lettering and license plate number for meaning with a new intensity, to see how it fits or clarifies “Splurge, Princess, Splurge!” Nothing yet! But I’ll let you know, as I trust my unconscious mind to have noticed this and brought it into conscious awareness for a positive reason. Any ideas or inspirations? Share!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Happy Earth Day!

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Connie

Hypnosis for a beautiful life!

Happy Earth Day to one and all. This is our planet, our lives, our time. Let’s make it be what we want, something beautiful and wondrous. Fresh & healthy. Starting with you!

Warm Regards,
Connie & Michael

Shifting Reality

Posted on April 19, 2011 by Connie

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

This is pretty mind-boggling. Look at this picture:

Clockwise or Counter-Clockwise?

Is it spinning in a clockwise motion, or is it spinning counter-clockwise? Once you have identified the spin, reverse it. Just look at it, imagine it’s motion in the opposite direction, and voila! It happens. The direction of spin is reversed. You didn’t know your mind was so powerful, did you? (I did know.)

A thing is a thing. Or is it? The way we see it, well, that’s up for grabs. Spin your perceptions in a way that makes your life better! It’s all under your control. How interesting would it be to you if your problems became absolute non-problems? For example, if desire to smoke became “Who cares?” If lunch shifted from “I must eat cookies” to I’d rather eat a spinach salad. If the couch and a box of donuts shifted into “I’m getting my butt into the gym!” If fear of public speaking became calm and confident and articulate. Here’s what I know to be true: change your perception/thinking about things and you change everything.

Want to learn how? That’s where hypnosis comes in. Hypnosis and NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Change how you think and you change how you feel, and you change how you interact in the world.

The mind is powerful. YOUR mind is powerful. Let’s use it for life improvements and more success and fun. I’m game. Are you?

Warm Regards,

Connie

The Magic of Positive Energy

Posted on April 13, 2011 by Connie

Fresh, healthy, new life!

Hi, Hypno-Friends!

I invite you to check out this tree! I took this photo today, it’s of the tree right outside my office window. I look at it every day and I admire it’s lush, fresh, new and unfurling green leaves. New life! Spring time to get blooming! It’s beautiful.

These trees outside my window are my visual aides to story-telling as I engage in what is known as Ericksonian Hypnosis. Part of the hypnosis work I do: I tell stories, use metaphors, imagery, indirect language to suggest direct change. I love nature imagery. As I work with hypnosis clients, I often talk about trees–this tree outside my window in particular. I emphasize how natural change is for trees, how easy it is to let go of that which is no longer needed, how easy to embrace fresh new healthy life, the long-haul surviver and thriver qualities of trees. They grow more beautiful and stronger every day. As I tell these stories to my clients in trance, I am also focusing energy on the trees outside my window, and lavishing them as well with this “grow healthy” patter.

Guess what!? It works! This tree is evidence of thriving! This tree is amazingly greener, more alive and blooming than any of the other trees (of the same kind) that surround my office building.

Here is precisely what those other trees look like. More like winter trees. Spring has not sprung inside this tree yet.

Same day, same kind of tree, same area.

That’s right! Kind of gray, kind of barren. What do you think? Could the focused waves of positive and healing energy emanating from my office and directed at the nearest tree time and time again really be affecting it and causing it to grow and bloom more powerfully than the other nearby trees? It looks that way to me. And it reminds me of a study I read, about the power of emotion to affect water and crystals. It’s called “The Hidden Messages in Water” by Masaru Emoto.

I KNOW that with my clients healing happens in my office daily, and new fresh possibilities are installed as I tell stories about and I focus positive energy on my trees. I just never suspected that the trees themselves would benefit.

What do you think? Why is “my” tree thriving more than any other at the Alderwood Building? Look at these pics, taken today, and decide for yourself!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan, CHt., Master Hypnotist

Spring has Sprung!

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Connie

New life!

Happy first week of spring! I like the heavily transitional seasons best, fall, and spring. Where things change. Big time! We’ve got TREES here in the Pacific Northwest, and that’s terrific. Boy, did I miss them when I lived elsewhere in the country. I lived in the desert for years (Arizona), and there was a dearth of trees. Cactus don’t count! Coming home to Seattle was such a refreshing and green experience! Yay, Seattle!

Fall and spring. Trees tell the story. Fall is the time of letting go, which the trees manage in abundance and with ease. And now it’s spring! It is the further development of that process, the healthy fresh new life that comes as a result. My neighborhood is rich with pink blooming trees right now. Cherry blossoms, I believe. Beautiful! Beautiful! Beautiful! Where’s my camera?

If you’re ready for some fresh, healthy new spring in your life, there’s a way to do that! It’s called…hypnosis. Let’s grow you something alive and beautiful. Something happy and bright. Look around you. It’s time!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Connie

The Brannan Hypnotists

Happy St. Patrick’s Day to all of our hypno-friends!

Shamrocks, the wearin’ of the green, luck, rainbows, pots of gold…it’s all good. It was also my grandfather’s birthday. Happy Birthday, Papa! What if “the Luck ‘o the Irish” were simply a state of mind?

Warm Regards,
Connie & Michael

It’s Self-Reinforcing

Posted on March 13, 2011 by Connie

Spiral5 There are a lot of myths and misunderstandings about hypnosis out there, there being the minds of people. It’s my job as a professional to set straight what I can. The truth about hypnosis. Yesterday I realized a new originating source of those misunderstandings – another local hypnosis provider. They’re giving out misinformation to their clients.

They’re selling the idea that hypnosis is WORK, something the client has to do involving their thinking/conscious mind. And do again, and do again. They’re telling them they have to consciously remember, and plan and make time to DO something on a continuing basis for the hypnosis to be effective. No! Absolutely no. A good hypnotist makes the change-work self-reinforcing. I sure do.

I had a spider phobia for 30 years. A phobia IS a type of hypnosis. In a single experience, I hypnotized myself into believing that that tiny little insect was immediately life-threatening. And my body would react. I didn’t have to DO anything to keep that pattern running inside me for 30 years. I didn’t have to remember to listen to a recorded tape every evening reminding me to remember to be afraid. How unnecessary would that be? VERY.

Patterns run in us until they are replaced by a new pattern. Hypnosis/NLP installs a new pattern. The new pattern runs. And runs. And runs.

Hypnosis changes the way you ARE in the world. The way you live and breathe. These changes are positive, healthy, and seamless. They are inside of a person. When done well, the change work feels natural and it fits with a person’s entire life. The less your conscious, thinking mind gets involved in this process, the better. You just find yourself thinking differently, feeling different, and doing different behaviors–all these congruent with your goals.

I’m not going to give you conscious-mind busy work to do and pretend that that makes the hypnosis “stick” better. That idea does hypnosis a terrible disservice.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Someday Never Comes

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Connie

Dreaming about someday...

“Someday.” What a wishy-washy weasel-y, weak word. Be wary of this word coming out of your own mouths or pens–because here’s what it really means: never. “Someday” is married to “I can’t.” They live unhappily ever after.

Movement forward is a good thing, in my model of the world. What I sell is movement, and change. Belief change, behavioral change. Life change. Useful and desired and WONDERFUL change. “Someday” is a holding in place word, not a movement word. “Do it!” “Doing it!” that’s movement. Someday…I’ll quit smoking. Someday…I’ll get my body in shape. Someday…blah blah blah. Someday never comes.

I love my teachers. One in particular, Dr. Richard Bandler, the co-creator of Neuro-Linguistic Programming™. Yesterday was his birthday. He got literally hundreds of well wishes from fans and friends across the globe on his Facebook page. One girl wrote to him: ”I will take one of your trainings and meet you someday.” I’m sure he was underwhelmed by that. I would be. It means “never.”

When I took Design Human Engineering™ with Richard and his co-trainer, John LaValle, last year, here’s one of the ideas that got well installed: “Just f****** do it!!” It being movement towards a well formed outcome, a goal, what you want in life. I hear John’s voice in my ear often, propelling me forward. I’ll have to thank him again for that!

My favorite songwriter, Smokey Robinson, said the same thing in a softer way in the lyrics of one of his best songs (More Love): “Let it be soon. Don’t hesitate. Make it now. Don’t wait…”

To me it’s so simple. If you want something (sufficiently), you do it. You make it happen. I don’t “do” someday. Why would anyone? Why not shift “someday” into “now?”

Warm Regards,
Connie

Feel Good Spin

Posted on February 22, 2011 by Connie

Here is another video demonstrating the transformational power of hypnosis.

My mom was an artist. Water color, oils, mixed media… realistic work, abstracts, she was massively creative. She created many series of her artwork, including one I particularly love. She called it: “Loving the Spin I’m In.” I have several pieces from that series on the walls in my office.

Mom art Spin She was right. It’s all a spin of our own creation. She chose one that she loved. Me, too.

If you’re sick of the negative spin of your thinking and feeling, choose something different. Now. It’s so easy…with the tool of hypnosis.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Get Tranced!

“Where are the Tomatoes?”

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Connie

I have these VERY comfortable black leather Rebok shoes I love to wear. They are a happy medium, satisfying both my desires for a nice look and comfort. They’re basically dressy tennis shoes, and they have laces. I’ve never had trouble with those laces. Until recently!

Recently, they come undone. All by themselves. Frequently. It’s pretty weird, actually. One of my clients commented on it, told me that it’s because my shoelaces are just so RELAXED. Loose. Nice idea! That is a state of being often elicited around me.

tomato The shoes remind me of a story of my little neighbor kid, who lived across the street when I was growing up. He liked to wander over into our yard and look at my dad’s tomato plants. (My dad grew the BEST tomatoes!) Nosy kid. He had this idea that full-blown, grown tomatoes should pop up overnight. He’d come over and stare at the garden the day after my dad planted and ask: “Where are the tomatoes??” I guess in his model of the world, that plant “didn’t work.”

What if that plant is actually growing gangbusters, under the surface? What if the nicest, freshest, beautiful crop of tomatoes is forming, and will emerge soon?

Sometimes my hypnosis clients demonstrate a similar “all right now or it’s nothing” attitude when they come in. (They don’t get to keep it.) If it isn’t immediate and obvious 1000% success, “it didn’t work.” It being hypnosis. One smoker client reduced a pack and a half a day habit down to 3 cigarettes in a week, and reported: “I didn’t smoke in the car, I didn’t smoke at work, I didn’t smoke in the morning, I felt no urge to, but then my mother-in-law called and you know, I had to have a cigarette. It didn’t work!” Yes, it did. And it IS working. It’s a process of change. IT is not a finite thing, it grows and evolves, like a tomato plant.

Shoelaces. That “all or nothing” attitude would entail an awful lot of money spent on shoes. Your shoelace comes untied. “The shoe didn’t work.” Better toss that shoe away. Get some different ones. Doesn’t matter if they’re custom-made exquisite Italian leather, they didn’t work. They’re untied.

Wouldn’t it be easier to simply re-tie them and carry on walking?

The antidote to “all or nothing” is what I call a recovery strategy–and it’s something we install with hypnosis. So you don’t give up prematurely, as change grows. And you don’t let setbacks stop you. You don’t toss away the shoes, berate the shoes as defective or non useful, you simply re-tie them. And carry on. So it is, with hypnosis. Some change is instantaneous, BOOM! Like flicking on a light switch. Other change evolves over time, like a light on a dial control getting brighter and brighter and brighter. Both things happen. I’ve decided to cut my Reboks some slack. They still work. I just tie them and get on with it!

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan, CHt.

Get Tranced!

I Want the World to Know

Posted on February 8, 2011 by Connie

Connie's New Ad for "Body & More"

Hi, Hypno-Friends,

I’ve got lots of decor in my office. One of my favorite pieces is a wood block word: “BELIEVE” silhouetted against the window. Next to it is an accordian sign which reads: “You can change the world.” I do believe! Yes, one mind at a time.

One of my goals as a professional hypnotist is to battle the myths and misconceptions which abound out in the world about hypnosis. That’s what “World Hypnotism Day” was all about. Sharing the truth about hypnosis. Every person I hypnotize gets a much clearer picture of what hypnosis is, what it does, how it works, how it feels, what’s it useful for. And so on.

Because I believe so passionately in hypnosis as a force for good in the world–I want to share that message. What a bum rap hypnosis gets from Hollyweird. How underutilized and under-appreciated this magic is. It’s the magic of your mind to create positive change. And it’s MASSIVE magic. It’s you.

One of the ways I get the word out about hypnosis is through advertising. Here’s my latest ad which will appear next week in the Bellevue Reporter. I think it’s GOOD! I worked with the “creative staff” at the Bellevue Reporter to put this together. I don’t look like the devil with horns or three eyes or bizarre or woo woo, do I?

I grew up around here (Seattle), born here. And I’m actually quite pleased with the acceptance of hypnosis in this community. There are many, many thriving hypnotists and hypnotherapists around about. And that’s good. However, I have friends around the country and world who also do this work, and it’s not the same acceptance everywhere. Yay, Seattle!

To keep that good vibe around hypnosis flowing, I’m shouting about it from the rooftops. The Bellevue Reporter’s Feb 18th publication “Body & More” is my next rooftop. I also shout from Bellevue College, my own seminars, my groups, on the internet, to my friends, my family. I want everyone to know. Hypnosis works! Soooo fantastically amazingly well. For so much. Check out my ad next week, and other suppliers of tools for healthier, happier lives.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Forever Young – With Hypnosis!

Posted on January 29, 2011 by Connie

Are any of you on Facebook? They’ve taken to “customizing” your profile page to show you ads they think are for YOU. Yikes. They think I need some kind of face peel. Am I on the “geezer list?”

Here’s an advertisement/picture they stuck on my page. SCARY!

Don’t need this crap! Hypnosis is the best anti-aging agent around…you’ll look younger and LIVE younger, because hypnosis is the best stress reliever ever–and stress is what ages you.

Warm Regards,

Connie

What You Didn’t Know About Stage Hypnosis

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Connie

Michael Brannan, Master Hypnotist & Licensed Trainer of NLP (tm)

by Guest Blogger, C. Michael Brannan, Master Hypnotist & Licensed Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™.

Stage hypnosis shows have always been an important way to introduce hypnosis to the general public. Many hypnotherapists, if not most, received their first introduction to hypnosis through a stage hypnosis show. Connie herself was first introduced to hypnosis through a stage hypnosis show.

Connie’s initial reaction, like that of many, was “this can’t be real,” and “they’re all plants.” That reaction is common because most of us are truly unaware of the power and role our unconscious minds play in each and every thing we do. In some cases, stage hypnotism evokes fear!

What’s really going on in a stage hypnosis show? How does what we see in a show relate to hypnotherapy? How does it relate to what we experience in ordinary life? Most people, including most hypnotherapists, haven’t realized yet that every phenomena experienced in hypnosis is experienced by everyone in their ordinary “waking” state!

I went to a hypnosis show yesterday presented as part of World Hypnotism Day (an event sponsored by the National Guild of Hypnotists, Washington State chapter). The response of most of the audience who were not hypnotherapists was one of fascination and interest. And the hypnotic phenomena are truly that.

The hypnotist performed a lot of skits, all displaying the power of the unconscious mind to control our bodies, to enter imaginative realms of fantasy and to access our minds in ways we perhaps didn’t know we could. Stage hypnosis shows are a powerful presentation of the power of the unconscious mind!

In one skit, the hypnotist created amnesia for the number 7, and had the participant then count the number of his fingers. The participant counted..1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11….have you always had 11 fingers? No, I only have 10 fingers. Anmesia can often be important. What if each time you wanted a cigarette, you simply forgot that you wanted one and continued with whatever you were doing? What if you simply forgot to eat all those unhealthy things that are keeping on those unwanted pounds?

And this experience is something we have in our ordinary life. You know that “tip of the tongue” phenomena? We know something, we know it perfectly, but just can’t get access to it at the moment. Students who study for tests and then “forget” what they learn during the test is common. They haven’t “forgotten” at all; they are just too nervous, anxious or something else to get access to the information. It’s easy to deal with: just give yourself a suggestion to remember, relax, and let your unconscious mind do its work.

The unconscious mind is extraordinarily powerful. It can give or withhold conscious access to information at a mere suggestion. Suggest the number 7 is gone, and, boom, it’s gone. Suggest it’s back, and, boom, it’s back.

The flip side is that the unconscious mind can give access to much more information as well. Suggest to yourself that you will remember more, remember more clearly and you will. In trance, people can recall vivid details and details thought long forgotten. With hypnosis, you can create states where that vivid recollection comes more quickly and more easily than you ever thought possible. And that can carry into your everyday life, allowing you to learn more, learn faster and remember what you’ve learned here.

When we say to ourselves things like “I can’t learn,” “I can’t remember” we are sabotaging ourselves. We are giving ourselves a suggestion, we are telling our unconscious minds to fail at learning, and to “forget.” And those suggestions can be just as effective as the hypnostist’s suggestion to “forget” the number 7. The unconscious is a humble servant–it will do what it is asked to do, so ask it to do things you want it to do.

______________________________

Hi, guys! Connie here. Learn more about this fun side of hypnosis here: http://www.onstagehypnosis.com.

As always, we’d love it if you’d sign up for our FREE e-newsletter, “The Monthly Trance.” Form below! It comes out (approximately) monthly, and lets you know what’s going on, hypnotically speaking. For instance, yesterday was our free World Hypnotism Day Event in Bellevue. The Seattle Times NW weekender publication declared it a “best bet” for the weekend, and yes, it was. Thank you to all who came out and participated. We’re so glad you’re getting to know hypnosis.

Warm Regards, Connie

Get Tranced!

New Year’s Resolve

Posted on December 30, 2010 by Connie

Happy 2011 To You!

Happy New Year! Are you making some wonderful New Year’s Resolutions for 2011 for your health and success and prosperity? I am!

Yes, I’ve been thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. And the word “resolve.” What does it really mean? If you’re sort of wanting something, thinking about it, but doing little or nothing to achieve it, that equals a lack of resolve. ”Gee, that would be nice someday, but…” If you’re half-heartedly doing something towards a goal for only a day or two or three and then the desire drifts away, that’s a wishy-washy resolve. Like a slap with a wet noodle–not much power in it. I believe that half-hearted determination is what most people bring to their New Year’s Resolve. And that’s sad.

However, it doesn’t have to be that way!! If weak resolve is not good enough for you, read on! Hypnosis helps you create something absolutely different. Hypnosis reaches into your inner workings and finds, reinforces and activates true resolve. True resolve is a whole-hearted affair. Heart and mind and body affair–every nerve and fiber of your being saying: “YES, I’m going for it!!!” Resolve and determination…think Rocky preparing for his big fight, eating raw eggs, and working out, running up those monument steps, triumphant (in advance) and focusing all his attention and actions on achieving his goal.

That’s real resolve. It’s power, because you KNOW you’re going to get what you want and nothing and no one can deter you. You do everything within your power and energy and creativity, with passion and motivation, to achieve it, that worthy outcome you desire.

Resolve is also a visual term. When things come into focus, they resolve. The blur resolves into a clear image. When you resolve to do something, your goal is FOCUSED. Sharp, sharp, sharp. Clear. Unmistakable. How would you like to be sharply focused and motivated and moving on your goals with true resolve? Yes, me, too.

Hypnosis, baby! If your New Year’s desires already have the force of a pure and clear RESOLUTION, yay! I applaud you! Go for it. However, if you find that clarity of desire unfocused, or the resolve is not there to give you that OOMPH, that go for it power of actual sustained movement forward, then hypnosis is a tool to help you do just that.

It doesn’t matter WHAT you are resolving to do, hypnosis can give you that directed focus and acceleration, like stepping on the gas pedal in your car. You select the destination, hypnosis is both the GPS (how to get there) and the thrust forward of stepping on the gas. Resolve. Rocky was hypnotized. He hypnotized himself into power. We are all capable of this, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to have a professional communicator help it to happen faster and more easily.

Personally, I think it would be a massively wonderful gift to give yourself for the new year: a super powerful hypnotic dose of accelerant for your goals, whatever they may be. Quitting tobacco once and for all, getting in shape, finishing that project, beginning that project, whatever you’re resolving within yourself to do and be for 2011 and beyond. The difference: with hypnosis, the resolve STICKS, long and strong enough to get what you want. How cool is that?

Resolve to make 2011 your best year ever, and begin to realize the control you do have over your life. Over your actions, your habits, your very thoughts.

Warmest Regards,
Connie

Get Tranced!

It’s Just My Imagination

Posted on December 20, 2010 by Connie

“Imagination.” The other day I was driving and musing on words. Words are, and have always been, “my thing.” I love them! When I was very young I’d sit and read the dictionary for enjoyment. And, words are also the lifeblood of my career as a professional communicator.

Hypnosis is communication, on the deepest levels of the heart and mind. I was musing in particular on the word “imagination.”

I was remembering how that word was used disparagingly when I was growing up. ”Well, she has QUITE an imagination, that one.” (She’s lying.) “It’s only your imagination.” (You’re wrong.) “He’s imagining things again!” (How can we get him back on track?) When someone says: “It’s JUST your imagination!”, they’re using the word “just” as a minimizer. Expressing a lessening of value. Why minimize magnificence? In my book, imagination is absolutely essential to life and success. It is something to be nurtured and appreciated, not treated as a problem.

Dream Imagine Relax Einstein had it right when he said: “Imagination is more powerful than knowledge.” I absolutely agree.

To any of you that have been in my office, perhaps you noticed the wood blocks on the wall: dream, imagine, relax. Of those 3, imagine is the most important! Why? In our world, what we imagine successfully is what we get. It’s integral to creation. Why would anyone want to stomp down on or minimize or belittle the ability to create? Hypnosis helps that act of creation to flourish.

How strange that imagine-ary means unreal when in truth imagine-ation makes things real.

Warm Regards & Happy Holidays to all,
Connie

“Big Ass” Cookie

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Connie

Ok, this question is to the myriad of you (and I’m one as well) who battle with weight. What do you do when you slip up? When you fall off the “being good” wagon? When that holiday treat calls to you, and you listen? Do you beat yourself up? Do you say: “Well, the day is shot, the week is shot, I might as well eat another brownie and/or piece of pizza and I’ll start again Monday!”? Do you say: “Well, I failed, best forget the whole idea of ever getting thin!!” Or do you say: “Well, I did that. It was a choice. I’d rather choose and do something different, starting NOW.”?

The topic is recovery strategies. You’ve got to shift your perception from diets, which tend to be all or nothing mindsets (you’re ON the diet, or you’re OFF the diet) to a lifestyle change orientation. Success does not equal perfection. Hypnosis helps! Even if you make a decision you don’t like, you get to make a new one, and continue from there. This essay is about cutting yourself some slack when you “goof up” (as we all do) and then continue your long term success. I’ve lost 80+ pounds in the past couple years. Is that success? Hell, yes! Was I perfect in my eating choices every moment of every day of that time? Hell, no.

cookie5 I’m going to tell the story of my own recent slip-up. And recovery! I call this story: “Big ass” cookie. My teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, encourages us to make large, rich, 3D, vibrant goal pictures in our minds to motivate us to move in those desired directions. He calls those: “big ass pictures.” Somehow, that phrase has embedded itself into my mind. So, I use it, too, even if it’s slightly vulgar. I’m going to tell the story, now, of the “big ass cookie.” It wasn’t just a picture. It was a reality.

We all have triggers in us, unconscious or conscious imprinted motivators which propel us into action. I have an “eat sweets” trigger: it’s called “Halloween.” I have another: it’s called “I’m on vacation, and it’s time to indulge myself.” I have another: it’s called “I’ve been working really hard so I deserve it.” I have another: it’s called “I’m on sale, buy me.” All of these converged a few weeks ago while I was in Chicago.

Our hotel room had a kitchenette, so we went to the store looking for some food to put in there. It was within a day or two of Halloween, and every aisle end display was full of bags of candy. I ignored those. But then…a bakery table. And on this table were Halloween decorated cupcakes, cakes, and cookies, all on sale! I was riveted by the beautiful dinner-plate sized chocolate chip, decorator-iced cookies with witches and goblins and ghosts sugar-smeared on top, the kind that ideally you cut up into about 20 serving slices. Big Ass Cookies!! My triggers converged. The cookie called to me. I bought it. Just the one. Of course, it was bigger than godzilla’s head.

I bought it, but I didn’t eat it. Yet. Then it was time to go home. I should have tossed it. I couldn’t. I put it in my suitcase, at a risk of making my suitcase over the weight limit–because it was already close. I figure this cookie weighed 2 pounds. I crammed it, this giant, hurkin’ cookie into my suitcase. And I brought it home. And I opened it. It had gotten squished. I didn’t care. I ate a piece. A big piece. Probably about two–three servings worth–THEN I tossed it. Nowhere no how is eating sugar-iced chocolate chip cookies on my low carb plan.

But, here’s the key to success. I began again. On my healthy lifestyle eating program. I had gained a few pounds while on vacation in Chicago, that “indulgence” thing kicking in–the last gasp being that cookie. Home again, I didn’t beat myself up, I recovered. Back on track! In the past two weeks I’ve lost 8 pounds.

Here’s the deal. Hypnosis is FANTASTIC for installing in you, me, all of us these recovery strategies. How to keep going, in spite of momentary temptations or lapses or “failings.” To keep focus on the big ass picture of lean and healthy, the goals that drive us. If you find yourself dieting, and giving up, dieting and giving up, hypnosis will help you reframe a new lifestyle and keep it going. Long term success. Which is not necessarily perfection! I know whereof I speak!

I am 2 pounds right now off of my all-time low adult weight, and I know I’ll get there next week. And even lower. That’s right, during the holidays, while most others are packing on the weight, I’m slenderizing. If you’re ready for long term success with your weight, I’ll help! Now is the perfect time. Call me: (425) 564-8608.

Happy Holidays & Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie Brannan, CHt.

http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net

http://www.loseweightseattle.com

http://www.seattlenlptraining.com

http://www.stopsmokingseattle.com

Rewire the Brain Through Hypnosis

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Connie

Rewire Hi, Hypno Friends!

Well, Michael and I attended another hypnosis training event this past weekend, because it’s always a good idea to learn more and increase skills. It was fantastic! As you may have noticed from my conversations here (and that’s what this blog is, me thinking out loud), I CARE about hypnosis. And being good at it. I LOVE hypnosis. I live hypnosis. I want to share the good word on hypnosis. It is so positive and so powerful, so healing, and so mis-understood and underappreciated it the world. (You may enjoy my blog entry on “Hollyweird.”) http://mindworkshypnosis.net/hypnotizer/?p=202. People are influenced by movies, TV, popular culture–and those media do not always portray the reality of hypnosis.

So, I have two stories I want to share in this blog entry. 1. My recent efforts to combat ”Hollyweird” by giving my professional input into a performance involving hypnosis and 2. More about my hypnosis training and the cool and valuable things I learned there–how to help rewire the brain, specifically for stroke survivors. However, rewiring is also applicable for so much more than that. We also enhanced our knowledge on how to alleviate pain with hypnosis, and ”emergency hypnosis” for those life and death situations such as car crashes or dealing with burn victims.

Story 1. I had a fun new gig. I consulted for a theater company. They’re putting on a play in the Seattle area and it involves a scene of hypnosis. They wanted to get it right, be authentic, so they contacted me. I was happy to help. I met with the director and several actors and explained the truth about hypnosis, what it is, how it feels, what it can do. They acted out the scene for me and I critiqued. (So much fun!) More than just describing, I also hypnotized them to experience it live and first hand. Because, experiencing is believing. They’re believers now. In the positive power and magic of hypnosis. Yay!! Take that, Hollyweird! And Hollyweird’s continuing saga of evil, thieving, murdering, insane hypnotists with their armies of hypno-zombie slaves.

Here’s an entertainment source putting a more accurate depiction out there. I approve! Here’s the play, by the way, if you’re interested. It opens this Friday: http://thatgtheatre.com/now.html. The play is “Shoreditch Madonna.”

Story 2. Don Mottin 001 Cropped Enhanced More about the training. It was two days of continuing education, put on by the NGH (National Guild of Hypnotists, which is the oldest, largest and most respected professional organization of hypnotists in the US) and Michael and I both attended. Yay! We now have more tools to help with pain management, emergency hypnosis, and helping stroke survivors. We learned to rewire the brain through hypnosis–which is something we do on a daily basis anyway, but now specifically targeted for helping stroke survivors. After a stroke, there may be a loss of movement, vision, cognitive function, and so on. These tools help stroke survivors to be more functional and regain capabilities! A worthy goal, and wonderful hypnosis tools.

Here’s a picture of me and the instructor, Don Mottin. Besides being a stroke survivor himself, He’s Vice President of the NGH. That’s the national group, and we were darn lucky to have him travel to Seattle to offer this training. It’s all in the family as Michael, my Michael, is President of our state’s local chapter of the NGH, the NGHWA. http://www.nghwa.org. One of the facets of the guild is to have a committment to continuing hypnosis education. This is some of that! Yes! Learning, in my model of the world, is ongoing and forever. That’s what I want and that’s what I do. Learn and utilize. My intention, of course, is to be the best and most helpful hypnotist I can be. More tools is good tools.

If you know someone who has suffered a stroke, please do consider hypnosis and hypnotherapy as a tool to help them rewire their brain. I know this works, and I’d be happy to work in conjuction with their medical MDs to enhance the healing process and regain their lives!

Warm Regards,
Connie

The Cup of Many Handles – or, Change is Easy

Posted on October 1, 2010 by Connie

Connie Brannan, Seattle's best hypnosis.

Connie Brannan, Licensed Trainer of NLP (tm)

A lot of people have questions about NLP. “What’s THAT?” They come to me for hypnosis, but rarely have heard of NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™. It’s a “high tech hypnosis,” according to my teacher and the inventor of those three letters, Dr. Richard Bandler. Michael and I are both Licensed Trainers of NLP, and it’s a part of everything I do hypnotically with clients in the same way that green is a part of grass. I don’t offer a brown, dried lawn, with some patches of green, maybe. My lawn is LUSH and alive and vibrant green.

NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™ is a way of looking at the world. A very useful, empowering way. It’s about how people think, how the mind works, and how change happens. About the very experience of life. How we create our personal worlds. And how we can easily create new worlds for ourselves, to be more the way we want them and less the way we don’t want them to be–mentally, physically, behaviorally, emotionally, spiritually. I love NLP more than anything else I’ve ever learned in my life.

NLP is based on our sensory experience of the world. We see through our eyes, and we also create pictures in our mind’s eye. We hear through our ears, and we create sound bites and audio loops and talk to ourselves in our mind’s ear. We physically touch things with our fingers and bodies, a table, a piece of fabric, and experience smooth, rough, texture, warmth, and so on. And we create feelings inside ourselves. Love, joy, fear. We can stick something in our mouth and taste it, and we can remember and relive tastes in our memory. We can smell something under our nose, and we can re-create smells in our mind’s nose.

Cake - multi-sensual experience

My Nana made the BEST chocolate cake. I can taste it right now–in my imagination. And smell it. And see Nana’s kitchen, and her face and her voice while offering it to me, and get a warm feeling of love from it. All at the same time. Memories are multi-sensual.

Here’s the secret of life and what NLP has discovered: those representations that we create in our minds, the pictures, sounds we play, etc. ARE our experience of life. They drive us. They are us. If we change the pictures and sounds, etc, we are changing our experience of life itself. We are changing our lives! Changing habits, thoughts, behaviors, bodies. And more! This idea creates an absolutely magical control that you can take over your life to get the life you want. NLP does that!

COFFEE-CUP-300x273 Regarding the multi-sensual nature of memory and experience, here’s how I describe some of my NLP work to clients. I say: imagine a cup filled with coffee. A nice ceramic Starbucks coffee cup. (I show them the very one sitting on my desk for ease of illustration.) It’s got a handle. Yes, it does. You pick it up by the handle. You’re holding the cup. Now, imagine that cup has several handles, protruding in different directions all around the sides of the cup. You could grab any of those handles. And you’ve still got a hold of the cup. You can raise it in the air. You can wave it around. You can drink from it. (Yay!)

It doesn’t matter which handle as they all are attached. Those handles are pieces of our representations of experience. One handle is images in the mind. One handle is sound bites. One handle is feelings. We have extra handles there for stuff we don’t even understand, yet. Like the 6th sense. Or energy. There’s an awful lot going on in a moment of life and in a memory, some things we perceive, some we don’t, but we are grabbing ahold of IT by any handle. Grabbing ahold of life!

If you come into my office wanting help with an irrational fear of spiders, for example, I may help you via helping you adjust pictures, sounds, feelings, tastes, smells. I’ll grab a handle of the problem. Maybe it’s a picture. And we’ve got the fear. And we can tweak it out of existence by tweaking the picture. Maybe in your mind’s eye a spider is 10 feet tall, and 3 inches from your face. (That would frighten anyone!) If we take that picture and shrink it down to tiny, and push it off into the distance, the fear shrinks, too. We tweak the pictures you make in your own brain, the sounds, the smells, and so on to help you re-create your experience of life. Cool, huh? It works!! You can change your world. Absolutely, positively magic. NLP.

If you want to experience some of this magic, you know how. Call me and come on into my office. If you want to LEARN this magic, I can help you there, too. http://www.seattlenlptraining.com. Michael and I are damn good at this stuff, because we love it. And have trained with the best. Now, with all this talk of coffee cups, I need to go drink some! Bye for now.

Warm Regards,
Connie

The Cobbler’s Wife

Posted on September 4, 2010 by Connie

In my early days of learning hypnosis, I loved to have conversations with professional hypnotherapists. Professional hypnotists. Lucky for me, I found several very open and sharing professionals on a hypnosis forum. They answered my questions. Here’s one question I asked, and was answered.

I asked if hypnotists (and NLP people–those using that very specific brand of conversational hypnosis for positive change) were all supermen. And superwomen. Having worked on themselves to the point of perfect specimens of precision and excellence. No limiting beliefs, no bad habits, perfect bodies, perfect lives. These new tools seemed so miraculous to me (and they are) that I was “just askin’!” I was beginning to experience success with hypnosis for weight loss, and I wondered how far these professionals were able to use these tools in their own lives, to improve their own lives. The answer surprised me!

shoes The consensus was, yes, we use them, but only a little, and only when there’s time. Which, apparently, there wasn’t. One friend told the story of the cobbler’s wife. He, the cobbler, the shoe-maker, was so busy making shoes for other people his own family was running around without. His wife had old, old tattered shoes. He was wearing old shoes, himself. Now, that’s sad. I think it would have been of benefit to his business to make his wife some new, damn fine shoes. For her to wear, love, show off, dance in. People would notice. Her shoes would attract attention, and get him MORE business. “Wow, look at those beautiful shoes, where’d you get them?” “My husband makes these shoes!” “Wow, I’m coming in, I want shoes like that!”

I’ve decided to flaunt my shoes. Only they aren’t shoes. My personal success with hypnosis is manyfold, but the easily visible part is the weight loss. I want people to notice that hypnosis works! For weight loss and weight management.

Now, a cigarette-smoking hypnotist can probably help you with smoking cessation and an obese hypnotist can probably help you with weight loss–the tools are the same. But wouldn’t you rather work with someone who truly KNOWS and lives this success day by day, month by month, year by year? I would! Look at my shoes!! They sparkle!! I’ll make you a pair.

Warm Regards,
Connie

Connie on Dinner Cruise (2)

Honing Skills on my Birthday Month

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Connie

I like words. I like learning them, hearing them, using them. Words are “my thing” (which is terrific for a hypnotist). And they always have been my thing. Soon, I’ll be “honing.” My skills in hypnosis & NLP. My tools, my abililty to HELP. My FUN. Honing. Sharpening. Making better. I also like dictionary.com. “To make more acute, intense or effective; improve; perfect: to hone one’s skills.” Absolutely! It also means “To move or advance toward a target or goal.” Hone in.

I’m doing both!

Because here’s what I’m honing towards, here’s what I want. To be the absolute best changeworker and hypnotist/hypnotherapist possible. I already am the best in the Pacific Northwest, but the world’s a big place. I want to be one of the absolute best in the universe. So, I’m continuing my education, and studying with and learning from the best of the best. Modeling genius. It’s time intensive, it’s money intensive, it takes committment. But I’m doing it! Michael and I both!

We’re off for a couple weeks of more hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming trainings. In Orlando, Florida, with the co-originator of NLP, and in my opinion, the best hypnotist living, Dr. Richard Bandler. We go where the geniuses perform/teach and it’s not always nearby. We’re doing it! It’s my joy, my passion, as well as my comittment to honing! It’s also my birthday present to myself! (I’m a July baby!)

Hypnosis is the best present of all!

A committment to excellence. That’s a good thing! I’m on Facebook (you can be my friend), and recently noticed an example of a differing attitude. A fellow hypnotist and NLP-er posted on one of my teachers’ pages whining (or so it appeared to me) that her training certification, the actual certificate she earned from him had an expiration date on it. Why, she asked. The answer is simple. Hypnosis and NLP is not something you learn once, and wham, done. I guess some people do approach a profession this way. “I know how to cut that piece of brick. I’m done.” Not me. No way, Jose. That certificate is only the beginning.

For me, learning is a never-ending unfolding process, and I’m ALWAYS desirous of improving my skills. One can ALWAYS be better. Sharper. More inspired. In the realm of the mind, there’s no hard and fast, “this is it.” There are more things to LEARN! When you bring in native intelligence and a passion for and committment to what you’re doing, and add the continued exposure to excellence, the continued honing (of something absolutely worth honing), you get someone who knows what they’re doing.

I know what I’m doing. And that means I can help you better, faster, more efficiently, more creatively than other people can. If you really want change, I certainly think you should seek out the best for that. Aren’t you worth it? Another wonderful mentor/teacher of mine said to me once: “It ain’t bragging, if it’s true.” I’m not bragging. I am extremely talented at this work, this art, and getting better all the time.

I hope to post here from Orlando and the trainings! Michael and I send warm (upper 90′s) greetings!

Warm Regards,
Connie