Put a New Frame on it!

A problem is simply a frame of mind, a way of looking at things.  If it’s not a problem to YOU, it’s not a problem.  Think about flying on an airplane.  After all the hustle/bustle of travel arrangements, packing, airports, and etc. when I get on a plane, I settle into the seat and go:  “ahhhhhhhhh.”  Now it’s time to relax.  No worries.   All I have to do is sit here and enjoy myself.  Perhaps for someone else sitting down a few rows,  it’s churning turmoil inside, it’s white-knuckle time.  It’s visions of disaster.  It doesn’t have to be.  You can change your mind.  And experience life differently.  Yes, about flying, and pretty much about ANYTHING!  That’s what hypnosis can do!  It’s called “reframing.”

Perhaps you’re skeptical about those statements.   Here’s a few recent examples of reframing from my life, for further illustration.

I got caught up in the shopping frenzy last week.  My husband and I were at the mall, and I found a shirt I loved.  The color in particular was appealing to me.  Hypnotists have an “inside joke” about the color purple being hypnotic, because one of the most famous and successful hypnotists in the world, Milton Erickson, was fond of wearing bright purple jumpsuits.  Color analysis books describe purple as the dreamer color.

I found a purple shirt.  Not just any old purple, this was a rich, deep royal purple, a magically hypnotic jewel-tone purple.  I was excited to find it, and on sale!  🙂  As I was checking out at the department store, the clerk commented on the “grape” shirt.  Grape?  Yikes.  I almost put it back.  I don’t want a grape shirt, as that sounds utterly unappealing.  Purple, yes.  Grape, forget about it!  One word flipped my state of mind about the shirt, and not in a good way.  She reframed my shirt (negatively) and almost lost the sale.  This is something we teach in our NLP for Sales courses, how to reframe in a way that sells, not creates aversion.

Here’s another example of reframing.  This is a sign.

Perhaps you’re familiar with it.  It indicates a pedestrian crosswalk.  It’s a stylized guy crossing the street.  You can see that.

Here is a sign I saw today in a parking garage.

They’ve shifted the sign slightly, and the meaning massively.  What it thinks it’s saying is “pedestrian crossing,” but what I see is a pedestrian falling, and flying through the air, obviously after being struck by a moving vehicle.  Yikes, again!  A different angle on the picture, and the whole meaning changes.  That’s reframing.

Here’s a classic example of reframing.  Imagine a roaring fire in a fireplace.  That elicits positive feelings, right?  Cozy, nice, warm.  Now, expand the picture’s parameter, and you see the house is on fire as well.  Oh, no, run for your lives!  Negative feelings.  Now expand the picture further and you see it’s all a movie set and they’re only filming a controlled reproduction of a house fire.  Positive feelings, again.  A shift of frame changes everything.

What makes this “reframing” process cool of course is changing things that are problems in your life to non-problems.  Like the fear of flying.  What if your experience of planes and flight became a frame of relaxation, like lounging on a tropical beach or sitting in your easy chair at home?  Hypnosis can do that.

Big secret:   How we feel and how we respond to things and the thoughts/frames we create around them:  it’s all moveable furniture.  Within our control.  If you want to rearrange your mental furniture in a way that creates more beauty and ease  and success in your life, I can help.  That is my gig.  My passion.  My joy.  Come see me and we’ll reframe those problems out of existence.

Warm Regards,
Connie