Hi, Hypnosis Friends!
Today’s entry is written by Michael Brannan, my partner in business and life! This was part of a larger discussion on an international hypnosis and NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming forum board and I’m sharing it because it has so many wonder elements that explain the work we do.
The topic was breaking “addiction” via adopting a new state of mind–which Michael and I have been helping clients do successfully for years, whether that addiction was drugs, sugar, tobacco, gambling, pornography, etc. Michael says:
“Certainly, these drugs can alter brain chemistry; but, in fact, your own body is far more capable of changing your brain chemistry faster and more effectively than a drug. Your brain chemistry changes every time you go from thinking a happy thought to thinking an unhappy thought. Creativity is about going into the right state of mind.
Creativity is almost always the work of the unconscious mind. Insight, inspiration, innovative ways of looking at things are necessarily things that lie outside conscious control. We can, of course, consciously set the stage for the unconscious to engage in creative activity through conscious efforts at problem solving, game playing, looking at things from a different perspective, etc.
Even science is replete with anecdotes of discovery by something just popping into the mind from seemingly unrelated stimulus (witness the discovery of the double helix), or the use of imagination, witness Einstein imagining what it would be like to travel along with a light wave.
I know a hypnosis teacher who thought drugs were an answer to getting more creative faster. It’s not necessary. In a training I once attended, we did the “drug of choice” experiment–going into trance and reproducing the experience of having a drug. It’s safer, and legal, too!
What state do you want, and how can you tweak it to make it even more of what you want? Change your state and you will change your brain chemistry–no drugs needed.”
This is all true, and I agree with every word that Michael has written here. Changing your thinking changes your body chemistry, hence the “Neuro” (neurology) in Neuro Linguistic Programming. Any state of mind and body, including one of “addiction,” can be altered with these tools. And frequently is, in my office, just about every day. And when you change your brain chemistry (mood), you change your thinking, and also your behaviors. It’s all linked.
So, when a person feels stuck and says to himself or herself: “I’m not this (creative), or I’m not this (analytical), or I’m not this (motivated), or I’m not this (powerful)”, well, the truth is, yes, you are! And Michael and I have the tools to enact it.
Find out more about NLP here : http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net (the clinical work side of what we do as Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapists ®) and here: http://www.seattlenlptraining.com (the career school side of what we do as Licensed Trainers of NLP ®).
All the Best,
Connie & Michael