Although hypnosis is one of the easiest, most natural and effective ways to make a significant and lasting change in your life, it’s also one of the most misunderstood.

Have you ever been driving somewhere in your car and started thinking about something so deeply  that the next thing you know you’re at your destination? And you don’t remember any of the details of the trip?

That state of deep thought is commonly referred to as a hypnotic trance. That’s you thinking without using the critical, or analytical, part of your mind.

It’s the real you. It’s the part of you that does the heavy lifting and does most of the real work. It’s also referred to as the subconscious or the unconscious.

It’s sees the world as a whole. It’s what gives you that instant, complete, deep and intuitive understanding of yourself and events in your life.

But it’s often hidden by the critical part of the mind, which means you don’t get much direct access to that deeper part of you.

Hypnosis opens the door. With a little direction, that part of your mind can do amazing things.

Where Attention Goes, Energy Flows

In order to  get in touch with the deeper part of the mind you need to bypass the critical “gatekeeper” that stands in the way.

So the first power tip in using hypnosis is to absorb your attention.  You can do this very easily by thinking of a pleasant event. Be very specific in your representation of the event. What were the sights, and sounds that inspired your excitement? Use all your senses: taste, touch, sight, sound and smell.

Notice how your entire attention is absorbed by the memory of the experience. Without trying, you’ll automatically feel relaxed and refreshed — and energized. That’s because where attention goes, energy flows.

This technique sidelines the critical factor of your mind effortlessly.

That’s why it’s important to direct your attention toward positive events. And that means you’ll have less time to wallow in the negative.

Intention Keeps You on Course

Now you can create pleasant imagery and “trance out” on positive experiences. But tomorrow you go to the office and someone starts telling you the about latest headlines and horror stories in graphic detail.

Poof. Now you’re still trancing out — but who wants those trances?

The way to stay on track is by developing your intent by choosing your trances instead of just letting them happen.

In the beginning it may take more effort. But each time you ask yourself what you want and let yourself drop into hypnosis while focusing on something positive that you desire, the easier and more automatic it will become.

It won’t take long before you get hooked on the power of positive hypnotic trances. Clear your mind of all the distracting junk and allow yourself to relax and focus on a sense of yourself being healthy and happy. Feel the rush of playing out in your mind being treated with respect and admiration by people. See yourself winning, achieving and growing more and more each day. Learn to challenge yourself with a clear intent to achieve a positive outcome. Develop the habit of creating trance states where good things happen.

If you make a habit of trancing out with these positive images and projections of yourself and feel yourself already enjoying the benefits of having what you’re striving for, you’ll recognize when someone comes and tries to dump negative, garbage thoughts in your mind. Now you have the power of choice, and it will be easy to simply turn away from the negative and return to your regularly scheduled positive programming. Enjoy.

Get in the habit of empowering your positive intention.  Let it grow strong. With practice, you’ll learn to stay on course, even in the face of that popular guy or girl with the super strong personality that wants to pull you down and off track.

Start Building a Brighter Future Now

In addition to reliving a past event by focusing on it, you can take hypnosis to the next level. Instead of using a past event, you can imagine and represent things in your life the way you want them to be in the future. The power in this technique is that since you’re imagining it now, you’re feeling it now, which means you’re already benefiting from the way it will be…NOW.

Take time every day to sit and think of where you want to go, want you want to become and what you want to accomplish.

Then, allow yourself to be there now. Embrace how it feels to already be there doing those cool things. Make it feel real. As if it were a dream that you didn’t have those things. You’ve just woken up and are returning to the REALITY of being the person who enjoys having all those benefits.

You’ll be amazed at the things you accomplish today and the shift in your mindset after a few minutes.

Hypnotize yourself to have and a bright and promising future and you’ll begin to enjoy it immediately.

As you now realize, we’ve all been in trance. We go in and out of trance all day long without being aware of it. In a poll on this site, 69% of 155 people polled believed they had never been in a trance. To those of you who weren’t aware of your trances, you’re in for a fun ride to a positive life. Start today with some of my suggestions.

Leave me a comment below and let me know how these ideas are helping you, if at all. Your opinion is very important here at MyOpinion.com.

Of all the things that money can buy, the best gift you can give for Mother’s Day costs nothing. And it’s guaranteed to please.

Not only is it easy on your pocketbook, you won’t have to spend any time wrapping it or shipping it.

The best way to give this gift is on person, but you can do it from the other side of the world as well.

Sound interesting?

The way you give the gift is this:

1)      If you can be physically with the person, have the person sit down comfortably and sit next to her.

2)      Ask her to think of a time when she was very happy and excited about something. She’ll start enjoying the moment right away, right?

3)      Help her deepen her enjoyment of the experience by asking orienting questions like, “Where are you?” “Is it day or night?” “Who are you with?” You can add other questions as well. The best questions are about sights, sounds, smells and tastes. Just make sure that she stays focused on the part that she enjoys.

4)      Ask her repeatedly how she is feeling. When she answers by saying something like “I feel wonderful!” Repeat her words exactly. “You DO feel wonderful, don’t you?”

5)      Let her continue to enjoy the experience. Tell her she shouldn’t come back to the present any more quickly than she is able to fully appreciate the enjoyment and to bring it with her into the present moment and to bring it back whenever she wishes throughout the day.

Congratulations, you’ve just given her a gift that few other people will give her this Mother’s Day.

In reality, you just gave her the gift of hypnosis. What you just did is often referred to an instant hypnotic induction.

Fun, wasn’t it?

Try this out and let me know about your experiences. Leave a comment below. You don’t need to wait for Mother’s Day and obviously you can practice on ANYBODY. Do it with a friend the next time you see him.

Quit smoking campaigns are great examples of how NOT to make a lasting change in your life.

Many of them lack one essential ingredient that would allow most smokers to give up smoking, immediately and effortlessly, forever.

Even if you don’t smoke, you need to know what that ingredient is since, without it, you’ll never be able to make a long term change in your life, or to help another person to do so.

Just the facts?

No doubt that knowledge is power.  Quit smoking forums are full of images of black lungs, skulls and crossbones and a list as long as your arm of diseases that you can get from smoking.

But any smoker will tell you that knowledge in the form of scare statistics alone actually make it more difficult to stop smoking, not easier. Now you’ve got a bunch of reasons to leave but no where to go.

So, no, not just the facts, please.

Stop pushing!

And then there’s the “will power” crowd. They’ll tell you that you just need to use mind over matter and “tough it out.” You probably know some of those as well. While it feels good to push away and feel the distance, without the negative reference point, you lose your orientation.

Problem is, sooner or later, you’ll stop pushing. Since there are no alternatives, you’re right back where you started.

Didn’t those guys quit for a while? Isn’t  it odd that they seem happier and less confused since they started smoking again?

Both the brute force will power folks and the knowledge is power group will get you to do something that is essential for change.  They get you to focus. The problem is that you’ll be fixated on the problem and not the solution. And just like the fly mesmerized by the light, you’ll keep circling the one thing that you want to free yourself from.

Options, Options, Options

NLP founders John Grinder and Richard Bandler said it well: If you have one option, you have no choice at all ( remember the fly?). When you add a second option, you create a dilemma (will power: not THIS but THAT).

It’s when you create a third option that you have the one ingredient which will set you free: You give yourself true CHOICE.

Choice brings with it the dimension of freedom. You’re no longer limited to accepting the status quo or futilely rebelling against it.

With three or more options, you can choose to leave and you’re free to return. But why return when it’s not working and there are other avenues to explore? Now you can travel a third path that takes you far from the first two. Or you can come back – and test the waters again. Combined with the knowledge of the benefits and dangers of each, you can choose what suits you best.

Ask anybody who has successfully given up smoking and not returned weather they ever consider smoking again. I think you’ll be surprised to find that the thought doesn’t scare them. They just have gained a deep understanding of the negative aspects and have found that there are other options that have more benefits.

They don’t need to push away from smoking. They are truly free of the necessity of picking up another cigarette.

The decision of the ex-smoker to stop smoking is deep, intuitive and lasting.

Choice enables you to open your mind to  myth-busting knowledge and take action.

So the question is how do you create options for yourself and for others.

You can learn from smokers. Smokers have the advantage of being able to concretely measure their progress. It’s simple. Either they’re putting a cigarette in their mouth or they’re not.

In order to kick the habit of smoking, you have to understand at an intuitive level how the mind works. Hypnotherapy and NLP both give us insights into the mind.

Hypnosis is my favorite, because you don’t even need to explain that people walk around in altered states all day long. You can simply tell stories that put images in people’s minds that alter their state and give them a new perspective.

“How would you feel if  your breath were always fresh and your teeth always sparkly white? Picture in your mind how you would walk if you were free of cigarettes and all the effects. Feel the confident strides and the power in your legs. Take a deep breath, the breath of someone who has been smoke free for a long time. Notice how deeply you can breathe. Feel how with each breath you feel energized and empowered….”

How do you give yourself choice and what is the effect when you take action on a new option? Leave a comment below. I appreciate your thoughts.

How would your life change if every emotion you ever had weren’t good or bad, but just energy that you could use to get more of what you wanted? What if the amount of energy only depended on the intensity of the emotion? And what if what you used to call a bad experience that evoked a “negative” emotion could be used in the same way as a “good” experience?

Let’s take an example. What happens when the phone rings and, when you answer, you hear the voice of a dear old friend, warmly greeting you and expressing his joy in finally having reached you?

You would feel great, right? And maybe you would start to let all the pleasant images pass through your mind of the time you had spent together.

Now, what, on the other hand, — until NOW – happened, when the person on the other end of the phone was a nasty person from the bank informing you that you’re account was overdrawn (again) and you really need to learn some basic accounting skills or a nasty client or your boss in a bad mood?

Not too many happy images, right?

Here’s the fun part. Now you’re going to pretend that you can choose to look at that undesired event and the associated emotion as being no different in value from the desired event as far as being good or bad.

Let go of good and bad. These kinds of judgments are the friction in our otherwise frictionless world of just doing what we do.

You can use the energy in any way you want, or you can just let go of it. The more intense an emotion is, the more energy it will contain and the farther it can take you if you let it.

Since there’s energy in the emotion, we don’t want to waste it by suppressing, denying or ignoring it. We want to use it. So what you want to do is to REDIRECT the energy of the emotion so that it moves in the direction of your desires.

Here’s the procedure:

1)  Identify the trigger: As you go through the rest of your day, watch for any event that triggers an uncomfortable and/or undesired emotion. Think of it as just a game to pass the time, as if you were sitting in a shopping center or in a park and the goal were to find everyone who is wearing a blue shirt. Except in this game, you are looking for unpleasant and undesired thoughts.

2)  Focus and Intensify: When you come across an unpleasant thought, whether it was triggered by an external or internal event, describe to yourself exactly what it is that you don’t like about it. Say it out loud, if possible. Imagine you are looking at the feeling as if you were looking at the moon through a telescope. As you turn the focus wheel you see if become clearer and more intense, and then less intense once it has gone back out of focus. Adjust it so that the feeling is clearest and the most intense. Clearly identifying the triggered emotion will make redirecting the energy easier.

3)  Create a New Direction: Now imagine what you would like to be doing in that moment. Totally let go of the triggering image and vividly imagine yourself doing what you would like to be doing. Let yourself enjoy the activity in your mind and feel how the excitement and enthusiasm for this activity relaxes and energizes you. See yourself striving, succeeding and feeling great about it. Make sure you see moving images and that they are as detailed as possible.

4)  Redirect and intensify: Now imagine the energy of the undesired emotion transforming into a boomerang which you’re holding in your hand. The boomerang is not heavy, but it has a very solid and substantial presence in your hand. Take the boomerang and throw it away from you as hard as you can. As it moves away, feel the unpleasant emotion growing weaker and weaker until it disappears. After the negative feeling has completely vanished, watch the boomerang swing around and come back towards you. As it approaches it becomes brighter and more intense. The feeling is positive now and long before it reaches you, you sense the glow of power it adds to your immediate goal that you visualized just a few moments ago. When it reaches your hand and you grasp the boomerang now energized with the positive energy of your desire and intensified by the new energy of a previously unpleasant emotion, feel the positive energy as it flows down your arm and into the rest of your body.

5)  Ride the wave: Free from unhappy, unpleasant, annoying and/or limiting feelings, seize the moment to ride the increased positive energy like a beam of light as you move in the direction of your immediate desire as defined in the new direction you visualized. Use the enhanced clarity of purpose and increased momentum to accomplish your goal as quickly as possible. And then move on to the next.

Instead of fearing being ambushed by bad feeling or experiences, this method of dealing with your emotions can empower you look forward to positive and well as negative emotions and events. It takes some practice, patience and persistence, but I’m sure you’ll agree that the benefits are well worth the effort.

As always, this blog is hungry for comments. Try this out and let me know how it works for you. Take a moment to give me your thoughts below in the comments section.

Take a moment right now and think of something that you would like to do, but have doubts about whether you can accomplish it.

Got it?

Now take a minute right now to see yourself succeeding at that very project. Something has changed, but you can’t put your finger on it. The task seems easy.

The more you progress, the more you feel you’re more in control. You see yourself moving forward on your goal and you note how your confidence increases each time you run into a snag. You can’t say why, but you know you’ll win in the end. It’s just a matter of time. You ask yourself what has gotten into you, since before you always had problems getting stuff like this done.

Imagine each obstacle you run into to be a naïve, primitive attempt at tripping you up. But trying to stop you is futile. You’re destined to succeed.

At first, you’re surprised at the ease with which you overcome each obstacle, but slowly you see yourself as invincible, picking up speed like a runaway freight train. You begin to believe this is the real you. You’re a winner. All you have to do is apply yourself and work through each setback and ultimately you’ll succeed. It never could have been otherwise. You always win.

STOP!!!

Did you notice your whole attitude was altered just by changing the way you look at yourself? Did you feel more relaxed, more confident, powerful and energetic?

Creating the right mindset for success is not hard, but it’s more than just “positive thinking.” In a way, it’s too simple and that’s why a lot of people try it and immediately return to their old ways of thinking. It does feel strange in the beginning to see yourself as a winner and to take every event or thought and project it helping you to get where you want to go.

But it’s not any sillier than taking everything that happens to you and using as an indication that you have failed or will fail…

Why doesn’t anybody questions that mindset?

Complete strangers will take time out of their busy day to help you find reasons why you’ll fail. They’ll feel quite comfortable welcoming you into the pessimist’s corner.

Hopefully now you’ll choose to point your mind in a positive direction.

Do you really need for the likes of Tony Robbins to suggest that you give yourself the gift of seeing yourself as a winner to transform your life? If not, excellent! If so, no problem, just imagine that he was the one that suggested this to you personally on a one-on-one session with him.

Remember, you’re driving your mind’s bus. If you think this is bizarre, keep in mind that Einstein came up with a lot of his theories of relativity by imagining that he was riding on a beam of light.

So you’ll be in good company.

Leave me a comment below and tell me what you think and if you feel different about any challenge in your life when you apply this exercise. Remember for it to work, it has to be specific and you need to make the images (the movie, really, since it should have moving images) as vivid and real as possible, as if you were actually living it.

Do you fear losing your job?

What if I told you that it could be the best thing that could happen to you?

I know this suggestion makes some people angry, but hear me out. If you are consumed by a fear of losing your job, it can be a golden opportunity to free yourself from fear forever.

Fear is just the mind’s warning system. Think idiot lights in your car. It’s your mind’s way of PROTECTING you. Just like the warning lights in your car protect your car from damage by alerting you to the danger, your mind alerts you to dangers to yourself by turning on the warning lights of fear.

With practice, you can take care of the problem and turn off the warning lights.

Here’s how you do it:

1) Stop every time when you become afraid, including when you feel only slightly anxious.

2) Write down what the warning is and what needs to be done to fix the problem.

Map it like out like this:
warning => fear => corrective action
oil light =>engine could be destroyed => add oil
anger at milk left out on the counter => spoiled milk => put milk in refrigerator
fear of losing job => inability to support family => look for alternative means to make money/ cut expenses/etc

3) Take immeditate acton – when you get your body involved, you’ll begin to condition yourself to focus on the solution instead of fixating on your fear.

Do this for seven days in a row. After that you will program your mind to see fear as an opportunity to solve a problem. You will feel energized by fear in a positive way. Use the momentum of fear to solve problems faster. The more you do this, the more your confidence will grow and you will find that you are no longer a captive of fear.

Often it is the hard things in life that move us to finally focus on what we really want. Fear of losing your job can be a great opportunity.

Give me your comments below. Feel free to disagree.

This blog is going to focus on helping you get the edge back in your life.

In order for it to be effective, I need your feedback. So those of you who voted for my writing about stuff that you tell me you are interested in, you were right — if you tell me.

The best place to start is with goals.

When you were a child, life moved so fast because it was full of an infinite variety of new things to do. Think about all the things that you learned to do:

* How to walk
* How to talk
* How to brush your teeth
* How to dress
* How to ride a bike
* How to take the school bus
* How to read and write
* …and the list goes on

Since you were always doing something new, or about to do something new, you filled your mind with the fun images of all those exciting tasks. You felt like your were flying at the speed of light.

Life was good, wasn’t it?

Now you know how to do most things that are required in life and you can just coast — and most people do just that.

Let’s face it, you just get bored out of your skull on that bus. It’s the slow track to nowhere.

Setting goals is a way of creating that movement that set things in motion when you were younger.

I’ll talk more in the next post about how to set goals so you’re motivated to reach them and will want to set more and bigger goals.

For now I have a challenge. As a comment below, just type one thing that would make your life great if you accomplished it this year.

My biggest goal for 2009 is to create 20 info products by the end of the year.

Leave your comments below and I will give you some tips on how to achieve them faster, more easily and while having a lot more fun.

I am about to start posting on this blog, hopefully regularly. While I am getting my ideas warmed up and ready to post, I would like to invite you to take a little poll over on the right side of this blog.

Feel free leave comments. Spammy ones will be deleted, so please keep it clean and respectable.