Observations
of Life.
I remember one Valentine’s Day way back before we were married. Patti was still attending Kutztown State College (now University) and I lived in the Harrisburg, PA area. Since I was young and in love (now I am older and still in love), I drove all the way to Kutztown on a snowy wintery night, just to see her. It was an 80 mile drive that probably took twice as long as normal. But that’s the things you do when you want to be with someone you love. I don’t remember we did anything special that night. I guess it was special enough then to be there with her.
I did a lot of driving. Throughout the time we dated, it was not unusual for me to drive from Harrisburg to Kutztown and then to Lancaster on a Friday night. Then on Sunday night, do it again in reverse. After we were married, I did a lot of driving and still do today. The year after we were married, we took a road trip across the country. In a little blue 1994 Datsun B-210 hatchback, fully loaded, we went from Harrisburg to San Diego, CA in 10 days. Once there, we spent several weeks with one of my brothers and then made the drive back in another 10 days. We saw lots of great sights. We visited family in Omaha, Nebraska and then on to the Badlands of South Dakota and Mount Rushmore. We spent a night in Yellowstone National Park and visited more family in Salt Lake City. Of course we stopped in Vegas and then on to San Diego. On the way back there were more sights of interesting towns and villages. We cannot do justice in trying to tell it all here.
Over the years we have done other trips. Sometimes we’ve driven, other times we’ve flown. But it was always something to look forward to. At times we might spend a considerable amount of time planning the trip, while other times we just took off in whatever car we thought would make the trip and went. As the girls were growing up, we spent a lot of time at the seashore in New Jersey.
Traveling and seeing and discovering new places is one of our greatest joys. And just before each new year starts we begin thinking of where we are going to go and what new things we will do in the new year.
Well, this year we have started to make our plans. Nothing carved in stone yet, but things are starting to take shape. Our anniversary is in April, so we have a trip to plan for the end of that month. We have the "when" in mind but not the "where" yet. The summer then brings some time at the seashore for some sun, surf and sand. The sand is mostly for the grandchildren.
One of my mixed trips (business with pleasure) will be again in August when we go back to Marlborough, MA (near Boston) for the National Guild of Hypnotists Convention. Again for the fourth year I have been chosen as an instructor and will be giving a two-hour workshop. To be accepted and chosen to be an instructor at the convention, I had to have my workshop proposal into NGH’s headquarters by the end of September, almost eleven months before the next convention. Obviously to be this involved in the convention, it takes some preplanning and meeting a deadline long before the event actually happens.
Also again we will attend a number of seminars and workshops ourselves to better serve those we serve. Naturally we hope to see old friends that we have met over the years as well as make new ones. It all begins with a meeting of instructors the night before the main convention begins to give them basic instructions on how and what to do during their seminars and workshops. It usually includes a little bit of a pep talk from those who have led sessions in previous years. With that accomplished, things fall into place for the next three days of seminars, workshops, hypnosis stage shows, and the banquet.
So, as you see, our year is starting to take shape. Again, sometimes things need to be planned and prepared well in advance, while others can be more spontaneous. And if you remember from last month’s newsletter, our calendar is there for us. We look forward to a number of things this year including some very personal events within the family. We know that we can plan as much as we want and most of the time things will go accordingly. At other times, they may go a little to substantially different. We will roll with the punches if there are any and enjoy the things that go right for us. A life we want to live and happen is not going to come to us. As a ship does not go to sea without its maps, compass and timepiece, neither do we.
We are charting our own course and moving daily in the direction we want to go which gives us our map. Our timepieces are our calendars which help to measure our progress and help us plan ahead for those things we should. And our compass comes from our faith which brings it all together and keeps us on track. We hope your journey is a good one, too.
Did you know
that past issues of ENLIGHTENMENT are available online at our website? You can download them by going to www.willardhypnosis.com and clicking on the ARCHIVE link and picking the ones you want. They are in Adobe PDF format for easy printing. You must have the Adobe reader to do this.
Books We
Liked. Since I have written again about travel, I will continue again
this month with an author who we listen to often when we travel. The audio books
are really a great way to discover an author that you have never read before.
An author who has exceptionally impressed me with his stories, characters, and overall mass of information is Dick Francis. With 39 novels penned, he takes the reader (or listener) most of the time to a different world of horseracing in Great Britain. A former jockey turned writer, he is more than just a horseracing storyteller. He takes you deep inside the heart and soul of the "sport of kings". And he is comfortable stepping outside his racing world, taking us on journeys into other walks of life. I remember in particular, Shattered, (published 2000) which gave us an inside look at the craft of artistic glassblowing. He wrote his books with the help of his wife who researched and edited most of his novels. She passed away shortly after this one was published. He did not finish his next novel, Under Orders until 2006 and that was with the help of his son.
The mystery is the mainstay of his work and I do enjoy this the most. I have not read or listened to all of the books, but I have never been disappointed by any that I have. If you want a look at English lifestyles and the inside track on the fascinating world of horses and horseracing, pick up any of Dick Francis’s books and enjoy the ride.
Quotes we liked.
Conrad Hilton said, "Success seems to be connected to action. Successful
people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit." Two things
come to mind here with this quote. The first is persistence. People who have a
vision keep their eye on their vision and are constantly doing things to
get there. The second is that they are not willing to accept the fact that they
will, at times, make mistakes, big ones and little ones.
If one looks beyond his/her current conditions and decides to change them, that person has set new goals. But only by taking action will things change. With goals and actions people discover their true worth to themselves and others. And when this happens, they begin to become truly aware of who they are. And in that there is real success.
What to
expect. You are going to feel very............ Well, maybe you will
and maybe you won’t. Some of our clients tell us that they didn’t know if they
were standing or sitting while in hypnosis. For some they may have the feeling
of being very heavy in the chair, not wanting to move, or it would just take too
much effort to move. I have had some people tell me that they want to see if
they were really hypnotized and told themselves to move their arm and it would
not move. Most say that they feel very, very relaxed. Others have a floating
feeling. Others don’t feel much different at all.
For some people these different sensations happen to the client in their first session of hypnosis. For others it may happen in subsequent sessions. Still others may never have a different feeling ever other than that of being relaxed. For most that is different enough.
But these are the perceived physical sensations the clients have. There is more to it than that. Since for most we are working on issues or problems, we will examine their emotions as they relate to them. Several things can happen here. First, the emotions will be heightened and examined thoroughly. This means that the client can and probably will experience strong emotional releases during a session.
The next thing that happens, the client will recall events in his/her past relative to the emotions that we have examined. They may see, hear, feel or otherwise experience things in their minds of things that have been hidden for years. And finally, they will experience a release and an emotional separation from the things that cause the problem they were experiencing. Once this is done, there are resolutions for the client. He/she is no longer bound by the event and the emotion that held them together. They are set free from the problem that they were experiencing.
There can also be and often are direct suggestions given. Direct suggestions are what most people are familiar with when they think about hypnosis. A direct suggestion for someone who wanted to lose weight might be, "You enjoy eating healthy foods and you find them very satisfying." These suggestions are usually put in a positive way and simply stated. Many times it will be the same thing just stated in different words. They will be repeated and repeated to the client while in hypnosis to help reprogram the subconscious mind. If you are familiar with affirmations, they are the same, but again being fed into the mind while the client is in hypnosis rather than that person saying them over and over to him/herself.
Now this explanation is very simplistic and may take place over 3, 4, 5 or more sessions to deal with the problem(s), but it does work. Hypnosis is always a process where the hypnotist guides the client into a state of hypnosis and then follows the need of the client in the manner described above. Some things can be done in group sessions, but it is almost always done better with individual sessions. Group sessions for smoking and weight loss with direct suggestions can be effective for some, but with limited results.
But to make change, the most important element to have that change is your desire to make it happen. Whether for smoking, weight loss or other issues, it has to be you who really wants the change. In the end, it’s all up to you.
Questions?Do you have a question about hypnosis? Is there something you would like to know more about? Is there a particular problem you want us to discuss to learn if hypnosis or related techniques can help it? If so, please let us know. You can email, snail mail or even call us with your questions and we will do our best to answer them. Just go to the end of this newsletter for full contact information.
Our goal is to give you information that will help you make positive changes and become the person in charge of your life. With your help we can better address the issues and problems you want to hear about.
We hope you have enjoyed this issue of Enlightenment. The time we spend writing and rewriting it helps to remind us why we do what we do, which is to be in service to others both professionally and personally. By also sharing these observations, ideas, and information, we also learn new things. Please share this newsletter with others who you feel would enjoy and/or benefit from it. If you are receiving this newsletter secondhand and want to receive your own copy, just send us an email and we will put you on either our snail mail list or email list.
So until next month, best wishes to all.Roger & Patti