Enlightenment

Observations of Life. Since May, the months have been eventful and time seems to have flown by. Traveling, vacations and the birth of a new grandson have kept us busy and on the road quite a bit. I overlooked completely that last month was the second anniversary issue of this newsletter. With additions and deletions, tweaks and other small improvements as we go along, I find myself naturally making discoveries and similar changes in my life. This pen to paper expression of ideas and thoughts, which I hope you enjoy and find helpful in your daily life, is as I have said before, a labor of love. And if this be your choice in life, then I hope you consider yourself lucky to find such a task. As for celebrating the second anniversary of the newsletter, we’ll have more on that later.

Moving on to what observation of life holds this month. This year again we took our pilgrimage to Marlborough, MA for the National Guild of Hypnotists Convention. This is the sixth year for me and the third for Patti. Also for the fourth year, I was a seminar/workshop presenter. This year I only did my workshop on helping other hypnotists by showing them ways to promote themselves with cost effective measures.

Normally, before or after the convention we would take an extra 5 or 6 days and do some other traveling and enjoy some sightseeing. This year since we did an earlier trip to the Carolinas, we limited our sightseeing to one afternoon, then rested a bit, and then came home.

As the convention approached, I found myself thinking more and more on how I could improve this two-hour workshop and make it flow more efficiently. I decided to do it on a presentation program (like PowerPoint) on the computer. In previous years I would use a lot of props and illustrations to do the workshop. In doing this, I found I sometimes ran just a little short on time in getting it in and would have to rush at the end to finish. Using a computer and projector, it flowed more smoothly and at the same time, I could show more easily and much better the ideas I wanted to get across. It was a success.

But I was a little disappointed that they had not also chosen my other seminar that I had done several times before. I know it is an involved process of picking ideas for the convention and those who are part of that process have tough choices to make. This year they had many great programs that we both enjoyed, so, in the end I could accept the fact that this was not my year to do that particular seminar. But I will submit it again for next year as I do feel it is a worthwhile program.

I called it my "Get Off Your Butt" seminar. Now it is not one about laziness, but rather mostly about fear. I had aimed it toward hypnotists who were hypnotists in name only. That is those who invested time and money to become certified hypnotists, joined the National Guild of Hypnotists (paying dues), went to local chapter meetings, and finally, attend the convention. All without using their training to help anyone as a hypnotist after continually spending time and money. The convention naturally costs money to attend, in that they also have to pay for their hotel and for many, travel a great distance. Gas and airfare, as you know, is not cheap today. Many of them will continue to take classes, seminars and other training throughout the year to gain new skills and knowledge, again costing even more money. They talk about being a hypnotist. They hang their certificates on their wall. They might, once in a great while, just maybe, hypnotize someone at a small party or gathering just to show that they can and then leave it at that. They may even talk about how someday they will do sessions with clients either on their own or for some other hypnotist or along with some kind of medical center. But not right now.

They will say that they’re not quite ready or that the timing just isn’t right. Quietly in their minds they are wishing that they were taking clients in one way or another. Some may be secretly hoping to someday have a hypnosis practice in a nice office with a waiting room and several other rooms for sessions. Naturally a nice professional office would just be perfect. Others are hoping that they will be "discovered" by some medical professionals and be invited to be part of their "alternative" care practice. All they would have to do is show up, take the clients the office would send to them, get paid and then go home at the end of the day. But in both cases, they expect that somehow it will all just happen. Some of them take a New Age attitude and "just put it out to the universe" and it will come to them.

And this is where I give them a kick in the butt. I would tell them it is nice to have positive thoughts on what you want. But wishing and secretly hoping for it to happen will not make it happen without taking action. Having goals and direction are essential, but putting yourself in motion is essential for the realization of any goals. To write a book, one must not just have an idea, one must begin to put words down in manuscript form. To hike a mountain, one must start walking in a set direction. To actualize a dream, you first have to wake up and start doing something.

In my workshop I emphasize the need for a list of actions to help realize the goal. I have clients list at least ten things that can be done on a daily basis to help them achieve their goal. They can be little things or big things broken down to smaller actions, but things that can be worked on in small, manageable tasks. Now the hypnotist did not have to do ten tasks everyday, but they were told to do some tasks everyday. Some days they could do one or two, while other days maybe work on more as their time permitted. Some tasks may consume all of their time and that was OK, too, but the idea was to do something everyday toward fulfilling their dream. Naturally you need a day of rest to set aside from all of this and there will be occasions when you cannot fit anything in. But overall, something should be done everyday. If they had time to watch TV, they had time to do something. Work on a task or two, then watch TV. It is surprising how much excess time a person really has to work on their dreams but they don’t.

Part of the key is to have tasks written down. How many times have you gone to sleep at night thinking of all the wonderful things you were going to do and then when the time came, you forgot all about them? With a written list, you become focused on needed work to be done. You can prioritize tasks as to their importance or the order in which they must be done. Putting them on paper is motivational. You see the list and it reminds you of your goal. The list stares back at you, telling you what has to be done. And the best part is that when you finish a task, you get that great feeling of completion and the realization of being one step closer to your goal. And when you complete a task, then it is time to add a new one and the process continues.

Dreams are wonderful, but to become real, they must be formalized. Nothing beats writing them down. And in my seminar, I am surprised on how many people do not have lists to get things done in their quest for becoming a working hypnotist. Most would never think of going to the store without a list, whether it is for food for a week or working on a home improvement project. So why don’t they do it for their goals? For most it is fear. Fear of having to share the idea and failing. For others it might be the fear of having to follow through. Some have the fear of succeeding and then having to prove their abilities continuously. I even had some have the fear of having to compete with their instructors or the big hypnosis center in town. And fear kills dreams and goals faster and deader than almost everything else.

This list process can also help us in being better human beings also. Have you ever said that you were going to volunteer for a project or get more involved in a community project and then the next day either forget about it or dismiss it for some obscure reason? If you would just take the same process of committing to an act and then listing it on paper, it would become more tangible and more doable. It solidifies your resolve to the project or action. And if your list is shared with others, it is somewhat motivational to make you follow through.

Can you, will you truly commit to a goal or project? Will you then put that commitment on paper? And then will you list specific actions that you will take as part of the overall goal or project? These questions only you can answer. The cliché, "Talk is cheap" is based on reality. I would encourage you to not just talk the part, not to just have unfulfilled dreams and goals, and not to be stagnant within your life. Life is action. Choose your goals (wisely) and then act.

Something Special this Month. Since July was the second anniversary of ENLIGHTENMENT, we want to celebrate this by having a small drawing for you, the reader. This year we are giving away one of our official Willard Hypnosis Center hypnotic caps. You will mesmerize your friends and neighbors with the hypnotic swirl. OK, maybe it won’t do that, but it will be a conversation starter.

Just send us your name, snail mail address and phone number and we will put you in the running. There is no cost or obligation and we will pick a winner on September 30, 2008. Either email us at roger@willardhypnosis.com (put the words contest entry in the subject line) or snail mail us at Willard Hypnosis Center, 3304 Main Street, Conestoga, PA 17516. We will announce the winner in our October newsletter. Please only one entry per person.

Quotes we liked. "Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget about everything except what you're going to do now - and do it." by William Durant: Bravery. One of the things that happen to people is that they keep playing a recording over and over in their minds on all of the would have, could have and should have done things in their lives. Some people seem to enjoy this process of self-pity and remorse. Others may not enjoy the experience, but continue anyway. And as with all behavioral changes, one must first decide to change. Are you playing a tape recording in your mind that is holding you back? Are you stuck in one place in the past? It really is your choice. Decide and live each day letting the past be the past. Keep the wonderful memories in your heart letting others be teachers, and let the rest just fade into the past where they belong.

What to expect. Did you ever hear the term, visualization? If you have ever taken a class on relaxation, yoga, meditation, or even creative studies for enhancing yourself, you may have been told to visualize something. And in those moments of visualization, you are beginning to enter a very light stage of hypnosis. Yes, visualization is a form of hypnosis. Sometimes instructors, educators, and others knowingly and unknowingly use hypnosis (visualization) in their work.

In hypnosis, many times we will use visual imagery to help guide clients into hypnosis, to deepen them, and as part of the change while in hypnosis. It is a natural part of life and a natural part of hypnosis. When a person reads a book and experiences it in their mind through visualization, they are hypnotizing themself to enjoy the whole experience of the book. Good authors do this deliberately to draw the reader in.

When you daydream and visualize an upcoming vacation or event, you are putting yourself in a light state of hypnosis. Again a very natural thing to do. So, the next time someone says to you, "picture this in your mind", they are in their own way, trying to hypnotize you. Whether they know it or not.

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Enlightenment

The Official Newsletter of the Willard Hypnosis Center

Aug 2008 Roger & Patricia Willard©2008 Vol. 3, No. 8