Is NLP and hypnosis the easy solution to your problem?

Today’s life style is very hectic and for most of us, finding time to do something out of daily routine is hard if not impossible.  I get to hear ‘Not enough hours in the day’ a lot, from my clients.  Generally we keep weekends to catch up on things which were ignored during the week or didn’t have priority during the week.

So based on our hectic life, we want or like quick solutions.  Some of the issues can be resolved with only one NLP and/or hypnosis session where as other issues could take more sessions to resolve the issue instead of months/years of medication or other therapies.  One session to resolve a certain issue does surprise some of my clients.

So is NLP and hypnosis a magic cure?

There is mystery in NLP (Neuro-linguistic programming) and hypnosis but no magic.  These therapies and techniques are designed to help clients identify, understand and apply new skills and tools to resolve their issues.  In regards to the question, there is no such thing as magic cure.  I say this because when a therapist is working with the client, the client is working hard looking at her/his issue, applying given suggestions/ideas and resolving their issue(s).  Yes NLP and/or hypnosis session provides a quicker solution than conventional methods but that is because of the approach we use towards the issues.

So does this means that NLP and hypnosis is the easy way out?

The answer is no. After the session, the client feels good, assertive and motivated towards themselves and resolution of their issues, in most cases, they are given tasks to do to make those changes permanent or part of their subconscious behaviour/habit/thinking pattern, i.e. for weight loss, the therapist will record the session and might ask the client to listen to the session at least ones a day or practise trigger activation on conscious level.  Same with smoking cessation, anger management, pain management etc.

Technorati Tags: Change, NLP, positive thinking

How to keep to your decisions

Time always comes when a decision (big or small) needs to be made. With small decisions, most people are capable of processing the situation/circumstances and make a choice.  When it comes to making a big decision, following are some of the methods generally used:

• Look at the facts and make a decision
• Discuss it with our confidant(s), analysis the situation and make a decision
• Try to avoid the decision if possible otherwise follow other’s opinion
• Follow our heart
• Mix and match the above

None of the above decision making practises are wrong. When making a big decision which involves emotions or life changing outcome is involved, the decision making capabilities become limited because of our emotions.  Even when a decision is taken and put in action, we sometimes question or use ‘what if’, ‘only if’, ‘why’ scenarios.  When we start to question ourselves or/and our decisions, our actions seem even more difficult to stick to.

I remember not long ago, I had to make a big decision of my life and emotions played a very big role.  Because of those emotions, it was very hard to make the decision but even after I had made a decision, the ‘ifs’ came in to play and the emotions associated to my decision made it even harder to follow.

Next question is what happens to us when we are faced with a situation which requires our decision or change of circumstances.  Below is a processes we generally go through.  It is not necessary that we all go through every step or don’t go back and forth in these processes:

1-  Numbness

2-  Denial

3-  Depression

4-  Acceptances of Reality/letting go

5-  Testing

6-  Searching for meaning

7-  Towards success

At the point of dealing with the after affects of our decisions, especially when the emotions come into play, we can follow some simple rules.  The rules below are simple and doable.  These ideas are based on our thinking behaviour/habits and can help you stick to your decision?

• Remind ourselves to why we made the decision at the first place
• Write down the points to what happened for you to make the decisions you did

Important note: These processes will take time to come into effect so keep doing it until you have been able to reprogram your brain.

Technorati Tags: fear of decisions, future outcome, NLP, personal development, Planing

Do you want to change a habit?

We all have habits of some sort and some of them are actually very good. When we are among people, we notice consciously and subconsciously other’s habits and adopt them sometimes and if don’t like’em, we either mention it to our friends/family/ourselves or try to avoid them.

So how do we develop habits?

In my previous articles I have talked about learning and adopting habits/behaviours through different sources including our carers, friends, television characters (hero/heroines/villains) etc.

Sometimes I have wondered in my head or even loud ‘why do I behave like this…?’, ‘I wish I could change this habit’ or ‘I hate myself (because of certain habit)’.  I am sure you have asked yourselves these questions at some point in your life.  I have been reminded on occasions that even though my certain habit has caused me pain but it is due to these habits and others, I am also liked and/or loved etc.

So, how do we change bad habits?

This is an interesting question because, though we are all individuals and our thinking + processing patterns are very different, we still have some similarities.  To be able to change a habit, you need to be able to:

1-      Honest with yourself

2-      Understand the habit

3-      Why we do it

4-      Accept the habit is bad

5-      Find ways to change the habit

6-      If failed, either try something different or don’t bother

If you have tried different ways to change a habit with less or no success, try out my theory ‘Always change a bit by bit to succeed in changing the whole’.  Follow some simple rules to change:

-          Don’t make a decision of Quitting/giving up or Stopping (because that habit is part of you)

-          Dissect your habit in to small pieces.  In other words, step by step process

-          Pick up the smallest process of your habit and change that first

-          Once successful, your brain will know how to change the next process

-          Due to the change of first process some of the others will sort themselves out

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Do not forget to celebrate those little changes that you make. Celebrate it by:

-          Acknowledging your success

-          Be proud of yourself for the success

-          Praise yourself

Good luck and enjoy changing bad habit

Technorati Tags: bad habits, change your life, Changing Habit, good habits, hypnosis

How change happens?

Before you read this blog, I would like to answer an interesting question that I have been asked many times.

Why my blogs are based on a story which relates to me?

The answer is that our brain learns quicker from others experiences because it is easy to relate to then having to experience our own issues.

I have had the privilege of learning to look outside the box.  I would like to share this amazing tool that I have learnt which can and will change your life forever.  Over the last 5 years my life changed dramatically.  If you think about your current lives, most of you will notice a routine of how and when you do things.  Some of you will not be able to see a routine and others like to do things spontaneously.

If now, you look back at your life, you will realise that at a certain point in your life, you learnt this behaviour from someone you admired/primary carer as well as your religious beliefs.  I know I learnt to have a routine from my dad.  The man who has been very important in my life and still is.

Back to the story, my life changed in 2005.  In a nut shell, time keeping, watch (without which I am lost) and routine of my life was challenged and left me in a state of uncertainty, panic and fear of unknown.  I accepted these changes very quickly and adapted to new life (or so I thought).

Over the years, my circumstances kept changing.  A lot happened in my life from status change within my culture, social circle and my personal circumstances but I accepted all these changes as quickly as I could make sense of them and let go of my past.  Some people call it slaying their demons.

In 2008, I decided to change profession and train as a counsellor.  For the first time I was put in situations where I had to be honest with myself and re-evaluate my thinking and belief system.  It took me months before I was able to accept, yet a newer me.

The counselling training helped me with self-awareness but also taught me psychological labelling and boxes to put people in (a conditioning which we have been brought up with and consider as normal).  Then in 2009, I decided to take a step further and train as an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner and Life coach.  This training changed my thinking and belief system yet again.  I learnt that labels are simple way of conditioning and an easy way out.  I learnt that everyone has issues and we are all different.  Accepting this, I was able to see people as individuals and not labels.

I learnt that when we have a problem, we condition ourselves by saying that it is going to be hard to change.  The word ‘Problem’ in my understanding, is a conditioning word = hard, difficult, might not be possible, failure and fear.  So I ask you to change the word ‘Problem’ with ‘Issue’.  Issue is not so scary word and it gives us the hope = hope of possibilities, can do attitude and failure doesn’t sound as scary.

So how can words help a person to ‘Change’?

The answer is ‘NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)’.  NLP is the most powerful tool that if used appropriately can help re-frame from using the scary words to words which makes the change happen.  When I see clients, all of them have answers to their issues when they are describing it.  I am able to recognise them, note down those solutions, and make my clients aware of those words/solutions using NLP.

So why do I need hypnosis when NLP can make the changes?

Hypnosis helps the client to relax their conscious mind.  Conscious mind is what makes the changes harder and most importantly holds the fear of unknown.  Once the client is relaxed, s/he is able to concentrate on the issue in hand and change their thinking/believes to make those changes.

Hence Hypnotherapy and NLP works quicker than conventional medicine and therapies.

Technorati Tags: hypnosis, Neuro-Linguistic Programming

What is Past life regression?

The documented history of past life regression is mentioned in the ancient Indian scripture ‘Upanishads’ during the second century BCE. This is a Hindu religious belief which talks about reincarnation, based on person’s previous life choices. The soul comes back (7 cycles of life) in other forms which could be same/opposite gender or any other living being.

Past life regression in the west was developed in the 1950s based on Hindu religious beliefs and with the help of psychologists, psychiatrists and mediums. The reason this belief and practise received such popularity in the west is due to legitimate credentials which were unrelated to religion.

Hypnotherapists use their skills of Past life regression, to help their clients deal with issues which might not have been resolved in their previous life or unresolved trauma (without getting the client to relive the trauma) which might have been suppressed by the client.

In general, hypnotherapists are not concerned about religious beliefs in their practice. If client has a certain religious belief which is important to her/him, therapists consider this to be important and take it in consideration when working with their clients.

So how does Past life regression works?

To answer this question, we will need to look at the human brain and memories. In my articles ‘Depression and you’ and ‘Why and how we put on weight’, I wrote in detail how our brain receives, sorts data and stores relative information.

From the time of birth to death, our brain stores information which it feels is relevant to the person at the time and can stay stored all through our lives. Do you remember when you heard a piece of music and it took you back to a particular memory? What happens in the brain is that neuron connections between that piece of music and past memory get activated. So in other words, it is fair to say that that the piece of music is a trigger or an anchor.

From the time of birth to death, our brain stores information which it feels is relevant to the person at the time and can stay stored all through our lives. Do you remember when you heard a piece of music and it took you back to a particular memory? What happens in the brain is that neuron connections between that piece of music and past memory get activated. So in other words, it is fair to say that that the piece of music is a trigger or an anchor.

I also would like to mention here that as we get old, our brain deletes information which can still be retrieved but might not be as easy as recent or important events in a person’s life.

Past life regression is done under hypnosis which means that the communication between hypnotherapist and the client is done on subconscious level.

Different theories of Past life regression:

Clients seeing a hypnotherapist with Past life regression, in most cases experiences a very clear picture like watching a movie. There are different beliefs when talking about Past life regression. None of the theories mentioned below can be proven to be correct or otherwise. I do not have any intention or wish to disrespect or disregard personal/religious beliefs when writing these theories. I sincerely apologise in advance for any offence this may cause you.

Past life regression (a belief):

There has been a recent television programmes made in India ‘Raaz Pichle Janam Ka’ ‘Secret of Previous life’. The hypnotist uses Past life regression hypnosis to help her participants see what previous life experience(s) has been stopping them to live a fulfilling life. After the programme the investigators share their findings with the help of historical records and other sources to prove the genuineness of the client’s experience(s). In some cases, they managed to find recorded history of client’s previous life and in other cases there were no records but participant’s experience is not disregarded as untrue.

Past life regression (false memories):

When the client is under hypnosis, s/he is able to access their sub/unconscious mind and memories stored in the brain. It has been recorded that after Past life regression session(s), the investigation by experts in the languages used and historical periods described revealed flaws in the client’s experience. In those investigations it was revealed that belief of the past was related to something the clients had seen on media, read in books or heard from others or even overheard conversations.

In these cases, no conclusions were made by therapists but my personal belief is that the past life experience clients had, did have some meaning in their lives and affected them in some way.

Past life regression (past trauma/unresolved issues):

In my research and personal practise, Past life regression has also been used to help the client deal with childhood or painful traumas. The client is taken on a journey using different techniques into hypnosis and is helped to deal with their trauma(s) (without the client having to relive the trauma) that s/he might have suffered, one by one. There have been successes in the case studies. I have documented Past life regression case study on my Facebook clinic page which might of interest to you.

Once out of hypnosis, the client feels more content, relaxed and happy. S/he is able to live a normal and fulfilling life.

In most cases, these traumas are genuine as well as fantasised. Either way, the client and hypnotherapist do manage to get a desired outcome so no harm is done.

Past life regression (suggestibility):

Knowing the power of hypnosis, it is quite possible for an unqualified, unsupervised and unregistered hypnotist to make the client believe in something which is not there or true. This kind of practices are very common in cult groups, where with the wrong use of hypnosis, they can make their subjects believe in seeing things which are not there or take them on a journey which is not possible or logical.

Important Note:

Always make sure to check hypnotherapists accreditation of course (certifications, diplomas etc), registrations with govern bodies and insurance if applicable.

Technorati Tags: hypnotherapy, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Past life

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