Whenever I have to get something
done, I dress the part. When I was working as a magazine editor, I wore a suit
to work just about every day. I don’t know why I started doing that. Perhaps it
was because, having just returned from England after living abroad for seven
years, I was used to seeing professional people looking like they had somewhere
important to go. Monday through Friday, on the London Underground, at bus
stations and walking around the city, everyone looked so chic. (Of course,
people dressed the part in Los Angeles, too; but since most people drove cars
out here it was hard to know how they really looked from outside the vehicle.)
But I also discovered that it was easier for me to get and maintain that
mind-set for my work throughout the day.
My days as a
magazine editor are long over, but I continue to dress for whatever part or
role I am playing on a given day. If am going to give a presentation about
hypnotherapy or work with my hypnotherapy clients, I wear business attire. If I
am going out to the barn to ride my horse or just hang out with him and do
chores around the barn, I put on my “horse clothes”: i.e., britches, shirt or
sweater, half-chaps, Mountain
Horse Jod boots. Right before I get on Galahad, I am also wearing gloves
and my Troxel
riding helmet. If I am competing in a horse show, I wear specific riding gear
for that: white britches, white blouse and stock tie, black dressage coat and
my tall dressage boots—plus white leather gloves, hair-net and stock pin. If I
am going out for the evening, I wear appropriate attire for whatever the
activity or event I am attending.
Finally,
dressing the part helps to increase my self-confidence in my ability to do
whatever task is at hand. When I was dressed like an editor—or what I thought
an editor should wear—I also looked and
acted like an editor. As a
hypnotherapist, it is important to me that I can convey a sense of confidence,
experience, calm and support to my clients. Sometimes, I also wear a name badge
to reinforce this image when I work with someone for the first time. When I’m
at the barn, I feel more confident and secure about my activities knowing that
I am wearing protective gear that is specifically designed to prevent serious
injury if I fall off a horse or get kicked or stepped on.
Guess what? I
even put on something that tells me (and my subconscious mind) it’s time to
relax and unwind from the stresses of the day when I am just planning to hang
out at home reading or watching television. I know that my SCM should “know” how to relax as
instinctively as it knows how to do most of the activities I mentioned above. However,
sometimes I even have to remind myself that it’s okay to just do one thing (or
nothing) at a time. In a way, the clothing functions like the critical area of
my subconscious mind, as Hypnosis Motivation
Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D. described in his Theory of Mind. This
is the area of the mind that rejects any unknown or unfamiliar (painful)
information for the SCM. So, to put this model into effect, when I am at work
seeing a client, my official attire reminds my mind rejects distracting message
units about the time I will spend with Galahad later in the day. And when I am
with my horse, my riding garments remind me to focus on him.
Especially the
boots: they have a reinforced steel toe to protect my feet in case I start
thinking about something other than
my boy, who likes to remind me where my attention should be focused if it drifts away from him.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
