(This blog was originally
posted on November 28, 2014)
In the Season 3 finale episode of Sherlock, that
ever-perceptive and insightful sleuth, Sherlock Holmes, pointed out the obvious
to his good friend and colleague, Dr. John Watson. Watson had experienced
certain stressful, potentially traumatic and even life-threatening events
during his life because he had invited those situations to occur. Even
his choices of friends (Sherlock) and life partner were being dictated by these
subconscious messages, preferences, choices that Watson kept making, over and
over again because, basically, that is what the good doctor liked.
Hypnosis
Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D., explained this behavior in
his Theory of Mind: Each person’s subconscious mind learns and adopts behaviors and
ways of thinking from a very young age. By the time you are about 5 years old
the blueprint of your future beliefs and behaviors is established, based on
what you have learned during these early years of your life. For example, if
you like (or even hate) to eat a particular kind of food, it is likely that you
were given this or a similar item as a youngster. You associate the experience
of eating this item with memories about how it tasted, if you like the taste, who
served it to you/who was with you, etc. Other behaviors and interests
(preferences) are learned in a similar way: Some people prefer to stay at home
on a Friday night and curl up with a good book or watch something on
television, instead of going to a party with their friends. Others enjoy
skydiving and participate in various high-adrenaline sports; they think nothing
of skiing down a “widow-maker” slope. Some people enjoy the hustle and thrum of
having a busy social life while living in the center of a bustling city. Others
prefer a quiet family life in the suburbs.
These
are extreme examples of personalities at either end of a spectrum, but the
drive or motivation behind these preferences comes from the same place: the
subconscious mind. This is the place where you store and reinforce your beliefs
and behaviors by doing what you do—without thinking about it—every time you
say, think or do that behavior. Even if you do not consciously like or enjoy
the belief or behavior that you reinforce, by now it has become comfortable,
familiar (pleasure) to you—even if it is not “pleasurable.” According to
Kappas, everyone carries the association and enjoyment (or not) of our “known”
behaviors and beliefs throughout your life or, until you are motivated to
change this belief or behavior.
I
help my hypnotherapy clients to change their various unwanted behaviors; hypnotherapy
works because and when the person wants to make this change. Your subconscious
mind may know what you really want, but in your conscious mind you have the
will-power, decision-making, reasoning and logic to literally change your mind.
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/.
© 2015
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