Privilege of Responsibility

                This afternoon, Honda® issued a recall notice for several models of their vehicles sold in California because there is a defect in the air-bag/air-bag deployment. I am sure that this announcement is probably frustrating and frightening for owners of these vehicles. In addition to their concern that the problem may endanger their and their passengers’ lives before the car goes in for service, needing to get this repair done is probably an inconvenience (and stress) they could do without. Welcome to the world of having to take responsibility for and taking care of the things we own.

                Responsibility follows us everywhere we go. If we want to drive a car, we need to have a driver’s license and car insurance. We need to be responsible drivers by following the rules (laws) of the road and making sure that our vehicles are safe and serviceable. We need to make sure that we have enough gas to get us where we need to go and regularly check the car’s oil/brakes/tire-pressure.

                The same is true if you own a home. When a water pipe breaks or a toilet overflows, it is up to you to repair the problem or call someone to do it for you. You may need to repaint the outside of the house or replace the shingles on the roof from time to time, to ensure you will be protected from the elements during inclement weather. If you own a lot of land, you are responsible for cutting down weeds or tall grasses and trimming dead branches off trees to safeguard your property from fires (and reduce fire hazards).

                The responsibilities multiply quickly when you take care of other people or animals in your family, and they can be overwhelming. Rather than consider them in terms of “work” you need to do, try this to lighten your load: turn your thoughts into attitudes of appreciation or gratitude that you have these privileges in your life. Lisa Machenberg, one of my favorite instructors at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute (www.hypnosis.edu), shared this insight (attitude-shift) with my class during a case conference many years ago. Acknowledging and expressing gratitude for something you “must do” not only symbolically pay for the privilege of having that object in your life; this new perspective actually adds relief or even joy to doing that activity. You or I would go right to the doctor to set our (or our child’s) broken leg, or call a veterinarian if one of our pets was sick. We probably wouldn’t even think twice about doing this, either, because the physical comfort of setting the bone would equal the emotional relief of knowing that this procedure, while temporarily uncomfortable, will prevent future inconvenience down the road.

The same is true of fixing and maintaining your home, car and every other object you value. When we change that mental script in our subconscious mind from owning and maintaining (“when necessary”) something to a script which values, cherishes and takes care of that object, we start to appreciate its true worth. A car isn’t just a car: it is the equivalent of a magical carriage that literally carries us and/or our family to a specific destination and makes sure we reach it safely. The house or apartment in which we live isn’t just a structure but the home that provides shelter from inclement elements and safety from perceived threats. It is the place where we have made (and keep) our favorite memories, and will make many more.

I am grateful for the opportunity to give the people and home I adore, and the car and other objects in my life that make my life so convenient, a little (or a lot) of tender, loving care when they need it. In fact, it is a privilege to do this. After all, where would I be without them?

 

 

 

 

 

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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

 

Heroes

 

“Your rescue is within you.” – Lauretta NgCobo, Nigerian Writer

 

 

I have been thinking about heroes a lot lately.

Another season of 24 is almost concluded, and once again I am thinking about how fantastic it would be if there really was a Jack Bauer to sweep in and save the world. Yes, he is very rough around the edges and sometimes takes a—well let’s just say he tends to go “rogue” when it comes to getting the job done. But he does get the job done. Whenever I hear Bonnie Tyler’s song, “Holding out for a hero,” I think of Jack.

                On a similar theme, another one of my favorite television hero-types is a disgraced detective-turned-cab-driver called Mike Olshansky on CBS’s short-lived series, Hack. The hero—or anti-hero, depending on your point of view—has a knack for turning up at the right time when someone (usually one of his fares) is in the wrong place. He saves the day and then quietly disappears. The only token of gratitude Olshansky ever wants is a promise that whomever he has just rescued will not reveal his role in the rescue or even his presence at the scene. The tagline for the series is, “When you need someone who answers to no one,” and that line still resonates with me.

                The television characters of Mike Olshansky and Jack Bauer use their experiences and skills in law-enforcement officers to rescue clients or, in Bauer’s case, save the world. As far-fetched as some of their actions and derring-do might seem, these abilities make sense when we think about all of these behavioral knowns stored in the mental script of each man’s subconscious mind.

When I saw Ms. NgCobo’s quote, it reminded me of times in my life when I have had to rely on myself to solve a problem or to get the job done. While I never went to any of the extremes that my television heroes did to save my day, looking back, I am very proud of those accomplishments. I even have a couple of songs to remind me about this on my iPod—Mariah Carey’s “Hero” and Whitney Houston’s “Greatest Love of All”—that still make me smile when I listen to them. The wistful lyrics, and the soaring voices of the women who deliver them, are like a mini pep-rally that remind me I still (and always did) have that can-do attitude.

My training at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute (www.hypnosis.edu) helped me to identify, refine and nurture the skills and beliefs that brought me to HMI in the first place. In a way, earning my hypnotherapy certification was a kind of “self” rescue. But this education also opened my eyes to the fact that every one of us is capable of stepping up to a challenge and becoming our own hero. We all possess a particular skill set that enables us to achieve great things, things that no one else can do the way we do them. We just have to be reminded or become aware of all those wonderful things we can do.

Guess what? When you are your own hero, no others need apply—and you might even get to help rescue someone else along the way. How cool is that?

 

 

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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

Blogging

Photo courtesy of Presentation Pro

I write my blogs to inform, educate and inspire readers
about hypnotherapy's many benefits.

                The first time I ever heard the words “blog” and “blogging” was from a former client. I admit that I initially didn’t really get what blogging was about or what it could do—let alone why someone would do it in the first place. All that changed when I saw the film Julie and Julia, which starred Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Computer blogging was the cornerstone of the movie in which Adams’ character (Julie Powell) wrote a blog each day for one year about her experiences cooking and eating food that she had prepared from a Julia Child cookbook. She also included other details about her life in these essays and provided background information about the late chef’s personal and culinary challenges and triumphs. Ultimately, Powell’s online journal was not only a chronicle of her own culinary adventures that year, but it also provided a cornucopia of life experiences and philosophies that she had learned in the process.

                I often think about this film when I sit down to write my own blogs. I think about Powell’s passion about recreating each of Julia Child’s recipes exactly how the chef wrote them. I think about the author’s dedication to sharing each aspect of these culinary projects with anyone and everyone who was interested or curious in what she was trying to do. Unlike Powell, I do not have a general or generic book of hypnosis recipes that I can replicate and will share with you each night. In fact, each one of the hypnotic scripts that I create for my clients is as individual and specific as the person for whom I have created it. Also, for ethical reasons I would not and could not share this information in order to preserve client/therapist confidentiality.

However, I am like Julie Powell in that I do have a lot of information, skills and experience in my own area of expertise that can help and motivate you to achieve your own goals. I can share the theoretical premises behind hypnosis and hypnotherapy, and human behavior/motivation. I can explain how and why hypnosis works. I can tell you how and why the subconscious mind responds to the negative (or positive!) “chatter” that you have been telling yourself so that you continue to practice a behavior or habit that no longer works for you. I can share information about the many and various hypnotherapeutic techniques that I have learned and mastered since I first started working as a hypnotherapist. I can write blogs about all of these things to inspire you to give hypnotherapy and therapeutic guided imagery a try so you can also achieve your own vocational and avocational self-improvement goals.

Hypnotherapy worked for me…I know it will work for you, too!

 

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

Fire Hydrants

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

 

                Have you ever seen something so often that it fades into the landscape—until you notice it again? That just happened to me. I must admit this experience took me by surprise, even though the mechanism behind it completely made sense.

                When I was returning home from an errand this morning, I saw several large trucks around the neighborhood testing fire hydrants. Since Southern California is in the midst of a serious drought, it made sense that the city would want to ensure that water was available to fight fires and test the equipment that would do this. What surprised me was how many fire hydrants there were, and where they were. I have driven down these streets for twenty years and I can’t remember ever noticing, let alone seeing, one of them!

                Of course, this phenomenon makes perfect sense. Actively noticing and responding to everything we perceive in our environment would completely overwhelm us; we would all be in a state of hypnosis every waking moment. Instead, once we determine that these objects or sensations are not jeopardizing our well-being or survival, our bodies tune out those stimuli so we can be more alert to new threats. Furthermore, unless something about the object suddenly changes—such as its color, smell or behavior—our conscious mind barely registers that the thing exists. After repeated exposure to that stimulus, it becomes a known in the subconscious mind: comfortable and even “safe” in its familiarity. There is no reason for the critical awareness part of our mind to reject this information and raise a metaphoric red flag that something new and unknown is nearby.

However, the presence of groups of people huddled around several fire hydrants in the neighborhood, testing that the devices had and were capable of providing water to fire hoses, was definitely unfamiliar (unknown) and deserved my notice. And, yes: I was curious about, if not (yet) alarmed by, what I saw. Within a few seconds, my conscious mind identified who these people probably were by their uniforms and the presence of utility trucks bearing a city label. (The presence of city workers checking over the neighborhood is also familiar, a known, in my mind.) I was able to quickly figure out what they were doing. The critical area of my mind accepted this information and sent it directly to my SCM so I could go about my day. Once again, an otherwise mundane-turned-unusual experience perfectly illustrated the daily relevance of John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind.

                But where did all of those fire hydrants come from when I wasn’t paying attention to them? And when did they show up, anyway?

 

 

 

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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

 

Follow Your Own Path

Photo courtesy of PresentationPro

 

                It is easy—too easy—to get carried away while planning somebody else’s life. From the moment a baby is born, its proud relatives start imagining the kind of fulfilling, exciting and successful life this new person will ultimately live. Will Baby grow up to be President of the United States one day? Will Baby become a doctor, lawyer, soldier, police officer or firefighter like Mom or Dad? Maybe our newborn is destined to live a life in the limelight as an actor or, even marry the heir to a throne in Europe and will become a monarch one day. (Hey, it’s happened before, why not to our tot?)

                There are a few problems with this fantasy game. First, each person who “plays” it can only project the possibilities that already exist as knowns in his or her mind. It is common to imagine your young child or loved one follow a similar life path as your own, because this is what you already know; this is your comfort zone. If you have chosen the same career as one of your parents, this association is likely to be reinforced even more: “Of course, Baby will do this, since generations of our family are already in this career!” Maybe Baby will do that; he or she will receive plenty of conscious and subconscious message units about this vocation, and is likely to nurture a subconscious mental script about it. But, what if other people’s plan for you isn’t what you truly want for yourself? What if you don’t even know what you want to do, or change your mind (and switch careers) down the road? How do you break this news to your “very disappointed” family?

                The second problem with this fantasy game is that each person may be influenced to pursue a life path that in which parents/caretakers and other relatives have no experience at all. For example, I decided that I wanted to be a psychologist at the tender age of 11. This decision was actually inspired by another student in my sixth-grade class who declared that this was what she wanted to do. I honestly didn’t know much about psychology back then, but I must have decided that career sounded pretty cool, and declared “psychology” as my college major eight years later.

The third problem with this game is that none of us know where our lives will ultimately take us, even when we have a definite career or life/lifestyle in play. Ten years after I earned a research Master’s degree in psychology in another country, I was working as an editor of a martial arts magazine when I finally found my way back to my original choice of vocation. Well, not the original choice, but very close. The day I started my training to become a hypnotherapist, I realized that this was the work I really wanted to do and should be doing. Perhaps my decision to abandon what could have been a very successful career in journalism was impulsive, impetuous and even short-sighted; but I have never looked back.

My young nephews recently also announced what they would like to do when they grow up. My family often has fun imagining ways that they can (or will) achieve their goals. In fact, we recently went to town embellishing details of how the youngest boy’s career can and will be successful (and fun for us, too). I know that’s not fair to him; he may well change his mind about what he wants to do, anyway. There was a time when I thought I would like to be a writer. One of my friends still (occasionally) tells me that I should be an author and how disappointed he is that I didn’t choose writing as my vocation. Whatever. I know that I made the right decision for me. There is really nothing like the feeling of doing what you know you want to do, what you are meant to do and what you truly enjoy doing.

If it takes a long and winding road to get where you know you are meant to be, so much the better.

                 

 

 

 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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/

Natural States of Hypnosis

(This blog was originally posted on December 29, 2013)

Photo Courtesy of Photolia

Hypnosis naturally occurs whenever your mind is so overloaded by stimuli
(message units)  that you enter a hypersuggestible state.

 

The first question I ask a new client is, “Have you ever been hypnotized?”

According to John G. Kappas, Ph.D., founder of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, “hypnosis is created by an overload of message units, disorganizing our inhibitory process, triggering our fight-flight-mechanism and ultimately resulting in a hyper-suggestible state, providing access to the subconscious mind.” Even if you have never worked formally with a hypnotherapist or hypnotist, you have experienced hypnosis. In fact, you are in a light state of hypnosis (trance) at least two times every day, 30 minutes after you wake up in the morning and 30 minutes before you drift off to sleep.

Other examples of natural hypnosis include being so deep in thought that you drive past your street or miss your off-ramp on the freeway; getting “lost” or confused weaving in and out of aisles in shopping-mall parking lots; or becoming so involved with the plot of a movie or theatrical performance that you feel disorientated for a few minutes after it show finishes. A very powerful example of environmental hypnosis is when someone stands still as a tornado (or tsunami wave, forest fire, etc.) barrels toward him—mesmerized by what he sees and seemingly unable to look away or flee to safety. Did you temporarily forget where you were while you listened to a marching band play the National Anthem and watched the fireworks display during your neighborhood’s Independence Day celebrations this evening?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, the advertisers and designers of parking lots, choreographers for the fireworks display, and even Mother Nature have done their jobs very well: you were hypnotized.

 

 

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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

 

Introduction to the Mental Bank Concept

The Mental Bank Concept is a powerful tool to help
you set and achieve your goals by changing
your subconscious mental script.

                According to John Kappas, Ph.D. everyone follows a subconscious mental script. This script is created very early in our lives, and we will behave and even think in ways that are consistent with it even when the script does not facilitate achievement of our personal goals. Fortunately, the Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder created The Mental Bank Concept, which posits that each of us can change the script from what we are, to what we want to or should be (www.hypnosis.edu).

In addition to the intended benefit of changing our mental script, he promised that by doing the ledger we would also start to earn more money, or even receive monetary gifts to boost our real income. I clearly remember the inference in current HMI Director George Kappas’s challenge to the class as he speculated about how many people would actually spend two minutes each night before bed writing in our Mental Bank Ledger. After all, is two minutes’ of writing before falling asleep too big a sacrifice to make to improve your life, especially when your efforts for self-improvement are measured by earning more money in the process? When the class broke up for a break, I was one of the first people in the room to rush down the corridor to purchase a ledger.

This is how the Mental Bank Concept works: Each night, right before you go to bed, you will allocate a value (symbolic money) to specific behaviors, activities or events that have occurred during the day. You can “pay” yourself for going to work, working out at the gym/exercising, spending time with your family, attending a religious service of your denomination, etc. It doesn’t matter what the activity is so long as they reflect your efforts to change your subconscious mental script and achieve your new, positive behavior or goals. Then, you will write an affirmation to reinforce these behaviors and encourage you to continue to make these changes.

In creating the Mental Bank Concept, Dr. Kappas intended that people write in the ledger just before going to sleep because this is one of the times during the day that we are most suggestible, or amenable to learning. (The other time is the first 30 minutes after waking up in the morning.) The suggestions for the desired behavioral change will bypass the critical mind and drop right into the subconscious mind; the SCM will continue to process these thoughts and behavioral changes throughout the night, he explained.

Although this process is very simple, many adults are very reluctant (subconscious resistance) to change their lives using the Mental Bank Concept, Dr. Kappas observed. “Only 30 percent of adults will ever change their original script. Everyone else passes the pattern on. To change the behavior, you must change the subconscious script,” he warned.

I have been following the Mental Bank Concept since 2004, and it does work. The more subconscious and conscious work I do to achieve my goals, the more self-confident I feel every time I accomplish one and the greater the tangential (monetary) rewards I receive. For more information about The Mental Bank Concept, check out the video link at http://www.hypnosis.edu/streaming/#Mental-Bank-Program.

Contact me today at (661) 433-9430 or send e-mail to calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com to set up an appointment to experience how hypnotherapy and the Mental Bank Concept can help you achieve your goals. I will provide your first Mental Bank Ledger to help you get you started!

 

 

 

 

 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®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/