In last night’s 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
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/.
© 2014
