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| Photo courtesy of Microsoft Every decision you make and every action you take creates or reinforces a “known” response in your subconscious mind. |
No
matter what you do, even if you don’t try, you learn something new every day. The
question is: What will you do with this new information that you have just
learned?
For
example, imagine that your car’s gas gauge is almost on empty, so you pull into
a gas station to fill up your tank. You notice that the cost of unleaded gas is
up four cents from last week’s listed price, which triggers a familiar (known)
emotional response of anger/frustration and even anxiety about the cost of
fuel. What you do about or with this
information will depend on how badly you need the fuel right now and whether it
is/will be available when you are ready to make the purchase. Your actions will
also be influenced on how you have handled similar situations in the past: Just
fill up the tank and resolve this inconvenience, buy just enough gasoline to
keep you on the road for a few more days, or drive around to look for a better
price at a different station.
Your
subconscious mind likely knew exactly what you would do before you made the conscious
decision to just fill up the tank. Even though your first instinct would
normally be to look around for a better (cheaper) price, you decide to just buy
the gas right now. A big storm is coming, and you don’t want to risk getting
stuck on the road in bad weather. Also, if a lot of other nervous drivers have
the same idea, you might have to drive around forever looking for a station
that has a better price, but it could already be sold out of gas before you get
there. Even though you are still annoyed that you had to spend so much more
money to buy the fuel than if you had shopped around a bit more, you are
relieved that the tank is full, and
you no longer have to worry about getting stuck in bad weather.
Remember: Every
sensation you perceive provides a catalog of information about your environment
and how/where/why you fit into that situation. The conscious mind identifies
this data (stimuli) as a “known” or “unknown” message unit; the subconscious
mind is more likely to accept or reject the information/behavior if it is already
in your repertoire of knowns—and you will act accordingly. Furthermore, no
matter what you do, you will be creating a new and/or reinforcing a previous
known behavior in your repertoire for next time.
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
