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/.