Attitude and Suggestibility

“A bad attitude is contagious.” – Lolly Daskal

Photo by Rick Hustead

Have you ever noticed how quickly and easily you or other members of your family or peers at work get grumpy, fearful or some other negative emotion if someone else in that group has that attitude? Or, if you hear a news report that a particularly virulent strain of flu is going around and the first symptom is a really sore throat, you notice that you also have a sore throat? Even babies get in on the act: one crying baby can set off temper tantrums in every other infant or toddler in the room? Alternatively, some people are able to maintain an inner peace, patience and indifference to the emotional volatility of other people in their environment. What is that all about?

I believe that a lot of this behavioral mimicry comes from suggestibility. As I have explained in my previous blog titled Where Does Suggestibility Come From?, we learn behavior by identification and association of various message units that enter the subconscious mind. Some of this behavior—especially in the case of animals and very young children—is likely reflective of the fight/flight reaction that is triggered in the primitive area of the mind. The subconscious mind of young children is programmed very early that that when they fuss, someone should/is going to come along to make them comfortable. When a baby become irritable, the volume of its shriek can easily trigger that “fight” response in its young peers, who start to cry, too. These infants’ cries communicate the following message: Something is wrong, the noise is irritating/hurting me, take care of me now.

As for our reactions to stressful environments and other people’s emotional volatility, I also believe that a lot of our discomfort comes from the negative energy we pick up in that context. Each of us, to some extent, possesses the ability to detect subtle and obvious signs of threat or danger (intuition). This can be a nagging sensation of being watched in a crowd or feel like the air in a room you entered is very thick or heavy because others are arguing or fighting. We make these associations because we have learned (suggestibility, again) that emotions are easily transformed into physical sensations. The more sensitive and suggestible you are to the emotional miasma in the room, the more likely you are to take on this negativity (good or bad) as well.

To help maintain a positive attitude, I teach my clients simple breathing and relaxation techniques by which to dial down or even turn off the negative energy or attitudes they perceive around them. I also desensitize them to the stimuli that typically trigger this negativity in themselves. Therapeutic guided-imagery techniques enable my clients to find solutions for handling their own reactions to other people’s criticism or antagonism (including peers or family members) they are likely to encounter during a stressful situation. For more tips how to improve your attitude and de-fuse and diffuse negative energy, I invite you to read my blogs titled Energy Exchange and Energy Vampires.

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/.

© 2016