Default to the Known

In compliance with current WHO and CDC recommendations to minimize risk of exposure to and spread of the COVID-19 virus, I am temporarily suspending in-person hypnotherapy sessions with me in my office. However, phone and Skype consultations ARE and WILL REMAIN AVAILABLE! 

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has

practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee

(This blog was originally posted on May 2, 2017)

Photo by Rick Hustead

During my tenure as managing editor of Black Belt magazine, I became very familiar with this refrain/admonition: “You fight the way you train.” It didn’t matter that you have practiced your martial art for thirty years and have a tenth-degree black belt in that style. If your training and competitive expertise are in point-sparring versus contact fighting, chances are you will still be in trouble when it comes to defending yourself against someone who jumps you in an alley. The problem isn’t bad technique; you just defaulted to your subconscious “known,” your comfort zone. Over the years, your repeated training to pull your punches to not make actual contact with an opponent ultimately over-rode the natural instinct to connect a devastating punch or kick with the attacker’s body to defend yourself.

I keep this philosophy in mind when I help my hypnotherapy clients achieve their self-improvement goals by creating a new subconscious mental script to facilitate their desired behavior change. By the time they contact me for hypnotherapy, chances are they have been practicing that unwanted action or belief system for many years. No matter how many times they tell themselves they absolutely, positively do not want to smoke one more cigarette or eat another piece of sugary/fried food, this message is coming from the Logic/Will-Power/Decision-Making and Reasoning faculties based in the Conscious Mind. No matter how much you want to get rid of that negative habit, the Subconscious Mind will have a different perspective.

All those memories and positive associations (pleasure) with doing the “unwanted” behavior are stored in the Subconscious Mind, and the Critical Area of the mind, which is positioned in both the Conscious and Subconscious areas—is a great gate-keeper to prevent change in this status quo. For the Subconscious Mind, change—even desired change—equals pain, and it will fight very hard to prevent change from occurring. To our frustration, this usually means succumbing to temptation to smoke just one more cigarette or polish off your child’s left-over fries, and we go back to practicing those actions we want to stop once and for all.

The great thing about hypnosis is its effectiveness to overhaul or even delete those mental scripts that keep us in that loop of practicing unwanted habits. When you are in hypnosis, I can talk directly to your subconscious mind and, using your motivations, reasons and goals for the behavior change, rewrite that negative script to facilitate desired behavior changes. Once these new mental scripts are in your Subconscious Mind, resistance to making these changes melts away and are replaced by consistent repetition of new, healthy actions and belief systems to reinforce and achieve your self-improvement goals. With hypnosis, we can create a new “default” behavior and connect that metaphoric punch with the desired target: achieving your self-improvement goal!

Special Offer!

Save 15 percent on all a la carte (individual) phone and Skype hypnotherapy sessions, including the 2-hour introductory First Session!

*This offer may not be combined with other promotional discounts/session packages and is not redeemable for cash. Offer expires on June 30, 2020

Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. In July 2019 she was voted the Best Hypnotherapist in Santa Clarita, California. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

© 2020

Default to the Known

(This blog was originally posted on May 2, 2017)

Photo by Rick Hustead

“I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has

practiced one kick 10,000 times.” – Bruce Lee

 

During my tenure as managing editor of Black Belt magazine, I became very familiar with this refrain/admonition: “You fight the way you train.” It didn’t matter that you have practiced your martial art for thirty years and have a tenth-degree black belt in that style. If your training and competitive expertise are in point-sparring versus contact fighting, chances are you will still be in trouble when it comes to defending yourself against someone who jumps you in an alley. The problem isn’t bad technique; you just defaulted to your subconscious “known,” your comfort zone. Over the years, your repeated training to pull your punches to not make actual contact with an opponent ultimately over-rode the natural instinct to connect a devastating punch or kick with the attacker’s body to defend yourself.

I keep this philosophy in mind when I help my hypnotherapy clients achieve their self-improvement goals by creating a new subconscious mental script to facilitate their desired behavior change. By the time they contact me for hypnotherapy, chances are they have been practicing that unwanted action or belief system for many years. No matter how many times they tell themselves they absolutely, positively do not want to smoke one more cigarette or eat another piece of sugary/fried food, this message is coming from the Logic/Will-Power/Decision-Making and Reasoning faculties based in the Conscious Mind. No matter how much you want to get rid of that negative habit, the Subconscious Mind will have a different perspective.

All those memories and positive associations (pleasure) with doing the “unwanted” behavior are stored in the Subconscious Mind, and the Critical Area of the mind, which is positioned in both the Conscious and Subconscious areas—is a great gate-keeper to prevent change in this status quo. For the Subconscious Mind, change—even desired change—equals pain, and it will fight very hard to prevent change from occurring. To our frustration, this usually means succumbing to temptation to smoke just one more cigarette or polish off your child’s left-over fries, and we go back to practicing those actions we want to stop once and for all.

The great thing about hypnosis is its effectiveness to overhaul or even delete those mental scripts that keep us in that loop of practicing unwanted habits. When you are in hypnosis, I can talk directly to your subconscious mind and, using your motivations, reasons and goals for the behavior change, rewrite that negative script to facilitate desired behavior changes. Once these new mental scripts are in your Subconscious Mind, resistance to making these changes melts away and are replaced by consistent repetition of new, healthy actions and belief systems to reinforce and achieve your self-improvement goals. With hypnosis, we can create a new “default” behavior and connect that metaphoric punch with the desired target: achieving your self-improvement goal!

Limited-Time Offer: Free 30-minute Phone Consultation

 This is a great opportunity to find out why hypnosis is so effective and how hypnotherapy can help you achieve your self-improvement goals. Call/send me a text message at (661) 433-9430 or send me an e-mail at calminsensehypnosis@yahoo.com to set up your free, 30-minute phone consultation, today! 

Offer valid through May 31, 2019. 

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/.

© 2019

Preparing for Success

(This blog was originally posted on July 21, 2014)

Photo courtesy of Fotolia

   There are various paths to success. On the one hand, you can make a detailed plan about what you need to do then follow specific steps or a strategy to actualize your goal. Alternatively, you get an idea or feel inspired about something you would like to achieve and then wait and see how it will work out without you having to do anything else to facilitate the desired outcome. Sometimes success just falls into our lap; you are in the right place at the right time and good fortune falls into your lap. And then there are different combinations of these paths that yield varying results in actualizing your plan.

•     Oprah Winfrey once said: “Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place for the next moment.” This philosophy empowers and encourages us to achieve our goals by planning and doing the ground, grunt and glory work, as it were, to facilitate this success. Luck or serendipity may play a part in this outcome; but the most important component of your success is what you are willing to put into it. The greatest risk (or guarantee) of failure or a sub-par performance is when you slack off or stop paying attention to what you need to do to realize your dream. Here are some examples of these behaviors and outcomes:
•          “Perfect practice makes perfect performance.” This is a popular training motto among athletes and performers, but it’s obviously applicable to every area of our lives. I lost count of how many martial artists repeated this mantra when I wrote training and technique articles about them for Black Belt magazine. For example, kickboxing champions train to connect all of their techniques in practice; otherwise, they risk pulling a punch or kick during a competition that could cost points or even the match. Michele Krasnoo, an actress and kickboxing champion, once explained how she studied video-recordings of each of her training sessions and competitions. She explained that she was looking for errors in her technique; moreover, she said, if she didn’t find a mistake (or ten) then she hadn’t been looking hard enough and would re-watch the footage. Right away, I loved her humility and dedication to improving her game and adopted this philosophy in my dressage training.
•          “You can’t win the Lottery of you don’t buy a ticket.” This quote is actually from an episode of Chuck Norris’ hit series Walker, Texas Ranger. The point is, if you don’t show up mentally, emotionally and physically and put in the effort to achieve your goal, you will not succeed. Winning the Lottery has more to do with luck and chance than skill, but you won’t be able to collect that multimillion-dollar jackpot if you don’t hold the winning ticket.
•         “Buy a cheap suit, get a cheap suit.” This quote from Pet Shop Boys front-man Neil Tennant says it all about the direct relationship between quality of workmanship and quality of your product. While he was referring to the cost of clothing and the quality of its materials and manufacture, this philosophy could also speak to the metaphor about self-worth. When you don’t believe (or perceive) that you have value—i.e., low self-confidence and low self-esteem—your motivation to continue to grow and strive takes a hit, as does the “products” that you create at work, hobbies, etc. If you don’t make your best effort and employ your skills and expertise in the project, if you don’t use the finest-quality materials or technology, the quality of your product will suffer. I teach my clients about the Mental Bank Concept to help them appreciate and increase their self-value and self-esteem. As these perceptions increase and they start taking actions to “attract” what that they want, more and more opportunities and goals become manifested in their lives.

 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/.

© 2015