Are You Afraid to Lose....or Win?

(This blog was originally posted on May 14, 2014)

      Have you refused to participate in an activity because you didn’t want to look bad or ruin your current performance record? Have you ever refused to participate in an activity in which you were likely to succeed? Both of these examples are potential causes of performance an­­xiety, and recognizing what triggers this anxiety is the first step to successfully managing and treating it.

     Fear of success is often more difficult for people to imagine feeling, because who doesn’t want to succeed and to be the best at something, right? But success comes with its own kinds of pressure and stress, including responsibility. Suddenly, it does not matter to that newly minted executive that he or she has years of training and experience to validate this promotion. It does not matter that the person has a proved track record of being able to execute profitable negotiations in the boardroom and is willing to make tough decisions about that will benefit the company. Once you get the big promotion that you have been working so hard to receive, you have to do more work and probably take on more roles than you previously had, to earn the new title and salary that you now earn. You will have to use the skills you have honed during your tenure in your previous role and put them to a real test in a leadership position. Like it or not, when you make a decision the buck will start and stop with you.

     Or, imagine an honors student at high-school student who has received two letters of acceptance from two different universities. He or she may decide to accept a place in the state university because he or she feels intimidated by the anticipated course demands and his or her family’s expectations about what it means to be a student at Harvard. It doesn’t matter that you have earned academic letters or were the captain of your sport or debate team. It doesn’t matter how many awards you have received for community service or other extracurricular activity. Once you leave the security of high school (and childhood) where you were the top-ranked student of your class, you will be starting over in a new environment that is populated by hundreds of young adults just like you. You may well become the head of your class and set a new standard of academic achievement, or not. Whatever you do academically, high-school graduation and attending college are a rite of passage from childhood to adulthood.

     The physical manifestations of performance anxiety take many forms, including trembling or shaking, feeling nauseated or “blanking out” (forgetting) the lines or music you are going to perform or the information you are supposed to present. Hypnotherapy and therapeutic guided-imagery techniques can help you to manage these symptoms and overcome this anxiety so you can do the performance or presentation.

• Systematic desensitization to the stimuli that trigger the anxiety/fear response
• Creating hypnotic scripts that reinforce the client’s recent achievements to boost his or her self-confidence about ability to achieve the stated goal.
• Use guided-imagery techniques to help the client re-experience those previous successes and further reinforce his or her self-confidence about being able to achieve a new goal.
• Teach the client how to practice diaphragmatic breathing and to activate an “anchor” to help relieve symptoms of anxiety.
• Educate the client about the relationship between nutrition and anxiety; specifically, the correlation between drops and spikes in blood-sugar level and feeling anxious or afraid. 
•  Instruct the client about using the Emotional Freedom Technique (tapping) to reduce anxiety and replace negative responses with positive/desired responses to achieve a goal. 

Performance anxiety affects most people at some time in their lives. As John Kappas, Ph.D. explains in his book Success Is Not an Accident: The Mental Bank Concept, every person has the ability to achieve success. You do not have to be afraid to fail or to succeed to achieve your goals. Now is the perfect time for you to turn your dreams into reality.

 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/.

© 2014

Inner Guidance

(This blog was originally posted on June 2, 2014)

Photo courtesy of Microsoft

           I get it. It is not always easy to know what the right thing to do is. When the boundaries of correct behavior seem obscure and peer pressure and personal motivation to achieve a specific goal are competing for attention, that little voice inside can get drowned out by our internal emotional chaos. What if it doesn’t have to?

           From the moment we are born, our subconscious mind is gathering and processing information (knowns) that will serve as a blue-print for all of our future behavior and beliefs. The content of the mental scripts that are programmed into your SCM from an early age will probably be the most influential in terms of how you process new information and negotiate potentially tricky social and emotional situations. However, the outside influences such the rules and ethical standards in your environment, as well as suggestibility to yourself and other people in your social circle, will also influence how you respond to these challenges.

        There is another, powerful influence that everyone possesses. I call this sensation Inner Guidance. Some people might refer to it as an inner voice of reason; others, more cynically, might refer to it as our conscience. Whatever you call it, you can easily recognize how this influence makes you feel when you do something that helps or harms another person—or yourself. Inner Guidance floats around in our conscious and subconscious mind. It only reminds each of us of its presence by the prickly sensations we feel when we do or say something a little out of the ordinary. It is that flush of warmth and pleasure when you decide to “pay it forward” by purchasing a stranger’s coffee at Starbucks®. It can also be the sting of embarrassment or even shame when you intentionally cut in line in front of someone waiting for a great parking spot at the mall. The good news is that Inner Guidance also makes an appearance during our moments of indecision and confusion.

When we channel this faculty, we can focus the rational, will-power, reasoning and decision-making parts of our conscious mind to address (and work out) any conflict your CM may be having with the knowns in your SCM. Here are some suggestions to help you make the decision you want to make and to behave the way you want to:

·         When in doubt, stop what you are doing and listen to the voice of your Inner Guidance. It is there to protect you from saying or doing something that you may not really want to say or do—or might regret.

·         Give yourself a “time out.” Whether you can think about your choice for a couple of seconds or even overnight, take the time you need to evaluate whether that thing you want to do is really a good idea.

·         Make a handwritten list of pros and cons about the issue to help you decide. Handwriting is an ideomotor response, which means that it comes from the SCM and reinforces the knowns (behaviors and beliefs) in that part of your mind. The action of consciously writing down your thoughts and beliefs to help you come to a new decision will also create a new known in your SCM and reinforce your conscious decision, whatever it is.

·         Hypnotherapy and/or therapeutic guided imagery can further reinforce your decision and behavior by enabling you to access your subconscious mind when you are deeply relaxed. While you are in hypnosis, it is easier for the SCM to accept these new knowns and replace the old reaction or response with the new behaviors that you believe will improve your quality of life. 

 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

Compliance and Motivation

(This blog was originally posted on May 27, 2014)

Photo courtesy of Presentation Pro

           Imagine you have been taking antibiotics to treat a bad sinus infection. The symptoms have gone away, but you still have three days’ worth of medication left to take. Not only have you lost some of your motivation to take the medications now that you feel better, but you find it very inconvenient to make sure to eat something first, to prevent getting an upset stomach. Since your physical discomfort has gone away, you (your conscious mind) may wonder why you need to finish the prescription, at all. Your subconscious mind might even try to solve that problem for you when you “forget” to take the next dose.

           It can be even tougher to follow through with a treatment plan when there is no end in sight. Even if you don’t consciously object to doing something—you know that you need to keep taking insulin to control your diabetes—your subconscious mind might not be so willing to go along with the program. Indeed, sometimes the “remedy” feels or may actually be more uncomfortable than the disease you are trying to fight. Between the discomfort and/or pain that you experience from the illness and the perceived inconvenience of all the things you must do to get better, sometimes the temptation to let everything slide for a day or two may be incredible. However, hypnotherapy can help you to follow “doctor’s orders” and provide some physical, emotional and mental comfort, as well. 

When I work with someone to facilitate a medically-related, health-related behavior change, the first thing I do is obtain a referral from the licensed medical practitioner or psychotherapist who is treating that individual (Business and Professions Code 2908). I use my client’s own words or expressions to create the hypnotic script that will motivate him or her to follow the medical or mental-health expert’s treatment regimen or advice. Each suggestion that I give to this client will reflect the person’s physical or emotional suggestibility, which will enable the person’s subconscious mind to easily understand and accept the suggestions to easily and comfortably facilitate achieving the stated compliance objectives.

Some other examples of when hypnotherapy can facilitate compliance with a recommended medical, health or addiction-recovery protocol include:

·         Following Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, etc. guidelines during rehabilitation from a substance addiction;

·     Observing a prescribed physical-fitness or exercise program to facilitate physical therapy;

·        Adhering to a medically-recommended diet to control non-insulin dependent diabetes.

          

        Remember: Hypnosis is not and should never be provided as a substitute for medical, psychotherapeutic or addiction-recovery care from a licensed practitioner. (I also require clients who have a substance-addiction to currently participate in a 12-step program while I work with them, because these programs are the most effective tool to help them recover from their addiction.) However, hypnosis can be and is a marvelous adjunct and complement to these therapies because the hypnotherapeutic script will gently and effectively reinforce the client’s specific motivations and desires to comply with the referring doctor or psychologist’s treatment recommendations.

               

               

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