Gratitude Monday --To Its Time

I am grateful for 2014.
It was a good year.

There was travel and camping, and picture taking  expeditions.  Yes,  this is the year I had cancer, but even that is good.
Among the lessons offered by said disease is the need to let go,  and the need to get past obstructions. The way to get past an obstruction is to let the thing go.

Meditation is something I do almost daily. Mine is a hybrid of meditation-hypnosis as they occur in the same level of consciousness.  Often I start with writing, be it gratitude, free writing, sorting out something on my mind, whatever.
Then I move on to the altered state work. In it I take whatever gets dredged up and look at it.

In the past I would simply acknowledge the incident, admit it, and move away from it.
Now I add one more step. Because of the lessons of 2014 I learned this:
Leave it to its time.

Recall an embarrassing moment?  A stupid thing you did, said, believed? They come up at the most annoying times. When they do it is because they've something to show you.
Acknowledge them, accept them, and leave them.
If it happened when you were 12, then it is a part of your past and stays at 12. You can't undo what happened, you can only get beyond it.
If you did it last week, leave it there. Granted that's still pretty fresh.  It may take some time and distance to get beyond it, but if it is important to your growth it will come back to haunt you.
When that happens, let it bubble up and then leave it to its time.
It is a part of your past. That is where it belongs.

The experience of it stays with you and that is what is important. What you've learned, how you've grown, those things matter.
Keep the lesson, leave the incident.

With that I acknowledge 2014 and those matters which may be perceived as bad. I am grateful for them, and I leave them to their time.

Gratitude Monday - Thinking

I am grateful that I can think.

Specifically, directed thinking such as meditation and hypnosis. For readers who don't know this I am a certified transpersonal hypnotherapist.

I meditate or do self-hypnosis often. If nothing else the quiet time is great. It is a time of rest and shutting away the world.

This is good.

Often I'll do a hybrid, that is I listen to my taped self-hypnosis relaxation and then let my mind have at it. I like to see it will come up with as on occasion it has been useful.

About a week ago I was letting my mind out to wander and it brought back something useful. It formed a picture, a manifestation of all those miserable nagging voices that make fun of me and remind me that I'm not good at certain things like playing guitar.

The manifestation's name was Montgomery and he was dressed like a fancy 17^th  Century French fellow: moustache, hat with feather, blue clothing, and sword.

One of my guides told me to start telling him off and he'd get smaller.

I did. It was fun.

Montgomery shrank until he made Tom Thumb look like a giant. He ran away screaming.

Now when I strum my guitar and the reminders start I see Montgomery fleeing and I laugh.

I am grateful that I know how to use hypnosis and meditation, that I practice it often, and that if given the freedom, my mind will construct the darnedest things.

Until I Try

An osprey takes wing near Gardiner, Montana.

I've been away from the blog for a few days. Okay, nearly a week. But I have two really good excuses, one of which is I was away for the weekend.
It was the Heritage Day long weekend here so my husband and went to Yellowstone. It was a wonderful trip and I am so glad I did it. I hope to get back to spend more time there.
The other excuse was I am conducting an experiment on myself. I've committed to writing 1,000 words a day.
I started this last week and did it three days in a row. The fourth day was the first day of the mini-vacation and we left at 5:30 a.m. Yes, I could have written the quota, but I needed my sleep.
I'm pleased to report that the writing sessions for those three days went well. I sat down and pounded out the quota and then some in one sitting. Said sitting was less than an hour.
Even though I haven't reviewed what I wrote, I am confident that up to 100 words each day will prove to be keepers.
I've done this for other manuscripts though never formalized it. This time I've made the commitment and I've made an hypnosis suggestion to make it so.
I've been a Transpersonal Hypnotherapist for 14 years. I've experimented on myself many times and was pleased with the results including the time I used self-hypnosis to cut down on the amount of potato chips I eat.
Last week I made a word quota suggestion on tape plus threw in the phrase "thousand words a day" at random points as I was relaxing myself.
Has it worked?
Well, I'll tell you this, I'm much too tired today to do anything with my manuscript yet I feel compelled to fire up a file and write. It's similar to the craving a smoker gets when she needs a smoke ( I'm an ex-smoker. I know of what I speak.) or a desperate need for good, dark chocolate.
It's too early to call it a success, but it looks good so far.
And, like the osprey in the photo leaving its nest, I won't know until I try.

Gratitude Monday – Relaxation Edition

David Thompson Highway at Preacher's Point. Photo is unrelated to post, but is relaxing.

Hypnosis is a wonderful tool when done properly. I studied it 13 years ago and am reasonably adequate at it. I’m pleased and grateful to say that I am really good at self-hypnosis.
This comes in very handy when I have to do something that makes me shudder. I used it to remain calm during laser eye surgery, to relax my body so I wouldn’t gag during dental work, and last week I used it so I could handle getting my throat sprayed.

I had a Transesophageal Echocardiogram prior to my catheter ablation. The TEE involves sending a tiny camera down the throat to sneak a look behind the heart in case there are any nasty clots hiding.

The TEE proper is easy. I was sedated for it and only became aware at the very end when the camera was being removed.
The problem is getting my throat sprayed to make it numb so the camera can slip down to do its work.
The first time I had one of these done it took six shots and involved plenty of gagging.
Because I knew what to expect this time, I knew how to get past it. I suggested I’d remain calm and relax and not gag. I said it would only take one shot. They gave me three simply because that’s what they do, but the first one was easy.

I had to say “aaah” for the next two. This increased the difficulty.
Spray is administered while the patient is lying down on his or her left side. The spray attachment is put toward the back of the tongue. Making the tongue work for this made me want to choke, but I was so relaxed from my hypnosis suggestions it all went well.

I am grateful for that.

Bloodletting

I killed off a useless meditation in my WIP the other day. It had to be done.

Originally I thought it was very useful.

I have had this particular meditation around for years and it doubled as deepener. That’s a method for enhancing a relaxation to induce a deep state of hypnosis.
Deepeners often use a counted level method such as riding down an elevator, or visualizations, or both. This one had a combination.

And now, four manuscripts after having cooked up the thing I still can’t find a place for it.

I’ve added it in to each of my manuscripts and then taken it out. In the first ms it didn’t last long as I came up with it late in the writing and it truly was superfluous.
It was great in the second manuscript. It stayed until near the end of the third pass before I finally had to admit it wasn’t right.
Ditto the third manuscript.

And now the end has come again in number four. It was in the first version of the fourth manuscript and I killed all of it off in June. I added it back in version 4.1 and it stayed for a bit more than two months.

I want so much to use it. I’m proud of it. But so far all it does is kick up my word count.

Sigh. Maybe it’ll find a home in my next manuscript.

From Out of Stupid

I did something stupid yesterday.

I was carrying a wooden stepladder back to the garage. It was horizontal at about shoulder level and I’d hooked my arm in it upright with my left hand bent back comfortably supporting the top bar.
That was fine. I’d done this several times already this summer. Nothing unusual here.
Then, for reasons I plain don’t get, my arm got stuck. It was wedged firmly. My hand was bent back toward my wrist at such a sharp angle it hurt.

Slight panic started to set in as there was no one nearby to help. I had visions of screaming down the street with a stepladder held out like a lance of courtesy in front of me.

Every squirm I tried made it worse. I tried pulling my hand free. No luck.
Rather than give into the panic I decided to think. It went in. It can come out.
As soon as I realized that the solution flowed into my mind: Change the angle.
So I did. I dipped it down and it took the pressure off. My arm slipped out easily.

Instead of freaking out and worrying about taking an ax to the problem I gave it calm thought.
Where did the solution come from? Me? Maybe. A guide? I don’t know, but it seems likely.
I credit my calmness to meditation and self-hypnosis. Altered state work teaches calmness and balance. Those qualities help us to think and to heed messages from Spirit.

I was reminded once again that when faced with a problem I should turn it over and tickle its tummy until the solution flows out.

My Cousin Wayne

Today (July 22) is my cousin Wayne’s 49th birthday. Or would be had he not died last August.
He was exactly four months older than me and we were close when we were kids.
Wayne stayed with us for two weeks in August 1969. He’d just turned 11, I was still 10, and we caught frogs and played with garter snakes, snuck cigarettes in the old house on the farm, and dug tunnels in a huge pile of sand behind the new house we’d moved into a few months earlier.
The frogs were used in competitive sports. We called it the “Froggie Woggie Olympics” and events included determining how long the poor amphibians could stay submerged before they would float to the surface belly up.
When one did we turned it over and rubbed its back for a moment to revive it. I’m pleased to report we never lost an athlete.
Looking back it was probably cruel, but back in the golden innocence of youth it was fun.

Wayne was smart. He got high marks in school, was a thinker, and was very level–headed. We disagreed only once. We were talking about starving African children and I said they were undernourished. He insisted the right word was malnourished. Maybe we were both right.

Wayne’s family moved a lot and we didn’t see one another much after that year.
He got into drugs as a teen and became an alcoholic. He went to AA and celebrated two weeks of sobriety by going out and getting so drunk that we was in a coma for three days.

Somewhere in his mid-forties he was diagnosed as schizophrenic. It was a blessing. He took his meds. He straightened out his life. He took a course in hotel management and got a good job as a night manager.

Shortly afterward he was diagnosed with bone cancer. He didn’t last too long and I can’t help but think that’s a blessing too. Survival meant pain.

Some would look at his life and pronounced it wasted. I don’t agree.
We have our lessons to learn during Earth life and we choose how to learn them.
We decide in pre-birth the big things in life, who we’ll be with and what we’ll do. He chose the experiences of his life for his reasons. Maybe it was for him to learn; maybe it was a lesson for someone else. He knows that answer, not me.

Wayne came to me during one of my altered state sessions at the hypnosis retreat in May. He said “I made a way for you.”

I don’t know what that means.

It was good to see him again. He hasn’t visited me in my dreams like most of my other dead relatives.

I could see him clearly. Tall, strong, dressed in a buckskin jacket and cowboy hat. There was door behind him, like a office door, and he put one hand on the doorknob, tipped his hat to me and said, “You take care now.” He opened the door and I know he went to a life in the American Old West.

I believe he did what he needed in this life and learned what he came to learn in the fashion that suited his needs the best.

Whatever else he did, or didn’t do, Wayne and I will always be together in the golden moment of youth, playing with frogs.

Booting The Past From The Present

Does your past catch up with you? Well, actually, it’s never left your side.
Significant emotional and physical events from life, whether it’s 30 years ago or 300, stick with us.

Energy from people and events pool in our enduring subconscious minds and help to form us into who we are today. If we want to successfully change who we are, then we often need to go back and find the event.

Past-Life Regression can get this done.

At this point I usually get snickers snorts, guffaws, and other assorted bits of derision. That’s fine. It’s where that person is; it’s got nothing to do with me.
But I get significant amount of genuine, if quiet, interest, too, and that’s wonderful.

Helping a client get to and get through a previous lifetime is instantly gratifying. I get to watch pain being shed and happiness taking over. I’ve seen understanding and realizations light up faces and I know this light comes from inside.
The help that revisiting past lives brings is visible, tangible, and immediate.
I’ve seen privileged to see lives change immediately, literally right before my eyes. Pain and insecurity fall away and are replaced by the strength and beauty that was there all along. They stand tall after booting their past from their present.

Am I bragging? No. Not really.

Clients do all the work themselves. They heal themselves. They change their own lives. All I do guide them through it.
I’m grateful for the trust they place in me and the chance to help.

Tagged! My Ten Things For Success

Isabella Mori at moritherapy at
http://www.moritherapy.org/article/success-in-a-basket/
tagged me recently.
It’s the Simply Successful Secrets experiment started at
http://todayisthatday.com/blog/simply-successful-secrets/
The idea is to list the top five to ten things you do every day to help you be successful.

So what do I do to be successful? I take this to mean what do I do to ensure I have a good day.
I posted something similar recently. That meant I’d have to think a bit further instead of simple recap.

If I’m happy, then I’m successful. As long as I’m engaged in the world, intellectually stimulated, and invested in my environment, then I’m happy and therefore a success.

Enough blathering. Let’s get to it.

#1. Get up early. Morning is my best time. Mid-evening is a close second, but the early hours are still and quiet and good for thinking.

#2. Read the daily newspaper. I like to know what’s going on in the world without having to sit through stories of dogs rescued from thin ice and intrusive questions posed to grieving families. I was a journalist for 19 years. I know it’s part of the job. But tell me about the tax increase before the first commercial break please.

#3. Exercise, especially yoga. Toning the body tones the mind, too. Exercise leads to greater physical awareness and that makes relaxing into a hypnosis or meditation session that much better.

#4. Bacon. I need a hot breakfast. I’ve taken to eating beef or bison bacon because it’s easier on me than pork, but I’ve noticed that skipping meat with the morning meal makes me feel like out of sorts for the day.

#5. Express gratitude. I thank the Universe/God/All That Is everyday for all I have received. I do it outside, first thing, as my coffee brews.

#6. Quiet. I need some time each day even if I just sit in the sunlight at my kitchen table alone with my thoughts. It’s my time.

#7.Self-hypnosis or meditation, usually followed by a nap. It’s relaxing, quiet, and it’s spiritual exploration. I’ve followed scripts where I saw my own birth, regressed myself to a past life, and even used a progression scripts to visit the future. I’ve given myself suggestions about cleaning the house and the next thing I knew I was down on my hands and knees with a toothpick cleaning under the baseboards.

#8. Go outside. I usually do this first thing in the morning, but if I don’t, I make a point of stepping out to get some fresh air into my lungs. It clears my head and wakes me up. A look at the moon and stars restores my emotional balance.

#9. I visit my favorite blogs and websites. I’m entertained and I learn things.

#10. Laugh. Or at least smile about something. I have to see the good and the funny in the world or I’ll become miserable, stingy, and negative. I will have joy in my life. It’s easy to be negative. Joy can take a bit of work some days, but it’s well worth it.

I tag

http://saipanwriter.blogspot.com
http://steadydrip.blogspot.com
http://irishscribbler.blogspot.com

Aware, Not Asleep

"I wasn’t really hypnotized."

No one ever thinks he or she was hypnotized. I’ve said it myself.
Clients report they were alert and awake through the session. Because we’re conditioned to equate hypnosis with sleep, we expect to slumber through it not really aware of our surroundings. We expect it because the word hypnosis is from the Greek word hypnos which means sleep.

In reality the relaxed and focused awareness of the proper hypnotic state makes us sharply aware. Our minds are commonly instructed to ignore the surroundings, but we still know exactly what’s going on.

Being able to ignore all the usual distraction, coupled with the suggestion to the subconscious that the deeper doorways of the mind are open, is what let’s us get at those long dormant memories. Everything we’ve experienced in this life is filed away. We use what we need. Generally we don’t need to recall the exact events of our third birthday party, but we if we want to, then we can through hypnosis.
#

Daydreaming Is Not Hypnosis

Daydreaming is not hypnosis. It’s like hypnosis. It’s a similar mind-frame, but it’s not the same thing.
It annoys me greatly when I find this used as an example because I think it’s misleading.
Oh, I know why it’s posed this way. There’s no legitimate reason to fear the hypnotic state and this is a way to ease that fear. We can thank the entertainment media for messing with our minds over this. Killer hypnozombies are more interesting than someone who is simply relaxed and aware.
Truth is we lapse into different states of brain wave activity naturally during the day. We get lost in thought. We zone in while painting or reading or fixing the lawn mower. It’s natural and normal.
Generally when this happens we’ve gone into the alpha state. That’s where our brain wave activity has slowed a bit from the normal waking level known as beta.
It happens when we’re concentrating intently on something, but it also happens when we’re doing something routine and we daydream our way through it.
Hypnosis is an induced state of focused relaxation coupled with suggestibility.
Daydreaming doesn’t have much of a focus and doesn't make us susceptible to suggestion. If I’m lost in thought while sweeping my kitchen floor and someone suggests I go screaming into the street, it won’t happen. I’d snap out of the reverie and back into the beta level of consciousness darn quickly. I’d also be annoyed.
After alpha comes theta. It’s an even slower level brain wave activity. That’s the level we're at in proper hypnosis and meditation.
The fourth level is delta. That’s the level of brain wave activity we have in deep sleep and in a coma.
No one would ever suggest that a coma is the very same thing as a deep sleep. And it’s my position that no one should suggest that being lost in thought while we do the dishes is the same as being hypnotized.