Hypnosis suffers from many myths and misconceptions. For instance, who hasn t heard the stories of people under hypnosis being forced to act like a chicken? However, hypnosis is actually a natural state that we move in and out of many times a day.
Have you ever driven somewhere only to arrive with no memory of parts of the trip? Or how about sitting in a lecture and realizing that you stopped paying attention to the speaker because you were daydreaming. At times like these, your conscious mind becomes engrossed in other things but your unconscious mind still keeps active.
This is known as natural trance and happens to all of us. Research shows that the left side of our brain, the rational, analytical side, tends to operate in 90-120 minute blocks. After this length of time we find ourselves daydreaming or lacking concentration. This is simply our brain taking a short break, refreshing itself. When this happens, the creative, less analytical, side of the brain takes over. Hypnosis mirrors this process by tapping into the creative part of the brain to make lasting changes.
Rather than losing control during hypnosis, most people simply end up feeling very comfortable and relaxed. During this relaxed state, a person suspends critical judgment but the subconscious mind remains alert. This allows access to the subconscious mind which is receptive to suggestion. However, you can t be forced to do anything you don t want to do. Rather, hypnosis can be used to allow a person s conscious and subconscious minds to believe in the same positive message.
It is important to note that the root cause of most physical and emotional problems is in the subconscious mind. These negative beliefs are formed from past experiences, often ones that are outside conscious memory or awareness. Hypnosis is a way of accessing and releasing that information and the accompanying emotional distress. Because hypnosis accesses the subconscious mind, it can also be used to enhance personal capabilities and performance. Hypnosis has been used successfully for a wide range of applications including improved memory and creativity, stopping unwanted habits, and controlling stress and anxiety.
Hypnosis and Creativity
True creativity seems to happen by itself because it is a product of the unconscious mind. In fact, the harder you consciously try to be creative, the poorer your creative problem solving skills become. The problem is made worse by self-limiting beliefs ( I ll never come up with a good idea ) and the tendency to analyse and reject any ideas too quickly.
Hypnosis can help bypass these barriers that exist at the conscious level and let your unconscious mind come up with the sorts of ideas, solutions and innovations that it is so good at.
It is also important that you are relaxed to be creative. In fact, you are most creative when you are asleep when you dream. Hypnosis allows you to enter this relaxed dream-like state on demand.
It used to be that the only way to experience hypnosis was to be hypnotized in a clinical setting. Now, a number of good hypnosis CDs exist that allow you to get the benefits of hypnosis in the comfort of your home. Using a combination of relaxation techniques, visualisation exercises and positive affirmations, these CDs can boost your creative problem solving abilities in many aspects of your life.
About the Author: David Allen is an award-winning inventor with a strong interest in simple and practical methods to enhance creative thinking. Visit http://www.creativityboosters.com for more easy tools and techniques to increase your creativity.
As a wedding magician, you can have great opportunities in marketing your skills. There are many ways for you to do that.
- For example, during the awkward period while waiting for the couple’s arrival in the venue of the reception, you can help lighten up the tension by providing entertainment. Sometimes it may take a while for the newlyweds to come to the reception, and it is not a good and pleasant idea for every one to be in a room that is full of almost complete strangers waiting for the couple to arrive. A magician like you can help ease this problem, and help people talk and laugh.
- In every reception, there is a DJ or a show band hired to entertain the guests. However, a magician like you can be a nice change from the usual dancing. While guests are eating their dinner, you can give 45 minutes of laughter and fun. You can do delightful tricks such as floating roses to offer to the wedding bridesmaid.
- It pays to do some research. Can you find out if there are many children that are going to be present at the wedding reception? If so, then you can make a show for the children, providing a nice diversion for them while their parents mingle.
- The tips above will bolster your record as a quality wedding magician who has a good reputation when it comes to performing on wedding occasions. However, if you are relatively free from your wedding gigs, why not make some promotional brochures for your target market. Your business card or brochure should say that you are the “Magician for Weddings” and not just “Magician for all Occasions.” Your marketing brochure should show that you are someone that is a specialist in the said market. Be the wedding expert.
- You might want to make a small “wedding planner” brochure, providing information on food arrangements, flower services, on renting a tuxedo or gown, among others. In the brochure, put in an article on how magicians can provide great entertainment in wedding receptions. Leave some room for your advertising. Distribute these to establishments that cater to such occasions. They would be happier to post your brochure if you include their establishments in your brochure.
- Make sure that customers can contact you anytime they want. Give them your phone and fax numbers, as well as your website and email addresses.
About the author:
Preston Houer has been involved with the art of illusion and sleight of hand for over 30 years. Let Preston show you how to Have Fun With Magic. Visit His Site Today! http://www.have-fun-with-magic.com
To create a wonderful life, you first need to make a choice: will you use your thinking to help yourself to the happy, fulfilling life you wish for, or will you allow the often haphazard, random ideas we gather over time to non-consciously run your life for you? What you think leads directly to feelings and actions. Think in one direction, you will feel and act accordingly. Think differently, your feelings and actions will be different. Those thoughts are powerful, aren’t they? The only trouble is, ideas can become so ingrained that we don’t even need to be aware for them to exert instant control over us. Here’s an example. Suppose you are driving your car home from work or some other familiar place, a trip you’ve made many times before. As you drive, you might be thinking of all sorts of things: what you’ll have for dinner, what you’ll wear tomorrow, what happened during the day, etc. You come to a red light, yet not once do you need to say to yourself, “Oh, there’s a red light. It means stop the car. I’d better stop or I may be in some danger, or get a ticket. I’ll take my foot off the gas and slowly press down on the brake and come to a smooth stop.” Nor did you need to say to yourself, “There’s Main Street. I have to make a left turn. Now I’ll switch on my directional signal because…”, and so on. You didn’t have to say any of that consciously, yet you do successfully stop when you need to and turn when you need to. Things we have learned and believe to be true become automatic thinking, often outside of our awareness, but nonetheless motivational. What’s hard to find, but always with you? Your automatic thinking, of course!
If you reflect on your daily life, a large part is routine and very obviously controlled by this non-conscious thinking. However, the same is true for many less obvious, though powerful motivations, too. Now take a minute and imagine a behavior or emotion you wish you could change. What kind of thinking would you need to use that will point toward the new you? Doesn’t it just make good sense to find productive ideas that will lead to your desired result, and then plant them in your mind to use whenever you need? The very best way I know to “plant” an idea is with self hypnosis. Self hypnosis helps to get past the roadblocks we set up to keep new ideas from getting in, like skepticism, critical thinking, or suspicion. Funny thing is, those roadblocks are usually very necessary in this complicated world, but surely you don’t have to protect yourself from the ideas you want the most! So, the way around it all is hypnosis. Hypnosis, for a person willing to give it a try, is a highly effective way to place ideas, technically called “suggestions”, into that person’s deepest thought processes.Self hypnosis is usually thought of as a person listening to an audio tape, mp3, or other mass-produced media, intended to induce a willingness to absorb suggestions centered around a specific topic such as weight loss, stop smoking, etc. Unfortunately, this kind of hypnosis is generally prepared by someone who has never met the person being hypnotized, often presenting unwanted, even unpleasant imagery and suggestions. For example, if you sunburn easily, that last thing you want to hear about is a slow walk on a sunny beach. In this case, the “self” in self hypnosis simply means that you listen to it by yourself!
A true self hypnosis would necessarily be designed and created by the very person who will ultimately use and benefit from it. Unlike the mass-produced hypnosis, this hypnosis is made for the exact purpose the person wishes, including the precise words and phrases that mean the most to that particular person. The true self hypnosis is thus crafted by the person to suit his or her own needs. The benefits derived could only be accomplished with such a personal, one-of-a-kind hypnosis. In this case, the “self” in self hypnosis really does mean that you are hypnotized by yourself!
So, when you find that gem of an idea that will lead you directly to your goal, you want those very words describing your new idea to be included in your hypnosis. Here are a couple of websites that can help you acheive this. At http://self-hypnosis.org you’ll find details on creating and recording your own self hypnosis, for free. Another one is http://www.hypnosoft.com where, for a small fee, you can use the online software to create a custom self hypnosis mp3. You’re going to think anyway, so why not help yourself think your way to a better life? Create the wonderful life you truly deserve!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The work of Richard A. Blumenthal, MS, NCC, LMHC has been published in such esteemed journals as Medical Hypnoanalysis, The International Journal of Psychosomatics, The Journal of Human Behavior and Learning, and The British Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Mr. Blumenthal is the originator of Rational Suggestion Therapy, and the inventor of HypnoSoft Self Hypnosis Software, located at http://www.hypnosoft.com, for which he was awarded a United States patent.
