Ghandi once said, “Usually I meditate for an hour each morning, but I have so much to do today, I will meditate for two.” In other words, once you have something worked out firmly in your mind, its physical manifestation comes quickly.

HAMMERTOES

For example, a woman suffered from hammertoes (toes curl down). She tried everything, even having the tendons in her foot cut to help her toes lie flat. The tendons grew back together! Finally, she decided to try hypnosis. In one session, she recalled her father had been very mean. If she would cry, her father would threaten her with a beating. As an adult, she remembered how mean her father was and how afraid she was of him. What was buried in her subconscious were decisions she had made as a child:

To stop herself from crying (and avoid a beating), she would curl up her toes. She had equated showing emotion with physical pain.

As an adult she was continuing to curl her toes to keep from being emotional and avoid pain. Ah ha! Once she understood what caused her behavior, her toes went flat and remained flat.

THE LEFTY

A 57-year-old man procrastinated when writing checks and paying bills. He wanted to conquer his procrastination and tried hypnosis to overcome it. It worked, but not in the way he anticipated.

During hypnosis, he remembered being in kindergarten and holding his pencil in his left hand. His teacher walked by and remarked, “Oh, you must be a lefty” (meaning he must be left-handed). At that very moment, his young mind decided he must be left handed. Why?

Because he was told by an “authority figure” that he was left handed. (Children are taught to respect authority and grown-ups are always right.) Because as a child he didn’t have enough information to make an informed decision on his own. (A child doesn’t have enough information until the ages of 7-9. Before that, their young minds accept pretty much everything - carte blanche.)

Because of this one remark, he spent the next 51 years writing left handed. However, everything else he performed with his right hand - opening doors, throwing balls, etc. Once he analyzed the incident with his adult mind, he realized he wasn’t left-handed, but really was right handed. He started writing with his right hand and within two days said it felt “right”. And his procrastination had left. For more examples, visit www.personalenergyprogram.com

THE LESSONS WE LEARN

We learned many lessons as children. Some were good and others not so good. These lessons play out constantly in our daily lives and run our behavior, even today. You usually remember an event, but how your young mind interpreted the event is usually buried deep in your subconscious. If you want to change a behavior, you need to: 1) Become aware of the event(s) that caused the behavior you want to change, 2) Determine how you interpreted the event(s), 3) Recognize how your interpretation created the behavior you want to change, and 4) Change or delete the behavior.

The fastest and most efficient way to change an unwanted behavior is through the use of hypnosis. With hypnosis you can easily access your subconscious mind, locate the event that triggered the pattern, understand how you interpreted the event, analyze the resulting behavior and re-train your brain by changing or deleting the behavior.

With hypnosis, you can easily re-train your brain. Remember, once you have something worked out in your mind, its physical manifestation comes quickly.

About the author:

Ellen L. Hughes is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist who practices in Denver, Colorado. She runs two websites for your enjoyment: www.hughes_hypnosis.com which concentrates on hypnosis and how you can use it to your advantage and www.personalenergyprogram.com, Your one-stop shop for natural health care; offering articles, exercises, services and products to help you optimize your health - body and mind - naturally.

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This card trick is very impromptu and can be done with a borrowed deck. There is no need to practice and no sleights needed.

Trick:

You predict a card without even touching the deck.

Method:

You hand a whole deck to your spectator and tell him to shuffle it. You then tell him to count 26 cards which is half of the deck. As he/she is counting, you remember the seventh card. Then tell him/her to set aside the 26 cards counted. You then write your prediction to a piece of paper. Next, tell him/her to pick any three cards from the other half. After that tell him to put the other half on top of the counted 26 cards. Put the three cards in a row order face up. Tell him for each card how many will he add to make it 10. For example the three cards are a six, seven, and a king. You will add four cards to six, three cards to seven and zero to king as it is considered 10 together with jack or queen. You then add the three cards: six + seven + 10 (king) = 27. You then tell the spectator to get the remaining cards face down and count until the 27th card is reached. The 27th card is the card you predicted.

About the author:

Your Online Resource for Free Card Magic.

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“You cannot always control circumstances, but you can control your own thoughts.”

Discussed in this article:

1) The Sleep-Diabetes Connection.
2) Sleep and Depression–A Brief Overview
3) How A Hypnotist Can Help.

The Sleep-Diabetes Connection

“Declare the past, diagnose the present, foretell the future; practice these acts. As to diseases, make a habit of two things to help, or at least to do no harm.” (1)

Unfortunately sometimes a solution to one problem creates another. This means that, in some cases, to help is to inadvertently invite harm. Doctors are faced with this dilemma everyday.

For example, if a diabetic patient is depressed then, anti-depressants may be one solution. The challenge is that anti-depressants and many other medications can cause insomnia. (2)

This brings us to this article’s main point: The ‘Hidden Condition’ that frustrates doctors and hurt diabetics—Sleep disorders.

Sleep disorders have been linked to exacerbating or even precipitating diabetes as well as depression.

Allow me to explain more fully: It is known that poor sleep robs people of their health in general. But, for diabetics, it can actually cause a worsening of their condition. In the 2001 annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association, a study was presented that warned that a chronic lack of sleep may cause far more serious problems than a tendency to get sleepy behind the wheel.

The study found that people who do not get enough sleep on a regular basis tend to become less sensitive to insulin over time. This can raise the risk of obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes. In fact, according to Bryce A. Mander, the study co-author, it turns out that chronic sleep deprivation–6.5 hours or less of sleep a night–has the same effect on insulin resistance (3) as aging.

Furthermore, according to the study director, Dr. Eve Van Cauter of the University of Chicago, healthy adults who averaged 316 minutes of sleep a night–about 5.2 hours–over 8 consecutive nights secreted 50% more insulin (4) than their more rested counterparts who averaged 477 minutes of sleep a night, or about 8 hours. As a result, “short sleepers” were 40% less sensitive to insulin.

What is fascinating is that the poor sleep/excess insulin (hyper-insulinemia) connection has not received the attention it deserves. Even the Mayo Clinic is apparently unaware of this connection. Please review the following definition of hyper-insulinemia given by the Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER):

“The term hyper-insulinemia means abnormally high levels of insulin in your blood. It’s not a disease.

Instead, it may indicate an underlying problem that’s causing your pancreas to make and release too much insulin. Insulin helps regulate blood sugar.

Causes of hyperinsulinemia include:

 Insulin resistance. This occurs when your body doesn’t use insulin properly. Risk factors include a family history of insulin resistance, lack of activity, obesity and polycystic ovary syndrome.

 A tumor of the pancreas (insulinoma), which secretes excess insulin.

Hyper-insulinemia doesn’t cause signs or symptoms. But if it leads to abnormally low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), signs and symptoms may include sweating, weakness, slurred speech, confusion and seizures.

Hyper-insulinemia is often associated with type 2 diabetes” By Mayo Clinic staff —December 10, 2003″ (http://www.mayoclinic.com/invoke.cfm?id=HQ00896)

Here is the challenge with the preceding information: It seems that it may not be fully accurate. This idea is put forth because the preceding Mayo definition states that:

(a) Hyper-insulinemia is not a disease and that

(b) Hyper-insulinemia has no signs.

Addressing the first point that hyper-insulinemia is not a disease:

Hyper-insulinemia is a now well recognized to be a predictor of diabetes. Also important to note is that excess insulin can cause or significantly contribute to the onset of heart disease and premature aging as well as diabetes.

Also bear in mind that insulin is a storage hormone produced by the body to lower blood sugar by sending it into the cells. Over time, excess blood sugar and insulin stresses the system and the cells become less responsive. This condition is known as insulin resistance.

Also note that in his best-selling book Protein Power, Dr. Michael Eades wrote:

“When insulin levels become too high… metabolic havoc ensues with elevated blood pressure, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, diabetes, and obesity all trailing in its wake. These disorders are merely symptoms of a single more basic disturbance in metabolism, excess insulin and insulin resistance.”

It is also understood that excess insulin promotes smooth-muscle growth in blood vessel walls, which contributes to the formation of plaques. Artery walls become thickened and stiff, causing blood pressure to rise.

So, to classify hyper-insulinemia as a non-disease seems a bit short sighted when, if it was treated with more concern and urgency as a disease, then perhaps other disease states could be avoided.

Now, let’s look at the second point that hyper-insulinemia has no signs. Wouldn’t it make sense to think that perhaps it has symptoms and signs not yet recognized or associated? In my opinion, this condition does have plenty of symptoms: Low blood sugar reactions (moodiness, irritability, sweating, confusion, etc..), weight gain, elevated triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

And there are probably a host of other signs and symptoms that accompany excess insulin levels. The question to ask is Who is looking for them? The answer? Not too many people. Hence, no generally agreed upon signs or symptoms.

If nothing else, the preceding should challenge those who can, to seek to eliminate or validate the idea that hyper-insulinemia is indeed a health crisis of a significant degree and, that it’s treatment could have untold benefits.

Sleep and Depression–A Brief Overview

Poor sleep and depression form a very vicious circle.

It is well noted that poor sleep contributes to depression. During a webcast on August 21, 2003, James C. O’Brien, M.D., FCCP, ABSM stated that:

“During REM-stage sleep is where we learn situations and incorporate situations and deal with emotions that, unless we deal with it properly, will affect us in terms of our daytime functioning on a mental, emotional level.”

The point is that feelings of depression that can be caused just by poor sleep, can adversely affect a person’s ability to take proper care of their health. Hence, good sleep is especially important for diabetics because sadness or depression induced by poor sleep can have deleterious consequences never mind the actual physical problems noted earlier.

Health care workers should also note that according to the National Sleep Foundation 2002 Annual Sleep Survey, almost 74% of Americans do not get enough sleep each night. The survey also found that those with sleep problems are twice as likely to feel stressed and tired.

The preceding facts are pointed out to alert those who treat diabetics that:

(a) There is a very good chance that their diabetic patients are suffering from a sleep disorder and

(b) A sleep disorder can frustrate their attempts to treat their patients for diabetes.

Something else that may interest those who treat diabetics is that sleep apnea treatment can lower glucose levels in diabetics. (5)

How A Hypnotist Can Help

All the preceding information and discussion takes us to our next point. Now that it is recognized that good sleep is utterly essential as an adjunct treatment for diabetes and pre-diabetes, doesn’t it make sense that a non-medicated approach to good sleep for these conditions would be reasonable as an important, first effort treatment?

I state ‘first effort’ because the dictum, “First do no harm” would seem to indicate that drug therapy should be a second treatment approach because some drug medications can sometimes cause other problems.

So what is a safer, first approach treatment for good sleep? Hypnosis.

William S. Kroger, M.D., states in his book Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis that “Hypnosis effects improvement in acute cases of insomnia. Often a single session is effective in restoring the sleep cycle, particularly if auto-hypnosis has been taught on the initial visit.”

Karen Olness, M.D. and Daniel P. Kohen, M.D. in their book Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy With Children, note the following:

“Hurwitz, Mahowald, Schenck, Schulter, and Bundlie (1991) described the successful use of hypnosis in 27 adult patients with sleep terror disorders. Seventy-four percent reported much or very much improvement with the use and practice of self-hypnosis.”

Bear in mind that if you go to see a hypnotist for a diagnosed sleep disorder (or any other diagnosed medical condition) the hypnotist must have your doctor’s consent before treating you. In this referral, it must be clear that you have been cleared of any disorder that a hypnotist cannot or should not treat that may be causing your sleep problems.

As a final note: A hypnotist truly can make an enormous difference in a person’s quality of life and health simply by helping them to sleep better. If you have not been sleeping well and, it seems to be worsening other conditions than, at the very least try a hypnosis for better sleep CD. The are hundreds available on the internet.

Warm Regards,

C. Devin Hastings

“Speak well to yourself because your deep mind is always listening.”

REFERENCES:

(1) Hippocrates in his Epidemics, Bk. I, Sect. XI.

(2) National Sleep Foundation Sleeptionary TM About Insomnia.
URL: http://www.sleepfoundation.org/sleeptionary/index.php?secid=&id=19

(3) Insulin resistance is a major factor in most cases of diabetes. Insulin resistance is a condition in which the body cannot properly utilize normal amounts of insulin.

(4) The more insulin a person’s pancreas has to produce, the more likely it is that eventually the beta cells that produce insulin in the pancreas, will break down.

(5) Archives of Internal Medicine–February 28th, 2205

About The Author

C. Devin Hastings, a diabetic, suffered from depression for over 20 years and is dedicated to making information available to others that can help them to change their lives. To learn more about Devin and hypnosis, please visit: www.depression-hypnosis.com

Copyright 2005 C. Devin Hastings All Rights Reserved

Article may be reprinted if text is unchanged and author contact information is prominent.

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