I recently visited a local pharmacy to buy some deodorant as I had just finished my last stick. What would normally be a two-minute drill turned into a ten minute epiphany.
As I encounter the isle of choice I’m confronted by a huge Old Spice deodorant display. A thought flashes through my mind: “Ladies look at me, now look at your man, now look back at me.” I laugh at first and shake my head as I walk past the display to find my usual brand. Something strange begins to happen; I start questioning myself as to why wouldn’t I buy the Old Spice. Was it because I felt threatened by the NFL athlete used in the commercial. My wife seemed to find it pretty amusing. No, I wasn’t threatened by a commercial…was I? Ok, then why would I buy it? Maybe deep down I wanted to be that guy, maybe I could find the ‘swag’ the commercial promised. So as I left the store with THREE sticks of Old Spice deodorant, I realized how effective hypnosis could be.
For anyone who doesn’t believe they’ve been hypnotized before, I encourage you to read further. To dehypnotize, a few things must first take place. One, we must understand what hypnosis is. Dictionary.com defines hypnosis as: an artificially induced trance state resembling sleep, characterized by heightened susceptibility to suggestion. I tend to disagree with the “resembling sleep” statement unless it also refers to the daydreaming state in this same manner.
So what causes hypnosis? Well it’s not caused by some caped, black-bearded mystery man on stage yelling commands to zombie-like participants. (Don’t start believing what you see on tv now). Hypnosis is caused by an overload of message units to the brain and the brains attempt to escape this condition. In other words, any situation/s that causes what we perceive as stress or anxiety sends us into overload. At this moment we are at our most vulnerable state to suggestions. Although we are still functioning in it, the world around us means absolutely nothing.
We also experience this state while for example enjoying music on our iPods or MP3 players. Think of how well you know the lyrics to your favorite song, no matter how old it is. Now think of how you learned it. You tuned out everything around you and focused on the feeling that was created while listening to the music and lyrics of the song…over and over again. You can now identify that song in a couple, if not just one note. The process used to learn that song is hypnosis. We choose everyday what we’d like to be hypnotized by. Just think of what you focus on most throughout your day; that’s what you’re currently hypnotizing yourself with. If you have a negative perspective on your situation, then you’re only suggesting more negativity to yourself and the situation. However, giving positive intentional suggestions to yourself changes the outcome of your situation to a planned or more desired one and that’s what hypno-therapy is all about. Are we not just the manifestation of the collection of ideas and suggestions that we’ve accepted throughout our lifetime?
I’ll end this post by asking the questions: “What has been suggested to you in your life and why do you believe it?”
By the way, turns out I was allergic to the Old Spice and ended up with burns under my arms……..’
(Click here if you haven’t seen the commercial http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE )
Till the next time,
T Scott
Dehypnotize 