"Most of us have a tendency towards anxiety or even panic in some area of life. Sometimes we know what it is attached to, but other times it is more generalized, disallowing us to be able to reason with it. However, while you may want to run away in fear, it is indeed possible to wake up & own it. Then you are free to manage both the physiological & emotional aspects of it"...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
We all have beliefs and behavioral patterns that work for us and those that don't. It helps to image them as plants for plants know all seasons and they can, indeed, be helped to grow and change. Some plants have both positive and negative aspects. Others are completely positive and some completely negative. We spend a good part of our day planting and weeding, often not awake for our inner gardening work.
Working the time-line allows you to see where old beliefs were planted, as well as where and how behaviors were developed. Some of these are in the past, but many are actively being planted in the future. Yes, you are planning and planting your future on many different levels. This can be either good for you or not so good! As young children we develop volumes of coping mechanisms and behavioral patterns. Some of them follow us right through life. Some help and some impede. Some we learned from our parents, other mentors or teachers and some came by way of experience.
We often can see our parents in ourselves as we become older and wonder if history has to repeat itself through us. Some of these inner behavioral programs work well for us and can be seen in our successes. There are, however, some that do not work well and often some that hinder. It is important for us to know that we can alter any behavioral program simply through the tools presented here. Interactive Awareness and Interactive Self-Hypnosis give us the means for going into these past files. We can then re-edit or reframe memories and associated programs, so as to make them healthy and useful to us in our present and future life.
Learning to Re-frame
Re-framing beliefs or memories or any mind programs is just like deciding that a particular photograph would look better in a different frame, and then actually changing it; only frames for mind programs are those of perception. You choose to see your mind program differently, through “new eyes.” Suppose that you have a memory or mind program that is framed in anger or distrust. This is how it is stored in your subconscious mind, so whenever you review it consciously, it will come up framed in anger or distrust. In fact, the way the subconscious mind works, every time it comes up the frame will be stronger in perception. Now suppose you have a mind program or memory file about managing an addiction framed in failure. I’m sure you get the idea!
MIND EXERCISE
Now we are spending time assessing and locating areas for concentrated attention later on. Take some time to deeply relax, in fact even deeper than before. Perhaps close your eyes after reading this, knowing that everything shown to you will be useful in your recovery. Each day of your life you are presented with learning experiences. Some appear pleasant and others are not, but all are learning experiences. Significant people may have or currently be demonstrating anxiety, panic, depression, compulsive or obsessive behaviors to you. You may find yourself mirroring these or wanting to, perhaps later in the day. Go to work on your time-line. For example, notice if s anyone demonstrated addictions to you in the past. Addictions and related behaviors travel through families of origin and extended social circles. Also look for specific emotional teaching or patterns that may or may not work for you. All hold importance for now, as well as for your future.
Call in your librarian and spend some time looking through the shelves for any history of anxiety and panic, depression, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, as well as treatment or known triggers. These are very connected to addictions and stress-related issues. Remember the octopus and the tentacles? While there are physiological connections to the aforementioned, there are also triggers and you learned these somewhere and probably from someone. Think of the world as a great big school where you begin your formal schooling at birth, continuing along until death. Every experience you have is an actual learning experience. Every person you meet, or that attracts you in some way becomes a teacher of sorts.
All of these experiences are stored in your subconscious mind and the inner librarian knows where they are. This information will become very useful later on, so take your automatic writing pen and welcome the inner communication. Remember to be patient with the process and if nothing comes off the pen, simply wait a moment and then move on to the next section. You may find yourself receiving this information later on in a different quiet moment.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Friday, December 28, 2007
Inside Recovery
"Truth be known, we are always in the state of recovery. Sometimes it's quite obvious & other times it's barely discernable, but it is recovery never the less"... Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Two weeks ago I fell off the top of my desk while changing a cartridge in my fax......a rather silly thing....OH put down the silly word.... I'm not about to hide behind myself.....it was a rather stupid thing to do. As a result of this extremely bad moment of judgment, my life took quite a few turns, some more major than others. I couldn't walk, I couldn't put weight on my left leg, I couldn't stand, I couldn't sit, I couldn't lie down.
It was quite amazing to have absolutely no where to go to experience even a moments relief. And so, I couldn't go to work, nor cook or do anything else. On a somewhat lesser note, I became "unblogged" which may sound like a small thing, but it was not. Writing my blog is part of my life, perhaps not one that sustains me in any financial way, but it is meaningful never the less.
My life changed in many ways over the past two weeks. I'm a different person now. Accidents change people. Active recovery changes people. Nothing about it is fun, nor would I care to repeat any of it. HOWEVER, it has been an excellent learning experience & in a way, I'm a better person for falling off my desk.
I'm now out of the acute phase & into what is known as recovery.. Recovery is an interesting word. Truth be known, we are always involved in recovery. Either we are recovering actively from something, or we are involved in designing a recovery plan for some part of our work or life. As a nursing administrator I've worked on many potential disaster or recovery committees. As a wife & mother, I do the same at home.
Recovery begins long before any episode that may or may not happen. We have a ongoing mind folder that is labeled disaster plan or recovery plan. Some of us do understand this folder very well, perhaps because we have actually lived through disasters & found the weaknesses in our programs. Those weaknesses became our motivators.....we listened well, accepted our errors & became creative in not only correcting, but making things much better than before. In case you are wondering, I now have a mind folder for changing the ink jet in my fax machine. To be sure, the plan is very different from the one I carried out.
It does help to make mistakes. This is how we get better, but. some lessons are definitely harder than others. The people in who were hit by Katrina & now Rita know plenty about this. When all is said & done, these people will be very different in many ways. Children become adults overnight, seeing & experiencing things that are not meant for their eyes or psyches. Trust is lost, perhaps never to be gained again. Laughter, abandonment & pure joy will be more difficult to find & perhaps feeling wrong for a very long time. This is all part of the grieving process, some of which will never end.
So, what do we do in order to find & accept a new normal? If you have faith in a Higher Power, turn to that for solace, as well as for direction & motivation to get moving again. Take your mountainous problems & break them into smaller, more manageable pieces. For me, it is one baby step at a time.
I must put my old life on a back burner & work towards my new normal, knowing that once I've achieved that, then I'll be ready to go up a few pegs, hopefully nearer to my old normal OR even better. I stop moaning about what I can't do & do what I can. I trust in my body. I've taken good care of it for a very long time & now is the time to reap the benefits of that work. If you are not caring for yourself at optimum levels, begin today. You never know when you might do something stupid without thinking. Work on paying attention to what you do. We are all vulnerable.
Don't let the levies remain weak. I was just listening to the news about the levies in Galveston & I couldn't believe my ears. Some of them are cracked & very vulnerable! How could this have been ignored. Hurricanes happen.........accidents happen! Be prepared. Take good care of yourself & your environment. Fight, fight, fight. Don't be a quiet observer. You may live to regret it. Once you fall off the desk, the rest is history. Lucky for me my levies were in good condition from years of excellent self-maintenance. Yes, I'm injured, but I'm going to recover & hopefully to be much better than before.
Victims usually don't happen overnight. Take time today to check in on yourself. Where are you weak? What do you need to do? What will you do today? Do it now.
Two weeks ago I fell off the top of my desk while changing a cartridge in my fax......a rather silly thing....OH put down the silly word.... I'm not about to hide behind myself.....it was a rather stupid thing to do. As a result of this extremely bad moment of judgment, my life took quite a few turns, some more major than others. I couldn't walk, I couldn't put weight on my left leg, I couldn't stand, I couldn't sit, I couldn't lie down.
It was quite amazing to have absolutely no where to go to experience even a moments relief. And so, I couldn't go to work, nor cook or do anything else. On a somewhat lesser note, I became "unblogged" which may sound like a small thing, but it was not. Writing my blog is part of my life, perhaps not one that sustains me in any financial way, but it is meaningful never the less.
My life changed in many ways over the past two weeks. I'm a different person now. Accidents change people. Active recovery changes people. Nothing about it is fun, nor would I care to repeat any of it. HOWEVER, it has been an excellent learning experience & in a way, I'm a better person for falling off my desk.
I'm now out of the acute phase & into what is known as recovery.. Recovery is an interesting word. Truth be known, we are always involved in recovery. Either we are recovering actively from something, or we are involved in designing a recovery plan for some part of our work or life. As a nursing administrator I've worked on many potential disaster or recovery committees. As a wife & mother, I do the same at home.
Recovery begins long before any episode that may or may not happen. We have a ongoing mind folder that is labeled disaster plan or recovery plan. Some of us do understand this folder very well, perhaps because we have actually lived through disasters & found the weaknesses in our programs. Those weaknesses became our motivators.....we listened well, accepted our errors & became creative in not only correcting, but making things much better than before. In case you are wondering, I now have a mind folder for changing the ink jet in my fax machine. To be sure, the plan is very different from the one I carried out.
It does help to make mistakes. This is how we get better, but. some lessons are definitely harder than others. The people in who were hit by Katrina & now Rita know plenty about this. When all is said & done, these people will be very different in many ways. Children become adults overnight, seeing & experiencing things that are not meant for their eyes or psyches. Trust is lost, perhaps never to be gained again. Laughter, abandonment & pure joy will be more difficult to find & perhaps feeling wrong for a very long time. This is all part of the grieving process, some of which will never end.
So, what do we do in order to find & accept a new normal? If you have faith in a Higher Power, turn to that for solace, as well as for direction & motivation to get moving again. Take your mountainous problems & break them into smaller, more manageable pieces. For me, it is one baby step at a time.
I must put my old life on a back burner & work towards my new normal, knowing that once I've achieved that, then I'll be ready to go up a few pegs, hopefully nearer to my old normal OR even better. I stop moaning about what I can't do & do what I can. I trust in my body. I've taken good care of it for a very long time & now is the time to reap the benefits of that work. If you are not caring for yourself at optimum levels, begin today. You never know when you might do something stupid without thinking. Work on paying attention to what you do. We are all vulnerable.
Don't let the levies remain weak. I was just listening to the news about the levies in Galveston & I couldn't believe my ears. Some of them are cracked & very vulnerable! How could this have been ignored. Hurricanes happen.........accidents happen! Be prepared. Take good care of yourself & your environment. Fight, fight, fight. Don't be a quiet observer. You may live to regret it. Once you fall off the desk, the rest is history. Lucky for me my levies were in good condition from years of excellent self-maintenance. Yes, I'm injured, but I'm going to recover & hopefully to be much better than before.
Victims usually don't happen overnight. Take time today to check in on yourself. Where are you weak? What do you need to do? What will you do today? Do it now.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Beginning Again....& Then Again
"Begin. To have commenced is half the deed. Half yet remains; Begin again on this and thou wilt finish all"...Ausonius
Everything is in process. I put things down & I pick things up. I enjoy the act of beginning again. ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related SpokenWords, Emotional States & MindSets - resume, continue, pick up, reopen, recommence, renew, reopen, take up
It's the holiday season & not the time when most people want to think about finishing what's been started or starting what needs to be finished. While the New Year is touted for resolution-setting, the idea of making resolutions has lost it's popularity, probably because everyone is sick & tired of hearing about losing weight, exercising, stopping smoking or whatever needs to be addressed. Right now my private practice is very quiet, but come the 1st of the year, many will lift their weary heads from their sleeping pillows & stumble into my office.
Personally, I like beginning again. In fact, I tend to practice "beginning" just about every day. There is really no need for a new resolution. It's more like an ongoing personal cleaning up or clearing out. If I look carefully, underneath the disorder I can sense my desire & willingness to pick up where I left off.
Through the years I've been able to set a gentler, friendlier restart button. Perhaps it's because I avoid the resolution word & hype, so the fear of being criticized for failure or not achieving is less. After all, it's not a resolution or anything. It's simply something that was left unfinished & perhaps no one will even notice that I've restarted whatever it is.
Truth be known, very little gets finished in life.... at least in my life. For me that includes managing my weight, minimizing my pile of magazines, completing my writing assignments, my love for icing, or having my home dust free & the bathrooms completely clean. I'm so glad to know this because then now I can stop efforting & striving over so many things. Perhaps I can even begin enjoying them.
It's easy to see why I had spent a good part of my previous life bogged down, almost to the point of burnout. With my new definition, I am free to simply relax, picking up any challenge where I left it untended, no longer racked by shame or guilt. No need to hide anymore, from myself or the judging eyes of others. What a relief !
As a clinical hypnotherapist & writer, I'm geared to thinking within hypnotic metaphor. Here are some areas in my mind that had something to say to me this morning...
1. It's a good idea to put some things down for awhile. As I mentally walked through the areas of my life, noticing what was left unattended, I couldn't help but notice that some areas were doing better on their own since I left them alone. I'm not surprised, acknowledging that I have a tendency to beat things to death, or smother them with attention if they are not responding in the way I think best. Sometimes I can become breathless in the process, even if there is no aerobic activity involved. Talk about efforting !
2. There are 24 hours in a day & that includes eight that should be dedicated to sleep. No one gets more or less. I'm just like anyone else with owning too much to do. On the days I can't breathe I know I'm in trouble. For some deep & hidden reason, this a big learning curve for me.
I have some ideas about why this is, but what is truly important is waking up to it & getting practical. I don't have to look far to know what has to go. It's vital for me to be ruthless in my clearing & cleaning, not just with my possessions, but with the intangibles as well. This is never easy, but it is incredibly rewarding. Even throwing away socks with holes can seem like a break-through moment.
3. Choosing what is truly important to me can focus my mind. Just like cleaning & clearing is vital, so is deciding on exactly what I want. It's amazing that we can have so much of so many things & still not have what we want. How does this happen? For me, it's always been about not clearly defining what I want. In order to do this, it's necessary to truly slow down, to clear, to be still & then to begin to define. When I work with myself I utilize automatic writing. For my patients, it's easy to go into the workshop of the mind with guided imagery, enter the metaphor, perhaps shopping for the details. In both scenarios, the subconscious mind joins in the creative goal building & then sets a plan of action.
4. I can always be healthier. Eating correctly for my body needs, excercising, managing my addictions & a host of other areas can all benefit from beginning again. Exploring ways to do this always triggers additional areas to present themselves. This morning I was having a look at my nutritional areas when I heard from my skin department. When we become purposefully still, either in meditation, hypnosis or automatic writing, the messages begin to flow, but never in a way of becoming overwhelmed. The subconscious mind understands the need for balance or homeostasis & takes one towards that. If anxiety is in the way, it simply means that you have to release & go deeper down to pass that obstruction.
5. I don't have to be perfect. I just need to be present. Growing up in a critical household, I developed many automatic mind programs about the need for perfection. This was one of many that kept me locked in my personal prison for decades. For me, it is very important to begin the mangement of these automatic programs over & over again. This is how they weaken or diminish. Some of mine that could do with some refreshing or clear eyes include approval seeking & self-doubting. Do I have others? Of course I do. I'm human. But, once again the subconscious mind is kind & prefers balance. When we take the initiative to work in one area, the others will simply follow suit.
So, enjoy all the holidays....a perfect time for reflection & an opportunity to wake-up & enjoy the fresh air that surrounds new beginnings.
FROM THE AUTHOR
To help you along, here's a sample mp3 of a very popular program that I've written, recorded & produced called Affirmations for Inner Winning. This will give you a head start in working with your own subconscious mind in many new ways. This particular mp3 or CD has three tracks or sessions. You can order the entire program on my website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Offerings for Publishers, Editors & Agents
Beyond Disorderly Eating...The Truth About Sugar & Bingeing & How to Stop
mindSCRABBLE...The Game of Programming Your Mind for What You Want
It's Time to Stop...Nail Biting - Book & Interactive Self-Hypnosis CD
Winning the Mind Game - A Total Sports Advantage - Book & Interactive Self-Hypnosis CD
Everything is in process. I put things down & I pick things up. I enjoy the act of beginning again. ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related SpokenWords, Emotional States & MindSets - resume, continue, pick up, reopen, recommence, renew, reopen, take up
It's the holiday season & not the time when most people want to think about finishing what's been started or starting what needs to be finished. While the New Year is touted for resolution-setting, the idea of making resolutions has lost it's popularity, probably because everyone is sick & tired of hearing about losing weight, exercising, stopping smoking or whatever needs to be addressed. Right now my private practice is very quiet, but come the 1st of the year, many will lift their weary heads from their sleeping pillows & stumble into my office.
Personally, I like beginning again. In fact, I tend to practice "beginning" just about every day. There is really no need for a new resolution. It's more like an ongoing personal cleaning up or clearing out. If I look carefully, underneath the disorder I can sense my desire & willingness to pick up where I left off.
Through the years I've been able to set a gentler, friendlier restart button. Perhaps it's because I avoid the resolution word & hype, so the fear of being criticized for failure or not achieving is less. After all, it's not a resolution or anything. It's simply something that was left unfinished & perhaps no one will even notice that I've restarted whatever it is.
Truth be known, very little gets finished in life.... at least in my life. For me that includes managing my weight, minimizing my pile of magazines, completing my writing assignments, my love for icing, or having my home dust free & the bathrooms completely clean. I'm so glad to know this because then now I can stop efforting & striving over so many things. Perhaps I can even begin enjoying them.
It's easy to see why I had spent a good part of my previous life bogged down, almost to the point of burnout. With my new definition, I am free to simply relax, picking up any challenge where I left it untended, no longer racked by shame or guilt. No need to hide anymore, from myself or the judging eyes of others. What a relief !
As a clinical hypnotherapist & writer, I'm geared to thinking within hypnotic metaphor. Here are some areas in my mind that had something to say to me this morning...
1. It's a good idea to put some things down for awhile. As I mentally walked through the areas of my life, noticing what was left unattended, I couldn't help but notice that some areas were doing better on their own since I left them alone. I'm not surprised, acknowledging that I have a tendency to beat things to death, or smother them with attention if they are not responding in the way I think best. Sometimes I can become breathless in the process, even if there is no aerobic activity involved. Talk about efforting !
2. There are 24 hours in a day & that includes eight that should be dedicated to sleep. No one gets more or less. I'm just like anyone else with owning too much to do. On the days I can't breathe I know I'm in trouble. For some deep & hidden reason, this a big learning curve for me.
I have some ideas about why this is, but what is truly important is waking up to it & getting practical. I don't have to look far to know what has to go. It's vital for me to be ruthless in my clearing & cleaning, not just with my possessions, but with the intangibles as well. This is never easy, but it is incredibly rewarding. Even throwing away socks with holes can seem like a break-through moment.
3. Choosing what is truly important to me can focus my mind. Just like cleaning & clearing is vital, so is deciding on exactly what I want. It's amazing that we can have so much of so many things & still not have what we want. How does this happen? For me, it's always been about not clearly defining what I want. In order to do this, it's necessary to truly slow down, to clear, to be still & then to begin to define. When I work with myself I utilize automatic writing. For my patients, it's easy to go into the workshop of the mind with guided imagery, enter the metaphor, perhaps shopping for the details. In both scenarios, the subconscious mind joins in the creative goal building & then sets a plan of action.
4. I can always be healthier. Eating correctly for my body needs, excercising, managing my addictions & a host of other areas can all benefit from beginning again. Exploring ways to do this always triggers additional areas to present themselves. This morning I was having a look at my nutritional areas when I heard from my skin department. When we become purposefully still, either in meditation, hypnosis or automatic writing, the messages begin to flow, but never in a way of becoming overwhelmed. The subconscious mind understands the need for balance or homeostasis & takes one towards that. If anxiety is in the way, it simply means that you have to release & go deeper down to pass that obstruction.
5. I don't have to be perfect. I just need to be present. Growing up in a critical household, I developed many automatic mind programs about the need for perfection. This was one of many that kept me locked in my personal prison for decades. For me, it is very important to begin the mangement of these automatic programs over & over again. This is how they weaken or diminish. Some of mine that could do with some refreshing or clear eyes include approval seeking & self-doubting. Do I have others? Of course I do. I'm human. But, once again the subconscious mind is kind & prefers balance. When we take the initiative to work in one area, the others will simply follow suit.
So, enjoy all the holidays....a perfect time for reflection & an opportunity to wake-up & enjoy the fresh air that surrounds new beginnings.
FROM THE AUTHOR
To help you along, here's a sample mp3 of a very popular program that I've written, recorded & produced called Affirmations for Inner Winning. This will give you a head start in working with your own subconscious mind in many new ways. This particular mp3 or CD has three tracks or sessions. You can order the entire program on my website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Offerings for Publishers, Editors & Agents
Beyond Disorderly Eating...The Truth About Sugar & Bingeing & How to Stop
mindSCRABBLE...The Game of Programming Your Mind for What You Want
It's Time to Stop...Nail Biting - Book & Interactive Self-Hypnosis CD
Winning the Mind Game - A Total Sports Advantage - Book & Interactive Self-Hypnosis CD
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Ordering Disorder
"The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order." Alfred North Whitehead
Who would say "no" to progress? Truth be known, I know plenty of people who would & who do. Many are private patients of mine & while I might "tut-tut" at that & enjoy some good old finger-pointing, that very finger often turns around, pointing right back at me. As for the life-game of mindSCRABBLE, as I inwardly giggle at my own disorderly behaviors, my subconscious mind is busily mind-etching those even deeper.
If I was paid for cluttering, I'd be quite wealthy. Of course, I deny cluttering & as for hoarding.....well now, certainly not me.
My issues with all of this go back to early childhood. My father died when I was three & I learned to make every attempt to keep what was mine. This was my little attempt at building a secure life. While it does help to know the origin of issues, it certainly doesn't diminish the decades of closet & drawer stuffing. I've become so good at this that I can clutter just about anywhere & with just about anything. Yes....I would be quite wealthy.
I've learned that letting go is a good thing & so I go through emptying & releasing episodes. My main reasoning is that I've come to realize that prosperity doesn't flow into cluttered space, so I must release if I choose to prosper. It also helps to find things. Just the process of clearing is creative & it never surprises me what catalysts sit in that last bulging file.
Ordering disorder is a very emotional experience for me. I truly have issues with letting go & today I decided to write about these, instead of just noticing them. It is true that my things do bring me joy. I love all sorts of things including my scraps of paper. So, is there something wrong with that? After all, I'm basically a good person. Just because I feel connected to scraps of paper, does that make me a loser of sorts. Of course not, I tell myself. Don't be so dramatic.
I do want to be able to let go & release with more ease. I've noticed that whenever I go through periods of cleaning, clearing & letting go, that it does become easier. In fact, it actually begets itself. So, I guess the goal needs to be to practice more often. Is it possible that I might actually become good at this & even learn to like it?
AFFIRMATION FOR TODAY
"I choose to see my disorder clearly & then I choose what to order first."...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Who would say "no" to progress? Truth be known, I know plenty of people who would & who do. Many are private patients of mine & while I might "tut-tut" at that & enjoy some good old finger-pointing, that very finger often turns around, pointing right back at me. As for the life-game of mindSCRABBLE, as I inwardly giggle at my own disorderly behaviors, my subconscious mind is busily mind-etching those even deeper.
If I was paid for cluttering, I'd be quite wealthy. Of course, I deny cluttering & as for hoarding.....well now, certainly not me.
My issues with all of this go back to early childhood. My father died when I was three & I learned to make every attempt to keep what was mine. This was my little attempt at building a secure life. While it does help to know the origin of issues, it certainly doesn't diminish the decades of closet & drawer stuffing. I've become so good at this that I can clutter just about anywhere & with just about anything. Yes....I would be quite wealthy.
I've learned that letting go is a good thing & so I go through emptying & releasing episodes. My main reasoning is that I've come to realize that prosperity doesn't flow into cluttered space, so I must release if I choose to prosper. It also helps to find things. Just the process of clearing is creative & it never surprises me what catalysts sit in that last bulging file.
Ordering disorder is a very emotional experience for me. I truly have issues with letting go & today I decided to write about these, instead of just noticing them. It is true that my things do bring me joy. I love all sorts of things including my scraps of paper. So, is there something wrong with that? After all, I'm basically a good person. Just because I feel connected to scraps of paper, does that make me a loser of sorts. Of course not, I tell myself. Don't be so dramatic.
I do want to be able to let go & release with more ease. I've noticed that whenever I go through periods of cleaning, clearing & letting go, that it does become easier. In fact, it actually begets itself. So, I guess the goal needs to be to practice more often. Is it possible that I might actually become good at this & even learn to like it?
AFFIRMATION FOR TODAY
"I choose to see my disorder clearly & then I choose what to order first."...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Inside My Critical Nature & Being
"Blessed is the man who can take bricks thrown at him & build a sound foundation"....Tom Pryor
Related SpokenWords, Thoughts & Emotional MindState - captious, carping, caviling, cavillous, censorious, critic, faultfinding, hypercritical, overcritical, discerning, discriminating, penetrating; finicky, fussy, particular; belittling, demeaning, disparaging, humbling, lowering.
Over the past few days I found myself journaling about criticism that tend to initiate conflicts...self-delivered & delivered by others. I learned from one of my patients that Gemini was in retrograde or something like that, meaning that communication is off. Of course this made me feel better immediately, knowing I had little to do with all the criticism floating around me.
Automatic writing or journaling is very helpful for me personally & I often recommend it to my patients as well, even if they balk about writing. The balking is usually fear-related. Yes, writing is committing ink to paper....or at least it was in the past. I still journal with real paper & pen. It helps to slow the mind down, allowing the images or ideas to form.
After so many years of working in this field, I'm still amazed at how the subconscious mind will cooperate with emotional reframing & healing. Sometimes all I really need is a good metaphor to manage my heavy-air days.
As I broached the subject of critical words, here are some things that came off of my pen....delivered directly from my subconscious mind.
1. Criticism can be a good thing, even if the person delivering it does not mean it as such.....myself included. Of course we are our biggest critic. That's no secret. I'm also well aware of constructive vs destructive criticism. However, I often have a problem with accepting the term constructive criticism, especially when it is delivered in what appears to be a destructive way. Or, is this just a matter of Gemini in retrograde?
2. It doesn't really matter if the criticism is constructive or destructive, nor if Gemini is having a problem or not. I can benefit from all of it... & if there is plenty of it around, it follows that I would could have a wealth of benefits, if I just did what I needed to do. Hmmm....
3. The subconscious mind often connects things in strange ways in order to make it's point. I was brought back to my time of nursing in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center & to the memory of debriding wounds. Wounds cannot heal properly until the dead or infected tissue is removed, often speck by speck. The job of the wound care nurse is to utilize different techniques to achieve this. However, it cannot be done all at once. It is a process, sometimes taking months, depending on the depth or complexity of the wound. The metaphor is forming....
4. Emotional wounds are similar to physical ones. They must also be debrided. Criticism is like pouring acid into certain emotional wounds. Anyone who has experienced this phenomena is certainly familiar with the combination of physical & emotional pain that results. I know that I am....
5. Many of us were born into a very critical environments, thus making us highly sensitive to critical words. Simple words, even if delivered in a constructive way, can be very frightening & debilitating. As a child I had no power & had to develop ways to survive this type of environment, but as an adult I do have power & so it is my responsibility to debride mywounds so I can heal & continue my self-growth.
6. Managing stress is not the same as debriding wounds. While it is very important to eat correctly, meditate, exercise & practice mindfulness, if I truly want to heal & manage my emotions at higher levels, I must be willing to cleanse & debride my wounds.
7. Emotional wounds are debrided through awareness & timely releasing. When criticism is painful, there is a wound that needs to be cleaned. The process is simple, but not always easy. I remember that when treating a patient's wound, I'd often tell them, Yes, it hurts & no, it won't hurt forever. I remember....the patient learns to bring his/her attention to the breath & to ride it, just like riding gentle waves in the sea. The physical pain begins to move to the side & then diminishes. The patient learns to see/sense the wound healing from the bottom up.
8. The same holds true for emotional healing. As the wound heals from the bottom up, the mind will often send fragments of the debris. These may be in the form of old memories or emotions that need to be released. Opening & healing is now in process...
More About Criticism & Connected Conflicts...
There are other things that are helpful for me to remember. First off the bat, conflicts & criticism are inevitable, as long as I'm willing or interested in standing up for what I believe are my rights or beliefs.
It does help to simply the actual word conflict or criticism. The subconscious meaning of words can be so powerful as to disallow any scrutiny because of the attached, automatic mind fear patterns. Conflicts are simply two sets of demands, goals or motives that appear to be incompatible. I must remind myself that I deal with conflicts all day long. Some might be small & I may not even label these as conflicts, but they are nevertheless. This is a very important awareness because as I view them under the conflict or criticism label, I'll come to know that I have been developing excellent resolution skills for a very long time, some actually from early childhood.
Conflicts & accompanying criticisms come in sizes including small, medium & large. Some are more uncomfortable than others. The more uncomfortable tend to be connected to deeper wounds or more sensitive areas in the subconscious mind. Keep in mind that these are very valuable as debriding tools.
The conflicts or critiques I play in the theater of my mind tend to be more frequent & often larger. It's important for me not to forget that these also effect my body physiology & bring more debris to old, deep wounds. Engaging the thought process in awfulizing is a very bad habit & one that can have serious physical & emotional consequences.
This happens to be one of my habits & so I've asked my own subconscious mind to wake me when I'm doing this, so I have the opportunity to break the habit & release the stress. At the same time, I'll take advantage of the self-criticism & do a very more steps to debride any old wounds.
Simple Metaphors for Managing Criticisms...
Here's one I utilize for myself quite often. When someone is critical of me, I change those words in my mind. They are critical of something I've done. This simply means that we have a difference of opinion about this something. That is easier for me to accept & curbs the production of stress chemicals. Remember, I was born into a very critical environment, so I am very sensitive.
Next, in the theater of my mind, I take the "something" & rinse it off under my very beautiful golden faucet. I want to remove the emotional component that was part of the delivery. This way, I am free to examine the "something" & decide if I want to change anything about my part or my beliefs. I may do this immediately, or decide to wait. Then, I might simply thank the other person for bringing this to my attention & to let them know that I'll think about it. This moves me out of a defensive position, into one of maturity & self-control.
Related SpokenWords, Thoughts & Emotional MindState - captious, carping, caviling, cavillous, censorious, critic, faultfinding, hypercritical, overcritical, discerning, discriminating, penetrating; finicky, fussy, particular; belittling, demeaning, disparaging, humbling, lowering.
Over the past few days I found myself journaling about criticism that tend to initiate conflicts...self-delivered & delivered by others. I learned from one of my patients that Gemini was in retrograde or something like that, meaning that communication is off. Of course this made me feel better immediately, knowing I had little to do with all the criticism floating around me.
Automatic writing or journaling is very helpful for me personally & I often recommend it to my patients as well, even if they balk about writing. The balking is usually fear-related. Yes, writing is committing ink to paper....or at least it was in the past. I still journal with real paper & pen. It helps to slow the mind down, allowing the images or ideas to form.
After so many years of working in this field, I'm still amazed at how the subconscious mind will cooperate with emotional reframing & healing. Sometimes all I really need is a good metaphor to manage my heavy-air days.
As I broached the subject of critical words, here are some things that came off of my pen....delivered directly from my subconscious mind.
1. Criticism can be a good thing, even if the person delivering it does not mean it as such.....myself included. Of course we are our biggest critic. That's no secret. I'm also well aware of constructive vs destructive criticism. However, I often have a problem with accepting the term constructive criticism, especially when it is delivered in what appears to be a destructive way. Or, is this just a matter of Gemini in retrograde?
2. It doesn't really matter if the criticism is constructive or destructive, nor if Gemini is having a problem or not. I can benefit from all of it... & if there is plenty of it around, it follows that I would could have a wealth of benefits, if I just did what I needed to do. Hmmm....
3. The subconscious mind often connects things in strange ways in order to make it's point. I was brought back to my time of nursing in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center & to the memory of debriding wounds. Wounds cannot heal properly until the dead or infected tissue is removed, often speck by speck. The job of the wound care nurse is to utilize different techniques to achieve this. However, it cannot be done all at once. It is a process, sometimes taking months, depending on the depth or complexity of the wound. The metaphor is forming....
4. Emotional wounds are similar to physical ones. They must also be debrided. Criticism is like pouring acid into certain emotional wounds. Anyone who has experienced this phenomena is certainly familiar with the combination of physical & emotional pain that results. I know that I am....
5. Many of us were born into a very critical environments, thus making us highly sensitive to critical words. Simple words, even if delivered in a constructive way, can be very frightening & debilitating. As a child I had no power & had to develop ways to survive this type of environment, but as an adult I do have power & so it is my responsibility to debride mywounds so I can heal & continue my self-growth.
6. Managing stress is not the same as debriding wounds. While it is very important to eat correctly, meditate, exercise & practice mindfulness, if I truly want to heal & manage my emotions at higher levels, I must be willing to cleanse & debride my wounds.
7. Emotional wounds are debrided through awareness & timely releasing. When criticism is painful, there is a wound that needs to be cleaned. The process is simple, but not always easy. I remember that when treating a patient's wound, I'd often tell them, Yes, it hurts & no, it won't hurt forever. I remember....the patient learns to bring his/her attention to the breath & to ride it, just like riding gentle waves in the sea. The physical pain begins to move to the side & then diminishes. The patient learns to see/sense the wound healing from the bottom up.
8. The same holds true for emotional healing. As the wound heals from the bottom up, the mind will often send fragments of the debris. These may be in the form of old memories or emotions that need to be released. Opening & healing is now in process...
More About Criticism & Connected Conflicts...
There are other things that are helpful for me to remember. First off the bat, conflicts & criticism are inevitable, as long as I'm willing or interested in standing up for what I believe are my rights or beliefs.
It does help to simply the actual word conflict or criticism. The subconscious meaning of words can be so powerful as to disallow any scrutiny because of the attached, automatic mind fear patterns. Conflicts are simply two sets of demands, goals or motives that appear to be incompatible. I must remind myself that I deal with conflicts all day long. Some might be small & I may not even label these as conflicts, but they are nevertheless. This is a very important awareness because as I view them under the conflict or criticism label, I'll come to know that I have been developing excellent resolution skills for a very long time, some actually from early childhood.
Conflicts & accompanying criticisms come in sizes including small, medium & large. Some are more uncomfortable than others. The more uncomfortable tend to be connected to deeper wounds or more sensitive areas in the subconscious mind. Keep in mind that these are very valuable as debriding tools.
The conflicts or critiques I play in the theater of my mind tend to be more frequent & often larger. It's important for me not to forget that these also effect my body physiology & bring more debris to old, deep wounds. Engaging the thought process in awfulizing is a very bad habit & one that can have serious physical & emotional consequences.
This happens to be one of my habits & so I've asked my own subconscious mind to wake me when I'm doing this, so I have the opportunity to break the habit & release the stress. At the same time, I'll take advantage of the self-criticism & do a very more steps to debride any old wounds.
Simple Metaphors for Managing Criticisms...
Here's one I utilize for myself quite often. When someone is critical of me, I change those words in my mind. They are critical of something I've done. This simply means that we have a difference of opinion about this something. That is easier for me to accept & curbs the production of stress chemicals. Remember, I was born into a very critical environment, so I am very sensitive.
Next, in the theater of my mind, I take the "something" & rinse it off under my very beautiful golden faucet. I want to remove the emotional component that was part of the delivery. This way, I am free to examine the "something" & decide if I want to change anything about my part or my beliefs. I may do this immediately, or decide to wait. Then, I might simply thank the other person for bringing this to my attention & to let them know that I'll think about it. This moves me out of a defensive position, into one of maturity & self-control.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Working Through Self-Anxiety
"You can turn the tide of your life from negative to positive results through your constructive words"...Winston Churchill
Related SpokenWords, Thoughts, Emotions, Mind-States - panic, concern, concernment, disquiet, disquietude, solicitude, unease, uneasiness, worry, doubt, mistrust, dread, uncertainty; distress, misery, suffering; dread;
Oh....where to begin on the subject of anxiety. Why do I feel that I must write about this today? This morning I was doing some automatic journaling for myself & my own anxiety issues came off the end of my pen, completely uninvited, but obviously wanting to roost on my desk. After writing yesterday's blog on the theme of the day, I couldn't help but hope that anxiety was not going to be today's theme.
Since I've been practicing automatic journaling for decades now, I know to trust it & that means to just go with the flow without judging or fear. For those of you who aren't familiar with this type of journaling, I suggest that you give it a whirl. It's quite simple. Open a new journal or notebook that is dedicated to this task only. I use a spiral notebook......I actually have two sizes, one 5 by 8.5 & the other 8.5 by 11. I prefer to write in the larger one because there is more space, but sometimes I like to pop the smaller one in my briefcase & take it on the road with me.
To help you along, here's a sample mp3 of a very popular program that I've written, recorded & produced called Automatic Writing. This will give you a head start in working with your own subconscious mind in many new ways. This particular mp3 or CD has three tracks or sessions. You can order the entire program on my website.
When working daily with Automatic Writing, put a decent amount of time aside for yourself. For me, that means at least 15 minutes & preferably more like 30. Sometimes I'll get to the office a bit early, specifically for this purpose. Next....open the journal & have your pen ready. Don't use the computer for this. The mind will gift more to you if you put the pen to paper. Relax deeply, just for a few minutes. I call this settling in..........& then begin to write.
Don't be concerned about sentence structure, grammar, etc. Just let the pen flow. Write whatever comes. Stay out of judgment. If the mind sends ramblings, so be it. Write them.... & if nothing comes, write that as well. Keep going for the length of time you have decided to write or fill the amount of space you have decided to fill. Keep to the discipline. And once you have finished, put it away.
Here are some journal entries of mine from today - see how many themes you can spot. Look beyond the obvious. Remember, this is coming directly from my own subconscious mind. Also, look for the affirmations; the positive mind programs that were given to me through the end of my pen.
Changes in the wind. Patients leaving. Wondering where this will leave me. Remembering the other big change time after my mother died. I had next to no professional practice. The phones were quiet. My emotions ran away with me...fear...not knowing what to do. I was gifted that time with the idea to design audio programs. That came on the rear of a tear. Here I am once again....but it is not quite the same. Life has not been static. I have things to do & places to go. I'm busy. New patients are coming. I'm satisfied. Book ideas are coming. I'm challenged. It's time for something new. The nail biting book will be ready soon. It appears unfinished, but it isn't. Putting my ducks in a row. Organizing things that don't invite organizing, like relationships & my decision to change my soap. I need something new, perhaps the seminars that came to me while in Spain.............
My first patient arrived. I've been seeing her for over four years. She was only fourteen when she first walked into my office. She sat in the pink chair & hid behind her hands. She only weighed 90 pounds. I've known her at 65 pounds & now, while she is only 102 pounds, she is different. She leaves for college next week. I'll miss her tremendously, just like a daughter. I even tear as I write this.
She's very anxious about so many aspects of college. Her parents are anxious, imaging all the worst. It's been more than four anxiety-filled years for them & they are rightfully frightened. But today she sits before me & we discuss her dorm-room decor & her new room-mate who is coming with the refrigerator. Simple, but important things to a girl who has made such a journey.
Changes & anxiety coupled together. Fear of the known & unknown. Fleeting little thoughts having the power to turn our blood to ice, often not understood by others who might even laugh at our dilemma. Babies....oh grow up ! Feelings of walking alone on new paths, excited but frightened just the same. Our thoughts connecting up with other past experiences, some good & others not so good. What kinds of memories will we be making? Oh, why can't things just stay as they are, even if they aren't very good? At least they are familiar!
Here are some things my young patient & I did today...
1. Anxiety & excitement are very close in their chemical composition. What's important here is the labeling. It only takes 1/200th of a second to change the label from a fear state, to a positive exciting state.
2. You have the choice & the power to diminish all fears & all thoughts that are fear-related. Take out your re-framing tools or use the pie-cutter. The latter is a releasing tool for diminishing a portion of a fear or anxiety that may present itself as too big to manage.
3. Emotions are like children that wear tee-shirts with their names on the front. You are not your emotions, but you are in charge of them. You have the choice & the power to diminish any & all emotions that are not benefiting you & you have the choice & the power to invite in or enhance any & all emotions that do benefit you. Remember to keep your eye on your mind-assets & utilize them to their fullest. Don't let them get rusty from disuse!
4. Managing yourself & your life is fun! The better you get at a task, the better for you in the long-run. This is how champions are made. If you feel the desire to run & hide behind an old, impotent behavior pattern, wake-up & come forward instead. Meet the bully-factor & disassemble it. Observe it losing power as you gain power. Pay attention to the power of your mindWORDS. They are all coated with chemicals that change the outcomes of your entire mind & body. The more positive-task-orientated you are, the more power you will harvest.
AFFIRMATION PLANT
"My thoughts & emotions are things that can be managed. I am not my thoughts, nor my emotions. I have power over the workings of my mind & body". ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related SpokenWords, Thoughts, Emotions, Mind-States - panic, concern, concernment, disquiet, disquietude, solicitude, unease, uneasiness, worry, doubt, mistrust, dread, uncertainty; distress, misery, suffering; dread;
Oh....where to begin on the subject of anxiety. Why do I feel that I must write about this today? This morning I was doing some automatic journaling for myself & my own anxiety issues came off the end of my pen, completely uninvited, but obviously wanting to roost on my desk. After writing yesterday's blog on the theme of the day, I couldn't help but hope that anxiety was not going to be today's theme.
Since I've been practicing automatic journaling for decades now, I know to trust it & that means to just go with the flow without judging or fear. For those of you who aren't familiar with this type of journaling, I suggest that you give it a whirl. It's quite simple. Open a new journal or notebook that is dedicated to this task only. I use a spiral notebook......I actually have two sizes, one 5 by 8.5 & the other 8.5 by 11. I prefer to write in the larger one because there is more space, but sometimes I like to pop the smaller one in my briefcase & take it on the road with me.
To help you along, here's a sample mp3 of a very popular program that I've written, recorded & produced called Automatic Writing. This will give you a head start in working with your own subconscious mind in many new ways. This particular mp3 or CD has three tracks or sessions. You can order the entire program on my website.
When working daily with Automatic Writing, put a decent amount of time aside for yourself. For me, that means at least 15 minutes & preferably more like 30. Sometimes I'll get to the office a bit early, specifically for this purpose. Next....open the journal & have your pen ready. Don't use the computer for this. The mind will gift more to you if you put the pen to paper. Relax deeply, just for a few minutes. I call this settling in..........& then begin to write.
Don't be concerned about sentence structure, grammar, etc. Just let the pen flow. Write whatever comes. Stay out of judgment. If the mind sends ramblings, so be it. Write them.... & if nothing comes, write that as well. Keep going for the length of time you have decided to write or fill the amount of space you have decided to fill. Keep to the discipline. And once you have finished, put it away.
Here are some journal entries of mine from today - see how many themes you can spot. Look beyond the obvious. Remember, this is coming directly from my own subconscious mind. Also, look for the affirmations; the positive mind programs that were given to me through the end of my pen.
Changes in the wind. Patients leaving. Wondering where this will leave me. Remembering the other big change time after my mother died. I had next to no professional practice. The phones were quiet. My emotions ran away with me...fear...not knowing what to do. I was gifted that time with the idea to design audio programs. That came on the rear of a tear. Here I am once again....but it is not quite the same. Life has not been static. I have things to do & places to go. I'm busy. New patients are coming. I'm satisfied. Book ideas are coming. I'm challenged. It's time for something new. The nail biting book will be ready soon. It appears unfinished, but it isn't. Putting my ducks in a row. Organizing things that don't invite organizing, like relationships & my decision to change my soap. I need something new, perhaps the seminars that came to me while in Spain.............
My first patient arrived. I've been seeing her for over four years. She was only fourteen when she first walked into my office. She sat in the pink chair & hid behind her hands. She only weighed 90 pounds. I've known her at 65 pounds & now, while she is only 102 pounds, she is different. She leaves for college next week. I'll miss her tremendously, just like a daughter. I even tear as I write this.
She's very anxious about so many aspects of college. Her parents are anxious, imaging all the worst. It's been more than four anxiety-filled years for them & they are rightfully frightened. But today she sits before me & we discuss her dorm-room decor & her new room-mate who is coming with the refrigerator. Simple, but important things to a girl who has made such a journey.
Changes & anxiety coupled together. Fear of the known & unknown. Fleeting little thoughts having the power to turn our blood to ice, often not understood by others who might even laugh at our dilemma. Babies....oh grow up ! Feelings of walking alone on new paths, excited but frightened just the same. Our thoughts connecting up with other past experiences, some good & others not so good. What kinds of memories will we be making? Oh, why can't things just stay as they are, even if they aren't very good? At least they are familiar!
Here are some things my young patient & I did today...
1. Anxiety & excitement are very close in their chemical composition. What's important here is the labeling. It only takes 1/200th of a second to change the label from a fear state, to a positive exciting state.
2. You have the choice & the power to diminish all fears & all thoughts that are fear-related. Take out your re-framing tools or use the pie-cutter. The latter is a releasing tool for diminishing a portion of a fear or anxiety that may present itself as too big to manage.
3. Emotions are like children that wear tee-shirts with their names on the front. You are not your emotions, but you are in charge of them. You have the choice & the power to diminish any & all emotions that are not benefiting you & you have the choice & the power to invite in or enhance any & all emotions that do benefit you. Remember to keep your eye on your mind-assets & utilize them to their fullest. Don't let them get rusty from disuse!
4. Managing yourself & your life is fun! The better you get at a task, the better for you in the long-run. This is how champions are made. If you feel the desire to run & hide behind an old, impotent behavior pattern, wake-up & come forward instead. Meet the bully-factor & disassemble it. Observe it losing power as you gain power. Pay attention to the power of your mindWORDS. They are all coated with chemicals that change the outcomes of your entire mind & body. The more positive-task-orientated you are, the more power you will harvest.
AFFIRMATION PLANT
"My thoughts & emotions are things that can be managed. I am not my thoughts, nor my emotions. I have power over the workings of my mind & body". ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Self-Discipline....Where Art Thou?
"Life is tons of discipline"...Robert Frost
Related Words, Thoughts, Emotions & Mind-Sets - self-will, self-command, self-control, self-government, self-mastery, self-restraint, willpower
'Tis the season of lost discipline & so this is a good moment to bring the mind back to where it needs to live, that is if we want to reap the rewards of health & high level achieving. It's not just the Christmas cookies or the compulsive shopping or the excess alcohol.....it's the problem of entertaining a weak mind & then finding out that this crazy guest doesn't want to leave.
We all know about self-discipline....or do we? I know we are familiar with the term & probably can even define it, but when it comes to the application, the meaning of self-discipline seems to evade most of us. Some of my patients refuse to acknowledge that they have any self-discipline at all........as if accepting that fact would mean that they should/could have it in any & all areas of their life! Others refuse to mouth the word, as if it were poison or a jailer of life. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Let's review normal for a moment. While it's true that each of us is certainly disciplined in certain areas of life, no one has it across the board. So, why should we care about this? Well, it's actually quite important to realize that if you are disciplined in a particular area of your life, you can utilize that discipline subconsciously by applying it to another area where you may need more of it.
Most people who come to my private practice are seeking magic. In a way, it's so pleasingly child-like to share conversations with them, but on the other hand, one would think that by the time one reaches adult-hood we would be able to separate fantasy from reality. I've come to the conclusion that just about all of us, myself included, hold out hope for the manifestation of our very own wizard.
The most difficult part of my work is to break the magic spell & introduce the truths about self-discipline & wake people up to what they already have in place. I usually have to work quite hard to make this sale to my patients. It's so hard to let go of the wizard. It's sad in a way, because the truth is that self-discipline is actually very enjoyable.
If we weren't disciplined in so many areas, life would be a horrendous daily struggle. Think of some areas of your own life where you are disciplined. How about getting up in the morning, having breakfast, organizing your clothes & papers for work, brushing your teeth, organizing your home, etc. More than likely you have more disciplined areas than non-disciplined ones & this is good news.
Take a moment to think of some areas in your own life that you would like to bring over to the disciplined column. A few of mine include my exercise program, my book writing & weeding the garden. Just identifying these puts the subconscious mind on notice & a motivational plan is already in the works. That's the power of Interactive Awareness & Self-hypnosis.
We tend to plant negative motivational programs quite easily. Sometimes we aren't even aware that we are doing so. Here's an example....For some reason the term self-discipline receives a bad rap & a negative motivational code. Just saying it can scare people into the corner. This is irrational because self-discipline actually makes life easier.
My job as a clinical hypnotherapistis to gently bring my patients out of hiding & onto the particular goal path that needs the discipline. Once in motion, they will see & sense that this path is already lined with all sorts of motivational images & affirmations.
Most people think about self-hypnosis in relation to developing self-discipline to stop smoking or to lose weight. This is like saying that a fork is only used to eat meat or salad. There are actually hundreds of applications for self-hypnosis from medicine to sports to self-development & then some.
You know the old saying, it's all in how you look at something. In the practice of self-hypnosis, Self-discipline is a KEY MINDSET. In actuality it is a MASTER KEY MINDSETto success & high level achievement, as well as high level health. And so, we applaud this MINDSET right from the get-go. In the practice of interactive self-hypnosis we develop a new self-profile of success, as well as a strong sense of purpose.
While words are the tools of the hypnotherapist, the words form images that are emotionally fired. It's rather like relaxing deeply & then walking into the new self-profile & experiencing the many aspects of it. An experienced hypnotherapist can truly design an extraordinary experience that will/can program the subconscious mind in hundreds of ways. And while a picture paints a thousand words, a self-hypnotic image paints a thousand subconsicous mind suggestions.
Here are some self-discipline suggestions I planted today. Some were for patients & others were for myself...
1. Weight Loss - the images that my patient needed to experience were all about ordering her new discipline, as well as being comfortable & happy with this for many calendar months. In the past she had failed simply because of her disorder & lack of discipline.
2. Exercise Program - I visited myself in my mind's eye & positively experienced the full hour on the treadmill. I also experienced increased endurance on my weight circuit. I removed some negative-based emotional states that don't enjoy being in the gym & brought in my fun-self. I also removed the clocks that interfere with my discipline by telling me to hurry-up.
3. Lifestyle Changes - this patient needs to make a series of changes due to a serious medical diagnosis. This includes stopping smoking, losing weight & exercising. This is over-whelming for the patient & adds to the fear around the diagnosis. The images designed for her were very gentle, rather like kindergarten. New beginnings....building the different disciplines easily, playing with their parts. The patient became the student of the disciplines & sensed her own enjoyment at putting them together.
Spend some time thinking about your own issues now & allow your own subconscious mind to send up some suggestions. Just reading this material is enough to stimulate that happening.
PLANT AN AFFIRMATION
"I enjoy building disciplines in my life. I easily see/sense areas that would benefit from this KEY MINDSET & provide it for myself." ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related Words, Thoughts, Emotions & Mind-Sets - self-will, self-command, self-control, self-government, self-mastery, self-restraint, willpower
'Tis the season of lost discipline & so this is a good moment to bring the mind back to where it needs to live, that is if we want to reap the rewards of health & high level achieving. It's not just the Christmas cookies or the compulsive shopping or the excess alcohol.....it's the problem of entertaining a weak mind & then finding out that this crazy guest doesn't want to leave.
We all know about self-discipline....or do we? I know we are familiar with the term & probably can even define it, but when it comes to the application, the meaning of self-discipline seems to evade most of us. Some of my patients refuse to acknowledge that they have any self-discipline at all........as if accepting that fact would mean that they should/could have it in any & all areas of their life! Others refuse to mouth the word, as if it were poison or a jailer of life. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Let's review normal for a moment. While it's true that each of us is certainly disciplined in certain areas of life, no one has it across the board. So, why should we care about this? Well, it's actually quite important to realize that if you are disciplined in a particular area of your life, you can utilize that discipline subconsciously by applying it to another area where you may need more of it.
Most people who come to my private practice are seeking magic. In a way, it's so pleasingly child-like to share conversations with them, but on the other hand, one would think that by the time one reaches adult-hood we would be able to separate fantasy from reality. I've come to the conclusion that just about all of us, myself included, hold out hope for the manifestation of our very own wizard.
The most difficult part of my work is to break the magic spell & introduce the truths about self-discipline & wake people up to what they already have in place. I usually have to work quite hard to make this sale to my patients. It's so hard to let go of the wizard. It's sad in a way, because the truth is that self-discipline is actually very enjoyable.
If we weren't disciplined in so many areas, life would be a horrendous daily struggle. Think of some areas of your own life where you are disciplined. How about getting up in the morning, having breakfast, organizing your clothes & papers for work, brushing your teeth, organizing your home, etc. More than likely you have more disciplined areas than non-disciplined ones & this is good news.
Take a moment to think of some areas in your own life that you would like to bring over to the disciplined column. A few of mine include my exercise program, my book writing & weeding the garden. Just identifying these puts the subconscious mind on notice & a motivational plan is already in the works. That's the power of Interactive Awareness & Self-hypnosis.
We tend to plant negative motivational programs quite easily. Sometimes we aren't even aware that we are doing so. Here's an example....For some reason the term self-discipline receives a bad rap & a negative motivational code. Just saying it can scare people into the corner. This is irrational because self-discipline actually makes life easier.
My job as a clinical hypnotherapistis to gently bring my patients out of hiding & onto the particular goal path that needs the discipline. Once in motion, they will see & sense that this path is already lined with all sorts of motivational images & affirmations.
Most people think about self-hypnosis in relation to developing self-discipline to stop smoking or to lose weight. This is like saying that a fork is only used to eat meat or salad. There are actually hundreds of applications for self-hypnosis from medicine to sports to self-development & then some.
You know the old saying, it's all in how you look at something. In the practice of self-hypnosis, Self-discipline is a KEY MINDSET. In actuality it is a MASTER KEY MINDSETto success & high level achievement, as well as high level health. And so, we applaud this MINDSET right from the get-go. In the practice of interactive self-hypnosis we develop a new self-profile of success, as well as a strong sense of purpose.
While words are the tools of the hypnotherapist, the words form images that are emotionally fired. It's rather like relaxing deeply & then walking into the new self-profile & experiencing the many aspects of it. An experienced hypnotherapist can truly design an extraordinary experience that will/can program the subconscious mind in hundreds of ways. And while a picture paints a thousand words, a self-hypnotic image paints a thousand subconsicous mind suggestions.
Here are some self-discipline suggestions I planted today. Some were for patients & others were for myself...
1. Weight Loss - the images that my patient needed to experience were all about ordering her new discipline, as well as being comfortable & happy with this for many calendar months. In the past she had failed simply because of her disorder & lack of discipline.
2. Exercise Program - I visited myself in my mind's eye & positively experienced the full hour on the treadmill. I also experienced increased endurance on my weight circuit. I removed some negative-based emotional states that don't enjoy being in the gym & brought in my fun-self. I also removed the clocks that interfere with my discipline by telling me to hurry-up.
3. Lifestyle Changes - this patient needs to make a series of changes due to a serious medical diagnosis. This includes stopping smoking, losing weight & exercising. This is over-whelming for the patient & adds to the fear around the diagnosis. The images designed for her were very gentle, rather like kindergarten. New beginnings....building the different disciplines easily, playing with their parts. The patient became the student of the disciplines & sensed her own enjoyment at putting them together.
Spend some time thinking about your own issues now & allow your own subconscious mind to send up some suggestions. Just reading this material is enough to stimulate that happening.
PLANT AN AFFIRMATION
"I enjoy building disciplines in my life. I easily see/sense areas that would benefit from this KEY MINDSET & provide it for myself." ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Friday, December 14, 2007
The Realm of Heightened Creativity
"We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men, and along those fibers as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects"....Herman Melville
It's amazing what a fall or injury can do! For those of you who read my blog, you might remember that I fell off of my desk & injured my back. Last week I wondered if I would walk again. That thought truly bothered me, especially knowing what I know about the power of words, whether they be verbalized or in the form of thoughts. Luckily for me, I knew what to do & took care of it quite rapidly. My life work & passion is to teach others how to do this for themselves.
But, I want much more for them.
We each have our own realm of heightened creativity. It's like a special city or place on our map of life. It is here that we can actively move past pain & problems & then into our own passion or desires. For many of us the roads to this city are unknown or completely blocked by old business, low expectations or thoughts of impossibility......negative fiction. But no matter what happened in the past, we can all go there. I know ithis because I've not only experienced it personally, but over the many years that I've been in the practice of medical & personal development hypnosis, I've had the privilege to witness this road opening over & over again.
I went back to work last Tuesday, just for a short day. It didn't take me long to realize that I'd changed in some rather profound way. Let me share a bit of this with you, because it does have importance to the changes I am currently making.
When one practices hypnotherapy, it is always a different experience with each patient, for each patient is different. There may be twenty who want to lose weight or stop smoking, or improve their memory or reduce their stress...and while the problems appear to be quite general, the person behind the problem is always different, thereby making the problem different in each case.
Each of us has traveled a different road, collected different strengths & weaknesses that have etched a special effect on the generalized problem, rather like the problem had been soaked in an original marinade, perhaps for decades.
So Tuesday morning was like any other morning for me....but then a very strong & heightened creative part of me began conversing, not only with my patients, but with me. I don't know how much you as the reader know about hypnotherapy, but suggestions are usually designed "right in the moment" & come from the subconscious mind of the therapist. They are beautifully pin-pointed towards the specialized needs of the patient.
It happened that my Tuesday morning patients were all well-known to me & so I was progressing down their particular road when all of a sudden the focus shifted slightly. I found myself talking about unexpected accidents & the importance of the body & the mind being prepared to take on the healing from the position of an expert healer & not from the position of a victim.
There was more urgency in the suggestions....All victim thoughts needed to be recognized immediately & removed right then & there. There is no time ever for hanging out in victim stuff. The patient I was working with in that moment happens to be over-weight & has been meandering on her path towards wellness. In truth, she is going forward, but rather just drifting along in a slow sing-song rhythm.
As I re-organized her suggestions, I became intensly aware that I also meander in certain areas of my own life & certainly can get into my own victim thing. My writing & the producing of my CD programs is one of those areas. Over the years I've written & produced hundreds of programs in different genres to meet the needs of my patients & students. Whenever I send these out to mainstream publishers, editors or agents, I tend to hide behind rejections as if I'm guilty of something & then make excuses as to why I cannot find a publisher to market my work in bookstores, etc. as if this were the most important thing in my life......a true Sarah Bernhardt.
Unfortunately, or so I've been told, my work is not considered mainstream by many publishers, editors or agents....rather odd because I sell these very successfully from my website, in fact, all over the world.. I've been in my field for over 30 years & each day I communicate with hundreds of people who go to work each day, but suffer in their own silent jails. I have tremendous compassion for them, for while they are seen, they not truly seen or they are judged in a way that is unjust, perhaps even cruel.
Why does this happen & to so many? As I've studied this part of human behavior, I've come to realize that we are all so lost in our own lives, that we simply have no time or even desire to see the obvious in others. It can truly be a lonely world & because of this lonliness, small problems grow into big ones. These problems we can see & not only do we notice them, but we take the position of judge & jury...
We see fat people, anorexic people, compulsive & obsessive people, nail biters, skin pickers, hair pullers, emotionally weak or stressed out people, uncooperative people, alcoholics, smokers, poor performers, shy people, those who appear lazy & tend to sleep-walk through the day. We see people with latent talent who refuse to be motivated. We see frightened people, some who can't leave their homes & others who simply can't stand up & make a presentation at work. This is just a short list of what we can see if we bother to look.
While these problems & their solutions appear obvious to us as judge & jury, it is not as simple as that. There are underlying reasons for all of this & more. Much has to do with simply not knowing how to come out & face the problem, release it & then manage stress in a healthier fashion. These are things that should have been taught in childhod, but most of the time parents did not have the skills themselves & so there was little or nothing to pass on to the infant, child & teen. While sometimes psychotherapy is required, in many instances all that is needed is to uncover the blocks, bring the awareness free of emotion, release & then plant new images.
So, my work is to work as detective along with the problem-owner. Then we are ready to free the guilt & shame & enter the realm of heightened creativity. This is where the good stuff resides.
I've come to understand & accept that the large majority of professionals in the publishing field aren't familiar with exactly what I do because perhaps they have no reason to know this. I hope you don't misinterpret this. It is not an ego thing........it just the way it is.
Back to last Tuesday. Just as my weight management patient needed to take off her heavy shoes that were interfering with the speed of her travels, I realized that I must do the same. Can someone help me untie this knot in my shoelace?
It's amazing what a fall or injury can do! For those of you who read my blog, you might remember that I fell off of my desk & injured my back. Last week I wondered if I would walk again. That thought truly bothered me, especially knowing what I know about the power of words, whether they be verbalized or in the form of thoughts. Luckily for me, I knew what to do & took care of it quite rapidly. My life work & passion is to teach others how to do this for themselves.
But, I want much more for them.
We each have our own realm of heightened creativity. It's like a special city or place on our map of life. It is here that we can actively move past pain & problems & then into our own passion or desires. For many of us the roads to this city are unknown or completely blocked by old business, low expectations or thoughts of impossibility......negative fiction. But no matter what happened in the past, we can all go there. I know ithis because I've not only experienced it personally, but over the many years that I've been in the practice of medical & personal development hypnosis, I've had the privilege to witness this road opening over & over again.
I went back to work last Tuesday, just for a short day. It didn't take me long to realize that I'd changed in some rather profound way. Let me share a bit of this with you, because it does have importance to the changes I am currently making.
When one practices hypnotherapy, it is always a different experience with each patient, for each patient is different. There may be twenty who want to lose weight or stop smoking, or improve their memory or reduce their stress...and while the problems appear to be quite general, the person behind the problem is always different, thereby making the problem different in each case.
Each of us has traveled a different road, collected different strengths & weaknesses that have etched a special effect on the generalized problem, rather like the problem had been soaked in an original marinade, perhaps for decades.
So Tuesday morning was like any other morning for me....but then a very strong & heightened creative part of me began conversing, not only with my patients, but with me. I don't know how much you as the reader know about hypnotherapy, but suggestions are usually designed "right in the moment" & come from the subconscious mind of the therapist. They are beautifully pin-pointed towards the specialized needs of the patient.
It happened that my Tuesday morning patients were all well-known to me & so I was progressing down their particular road when all of a sudden the focus shifted slightly. I found myself talking about unexpected accidents & the importance of the body & the mind being prepared to take on the healing from the position of an expert healer & not from the position of a victim.
There was more urgency in the suggestions....All victim thoughts needed to be recognized immediately & removed right then & there. There is no time ever for hanging out in victim stuff. The patient I was working with in that moment happens to be over-weight & has been meandering on her path towards wellness. In truth, she is going forward, but rather just drifting along in a slow sing-song rhythm.
As I re-organized her suggestions, I became intensly aware that I also meander in certain areas of my own life & certainly can get into my own victim thing. My writing & the producing of my CD programs is one of those areas. Over the years I've written & produced hundreds of programs in different genres to meet the needs of my patients & students. Whenever I send these out to mainstream publishers, editors or agents, I tend to hide behind rejections as if I'm guilty of something & then make excuses as to why I cannot find a publisher to market my work in bookstores, etc. as if this were the most important thing in my life......a true Sarah Bernhardt.
Unfortunately, or so I've been told, my work is not considered mainstream by many publishers, editors or agents....rather odd because I sell these very successfully from my website, in fact, all over the world.. I've been in my field for over 30 years & each day I communicate with hundreds of people who go to work each day, but suffer in their own silent jails. I have tremendous compassion for them, for while they are seen, they not truly seen or they are judged in a way that is unjust, perhaps even cruel.
Why does this happen & to so many? As I've studied this part of human behavior, I've come to realize that we are all so lost in our own lives, that we simply have no time or even desire to see the obvious in others. It can truly be a lonely world & because of this lonliness, small problems grow into big ones. These problems we can see & not only do we notice them, but we take the position of judge & jury...
We see fat people, anorexic people, compulsive & obsessive people, nail biters, skin pickers, hair pullers, emotionally weak or stressed out people, uncooperative people, alcoholics, smokers, poor performers, shy people, those who appear lazy & tend to sleep-walk through the day. We see people with latent talent who refuse to be motivated. We see frightened people, some who can't leave their homes & others who simply can't stand up & make a presentation at work. This is just a short list of what we can see if we bother to look.
While these problems & their solutions appear obvious to us as judge & jury, it is not as simple as that. There are underlying reasons for all of this & more. Much has to do with simply not knowing how to come out & face the problem, release it & then manage stress in a healthier fashion. These are things that should have been taught in childhod, but most of the time parents did not have the skills themselves & so there was little or nothing to pass on to the infant, child & teen. While sometimes psychotherapy is required, in many instances all that is needed is to uncover the blocks, bring the awareness free of emotion, release & then plant new images.
So, my work is to work as detective along with the problem-owner. Then we are ready to free the guilt & shame & enter the realm of heightened creativity. This is where the good stuff resides.
I've come to understand & accept that the large majority of professionals in the publishing field aren't familiar with exactly what I do because perhaps they have no reason to know this. I hope you don't misinterpret this. It is not an ego thing........it just the way it is.
Back to last Tuesday. Just as my weight management patient needed to take off her heavy shoes that were interfering with the speed of her travels, I realized that I must do the same. Can someone help me untie this knot in my shoelace?
Thursday, December 13, 2007
What's It to Be......Yes or No?
"Quick decisions are unsafe decisions."... Sophocles
Is It a Yes or a No?
For some reason, today is all about decision making, not only in my own life, but in the lives of those I work with & so I've spent a good part of the day thinking about decision making. Since I'm prone, like most of us, to procrastinating, I "decided" to review my patterns, beliefs & behaviors in this area of my life, hoping that my own self-review will help me to find the right words to help my clients & patients. Perhaps my review might help you to make your decision-making easier over the weekend, especially now that we are entering the holiday-stress month.
Here are some questions I have for mySelf.
What kinds of decision-needing thoughts live in my mind bank & how are they organized?
Am I an avoider? Do I push decision-needing thoughts to the back of the mind or jump into "compulsion?"
Are there particular "words" that generate action, or send me running for cover?
How do I view decisions of others?
Am I quick to self-judge or to judge others?
Am I open to learning, or do I just think that I observe from my automatic-pilot, waking-sleep state?
Yesterday a local man made a bad decision that ended his life. He decided to cool off in a local river after cutting the lawn. According to the newspaper, a 1200 pound alligator ate him.
Just the thought of this makes me ill. I'm a northern-suburban girl living in the south. I had no idea that alligators came that big. Also, I can't imagine jumping into any water down here. Even wading in the Gulf of Mexico has proved to be deadly at certain times of the year when the sharks are more aggressive.
I once took care of a young woman, just eighteen years old, who made a bad decision that changed her life forever. She dove into a swimming pool with insufficient water & ended up a quadriplegic. I remember her telling me about the moment before she decided to dive, a voice told her not to do it. In that split second she could have moved away from decision & into deliberation. I believe that voice was her intuition or subconscious mind attempting to guide her. Unfortunately she decided not to pay attention. I was wondering if the man who jumped into the river had a moment of self-communication with his intuition, or was he just driven by the heat & humidity?
Of course, not all decisions are so life-changing as these, but the ability or inability to make decision can certainly change outcomes, both big & small. When someone has a low self-esteem or self-image, or is prone to compulsion, then there can be trouble underfoot.
I need to question my Self again.
What is the state of my own intuition?
What can I do to enhance my inner communication levels?
I've been thinking about how easy it is to do something totally foolish & seemingly small that can impact so greatly. On the other hand, I don't want to live a life on procrastination-hold. Where can I find this balance?
I was remembering the audio CD programs I designed on decision making. Sometimes I'm so busy that I forget about my own self-needs. Sounds like the plumber with a leaky faucet.
Of course.... I need to work on my concentration & focus, remembering to practice moving out of automatic-pilot & into sensory imaging outcomes. My skill level used to be pretty good with these tools, but I've become a bit complacent over the years.
I also remember that there are thousands of decisions to be made each day. Some of them belong on auto-pilot, such as going to the bathroom, eating meals, going to work & going to sleep, to name a few. Other types of decisions just need a little attention, such as what blouse to wear, what shape pasta to cook, etc. No need to spend lots of time with those. It feels good to break the compulsion to suffer through easy decisions, giving myself permission to just ask, "is it a yes or a no." Simple & direct. Saving the more detailed "decision-work", for those that warrant it.
I remember how the sensory imaging also enhanced my levels of creativity, not only in work, but in relationships & in my sports performance. Concentration combined with the right amount of relaxation, both mentally & physically holds the key to enhanced intuition. The subconscious mind is a great safety & guide, as long as the channels open to allow the communication.
The negative aspects of my mind are trying to debate this conversation I'm having with myself. I'm being reminded that I am far too busy for this kind of self-work. I have programs to write, patients to see, classes to organize & teach. I already know that "I can't do everything", so why not just stop this nonsense & do what's sitting on my desk. "Now, that would be a good decision, wouldn't it?"
How many times I've fallen prey to this part of my personal mindSCRABBLE. I see this in my patients & students. Always feverishly tasking. Never giving the Self permission to stop & review, assess, plan & then incorporate action steps into motivation-imagery.
My negative mind-states are not going to win today. And....that is good news for me, as well as for my projects waiting for me on my desk. They will be there when I'm finished taking care of myself.
"I enhance my intuition by building a strong relationship with my subconscious mind librarian. I relax & see outcomes before they happen. I make wise decisions."....
Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
FROM THE AUTHOR
"Tis the season of making even more decisions & so I'd like to offer you a sample mp3 session from a program I've designed for Decision Making. Here's your opportunity to program your mind to locate those decisions that only require a "yes or no" & to make time for those that require more thought. The entire program is available on my websites.
Is It a Yes or a No?
For some reason, today is all about decision making, not only in my own life, but in the lives of those I work with & so I've spent a good part of the day thinking about decision making. Since I'm prone, like most of us, to procrastinating, I "decided" to review my patterns, beliefs & behaviors in this area of my life, hoping that my own self-review will help me to find the right words to help my clients & patients. Perhaps my review might help you to make your decision-making easier over the weekend, especially now that we are entering the holiday-stress month.
Here are some questions I have for mySelf.
What kinds of decision-needing thoughts live in my mind bank & how are they organized?
Am I an avoider? Do I push decision-needing thoughts to the back of the mind or jump into "compulsion?"
Are there particular "words" that generate action, or send me running for cover?
How do I view decisions of others?
Am I quick to self-judge or to judge others?
Am I open to learning, or do I just think that I observe from my automatic-pilot, waking-sleep state?
Yesterday a local man made a bad decision that ended his life. He decided to cool off in a local river after cutting the lawn. According to the newspaper, a 1200 pound alligator ate him.
Just the thought of this makes me ill. I'm a northern-suburban girl living in the south. I had no idea that alligators came that big. Also, I can't imagine jumping into any water down here. Even wading in the Gulf of Mexico has proved to be deadly at certain times of the year when the sharks are more aggressive.
I once took care of a young woman, just eighteen years old, who made a bad decision that changed her life forever. She dove into a swimming pool with insufficient water & ended up a quadriplegic. I remember her telling me about the moment before she decided to dive, a voice told her not to do it. In that split second she could have moved away from decision & into deliberation. I believe that voice was her intuition or subconscious mind attempting to guide her. Unfortunately she decided not to pay attention. I was wondering if the man who jumped into the river had a moment of self-communication with his intuition, or was he just driven by the heat & humidity?
Of course, not all decisions are so life-changing as these, but the ability or inability to make decision can certainly change outcomes, both big & small. When someone has a low self-esteem or self-image, or is prone to compulsion, then there can be trouble underfoot.
I need to question my Self again.
What is the state of my own intuition?
What can I do to enhance my inner communication levels?
I've been thinking about how easy it is to do something totally foolish & seemingly small that can impact so greatly. On the other hand, I don't want to live a life on procrastination-hold. Where can I find this balance?
I was remembering the audio CD programs I designed on decision making. Sometimes I'm so busy that I forget about my own self-needs. Sounds like the plumber with a leaky faucet.
Of course.... I need to work on my concentration & focus, remembering to practice moving out of automatic-pilot & into sensory imaging outcomes. My skill level used to be pretty good with these tools, but I've become a bit complacent over the years.
I also remember that there are thousands of decisions to be made each day. Some of them belong on auto-pilot, such as going to the bathroom, eating meals, going to work & going to sleep, to name a few. Other types of decisions just need a little attention, such as what blouse to wear, what shape pasta to cook, etc. No need to spend lots of time with those. It feels good to break the compulsion to suffer through easy decisions, giving myself permission to just ask, "is it a yes or a no." Simple & direct. Saving the more detailed "decision-work", for those that warrant it.
I remember how the sensory imaging also enhanced my levels of creativity, not only in work, but in relationships & in my sports performance. Concentration combined with the right amount of relaxation, both mentally & physically holds the key to enhanced intuition. The subconscious mind is a great safety & guide, as long as the channels open to allow the communication.
The negative aspects of my mind are trying to debate this conversation I'm having with myself. I'm being reminded that I am far too busy for this kind of self-work. I have programs to write, patients to see, classes to organize & teach. I already know that "I can't do everything", so why not just stop this nonsense & do what's sitting on my desk. "Now, that would be a good decision, wouldn't it?"
How many times I've fallen prey to this part of my personal mindSCRABBLE. I see this in my patients & students. Always feverishly tasking. Never giving the Self permission to stop & review, assess, plan & then incorporate action steps into motivation-imagery.
My negative mind-states are not going to win today. And....that is good news for me, as well as for my projects waiting for me on my desk. They will be there when I'm finished taking care of myself.
"I enhance my intuition by building a strong relationship with my subconscious mind librarian. I relax & see outcomes before they happen. I make wise decisions."....
Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
FROM THE AUTHOR
"Tis the season of making even more decisions & so I'd like to offer you a sample mp3 session from a program I've designed for Decision Making. Here's your opportunity to program your mind to locate those decisions that only require a "yes or no" & to make time for those that require more thought. The entire program is available on my websites.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Dealing with Double Whammy Failure Bubbles
"Don't let life discourage you; everyone who got where he is had to begin where he was"...Richard L. Evans
"I wake to my perceived failures & mind-edit them easily. I am aware of my internal weather systems. I stay keenly aware of negative-crayoning & make good choices for myself." ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related Words & Thoughts - default, delinquency, dereliction, neglect, oversight, laxity, negligence, remissness, slackness, indifference, unconcern
It's another day....bringing moments to build our self-image & self-esteem or to diminish them. The moments give us all sorts of opportunities, rather like little bubbles, waiting to be impregnanted with our desires & then floating out on their delivery mission. Not only to we have a multitude of opportunities to design & deliver our desires, but we do the same for others.......much of this done through our very words, thoughts & deeds, for we all mentor each other.
What goes into our moment bubbles, what we think or what we entertain is what we get back & the same goes double for failure. Unfortunately failure bubbles or mindsets are a dime a dozen. You don't have to look far to find them floating around.....bubbles set out by others or more importantly, your very own bubbles. It's rather amazing that we succeed at anything, given our usual interior weather. Look closely.. it's usually either raining, storming, blowing, snowing, cloudy or completely parched & drought-ridden.
Thoughtout this blog I've reminded you to look for emotional carriers, especially those that attempt to color your life with negative mind states. Pay attention to the word attempt. No one can do anything without your permission. Mind-underline that for yourself, for most of us tend to forget it. Just because someone in your environment is coloring in a negative fashion, you do not have to breathe it in. It's like second-hand smoke. You do not have to breathe it in. You have choices.
Even though I can't see or hear you, I have a good idea as to what you are thinking right now, the reason being that in the past, I've said most of these things to myself or to others in relation to myself OR I've heard it from others in my work as a clinical hypnotherapist.
So, let me share this with you ...
Changing mindsets is a skill, just like anything else. Think for a moment about how many things you have learned from the time you were just a baby. Take a mind-visit back to your early childhood & find the time when you simply didn't entertain failure. That time is there......so go find it & then sense yourself reconnecting. However you might like to imagine that....do it. Notice that during this time you were also independent of the negative-crayoning of others. Take your time in this area of self-exploration for it is very important & can work to change your life experiences considerably.
In short, you need to know that you can achieve things. You can work through perceived failure. You can recognize negative-emotional crayoning of others & that you can choose not to accept it.
Now about the definition of failure.... I'm sure that you already know that failing at something just means that you haven't figured out how to do it yet. That is all that it is. Now others might have more to say about it, but again, that is their negative crayoning & you already know what to do about that. In case you have forgotten, or haven't read those blog entries....when you don't want to accept negative-crayoning your task is to ...
1. notice or wake-up
2. breathe from center & relax your body
3. release the image or emotion
4. place a new mind program on your mind screen
When you experiencing a perceived failure, it's time to go back to the drawing board. For most of us, we take too big a chunk & so of course, we tend to choke. Now what would you do if you were choking on something? Well, if it were me, I'd do whatever I had to do to get the offender out of my mouth asap.
It's the same with anything else. Break the perceived failure into pieces & study them independently. It's best to do this in deep relaxation. That way, your own subconscious mind will assist you in finding a better way. If you experience mind-confusion when you try to do this.....the chunk is simply too big OR you haven't quieted the mind sufficiently.
Most of you have heard about your intuition or inner knowing. That is your subconscious mind in action. In order to take full advantage of it, you must relax very deeply & then you will be gifted with eureka break-through thoughts or ideas or serendipity. Nothing is free in life. As I tell my patients, the piper must be paid. If you want your own mind to assist you, it is up to you to change your internal weather system.
FROM THE AUTHOR
"Tis the season of over-indulgence & so I'd like to offer you a sample mp3 session from a program I've designed for Compulsive Shopping. Here's your opportunity to program your mind to enjoy your shopping experience, while managing those out of control emotions that tend to take over, especially during this time of year. This program also assists in managing other compulsive behaviors. The entire program is available on my websites.
"I wake to my perceived failures & mind-edit them easily. I am aware of my internal weather systems. I stay keenly aware of negative-crayoning & make good choices for myself." ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related Words & Thoughts - default, delinquency, dereliction, neglect, oversight, laxity, negligence, remissness, slackness, indifference, unconcern
It's another day....bringing moments to build our self-image & self-esteem or to diminish them. The moments give us all sorts of opportunities, rather like little bubbles, waiting to be impregnanted with our desires & then floating out on their delivery mission. Not only to we have a multitude of opportunities to design & deliver our desires, but we do the same for others.......much of this done through our very words, thoughts & deeds, for we all mentor each other.
What goes into our moment bubbles, what we think or what we entertain is what we get back & the same goes double for failure. Unfortunately failure bubbles or mindsets are a dime a dozen. You don't have to look far to find them floating around.....bubbles set out by others or more importantly, your very own bubbles. It's rather amazing that we succeed at anything, given our usual interior weather. Look closely.. it's usually either raining, storming, blowing, snowing, cloudy or completely parched & drought-ridden.
Thoughtout this blog I've reminded you to look for emotional carriers, especially those that attempt to color your life with negative mind states. Pay attention to the word attempt. No one can do anything without your permission. Mind-underline that for yourself, for most of us tend to forget it. Just because someone in your environment is coloring in a negative fashion, you do not have to breathe it in. It's like second-hand smoke. You do not have to breathe it in. You have choices.
Even though I can't see or hear you, I have a good idea as to what you are thinking right now, the reason being that in the past, I've said most of these things to myself or to others in relation to myself OR I've heard it from others in my work as a clinical hypnotherapist.
So, let me share this with you ...
Changing mindsets is a skill, just like anything else. Think for a moment about how many things you have learned from the time you were just a baby. Take a mind-visit back to your early childhood & find the time when you simply didn't entertain failure. That time is there......so go find it & then sense yourself reconnecting. However you might like to imagine that....do it. Notice that during this time you were also independent of the negative-crayoning of others. Take your time in this area of self-exploration for it is very important & can work to change your life experiences considerably.
In short, you need to know that you can achieve things. You can work through perceived failure. You can recognize negative-emotional crayoning of others & that you can choose not to accept it.
Now about the definition of failure.... I'm sure that you already know that failing at something just means that you haven't figured out how to do it yet. That is all that it is. Now others might have more to say about it, but again, that is their negative crayoning & you already know what to do about that. In case you have forgotten, or haven't read those blog entries....when you don't want to accept negative-crayoning your task is to ...
1. notice or wake-up
2. breathe from center & relax your body
3. release the image or emotion
4. place a new mind program on your mind screen
When you experiencing a perceived failure, it's time to go back to the drawing board. For most of us, we take too big a chunk & so of course, we tend to choke. Now what would you do if you were choking on something? Well, if it were me, I'd do whatever I had to do to get the offender out of my mouth asap.
It's the same with anything else. Break the perceived failure into pieces & study them independently. It's best to do this in deep relaxation. That way, your own subconscious mind will assist you in finding a better way. If you experience mind-confusion when you try to do this.....the chunk is simply too big OR you haven't quieted the mind sufficiently.
Most of you have heard about your intuition or inner knowing. That is your subconscious mind in action. In order to take full advantage of it, you must relax very deeply & then you will be gifted with eureka break-through thoughts or ideas or serendipity. Nothing is free in life. As I tell my patients, the piper must be paid. If you want your own mind to assist you, it is up to you to change your internal weather system.
FROM THE AUTHOR
"Tis the season of over-indulgence & so I'd like to offer you a sample mp3 session from a program I've designed for Compulsive Shopping. Here's your opportunity to program your mind to enjoy your shopping experience, while managing those out of control emotions that tend to take over, especially during this time of year. This program also assists in managing other compulsive behaviors. The entire program is available on my websites.
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Measuring Self-Pleasuring
"Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it."... Thomas Jefferson
"My mind is my most important digestive organ. If I put junk food in my mind, I will be malnourished. I'm willing to let go & to make changes. It's time."....
Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Everything is about choice & that includes how we choose to pleasure ourselves, including how much! The holidays are one of those times when it's not uncommon to pull out all the stops. Unfortunately, be it shopping or any other example of over-pleasuring, the piper will be paid, be it in a larger than life credit card statement, or a larger than life Self on the scale.
Watch out for the hooks...
It's so easy to fall in love.....& with so many choices, one must be careful to look for that hook. As a clinical hypnotherapist, I work all day, removing hooks & healing the wounds. Some people are so in love with a particular brand of hook, that they actually go out to find another one just like the one that was previously removed. This can even happen before the old wounds are healed, as if the new one will help that process along.
While the love-ordained bait may change, one's hook-preference often remains the same. This is very common in the realm of addictions, be they chemical, food-related or even in relationships. Stop smoking & eat sugar. Stop drinking & drink more coffee. Cut out the coffee & increase the soda. Stop buying shoes & hang out in the book store. Divorce an abusive mate & find another one.
People find pleasure in the strangest things. One of my anorexic patients finds her joy in keeping her weight as low as possible. It doesn't seem to matter that her body is suffering & some of the damage she is causing is permanent, or is setting her up for plenty of displeasure down the road. For her, it is unacceptable to change this hook for a healthier one.
Helping this patient to move away from this pleasure-state & into something would be much more difficult without utilizing hypnotherapy. In hypnotic trance the patient's resistance & defensiveness can be lowered. Here is where the power of choice words & metaphor comes into play.
Fear of letting go the hook is always a hypnotherapeutic consideration. It's not uncommon for pleasure-words to cover this particular emotional barrier. The individual can actually set up a belief that the activity or behavior is pleasurable, when subconsciously they are simply frightened of letting go of it.
I have experienced this myself, in relation to a few of my own pleasures. Shopping was one of these. It wasn't until I self-examined my shopping behaviors & habits that I uncovered how truly tense they made me. Certainly that tension increased when my credit card arrived. Working with spending habits often opens the subconscious library for indepth personal development work. What one finds beneath the surface is often quite illuminating.
Why do so many people have unhealthy pleasures? That's a question I've often asked myself & especially when I meet up with such a vast variety of these in my office practice. An answer, or at least a partial answer, to this question can be found in lack of knowledge & practice of stress management. Take a look at how you release your stress on a given day. You will find the patterns there. Check if they are healthy or harmful. Try to be honest.
While stopping for a drink on the way home may not appear to be a big thing, check this behavior for frequency, as well as the level of desire. How would you respond if you couldn't do it anymore? I heard a lady tell her friend that she would absolutely die if she couldn't binge on popcorn in the movie theater. While that might sound like an exaggeration, this is not the first time I've heard words such as these connected to stopping a potentially harmful behavior.
So, check out your pleasures & give them the litmus test. If they need some cleaning up, decide how you will go about doing this for yourself. At the same time, make certain that you are developing new stress management techniques that will grow into healthy pleasures......if you give them a fair shot.
FROM THE AUTHOR
"Tis the season of over-indulgence & so I'd like to offer you a sample mp3 session from a program I've designed for Compulsive Shopping. Here's your opportunity to program your mind to enjoy your shopping experience, while managing those out of control emotions that tend to take over, especially during this time of year. This program also assists in managing other compulsive behaviors. The entire program is available on my websites.
"My mind is my most important digestive organ. If I put junk food in my mind, I will be malnourished. I'm willing to let go & to make changes. It's time."....
Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Everything is about choice & that includes how we choose to pleasure ourselves, including how much! The holidays are one of those times when it's not uncommon to pull out all the stops. Unfortunately, be it shopping or any other example of over-pleasuring, the piper will be paid, be it in a larger than life credit card statement, or a larger than life Self on the scale.
Watch out for the hooks...
It's so easy to fall in love.....& with so many choices, one must be careful to look for that hook. As a clinical hypnotherapist, I work all day, removing hooks & healing the wounds. Some people are so in love with a particular brand of hook, that they actually go out to find another one just like the one that was previously removed. This can even happen before the old wounds are healed, as if the new one will help that process along.
While the love-ordained bait may change, one's hook-preference often remains the same. This is very common in the realm of addictions, be they chemical, food-related or even in relationships. Stop smoking & eat sugar. Stop drinking & drink more coffee. Cut out the coffee & increase the soda. Stop buying shoes & hang out in the book store. Divorce an abusive mate & find another one.
People find pleasure in the strangest things. One of my anorexic patients finds her joy in keeping her weight as low as possible. It doesn't seem to matter that her body is suffering & some of the damage she is causing is permanent, or is setting her up for plenty of displeasure down the road. For her, it is unacceptable to change this hook for a healthier one.
Helping this patient to move away from this pleasure-state & into something would be much more difficult without utilizing hypnotherapy. In hypnotic trance the patient's resistance & defensiveness can be lowered. Here is where the power of choice words & metaphor comes into play.
Fear of letting go the hook is always a hypnotherapeutic consideration. It's not uncommon for pleasure-words to cover this particular emotional barrier. The individual can actually set up a belief that the activity or behavior is pleasurable, when subconsciously they are simply frightened of letting go of it.
I have experienced this myself, in relation to a few of my own pleasures. Shopping was one of these. It wasn't until I self-examined my shopping behaviors & habits that I uncovered how truly tense they made me. Certainly that tension increased when my credit card arrived. Working with spending habits often opens the subconscious library for indepth personal development work. What one finds beneath the surface is often quite illuminating.
Why do so many people have unhealthy pleasures? That's a question I've often asked myself & especially when I meet up with such a vast variety of these in my office practice. An answer, or at least a partial answer, to this question can be found in lack of knowledge & practice of stress management. Take a look at how you release your stress on a given day. You will find the patterns there. Check if they are healthy or harmful. Try to be honest.
While stopping for a drink on the way home may not appear to be a big thing, check this behavior for frequency, as well as the level of desire. How would you respond if you couldn't do it anymore? I heard a lady tell her friend that she would absolutely die if she couldn't binge on popcorn in the movie theater. While that might sound like an exaggeration, this is not the first time I've heard words such as these connected to stopping a potentially harmful behavior.
So, check out your pleasures & give them the litmus test. If they need some cleaning up, decide how you will go about doing this for yourself. At the same time, make certain that you are developing new stress management techniques that will grow into healthy pleasures......if you give them a fair shot.
FROM THE AUTHOR
"Tis the season of over-indulgence & so I'd like to offer you a sample mp3 session from a program I've designed for Compulsive Shopping. Here's your opportunity to program your mind to enjoy your shopping experience, while managing those out of control emotions that tend to take over, especially during this time of year. This program also assists in managing other compulsive behaviors. The entire program is available on my websites.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Breaking Through Powerlessness
Only a strong tree can stand alone...Arnold Glasow
"Yes, like a strong tree with deep roots, I remember that I am a resilient human being. I wake up to ideas of powerlessness & choose to activate my resilient bank account". ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related Words & Mind States - helpless, impotent, inactive, inert, passive, supine; decrepit, feeble, infirm, weak, incapable, incompetent, ineffective, unfit
Just sitting here & reading the related words to powerlessness depletes me. It's so easy to notice how powerful language can be & especially when coupled with past experiences & negative suggestions from others. It certainly isn't difficult to become self-paralyzed.
I turn on the television & see the such difficult images coming out of areas devastated by the horrific storms in India. Then I notice those individuals that are showing strength & conviction...some praying, others just waiting patiently, trusting that help will come. As difficult as it is to look at these images, they are truly empowering....I'm reminded that we get our muscle from beliefs that reside inside our selves, as well as from beliefs that reside inside others.
I read my email messages & find them filled with people feeling powerless about this, that or the other. My patient schedule for tomorrow reports the same. I look at my desk, wondering if the projects sitting there will ever be completed. What about the holidays this year. Will they be as difficult as last year? My own brand of powerless- thinking. How easy it is to be lost in this quagmire. Yes, it helps to remind myself that my life is good today. I could be spending the day standing in the heat, waiting for a bottle of water, praying for rice.
This kind of awareness works, but just for the moment.
I need something much more to nibble away at this old automatic pilot thought pattern. I take some time just for me even though my desk looms large in front of me. I've been around long enough to know how deadly powerlessness can be & so I must give the time to the priority of the moment, even though my child-self wants to do other things. Do we have any chocolate ice cream? When do we get to go home? Can we have pizza for dinner? I'll feel better if I take a nap. Can I read that catalog & order something? I don't want to go to school tonight. Perhaps just one cup of coffee?
It's not uncommon to be visited by the addictions or other stress-release mechanisms, most of which are not healthy. But when I notice their arrival, I'm even more certain that it is time to relax deeply & touch base with my inner strengths or core-Self. True, I don't live in the devastated areas, but my mind & body are responding in a sympathetic dance to the images. I can feel my own paralysis, much of which is connected to memories of when I was in very difficult situations that I perceived as helpless & hopeless.
It's no accident that I was remembering an entire decade that I lost to a chronic illness. The images were so vivid AS IF it were happening right now. I was reliving the fear of dying along with the exhaustion of living, just as if I was clinging onto anything that appeared stable. This is how the mind works & this is why it is so very important to wake-up to what's going on & to set things in better order.
One might say that it's normal to react like this. After all, these are terrible tragedies. However, I know it is better to to handle my emotions in a way that releases negative stress chemicals, for there is nothing positive about that. Then, I'm free to move into a position of strength & compassion....set for action.
We all have areas of strength located in the library of our mind. These areas were constructed right from the beginning....birth. If you have ever been witness to an actual birth, I'm sure you would agree that the infant shows incredible power & tenacity as she/he moves through the birth canal. This definitely isn't for wimps! Each & every day the infant becomes more & more resilient, surmounting all sorts of challenges from day one.
It's a good idea to think about your own resilience bank account, paying attention to all of the times you survived your experiences. Of course, all of them weren't huge like my decade long illness or being left without water or food for days on end, but they are survivals never the less & you do have a resilience bank account. This is your equity when powerlessness comes knocking at the door.
As I visit this area in my mind, I physically tune into the accumulated resilience, allowing it to enter my being. In the practice of hypnosis it is very important to foster positive, chemical changes in the body. On occasion, we may foster negative chemical changes, but only for very special reasons & never for a long period of time. For example, I can visit an experience when I made myself sick from over-eating chocolate. I may decide to visit or sense the nausea, just to wake myself up to what will happen if I do the same thing again.
Yes, this is a form of resilience & I'm sure you all have similar memories that you could choose to visit. However, stick to your positive survival power & save the negatives for when you need a shot of motivation that only that negative can provide.
Once you feel your inner strength or resilience, take it back into the moment or future-pace it. It's like a postage stamp. You can take it & place it wherever you might need it. Truly sense it in those moments. This is what people do when faced with tremendous tragedy or difficulty. They go & round up their beliefs & resilience. The affirmations go like this. As you repeat these, truly feel them entering your mind, as well as your body.....I AM. I CAN. I WILL. I DID. I AM.
FROM THE AUTHOR
The holidays can often bring out emotions that are extremely difficult, especially because they are often connected to child experiences & lost dreams. As we learn to transmute or change the more toxic emotions or patterns, the mind opens, offering all sorts of gifts....selfGIFTS. Today I'm going to offer you a sample mp3 from my collection. It's called Affirmations for Enhancing Resilience. It will help you to plant programs to help manage depression & other emotional imbalances, as well as to open your store of creativity & prosperity. I hope you enjoy it. The full program is available on my websites.
"Yes, like a strong tree with deep roots, I remember that I am a resilient human being. I wake up to ideas of powerlessness & choose to activate my resilient bank account". ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related Words & Mind States - helpless, impotent, inactive, inert, passive, supine; decrepit, feeble, infirm, weak, incapable, incompetent, ineffective, unfit
Just sitting here & reading the related words to powerlessness depletes me. It's so easy to notice how powerful language can be & especially when coupled with past experiences & negative suggestions from others. It certainly isn't difficult to become self-paralyzed.
I turn on the television & see the such difficult images coming out of areas devastated by the horrific storms in India. Then I notice those individuals that are showing strength & conviction...some praying, others just waiting patiently, trusting that help will come. As difficult as it is to look at these images, they are truly empowering....I'm reminded that we get our muscle from beliefs that reside inside our selves, as well as from beliefs that reside inside others.
I read my email messages & find them filled with people feeling powerless about this, that or the other. My patient schedule for tomorrow reports the same. I look at my desk, wondering if the projects sitting there will ever be completed. What about the holidays this year. Will they be as difficult as last year? My own brand of powerless- thinking. How easy it is to be lost in this quagmire. Yes, it helps to remind myself that my life is good today. I could be spending the day standing in the heat, waiting for a bottle of water, praying for rice.
This kind of awareness works, but just for the moment.
I need something much more to nibble away at this old automatic pilot thought pattern. I take some time just for me even though my desk looms large in front of me. I've been around long enough to know how deadly powerlessness can be & so I must give the time to the priority of the moment, even though my child-self wants to do other things. Do we have any chocolate ice cream? When do we get to go home? Can we have pizza for dinner? I'll feel better if I take a nap. Can I read that catalog & order something? I don't want to go to school tonight. Perhaps just one cup of coffee?
It's not uncommon to be visited by the addictions or other stress-release mechanisms, most of which are not healthy. But when I notice their arrival, I'm even more certain that it is time to relax deeply & touch base with my inner strengths or core-Self. True, I don't live in the devastated areas, but my mind & body are responding in a sympathetic dance to the images. I can feel my own paralysis, much of which is connected to memories of when I was in very difficult situations that I perceived as helpless & hopeless.
It's no accident that I was remembering an entire decade that I lost to a chronic illness. The images were so vivid AS IF it were happening right now. I was reliving the fear of dying along with the exhaustion of living, just as if I was clinging onto anything that appeared stable. This is how the mind works & this is why it is so very important to wake-up to what's going on & to set things in better order.
One might say that it's normal to react like this. After all, these are terrible tragedies. However, I know it is better to to handle my emotions in a way that releases negative stress chemicals, for there is nothing positive about that. Then, I'm free to move into a position of strength & compassion....set for action.
We all have areas of strength located in the library of our mind. These areas were constructed right from the beginning....birth. If you have ever been witness to an actual birth, I'm sure you would agree that the infant shows incredible power & tenacity as she/he moves through the birth canal. This definitely isn't for wimps! Each & every day the infant becomes more & more resilient, surmounting all sorts of challenges from day one.
It's a good idea to think about your own resilience bank account, paying attention to all of the times you survived your experiences. Of course, all of them weren't huge like my decade long illness or being left without water or food for days on end, but they are survivals never the less & you do have a resilience bank account. This is your equity when powerlessness comes knocking at the door.
As I visit this area in my mind, I physically tune into the accumulated resilience, allowing it to enter my being. In the practice of hypnosis it is very important to foster positive, chemical changes in the body. On occasion, we may foster negative chemical changes, but only for very special reasons & never for a long period of time. For example, I can visit an experience when I made myself sick from over-eating chocolate. I may decide to visit or sense the nausea, just to wake myself up to what will happen if I do the same thing again.
Yes, this is a form of resilience & I'm sure you all have similar memories that you could choose to visit. However, stick to your positive survival power & save the negatives for when you need a shot of motivation that only that negative can provide.
Once you feel your inner strength or resilience, take it back into the moment or future-pace it. It's like a postage stamp. You can take it & place it wherever you might need it. Truly sense it in those moments. This is what people do when faced with tremendous tragedy or difficulty. They go & round up their beliefs & resilience. The affirmations go like this. As you repeat these, truly feel them entering your mind, as well as your body.....I AM. I CAN. I WILL. I DID. I AM.
FROM THE AUTHOR
The holidays can often bring out emotions that are extremely difficult, especially because they are often connected to child experiences & lost dreams. As we learn to transmute or change the more toxic emotions or patterns, the mind opens, offering all sorts of gifts....selfGIFTS. Today I'm going to offer you a sample mp3 from my collection. It's called Affirmations for Enhancing Resilience. It will help you to plant programs to help manage depression & other emotional imbalances, as well as to open your store of creativity & prosperity. I hope you enjoy it. The full program is available on my websites.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
The Power of Quiet Assertiveness
"Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength that will always spring up if thou wilt always look there"... Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
"There is usually no need to yell or stamp your feet. Your personal power lies in quiet assertiveness...not only with others, but within yourself as well."...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related Emotions - emphatic, forceful, insistent, resounding
I must be developing some sort of blog-obsession. When I wake in the morning I find myself searching for my blog-subject of the day. While this is a bit annoying, I can satisfy my mind quite quickly with a quick decision. And then.....the day officially opens & I find myself changing that easily determined subject idea. I know you don't know me, but I can assure you that I'm not a flip-flopper. It's just that each day seems to have it's own the theme of the day that begs to be addressed & sometimes that need is big. It certainly was today.......& the day isn't over yet!
Usually themes really hang out. When they come to visit, they tend to stay. I'm sure you've noticed this in your own life. The theme may roll in gently OR it may arrive with a bang. This morning it was a bang. I had planned on blogging more on dreams for they are favorite subjects of mine & I've gotten fairly good at programming specific dreams, as well as remembering them in good detail. I just love writing about this part of my work, especially because I know how helpful it can be for healing & enhancing creativity. But that will have to wait for another day.
I opened the computer to begin working & decided to check my email. There it was........the theme. I opened three emails & found it smiling out at me. When you've been working in a field as long as I have, you do know when a theme has knocked at the door. This particular theme had to do with the verbal victimization of adult-children by parents or significant others & those adult-children cowering to it. For me, it is like rubbing salt in a wound.
I had to run some errands & found myself in the presence of adults with young children. There was the theme again.... only this time real children were being verbally victimized by their parents. It was like I was viewing the coming attractions to the adult-lives of the young children I was observing. How easy it is to harm a young mind & how long those programs can play out into adulthood causing all kinds of havoc. Adult-children still cowering, just like the young ones I was watching. I truly felt sick.
I went to the office & met up with a new patient. You guessed it.......the theme again. This particular patient came for weight management, but it became abundantly clear that her food bingeing was all about early verbal abuses that were never addressed & she still was accepting them, as if she didn't have a choice in the matter. While her mother, the original deliverer was deceased, she had a new deliverer, her husband. The messages were almost the same. She never learned along the way that while the doorbell may ring, one doesn't have to answer it. In addition, if there is a deliver, one doesn't have to accept the package ......unless one truly wants it.
In my experience we can all do with some assertiveness training work.
Being assertive does not mean being aggressive, although, I was just very aggressive & assertive on the phone a few minutes ago. Years ago I wouldn't have been able to do that & if I did, I'd probably be telling myself what I terrible person I am & no wonder no one liked me. Think about those mind programs! Not very healthy & certainly not very helpful.
So, this is what I help my office patients & my mp3/CD listeners to program in Interactive Self-Hypnosis...
1. We will work to enhance your ability to be assertive. Framing something as an ability says a lot to the subconscious mind. Becoming assertive is a skill that we get good at by practice. Remember, practice makes perfect....or almost.
2. We will work to enhance your ability to speak up for what you need, to speak up for what you want, to set boundaries, to learn to say now, to see yourself being in charge of the quality of your life in your mind's eye & knowing/believing that you deserve the very best.
3. We will work to enhance your inner programming to expect to receive the very best for you from others & also from yourself....& to give the very best to yourself in each moment.
4. It's important to know that defects in programming begin very early in your life & these defects have been closely tied to the development of your self-image & self-esteem. In other words, how you see yourself & feel/believe about yourself.
5. Early programming defects present false beliefs as truths, disallowing you from seeing yourself as you truly are....a human being with rights, with needs, with desires....a dignified human being harboring the rightful expectation of being treated with respect. Many people may have assisted with placing defective programs in your inner library & often this was not intentional, but actually followed their automatic behaviors that were out of balance in some way. While this isn't an excuse, knowing this can give us the power we need to change these very old programs.
In the practice of Interactive Self-Hypnosis we build new models for representing & caring for ourselves with respect & dignity. We expect this from ourselves & from others. If others miss the mark, we make it clear that this is not acceptable. We don't have to shout or get into our child-self to do this. Actually this is never a position of power. In Interactive Self-Hypnosis we are always in direct communication with the Higher Part or Mature Part of ourselves that takes charge when the going gets rough for the inner-child.
We were born alone & we will die alone. What we achieve & how we achieve it is up to us. We teach people how to treat us & it is never too late to get these lessons straight.
"I respect & honor myself. I teach others to do the same through my healthy beliefs, my healthy actions & by setting healthy boundaries." ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
FROM THE AUTHOR
This is a very special time of year....an emotional time....& one that invites self-review. Many of us abuse others & even ourSelves without even realizing it. Old patterns seem to rise up easily during the stress of the holidays. I'd like to offer you a sample mp3 from my collection. It's called Affirmations for Becoming Assertive. It will help you to plant programs to help manage stress, as well as to stand up tall. I hope you enjoy it. The full program is available on my websites.
"There is usually no need to yell or stamp your feet. Your personal power lies in quiet assertiveness...not only with others, but within yourself as well."...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Related Emotions - emphatic, forceful, insistent, resounding
I must be developing some sort of blog-obsession. When I wake in the morning I find myself searching for my blog-subject of the day. While this is a bit annoying, I can satisfy my mind quite quickly with a quick decision. And then.....the day officially opens & I find myself changing that easily determined subject idea. I know you don't know me, but I can assure you that I'm not a flip-flopper. It's just that each day seems to have it's own the theme of the day that begs to be addressed & sometimes that need is big. It certainly was today.......& the day isn't over yet!
Usually themes really hang out. When they come to visit, they tend to stay. I'm sure you've noticed this in your own life. The theme may roll in gently OR it may arrive with a bang. This morning it was a bang. I had planned on blogging more on dreams for they are favorite subjects of mine & I've gotten fairly good at programming specific dreams, as well as remembering them in good detail. I just love writing about this part of my work, especially because I know how helpful it can be for healing & enhancing creativity. But that will have to wait for another day.
I opened the computer to begin working & decided to check my email. There it was........the theme. I opened three emails & found it smiling out at me. When you've been working in a field as long as I have, you do know when a theme has knocked at the door. This particular theme had to do with the verbal victimization of adult-children by parents or significant others & those adult-children cowering to it. For me, it is like rubbing salt in a wound.
I had to run some errands & found myself in the presence of adults with young children. There was the theme again.... only this time real children were being verbally victimized by their parents. It was like I was viewing the coming attractions to the adult-lives of the young children I was observing. How easy it is to harm a young mind & how long those programs can play out into adulthood causing all kinds of havoc. Adult-children still cowering, just like the young ones I was watching. I truly felt sick.
I went to the office & met up with a new patient. You guessed it.......the theme again. This particular patient came for weight management, but it became abundantly clear that her food bingeing was all about early verbal abuses that were never addressed & she still was accepting them, as if she didn't have a choice in the matter. While her mother, the original deliverer was deceased, she had a new deliverer, her husband. The messages were almost the same. She never learned along the way that while the doorbell may ring, one doesn't have to answer it. In addition, if there is a deliver, one doesn't have to accept the package ......unless one truly wants it.
In my experience we can all do with some assertiveness training work.
Being assertive does not mean being aggressive, although, I was just very aggressive & assertive on the phone a few minutes ago. Years ago I wouldn't have been able to do that & if I did, I'd probably be telling myself what I terrible person I am & no wonder no one liked me. Think about those mind programs! Not very healthy & certainly not very helpful.
So, this is what I help my office patients & my mp3/CD listeners to program in Interactive Self-Hypnosis...
1. We will work to enhance your ability to be assertive. Framing something as an ability says a lot to the subconscious mind. Becoming assertive is a skill that we get good at by practice. Remember, practice makes perfect....or almost.
2. We will work to enhance your ability to speak up for what you need, to speak up for what you want, to set boundaries, to learn to say now, to see yourself being in charge of the quality of your life in your mind's eye & knowing/believing that you deserve the very best.
3. We will work to enhance your inner programming to expect to receive the very best for you from others & also from yourself....& to give the very best to yourself in each moment.
4. It's important to know that defects in programming begin very early in your life & these defects have been closely tied to the development of your self-image & self-esteem. In other words, how you see yourself & feel/believe about yourself.
5. Early programming defects present false beliefs as truths, disallowing you from seeing yourself as you truly are....a human being with rights, with needs, with desires....a dignified human being harboring the rightful expectation of being treated with respect. Many people may have assisted with placing defective programs in your inner library & often this was not intentional, but actually followed their automatic behaviors that were out of balance in some way. While this isn't an excuse, knowing this can give us the power we need to change these very old programs.
In the practice of Interactive Self-Hypnosis we build new models for representing & caring for ourselves with respect & dignity. We expect this from ourselves & from others. If others miss the mark, we make it clear that this is not acceptable. We don't have to shout or get into our child-self to do this. Actually this is never a position of power. In Interactive Self-Hypnosis we are always in direct communication with the Higher Part or Mature Part of ourselves that takes charge when the going gets rough for the inner-child.
We were born alone & we will die alone. What we achieve & how we achieve it is up to us. We teach people how to treat us & it is never too late to get these lessons straight.
"I respect & honor myself. I teach others to do the same through my healthy beliefs, my healthy actions & by setting healthy boundaries." ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
FROM THE AUTHOR
This is a very special time of year....an emotional time....& one that invites self-review. Many of us abuse others & even ourSelves without even realizing it. Old patterns seem to rise up easily during the stress of the holidays. I'd like to offer you a sample mp3 from my collection. It's called Affirmations for Becoming Assertive. It will help you to plant programs to help manage stress, as well as to stand up tall. I hope you enjoy it. The full program is available on my websites.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The Art of Self-Tweaking
"Nothing is static. Everything can be made better by enhancing focus & upgrading desire."... Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
It's almost that time of year when we begin to think about the New Year & what we might like to achieve. However, many of the things we want are already in process & in need of a "tweak or two."
Tweak Related Words - adjust pull off, pluck, pick off, fine-tune, pinch, nip, squeeze, tweet, twinge.
Everyone wants to progress.... that's a given, but because we have so many different areas to manage.....all containing a multitude of goals, both big & small, it's a wonder that we do as much as we do. For most areas of life & for most goals, we have a tendency to be lost in very powerful automatic pilot programs.
I was brought to this line of thinking today by a client of mine who is leaving for a trip abroad. When planning her session, I decided to help her install a subconscious mind tweaking program that would benefit the many areas we are working on together. It helps to know that when one leaves home, a large portion of automatic pilot programs get left behind as well.
Even something as mundane as brushing the teeth, takes on a new pattern. Take a moment to think about how many areas will change for my client.....you might be surprised. Those of us who work in the field of focus, flow, concentration & clarity know the value of changing.........even little things. So, when one goes abroad lots of little things will simply change. It's like a gift waiting to happen.
When old patterns are broken, even if just temporarily, creative-opportunity spaces appear. These spaces are very valuable assets & afford a perfect opportunity to revamp different areas of life that might benefit from some re-thinking or re-direction. I call this tweaking. The re-direction or re-editing can be accomplished in large or small areas.
Tweaking can be a conscious or subconscious mind activity. I personally like to explore both avenues. In the past, some of my best break-through ideas came through subconscious mind tweaking, although conscious planning also has tremendous benefits. While this is a big subject for this blog, I can certainly touch on some areas that may actually tweak your desire to learn more.
What areas are best to tweak?
I actually like to program my own subconscious mind to tweak in all major areas of my life, because I never know where the most powerful gifts are coming to come from. This is exactly what I did with my client. Break-through idea may appear small on the surface, but can have big ramifications. This happened to me when I was tweaking my food & beverage intake. I got the idea that I truly could stop drinking caffeinated coffee. While this may not sound like a big thing, trust me it was. I had been addicted to caffeine for over 30 years & so, there wasn't an area of my life that was not affected by the absence of this substance.
It is often difficult to tweak without slowing the brain waves due to mind-turbulance. I also call this run-away brain syndrome. Take a moment to tune into your own thought processes & take notice of their speed. Think of them as traffic & you might be shocked at how fast it is going. Think about catching one of those thoughts & you'll get the idea of how necessary it is to slow the brain waves.
Once the brain waves are slowed, not only can you catch the thought, but there are other benefits as well. Stress chemical production is diminished. It is then possible to access the door to the subconscious mind. This only takes about 1/200th of a second. Now you are ready to program the subconscious mind for a good tweaking session.
Here are some areas my client tweaked....
1. Weight Management - As we entered this area of her subconscious mind programs, we noticed the many different aspects of her self-discipline. Some appeared to be working quite well, others not so well. However, we asked the mind to tweak all areas, the reason being that everything can be made better. We just may not know this consciously. For imagery we utilized a laser light & focused it on food shopping, refrigerator, cupboards, exercise circuit training, walking & swimming programs & her emotional component. The process is as simple as "notice or call attention to, laser light, tweak." The subconscious mind will respond to this by sending suggestions or new action programs.
2. General Health- We separated her general health from her weight management program because we wanted her subconscious mind to highlight that important area. As we walked through her body departments, we simply "noticed, laser light & tweaked." The mind will simply produce improved self-care programs in the different areas. Perhaps some areas won't have any, but most will.
3. Relationship with Self - This is the most important relationship area & often the most ignored. My client needs lots more work in this area including building her self-image & self-esteem. As we located her different object-goals in this area, she "noticed, laser light & tweaked." These included caring for her personal needs, having fun, building interesting work, hobbies, self-thoughts, choosing more emotions that build, etc. Because this was done hypnotically, her subconscious mind will bring forth new ideas, along with the organized plans.
4. Financial - Like all of us, my client certainly needs some tweaking in the area of money management. When we are over-loaded with daily tasks, we often miss out on making corrections or building new opportunities. The subconscious mind is never too busy to work things out for us. All we need to do is ask, so we tweaked her budget, bank account, spending habits & investments. It will be interesting to see what gifts she receives in this department.
5. Home - This is a very easy area to tweak. My client & I visited all the rooms in her home, as well as her car & pool/garden, pointing the laser at all sorts of things. Her subconscious mind will send her a multitude of suggestions for making her life better in these areas. It's so common to stay on automatic pilot in relation to our home environment, for this is where we come to rest & recover from our work & social life. Whenever I tweak my home area, I find myself removing clutter & organizing areas that have been ignored for quite some time.
6. Relationships - My client has many relationships including her family & friends. It's not uncommon to take these for granted, so tweaking will usually improve their quality. My client is ready to think about some additional relationships & so we asked her subconscious mind to make a note of this & bring forth some suggestions. I won't be surprised if she begins to be more open to meeting new people.
6. Future - Tweaking the future is great fun & filled with possibilities of all kinds. This is a great opportunity to let her subconscious mind know what sorts of experiences she would like to have. We simply brought forth images & gave them a super-charged laser tweak. And, we left the following affirmation in this
area......THIS OR BETTER !
I welcome change in all areas of my life. I enjoy it. I'm ready for it. ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
It's almost that time of year when we begin to think about the New Year & what we might like to achieve. However, many of the things we want are already in process & in need of a "tweak or two."
Tweak Related Words - adjust pull off, pluck, pick off, fine-tune, pinch, nip, squeeze, tweet, twinge.
Everyone wants to progress.... that's a given, but because we have so many different areas to manage.....all containing a multitude of goals, both big & small, it's a wonder that we do as much as we do. For most areas of life & for most goals, we have a tendency to be lost in very powerful automatic pilot programs.
I was brought to this line of thinking today by a client of mine who is leaving for a trip abroad. When planning her session, I decided to help her install a subconscious mind tweaking program that would benefit the many areas we are working on together. It helps to know that when one leaves home, a large portion of automatic pilot programs get left behind as well.
Even something as mundane as brushing the teeth, takes on a new pattern. Take a moment to think about how many areas will change for my client.....you might be surprised. Those of us who work in the field of focus, flow, concentration & clarity know the value of changing.........even little things. So, when one goes abroad lots of little things will simply change. It's like a gift waiting to happen.
When old patterns are broken, even if just temporarily, creative-opportunity spaces appear. These spaces are very valuable assets & afford a perfect opportunity to revamp different areas of life that might benefit from some re-thinking or re-direction. I call this tweaking. The re-direction or re-editing can be accomplished in large or small areas.
Tweaking can be a conscious or subconscious mind activity. I personally like to explore both avenues. In the past, some of my best break-through ideas came through subconscious mind tweaking, although conscious planning also has tremendous benefits. While this is a big subject for this blog, I can certainly touch on some areas that may actually tweak your desire to learn more.
What areas are best to tweak?
I actually like to program my own subconscious mind to tweak in all major areas of my life, because I never know where the most powerful gifts are coming to come from. This is exactly what I did with my client. Break-through idea may appear small on the surface, but can have big ramifications. This happened to me when I was tweaking my food & beverage intake. I got the idea that I truly could stop drinking caffeinated coffee. While this may not sound like a big thing, trust me it was. I had been addicted to caffeine for over 30 years & so, there wasn't an area of my life that was not affected by the absence of this substance.
It is often difficult to tweak without slowing the brain waves due to mind-turbulance. I also call this run-away brain syndrome. Take a moment to tune into your own thought processes & take notice of their speed. Think of them as traffic & you might be shocked at how fast it is going. Think about catching one of those thoughts & you'll get the idea of how necessary it is to slow the brain waves.
Once the brain waves are slowed, not only can you catch the thought, but there are other benefits as well. Stress chemical production is diminished. It is then possible to access the door to the subconscious mind. This only takes about 1/200th of a second. Now you are ready to program the subconscious mind for a good tweaking session.
Here are some areas my client tweaked....
1. Weight Management - As we entered this area of her subconscious mind programs, we noticed the many different aspects of her self-discipline. Some appeared to be working quite well, others not so well. However, we asked the mind to tweak all areas, the reason being that everything can be made better. We just may not know this consciously. For imagery we utilized a laser light & focused it on food shopping, refrigerator, cupboards, exercise circuit training, walking & swimming programs & her emotional component. The process is as simple as "notice or call attention to, laser light, tweak." The subconscious mind will respond to this by sending suggestions or new action programs.
2. General Health- We separated her general health from her weight management program because we wanted her subconscious mind to highlight that important area. As we walked through her body departments, we simply "noticed, laser light & tweaked." The mind will simply produce improved self-care programs in the different areas. Perhaps some areas won't have any, but most will.
3. Relationship with Self - This is the most important relationship area & often the most ignored. My client needs lots more work in this area including building her self-image & self-esteem. As we located her different object-goals in this area, she "noticed, laser light & tweaked." These included caring for her personal needs, having fun, building interesting work, hobbies, self-thoughts, choosing more emotions that build, etc. Because this was done hypnotically, her subconscious mind will bring forth new ideas, along with the organized plans.
4. Financial - Like all of us, my client certainly needs some tweaking in the area of money management. When we are over-loaded with daily tasks, we often miss out on making corrections or building new opportunities. The subconscious mind is never too busy to work things out for us. All we need to do is ask, so we tweaked her budget, bank account, spending habits & investments. It will be interesting to see what gifts she receives in this department.
5. Home - This is a very easy area to tweak. My client & I visited all the rooms in her home, as well as her car & pool/garden, pointing the laser at all sorts of things. Her subconscious mind will send her a multitude of suggestions for making her life better in these areas. It's so common to stay on automatic pilot in relation to our home environment, for this is where we come to rest & recover from our work & social life. Whenever I tweak my home area, I find myself removing clutter & organizing areas that have been ignored for quite some time.
6. Relationships - My client has many relationships including her family & friends. It's not uncommon to take these for granted, so tweaking will usually improve their quality. My client is ready to think about some additional relationships & so we asked her subconscious mind to make a note of this & bring forth some suggestions. I won't be surprised if she begins to be more open to meeting new people.
6. Future - Tweaking the future is great fun & filled with possibilities of all kinds. This is a great opportunity to let her subconscious mind know what sorts of experiences she would like to have. We simply brought forth images & gave them a super-charged laser tweak. And, we left the following affirmation in this
area......THIS OR BETTER !
I welcome change in all areas of my life. I enjoy it. I'm ready for it. ...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Lost & Found
Our eyes are not responsible when the mind does the seeing...Publius Syrus
Each of us has our own optical collection. How you us it is up to you....Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, CHt
We see things through the lenses we have collected over the years. Some were given to us by others when we were very young. As we became older we produced additional lenses from our experiences, but these often contained particles or frames from those earlier lenses.
Each day we continue to etch lenses. If we tend to be a follower, those lenses seem to appear automatically in our collection, often without even checking them out. We begin to think like those in our circle, even if this way of being is opposite to our authenic self.
This type of lense conflict often causes great stress in the mind & body, as we are pulled by the opposing forces. This is easily seen in teens & young adults who want to belong to their peer group, no matter what the cost, but still want to be close to family. You can also spot this happening when someone moves to a new job or even to a new neighborhood. It's like they are two completely different people. Pay attention to this tendency in your Self. While we all have it, what's important is the degree. Yes, we want to fit it, but no, we don't want to lose our authentic Self.
I remember looking in the mirror one day & not knowing who was looking back at me. After a moment I realized that I was looking at myself. That moment still stings me. I came to know that I truly had lost touch with me. Somewhere along the line I had grown old & so serious.
A rather peculiar thought entered my mind. When was the last time I played hop-scotch? What ever happened to my pogo-stick? Where were my skates? I don't remember making a conscious choice to rid my life of these things. When was the last time I sang out loud, just for my own enjoyment, without even thinking what other's would think? Where did that part of me go?
So, do we ever know when we are doing something for the last time? Do we take the time to honor these important aspects of our lives? Do we even consider their importance?
These thoughts began some change reaction thinking on my part, some of it a bit un-nerving. The end result was that I realized the level to which I had ignored or lost my authentic Self. Once again, how can someone not recognize their reflection in a mirror?
In my private practice I meet up with lost people every day. As my patients are telling me the complications of their situations, I can actually see the young child who became disengaged, just as I had become. When did the child despair & turn to alcohol? Why did the child stop eating healthy foods that allowed him to run so fast & jump so high? Why wasn't that important anymore? When & why did life get so heavy that the child had to run for cover? Where is the child now & what has to happen to bring the child out of hiding & to integrate with his authentic self?
Working with interactive heightened awareness & interactive self-hypnosis gives us many frames to do just this. As the body & mind relax deeply, it is easier to enter the images of the past & to reclaim the authentic child. In an earlier blog entry we did just this. But taking possession of the child, is just the beginning.
Next we must learn to love & care for our young authentic self at the deepest & most subtle levels. Besides loving & honoring, we must provide the practical things of life, including nutrition, deep relaxation, care of emotions, as well as delivering healthy, detailed images to work towards. We know these as goals. Each goal, big or small, is seen as a gift to be studied & cultivated.
In interactive imagery we can clean up the past. In a previous exercise we removed layers that had been placed by others. Now, as we stay in heightened awareness, we can easily see & sense further details, perhaps habits & behaviors that are like dirt under the fingernails. Not for our authentic self !! The more we become aware, the more power we have & as we release these seemingly small, but important specks of dirt, we are free to look at the detailed goals that we've designed as gifts for ourselves.
I keep my fingernails clean. My goals are gifts that open their details before me.... Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
FROM THE AUTHOR
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my blog readers. I'd like to share a very special program with you on this special day..... it's one that will put you in touch with how your beliefs were formed & how you can choose what to keep, as well as which ones to let go.... It's called Being Authentic. The full program is available on my website. I know that many of you are already working with this program, but perhaps haven't listened in awhile. As we get ready for a New Year, this is a great time to choose the paths to follow in 2008.
Each of us has our own optical collection. How you us it is up to you....Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, CHt
We see things through the lenses we have collected over the years. Some were given to us by others when we were very young. As we became older we produced additional lenses from our experiences, but these often contained particles or frames from those earlier lenses.
Each day we continue to etch lenses. If we tend to be a follower, those lenses seem to appear automatically in our collection, often without even checking them out. We begin to think like those in our circle, even if this way of being is opposite to our authenic self.
This type of lense conflict often causes great stress in the mind & body, as we are pulled by the opposing forces. This is easily seen in teens & young adults who want to belong to their peer group, no matter what the cost, but still want to be close to family. You can also spot this happening when someone moves to a new job or even to a new neighborhood. It's like they are two completely different people. Pay attention to this tendency in your Self. While we all have it, what's important is the degree. Yes, we want to fit it, but no, we don't want to lose our authentic Self.
I remember looking in the mirror one day & not knowing who was looking back at me. After a moment I realized that I was looking at myself. That moment still stings me. I came to know that I truly had lost touch with me. Somewhere along the line I had grown old & so serious.
A rather peculiar thought entered my mind. When was the last time I played hop-scotch? What ever happened to my pogo-stick? Where were my skates? I don't remember making a conscious choice to rid my life of these things. When was the last time I sang out loud, just for my own enjoyment, without even thinking what other's would think? Where did that part of me go?
So, do we ever know when we are doing something for the last time? Do we take the time to honor these important aspects of our lives? Do we even consider their importance?
These thoughts began some change reaction thinking on my part, some of it a bit un-nerving. The end result was that I realized the level to which I had ignored or lost my authentic Self. Once again, how can someone not recognize their reflection in a mirror?
In my private practice I meet up with lost people every day. As my patients are telling me the complications of their situations, I can actually see the young child who became disengaged, just as I had become. When did the child despair & turn to alcohol? Why did the child stop eating healthy foods that allowed him to run so fast & jump so high? Why wasn't that important anymore? When & why did life get so heavy that the child had to run for cover? Where is the child now & what has to happen to bring the child out of hiding & to integrate with his authentic self?
Working with interactive heightened awareness & interactive self-hypnosis gives us many frames to do just this. As the body & mind relax deeply, it is easier to enter the images of the past & to reclaim the authentic child. In an earlier blog entry we did just this. But taking possession of the child, is just the beginning.
Next we must learn to love & care for our young authentic self at the deepest & most subtle levels. Besides loving & honoring, we must provide the practical things of life, including nutrition, deep relaxation, care of emotions, as well as delivering healthy, detailed images to work towards. We know these as goals. Each goal, big or small, is seen as a gift to be studied & cultivated.
In interactive imagery we can clean up the past. In a previous exercise we removed layers that had been placed by others. Now, as we stay in heightened awareness, we can easily see & sense further details, perhaps habits & behaviors that are like dirt under the fingernails. Not for our authentic self !! The more we become aware, the more power we have & as we release these seemingly small, but important specks of dirt, we are free to look at the detailed goals that we've designed as gifts for ourselves.
I keep my fingernails clean. My goals are gifts that open their details before me.... Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
FROM THE AUTHOR
Happy Thanksgiving to all of my blog readers. I'd like to share a very special program with you on this special day..... it's one that will put you in touch with how your beliefs were formed & how you can choose what to keep, as well as which ones to let go.... It's called Being Authentic. The full program is available on my website. I know that many of you are already working with this program, but perhaps haven't listened in awhile. As we get ready for a New Year, this is a great time to choose the paths to follow in 2008.
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