The Balanced Life, Huntsville Alabama

Hypnosis is probably the number one most important thing I have ever learned either professionally or personally. I understand how that sounds and I know that it is a pretty bold statement to make, but here’s what I mean.

As a hypnotist, I learned that people are frequently hypnotized by the world around them. We are hypnotized by the TV or Netflix. We are hypnotized by video games or by scrolling through our social media apps on our phones. We are hypnotized when we get sucked into a movie that we're watching or when we are 'zoned out' and daydreaming. We are hypnotized when we are engrossed in a book or when our thoughts are wandering during a telephone call, conversation, or meeting.

We are hypnotized by the calming music and the meandering highways of humans in the grocery store. We are hypnotized when we drive to familiar places and forget exactly what happened or how we got there. We are also hypnotized on long, highway drives and are captivated by the lines on the road and the billboards that go whizzing past. (Tidbit o’ Trivia: The Department of Transportation calls this velocitization, or ‘highway hypnosis’.)  We are even hypnotized daily as we drift in and out of sleep.

The hypnotic state is often one of relaxed, focused attention that we shift in and out of multiple times every day. By doing this, our brains naturally narrow our focus of attention so that can learn more easily and retain information more readily.

We are designed to do this when we're learning a new skill or studying for example, however the brain doesn't necessarily differentiate between important and non-relevant information and that's when we find ourselves "learning" that we "need" pizza after watching a commercial for the cheesy deliciousness on TV while waiting for the return of our favorite show or being influenced by product placement in a movie or taking the suggestion to linger longer in the supermarket and buy way more groceries than what we had on our shopping list!

The hypnotic state occurs when the focus of our attention narrows. Hypnosis, on the other hand, occurs when you are in a state of trance and are given a suggestion (i.e. the pizza or product placement or suggestion to linger longer and buy more) that you more readily accept and take in.

Suggestions don’t just come from advertisers and media moguls, either. Suggestions can come from letters and signs and texts and voicemail and books. Suggestions can come from people: friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, politicians, teachers, and doctors. Even our own minds.

More readily taking in suggestions without really questioning them is a hallmark of hypnosis because the information is designed to bypass the conscious/analytical mind and go directly into your subconscious/automatic mind (and why people pay for the desired suggestions to be implanted).

Children are excellent examples of this working in the way that nature intended. From birth to age seven or eight, children are little sponges whose main job is to soak up all the information about the world around them and so their little brains are constantly in a hypnotic state.

A typical adult’s brain will cycle between Beta waves (fully conscious, awake and alert) and Alpha waves (hypnotic state) before moving down into Theta (light sleep) and Delta (deep sleep) waves but a child’s brain waves can primarily be found in Alpha while they’re awake until they’re about eight years old and then their ego/consciousness develops and they begin to question what they’re hearing, learning, and reading and comparing it to what they’ve already learned.

For example, you could tell a few children that they need to pack so that tomorrow you can take a trip to the moon and a six-year-old will likely clap and excitedly start packing … whereas a nine-year-old would likely start rationalizing why you wouldn’t be able to do that. For the older child, their conscious mind has begun to develop and help them question the information that they’re taking in rather than just soaking it up indiscriminately.

Personally, I have found learning about hypnosis invaluable as a way to help me manage my own levels of trance. Deciding when to go into trance so that I can learn or create more easily. Deciding when to stay awake and alert and questioning so as to avoid unwanted and often unsolicited suggestions. Recognizing the importance of what I say (and how I say it) to children, knowing that it will delve deep into their little subconscious minds as they accept it as fact.

Professionally, learning hypnosis has allowed me to help people become happier and healthier and more self-empowered faster as hypnosis is simply an accelerant for human change.

Lastly, I have learned to be mindful of my own thinking as I know that unquestioned and repetitive thoughts can be the most insidious kinds of suggestions. Even though, everyone knows that thoughts… aren’t facts.

Challenge your thoughts today. Ask yourself: Is this thought a fact? Do I know for sure? IS IT TRUE? (Hint: If it’s a thought about the future, it’s not true… regardless of what it is.). Contact us today at info@thebalancedlifellc.com or 256-258-7777 if you are struggling with your thoughts!