“I’ve tried hypnosis and it didn’t work. I spent thousands of dollars to (fill in the blank) and nothing happened. I think it is a scam or people doing it are just not qualified.”

 Why is this heart breaking?

I know that your mind is one of the most powerful tools on Earth. There is no doubt here. I’ve witnessed profound changes in people when they are able to harness the power of the mind. For some it does take more effort than for others. We are each unique.

Here’s what I know. Hypnosis, while magical, is not magic. You have to have some skin in the game and that skin comes in the form of a true desire to change. True desire to change helps create the magic. Many times people come to my office and they are surprised when I challenge them on their willingness to change during the pre-talk. (The pre-talk is the talk you and I have where I assess your readiness for hypnosis and simultaneously get you ready to accept trance.) 

 As a hypnotist my IGS (Intuitive Guidance System) is pretty accurate. It’s like when I was a classroom teacher, I developed eyes in the back of my head; my IGS is honed with repeated hourly use. Like the GPS on your car it seldom steers me wrong. A good hypnotist uses their IGS to determine your willingness and readiness for change. They won’t accept you as a client if these two factors aren’t present.

Sometimes your heart is ready for change, but there’s a part of you that is hesitant. My IGS will discover this quickly in our work together. Maybe you are receiving a secondary gain that needs to be addressed before you can release the problem…maybe there is a spiritual reason for your problem, or maybe the problem isn’t yours…(addressed in consideration #4 below.)

The subconscious mind is your servant. A well-qualified hypnotist will be able to work with any rogue  parts of you to bring them on board so you can get the results you desire. They will work to uncover the secondary gain you receive from having your problem and seek ways for you to get that need met through healthy means. Their training gives them a plethora of tools to get to the root of the matter.  

Let’s talk about qualified. I always suggest to people that they find a hypnotist registered with the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH). Unfortunately, there are a lot of hobbyists out there who have hypnosis as their “weekend work”. A weekend course on hypnosis or smoking cessation does not make a person a qualified practitioner. NGH requires on-going education to remain a member in good standing. There’s a difference between someone who has 16 hours of training and someone who received 400+ hours of training.

You can expect to pay a little more for their expertise. Recently I received a phone call from someone who was price shopping. I understand price sensitivity in this economy. I’ve adjusted my wages since many of my clients are State workers who have been furloughed. Imagine my surprise when this young woman told me that a hypnotist in downtown Sacramento told her it would only cost her $60  and one session to address her anxiety issue.

I spent a few moments on the telephone with the young lady and by the way in which she answered my questions my IGS told me it was not a simple single-session issue. Ethically, I couldn’t tell her I was going to just give her one session. If she received just one session she might end up in the “I tried hypnosis and it didn’t work.” category.

Receiving one session in this instance would be like taking your car to get an oil change and having the mechanic remove the old oil and send you on your way without putting new oil in the engine.  I took the next few moments to give the caller some key questions she should be asking before she asksed about price. She thanked me. They were things she never thought about before. Working with your mind is priceless. Differing prices between hypnotists  may be an indicator of the many hours a professional has  invested in their training and the level of confidence they place in their work.

If you have spent thousands of dollars and nothing happened you owe it to yourself and your hypnotist to discover why. I have an agreement with a fellow hypnotist that if I discover hypnosis didn’t work he will provide the client with a session and together we will consult for the outcome. I do the same for him. Now there is a difference between hypnosis not working and the client not working the hypnosis. Usually we find the cause is in the latter. A reputable professional hypnotist will gladly explore why hypnosis may not have worked with you.

If a reputable qualified hypnotist has done all they can to assist you and you still have the problem here are two other considerations: 1) Maybe your soul wants you to have the problem because there is soul growth in having to face this challenge. Again, this can be ascertained through a hypnosis session – and it requires advanced training for the hypnotist.  2) Maybe the problem does not belong to you, but to energy that is attached to you. I’ll save the details on this one for another blog post, but again, a well-qualified hypnotist will have the advanced training to address this issue.

All this being said, sometimes even the best in the profession can’t help you create the change you seek. Just like lawyers don’t win every case, and doctors can’t cure every patient, hypnotists can’t change every mind.

Join us for Hypnosis World Summit starting May 4 2010 www.bit.ly/diQD47 Learn how to use your mind for change for free!

Hypnosis is a tool that promotes healing of mind, body, and spirit. I am privileged to witness this day in and day out. However, the myths, misunderstanding, and just the general lack of knowledge about the power of the subconscious mind keeps many people from experiencing the benefits of hypnosis.

Now, Tom Nicoli, founder and curator of World Hypnotism Day has spear-headed a new idea that will allow more people to learn about the power of the mind and experience the power of hypnosis without having to leave the comfort of their home.

The Hypnosis World Summit  is a 10-day free international virtual conference (audio online event) beginning May 4, 2010 and features some of the world’s leading inspirational experts and teachers of self-hypnosis and power of the mind.   http://www.hypnosisworldsummit.com/cmd.php?af=1168112

Their purpose is to help thousands of people around the world understand how to connect, through thepower of self- hypnosis, with the wealth, health and inspired life they deserve. Over 20 of these top inspirational leaders have joined forces to awaken thousands to their transformational systems and presentations.

 The Hypnosis World Summit is an online audio event that you can attend for free while it is live. For ten days,the attendees are introduced to a self- hypnosis presentation and techniques dealing with specific goals including:

• How to get relief from physical pain and discomfort
• How to open the door to attract abundance into your life
• How to get relief from physical pain and discomfort
• How to open the door to attract abundance into your life 
• How to end unhealthy eating patterns 
• How color can influence your life and how to use it to your advantage  
• How to improve study skills and academic results 
• Ways to manage your life more easily and relieve tension and stress

And much more…

I am truly amazed at the caliber of speakers and the scope of their topics. I invite you to join us in learning how to use the power of the mind to open up a whole new way of life. Follow this link to see what hypnosis can offer you.

http://www.hypnosisworldsummit.com/cmd.php?af=1168112

You might be surprised at how hypnosis can change you mind and your life.

I’m fascinated that every person who walks through my door, whether it be for assistance to stop smoking, reduce pain, release weight, gain confidence in sales, heal through the pain of divorce, or to purposely discover “Why am I here?” seek the same thing.

More life. It is the nature of all life to seek wholeness and growth and to express itself fully. Even the small seed that lands in the crack of the sidewalk will do its best to grow regardless of conditions. Not only will it do its best to grow but it drops seeds, blueprints for more life.

Contained within the blueprint for life is the unique purpose that we are here to express. (Yes, you can access the blueprint with hypnosis.) Most people somewhere between the ages of 40 and 50 seek alignment with this purpose, either consciously or unconsciously. Conscious alignment comes in many forms: seeking better health, more satisfying relationships; job or career changes; and/or responding to a strong desire to live or leave a legacy that enhances life for others.

When the soul is expressing itself fully there are a myriad of markers, synchronicities that affirm our path. Doors of opportunity seem to always open. You feel passionate, full of energy. Things happen easily and the right people and resources show up just as you need them. Life flows; it feels rich, full and satisfying. People call this the “Midas” touch.

When expression is stalled life is fraught with obstacles. This is part of the unconscious alignment process. Achievements seem dull and unfulfilling. Discomfort and uneasiness predominate over opportunity. It is difficult to find the energy, the will and desire to complete things. If you continue to persevere the obstacles and difficulties become more pronounced as your soul orchestrates experience after experience to let you know you have taken a wrong turn. This wrong turn can be either in the ways you are behaving or thinking. In most cases the two are intertwined. An example of this is a person going through the motions of life in a dead-end, unfulfilling job or relationship, but choosing to stay.

Left unchecked this dis-ease begins to manifest in the body as physical symptoms which prompts most people to people seek healing. However, there have been many opportunities prior to the appearance of physical disease for a healing to take place. Our internal guidance system, comprised of our feelings and emotions, is the first alert mechanism that the soul and the current life course are out of alignment. The more frequently we experience emotions of love, joy, peace, the more in alignment we are with our soul course.

Lissa Boles, Soul Mapper, www.thesoulmap.com offers this definition of healing “the restoration to wholeness, power, creative capacity, right place and right understanding of our place in the world.”

“Healing,” according to Lissa, “is about taking that which has become broken or disjointed and helping it to line up congruently again.”

The easiest way to tell if things are out of joint is to take the eight key areas of life expression: career, recreation, relationships, finances, health, spiritual expression, health, community contribution, and rate them on a scale of one to ten according to your satisfaction level. Let one be a low expression of life and ten be life is as good as life gets for that area. Any area scoring less than a ten is disjointed and needs to be reset so it can be on course again. Consider seeking assistance and support for areas severely misaligned.

I even found Neil Diamond on 8-track. That should be worth something. 

I’ve been banned from further cleaning in the garage. Too many things found their way to Goodwill.  I’ve decided to control what I can control and this week I started cleaning on the inside starting with a little detoxification using a far infared sauna and a bit of juicing.

It’s been interesting drinking green pond water every morning. Proponents of juicing tell me when the benefits start appearing I won’t even think twice about the taste or the color. That time can’t come too soon.

Here are five things to keep in mind when doing your spring clearing:

1) Try a holistic approach.

Think broadly when you think about fresh starts. When we think of spring cleaning we think of “shaking the house clean” – clearing closets, drawers, files, dusting those places even your mother-in-law will never see. But don’t stop there. What can you do to address your physical, emotional and spiritual rejuvenation? Perhaps its time for some deep tissue body work or time to carve out extended periods for meditation or self-hypnosis. Purify your body with a steam, hot sauna or a far infared suana. Cleanse your digestive system with a nutritional cleanse or perhaps some colon hydrotherapy, and then revitalize it with a solid nutritional program.

Most of us find it so difficult to treat ourselves to exquisite self-care, and yet this is precisely the gift that infuses us with the energy we need to handle a demanding life, regardless of whether the demands come from the business or personal world or both.

2) Secure some support.

If going through 20 years of junk seems a little daunting, then hire a professional organizer. Can’t afford them for the whole house? Pick the most challenging space and begin there. You can invite a friend or two to help you with the rest of the house, if needed, teaching them what you learned in the first go-round with the professional organizer. When you teach what you learn, you deepen your learning. Just like the old-fashioned barn raisings, when you’re done with one house, rotate the workers to the next house!

Bring a group of friends together and start your cleanse together. You don’t have to travel to a world class spa to undergo a cleanse. Many local day spas offer great packages and access to saunas, massage, and yoga classes to get the group going. Depending upon the level of toxicity in your body, you may consider many cleansing options. It may be as simple as the group hiring a good nutritionalist to consult on a cleansing program, or arranging times at local spa or wellness facilities to fit everyone’s schedule. There is nothing that says spring cleaning is a solo effort.

3) Nourish Your Soul.

Now that you have sorted through the clutter and you’re revitalizing your system turn your attention inward. Feeding your spirit is a very individual experience. We live in two worlds: the world of things and the world of thoughts. The thoughts we sow reap the things we experience. Take time to explore your thoughts. They are busy creating whether you intend for them to or not. Are there some that need weeding?

What does your soul want? Is it a walk in nature? Revisiting the practice of daily journal writing? An afternoon at the park? Tea with good friends? A less toxic body in which to reside?

Create the time to connect with yourself, to plan, to imagine, to dream. Whatever activities you choose to engage in spend some time seeding them with expectancy to clear the way for new opportunities that can be planted now and harvested later.

4) Weed Out Your Tolerations.

In coach training there’s a focus on how to get clients to eliminate things that  zap energy. Yes, the clutter on the dinning room table may be one thing you can clearly see. You have a visual reminder every time you walk through the door. Or how about the lock that needs adjusting so it takes the key more effectively? The leaves in the gutter from last fall? Emails from people whose ezines and announcements you no longer read?

And how about the more subtle items that slowly drain the energy reserves and resources? I’m talking about the co-worker who keeps taking the pens off your desk. The promise to serve on the neighborhood beautification committee that now is taking more time than you want to give. The lawn service not being as expected.

Notice, none of these things by themselves seem to be a big deal. Combined, they are leeches of time and energy, slowly draining you of effectiveness and happiness. After you’ve made your list tackle the “Opossums” first. Opossums are tolerations you can address and it will actually wipe out other tasks that are hanging in the process. For instance, it may be a better investment to hire a college student as a personal assistant for a few dollars a week than to take your time and energy to go to the dry cleaners, the post office, walk the dog, shuttle kids and stop for little items at the grocery store.

5) Allow for the new to seek expression.

Growth is the way of nature. It is impossible to not grow. Ever lifted a pot that has been sitting in the garden and found that even there in the dark, sprouts of plants struggled to reach the light? I often wonder if it is painful for them to try so hard to grow? (There’s an example of those “unusual thoughts” again!) I marvel at their drive to strive to do what they are here to do: grow and be and play the part of its Purpose in the garden. Despite where the seed is sown it still seeks to express its destiny. It can do no less.

Spring cleaning is about removing those obstacles that are hindering your ability to express fully who you are here to be. It’s all related energetically. Take time now to create the ideal conditions that will allow you to blossom into the amazing talents that you are here to express.

 Often, I think about “unusual things.”I don’t think they are unusual. I take it for granted that everyone thinks like me, but my husband assures me they don’t.  I wonder about the nature of things. For instance, last week as I was clearing kitchen cupboards I wondered where the ritual of spring cleaning began. I mean really began. Did our cave dwelling ancestors use the spring time to dust out the caves? Change the straw bedding?  

Regardless of where and how it started, spring is a traditional time to purge, clear and reorganize your life. Science tells us nature abhors a vacuum. Therefore vacant space leaves an opening for something else to take its place. Spring is the time of new beginnings, and a perfect time to make room new opportunities to come into your life. 

But are you ready for them?

And as Jung suggests in the above quote, you can tell a lot about the condition of your inner world by examining your outer world. What does the condition of your garage, your office, your drawers, your closets reveal to you about the condition of your mind?  

Just like we need to release old clothes that no longer fit we need to release outdated ideas, beliefs, and ways of being that no serve us. Comfortable as they may be, some thoughts are serving us about as effectively as those bell bottom jeans hanging in the back end of the closet. Scarier is the idea that we just may have been holding on to the thoughts longer than the jeans!

I have to admit, as a solopreneur enrolled in one of Suzanne’s year-long courses, and as an early coachee of Jeffrey’s mentor, Tim Kelley, curator of Know Your Purpose, I was a little hesitant in spending precious resources for what could be another workshop promising the big shift but sorrowfully under delivering. Was this cross-niche hybridization a way for two coaches to simply repurpose program material that was close to the dreaded product expiration entrepreneurs face as followers jump on the brand wagon of a competitor? Or was it as promised an intersection of business and spirit?

The line between business and spirit thinned as soon as I crossed through the doors of the conference room and immediately Suzanne and Jeffrey began a sweet, subtle orchestration of purpose and the pedagogy of building an attention getting-brand and ultimately a high performing purpose-driven business. In what only can be recognized as a series of divinely orchestrated events, Spirit brought these two together to deliver to heart-centered entrepreneurs the foundation for growing a highly successful service-based business, and inspiration continued to infuse the two as they co-created the event.

Reminiscent of the leadership style of the Coaches Training Institute, the duo ushered in level four learning intentionally, artfully and palpably. Practicing that down-to-earth, authentic and transparent “tell it like it is” style Suzanne is best-known for, participants were not hyped with false promises that they would walk away with their purpose brand and platform, nor underhandedly slipped a hard up-sell into a big-ticket program to get the “rest of the story”.

Those who were called in their heart and felt they are here to play a bigger transformational role in ushering in the Third Great Awakening by developing a spirit infused business in the New Economy were  invited to explore working further with this divinely-paired duo in a manner that would make Lisa Sasevich, Queen of the Invisible Close, proud and crumble the pedestals of those still standing in the hard up-sell camp.

Those who chose to forgo the offer left brimming with possibility in the after-glow of a series of well-crafted exercises and coaching hot seats that skillfully blend and build the leader’s respective niches together, and gave the participant more than enough content to apply to the next unfolding of who they are here to BE  and the blessing they are here to provide the world.

Without giving away the finale for “The Perfect Platform Revival” when you attend the next offering, bring your Sunday’s best for the final day, when in true revival spirit, Jeffrey and Suzanne combine all their talents to create a magical experience that left me wondering if I even needed to board an airplane to fly home.

The spirit of revival has previously profoundly altered America’s values in areas such as temperance, prison reform, and abolitionism. Jeffrey Van Dyk and Suzanne Falter-Barns prove in this joint venture launch that they are the transformational pioneers birthing us into this Awakening where future studies of world transformation will show that the life and fabric of purpose-driven American entrepreneurism became the model of the New Economy.

But before I share it with you, let me preface this by saying I’m living in a bit of a fog lately. I believe the clinical term for it is “stress”. Its tax season. We’re in the middle of moving to a new city, and I’m traveling quite a bit for business. Some days I don’t know if I’m coming or going.

Those observing me may think I am losing my mind. In fact my brain did this a little trance flash the other day as I was driving down the highway. You know what I am talking about. You’re driving, listening to the radio, deep in thought and suddenly you look at where you are on the highway and simultaneously you can’t remember quite how you got there, or even if you passed your exit. All thoughts collide into one and seriously, if I didn’t know about highway hypnosis I could have sworn I was about to lose my mind.

When I was about six or seven years old I frequently worried about losing my mind. The onset of this fear fell on the heels of witnessing my beloved Granny one day going through the house obviously looking for something and mumbling that she was losing her mind. Her brows furrowed and her lips pursed, she looked very distraught. Losing one’s mind, I concluded, must be extremely serious.

Soon after she got in the car and drove off ,presumably, to the last place she had been to see if she could find the missing grey matter. Or that is how my six year old mind processed what I was witnessing.

I began to ponder her dilemma. Your mind must be very important if Granny had to leave to find it. There had to be some urgency to recover it. If it was gone from your head too long you wouldn’t be able to find it, because there would be no way to think about where you might of lost it. In a bit of comical cosmic orchestration  it seemed a long time before I saw Granny again, and I was really worried. I worked my brain into a tizzy over these sordid thoughts.

The study of the brain, the mind/body connection has me revisiting the question of what happens when you lose your mind.

Do the new studies in neuroplasticity imply that if you were to lose your mind you could create a new one?

As I said. Let’s file this under “odd things to think about”.

I recognize its presence in my garden at this exact moment to be a “wink from the Universe.” I’m pondering passion and this cat shows up in my garden as a teacher! Let me share the insights.

Play with passion. Passion helps us to push through tasks that we might otherwise find mundane or intimidating – like waiting for the perfect moment to pounce on a LARGE black crow.

Let passion be your guide. Energy takes over inside when you allow passion to guide you. You step into a flow and begin to live with intentionality where you are connected with a source of universal source energy which naturally opens you to the highest and best outcome in any situation. Quantum physics has shown that the field of intentionality is part of the unified field of consciousness, a place of unlimited possibilities.

As I watch the cat, it is purely driven by a passionate intentionality. Its focus is to express its Divine essence as cat and catch a bird. In doing so it draws upon innate assets. There is no question of “how” in this cat’s expression, only focused concentration that leads to inspired action. Often, in expressing our passion, many people get bogged down in the “how’s”. How will I find the money? How will I pay the bills? How will I find the time, the resources, the skill the….? People get so mired in the “how’s”, that they extinguish the light of passion.

Trust the Universe to deliver your resources and welcome the unexpected. Attracted by the squawking of the crow, a few scrub jays, finches and pigeons have flown into the area and are lighting on the up most branches of the tree.

Passion is naturally attractive. Not only is it attractive to others because of the energy a passionate person gives off while in pursuit of their goal, but passion is magnetic. More resources and opportunities appear when you play with passion. When passion is present we all want to step in for a piece of the action.

Take the big risk. Now with the tree full of other birds, the cat takes the big leap from the ground to the trunk, to the next branch, and the next and before I know it, I’m outside to see exactly how high this little thing is going to go. Fueled by desire, eyes on the prize, it is going to the top. As the birds at the top see that there is nothing standing in the way of the cat’s determination, they take flight.

As I watch the cat, I am reminded that living with passion is pretty simple when you come right down to it.

Focus on your dream, follow the flow, trust that what you need will be there to support you, take giant leaps of faith, and keep looking up!

In Sacramento, I’m doing my part to promote and educate the general public by offering free stress reduction sessions from 1:00 – 7:00 p.m. on that Monday.   Simply call the office and ask for a “World Hypnotism Day De-Stress” session.  It’s my gift to you.  

If you can’t make it during that time because you are going back to work, then take a moment and go up into the right hand corner of this blog and download my free session for your IPod.

I guarantee it to be the best mind massage you’ve had all year,  and if you are heading back to work, you’ll probably need it.

Ahh, the comic relief; in laughing at them, we are indeed laughing at ourselves and our own imperfections, relieved perhaps that we aren’t the only ones stumbling through this act on the stage of life.  The fascination we have with the woe’s of the rich and famous is a projection on our part about what we expect from ourselves, and we fanatically follow the fallen, relieved that if they aren’t truly perfect then somehow we, too, must be okay.

However, what I know after conducting hundreds of past-life regressions is:  The script Tiger is learning from is no different than the one you or I wrote for ourselves to learn the soul lessons we need to learn in this life. Our life is designed to help us mature spiritually.  Courageously, Tiger and many other celebrities like him: Bill Clinton, John Edwards, David Letterman, Brad Pitt, Magic Johnson, determined that it would be in his best growth interest to have his marital indiscretions become public.

Don’t get me wrong. I know he wasn’t consciously sitting at home, or out playing a practice round thinking “It’s time to go public with this.”, but when bad things happen to good people, I have found time, after time, after time, that it was by their design. Under regression to a soul planning state, the interlife, people will report that they chose to experience these dramatic occurances in the interest of learning lessons at a soul level. Rarely is something like this unscripted. Each soul has a plan.  Often, the bigger the lesson, the harder the fall.

Experience has taught me that his wife, Elin, has played this theme through with him many times before in various shades. Perhaps in a previous life she played the role of the straying spouse, maybe not to Tiger’s spirit, but to another’s spirit and now Tiger has agreed to step into this role at this time to help her balance her learning. This type of karmic script, often associated with the more dramatic events in life, often involves people who have been involved with us in prior lives.

I can say without a doubt, after supporting 100’s of people in their quest to validate previous existences, that we are all the same life force energy, re-incarnating into the lives we’ve chosen to build and shape our spirit. From a consciousness standpoint, the phases of spirit that we call birth, life and death are only phases that the soul goes through as it transitions from one dimension of existence to another for the sake of development and growth. As Shakespeare suggested in As You Like It:    

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts…”

Perhaps Shakespeare was keenly aware that every human experience is just another lesson in the cosmic classroom.