What with catching up after the Jubilee Bank Holiday, then running a couple of training courses and seminars, I am only just getting myself back into my usual blog-writing routine, so excuse my prolonged absence from here… I hope you have managed to cope and survive.
A short while ago, a friend and I had a moderately drunken, yet still quite profound discussion in the pub….
We were propping up the bar and agonising over which crisps or snacks we would have to accompany our pints. I wanted Twiglets or dry roasted peanuts, but we could not settle on a flavour of crisp that would go nicely with them… It was high-brow stuff, I am sure you can imagine.
However, in the midst of our agonising, we realised how absolutely lucky we were to have a choice of which crisps we consumed… Especially when there were so many people in this world who’d just love anything to eat at all.
We became humbled, made our decision and scoffed our faces in a ridiculous attempt to sober up before closing time.
We are confronted with choices all the time… I encounter many people in my personal and professional life that make poor choices, or make easy, unrewarding choices that lead to equally unrewarding lives…
This blog entry is all about the choices we make, in the first instance the process is more reflective and seems to have little to do with making better choices… But then, an inherent bi-product of the process here is that you start to make better choices… This is the plan anyhow.
You know what? I’ve made some incredibly crappy choices in my time.
– You should see a couple of the unworn, hideous looking expensive shirts in my wardrobe.
– As a young naïve man, I once followed a horse betting syndicate that assured me of making thousands of pounds. I lost money.
– My friend convinced me that starting an impromptu party on the school roof instead of the local facilities to celebrate leaving school was a great idea. So I chose to do that.
Yes, I am sure you have many such stories of your own of choices you made that in hindsight were ridiculous, silly, ill-conceived and maybe even irrational. So I chose to do something about this trend in my life a very long time ago, and these days I tend to make better choices, just maybe not those ones about the shirts I buy in designer stores!
Within my therapeutic work, I use Problem Solving Therapy, and in life in general I have championed critical thinking skills, all of which I think help with decision making and better choice election… I certainly do not simply rely on intuition, gut feeling and the all-knowing, all seeing unconscious mind to make my decisions. Excuse me being facetious here.
Today, our aim is also to enhance general life motivation by harnessing the power of those moments when you made choices. You know what I am referring to here, don’t you? Those moments that occur each day when you make a choice, or a commitment of some kind.
A defining characteristic of a choice moment is that it, symbolically or literally, makes it difficult to turn back.
For example, when you sign a contract, openly speak your marriage vows, or shake hands with someone making a bet with them, you have passed a moment of choice. You have chosen and committed. What often happens is that we then stick to our decisions, remain consistent to choices made and they do become difficult to alter. We often even dig our heels in and defend the choice we have made, however poor it may have been and in the face of evidence showing it to have been a poor decision.
So today’s technique aims to also help you identify and use the many smaller moments of choice that, collectively, have a real big impact upon our lives.
So here we go then… Lets develop an internal culture of good decision making and healthy choice development.
7 Steps To Use Self-Hypnosis And Make Better Choices
Step One: Be in a place where you are going to be undisturbed and can have a receptive state of mind for a while.
Induce Hypnosis.
You can do so by any means you desire or know of. You can use the process in my Science of self-hypnosis book, use the free audio we give away on this website to practice or have a look at the following articles as and when you need them; they are basic processes to help you simply open the door of your mind:
Heavy Arm Self-Hypnosis Induction Method
Using Eye Fixation for Self-Hypnosis
The Chiasson Self-Hypnosis Method
Hand to Face Self-Hypnosis Induction
Using Magnetic Hands for Self-Hypnosis
The Coin Drop Self-Hypnosis Induction
However, with this process, an induction is potentially too much activity, so I teach my clients how to adopt a hypnotic mindset and simply have a mindset that is positive and expectant. Again, to really understand the cognitive set of the hypnotic mindset, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book where it is explained in simple but comprehensive terms.
Once you have induced hypnosis, or just adopted the hypnotic mindset, move on to the next step.
Step Two: Then, consider the day you have had (if you are doing this in the morning, consider the day yesterday) and scan through the day in your mind. See the sights, hear the sounds, recall the feelings and engage with the day you had.
As you scan through the happenings of the day, pick out some of the moments when you had to make choices. What choices did you make during that day?
Think about the moments when you had to make those choices, think about immediately prior to committing yourself and how you made the choice.
As you think about those moments that you made those choices, ask yourself some or all of these kinds of questions right now, to explore the way you made those choices:
What outcome were you hoping for by making that choice?
How effective was each choice you made?
Did your choice achieve that outcome you had hoped for?
Upon reflection, how happy do you feel about the choices you made?
Only when you have answered, explored and reflected upon these questions thoroughly and to your satisfaction, then move on to Step Three.
Step Three: Pick one particular, important moment of choice. just elect (ideally the most important choice you made, or something pivotal in your day or that contributes to your life in an important way) and then imagine stepping into that moment in time.
As unusual as this may sound, imagine being back in that scene, that moment where you made that choice. Now watch the scenario happening in front of you, as if you were a fly on the wall, or as if you were/are a neutral observer. Notice all the details of this moment as you watch that choice being made by you earlier on.
Be objective and from this neutral position, be aware of how you feel now about that choice you made then.
Once you have watched that in great detail, as vivid as you can from a neutral perspective, then go ahead and move on to the next step.
Step Four: As you have revisited this moment when you made that choice, now think of three other, different choices you could have made at that time. Really be creative, or downright realistic and think up three different choices that you could have made at that time instead of the choice that you actually did make. Gather up some alternatives.
Once you have thought those three variations up, use your imagination, really engage it and imagine actually making those choices and taking actions based on those choices, one choice at a time.
For now, just run through each potential scenario, without casting any opinion or judgment upon it and remaining objective. Just assess what would have happened and how things may well have played out as a result of this different choice you could have made. Run through each choice making scenario thoroughly and fully.
Then, once you have run through each of those three scenarios, move on to the next step.
Step Five: Now you progress with imagining the outcome of each of these imaginary choices.
So having run through each of those potential scenarios and creating them in your mind, you now imagine stepping into the outcome of each — that is, imagine what would happen as a direct result of you having made that choice and stuck to it. How would people have reacted, how would you have felt?
Step into the potential future outcome of each and imagine living in that outcome for a few moments to get a sense of how each outcome really is.
Again, once you have absorbed as much information about each outcome, then you can proceed to the next step. Be thorough and assess each outcome, the more diligent you are here, the more you’ll learn and develop in real-life scenarios when you have to make choices in the future.
Step Six: Now you get to test what you have learned.
During the upcoming days, start to be aware of and notice if your ability for making better choices is improving. Run through this entire process again each day for the next week and notice if your results are any better.
Consider and think about ways you could improve your choice making when you are confronted with them, and then start to create a process of your own to ensure you make better choices. Especially start to use the process in situations or circumstance that in the past may have been problematic.
Resolve to take time to fully consider options and the impact of decisions you make, as well as thinking of other choices you can make.
Step Seven: Exit hypnosis. Take a couple of good, deep breaths, wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes.
Have a good period of time of noticing and heightening your awareness of the choices you make, so often the choices we make just slip beyond our awareness and we just carry on regardless, now you can ensure you make better choices, feel more motivated and feel a depth of trust in yourself as a result.
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Have some of themes here resonated with you? Then have a read of these pages:
1. Do you need help or support in a particular area of your life?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
2. Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others? Are you a hypnotherapist looking for stimulating and career enhancing continued professional development and advanced studies?
Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist looking to fulfil your ambitions or advance your career?
Hypnotherapist Mentoring with Adam Eason.
Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar. Alternatively, go grab a copy of my Science of self-hypnosis book.
