The More You Focus, the Deeper into Trance You Go

Here’s a situation my fellow hypnotists can relate to:

You meet someone and you run through the usual small talk. They tell you their name; you tell them yours. The topic of the weather comes up and goes away. They ask what you do and you say you’re a hypnotist.

Some people tense up at this point.

Not many, but a few.

Imagine you were a surgeon and someone worried you’d cut out their liver. You’d calmly explain that, no, that’s not what surgeons do. Besides, it’s not the time or place to go making incisions.

It wouldn’t happen. People love doctors, with good reason.

With hypnosis, though, it’s as if you said you’re a wolf and they come from a family of sheep.

This reaction honestly breaks my heart a little. No one who understands hypnosis responds like this. People who don’t get it usually ask a question like “are you going to make me…?”

What, cluck like a chicken?

Reveal your deepest secrets?

Get naked?

Not today, and not tomorrow either. If they strip, that’s because they want to.

If only they knew how hypnosis could help them…

Anyway, that’s not the point of this little yarn.

The point is that there’s no need to defend themselves against the hypnotist.

But if they did have to, boy, are they doing it wrong.

If you start focusing on the hypnotist really hard, running each word against some internal filter for hypnotic content, then you’re going to plunge right into trance.

Every time.

Whether they’re trying to be hypnotic or not.

Because here’s a milligram of neuroscience advice: what you pay attention to must be important.

If you focus on the negative, the problems, what can go wrong, that’s all you’ll get. If you focus on the positives, the opportunities and what could go right, that’s what you’ll get.

And if you pay attention to someone, I hope they say things you need to hear. Your brain will think it’s worth listening to.

This means something rather simple in the end. Whether you want to be hypnotic, resist unhelpful suggestions or simply live a better life, the strategy is this:

Pay attention to the present moment.

Pay attention to your own body and mind.

This says to your brain that you and now matter. This grounds you, and a grounded person is a strong person.

Stronger than a client’s problems, that’s for sure. And strong enough to know who you are and what you want.

Spend some time practicing this. Observe without judgement what you can see, what you’re experiencing and what’s happening right now.

This will eventually put you in an interesting state of mind. It makes you more open to what’s real and less swayed by what’s just in your head.

And by paying attention to suggestions you like, you’ll follow them even deeper.

As always, Awakened Thought is ready when you are. Every month has practical tips for your intellect, hypnotic audios for your unconscious and great material for everything in between.

If you wait, you risk missing the secrets to greater creative thinking.

So, are you ready yet?

https://guided-thought.com/awakened-thought/