Chuck was a high school sophomore who played on the junior varsity basketball team. His father contacted me about his son’s tentative approach on the court and wondered if hypnosis could help. I described the hypnosis process and sent a brochure, but never heard back until a year later, when Chuck was on the varsity team. Chuck wanted to be a starting forward, and knew he had the skills; however he always came up short on the aggressive front, especially when the game was on the line.
Chuck made the team and continued to get his chances based on his practice performances. In the gym, he was a rebounding machine, and always dove across the floor for loose balls. At practice his nickname was “madman.” What propelled Chuck to pursue hypnosis occurred during one of his team’s games; he overheard a teammate refer to him as the “madam” instead of “madman.”
Chuck described going into “the zone” during practice where all that mattered was getting the ball and winning. At game time he was tentative, playing not to lose rather than playing to win. I told Chuck it was great that he didn’t need to learn how to be a winner in game situations that he already had all the skill and ability he needed. He just needed to unleash it when it counts the most.
In our first hypnosis session, I asked Chuck to recreate a particular practice in his thoughts. I wanted him to recall his most dominant practice. Chuck and his Dad both smiled, they knew exactly when it was. As a junior varsity sophomore he was asked to fill in with the varsity team practice.
He was catching a lot of flack by the varsity team because some of them thought he didn’t belong on their court. When Chuck caught an elbow to the head while going for a rebound, he knew he was being tested. Chuck passed the test. For the next two hours he put on a rebounding clinic. He carried his newfound confidence into every practice, but it never made it into game time.
My approach in our first hypnosis session was to amp up how good Chuck felt at practice. In hypnosis, I asked him to recall a recent practice and then had him imagine a magnifying glass over the image so it felt even bigger and better to him. I asked him to inhale all of the confidence, mobility, and skill he had that day, inhale it so it saturates down to a cellular level and begins to replicate within him.
As the session continued, I asked him to walk through the door of the practice gym. I explained that this door would open up into an opposing team’s gym and he would walk right out into the middle of a conference finals playoff game. As soon as he stepped through he would hear his name over the public address system announcing his insertion into a very important part of the game.
The twist with this scenario was that he got to carry all the confidence, mobility and skill he just created with him. In this game he was still the practice madman. So I told him to have fun, get into flow and do his thing; rebounding, boxing out and scrambling for the ball. All cylinders were firing and he was playing the game of his life. I gave him a moment of silence so he could fill in the blanks on his own.
At the conclusion of the session Chuck was quite enthused. He said it felt like he was really there. He felt like a major barrier had fallen and he could confidently move forward. The remaining two sessions involved some techniques which enabled Chuck to encapsulate all the past doubts so he would be completely free from now on as well as self-hypnosis training so he could recreate these empowering thoughts and images anytime he chose.
Chuck made the all-star team that year. His father sent me some newspaper clippings of Chuck leaping for a rebound. Many individuals get hung up on self-doubt and limit our expectations and accomplishments. I believe that the only limits we experience are self-imposed and hypnosis is the fastest most effective way to break through barriers and claim our true potential.
By: Paul Gustafson RN CH
Within a few days you will probably begin to notice some remarkable changes in your body. Your sense of smell and taste may improve. You will breathe easier, and your smoker’s hack will begin to disappear, although you may notice that you will continue to cough for a while. And you will be free from the mess, smell, inconvenience, expense, and dependence of cigarette smoking.
It is important to understand that the long range after-effects of quitting are only temporary and signal the beginning of a healthier life. Now that you’ve quit, you’ve added a number of healthy productive days to each year of your life. Most important, you’ve greatly improved your chances for a longer life. You have significantly reduced your risk of death from heart disease, stroke, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and several kinds of cancer not just lung cancer.
Cigarette smoking is responsible every year for approximately 130,000 deaths from cancer, 170,000 deaths from heart disease, and 50,000 deaths from lung disease.
20 minutes
– Blood pressure drops to normal
– Pulse rate drops to normal
– Body temperature of hands and feet increases to normal
8 hours
– Carbon monoxide level in blood drops to normal
– Oxygen level in blood increases to normal
24 hours
– Chance of heart attack decreases
48 hours
– Nerve endings start regrowing
– Ability to smell and taste is enhanced
2 weeks to 3 months
– Circulation improves
– Walking becomes easier
– Lung function increases up to 30%
1 to 9 months
– Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decrease
– Cilia regrows in lungs, increasing ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs, and reduce infection
– Body’s overall energy increases
1 year
– Excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker
5 years
– Lung cancer death rate for average smoker (one pack a day) decreases by almost half
– Stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5-15 years after quitting
– Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat and esophagus is half that of a smoker’s
10 years
– Lung cancer death rate similar to that of nonsmokers
– Precancerous cells are replaced
– Risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, esophagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases
15 years
Risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker
We recently returned from a walking trip in Spain along the Camino de Santiago. Although the trek is about 800 kilometers, we walked only the last 220 kilometers and met some wonderful people along the way. We spent one pleasant evening chatting to a plastic surgeon and a retired banker who were biking across the Camino (no small thing – trust me walking is easier). As is the custom when meeting people in their own homeland, our talk turned to healthcare in Spain. Both were bemoaning what they felt was a growing problem in Spain: obesity.
Although it didn’t appear as bad to us as it is in the U.S., obesity is clearly on the rise in the world, a problem that I’ve recently heard referred to as the “industrial global diet” high in meat, fat and sugar. In other words it’s cheap food. High in calories. Terrible to one’s health.
Italy, the home of the Mediterranean Diet, also has an obesity problem, more the result of rising wealth than worsening poverty as more of the population adopts the industrial diet.
According to Dr. Angelo Pietrobelli, associate professor of pediatrics and nutrition at the University of Verona, “Unfortunately, in particular among adolescents, they try to avoid Mediterranean diet because they try to ‘imitate’ the U.S. diet.”
During the 1940s, physiologist Ancel Keys, noted that the people of the seaside town of Pioppi, were living longer, healthier lives and had a much lower rate of heart disease than their well-fed Northern European counterparts. He ended up studying their diet during the 1940s and ‘50s and the Mediterranean Diet, high in fresh vegetables, fruit and fish and low in meat, was introduced to the rest of the world. Keys himself adopted the diet and died at 101 years of age.
The problem was that the Mediterranean diet was actually a poor man’s diet, “a diet of poverty, not of choice” according to food historian Zachary Nowak of the Umbra Institute of Perugia.
Obesity is not confined to Italy where about 36% of kids aged 12-16 are overweight or obese, but is spreading to Greece as well as Spain where more young people are abandoning the Mediterranean diet in favor of fast food joints.
Too bad this is what kids want to emulate about Americans.
I have been a hypnotist since 2001 and continue to be amazed who quickly clients can shed the emotional burdens of their problems. They walk in my office looking as though their problems define who they are, and leave feeling refreshed and confident.
If you want to experience a rapidly dramatic retake on your perspective of a particular problem or struggle I recommend hypnosis. Clients certainly recall past problems but the overwhelming majority feel completely disconnected and free to move forward.
Once the positive shift is initiated then the process of repetition ensures that it lasts. My clients receive a CD or MP3 of each session for home reinforcement. For decades this aspect of the process was never mentioned in hopes individuals would keep coming back paying for sessions. My philosophy has always involved training clients to become self-practitioners, their success is greater, longer lasting and as a result they do my marketing for me. It’s a win-win situation.
Paul Gustafson RN CH
On May 6th 1954, Roger Bannister had thoughts of running a sub-four minute mile, which had never been done before. Not only did he succeed but he opened the door for 45 other runners to have the same dream and in tern, accomplished the same feat over the course of the next eighteen months. We follow the path of our most dominant thoughts. Hypnosis helps us to powerfully reshape our feelings and expectations which can lead to dramatic life change. I’m sure Roger would agree.
By: Paul Gustafson RN CH
