I want to share a post that a good friend and expert hypnotherapist, Dan Cleary, once sent to an email group. This excerpt is specifically addressing someone’s question about treating ADHD.
Author Archives: Jack Elias
It is important to recognize our hidden beliefs about our basic nature. What’s the bottom line — do we think we are complete or incomplete? Are we full of inherent value and goodness?
Have you ever worked really hard to accomplish a goal and when you did accomplish it you felt a big let down? This kind of disillusionment is very common.
Lately I’ve had a number of people come into my office talking about ego. It got me thinking. All problems arise from this sense of limited fearful separation — what we call ‘ego.’
When you experience unpleasant and painful emotions, the typical reaction is to try to restrict them, stop them, or run away from those feelings. Let’s be honest, though — this doesn’t really work, does it?
One of my favorite quotes from myself (eye roll!) is, “We think we live in the world, but we live in our minds.” Another (double eye roll!)
You may remember the movie Inception. It deals with the mysteries, dramas, and possibilities existing in our inner life when we realize we are dreaming and can therefore change our dream.
My clients often look at me with a sense of despair and express the belief that their past is determining their future. Well, according to George, if you're not learning from your past experience, you're right! But what is really going on? What is the most important thing to learn from our past experience, and what should be discarded? Surely we need to retain all manner of common sense things about the world, like, " look both ways before you cross the street."
There are many ways to define hypnosis. Here's the central definition of hypnosis that I teach my students at the Institute for Therapeutic Learning: We're always selectively paying attention to only a small portion of the data that comes to us through our senses and our thoughts. When a hypnotist invites a person to move that selective attention to whatever the hypnotist suggests -- and the person does so -- that person is said to be hypnotized.
I never seem to stop needing reminders to broaden my perspective and lighten up. I can get disturbed about something transitory and basically unimportant on a daily basis! I easily forget I've never missed a meal in my life; I've always had hot tap water at my fingertips, a heated home, and indoor plumbing. I still remember when I was 5 (1952) and we were showing my grandfather around our newly built home. He immigrated from the Middle East in the early 1900's and was a simple street peddler. When we showed him, with some pride, how our home had a second bathroom (a mere 1/2 bath), he said wryly, "Oh, now you can sh** lots!"