You might call it "highway hypnosis" or "zoning out" or "spacing off" or "in the zone". And, hypnosis is used on you everyday on radio and television. Even by your friends or family using guilt, blame, or joy to manipulate your decisions.
Hypnosis is NOT a secret power. It's NOT a special Jedi mind state. It's just the method your mind uses to access your emotions, memories, and learned behaviors. It generally feels relaxing, mellow and focused. But, can also feel distracting, angry, stressed, and depressed. That depends on your current mental state.
People are trying to create and trigger behavior reactions in you every day. And not just TV and radio advertisements. Your friends and family do this too. And, you do this to them.
Using hypnosis is about bypassing the analytical mind and stimulating a learned behavior response. A behavior response will tend to be more predictable. Like my wife gets mad at me for staying up late to write this article. I don't want her to be mad because that makes me feel guilty. She unintentionally creates an emotional response in me that motivates me to do what she wants. Sounds complicated until you start seeing how common it is.
The popular cola drink advertisement shows video that stimulates feelings of happiness, satisfaction, and companionship. People want to feel good and this ad's emotion combined with repetitive exposure to the images will tend to make you think of that brand with good feelings. When you next see that brand of cola in the store, how do you immediately feel? Below the surface of your thinking? It may only be a subtle feeling, but it's there. That's emotional association at work.
Things like this are constantly happening around you, and everyone else. Many so minor you don't even notice. Unnoticed until you try to change them. You might experience that as fighting a craving or urge. You're likely aware that habits are formed in this way, but may not understand how powerful this can be and what a large influence on your life it can have.
The stronger the emotion is, the stronger the association. The stronger the association is, the more vivid the memory. The more vivid the memory, the more real it is to your mind and more influence it has on your behavior. Your mind does not have a real concept of time passing. What it sees in your imagination, or memory, it believes. At least, most of the time.
So, take this concept and apply it to someone with PTSD, or depression. Apply it to that person you know that can't quite quit smoking or has a favorite comfort food. Apply it to your driving habits, your eating habits, and your stress level. At the risk of being boring, I'll stop the examples and assume you get it.
Understanding this concept gives you the power to intentionally change your associations. Some you can do on your own. If you need help, find a professional you can trust and make it happen.
Patrick Glancy is a NGH Board Certified Hypnotist. Having hypnotized people in over 900 one-on-one hypnosis sessions he has applied this experience to design this complete self help hypnosis program to Quit Smoking
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