Stress and the Hypnotic I

"Yes folks, this is actually my coffee mug!"

When someone comes to my office for professional hypnosis services, they first fill out a brief personal information form. It contains basic questions regarding contact information, current health status, why they want my help and so on.

The form also asks the person to rate their current stress level as either low, moderate, high or extreme-and the response is always of great interest to me.

Of course if they state it is high or extreme, we will want to explore what is going on in their lives and customize their program accordingly.

But I also get a fair amount of responses where the person states that their stress level is low, even though they are clearly upset.

What I have found in those situations is that usually the individual will state they currently do have any major stress because they are not facing financial difficulties, relationship problems or the like. They are equating stress with external factors.

Yet a basic tenet of stress management is that stress is the individual response/experience that a person is having, not the external circumstance.

An example I frequently share with my clients is that of a roller coaster. To some it is an exciting thrill ride they enjoy. Others see it as one of the scariest things on earth that they want absolutely nothing to do with. Then there are those who are pretty much neutral about roller coasters.

But you know what? Its the same roller coaster no matter who is looking at it. Only the perceptions are different.

This also accounts for why individual responses to the same challenging situation can vary so much, from thriving to barely surviving. Perception governs response.

Now the perceptions we hold of ourselves and the world around us are generally habitual and automatic, part of what would be described as subconscious responses.

The subconscious mind is not analytical, rather it is emotional and imaginative-what I like to describe as the "Hypnotic I." It acts out patterns, images and beliefs whether they are good, bad or neutral.

The Hypnotic I can make the same set of circumstances seem difficult or easy, bad or good. As Shakespeare put so eloquently, "there is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

Hypnosis addresses the fascinating and powerful Hypnotic I by the use of specialized techniques of persuasive communication since it seldom responds to what might be called the "logical approach." You have to "speak its language," which is what a professional hypnotist is trained to do.

Hypnosis and self-hypnosis are awesome tools for transforming your perceptions in a healthy way. There will always be problems in the world we cannot do much about, but we do have a large measure of control over the Hypnotic I and its response to them.

P.S. My free Dealing With Difficulty E-Course shares some amazing ideas on how to become more resilient and confident.