"This is the very best gift I have ever given myself. Hypnotherapy gave me back my life... a life that is vibrant and full."
Kathleen Bibby
Changing Your Life Begins in Your Mind...
The mind is responsible for all our programming. Like a computer, the mind is designed to run programs. We have two levels of mind: the thinking mind and the feeling mind. Each level of mind functions differently.
The conscious mind is our thinking mind. It's the part of us that makes lists, does calculations, balances the check book, and decides when to go on a diet. It relies on analysis, reason and logic to come up with solutions to problems, and then it uses willpower to take action.
While the thinking mind is a very useful part of us, when it comes to making long-term change, its powers are limited. That's because the thinking mind is merely the tip of the iceberg. The biggest part of us, the subconscious mind, is our feeling mind.
The thinking mind thinks. The feeling mind feels.
The feeling level of mind holds all our programming. We have two kinds of program: genetic programming, and programming acquired through learning.
We are genetically programmed to seek pleasure and avoid pain. So we are programmed to feel good. As infants we automatically seek sustenance when hungry and know instinctively what foods to eat to satisfy the body's nutritional needs. A baby sleeps when tired, and balances rest periods with activity. It moves the body, breathes deeply, and relaxes completely. We're already genetically programmed for health and well-being.
We're also programmed to learn from experience, so from the earliest age, your subconscious, feeling-mind, has been recording your personal history. Everything that has ever happened to you - every thought, every feeling, and every perception of each experience - is still there, whether you consciously remember it or not. Whatever you learned from these experiences formed the basis for your beliefs. Whether true or false, these beliefs were accepted as programming.
Your perceptions of your earliest experiences - things said, things done -- planted the seeds of your present condition.Some of those experiences were good. Some were not-so-good. And some were downright painful.
When our needs as children were not adequately met we often had powerful feelings about that. The feelings themselves then became overwhelming and we learned to protect ourselves by "stuffing" them. Our culture tended to reinforce this behavior in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. Many of us learned to simply avoid feeling our feelings.
The problem isn't the feeling. The problem is avoiding the feeling.
As children, we can easily become emotionally overwhelmed due to trauma or difficult events. When we resist a feeling, the body clamps down, trapping the emotional energy inside the body. When the energy gets stuck, it can't flow through our bodies. It comes blocked.
Once the block was established, every time we encountered a situation that resembled the original event, it acted as a trigger to re-stimulate the unresolved feelings trapped inside. Not only did this reinforce the protective program of stuffing our feelings, it added to the pressure inside.
As the build-up of pressure drained us of energy, it became increasingly more painful. Eventually, when the pressure of unresolved feelings became too great, it erupted as physical symptoms, stress, emotional distress, or unwanted behaviors and habits.
Think about it - if you could have changed your problems by just thinking about them, wouldn't you have changed by now?
Feelings are the key to successfully changing your life.
You're not a child anymore. You can change how you think and how you feel and begin to bring your body, mind, relationships and life back into balance.