Finding True Magic, the blog

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!) is,

“Once you realize your innocence, you can accomplish anything.”

I am surprised when people don’t have a clue about what I am saying with these statements. (jaw drops)

Regarding the first quote about living in our minds, try entertaining the awareness that the outer world is really a creation inside your mind. We think our mind is in our head and our chattering certainly seems to be located there. But our mind is more than our chattering. Spend some time thinking of your mind containing all your sensory fields.

Don’t mistake this to mean I want you to pretend the outer world is in your head. No, just simply consider that your mind is outside of your head. Consider your mind to be that which contains your body and its chattering thoughts, and everything in the outer world. Relax and sense your mind’s pervasiveness and spaciousness.

That brings us to the second quote: “Once you realize your innocence, you can accomplish anything.” If you have the thought that the above exercise is too strange or difficult to even try…that is a sign of lack of awareness of your innocence. Don’t let yourself miss this opportunity to play with your mind because of some stodgy old judgments. (Stodgy old judgments = opposite of innocence.)

Click on this Podcast Link to hear me discuss my ideas with Greg Voison of Inside Personal Growth.

Greg recently interviewed me about, Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP.

Greg kindly says,  “Jack’s mind blowing, thought provoking ideas you really need to listen to, and take action on. This interview could truly transform your relationship with yourself, and more importantly everyone you love.”

In our talk, greg and I get at the root of most of  our struggles. When you listen you will better understand how hypnosis for pain,  for weight loss, for depression, for phobias and trauma, for anxiety, and virtually any other issue is a tremendous life-enhancing tool.

May we all prosper together.

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessions in Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.

Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

I am happy to present this insightful article by  Michele Rosenthal, founder of HealMyPTSD. Michele is a trauma/PTSD survivor who now does healing coaching for people suffering from PTSD. We are trading blog posts. Look for my entry, Insights and Strategies for Dealing with PTSD and Profound Challenges, at her HealMyPTSD blog site.

Enjoy Michele’s article:

PTSD makes communication difficult. Many survivors can’t find the words to express what they’re feeling. Even when they do, it’s very normal for them not to be comfortable sharing their experience. Elements of shame, fear, anger, guilt and grief often get in the way of a calm, focused discussion.

Friends and family (and anyone else who is not the source of the PTSD but is standing by while someone attempts to heal) need something that translates PTSD language. Armed with knowledge, insight and awareness you’ll have an easier time knowing how to react, respond and relate to your PTSD loved one during the healing process. The more you appreciate things from the PTSD perspective the more helpful and supportive you can be. Now is the time for empathy, compassion and patience.

#1 – Knowledge is power. Understanding the process of a triggering event, the psychic reaction to trauma, the warning signs and symptoms of PTSD, and available treatment options for PTSD allows you to help recognize, support and guide your PTSD loved one toward diagnosis, treatment and healing.

We need you to be clearheaded, pulled together and informed.

#2 – Trauma changes us. After trauma we want to believe —as do you—that life can return to the way it was; that we can continue as who we were. This is not how it works. Trauma leaves a huge and indelible impact on the soul. It is not possible to endure trauma and not experience a psychic shift.

Expect us to be changed. Accept our need to evolve. Support us on this journey.

#3 – PTSD hijacks our identity. One of the largest problems with PTSD is that it takes over our entire view of ourselves. We no longer see clearly. We no longer see the world as we experienced it before trauma. Now every moment is dangerous, unpredictable and threatening.

Gently remind us and offer opportunities to engage in an identity outside of trauma and PTSD.

#4 – We are no longer grounded in our true selves. In light of trauma our real selves retreat and a coping self emerges to keep us safe.

Believe in us; our true selves still exist, even if they are momentarily buried.

#5 – We cannot help how we behave. Since we are operating on a sort of autopilot we are not always in control. PTSD is an exaggerated state of survival mode. We experience emotions that frighten and overwhelm us. We act out accordingly in defense of those feelings we cannot control.

Be patient with us; we often cannot stop the anger, tears or other disruptive behaviors that are so difficult for you to endure.

#6 – We cannot be logical. Since our perspective is driven by fear we don’t always think straight, nor do we always accept the advice of those who do.

Keep reaching out, even when your words don’t seem to reach us. You never know when we will think of something you said and it will comfort, guide, soothe or inspire us.

#7 – We cannot just ‘get over it’. From the outside it’s easy to imagine a certain amount of time passes and memories fade and trauma gets relegated to the history of a life. Unfortunately, with PTSD nothing fades. Our bodies will not let us forget. Because of surging chemicals that reinforce every memory, we cannot walk away from the past anymore than you can walk away from us.

Honor our struggle to make peace with events. Do not rush us. Trying to speed our recovery will only make us cling to it more.

#8 – We’re not in denial—we’re coping! It takes a tremendous effort to live with PTSD. Even if we don’t admit it, we know there’s something wrong. When you approach us and we deny there’s a problem that’s really code for, “I’m doing the best I can.” Taking the actions you suggest would require too much energy, dividing focus from what is holding us together. Sometimes, simply getting up and continuing our daily routine is the biggest step toward recovery we make.

Alleviate our stress by giving us a safe space in which we can find support.

#9 – We do not hate you. Contrary to the ways we might behave when you intervene, somewhere inside we do know that you are not the source of the problem. Unfortunately, in the moment we may use your face as PTSD’s image. Since we cannot directly address our PTSD issues sometimes it’s easier to address you.

Continue to approach us. We need you to!

Michele Rosenthal is a trauma/PTSD survivor, Self-Empowered Healing Coach and the founder of Heal My PTSD, LLC.

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessionsin Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”

George Santayana

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.”

You’d think it would be easy for us to cultivate this kind of common sense. And yet these days, as we assess the state of corporate greed, political hostility, and lack of civil discourse, it seems there isn’t much interest in developing common sense for the common good. If you look at history, no good has ever come from trying to create a society in which the common good is disregarded (witness the fates of the Roman Empire, the Third Reich, and more recently, Enron). But we don’t seem to get it!

It seems to me that what’s most important to learn from past experience is that you — and only you — are the one in charge of your self respect and self approval. As a wise older friend said to me when I was a young man, “Unless you approve of yourself, you will always be afraid.”

I learn from clients daily that this is a daunting task — primarily because people generally believe that whatever they have thought, or said, or done determines whether or not they have a right to exist.  By extension, the “worthiness” of their thoughts, words and deeds determine whether or not it’s okay to be kind to themselves. I usually propose to my clients that their actions are about their actions, not about their human value. I just explain that they will experience the fruit of their actions, because that’s the way things work, but that their essential value remains untouched no matter what they do. They always have the right to choose to act with love, kindness, and encouragement towards themselves, even if they’ve made the worst mistake of their lives.

In my experience, this is the best way for us to keep a clarity of mind, and the strength of spirit, to rectify any mistakes we may have made.  Those who put themselves down with blame, shame, and guilt when they make mistakes are doomed to repeat the past. Why? Because their focus is failure. Wise people, on the other hand, use their energy kindly and patiently learning from their mistake and figuring out how to do better next time.

The wise make mistakes, too. But all the while, regardless of the outcome of their actions, they maintain respect for the miracle of their being and the gift of their life. They keep their self-respect. And that is the very best kind of common sense.

Our life is not ours to judge. It’s a mystery.

May we all prosper together!

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessionsin Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

This can get you into real trouble!

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.

What we pay attention to determines what we experience and what we feel. It sounds simple. But when you’re having a strong emotion or a craving, do you just stop, relax, take a deep breath and tell yourself, “This emotion or craving is just an arbitrary temporary experience based on what I’m selectively paying attention to”? Or do you relate to that anger, annoyance or sudden craving as if it is the truth of the moment, as if you absolutely must act on it? I don’t know about you, but I tend to do more of the latter, and less of the former!

If we relate to what’s happening as if it is the truth — something that must be attended to — then we are engaged in a hypnotic state . . .  even though, if you asked someone else about it, they’d probably agree that you’re in a perfectly “normal” conscious state experiencing “Reality” as it is!

Watch this video and then consider what is real about your experience:

Consider this the next time you drive and talk or text or eat. More than 50% of viewers miss this video challenge.

When driving I usually consider my alertness and attention to be largely unaffected by talking to a passenger or eating a candy bar. And I also know, thanks to a recent auto accident, that I am wrong in thinking I’m alert to the greater environment if I’m doing several things at once.

That might be all right in the office or living room, but not in the car!

May we all drive safely and be free from ignorance.

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessionsin Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

Most people have a problem thinking of themselves as confident because they don’t “feel confident.” Or maybe they don’t have a track record of success in their life — so far. But actually, such issues are beside the point. The secret to really being confident is to appreciate the gift of life and to make your best efforts with enjoyment and without fear of being judged.

How can we gain real confidence? It’s easy to talk about, but most people have deeply ingrained patterns and habits that keep us from appreciating ourselves and enjoying our lives. If you’ve ever really wanted to change something about yourself — shyness, a habit of negative self-talk or being late to appointments — you know it’s not usually just a matter of deciding.

To make lasting change in deeply ingrained habits, we have to interrupt those patterns where they’re lurking: in the shadows of your subconscious mind. It’s easier than you think. In fact, the way you think is most likely what’s making it seem hard to be confident.

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy can help you quickly and easily regain hope and enthusiasm about your genuine interests and aspirations. Your mind learned how to approach problems negatively and get discouraged, and it can unlearn all that, too — quicker than you think!

Stories abound of people overcoming the odds to rediscover their essential faith in themselves. Sometimes a big loss can show us where our strength really lies.

Learn about the Finding True Magic Audio CD “Strengthening Your Will”

Here’s a video showing one of my favorite examples of someone believing in himself, and inspiring others in the process.

May all beings be happy and free! May our compassion for all beings, ourselves included, continue to increase!

Here’s a guided practice designed to naturally increase your fearlessness:
Finding True Magic audio CD: Cultivating Fearlessness & Compassion

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessions in Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

Recently  a hypnotist friend had a severe health challenge and asked for help from colleagues. Several people recommended various health modalities — acupuncture, chiropractic, Cranial Sacral Release.

I reminded him to try talking to the part of him that was creating the problem. Another hypnotherapist agreed and shared a story illustrating how extraordinary this process can be:

“Long ago I had a stabbing pain between my shoulders. It persisted for over two weeks, 24/7 and was very painful. It caused all kinds of other pains.
Just for fun, I did a parts therapy session on it. Asked it what it wanted. It told me that someone I knew (a business relationship) was stabbing me in the back. It told me what to do, I agreed and it was like RIGHT THEN the knife came out. The pain was gone in about 30 minutes. The pain never came back. And that clever little part was right.  Consciously, I had NO clue.”

In response, I shared this story:

“A single Mom brought her 3-year-old daughter to me because she was having severe asthma attacks in the middle of the night. She had been rushing her little girl to the emergency room in an ambulance every night until the hospital decided to put their equipment in her home so she wouldn’t have to do that anymore. That was all they had to offer! Her daughter’s attacks continued.

When the woman brought her daughter in to see me, I immediately started playing with the little girl, saying silly things and just generally being goofy, which has always come naturally to me. After some silly talk and game-playing the little girl was up on my lap, and I shifted to a focused deeper, though still friendly and playful voice, and I showed her a scar on my thumb.

I talked to her about how my “inside mind” made this scar — not me. I didn’t knew how to make a scar. Then I asked her if she’d ever noticed a cut heal. She had, so I said, “See, your inside mind knows how to do stuff, too!”
Then I explained that our inside mind takes directions from us. If we’re afraid to say how we feel and if we tell our inside mind to stop those feelings, it’ll do that for us. But, I went on to explain, it often does this by pushing the feeling into our body somewhere — like the lungs, which causes us to wheeze and cough and have trouble breathing.

I got the little girl to agree to express her feeling to her Mom on the outside, by drawing, singing, crying, dancing etc. And I got her Mom to promise to be supportive and participate with her when she did this.

Mother and daughter left my office. I never saw them again. Figured it didn’t work. Then one day I got a call from a new client. I asked how she had heard about me. She said from a co-worker, and the name sounded familiar. I asked why she had referred her to me. She said that the co-worker told her she had brought her 3-year-old to me for severe asthma attacks and after one session she never had them again. This phone call was 5 years later!”

Although there are many alternative treatments for asthma, I don’t know of any that erase all symptoms of asthma permanently after one 1-1/2 hour session!

Hypnosis is gaining more and more credibility as such results become more widespread. Respected doctors and hospitals are using it in a variety of ways.

On my website you can learn more about this healing power we all have available to us, right within our own mind. You’ll find useful information throughout the site, but many visitors especially appreciate the Health, Relationships, and Sexuality pages. Here you’ll learn more about how hypnotherapy can help you in any area of life.

More about asthma:

May all beings be happy and free! May our compassion for all beings, ourselves included, continue to increase!

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessions in Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

Someone asked recently about the difference between hypnosis and guided imagery. Many counselors say they use “guided imagery” which they may or may not consider related to hypnosis or hypnotherapy. And if that weren’t confusing enough, sometimes people aren’t sure of the difference between meditation and guided imagery.

So what is hypnosis, what is guided imagery, and what is meditation?

There are many kinds of meditation — the common denominator being focused attention.

A famous definition of hypnosis is simply, “focused attention to suggestions given.”

So you could argue that many times meditation and hypnosis are the same or overlap.

In the end, however, these words are just labels.

So here’s my suggestion: Be interested in your experience of being — what it feels like simply to be — without relying on labels. Then, whether you’re experiencing something called “guided imagery,” something called “hypnosis” or “hypnotherapy,” or something called “meditation,” you’ll be awake to your experience.

That’s the best meditation and the best hypnotic state, IMHO.

And if you’re interested in a no-labels dose of meditation, hypnosis, and guided imagery all rolled into one, check this out:

Finding True Magic audio CD: Cultivating Fearlessness & Compassion
Finding True Magic audio seminar: Mindfulness & Awareness

Recently meditation teacher Josh Korda of Dharma Punx NYC talked about the intersection of Buddhist meditation and punk culture. A good example of getting back to basics, focusing the mind, experiencing your own being.

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessions in Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

As a practicing Buddhist for over 40 years, my orientation towards my hypnotherapy practice has always been within the context of the extraordinary insights about how the mind works — insights that are readily available in the Buddhist teachings.

One essential point is that to see clearly you must gain the ability to stop the mind’s constant thinking. This is done through meditation. Many Westerners misconstrue this point to mean stop the mind forever — as in have no more thoughts — and so they quickly despair of ever being able to meditate. “I can’t meditate, because I can’t stop my mind.” But this is to miss the point.

The point is to stop the mind just for an instant and develop your ability to be alert in that instant. My first Buddhist teacher, Shunryo Suzuki, Roshi always told us “Whatever you say, that is (Buddhism), and whatever you say, that is not (Buddhism).” That one stops your mind! When you hear that your mind’s constant choosing between this and that is futile — either way you’re right, and either way you’re wrong — you stop in a moment of astonishment and openness. And that’s the point.

Hypnotists recognize and use this gap in the mind’s constant thinking to deliver hypnotic suggestions. At the point when the mind “gaps” we are very suggestible. Buddhist teachers do the same thing. They create gaps where they can deliver the healing and enlightening teachings, past the shield of constant thinking, straight into the student’s heart.

How do you tell the difference between a wise spiritual teacher and a not-so-wise one?  It’s in the sauce: the quality of the suggestion/teaching delivered. A teacher can deliver suggestions that reinforce views and activities that lead to suffering, or  suggestions/teachings that uplift and mature a person’s character. You can use the same test to tell the difference between an effective hypnotherapist and an unskillful one.

The cultural baggage that comes with teachings from the lands of the East can obscure the important points  (i.e., “Will I have better meditation on a black Zen zafu, or on a red-and-yellow Shambhala-type zafu?” or “Oh no, I don’t even know what a zafu is!”) To cut through this confusion, Shunryo Suzuki, Roshi always told us to “find out what is the most important thing.”

There is an emerging voice in Buddhism that is pointing the way out of the cultural baggage problem. Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, a brilliant young Tibetan lama, is stepping out of the cultural and religious trappings of his own heritage to emphasize to Westerners the most important point — find out who you are beyond allegiance to a culture or a religion. Hints to his students might come as hip poetry written in an urban cafe or a funny photo collage in a tweet (follow @ponlop), a post on Facebook, or a quote from Jimi Hendrix.

You can read his latest article in the Washington Post, “The Buddha Wasn’t a Buddhist” Nice timing, together with The Buddha on PBS here last night.

May you find delight and healing as you notice  what is present when you experience a gap in your mind.

May all beings be happy and free! May our compassion for all beings, ourselves included, continue to increase!

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View The Buddha (PBS) videos in chronological order here.
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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessions in Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.

My wife recently showed me a quote by Seth Godin,

“Anxiety is nothing but repeatedly re-experiencing failure in advance. What a waste.”

Well said, Seth.  It can be very helpful to recognize more precisely how anxiety is accomplished.

When speaking about anxiety, I often take my clients and students on a journey through time. I ask them to think of a painful memory from their past. Then I ask  them to try to be anxious about that past event. If they follow the instruction and keep the event in the Past, they can’t be anxious about it. Try it. If you think you’re succeeding, you’ve jumped out of the past.

Next I say, “Consider that you don’t know the actual Future. Since you don’t know the actual future, you can’t be anxious about the actual Future — because you can’t be afraid of what you don’t know.” Likewise,  “fear of the unknown” is a misnomer. The “unknown” is the absence of a stimulus,  so fear can’t come up about what is “unknown.”  (We’ll get to what fear of the unknown  really is in just a sec.)

Then I ask them to notice they can’t be anxious about the Present because you can’t find or hold the Present. It is constantly becoming the Past.

So, if you can’t be anxious about the Past, the Future, or Present, what can you be anxious about? (Head scratching . . . frowns)

The answer is you can only be anxious about an imagined Future. You can only imagine the Future based on the Past. If you imagine that the negative Past experience will repeat itself in some variation in the future, only then can you feel anxious.  The key word is “imagine”! When you say you’re afraid of the unknown, what you’re actually doing is imagining a  future that you don’t want.

Anxiety is a mind game – it’s your mind game! You are totally in control of creating anxiety. It’s the game of imagining that unpleasant things are going to happen to you and convincing yourself that it’s true, that it’s not imagination.

(At this point students usually raise their hands:) “But bad things can happen in the future, and you need to prepare for them.”

Yes, you need to prepare for reasonable possibilities. But does preparation require thinking/imagining in a way that creates fear? Seems to me that fearful imagining (some call it “worry”) is an extra side activity. Worse, it’s a side activity that diverts your attention from constructive preparation: imagining solutions!

(More head scratching and frowns) It’s challenging to recognize that you don’t see things as they really are. It’s challenging to realize you are living in an imaginary hypnotic trance of your own creation, instead of living in the real world.

Imagining is not all bad. Here is a delightful example of misperception. Mingyur Rinpoche is a  Tibetan teacher who once suffered terrible panic attacks. He got over those, though — in fact, scientists studying the brains of monks during meditation concluded that Rinpoche is 700 times happier than the average person! Below, Rinpoche shares what happened when he found a life-like  Dalai Lama replica in a wax museum:

So here’s the 10th and final in my list of Top 10 Ways to Be Happy:

#10. See Things As They Are and Imagine Successfully Creating Happy Outcomes

(Frowns, still unsatisfied.) “But bad things can happen!“  Yes,  but does a stressed and tired state of mind, run ragged with anxiety, help you meet the challenge of a “bad” event? Wouldn’t it be better to meet it with a refreshed state of mind because you keep your mind happy with positive future imagining? It’s your call.

I say, Nip Anxiety in the Bud!

If you’d like help doing this, see the following Finding True Magic audios:
Stress Relief, Rejuvenation & Empowerment
Become Fearless & Compassionate

May all beings enjoy unchanging happiness and freedom from fear!

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessions in Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.

Most of the time, the reasons for our unhappiness are not outside us, even though it often seems that way. But if this were true, what accounts for all the well-fed fashion mavens, depressed and obsessed with the details of their haute couture? And how can we explain, on the other hand, the many hungry people surviving in tiny huts who still somehow find ways to cheer up their neighbors? They must know the secret of how to . . .

#3  Ask a Better Question

Instead of asking yourself, “Why am I so unhappy? Why doesn’t anything ever work out for me?” try a new approach.

Practice asking, “Who do I have to believe I am, or, what do I have to believe is true about me to have this problem?” Then challenge the “truth” of the answer you come up with.

This question is a great way to expose the negative self-talk that we would otherwise be unaware of. As author and meditation teacher Sally Kempton once said, “It’s hard to do battle with an enemy who has outposts in your head.” When you ask this question, what’s the answer that comes back? “I’m no good”? “I never have lucky breaks”? or … maybe your mind is unconsciously repeating this old favorite: “I don’t deserve good things.”

Whatever the negative message, challenge it. If this seems hard, remember that a lot of famous people have surprised the critics.  Take a look:

When you uncover your negative self-talk, it’s cause for celebration. You’re looking at the cause of your unhappiness, rather than getting caught in the trap of the egoic mind.  Once you’ve seen these negative messages and the damage they’re doing to your peace of mind and your self-esteem, you can begin to turn them around. See that there’s no truth in them, and try on a happier scenario. You may not see an immediate change in your outer circumstances, but it will definitely change the way you see the events of your life. And if you insist on thinking well of yourself and having a good time doing it, it may become more difficult than ever to keep happiness at bay.

At that point you may just have to give up and laugh! Who knows, you might even start cheering up your neighbors.

May all beings be happy and free! May our compassion for all beings, ourselves included, continue to increase!

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Jack Elias, CHT is founder and director of the Institute for Therapeutic Learning in Seattle, Washington. He is the author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP, a book and course which blends NLP training modalities with philosophical traditions of both East and West. Jack offers private sessions in Lucid Heart Therapy and Life Coaching. He offers live trainings and distance learning trainings in Transpersonal Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy/NLP. Jack also presents keynotes and other programs to teach audiences how to use the techniques of  Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP to achieve success, confidence, and a consistent sense of well-being.  Book Jack Elias to speak to your group or organization.