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.

What can we do when we feel stuck? I am amazed at how easy it is for me to forget that my mind is creating my “stuckness” not the world. My mind is very good at pointing the finger at the world however — very good at not being noticed as the culprit.

And even when I wake up a bit and realize it is my mind that is disturbing me, not the world, it often seems a chore to change my state. My mind sometimes wants to hold onto its grumpiness and at times it even seems infectious.

I have a few ways to change perspective that help me shake my mind out of its rut.  One is recalling an interview with a World War II veteran who suffered terrible hardships and danger in his tour, including seeing most of his buddies get killed. When he came back home had several ups and downs in his life and business. He had to begin from scratch several times. The interviewer asked what kept him going. He said, ” I wake up every morning and think, ‘No one is shooting at me, so this is a good day!’” Remembering this can get me going.

Another change of perspective that is often very beneficial is to kind of surrender to my mind’s anxious thinking. I just say, “OK” and imagine myself in the worst case scenario.  Ironically, this often dissipates the anxiety.  My theory is that fearful thinking freezes your brain so you can’t think clearly.

By surrendering to the fear and imagining yourself relaxing into the worst case scenario, you are no longer afraid because you have arrived where you were afraid of arriving.  (For example you can be afraid of getting into a fight, but once you are fighting, there is no more fear.) No more fear means your brain can think clearly again, and you recognize resources and options and  a  more realistic assessment of your situation.

In my client work I have often listened to people speak at length about their mental struggle with what they fear is going to happen to them.  At some point, I invite them to imagine the fearful thing has happened – “really be there!” Often, after a few minutes of silence with a far off look in their gaze, they say, “Well, that would never happen, but if it did, I’d deal with it.”

Yes! Their brain freeze melted and they recognized favorable  resources and conditions they had been overlooking.

Try it!

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

Often, our habit of fearful thinking comes from our childhood. Her are a couple of great CD products to help you deal with old habits of fearful thinking:

Family Matters: 5 Ways to Stop Your Past from Screwing Up Your Future

Stress Relief, Rejuvenation & Empowerment

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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.

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!

Subscribe to this blog.

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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.

Today I read an op ed piece on PTSD in the New York Times that had a powerful impact on me. I have always felt great respect for the sacrifice and hardship that our troops are willing to face, out of their heartfelt desire to protect and defend our country. A striking number of our servicemen and women are returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Unfortunately, most of the PTSD sufferers I have worked with report that the conventional treatments for PTSD don’t work. When these methods give them any relief at all, progress is slow and often only marginally effective. This leaves their families feeling frustrated and sad, and the person with PTSD themselves feeling ashamed and afraid they are losing control.

Fortunately for people suffering with PTSD, hypnotherapy works extremely well for healing PTSD. With my clients, hypnotherapy has worked with adult sufferers of PTSD that started in a number of ways: from war and combat trauma to childhood trauma. Hypnotherapy has also gotten surprisingly quick results for these folks, many of whom had tried various talk therapy methods without success.

Read more in my previous blog post on how hypnotherapy can heal PTSD.

May all people be free of fear and have true peace of mind and heart.

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Jack Elias, CHT is the 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.

Our subconscious mind has the capacity to reproduce anything that deeply impresses it—and it will do exactly that, unless it is given instructions to the contrary. A traumatic event creates a powerful impression on the subconscious. Once it has experienced a trauma, the subconscious mind then creates its own version of that trauma, and replays it over and over again.

When we say we are traumatized, we are speaking of this tendency of our subconscious to keep reproducing a traumatic event in the sophisticated virtual reality theater of our mind. Consider a child who has been in accident in which the child or a parent was badly hurt. Unless someone discourages them from doing so, the child will tell the story again and again to whoever will listen. This is the mind’s natural method of handling the trauma in order to make sense of what happened, and to integrate the experience. Modern research is working on ways to help us see PTSD on a brain scan.

So we can easily see that the cause of ongoing (chronic) trauma or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is not the traumatic event itself. If it were, there would be no hope of healing that trauma. The damage would be permanent. But we know this is not the case; people can heal the psychological trauma of  a serious accident, of childhood abuse, as well as the trauma of witnessing horrific events in combat. So how does healing of PTSD occur?

The true cause of ongoing trauma, or PTSD, lies within the activity of our subconscious mind. It’s as if our subconscious grabs us against our will, straps us down in a virtual reality theater, puts goggles on our head, hooks it all up to our central nervous system, and then replays its memory of the traumatic event.

When this happens, we experience our subconscious mind’s version—our memory of the frightening event—as if it were real, right now in this very moment. This is what commonly happens with soldiers, victims of abuse, and survivors of any kind of catastrophic experience. A soldier just back from Iraq is sitting at the dinner table enjoying a great meal, but then a car backfires on the street outside and suddenly he feels as if he’s back in combat evading gunfire. The memory is vivid and immediate, and the adrenals send corresponding messages to the brain that there’s a life-threatening situation, right here. Suddenly Dad is shouting at his wife and children to “get down! get down!” just as if he was on the field of battle. It’s deeply concerning to a soldier’s family, and it’s embarrassing and confusing for the soldier.

Learning the method I developed, called Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP, you can quickly instruct the subconscious mind to store your traumatic memory in an informative, but harmless, way. You go back into the theater of your mind and reorganize the memory so that you can live with it. I know this works because I use transpersonal hypnotherapy every day to help people defuse the exhausting mental patterns of  PTSD.

It’s empowering work! You’re able to keep the wisdom of your life experience without experiencing ongoing trauma to your nervous system.

May all beings find peace and equanimity. May all beings be free!

I frequently work with people seeking freedom from trauma and PTSD. We can work in private sessions in person at my office in Seattle. Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP is just as effective for my clients in the U.S. as well as internationally, when we work together by phone or Skype.

If you’d like to deepen and affirm a new sense of mental relaxation, ease and freedom that you can call on — anytime, anywhere – you’ll find my Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP audio products both extremely helpful and wonderfully rejuvenating. I especially recommend the audios on Stress Release, Clarifying Confusion, and Fearlessness & Compassion.

What is Post-traumatic Stress Disorder? (National Institute of Mental Health)

PTSD and the Family (National Center for PTSD)

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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.

The prevailing medical treatment for depression and anxiety involves medication. Usually it involves trying a number of drugs that don’t work, in order to find the one that “does work.” When the drug “works” it means that the worst symptoms subside (often only for a few months) — but a new set of  symptoms may be added that the depressed individual wasn’t dealing with prior to taking the drugs! Drowsiness, nervousness, lack of libido and weight gain are some of the most common side effects experienced with antidepressants and anti-anxiety drugs.

With hypnotherapy it is possible to expose the root causes of most forms of depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. The root cause may be an unresolved, emotionally traumatic experience and/or an unfortunate habit of destructive thinking. In either case, once the nature of the problem is revealed in trance, it can be corrected through hypnotic communication with the subconscious mind.

It’s not that medical professionals are trying to make things worse for their clients; it’s simply that their training places heavy emphasis on pharmaceuticals as a “treatment.” But when drugs create a fresh slew of problems for people who are already suffering, can that really be considered an adequate way to address the issue?

Working with the root of the problem at the level of the subconscious mind, I have used hypnotherapy with my clients who suffer from:

Depression
Anxiety and Worry
Panic Attacks
Low Self-esteem
Extreme Shyness
Unresolved Grief
Trauma

Typically it takes between 3 to 10 sessions for someone with any or all of these issues to experience dramatic relief from their symptoms. Better yet, using my method of transpersonal hypnosis and hypnotherapy/NLP, the problem is pulled out by the root, so to speak. Rather than simply treating the symptoms with drugs, the client is empowered by learning how to tap the vast resources of their own subconscious mind. What they learn in their sessions can then be applied in many other areas of their lives as well.

May we all experience freedom from suffering!

Schedule a private session either in person or by phone with Jack Elias, CHT, author of Finding True Magic: Transpersonal Hypnotherapy/NLP©

Note: The above is not intended to suggest that you should not consult with your doctor if you are experiencing severe anxiety, depression, or suicidal thoughts. More specifically, the author of this blog is in no way practicing medicine or purporting to do so by offering the above opinions.

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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.