Working4Me

Miley Cyrus Demonstrates the Authority Trance

Anyone who begins a study of hypnosis in earnest will eventually learn of the various methods of hypnotic induction, and one of those methods is by using the perceived authority of the hypnotist. The client who perceives an authority or an air of confidence in their operator will often go into hypnotic trance more easily than with some unknown fellow off the street.

We're taught that if we observe a client who might respond well to authority influence, we might use more imperative language in our inductions to calibrate for a better response.

Unfortunately, authority is used frequently to coerce and persuade people to do things they would not normally do, and according to Miley Cyrus that's what happened in her Vanity Fair photo session.  The news report I saw quoted Miley as saying something to the effect of "You just don't say 'No' to Annie", referring to the photography legend Annie Leibovitz.

This, I claim, is a great teachable moment for parents of Hannah Montana fans. Use this as an opportunity to discuss authority with your kids - where is authority legitimate, where is it not, what are reasonable boundaries, etc. Authority has its place in society but it can clearly be abused. While it's not appropriate to resist all authority for the sake of resisting (polarity responding, anyone?), it's often important in our "uptime" to think critically about situations in our daily lives that might not seem important at the time, but may have remifications later on.

Miley, I hope you've learned something about coercion and authority.  You have a respected place in the hearts of many young people. Please use that responsibly to teach positive values and do not abuse it.

How to Use Motivational NLP While Exercising

Here are a few notes on using NLP to help with motivation in your daily exercise. I have been employing these concepts to keep my daily routine in place and I'm getting great results. Sorry it's not a very systematic, coherent article but it's meant to get my thoughts documented for further refinement later.

The old saying, "keep your eyes on the prize" holds true. With proper well-formed outcomes, it's hard not to exercise regularly because you'll always be able to see, hear, and feel the benefits of a healthy body. Build up that desired target state where you feel great because you're in such good shape, and then anchor a particular warm-up exercise to that state. Then use that warmup each time you exercise to "get your glow on" and fly through whatever exercise time will allow.

I suspect that a lot of chi kung (qigong) and yoga might work like this. Once you have efficient, well-refined biomechanics going on, your nervous system seems to recognize the physical benefits on an unconscious level and it keeps you going, perhaps even propelling you into mild euphoric states which are then anchored to and reinforced by the postures you're using.

Most people familiar with NLP and hypnosis will already have some simple trigger for the "motivated" state, since myriad techniques abound in virtually every book on the subject, even on TV... check out "I Can Make You Thin" sometime. If you encounter sluggishness or resistance once you've already begun your routine, or you're on a treadmill and don't want to stop and go back to your motivational warmup, just fire off your tried and true anchor from when you first started learning NLP techniques.

Another thought- if you're exercising by yourself, it's a great time to tune in to your self-talk. Either silence or make any desired changes to your internal dialogue while exercising. I remember a few times during Aikido training that the training was so demanding of my attention that the dialogue just shut off and great clarity of mind came about. Those moments were fleeting, but they provide reference resources that I can access in other situations. So use your solo exercise as a time to establish all kinds of internal states which you can access more easily at other times.

Question Yourself!

Some people might think that becoming more effective requires never questioning themselves.
I've encountered this proposition a few times, and I must say that I feel compelled to question it.

I'm reminded of the popular bumper sticker, t-shirt, or button that says "Question Authority!" Well, by what authority are they exhorting me to question authority? What authority specifically, and how specifically should I question it/them? 

Well, in this case specifically, I suggest questioning yourself by your own authority.  Confused yet? Let me elaborate.

When we notice our own internal dialogue, a common tactic is to try to go silent inside. A silent internal dialogue is frequently an indicator of flow state, so NLP, meditation, and hypnosis abound with techniques for silencing your mind.  But in some cases, it might be a useful tactic to "embrace and extend" your internal dialogue by questioning it with the NLP meta model. Can you see how that might be useful?

So when I say that I question myself sometimes, I am not committing the great "sin" against the American way known as "self-doubt", but I am literally asking questions of my internal dialogue.  Since it's part of me, of course it sometimes has interesting things to say.  So why not examine what it's saying by getting it to elaborate upon it's usually vague unspecified statements, and if consciously I think my dialogue is somehow disconnected from reality, I can reconnect it by using the meta model internally.

For those of you who don't know the meta model of NLP, I highly recommend Bandler and Grinder's The Structure of Magic, and any number of other good NLP books or web sites that can get you started.

Learning Drill for Ericksonian Hypnotic Language Patterns

I mentioned some time back that I purchased a deck of Jamie Smart's Ericksonian Hypnosis Playing Cards. What an awesome tool for learning hypnotic language patterns! Like drinking games, you can incorporate hypnotic language patterns in virtually any card game to help internalize those patterns in your speech.

Here's a simple drill you can start using now, even if you don't particularly like card games:

1) Every morning, shuffle the deck and draw 1, 2, or 3 cards.
2) Repeat a few examples of each to yourself so you can hear yourself using them.
3) Those are your patterns for the day - make sure you weave them in your conversations throughout the day. Don't worry about having a goal in mind, or implanting suggestions in anyone's mind. This is practice, so just get natural at using those patterns!

If you pay attention to the things people say around you every day, you'll notice that certain people have their own way of phrasing things habitually.  Making Erickson's patterns part of your habitual language will result in lining your everyday speech up with one of the most persuasive communicators in recent history.

Musings on Why Diabetics Don't Take Better Care of Themselves

Devin Hastings has written a thought-provoking article on the American Chronicle web site covering the ins and outs of diabetes and how hypnosis might play a part in improving their quality of life. 

I'd like to point out and amplify his recommendation of Michael Yapko's books.  They are a treasure trove of information and, as you might imagine from anything I recommend, Yapko sticks to the solid technique and avoids faux mysticism and appeals to quantum physics.  I would expect nothing less from someone of Yapko's credentials, but with the deluge of Law of Attraction stuff out there, it's worth pointing out the value of the lack of "the secret".  :-)

Back to diabetes and hypnosis - in the specific diabetic cases where weight loss and exercise would be of benefit, it's possible that a good hypnotist could really help out.  Even simple motivation techniques designed to get people running, lifting weights, practicing martial arts, etc would be a boon; who wouldn't benefit from some exercise?  For specifics, check out Devin Hastings' article, which is a refreshing look at hypnosis among a sea of sensationalist media.