Author: Marc

Interesting, You Can Fix That

Top Hypnosis Expert Reveals How to Remove the Fear of Clowns (and avoid Embarrassment!)

,Just in time for Halloween Stephen King’s film IT (#IT) is set to open on September 8th.  We can be sure that Throughout the U.S. there be a resurgence of  Scary Clowns invading communities and terrorizing people.  In the past, these reports included attempts by some to lure children into the woods.  The Scary clowns have people afraid, police and sheriff’s departments scrambling, and reports of physical attacks on innocent pedestrians.

Every year, about this time, I receive a few phone calls from people with a special fear.  The technical term is Coulrophobia – The Fear of Clowns!  This fear seems to haunt more people in Gen-Y and Gen-X than prior groups and there appears to be some strong indicators as to why this is.

The boomer generation grew up with clowns such as Bozo and Clarabel during the 1950’s and 60’s.  These clowns were associated with fun, laughter and cartoons, the pacifier of the generation.   That, however changed dramatically in the early 70’s with the infamous – Killer Clown – John Wayne Gacy (Pogo the Clown).

Originally, clowns were more an adult entertainment going back to the “court-jesters” or “fools”.    Beginning in the late 18th and 19th centuries, the appearance of clowns began to shift and the first appearances of the painted white face and exaggerated expression (makeup) entered the scene.   These exaggerated expressions, which hide true, and recognizable facial features are in large part the reason for the fear.

Olivia Goldhill, former features writer for The Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/halloween/11194653/Why-are-we-so-scared-of-clowns.html) sums up the reaction of many in regards to clowns:

“The more you stare at a clown’s perpetually smiling face, the more it warps into something more sinister.

Clowns are supposedly figures of innocent fun – brightly colored jesters to entertain our children and slip on banana skins in exaggerated displays of slapstick comedy.

But the manic joy, the mask of make-up and the excessive familiarity are just a hair’s breadth away from terror.”

It is the grotesque, unnatural appearance of the human face and body, which triggers the fight/flight/freeze mechanism deep within our brains.  We get a sense of unease which is often amplified by the clown character acting in ways that would otherwise be socially unacceptable.  It is this very sense of discomfort and unease that authors such as Stephen King and director Stephen Spielberg tap into in the film IT  with the character PennyWise, or the character Twisty the clown in American Horror Freak Show, or the Joker in Batman.  In each of these, the clown embodies evil. The fear that often develops in young children who are sensitive to this odd, unfamiliar face (exaggerated features and hair) in a familiar body.  Historically, the actual people who have played clowns are themselves, sad, tragic, and often times sadistic people.

Children are taught, from the earliest ages, to avoid strangers.  It’s common for children to think that “bad strangers” look scary, like the villains in cartoons.  This is a natural growth that results from both the experience of seeing scary scenes, and creating them within their own minds.  This taught response, along with the stories reported in the news and social media have heightened the concerns and level of angst parents and communities are having.  Schools are reinforcing the warnings, especially among younger children.

While a small percentage of the U.S. population would actually be classified as coulrophoic (having the fear of clowns), they nonetheless do exist.  It is particularly difficult for these people during the Halloween season, when there is a greater number of people dressing up as clowns, and is further amplified by constant and increasing number of reports.

Fears or phobias are generally the result of unresolved processing of a traumatic experience.  Through hypnosis, the person suffering from the fear often plays a self-reinforcing, though unhealthy, mental loop that confirms the feeling.  I have helped a significant number of clients remove a host of fears and phobias that have previously paralyzed them.  Hypnosis is a powerful and useful tool in helping people overcome fears and phobias by helping them address and resolve the originating event that is the basis of their behavior.  Clients are then able to enjoy life.

Whether you fear clowns, heights, bridges, snakes or spiders, isn’t it time you made a positive change in your life with hypnosis?  STOP being controlled by your fear!  START living life free of anxiety.  I can help you with hypnosis.  SEE how!  Contact me at – info@hypnomarc.com or visit my websited – www.hypnomarc.com to request more information and to schedule your appointment – RIGHT NOW!

 

Marc Marshall, CH CHMI, is a certified consulting and stage hypnotist, author and motivational speaker with offices in Summit, NJ and Shaftsbury, VT.  He has helped people make dramatic improvements in their lives through his pain management, smoking cessation, weight loss, reducing stress and anxiety, and resolving fears and phobias programs.  Learn more today.

Interesting

 Have you ever wondered … “Have I been here before? “

 Have you ever wondered … “Have I been here before? “

Does this sound familiar?  You meet someone for the very first time, yet you feel as though you know them from somewhere? You just can’t pinpoint how you know them, but you just can’t shake the feeling that the two of you are somehow connected.  Most of us have experienced this sense of déjà vu in our lives.  Having lived a past life is, perhaps something that you may have thought about but dismissed.  Sometimes these experiences are so powerful it is difficult to come to any other conclusion, other than I must have lived in another time.

Those of us who have done work and explored our past lives share this guidance:  when you encounter this situation, trust this feeling.  It is important that you trust your gut. This person is coming into your life again for a reason. Usually, when someone visits you from a past life, it means that you have some sort of unfinished business.

Let’s consider 8 Signs that you have met a person from a past life or have experienced a past life:

1 – Instant Rapport – You start talking and the next thing you realize, hours have past and it as though you are catching up with someone you hadn’t spoken to in a while.  You have a feeling of ease, comfort and peacefulness in their presence.

2 – Intense Immediate Dislike –  You experience a strong or visceral dislike, even though you are meeting this person for the first time.  There is just a gut feeling that screams out and for which you have no other reasonable explanation.  These people will continue to cross your path in future lives until you both resolve the issues between you.

3 – Experience a Short, But Intense Relationship –  Have you ever had a relationship with someone that was short-lived, perhaps months or weeks long, but extremely intense.  These are frequently events that resolve issues for both of you from a past life.  It is an event that brings closure, even though it may be painful.

4 – You Recognize Their Eyes – Just think back to a time when you met someone and you recognize their eyes.  It is something that is common with true soulmates and often reflects a past life connection.

5 – You Share a Telepathic Connection –  Perhaps there is someone in your life that you each know what the other is going to say before they say it.   Those who have experienced past lives together frequently have deeper connections than those we encounter for the first time.  It is as if we can read each other like a book.

6 – Someone is Helping you for No Apparent Reason –  Have you ever encountered someone in your life who gives you something you desperately need, emotional or physical, at the very moment you need it, without them having any expectation of repayment?   This is often them repaying you in this life for something you gave them in a previous one.

7- Is this Person Helping You to Learn Something About Yourself?  – Has someone come into your present life that is challenging you to grow.  This challenge can be either positive or negative, but the more challenging, the greater the likelihood that it is something from multiple past lives with this person.

8 – A Feeling of Déjà Vu – Are you experiencing a situation with this person that has or appears to have happened to you before? Is history repeating itself, but with different people?  This repeating of a past experience with a different person, is an indication of a lesson from a previous life that you have yet to master.  The new person who has come into your present life in this repeated situation is a “new teacher”.   Once you have learned this lesson, the person may leave your life or change the nature of the relationship with them.  However, you will find that you no longer experience this recurring situation.

There are many more examples that I can share with you, but I know you are aware of them because you are reading this blog.  If you want more information, or want to be part of one of my future, limited engagement, small group Past Life Exploration Workshops, be sure to share this with your friends and join my mailing list below.  I won’t fill your mailbox with spam, and I surely won’t share your information with anyone else.

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Interesting, You Can Fix That

Why Don’t We Teach Mindfulness in Schools?

What if you had the power to change your students’ outcomes, improve their ability to regulate behaviors and emotions, and give them a life-long tool that has been proven to be beneficial to their health?  And, what if that could be done in every school, every day, without taking away instructional time or adding additional planning burdens on educators, or costing hundreds of dollars?   And, what if parents, educators and administrators also reaped these same benefits, would you do it?

As we enter a new school year, these are the questions we should be answering, with a resounding “YES”.  The scientific proofs are irrefutable.  Thousands of studies, throughout the world, have shown the benefits to the individual, the institutions and to society.  Mindfulness practice is taught, or researched in the top universities including Yale, Harvard, Stamford and Oxford.  Oxford even offers a master’s degree in mindfulness practice.

Mindfulness practice is not a religion or new age practice

Mindfulness practice is not a religion or new age practice.  Rather, it is a skill that trains people to be able to control their reactions to emotions and stimuli.  It does not negate emotion.  On the contrary mindfulness allows us to feel the emotion and become active, rather than reactive.  It gives us the ability to place a pause and to become reflective instead of reactive.  The skill of learning not to be controlled by our emotions is critical for both physical and emotional health.  It is a skill that is required to succeed in life, not just in school.  In fact, major corporations and business leaders spend thousands of dollars to learn mindfulness for themselves and to train their team members, so they can improve success rates and increase bottom-line results.

Among the results of research on high school aged children in the United States, we have found that nearly half meet the criteria for having a mental health issue.  This includes conditions such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders and ADHD.  These conditions often lead to suicide attempts or ideation.  Behavioral issues are the single most cited reason for student drop-out.

Further studies on teaching mindfulness practice in the classroom have shown dramatic increases in the ability of students to regulate their emotions, demonstrate pro-social behaviors and improve academic achievement.  These are important results because they ultimately result in teachers having more instructional time, rather than less.

So, the question that must be answered is “Why Don’t We Teach Mindfulness in Our Schools?”  Why aren’t parents, business leaders, educators demanding the inclusion of mindfulness practice as a required course in the school curriculum?  These questions are confounding when we look at those schools that have incorporated mindfulness practice as part of their curriculum and the results they have achieved.

Mindfulness practice trains us to be “present”

Mindfulness practice trains us to be “present”; that is having an awareness of the moment so that you can connect with it.  It is about focusing your attention on one thing at a time, focusing on a person, a task or an event.  The result of such practice is a greater sense of calm and well-being, better understanding of self and subject, and more productivity.  Imagine the benefits that educators, students and families could reap from the inclusion of mindfulness practice in our schools.

The challenge for school administrators is recognizing the amazing benefits of including mindfulness practice in the classroom.  Most administrators are driven by the cost of implementation or push-back resulting from fears of failure.  These drivers include staff development time, impact on instructional time, result measurement, intractability of Boards of Education and Superintendents.  Another challenge is finding the experts to train staff, as well as finding the materials necessary to successfully design a program.  But, what if the cost of such a program was less than their morning coffee and bagel?  What if, there was a resource that provided a step by step, fun instructional guide for teachers and the research to demonstrate the benefits to Boards of Educations and Superintendents?

These are exactly the challenges that I sought to address when I wrote – “Staying In The Moment – Helping Students Achieve More Through Mindfulness Meditation”.  This ebook gives you a proven path to improve student outcomes and help you once again energize you and your classroom.   Implementing mindfulness practice in your classroom significantly reduces disturbances and behavioral issues, increases student participation, and most importantly empowers you and your students to achieve more than ever thought possible.

The exercises that I give you in “Staying In The Moment – Helping Students Achieve More Through Mindfulness Meditation” are easily adapted to any age group, including faculty and staff.  You owe it to yourself and your students to discover how this ebook gives you the exact steps to improve student outcomes… in a couple of weeks.

The best part is that I have made buying this ebook a No-Brainer!  As I teacher, I know how much of my own money I spend for my students.  So I priced this ebook at a price that guarantees you will buy it.  I want you to be able to download and use these techniques and not break the bank.  I want all of our classrooms to develop students with life-time skills.  In order to do that, I decided this ebook would be in everyone’s reach.  I have made it available for most major ebook readers and the cost is only… $2.99.

Make this year different!  Start right now just use the tab below and purchase your copy of  “Staying In The Moment – Helping Students Achieve More Through Mindfulness Meditation”.    Please share this blog post and information with your colleagues and be sure to drop me a line about your success with the program.

Buy - Staying In The Moment

Interesting, You Can Fix That

Improving Sleep with Hypnosis

Improving Sleep with Hypnosis

 

Over the years, I have had many people come to me because of non-biologically based sleep issues.  Some of these issues are related to Post Traumatic Stress (PTS).  Some are related to work; some are related to relationship challenges; some are because of diet.    And others present with no consciously apparent cause.

For those clients who present with a specific issue such as trauma or stress, our work to clear and address these issues is frequently all that is needed to help them once again enjoy life and resolve the challenges that have created the negativity that has been controlling their lives.  In the case of those that are unable to specifically pinpoint a cause or causes, I work with them to clear those less than positive experiences that the subconscious mind is focusing on and which is playing out as a negative loop when they are trying to sleep.

It is the negative loop that needs to be broken in order for the client to move forward and experience success.  Hypnosis, unlike prescription medications, which have significant and often dangerous side-effects, including addiction and abuse, improves feelings of general well-being, peace and calm.  As with many other presenting complaints, clients seeking to deal with sleep deprivation or insomnia, find that hypnosis empowers them to take back control of their lives.  It is this empowerment, along with the immediately recognizable phenomena, that creates a new, positive resource state that the client can use in all aspects of their lives.

The use of hypnosis as a means of resolving a host of issues dates back more than 4000 years to the Egyptians.  There are many documented instances of the presences of sleep chambers or sleep temples that utilized trance states. [i]   The process used by the Egyptians is well documented through hieroglyphics.  Other later civilizations, including the Romans and Chinese, also utilized hypnosis for resolving and treating many maladies or to reach enhanced states of awareness.

One of the more interesting phenomena that I have recently noticed is an uptick in the number of new clients who are seeking help to resolve sleep issues.  The majority of these clients are reporting increased levels of stress resulting from demands at work, in relationships, as well as feeling uneasy about the world around them.  Most of these people are tethered to their computers, tablets and smart-phones, leaving them no ability to shutoff the constant bombardment of information and stimulation.   They report less satisfying or no intimacy with others.  They seek activities that will help them escape, only to discover these don’t work.  Hypnosis, however, provides these people with the tool they seek to finally close off the “noise” of the outside world and get the sleep and relief they are searching for.

While I am able to address a broad range of concerns in my individual or group hypnosis sessions with clients, I also get inquiries from people who want to see what hypnosis feels like without having to come to my office.  Through these recordings, individuals get some of the benefits they are seeking and often provides them with a positive hypnosis experience.  This positive experience with the specially developed recordings, eventually leads many of them to contact me and move forward with a more comprehensive hypnosis session.  If you, or someone you care about, suffers from insomnia or other sleep related issues, and are not yet ready to make an appointment to see me, consider purchasing a no-risk recording to improve your sleep.  This link will take you directly to my secure store-front where you can quickly and easily download your recording and start sleeping better tonight for just $8.99. Buy Now - Sleep Tonight

 

[i] Chokroverty, S., & Billiard, M. (2015). Sleep medicine: a comprehensive guide to its development, clinical milestones, and advances in treatment. New York: Springer. (Sleep in Ancient Egypt, Tarek Asaad)