Setting Goals / Meeting Challenges

This has been a busy, but highly rewarding week.  This week, I have met two very significant challenges presented to me by my mentor and made possible through my practice of motivational hypnosis.  I don’t share this to brag or blow my own horn, but rather I share it with the belief that someone else will find a spark within themselves to accomplish something different in their lives.

Many of those who come to me for personal improvement work through hypnosis find themselves stuck.  They have a closed mindset that keeps them mired in the past or paralyzed for fear of the future.  They lack confidence and a vision.  Regardless of whatever a client comes to me for assistance with, the first thing that I teach them is a simple mindfulness meditation exercise, which I ask them to commit to for a short period every day for a month.  It is not like I am asking them to devote hours each day.  Rather, the entire process is less than 15 minutes daily and the benefits lifelong.

Through the mindfulness practice, my clients gain important health benefits of stress reduction, lowered blood pressure, and relaxation.  Equally beneficial, is the results they obtain in making significant and positive changes in their lives.  It is in those few minutes every day, that those clients who adopt the practice are able to step back from the insanity of daily living and gain the clarity necessary to focus on goal setting and attainment.  The fact is, those clients who take up mindfulness meditation are the ones who develop the habits that result in rapid and lasting changes for the things they were looking to change through our hypnosis sessions.  When clients are mindful about their food, they eat better and meet weight loss goals.  When clients are mindful of being non-smokers, they achieve those lifelong benefits.  And, the list goes on.

As we approach the weekend, it is a good time to reflect on the week.  Did you have any goals for the best week that you were working towards?  Did you make progress on those goals?  Can you visualize and imagine how good you will feel as you accomplish those goals?  If, the answer to these three questions is not YES, then I challenge you to set a simple goal that you can accomplish in the next week or so.  Then I challenge you to focus on a longer term goal.  And if this is something that you struggle with, I invite you to text me by sending the word MOTIVATE TO 44222 and let me help you begin the process of motivating yourself and becoming the person you know you can be.  It is really a simple process, if you want to see real results and positive change.

Change Your Thoughts

I’m sure that most of us have heard this quote from Mahatma Gandhi

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, Your thoughts become your words, Your words become your actions, Your actions become your habits, Your habits become your values, Your values become your destiny.”

During my time as a high school teacher in an alternative high school environment,  I had the challenge of changing the way my students viewed themselves, their abilities to achieve their goals, and move their lives from that of chaos and confusion to a more orderly and sane life.  As part of the work that I did with them, I developed some exercises and lessons based on Sean Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.  Those habits – “1) Be Proactive, 2) Begin with the End in Mind, 3) Put First Things First, 4) Think Win-Win, 5) Seek First to Understand Then to Be Understood, 6) Synergize, and 7) Sharpen the Saw” – were completely foreign concepts to them, as to many adults I encounter. 

You are probably asking yourself what any of this has to do with hypnosis?   I promise that I will tell you in a moment.  Along my journey to perfect my skills as a hypnotist, I came to fully understand the power of language in shaping our thoughts, emotions and behaviors.  In simple terms, picture your mind as an iceberg.  The part that you see above the water, about 10% is our conscious mind.  The conscious mind is the rational mind that judges the information we are receiving and deciding whether it is true or false, whether we should believe it or not. This is where our short-term memory resides.   The other 90% of our mind, the subconscious mind, is like a hard-drive that is switched on at (or before birth) and records everything that goes on around us.  It notes every experience and feeling.  It regulates our body functions, and does not require us to be aware of its functioning.  This is the emotional mind.  Our behaviors are controlled by our subconscious mind.  This is important since our subconscious mind, that part of our mind that makes up 90%, relates all behaviors to emotions.  As a hypnotist, I work with language to help my clients reach their maximum potential by replacing negative emotions and behaviors with positive habits.   These changes bring about dramatic impacts in the lives my clients who are dealing with things such as anxiety, stress, pain, fear, inability to stop smoking, or lose weight, or want to perform better in work or sports.

It is our focus that becomes our reality.  If we are focused on negative outcomes, we surely will miss the positive opportunities.   I had a sign in my classroom that read: “THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FAILURE – THERE IS ONLY FEEDBACK!”  That does not mean that students did not earn D’s or F’s, but rather the grades they earned gave them feedback about what they needed to do to improve their performance.  Did they need to study?  Did they need to come to class?  Did they need to spend time with me asking questions on things they did not understand?  That was their job and my expectation.

A friend of mine, Colin T. Fisher, who is also a Master Hypnotist and Law of Attraction Coach from the UK (www.TheRealLawOfAttraction.com), shared with me his book – Dreams into Reality.  The book consists of a series of 12 poems that take you on a journey of self-discovery and reinforces what I have demonstrated to clients, the incredible power of their minds to achieve anything they focus on.  As a hypnotist, I work with you to create positive feelings that replace the negative ones that hold you back. 

Begin focusing on the positive, today.  Do what I teach all my clients to do, begin with a simple practice of mindfulness meditation and see how your life will improve.  Here’s a link to my simple guided mindfulness meditation recording that has helped my students, my friends and my clients.  

Mindfulness Meditation Practice - Week 1

High Anxiety . . . College Admission Test Anxiety

High anxiety is not just the title to the 1977 Mel Brooks homage to Alfred Hitchcock, but more accurately describes that “pit in the stomach” feeling that so many people get when having to take those all-important college entrance or promotional exams (SAT, ACT, LSAT, MCAT, GRE).  Sure, you’ve spent hundreds or thousands of dollars taking classes to get you ready.  You’ve spent weeks on practice exams and studying.  But, you can’t shake that uneasy feeling; the test anxiety that gets in the way of you performing your best.  You don’t want to walk out of that test saying . . . “I knew the answers to those questions!”

Studies have repeatedly shown that stress and anxiety are major contributors in our inability to recall important information at critical times.  The stress of achieving a score that makes you the optimal candidate for your new position or college entrance works against both the ability to learn and retain information, as well as the ability to easily recall it.  This is where hypnosis can be most beneficial.

Hypnosis provides you with the ability to reduce or eliminate stress so you are open to receive and effectively process the material you get from those prep classes.  More importantly, hypnosis to eliminate test anxiety provides you with the ability to recall and apply knowledge you have obtained throughout your experience, not just in your preparation classes.  This allows you to perform with confidence and at your best.  Contact me today to schedule your session and learn how to “Marshall the Power of Your Mind.”

With offices conveniently located in Westfield, NJ and Shaftsbury, VT you can finally feel confident. For more information or to schedule your appointment visit – www.hypnomarc.com – or email me at: info@hypnomarc.com . Convenient weekend and evening sessions available.   Marc Marshall, CH HypnoMarc, LLC