Hypnotic Thoughts.

This is how powerful your mind is!

My pal Rory Raven passed this story on to me today.  Very cool.

What do people fear most?

I ask this question at my shows and presentations all the time: what's the most common fear Americans have today?  The answers are consistent.  People think it's heights, or flying, or spiders, or snakes.  Nine out of ten times, they don't get it.  The greatest fear the average person in America has today is the fear of speaking in front of a group.  Public speaking.  Really.

Talking.  You may be thinking, "How can you be afraid of talking?"  Well, you can, because it's not so much the fear of talking as the fear of the people you're talking to.  Getting up in front of a group of people and speaking to them creates a situation in which you're placed in a position of opposition.  You are separated from the group, and this prevents you from blending into the group.  Most folks have a natural instinct to blend in, not stand out.  I'm not a clinical professional, but you can read about social phobias in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, fourth edition.  This website has the listing from the manual.

Here's the good news: hypnosis can help!  Anxiety is a reaction related to the fight-or-flight response hard-wired into the brain, and hypnosis can re-program the trigger for this particular activation of the response.  I've just released a new product to help people who fear public speaking.  It's called "Speak with Confidence!"

The process is super simple.  You listen to the recording once a day for a week leading up to the presentation you have to make.  The recording will give direct suggestions to the subconscious level of your mind, changing the way it thinks about speaking to groups.  The recording will also provide suggestions for boosting your confidence and getting more focused at the time of your presentation so that your mind works more efficiently. 

Some people who use the product will find that it immediately resolves the issue, while others will discover that it decreases their anxiety more and more as they use it over time.  Hypnosis is a dynamic process that works differently for each person.  This program covers the most common issues folks face when they fear public speaking so that it will appeal to as many people as possible.

This is the part of my job that is the most gratifying.  Being able to help people, using hypnosis, create happier, more fulfilled versions of themselves is so rewarding to me, and every time I create a new product like this one it really gets me excited.  In fact, I'm so eager to get this product out there that I'm going to offer a discount code on this product for the rest of this week.  Use the code "take5off" when you purchase this new product by Friday, May 2 and you'll get $5.00 off the cost of the program.  That's basically 25% off!  Enjoy it.  Use it.  You deserve it.

Your next success is right around the corner.

You'd be healthier if you'd just relax.

Northwestern National Life conducted a survey of workers and found that one-fourth of employees report their jobs as the number one source of stress in their lives.  According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers who must take time off work because of stress will be off the job for about 20 days.  These are just a couple of items from a National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report on stress at work.

None of us can completely avoid stress.  It's just a part of life.  It's amazing to me, though, how ill-prepared most people are for dealing with their daily stress.  They just don't think about stress as something that can be managed; they've come to expect stress on a daily basis, and as a result they don't bother to do anything about it.  The results of this can be catastrophic.

Would you drive a car day in, day out, without ever providing any maintenance to it?  Of course not!  You get the oil changed at regular intervals, rotate the tires, and have it serviced in other ways on a regular basis.  If you don't, that car will break down, and you won't be able to get where you want to go.  Why should your body and mind be any different?  How are you performing regular maintenance on yourself?

Stress is negative energy, and that negative energy will accumulate physically and mentally until you do something to release it or let it dissipate.  Stress actually activates the fight-or-flight response that is hardwired into your brain.  When stress levels reach significant levels, the mind changes the way the body is working.  Heart rate, breathing, and hormone production all change.  This is part of the natural way your mind knows how to take care of your body, but if you don't find a way to stop that accumulation of stress, the physiological changes in your body, extended over a period of time, will actually become harmful.  Fatigue and hypertension start to break your body down.  You get headaches, perhaps lose your appetite.  The immune system weakens.  Eventually, your body will stop working for you.  You'll get sick.  This will FORCE you to take a break and let your body and mind take a break from the stress.  What a lousy way to get "better."

You can develop healthy practices that will reduce your stress, and they don't have to take a lot of time or effort.  Here are some ideas:

1. Learn to breathe better.  Most folks take the way they breath for granted, but it really does matter.  As we get stressed, our breathing gets shorter, more shallow, and this actually creates tension in our shoulders and upper back.  Breathe in as you count to five, and really let that air get down into the lower parts of your lungs.  Let your belly push way out and relax those abdominals. Hold the breathe for a few seconds, and then exhale and let everything just loosen up and relax as you breathe out.  Repeat this two more times.  You'll be amazed at how much better you feel.  The whole process takes less than a minute!  Do it once every half hour, and you will notice a HUGE change in the way you feel.
2. Stretch!  If you have a physically demanding job, then there's a good chance lactic acid builds up in your muscles.  Stretching will help get it out and let your body process it away.  If you have a job at a desk, a more sedentary job, chances are good that you are consistently losing your range of motion and having your muscles shrink up on you from lack of activity.  Either way, stretching will help.  Consult with your physician or a personal trainer on what stretches would work best for you, given your job.  It doesn't take a lot of time, and it could make a big difference in how you feel.
3. Music soothes the savage beast.  Musical tones affect brain activity.  Find yourself some music that is bio-rhythmic.  This music is actually created so that the beats are in tune with the average person's heartbeat at a resting level.  Your mind can actually tune itself to the music!  You may find that it slows you down and helps you reduce your stress at work.
4. SMILE.  Smiling produces an immediate mental shift.  It's a hardwired response in the brain.  Find opportunities to smile.  CREATE opportunities to smile.  Smiling will create a chemical release in the brain that will help shift your state of mind.  Sharing your smile with others will not only make you feel better, but spread the positive energy to others.  Pretty cool.

There's one more option, and for this one, all you have to do is sit there.  Hypnosis!  You can use a hypnotic audio recording to go into trance and just relax for awhile.  I have many clients who use my relaxation program to unwind after they get home from a long day's work.  In fact, that CD is my most popular product.

The bottom line is this:  you have to provide the maintenance, or you're going to break down!  Nobody knows you like you do.  Be honest with yourself and identify the ways in which you could be taking better care of yourself.  How might your life be better if you took a couple of steps toward managing your stress more effectively?  Think about it, and choose something for yourself that you know is doable as your way of moving toward a healthier approach to stress management.

Your next success is right around the corner.

Tom Nicoli writes for BuyHypnosisProducts.com

One of the great things about my profession is that it has, in my opinion, a higher level of collegiality than many other professions.  Hypnotists tend to be pretty good about sharing ideas and best practices rather than keeping them as trade secrets.  Tom Nicoli is one of the best hypnotists out there today, and I was thrilled when he offered to write a short piece for my website.  Here's a link to Tom's article, "Hypnosis Helps Remove the Fear to Change."

Manchester Memorial...again.

Last night I traveled to Manchester for the third day in a row to visit Memorial High School for the second time in just over a month.  There was such a buzz around school after the fundraiser show we did in March that they called me up and asked me to do another one in April.  That's never happened before, so I figured I'd give it a try.  Sure enough, they had increased attendance from the first show, bringing their two show total to over $1,500.  I've now helped high schools raise over $15,000 for their programs, and that makes me feel pretty good.

Slowly, but surely, I keep getting more schools to join the fundraiser program.  I know that it works, and schools are starting to come around.  Compared to other fundraisers, my program seems too good to be true when advisors and students learn about it, and I think that has kept groups from giving it a go, but now that it's been working for four years it's becoming a known quantity, and the word going around from school to school confirms its efficacy.

I did a completely different show this time than last month's, and it's all on DVD .  Hopefully we can create a strong annual tradition at Memorial that will lead to lots of fun, and profitable fundraising, for years and years to come.

Trinity High School Show

Yesterday I made my first visit to Trinity High School in Manchester, NH.  Trinity is having a big spirit week this week, and they wanted some entertainment as part of the festivities.  They allowed their seniors to volunteer to be hypnotized, and I got a nice group that did quite well.  We had a tight schedule, which left me with only an hour to do the show.  Usually I go for an hour and a half to two hours, so I had to crank up the pace of my work substantially and I had to take out some material, but working faster than usual allowed me to keep plenty of good material in and I thought the show went very well.  The students seemed genuinely appreciative as I was leaving the school.

In the stage hypnotism world, the really big money is in corporate events.  Big corporate parties and conventions are venues in which hypnotists can charge three to four times what I charge right now, but I don't know if I'll ever head in that direction.  Students are so much more fun.  They have more energy than adults, and they're more open-minded, so they just make better hypnotic subjects.  It's also really important to me that my stage show help open up people's minds to the potential that hypnosis has for them, and I feel like that message gets through to young people a little more easily.

My thanks go out to Terri Henning and Bill Sheehan for bringing me to Trinity, and also to Dan, Josh, and Patrick for taking care of all my technical needs.  You guys were great.

If you were in the show and would like a souvenir DVD, you can purchase one at my online store.

Ric Flair and Me: Jet Flyin'

Friday night I drove down to Amherst, Massachusetts for a show at the UMass campus.  It was my first visit to UMass-Amherst, and the show was actually in a residence hall.  Van Meter is a large building, and they were able to create attendance like a small college usually does.  I got a nice volunteer group and we had a good time together.

I left Amherst and drove north to Manchester, NH, where I grabbed a hotel room and got a few hours sleep before hopping on a plane and flying to Raleigh, NC Saturday morning.  I grabbed a rental car and drove two and a half hours south to Charlotte.  It was my first visit to the Johnson and Wales Charlotte campus, and my first visit to Charlotte, as well.  The show was attended by a small crowd, which can be a refreshing change every now and then when the venue is small as well, which it was.  Doing small shows really lets me feel like I can be a bit more personal, less "staged" with the audience.  I think it lets me get the message across more explicitly about how what they're seeing is not just entertainment, but a great way of demonstrating the power of the human mind.

While at Johnson and Wales I was excited to see that only three days after my performance the school was going to be visited by former professional wrestler Ric Flair.  Professional wrestling has been a guilty pleasure of mine for years, and Ric Flair has always been my favorite wrestler.  Flair just wrestled his final match at Wrestlemania in March.  He wrestled into his mid 50's!  In some ways Flair has been a tragic figure for me, as he has struggled in his personal life while enjoying enormous success as an entertainer.  Even though I wouldn't get to meet him or see him, it was cool for me just knowing that I had a gig at the same place where he would be a guest speaker only days later.

April has been a busier month than I anticipated, and it's allowed me to work on some fun new material.  I've got a concept for a whole new show that I'm excited about, but it will be several more months before I'm ready to actively promote the new show and perform it on a regular basis.  More on that later.  For now, I'm happy to be performing the two show formats I already have.