I’d never been hypnotised. Or so I thought. In actuality, I’d hypnotised myself countless times. Again and again and again. I’d hypnotised myself into believing certain things were true and unchangeable about me, about my life, about my capabilities, about my limitations.
- “I can’t do that because people will think…”
- “I can’t go there because I’m not good enough to…”
- “I couldn’t start that initiative because…”
- “I wouldn’t be able to do that because…”
And so, without conscious awareness, I was already a well-established hypnotist.
On a personal level, learning and practising cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy was a process of de-hypnotising.
To dehypnotise: to unlearn learned thought patterns and behaviour. To deconstruct what I had unwittingly constructed.
And so, I discovered that hypnotherapy provides an opportunity to teach the mind and body new ‘truths’. Suddenly, a playground of possibilities opened before me. What did I want my mind to believe about me? And what knock-on effect would that have on my emotions? And how would that affect the way my body responds?
I was like a kid in a sweet shop. Suddenly, I could be anything.
Through a process of learning relaxation and self-hypnosis skills, and in a relatively brief span of time, I unlearned:
- That my body didn’t need to respond to living in Cambodia with anxiety and my mind didn’t need to do loop-the-loop about whether I’d made the right choices in living here.
- Instead, I programmed a new belief that Cambodia is a place of possibilities: a place of freedom and independence and play for me.
From victim to hero in a session. This is just an example of the power of the mind. The power of thought.
And so, training to be a cognitive behavioural hypnotherapist, I learned much more than I thought I was even looking for. I discovered not only that I have written the story of my life and I repeat it day after day, but also that in a relatively short amount of time, I change can the story. The story can be anything I want it to be…
Because I am the storyteller.