Trance Culture

It always makes me smile when I meet someone who says to me 'I can't be hypnotised, you could never put me into trance.'

The truth is, whether we know it or not, we are all constantly being hypnotised and moving into and out of trance everyday of our lives.

We've all experienced the feeling of having a bad day and having our mood lifted by a friend or loved one who has said or done something to cheer us up.

Maybe you can remember being dazzled by an advert for the latest must have gadget or pair of shoes and you've rushed out to buy them.

In both instances, even if you didn't recognise it as such, you were being hypnotised, you responded subconsciously to an idea placed by somebody else.

Sometimes this 'cultural trance' is a good thing, sometimes it can work against you and have negative implications.

How other people behave towards us can lead to a cascade of either positive or negative feelings running through us.

We assume we know exactly what the intended message is behind another person's behaviours, but the truth is we can never really know what is going on inside another person's mind.

Let's look at a couple of examples:

Imagine you see a friend and you call out "hi" to them, and they ignore you.  How does that make you feel - rejected? sad? angry?

You see someone at a bar who you find very attractive, they make eye contact and smile at you.  How good does that feel?

In both instances, your state of mind changed based on the implied message behind someone's non-verbal communication.  This is hypnosis.

Let's quickly review those examples, with some additional 'inside' information.

Your friend was pre-occupied having just received some bad news, she genuinely didn't hear you.  How do you feelabout the situation now?

The good looking guy/girl at the bar was smiling at the person behind you, you hadn't even registered on their radar.  Does it still feel good?

There is subtle unintentional hypnosis happening all the time.  Many people live their lives constantly being buffeted around by ill-informed guesses as to what others think of them.

They receive a compliment, they cheer up.  Someone is rude to them, they get depressed.  Their moods moving up or down at the whim of the people and circumstances around them.

In an effort to control the ups and downs, people try to surround themselves with positive people and to be in positive, interesting environments, but there is a limit to the amount of control you have on the world around you.

The world within you however is completely under your control.

It all starts with your thoughts.  The way you think affects the way you behave, and the way you behave affects the world around you.

Thoughts create feelings, feelings create actions and actions create outcomes.

Become aware of your thoughts, choose them wisely, choose the ones that make you feel good.

Stop being hypnotised without your knowledge by the people and world around you.

You have an innate clarity, an innate well-being and an innate knowing.  Sometimes your thoughts get in the way. 

Here's the thing, you are only ever one different thought away from being ok.

"You cannot let go of a thought, but when you see it for what it is, the thought will let go of you."  Byron Katie