The past few weeks (actually months) have been unusual for me.  I had a lingering "cold" that just wouldn't go away.  That rascal finally turned into pneumonia - and I am just now getting back to normal.  During this time, my father had emergency surgery and my mom fell and broke her wrist while waiting for him to get through that surgery!  Normally I would be able to take off work and go help out - but with pneumonia I would have just added to their problems.  My little sister had to handle all this herself.  And it was beautiful. 

A few months ago my Mom became seriously ill.  My sister had a really hard time.  She is very close to Mom - and the baby of the family - so Mom is one of her best friends as well as her parent.  That first illness shook my sister's view of the world to the core - and suddenly she saw Mom as fragile and very very vulnerable.  None of us want to see our parents that way - and it is especially hard when you have never seen them as anything but competent, capable, self-sufficient people.  My sister and I talked a LOT during this time.  Although I could not use inductive hypnosis to help her directly, I found that I could guide and direct her to different ways of thinking about what was happening.

Long story short - my sister really learned and changed through her earlier and most recent experiences with my parents.  She is much more fearless than before.  She is much more likely to insist that people in authority (doctors, for example) treat her and those around her with respect.  She is also much more confident.  She knows that she can survive now.  She didn't before.  When we speak now, it is much more obvious that we are peers - and not older sis/younger sis.  I like it a lot!

So - what does any of that have to do with painting, soothing the soul, or hypnosis?  When I was first thinking about learning to paint, I was convinced I might not be able to do it at all - and that I would certainly never be any good at it.  I struggled as much against that perception as I did with the tools and the medium.  As I learned more about hypnosis, I began to understand that I was standing in my own way by having negative perceptions about my abilities - and even my FUTURE abilities as a painter.  I learned to let go of those perceptions - and suddenly painting became a gift.  At first it was just a gift to me - I enjoyed the act and even the struggles to learn.  I know now that I will continue to get better at painting as long as I choose to do so.  I am not trying to be a "grand" artist - I'm just trying to be a painter who enjoys painting.  I don't worry about how "good" I am - or am going to be. 

Later, painting became a gift to others.  I love to teach and began holding classes.  I later dropped those because of time constraints - but continue to teach friends.  And a group of us have become "partners in crime" in painting for others.  We recently painted cookies for the Ronald McDonald House.  A year ago we worked with children at an inner-city school to paint a mural using their hand prints as flowers.  We added stems and leaves and bugs - and the children love THEIR painting.  All these things soothe my soul in ways I could never have imagined.

And I see the same thing happening with my sister - and with some clients.  As they learn to let go of negative perceptions and limitations, beautiful things happen.  It is an incredible joy and honor to participate in that process.  We are truly blessed!

open2hypnosis.ourhypnospace.com

The last week of January, we attended the funeral of a friend who suddenly dropped dead after battling heart issues for several years.  That same week, another dear friend's oncologist informed her that she has 12-18 months to live.  She has been battling this disease valiantly for about 6 years.  In both situations, I was reminded - once again - how fleeting and precious life is and how much we take for granted.  When I was a perfectly lovely young woman of 15, I obsessed over the little pooch of a stomach that I was certain looked disgusting to anyone seeing me in profile or in my swimsuit.  I couldn't see that I had beautiful blue eyes, radiant hair, gorgeous skin, a quick wit and a lively mind.  All I could see was that belly.  So I started starving myself - determined to get that belly under control.  I also did Pilates religiously (though I don't recall that it was named that at the time...), working out for hours. I got wonderfully thin, and very toned - but never lost that little belly.  Jump forward a few more years, and jogging had become the new way to lose weight and streamline the figure.  I gave it a try - hating every moment - but still determined to lose that belly.  No matter how much I jogged, that belly still jiggled. 

Jump forward a few more years, and my son came along, and that belly got larger.  And although I was active, somehow exercise slipped away.  I went back to school full time - worked full time - and had a toddler - so free time became non-existent.  I would get back to taking care of my body once school was finished and I was in my new career.  My new career involved moving and lots of change - and lots of stress - and by then I was experiencing recurring flares with my fibromyalgia.  But I was still relatively young - and I was working hard to get my life more balanced - and then I would deal with the extra weight that had continued to build up - more exercise and a better diet were right there on my list.

Jumping forward a bit more - and my best friend is diagnosed with breast cancer.  The prognosis was pretty good - it was at an early stage and small enough that only a lumpectomy followed by chemo and a short stint of radiation would be required.  I vowed that it was high time I got my own health in order.  My husband and I talked about what it would take to get in shape "for our age" and planned to get things underway soon.  We bought a fantastic treadmill.

And just a bit more forward - and my friend has been through more procedures than it would seem any human should have to endure.  Her heart has been weakened - and the cancer is back stronger than before.  She plans to fight it - but her plans have "teeth" in them - her chemo has a start date of just a week away.  Our friend with a bad heart had plans as well.  He had a grandson who needed him to stand in as the father because the real dad could not.  His wife, younger than him, had plans as well.  They were both potters - she had recently quit her job of many years so she could spend more time with her husband and on their art and with their grandson.  And then, he just died.  They knew it would happen sooner rather than later.  His heart had been giving out for many years.  But I think they had planned on it being a gradual decline - and not having him ripped from their midst.  On the ride home from the funeral, my husband and I once again remarked that we absolutely HAD to do something about our own health - and get busy at least walking on the treadmill on a regular basis.

Last week my friend began "reverse nesting".  She had a profound desire to dispose of things - clothes, crafts, books.  She wanted to get rid of things - in part to make it easier for her husband if she should pass away sooner than "planned" - and in part because with each thing she purged, she felt a little weight of responsibility leaving her shoulders.  She had a huge number of lovely clothes that she gave to me - and I have spent the past week washing them and deciding which to keep and which to pass on to other women in my family.  I had to wash them because she is a smoker.  Even in the face of death, she has no desire to give up this habit.  The clothes most likely have no odor to her any longer - but I am allergic to cigarette smoke - and along with washing the clothes I was battling asthma and swollen eyes and sinuses.  I am profoundly grateful for the clothes - both because they will be very helpful to me but also because they represent the desire of my friend to give me something truly useful.

So what does all this have to do with "Hypnotist - Heal Thyself"? In my rambling way - I am slowly coming to the realization that I have a choice.  I am at a crossroads in my life.  I can continue to make plans - or I can actually do the things I plan.  I can continue to read nutrition magazines - or I can start incorporating better nutrition into my life.  I can continue to dust the treadmill and think about how great it will feel when I get past the early exercise stage where you hurt more than you feel good about it - or I can put a foot forward and start walking.  It really is that easy.  It doesn't require planning - it requires doing.  While my friend's doctor has given her a timeline - the truth is we all are really like our potter friend.  We have no idea when our time will be up.  We can be right in the middle of our great plans - and life in its present form for us will be over in the wink of an eye.  The irony is that our potter friend was told he had six months to live at one point.  Well - he far surpassed that time.  But his time did come.  I don't want it to be ironic in my life that I have this incredibly powerful tool of hypnosis but ended up only "planning" to use it.  If I cannot use this tool regularly and powerfully in my own life - why would clients? 

Since 1997, I have had an ongoing battle with fibromyalgia. In 1997, most doctors had never heard of it, seldom diagnosed it, had no clue what to do with it - and most suspected it was all in their client's heads. Although a lot more people know about it today - thanks in part to pharmaceutical companies who have suddenly discovered an untapped market - there are still a lot of unknowns about this condition. And many people still mistakenly believe it is a psychosomatic illness. Thank goodness there has been enough research completed now that it is increasingly rare to come across people who have to be convinced that the condition is real and physiologically based.

Just about the only medications that truly help with this condition are opioids. For those unfamilar - these are narcotics such as morphine - that can be both a blessing and a curse for those who must manage pain over a long period of time. They have many serious side-effects - of which the most serious is their addictive nature. I have seen more than one person turn to these drugs as a last resort for fibromyalgia. And each has paid a severe price. Although their perception of pain has been decreased, the overall impacts of the condition have not been managed. Slowly these individuals have become more and more disabled.

I cannot fault anyone who tries these medications. The pain of a fibromyalgia flair can be devastating. But one of my heart's desires in my own hypnosis work is to help people with chronic pain to find ways NOT to "Successfully Live With Chronic Pain" - but to "Live Successfully in Spite of Chronic Pain".

In the coming weeks, I'll post some things I've learned along the way - and that I am using in my own hypnosis - to live successfully! I would love to hear from others who have put this wonderful tool to work on chronic pain conditions. Here are just a few notes for this evening:

(1) If someone states they have a chronic pain condition, we must of course be certain they have first seen a physician. Our bodies hurt for a reason - to tell us something is not quite right. Be certain the client knows why they are hurting and take all the normal ethical, legal, responsible steps that are expected of a professional hypnotist!

(2) We know that our words can frame our thoughts and influence our actions. We might be eager to get a client with chronic pain to immediately "put it in their past". But remember that many of us were beat up for years by people telling us the pain was in our head and we are very sensitive about being asked to not use words like "chronic" or to use words like "discomfort" instead of "pain". I can guarantee you the client will be thinking "Yeah, right, it hurts like hell every day - and has for years - and nothing I say or don't say is going to change that!" The client may also have tried countless ways of getting rid of the pain and other manifestations of this condition - only to be discouraged time and again. So even if they appear to go along with you - be aware that they may be very (and rightfully) suspicious of anything that sounds "too good to be true".

My approach is to begin by affirming that the person can be very comfortable knowing that hypnosis can help them manage their pain. (Comfort is something they may not have had for many years). I tell them they may be surprised to find that it disappears for hours, days, weeks, even months at a time. (It may disappear forever - but most people are happy to start with hours and days. Even weeks and months may seem like a pipedream at first.) And I reassure them that if, at any time it does return, they will have the necessary tools to diminish it and can use those tools for the rest of their lives. (Control is another thing they may feel has been taken from them. It helps to know they are getting some of that back.)

Gotta run for now. Would love to hear any feedback on these first two points! 

Have a great evening!

On a day-to-day basis, technology is my "day" job. I've been doing that for about 15 years now. So I am not easily frightened when installing software or hardware on my own PC. But I do dread it. Not because it will be complex, or difficult to understand, but because it NEVER goes in without requiring hours and hours of time that have absolutely nothing to do with the actual technology itself. Plug and Play! What a joke! I'm trying to install a DVD/CD RW Combo on my system. I've installed literally hundreds of CD and CD RW on my machine and machines of my friends. Piece of cake. Except when the cable is not working. Or the software is an old version. Or there is a stripped screw somewhere holding the old one - and on and on. Tonight the problem is that the new combo drive uses SATA connections. There are two lovely little SATA connections on my motherboard just waiting to be used.  They match up beautifully with the cable that came with the drive. Of course, no diagrams or directions came with the drive - but so what?  It's just a Plug and Play drive.  Just plug one end of the cable into the drive, and one end into the matching connector on the motherboard - and bingo - start creating CDs/DVDs!  It got 5 stars on the Dell website for ease of installation!

I started on the process at 9:00.  I just finished my telephone conversation with Dell at 1:30.  For reasons that baffled three on-call technicians - neither of those delightful little connectors on the motherboard would light up the lights on my drive. Thank goodness for rollover minutes on my cell phone! Finally, the sweet young lady on the final phone call gave up. She is dispatching a technician with a brand new drive and a brand new cable.  He or she will attempt to install it and figure out the problem "on site".  So a simple little Plug and Play process turned into a five hour telephone call - and ultimately a "stay at home and wait for the technician (sometime between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm) in the next day or two (to be specified at a later time). They were planning to charge me because my warranty on the overall machine was past. But then they realized they had to support the drive - since they recommended it and sold it to me. And I think their pride is on the line now. After investing five hours, they are darned if they are going to let this machine lick THEM!

And therein lies the real attraction to technology. You invest so much time in it - that you can't just walk away when it begins to drive you nuts!  Why do I want this combo drive to begin with? In part, to help me get ready to create CDs for my hypnosis clients - and in part to position myself to create DVD's for my other creative work. What's the first CD I plan to record for clients? I'm thinking something along the lines of "Get a Life - Step Away from the Computer"!  :-)

Good night! (or good morning, I should say!)

Tonight has been a big night for me!  I created my first press release through a nifty little online tool; checked out a possible new location for my office (and decided against it), and began my first non-painting blog!  And all that after a full day's work in my "day" job!

I couldn't help but use some of my painted Humpty Dumpty's as my picture for now.  I have to get a pic done soon for my website ( www.open2hypnosis.com ), but just haven't had time.  Or when I had time the roots were way too visible!  Why Humpty Dumpty?  Because he is a great metaphor for hypnosis.  Like Humpty, we ourselves or those we serve, have often taken a great fall and not even the King's horses or the King's men can put them (us) back together again.  And along comes this wonderful tool that we can use to help mend the broken pieces - or strengthen those that are already on the mend!

I feel incredibly honored to be becoming a hypnotist.  I say "becoming" because this is truly a journey that has no end - we can always learn, always improve, always find new ways to better serve others and ourselves.

Have a great evening!