I'd like to see a hypnotherapist but it costs too much...

There are many people who want to change something in their life and know that hypnosis would help them make that change; but something stops them making the next move.

Often it is fear that stops that person making the next step. Fear of exposing one's problems to another person is just the start of difficulties. It is natural to fear the unknown and when we don't understand the process of therapeutic change, that fear can become a roadblock to a better life. Fear of how much that change might cost also acts as a barrier especially when personal finances are under tremendous strain in this time of recession.

One possible way around these fears is to use hypnosis CDs and MP3s. The cost of these audio products is much lower than the cost of one to one therapy work, so what are the pros and cons of taking this approach?

The negative side of using pre-recorded hypnosis products

1. Change may take longer to achieve compared to personal one to one therapy
2. The recording is fixed, a hypnotherapist can adjust the therapy as different aspects become known
3. There may not be a recording that exactly covers your needs
4. Using a hypnosis recording is a more 'passive' experience, a therapist will often use other exercises as well as hypnosis to make that change more effective

The positive side of using pre-recorded hypnosis products

1. The user is in charge of the process, using the recording as often as they want
2. There is no need to travel to see a therapist, change is just a download away
3. The financial costs are much lower compared to one-to-one therapy
4. The user can return to recording at any time if they want to reinforce the change (a self confidence booster for example)
5. The user is often more open to allowing the change to happen when they have control of the process.

Listen first
It is always helpful to hear some of the hypnotherapy recording before buying it. This is not possible on many hypnosis web sites but on the Gift4life site you can listen to a sample before buying and downloading the track.

Time to change?
Even though many people are living through the most difficult financial times, making a positive life change is still possible and affordable. On the Gift4life site you can download hypnotherapy MP3s from as little as £7.75 (that's about $11 or 8 Euros).

Is now the time to make a start for you?

Getting things done

There must be hundreds of ways to become more effective and productive but here is a method I have been using for the last few months that really seems to have worked.

The old way of working

In the old days the first thing I would do in the morning was boot up the PC log into my email and get stuck in to whatever was in the inbox. In other words I was reacting to other people's agendas and allowing them to define how I started my working day.

The new way of working

For the first 15 minutes of the day...leave the PC alone or turned off!

Allow yourself to reflect and think about what is important to you in the day ahead. Without the chatter and noise of email, you'll quickly put together a list of things that can usefully be done that day.

Work sideways

When writing out that list, turn your piece of paper sideways so that you are writing with the long edge horizontal and the short edge vertical. It seems to give you more space to write down your thoughts and allows them to flow more easily.

There is another reason to work sideways and I'll get to that in a moment.

Start working!

So now begin your regular day but be guided by your list first and your email inbox second. Put a line through each task as you complete it. It feels good to complete your own tasks.

End of day

At the end of the working day, your sheet of paper will probably be covered with notes, scribbles and crossings out, this is a valuable document so why not take a picture of it.

I use my Canon digital camera to take a picture of the page (because it was turned sideways it fits the frame very well). When I connect the camera to my PC the image is automatically date stamped and stored in my picture folders on the PC. This means I can easily go back and refer to what I was doing on any given day. The best thing is that this automatic indexing driven by the date stamp from when the picture was taken.

Give it a try

Try this for yourself, I'm sure there are numerous tweaks that might improve the method but this has the advantage of being very simple to use and understand. No matter how many PDAs and programs I use, notes taken on a piece of paper still seem to come out on top. Using this method I have those notes sequenced and stored very easily.

Give it a try and let me know how you get on.

I love Lifehacker!

If you want to get in touch with your inner geek or just find a way to get a battery display on your Canon digital camera, then Lifehacker.com is a great place to visit.

There is strong bias towards computers and how to use/abuse them but they also carry lots of interesting articles on how to re-use old gadgets and how to create good stuff from junk.

Just a word of warning though, it is way too easy to get sidetracked by yet another interesting article on the site and lose lots of time!

The 30 day trial idea

I'm back on the idea of how to most effectively make changes in your life and a while ago came across a guy called Steve Pavlina. He has a very interesting web blog about personal development.

He has borrowed the 30 day trial concept from the old days of Shareware and used it to makes changes in his life.

I know from personal experience of working with clients that it often takes around 3 weeks to make a real change in a habit. Steve's approach is to say, try this new habit for 30 days and then see if you want to continue.

For many people the idea of making a life long change in their eating or exercise habits is just too daunting a jump and so they do nothing at all.

You can break that barrier to progress by trialling a change for just 30 days and then check at the end if it still feels right. Follow the link for Steve's article.

Try it for yourself and let me know how you get on.

It's freezing! Time to think about 2009

Here is the UK it was -3.5 degrees C this morning and whilst that may be relatively warm for some it felt cold to me.

So today has become a day for staying in the warm and planning for 2009. So often that word 'planning' will make people switch off as they think about writing out lots of lists and notes that feel far too much like work.

So today here are some planning alternatives for you to consider as you think about what you want to achieve in the year ahead.

1) Write a list of all the things you would like to do. It's the old school approach but it will work well for some. See if you can get to 100 items, it can be surprisingly difficult.

2) Make a picture board or scrap book of what you want to happen in the next 12 months. Cut pictures from magazines and papers of the places you would like to go or the things you would like to enjoy.

3) Tech Savvy? Make a video of how you would like the year ahead to be. Even if you don't have a video camera many regular point and shoot digital cameras will take video. Mobile phones and web cams can be used as well. Edit with some free software like Windows MovieMaker or similar and create a short video of what you would like to achieve.

4) Make a voice recording on your MP3 player (or use Windows sound recorder) of what you want to be, do and have in 2009. Listen often to remind yourself of the path you want to take.

Use any or all of the techniques above and you are certain to get far more out of this New Year than those in the past.

Time to set your new year goals?

Today is 2nd January, many people are enjoying the last day off before going back to work on Monday 5th.

So just maybe this is the perfect time to think about how you are going to make your life better in 2009. (Just possibly with all the financial turmoil it may be that you are simply hoping to survive!)

Many of us will have had the experience of setting new year resolutions and then failing to achieve any of them.

So this year what about trying things a different way?

Take this time to set yourself some SMART goals. SMART is simply a way to define what you want to happen:

S = Specific. Make the goal specific, when will it happen, where, on your own or with others?
M = Measurable. How will you measure it? How many pounds off, how much money saved?
A = Achievable. Is it really possible to do this? Have other people done it?
R = Realistic. Given all the circumstances is the goal reasonable? Losing 50lbs in 2 weeks is impossible, doing the same over 50 weeks is very realistic.
T = Timely or time bound. When will this happen, what time markers will you set along the way?

By using the SMART model you are much more likely to achieve the goals that you set.

So what about an example; perhaps you have put on some weight over the holiday period and exercise has become something that happens very infrequently. You'd like things to be better but another diet just seems so dull; procrastination has set.

So lets try the SMART approach:
Specific
How much weight do you want to shed? How many pounds or kilos is right for you?
Be SPECIFIC. How many inches would you like to lose from your waist measurement? Be SPECIFIC.

Measurable
Some things are easy to measure, weight and size are simple to check. Other things are more difficult; how do you measure confidence or presentation skills. Find suitable ways to measure what you achieve against the goals that you set.

Achievable
Impossible to achieve goals result only in frustration and failure. Is what you want physically achievable? Has someone else done it before you? Are you attempting to alter the laws of physics to make that goal happen?

Realistic
How realistic is that you get a job next week that will double your pay? How realistic is it to achieve all your goals in one month? Most goals are a sequence of smaller steps that are easy to take on their own, but that add up to a huge change in your life. Make each step realistic to avoid the frustration of failure.

Timebound
This is just another way of saying, when will this happen? It's useful to set up a number of markers in time so that you know you are on track to achieving your ultimate goal. For example in the first month I will shed 8pounds of unwanted weight and lose 1 inch from my waist size.
Your ultimate goal might be that by June 17th 2009 I will have shed 25pounds and dropped 4 inches from my waist.


Making your New Year resolutions SMART will make it much easier for you to achieve your goals.

If you're ready for this but still feel in need of some help to deal with that procrastination then my hypnosis MP3 recording 'Beat Procrastination' is just the thing to break through that log jam of exscuses and get 2009 off to a flying start.

Happy New Year!

Do you chew your tongue or cheek?

Do you (or someone you know) chew your cheek or tongue?

I worked with a client who had this condition and using that experience went on to develop a hypnotherapy audio track to help deal with this habit.

The tongue chewing often starts in childhood in a similar way to nail biting or thumb sucking as a result of some anxiety or stress. Often some comfort becomes associated with the activity and the person involved subconsciously uses this to deal with other stressful situations.

The outcome of doing this into adulthood can be severe dental problems, jaw misalignment even damage to the nerves in the tongue.

Often the person doing the chewing is completely unaware that they are chewing, but those around them will note the facial contortions and grimaces that occur.

You can download this audio track as an MP3 from the Gift4Life web site by going to the web site here.

You can hear a sample online or buy a CD version of this hypnotherapy by visiting the web site.

What happened to the web site?

Over the last few days the Somerset Hypnotherapy web site has been down; virtually offline.

It's all to do with moving the hosting to a new account and server but it seems to have been more complicated than we thought.

The site is up and running now (the buttons look a little strange but...) so you can take a look at all the information I have put there on the topics of hypnosis and hypnotherapy.

If there is something you would like to know then send an email or comment on this blog and I'll answer your question.

Helping you through the credit crunch with 3 for 2 offer

Many people have been affected by the credit crunch and it seems we will all be paying the bill, so I wanted to make things a little easier for would be clients wanting to make a booking.

For hypnosis/hypnotherapy/EFT sessions booked with me in November I am offering three sessions for the price of two. These sessions are ideal for dealing with stress, anxiety, fears phobias and similar issues.

So with the 3 for 2 you will be saving £55!

There are a couple of exceptions to this offer though:For Quit smoking and weight loss I am offering a 10% discount on normal prices.

I know that cash can be tricky to pull together sometimes but I do also accept credit and debit cards.

It's worth remembering that I now work from the Ninesprings Centre at 70 Hendford.

John

A new way to visualize your perfect future

There are lots of books and videos about using the power of visualization to achieve your dreams and you may even have tried some of the techniques.

Well here is a new spin on that method that I love and I'm going to try today. Write out what your perfect day would be, write it in the present tense; it's happening now!

Use this as a script to create a movie of your perfect day. Use pictures and sounds to create that positive experience and then watch it each day.

You may not be a video editing wizard but many mobile phones can film video; go ahead act out your perfect day and watch the film every day. See what happens.

I snagged this great idea from here www.mindmovies.com and you can even sign up for some free movies.

I'm not getting anything for this I just thought it was a really neat idea.