Business & Finance

You can notice it as daydreaming, a wandering mind or being hyper-focused. Hypnosis is around you every day. It is used when you communicate, both verbally and non-verbally.

The state of hypnosis is a normal function of your mind. There is no big secret or special power involved. It is the state of mind your brain uses when accessing the huge amount of storage it contains.

People are trying to create and trigger behavior reactions in you every day. And not just TV and radio advertisements. Your friends and family do this too. And, you do this to them.

When you first meet someone you like and smile at them, that is you attempting to manipulate a smile from them. Maybe your response to the previous sentence is “I smile because I’m happy”. You smile because you’re happy and want others to respond by being happy. And if someone doesn’t smile back, aren’t you slightly offended or put-off? Probably. A smile helps increase the odds that the other person will remember you with good emotions attached to the memory. Sounds complicated until you start seeing how common it is.

If you’re driving home from work and someone cuts you off in traffic, you might be irritated. The fourth person to cut you off on that same trip home? The fourth guy didn’t do anything different than the first guy. Unless you’re the nicest person in the world, odds are you’re MUCH more irritated. That’s emotional association controlling your reaction.

This is evident in all aspects of your life. Your mind began collecting these associations soon after you were born. It is the same for all of us. Of course, it is common sense, but we don’t always realize how powerfully it influences our behaviors and choices.

When a strong emotional connection is made with a trigger, and then combined with repetition and the influence of an authority figure (like a basketball star), the learned belief can be very strong. That can make it more difficult to change. You can call this brand loyalty.

This basic premise applies to all kinds of behavior, from your posture, to your food preferences. A smoker is often aware of when they started and why. Knowing this they may be fairly aware of the emotional associations involved. But, this doesn’t mean all smokers can just stop. Some can and do. Some stop smoking and replace the smoking activity with another. Like food, gum or candy. The behavior is still there and active, and still has the potential to cause trouble.

Seeing this process in action and understanding the concept can give you a big step forward in changing your habits. Sometimes you can do it on your own. Sometimes it’s easier to use help. Find a professional hypnotist you can trust and use them. That’s their job.