Everyday You See Hypnosis
February 12, 2008 by Patrick Glancy
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.
Please forget what you may have seen about hypnosis being used to manipulate people’s decisions. If that were true, company’s would pay millions of dollars to do exactly that during a Super Bowl half time show. Oh, wait, they do. Well, at least they attempt to, and it obviously works enough of the time to make it a good business decision. But, you know it doesn’t work every time or even most of the time.
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.
The popular cola drink advertisement shows video that stimulates feelings of happiness, satisfaction, and companionship. People want to feel good and this ad’s emotion combined with repetitive exposure to the images will tend to make you think of that brand with good feelings. When you next see that brand of cola in the store, how do you immediately feel? Below the surface of your thinking? It may only be a subtle feeling, but it’s there. That’s emotional association at work.
Things like this are constantly happening around you, and everyone else. Many so minor you don’t even notice. Unnoticed until you try to change them. You might experience that as fighting a craving or urge. You’re likely aware that habits are formed in this way, but may not understand how powerful this can be and what a large influence on your life it can have.
The stronger the emotion is, the stronger the association. The stronger the association is, the more vivid the memory. The more vivid the memory, the more real it is to your mind and more influence it has on your behavior. Your mind does not have a real concept of time passing. What it sees in your imagination, or memory, it believes. At least, most of the time.
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.
Understanding this concept gives you the power to intentionally change your associations. Some you can do on your own. If you need help, find a professional you can trust and make it happen.
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Quit Smoking in Oregon with Glancy Hypnosis
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