Self Hypnosis & the Exercise of Will

The next time you encounter a genuine crisis will you perform like a winner or loser? You may intend the former but expect the latter. Both your intentions and expectations are creative fictions, and not part of objective reality. The future crisis has not yet happened; and the objective reality has yet to be created by your actions in real time. However if you believe you are a loser, you are likely to perform objectively less well than if you believed you are a winner.

Both you and I want you to perform as well as possible at the critical moments when good performance counts. Nevertheless, the beliefs that evoke the loser trance have the advantage because they are more salient, and you may believe them to be objectively valid. Sadly, the loser trance produces a self-confirmatory bias [please see Barry's Story for more on this topic].

One way to influence the battle between your intentions and your expectations is to use your imagination and selective attention to trance form your subjective reality so it promotes resourceful rather than self-sabotaging behavior. The Heavy Shoe Exercise is one way to practice using your imagination to intentionally influence your subjective reality.

You can enhance your ability to act as you intend despite the influence of local stressors or temptations by strengthening your ability to voluntarily influence subjective phenomena. Mood disorders [such as depression, anxiety, anger] and Incentive Use Disorders [such as alcohol abuse, drug addiction, binge eating, compulsive gambling, gaming, use of sex/pornography, etc] can be ameliorated or resolved by developing your faculty of Intentional Trance Formation..

This method requires a good imagination and the ability to focus attention. Like other faculties some individuals are more gifted than others, but everyone improves with practice. So, if you have not already done so, please take a few minutes [this is a short exercise] to use the Heavy Shoe to strengthen, through practice, your ability to trance form your subjective reality.

For any form of therapy to have lasting clinical value, the primary change agent must be the client. You can develop your competence by taking advantage of the opportunities to practice intentionally manipulating your subjective reality in real time. Throughout this web site there are tools and exercises that will help you develop you skills and native talents. You may consult with our clinical staff, either online or in person. To learn more, please contact us by phone or by clicking the button below..

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You are not the passenger; you are the ride!