Hypnosis Sessions & Training on the Main Line

It Takes One Thought

‘It takes just one thought to change your life.”

I’m writing this as I’m sitting in my office waiting for my next
client. For those of you who may not know what I do, I use and teach
hypnosis and EFT (Tapping) to help people change their thoughts to
improve their lives.

As I’m thinking about ‘It takes just one thought to change your life.”
I’m reminded of many people in our history who were aware of
their inner thoughts. Each of these people had an amazing impact
on our lives.

Orville Wright had a thought.
Thomas Edison had many thoughts.
Stephanie Kwolek had a thought too. (She invented Kevlar)

Sometimes a persons thoughts can change the lives all around us
which is great. But we don’t need to spend time thinking about
changing the world. Not all of us are scientists and inventors.

It’s helpful to change your thoughts if they are making
you feel unhappy. It’s useful to change your thoughts if a
fear is getting in the way of your life.

After all, your thoughts are with you every day. You might as well make
them good ones.

For the woman who is afraid of driving over bridges, changing her thoughts
now allows her to now visit her family and friends without stress and struggling.

For the man who get’s nervous speaking up at meetings,
changing his thoughts and comfortably speaking up has helped others
recognize him as a valuable employee who has ideas worth listening to.

For the child who stutters, changing his thoughts helps him
make friends as he comfortably now speaks to others with confidence.

It’s a shame that we didn’t learn how to change our thoughts
when we were young. We learn how to read, do math, learn science and
geography in school. But changing thoughts? No. It’s not in the curriculum.

Isn’t learning how to change our personal thoughts just as important as
reading, math, and science?

Stepping down from my soapbox now,
Have a great week.

What is ZPoint and why do I feel so much better?

I’ve been a fan of tapping (EFT) and I really didn’t think I could ever find anything as good as EFT at getting rid of old limiting beliefs and negative thoughts. A few months ago Grant led me through the ZPoint process. I didn’t know what it was all about but I knew that I felt tremendously better withing minutes.

I’ve been wanting to find out more and this morning Grant took time off his busy schedule to join me on my Radio Show to explain what ZPoint is all about.

I signed up for his 8 week Online ZPoint Training without even knowing what I know now.

I’m having fun trusting my intuition.

Thinking about thoughts

After reading Seth Godin’s blog this morning I noticed a bucketful of negative thoughts start to overflow. Ok I thought. I’ve got to practice what I teach. I can acknowledge them but this doesn’t mean I have put a lot of attention on them. So I acknowledged them and asked myself “what are these thoughts trying to tell me?

I listened and heard myself receiving some thoughts about marketing. I was responding to Seth Godin’s blog. There are lots of ways to market and I now know that instead of feeling overwhelmed, that I need to write down a plan of how I’m using social media everyday. And how I’m using the net to market everyday.

A simple daily schedule I’d just what I need take my stress away. When I put my list on paper or on my computer I no longer have to hold this unfinished list in my mind. What a relief.

WCHE Radio and Positive Thinking

Last Saturday I hosted my very first radio show on WCHE 1520 AM. (This station reaches Chester County and the Western Mainline in PA). You can listen (and call in and say “hi”) Saturday mornings from 10:00- 10:30am.

For a few weeks before my show I found myself purposely being aware of my thoughts. I wanted to make sure that I went into the station feeling calm, focused, and relaxed.
Every time I had the thought “What was I thinking? What makes me think I can have a successful show?” I consciously changed it to “I like the idea that this is going to be fun.”

Dear Reader, if I told you that I never had any negative and worrisome thoughts my nose would grow just like Pinocchio’s. I’m just the same as you. I have them every day. Here’s a sample of what 3 minutes in my head might sound like:

While taking my greyhound out for a walk: “Oh, you poor dog, you are getting so old and slow.”
Looking at myself in the mirror: “I hate the way I look..I wish I could carve 30 pounds off my body. ugh.”
Getting in my car: “I don’t want to buy a new car, but mine is 12 years old and what if it starts having problems?”
Thinking about writing this newsletter: What if people think that what I write about is stupid?”
Worrying about my love life: “What if there is no man who will ever find me interesting, attractive, and loveable? I hate the idea of being alone for the next 30 years.”

Last week a friend told me quite matter-of-factly that “Humans have 93,000 thoughts per day. And less than 500 of these are NEW thoughts”. Funny, but it feels kind of true. A lot of these are negative so my goal is to change them as quickly as I notice them.

So here are my new thoughts:

My dog: “Roxie, I love you and I’m going to make sure you get treats every day and are comfortable and happy.”
Looking in the mirror: “I’m going to find something about my body that I appreciate. Right now I appreciate that I’m healthy.
My car: “Thank you for keeping our family safe and thank you for always being in great mechanical shape.” (note: this is true – I’ve never had a problem)
On writing: “I’m going to enjoy the process of writing and hope that I make a difference in someone’s life.”
Love life: “Other people can find the love of their lives and I can too.”

My new goal is to make sure that as many of my thoughts are positive because they make me feel good. Being aware is first my step. Because we have over 93,000 thoughts per day, I’m going to be pretty busy.

Affirmations & Hypnosis

Affirmations and positive thoughts are important, but they are not a stand-alone magical answer to personal change.
If reading affirmations worked every time, then everyone would always get what they wanted, all the time. I’ve always thought it’s kind of like wishing on Aladdin’s lamp.

(When I was younger I remember those fun opportunities to make wishes. For example, every time we saw a truck full of hay, we immediately made a wish. We didn’t see hay trucks very often in the suburbs of NJ. My wish was always the same. “I wish that from now on and for the rest of my life that ALL of my wishes become true!”)

If affirmations worked, we would notice an awful lot of new cars appearing in driveways overnight. We would see bank accounts swell magically. Life would be perfect. Everyday.

I know friends who say affirmations two times a day and nothing seems to change. One of my friends even spends 45 minutes every day writing and thinking about her affirmations.

Maybe simple affirmations have worked for you, but I’ll bet there are sure a lot of people out there who say affirmations everyday who are still waiting for their lives to change .

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against saying positive things and thinking positive thoughts. And I’m not recommending that you toss stop affirmations in the trash. Please keep repeating and thinking about them.

But if nothing happens as a result of saying your daily affirmations, perhaps you might want to figure out why .

Maybe you might consider asking yourself some questions. For example:

Am I taking action as a result of my affirmations?
Do I believe that my life can improve?
Do I feel I deserve what I want?

Being positive is great. Thinking about what you want is great. Doing both may even make you feel better.

If you notice a part of you, even the tiniest speck inside of you that doesn’t feel you deserve or believe what you are saying, then you are wasting your time. Be honest with yourself. Stop trying to shove change through your life.

To be successful you’ll find it’s much easier to eliminate these old negative parts first. Getting rid of them will then smooth the way for your affirmations to work.

Imagine floating downstream in a river which has a large fallen tree in your path. Would you rather keep on bumping into that tree trunk for the next few years or find a creative way get past that large fallen tree and continue your journey?

12 Step Program for Negative Thinkers

I don’t think that we are born with negative thoughts. I think we collect them as we grow up. We gather them from things we’ve heard from our parents, siblings, teachers, and friends. We collect them from songs we listen to and tv shows we’ve watched.

And as we accumulate negative thoughts we find that sometimes they appear in our minds, almost for no reason. It’s almost as if we have a tiny bag meant for sad, bad, and negative feelings located someplace inside of ourselves. What happens is that we tend to collect way more negative thoughts than we need. Way more negative thoughts than we can hold.

What happens next is perfectly natural…these negative thoughts and feelings begin to seep out…and the next thing you know, they are everywhere. Some float around. Some find locations where they block positive thoughts from moving. It becomes a mess.

When negative thoughts begin to get in the way of your life, what can you do about this?
Luckily there are ways for you to get back in control. First, you’ll need to check out the 12 STEP PROGRAM FOR NEGATIVE THOUGHTS. After you have read this, you can move forward and learn the powerful techniques of Hypnosis and EFT (the Emotional Freedom Technique).

Thank goodness we live in the 21st Century. It’s great to have options.

Positive Thinking

Positive thinking: Reduce stress, enjoy life more

Positive thinking helps with stress management and can even improve your health. Overcome negative self-talk by recognizing it and practicing with some examples provided.
By Mayo Clinic staff, 2009

Is your glass half-empty or half-full? How you answer this age-old question about positive thinking may reflect your outlook on life, your attitude toward yourself, and whether you’re optimistic or pessimistic.

In fact, some studies show that these personality traits — optimism and pessimism — can affect many areas of your health and well-being. Positive thinking also is a key part of effective stress management. Positive thinking doesn’t mean that you keep your head in the sand and ignore life’s less pleasant situations. It just means that you approach the unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way.

With all this in mind, take a refresher course in positive thinking. Learn how to put positive thinking into action in your own life, and reap the benefits.

SUGGESTION: Learn Hypnosis and reap the benefits! The next class begins on Augus 1, 2009.

Understanding positive thinking and self-talk

Self-talk is the endless stream of thoughts that run through your head every day. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of your self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may arise from misconceptions that you create because of lack of information.

If the thoughts that run through your head are mostly negative, your outlook on life is more likely pessimistic. If your thoughts are mostly positive, you’re likely an optimist — someone who practices positive thinking.

The health benefits of positive thinking

Researchers continue to explore the effects of positive thinking and optimism on health. Health benefits that positive thinking may provide include:

Increased life span
Lower rates of depression
Lower levels of distress
Greater resistance to the common cold
Better psychological and physical well-being
Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

It’s unclear why people who engage in positive thinking experience these health benefits. One theory is that having a positive outlook enables you to cope better with stressful situations, which reduces the harmful health effects of stress on your body. It’s also thought that positive and optimistic people live healthier lifestyles — they get more physical activity, follow a healthier diet, and have reduced rates of smoking and alcohol consumption.

Identifying negative thinking

Some common forms of negative self-talk include:

Filtering. You magnify the negative aspects of a situation and filter out all of the positive ones. For example, say you had a great day at work. You completed your tasks ahead of time and were complimented for doing a speedy and thorough job. But you forgot one minor step. That evening, you focus only on your oversight and forget about the compliments you received.

Personalizing. When something bad occurs, you automatically blame yourself. For example, you hear that an evening out with friends is canceled, and you assume that the change in plans is because no one wanted to be around you.
Catastrophizing. You automatically anticipate the worst. You refuse to go out with friends for fear that you’ll make a fool of yourself. Or one change in your daily routine leads you to think the entire day will be a disaster.

Polarizing. You see things only as either good or bad, black or white. There is no middle ground. You feel that you have to be perfect or that you’re a total failure.

Be open to humor. Give yourself permission to smile or laugh, especially during difficult times. Seek humor in everyday happenings. When you can laugh at life, you feel less stressed.

Follow a healthy lifestyle. Exercise at least three times a week to positively affect mood and reduce stress. Follow a healthy diet to fuel your mind and body. And learn to manage stress.

Surround yourself with positive people. Make sure those in your life are positive, supportive people you can depend on to give helpful advice and feedback. Negative people, those who believe they have no power over their lives, may increase your stress level and may make you doubt your ability to manage stress in healthy ways.

Practice positive self-talk.
Start by following one simple rule: Don’t say anything to yourself that you wouldn’t say to anyone else. Be gentle and encouraging with yourself. If a negative thought enters your mind, evaluate it rationally and respond with affirmations of what is good about yourself.

Practicing positive thinking every day

If you tend to have a negative outlook, don’t expect to become an optimist overnight. But with practice, eventually your self-talk will contain less self-criticism and more self-acceptance. You may also become less critical of the world around you. Plus, when you share your positive mood and positive experience, both you and those around you enjoy an emotional boost.

Practicing positive self-talk will improve your outlook. When your state of mind is generally optimistic, you’re able to handle everyday stress in a more constructive way. That ability may contribute to the widely observed health benefits of positive thinking.

NOTE FROM WENDY: Sometimes negative thoughts are so ingrained that it’s tough to get rid of them. If this is happening to you then you want to consider using EFT to eliminate those negative thoughts. This powerful technique DOES NOT CHANGE your experience or your memory. Rather it helps you EASILY CHANGE your REACTIONS to old negative experiences and thoughts.

When we get rid of these negative thoughts we can then shift to positive thoughts – without struggling.

This is what a good hypnotist is able to help you with; eliminating negative thoughts and feelings and teaching you how to use self-hypnosis to create positive thoughts.

Research has shown that when we hold a positive outlook then we can reach for our goals, feel better, exercise more, enjoy better relationships and generally improve our lives. Isn’t this what life is about?

Read more about Hypnosis and EFT . And call me to make your first appointment and learn how you can feel better.
Wendy Merron, Certified Hypnotist, 610-687-0333
The Center of Success, Wayne, PA

Learn How to Tell the Difference Between Physical Hunger & Emotional Hunger

Why is it important to understand the difference between Emotional Hunger and Physical Hunger? If you are in the process of losing weight, beginning a diet, or changing your lifestyle, then learning how to identify Emotional Hunger can be the difference between success and struggle.

If you don’t eat food for a number of hours most likely you’ll find yourself feeling hungry. But is it “real” hunger? Or is the feeling “emotional” hunger?

Can you recall the last time you felt hungry? Did you notice a feeling in your stomach – maybe a gnawing feeling, maybe a rumbling kind of feeling? If at the time you didn’t pay attention to that feeling by eating something, would that feeling get bigger and larger as time went on?

If this is a familiar feeling and one you could actually pinpoint the location on your body where you are feeling it, then you know what physical hunger feels like.

Most people (perhaps you) rarely experience this feeling. Most people tend to eat before they get hungry or eat when it’s “time to eat”, regardless of whether they feel hungry at the time.

In the past (many many years ago), if you were hungry you most likely would have to wait until you got home to eat. Now that there are so many places to eat – fast food restaurants, mini stores at gas stations, and food sections in pharmacies, it’s quite easy to grab something while you are on the go. It may not be healthy, but it will certainly be convienent.

Emotional Hunger is quite different than Physical Hunger. Physical Hunger comes on slowly and grows stronger if you don’t pay attention to it. Emotional hunger however comes on quite quickly. And emotional hunger is devoid of that familiar feeling in your stomach.

In fact, Emotional Hunger usually comes on quite quickly. Emotional Hunger begins as a thought “I really want to eat something right now,” or you may find yourself in the kitchen thinking “I wonder if there is anything good to eat around here.” Sometimes emotional hunger just happens when you walk through the kitchen and you find yourself just grabbing something to put in your mouth.

When the thought of eating comes into your mind quickly and is NOT accompanied by that feeling in your stomach, then you are experiencing Emotional Hunger.

People who eat when they are physically hungry and stop when they no longer feel hungry tend to be trim and healthy.

People who eat when they experience Emotional Hunger tend to be overweight. Why? Because Emotional Hunger leads to Emotional Eating. And when people eat for emotional reasons they tend to continue until another feeling overtakes the emotion.

For example, imagine a woman who is frustrated with her family. She feels the desire to eat even though she may not feel hungry. She begins eating. And eating. And eating. Some ice cream. Maybe chips. Perhaps some cookies. Maybe some leftovers. She may continue to eat until her stomach feels overstuffed, but will this make her frustration go away? Of course not.

FACT: NO AMOUNT OF FOOD WILL EVER SATISFY ANY EMOTION.

A good rule to follow is this: EVERYTIME YOU BRING FOOD TO YOUR MOUTH ASK YOURSELF “AM I HUNGRY?” IF YOU ARE NOT HUNGRY, ASK YOURSELF “WHAT AM I FEELING?’

If you don’t know what you are feeling, that’s ok. Just being aware that you are not hungry is a great start. Decide at the moment you realize that you are not hungry and that you can find something else to do.

If you become hungry later on you can feel good about yourself knowing that you can choose to eat at that time.