5 minute read
Colours of Hypnosis
BY SAMANTHA TIMBERS NLP PRACTITIONER, HYPNOTHERAPIST, CREATOR OF THE CLOUD GOAL SYSTEM
A year from now you’ll wish you had started today.
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ACTION destroys procrastination.
The red edition is all about, to quote Amy Bell, “taking action and putting practical plans in place to support our physical journey on this planet. Getting a savings plan going, getting a new job or healing family issues”
Taking action can be motivating, thrilling, anxiety provoking, and sometimes painful.
Imagine, you are getting ready for bed, you decide to be proactive and write a list of things “to do” tomorrow. You are ready to tackle all the things that you have been procrastinating about. You declare that tomorrow is the day when you can cross all those annoying tasks off your list. ‘Why not? We are in a pandemic, I have loads of time, I no longer have all of those distractions, it’s not like I can go anywhere or do much of anything anyway. I am going to do my taxes, book keeping, set up my Instagram posts for the next few months, book a medical appointment, fix the bathroom sink, change the oil in the car’, need I go on?
The next morning the alarm goes off…..snooze is hit, once, twice…well let’s not get personal. Finally you are out of bed. You shower, eat, get everyone organized for the day - dog, kids, spouse and yourself. Now, you’re ready to get all the things on your list done. Suddenly you look over and notice that the fridge needs to be cleaned out; and so the procrastination begins.
Why? What happened to the motivation? It is not your intelligence or talent that is causing you to procrastinate and most of the time it is not laziness. I know many motivated individuals who procrastinate. It may be your mental and emotional beliefs. We need to understand a bit about the mind to discover where the motivation went and how the procrastination set in.
There are two parts to our mind - the conscious mind and the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is the logical part of your mind that makes decisions and is able to rationalize.
Samantha Timbers
The unconscious mind houses your memories, beliefs and emotions. It also runs the body such as breathing, blinking, digesting, and all the automatic functions that happen without us noticing. Many experts believe the unconscious mind controls over 90% of what we do and how we do it. The unconscious mind drives our behaviour using our memories, emotions and beliefs.
Why we procrastinate:
Our unconscious takes everything personally. If at some point in your past you completed a task and it was criticized by someone, this voiced criticism then led to a belief which was implanted into your unconscious mind. This belief could manifest as a lack of self-confidence, not being good enough, not smart enough, and so on. This can lead to avoidance of a task and will manifest as procrastination. It can also translate to unrealized fear, including fear of failure, fear of embarrassment, or a fear of the unknown. There are 3 key factors that contribute to procrastination:
The dialogue that is happening in your mind about the task often being perceived as tedious, not pleasurable, difficult or time consuming.
Distractions. There are so many things that can distract us and take away our focus that can lead us down the path of procrastination.
The task appears too large and creates overwhelm and stress.
One of the ways to begin tackling procrastination is to notice the dialogue in your mind. What is happening? What are you making the task “mean”? Is it related to beliefs in the past?
A client I worked with was having problems completing his taxes amongst other accounting details for his business. Each time he sat down to do it he would do anything to avoid it. I asked him to notice the dialogue in his mind. What was his belief or decision he had made about doing his taxes? He recalled when his father did his taxes and other financial things he was overwhelmed, stressed, and distraught. His father told him time and time again what a burden it was and that it wasn’t easy. My client internalized this at a young age and now had the unwavering belief that doing your taxes is hard and stressful. This belief then led to feeling overwhelmed and incompetent each time he thought of doing such a task, which led to procrastination. Through hypnosis I worked with my client to change his inner dialogue about his taxes and other financial obligations. Instead of thinking how difficult and stressful this task was he was able to change his internal conversation and state how easy it was with the right help and preparation he could accomplish this quite quickly and could get on with having fun.
Today there are so many things that can derail us and take our focus away - emails, social media, watching TV, cleaning the fridge etc. An effective way to rid procrastination is to work with the unconscious mind through modern day hypnosis to get to the root of the issues, limiting beliefs and increase your focus by 10,000 times.
When the task appears too large and causes overwhelm, instead imagine you have competed the task. When you imagine you have completed the task efficiently and effectively and you have the result you want, your focus will drive your behaviour. Your unconscious mind cannot decipher between what is reality and imagination, the completion of the task triggers pleasure.
To do this
1. Close your eyes
2. Picture yourself floating above your body
3. Allow yourself to float out into the future so you are 15 minutes after the successful completion of the task
4. Imagine yourself feeling wonderful and accomplished and ready to take the world
5. Now return to the present and you will find that the overwhelm has diminished and your task is easier to tackle
Other effective methods: you can learn how to work with your unconscious mind through self-hypnosis, listen to procrastination hypnosis videos, or you can work with a hypnotherapist/coach to rid procrastination and become the person you want to be. To find out more book a complimentary procrastination hypnosis session with me.
However you chose to combat your procrastination hypnosis is an effective, drug-free method!
