HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Maybe you can remember, as I (Ginny) can, the enthusiasm with which we began a new school year back in “the good old days.” We bought a few notebooks, a new binder and a package of paper, page dividers, pens, pencils, erasers, a pencil sharpener, ruler, perhaps a compass and protractor. Then came the text book, with no margin notes, under linings or highlights. Brand spanking new. We’d thumb through the unread pages, savor their mystery and ponder our own potential for learning. Meeting a new teacher was an adventure in itself… a new personality coming face to face with our own, enshrined with the power to either move us along our educational path or hold us back, depending on how deep we could dig to invest our own intellectual energy.

It’s a set of dynamics that can motivate us at the beginning of each new year, if we let it. Motivate us to improve ourselves and our lives, as well as the lives of others. The year, however, has no personality and has no power over us. We own the classroom. We make all the decisions as to how we want to use our 365 days. Do we want to lose weight? Stop smoking? Rid ourselves of a fear or phobia? Quit biting our nails? Learn and practice managing pain -- physical or emotional?

A good hypnotherapist is like a private tutor. Someone who is ahead of you on the path, saying “Let me show you the way.” If you choose to follow, your journey is easier, therefore more enjoyable. And although psychology is my first love and I must emphasize there is always a time and place for psychotherapy, clinical hypnosis is a shortcut that lets you reach your goal much more quickly. There is less kicking around of problems on an intellectual level, and more jumping right into the center of your desired solution.

If you haven’t made any New Year’s resolutions, it may be because in the past you’ve experienced little or no (or only temporary) success. In this case, you’ve labeled yourself a loser… couldn’t cut the mustard in previous years, so why try again? Here’s my advice for you:

1) Choose just one change you’d like to make. Let’s use drinking 8 glasses of water a day as an example.

2) Set in your supplies. Perhaps a case of bottled water, or a filter of some sort, or a special glass you can use throughout the day. Something new, that calls to you like a text book waiting to be read.

3) Ask yourself what has prevented you from already doing what it is you’ve decided now to do. What kind of thinking has held you back? (I keep forgetting., it’s too inconvenient, water is boring, I don’t really see any point to it, etc.)

4. Now change your thinking, to find and focus on a solution.

To keep from forgetting, associate drinking water with something that occurs regularly in and of itself. Decide to have a drink of water every time you finish a phone call, or every time you pick up a pen, or every time you go from standing to sitting (or vice versa) - depending on your normal activities.

Remind yourself that a lot of things in life are inconvenient -- red lights, misplacing your car keys, waiting in line to pay for groceries. So what? Just because something is inconvenient is no excuse for ignoring it.

Boring? Uhh… what’s more boring than breathing, and yet we do it all the time. Why? Because it keeps us alive! Remind yourself of all the ways drinking water makes your life better. It flushes toxins, relieves aches & pains, enhances memory, improves complexion, etc.

Notice you’ve already taken care of your “what’s the point” excuse! Along with all the others. Once you’ve changed your mind, you’ve changed your self-image! You’re no longer considering yourself someone who has failed to make the desired change, you’re someone focusing on achievement. So design for yourself a simple and succinct self-statement that you can repeat periodically. “I’m a person who drinks 8 glasses of water a day. It’s no big deal. It’s natural and normal. It’s who I am. It’s what I do.”

Another technique that’s fun is to pretend you’re playing a part in a movie. Your character carries a bottle of water everywhere and is constantly drinking from one after another. The camera is rolling from sunup to sundown, and you are the star! All eyes are on you, and not only are you drinking water, you’re loving it! See that smile on your face? You’ve heard rumors of an Academy Award nomination. (This technique works because it’s FUN! It creates happy body and brain chemistry, by engaging subconscious processing.)

Once you’ve internalized the change you’ve chosen for yourself so that you no longer have to work (or play) at it, choose another issue and go for it!. There’s always room for improvement. Remember: change is happening nonstop to and around you. If you aren’t controlling it, it’s controlling you. And by “control” I don’t mean grabbing a bull by the horns, which guarantees a rough ride. It’s more like riding a horse. Life may be bigger than you, but keep your feet in the stirrups, the reins in your hand -- remember where you’ve been, focus on where you are, and decide where you want to go. Then enjoy the ride.