Tales Of A Teenage Hypnotist With Asperger's Part 02

When I began learning hypnosis as a young teenager I didn't realise I had been doing hypnosis for years.

When I was in primary school I was a small, quiet child. I was often ignored and overlooked, but I did make one observation that taught me a strategy for getting my own way.

Chichester Hypnotherapist Dan Jones, Aged 9

What I discovered was that if I suggested an idea, and it happened to be a good idea, then people would do that idea even though I wouldn't get any credit for it and no-one would realise I was the one who initially suggested it.

For example; if I wanted to play a specific game, I would suggest it in front of my friend that were trying to think of what game to play, no-one would acknowledge that I have just spoken, but eventually the people that heard me suggest that game, without realising they had heard it, would suggest it themselves, and then others would suggest it, and after a few minutes we would be playing the game I wanted to play.

This is a bit like when you ask someone that is intensely engrossed in a TV programme if they want a cup of tea. They may not hear you, but once the adverts come on they suggest wanting a cup of tea because the idea went into their mind subconsciously.

Many children would have got annoyed with suggesting ideas, being ignored, and then having others 'come up with' the ideas they had, and then having those other children taking credit for the ideas. But I thought about things differently.

I have never been particularly bothered about being in the limelight, or taking credit for things, so to me as a small child it came naturally to notice that I was 'getting my own way' even though I wasn't getting credit for ideas that I had and not to be bothered by this, but to use it to my advantage. Often ideas in school for tasks and projects, or who should do what would come from me initially, but someone else would suggest it louder than me, and they would get credit for the idea, but everyone would be doing what I want us to do.

So if I wanted to play manhunt, then I would suggest playing manhunt, a minute or so later the children around me would suggest manhunt and the idea would ripple around the group and we would end up playing manhunt, which is what I wanted.

Later I life I have continued using this strategy in secondary school, in work, in life, and when I am doing therapy. In therapy for example; part of the aim is to help people to make changes that perhaps they aren't so motivated to make. So I will suggest ideas that I would like clients to follow in a way that allows them to suggest the ideas to me that 'they want to do' later in the therapy session.

Lose Weight While You Lie In Bed

When I was in my late teens/early twenties I used to eat a lot of chocolate. Back then the British shop Woolworths used to sell a Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate bar they called 'The World's Largest Chocolate Bar'. It was 1.5kg and I used to eat one bar every day. I would eat 'normally' as well, so this one bar was in addition to my normal meals.

Knowing hypnosis I wanted to keep the weight off (I had a 28in waist back then) so I used to use hypnosis to increase my metabolism.

One day I met with other hypnotists and one of them questioned the ethical nature of my actions and said that I should exercise and not 'cheat' with hypnosis. Following this, for some reason I stopped being able to use hypnosis to speed up my metabolism in this way so I had to think of an alternative way of burning more calories.

What I found was that I could lie down in bed and imagine myself running along the seafront. I would start off with a vague image, and would focus in on the internal experience by imagining specific parts of running, so I would focus on the swing of my arms, what that would feel like, I would focus on the movement of my legs and on how my feet hit the ground. I would focus on how I would need to be breathing to be running optimally, and would allow myself to become absorbed in the experience of what I would see and hear and feel and smell as I ran along the beach.

All of this would increase my heart rate and increase my metabolism. After 30 minutes of doing this, despite lying in bed, I would feel hot and sweaty and would open my eyes still feeling my heart beating as if I had just been doing strenuous exercise.

This increased metabolism would then continue to be higher through the day. I often did this twice per day to keep weight off, once in the morning and once in the late afternoon. I didn't always lie down in bed to do it, as I got more skilled at it I could do it anywhere, so I could do it sat on a bench or chair, or anywhere I could close my eyes for about 30 minutes and let my mind drift inside.

This may sound unusual or unlikely, that I could do something in my mind which effects my body, but it is no different to what people do unintentionally every day. Many people worry about things. Worrying is imagining things that may happen, and many of those things don't happen. People that worry can give themselves a panic attack or feelings of anxiety, they can induce the 'fight or flight' response and find that their heart speeds up and adrenalin flows, and they feel sweaty or clammy. All responses that should only happen in the face of real danger.

Or if someone focuses on a lost loved one and allows themselves to be drawn into the thoughts and memories they can find themselves crying, or allowing your mind to be drawn in to happy thoughts of something that made you laugh can make you suddenly laugh again, which can be embarrassing when this takes you by surprise. So what you think influences your body, in the same way that how you feel and what your body does can influence the thoughts you have.

If you give this idea ago I look forward to hearing your experiences, and what results you get...

Are You F**king Up Your Children?

One of the hardest things people have to do in life is bring up the next generation. You frequently hear that children aren't born with a handbook. It is common for people to make mistakes as they bring up their children, and hopefully most people learn lessons along the way and do better as time goes on. Here I hope to illuminate areas that can influence a child's health and wellbeing that may not all be what people immediately focus on, or are aware of. I have tried to avoid focusing on what most people already know, like the effects of what a parent is teaching a child through the natural modelling that goes on as the child grows up learning from those around them. I have also tried to point a light on some areas where 'genetic' changes are actually changes that were avoidable or are reversible. Over the years I have frequently heard parents say 'I want them diagnosed'. They want to find out what is wrong, have a diagnosis of ADHD or Autism/Aspergers and hope that this will solve everything. Often I can see areas where improvement can be made and where behaviours or 'problems' are coming from, yet the parents will still be focusing on wanting a diagnosis rather than making changes that will help the child. They often don't realise that some of the problems they are having are because of their lifestyles, either now or in the past, or of the way they treat the child, like how they parent the child and what diet and exercise they give the child. I have avoided talking about attachment theory and the impact of poor attachment, or different attachment styles, because they are often covered. I want the reader to learn something, or read something new that perhaps they haven't thought about or read before.

Here are three areas which can influence your child's current and future health and wellbeing:

1. Nurturing

It may seem like common sense that children need to be nurtured, they need to be hugged, they need close loving contact from a parent or care giver. The effects of not doing this run deeper than just having a child that feels unloved and perhaps has attachment issues when they grow up, or grows up unsure how to show love and affection. A neglectful parent that doesn't frequently hug their child and show love to their child is actually causing epigenetic changes to that child's genome.

Epigenetics is about the turning on or off of different genes, so the genes aren't mutated or physically changed, but they act differently.

If a child is bought up in a low nurturing environment they may well be more likely to grow up sexually outgoing, and perhaps getting into intimate relationships at an earlier age, whereas a child bought up in a high nurturing environment is more likely to grow up to be more modest, and likely to take relationships slower.

A child bought up in a low nurturing environment is more likely to have a lower stress threshold, it would be like they have been primed to expect that the World is a scary and dangerous place, so they may well end up getting angry or anxious about things much quicker than those around them, they may be short-tempered and abrupt with others, or seem to always be nervous and worrying about everything.

If they don't learn how to manage this and they go on to have children they will pass on this tendency to have a low tolerance to stressful events to their children, and they will then have to work extra hard to undo this by getting the nurturing as right as possible with their children despite the fact that their children are likely to be more challenging than expected to manage.

Growing up in a low nurture environment leads to epigenetic changes in females brains that reduce estrogen and so can lead to those females being less attentive and nurturing to their children, which can then continue the cycle. The individual has to grow up and learn a nurturing way of being if they want to break the cycle, but they are likely to find it feels like it doesn't come so naturally to them because they are going against a way of parenting that was instilled in them by the way they were parented.

Low nurture environments, or childhoods full of stress, shouting, aggression, bullying or authoritarian parenting, with very little hugging, and close loving contact and interactions can lead to adults more prone to depression and anxiety disorders, obsessive behaviours, more fears and phobias and being more socially awkward, they are more likely to suffer with illnesses including high blood pressure, heart problems, stress related and low immune system related illnesses and cancer, and generally lead shorter lives.

What the child chooses to do as they grow up can reverse the effects of a low nurture environment in childhood, but they will have to have the mind-set that encourages them to actively make those changes, like learning about appropriate relationships, learning how to express love appropriately, learning healthy thinking styles and developing a positive self image and positive beliefs. They will also have to learn how to manage stress and how to relax in healthy ways.

2. Diet

There are two components to the diet issue. One is the parents diet before the child is born, the other is the diet of the child.

Starting with the diet of the parent. Fathers that eat foods high is fat or sugar, or that have eaten excessively and are overweight create epigenetic changes within themselves relating to this high fat/high sugar diet. These epigenetic changes are expressed throughout the body, so as the man's body creates sperm this sperm carries the DNA with the encoded epigenetic changes. This is how the diet of the father passes to their child. For mothers it is a little different. Because the mothers eggs have existed for a long period of time it seems that they carry the DNA as it was at the time they were created. So dietary influences in women would precede the creation of the eggs. Where the mothers current diet influences the child is during pregnancy. If the mother is eating high sugar/high fat foods during pregnancy, or making other unhealthy dietary choices this is the time that those choices will influence the epigenetic changes on the DNA within the unborn child. If the mother is overweight or unhealthy this will also have the effect of creating unhealthy changes within the unborn child. Children born to parents that have had poor diets may well suffer with asthma, cardiovascular disease, be more prone to obesity and more likely to develop diabetes, even if they eat healthy and normal sized meals. The children will also be more likely to die significantly younger than the average life expectancy. So the children will have to grow up doing more to be healthy and overcome these 'handed down' effects than children who grew up with healthy parents. Some of the effects of poor parental diet can be undone if the mother breastfeeds. Regardless of the parents diet, breastfeeding can reduce and undo some of the negative epigenetic effects, and if the mother has a good diet then the positive 'undoing' effect is even greater, the child is then at a reduced risk of obesity and related health risks.

For the children, if they are eating a diet of high fat/high sugar this is likely to impact on the development of their brain, they may well grow up more inclined to 'crave' these foods and use these foods as emotional crutches during times of stress or difficulties. Poor diet through childhood can lead to cells growing abnormally and can increase the chances of cancers developing, they can develop obesity, chronic illness, depression, low self-esteem, less able to focus their attention and more likely to exhibit behavioural problems, less physically and mentally active, high blood-pressure, cholesterol and increased risk of stroke, and more likely to have unhealthy eating habits. They will also be passing on epigenetic changes and health risks to their children and grandchildren. To undo a childhood of eating unhealthy the child will need to grow up exercising and eating healthy and doing activities that relax them and help them regulate their mood so that they reduce as many of the negative effects as possible. If they can keep this up then they may not pass on so many negative effects. Unfortunately this is unlikely to remove all negative effects because research has found that fathers that have been eating unhealthy high-fat/high-sugar diets before the age of 11 pass on negative changes leading to obesity to their offspring.

3. Your Baggage

Many of the examples above show how the parents upbringing and life experiences and life choices can create epigenetic changes which can then be passed on. If the parent had a rough childhood which was stressful, or a childhood in poverty, perhaps a shortage of food, then this can pass on to their children giving their children health risks and perhaps they will be more likely to display poor behaviour or struggle with concentration. If the parent experiences stressful life experiences and doesn't address these experiences and 'deal' with them then they may mentally revisit these experiences giving themselves stress regularly which can create negative epigenetic changes.

If the parent takes drugs, smokes, eats unhealthy, or drinks alcohol all of these can create epigenetic changes which can be passed on effecting the child. If mothers during the second or third trimester before birth experience any high stress events, especially events that can cause trauma or fear this can lead to a child being born with a low tolerance to stress, so they will seem to perceive the world as a dangerous place and struggle with stress and perhaps cry more than normal, or get angry more than normal. Parents with unresolved emotional baggage or parents feeling 'trapped' in a situation so they feel stress on a daily basis can have this lead to changes which impact on the development of the child.

Parents ignoring their child because they are going through a difficult time, or because they are depressed (for example if a parent has post natal depression) can then find they don't parent as nurturing as they need to be, or they display anxiety or negative emotions around the child which can then create epigenetic changes, as well as the 'learnt behaviour' of how to handle situations which can impact on the child's future.

To address this issue the parents should address their own baggage. If someone is thinking of becoming a parent, to give the child the best opportunity and best start in life it is useful to get any issues resolved, visit a counsellor if needed, or find someone that you can work through any historic issues with. If you are a 'nervous' person, or if you are an 'aggressive' person, or any other negative extreme emotion then getting this addressed is useful. If you spend all of your time worrying, then the child will be likely to be born with a propensity to worry. They will then be hit with the second blade of the sword, because they will also grow up in an environment of 'worrying' and so will be learning that this is how you behave and handle situations. Children learn by copying those around them, and they learn very effectively, even the subtle aspects of human behaviour. So not only do they learn to speak an entire language, and learn what accent to use to speak that language, and learn how to walk despite the fact that their body is a different size and slightly different shape everyday, but they also learn how to handle conflict, how to deal with change, with disappointment, with the unknown, etc...

To address unhealthy lifestyle baggage, it is best to get healthy and get into shape before having a child. You may not be able to undo all changes you will pass on, but hopefully you will be able to pass on better changes than if you remained unhealthy. In many cases stopping 'once you find out you are pregnant' will have some positive effects, like smoking or drinking during pregnancy isn't advisable. But there will be many changes you will pass on simply because you left it too late before stopping. If you have developed healthy lifestyle changes before having a child you are more likely to bring the child up encouraging them to be healthy, so any epigenetic changes passed on that are unhealthy, perhaps from when you were younger, before you started getting healthy, you will be teaching your child the skills to undo as much of this in their lifetime as possible so that the generational cycle gets broken.

The most important thing for parents to learn is how to relax, how to keep stress to a minimum. This one thing before conception, during pregnancy, and during the child's childhood is what will have the biggest impact on that child's health and wellbeing. The other thing is diet and exercise for the parent and the child, making sure the child gets plenty of outdoor exercise and eats a healthy and balanced diet that is low in fat and sugar. Parents should keep shouting or aggressive acts to a minimum, there are very few occasions a parent is likely to need to shout, and never any occasions a parent should need to hit a child.

To learn more some useful reading includes:

Epigenetics: How Environment Shapes Our Genes by Richard C. Francis
Your Happy Genes: Tripping Your Inner Switches for Pleasure, Success & Rela​xation by Dawson Church
The Epigenetics Revolution: How Modern Biology is Rewriting Our Understanding of Genetics, Disease and Inheritance by Nessa Carey
Genie in Your Genes by Dawson Church

Dan Jones Interviewing Legendary Hypnotherapist Stephen Brooks

Chichester Hypnotherapist Dan Jones, founder of the Sussex Hypnotherapy Centre, and author of 'Becoming a Brief Therapist', 'Hypnosis for Beginners', and 'Advanced Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Scripts' interviews legendary Hypnotherapist and Trainer Stephen Brooks, founder of British Hypnosis Research. Stephen Brooks was the first person to bring Ericksonian Hypnotherapy to the UK back in the early 1970's, he had a thriving practice before moving on to teaching Indirect, Conversational, Ericksonian Hypnotherapy & NLP, initially in the UK, and then Worldwide.

At the peak of Brooks popularity here in the UK Stephen Brooks vanished, he gave up his successful training business and moved to Thailand and began leading a minimal lifestyle. In 2007 Stephen Brooks began an advanced online training course and live practitioner and master practitioner training.

Stephen Brooks trainings are interesting, mind-opening and entertaining, Brooks works with real-life clients in front of the students and then breaks down what he was doing and why, and possible directions he is likely to take if he was going to continue to work with the client as well as 'usual' teaching.

For the benefit of those not trained by Stephen Brooks that watch this interview I would be interested to have students and those that have trained with him to comment below and share your experiences about Stephen Brooks, the man you met, Stephen Brooks, the trainer, and your experiences of being on the training course and why you would recommend others should grab the opportunity to train with him.

I have trained with many people over the years and always recommend people should learn from Stephen Brooks, as he is by far one of the leading, most skilful therapists I know of. I hope you enjoy and share the interview... 

Tales Of A Teenage Hypnotist With Asperger's Part 01

What do you think someone setting out learning hypnosis gets up to?

I started learning hypnosis when I was about 13/14 over 20 years ago because I had difficulty communicating with others and saw Paul McKenna on TV and thought hypnosis would be the answer.

As a young boy I struggled to get clients to practice on so I practised on friends, family and strangers.

13/14 year old Dan with runner Roger Black

I thought what would be interesting is to share with you some of the things I got up to as I developed my interest in hypnosis and 'mind control'.

When I started out one of the first things I did was to practice on myself. I didn't really understand hypnosis, I hadn't read enough to make me limit what I believed was possible. As a young boy I used to love playing manhunt. Manhunt was a game where you would have two teams with one team having to get to a location and the other team having to 'tag' that team before any of them make it to the location.

Myself and my friends would often play this in the dark in the woods at night and would have a free-standing torch on the ground as the location to reach. Something I wondered was whether I could make the game easier for myself. I thought it would be handy if I could see where the 'attacking' team players are. I wondered about whether it would be possible to 'see' sounds (later I learnt that this was synaesthesia). I hypnotised myself so that any sounds of cracking branches or of breathing or sudden movement would 'look' like flashes of light and colours so that I could see where the attacking team players were hiding.

This gave a tremendous advantage in the dark when playing this game, as I could identify where people were by 'seeing' their breathing, breaking twigs or sudden noises.

This was the first time I intentionally used hypnosis to my advantage and practised on myself.

Subscribe to this blog for future posts where I will be revealing times I used hypnosis techniques unknowingly when I was in primary school, how I used hypnosis to excel at playing pool, and tricks I used to use to make other players play worse, how I made one man see everyone in a nightclub as being naked, and more...

Therapeutic Story Telling For Those Working With Children

Originally Published 6th September 2012

Many of you that know me or that have attended my Therapeutic Story Telling Workshops will know that story telling25 is one of my favourite areas of therapy.

Here I hope to explore this topic with you mainly in relation to how you can use story telling when working with children.

For thousands of years story telling has been used to help children to move from childhood to adulthood (Just look at The Iliad and Odyssey by Homer). Many cultures use story telling or 'shared dreams' to help children make the transition from childhood to adulthood. One of the most hypnotic things that someone can say is 'Once upon a time...' and we instantly enter a light trance, drift inside the mind and begin to relax and focus in anticipation of what is to come.

When working with anyone using stories therapeutically you need to make sure that the person hearing the story has the problem in mind so that they can link up the patterns in the story to the problem they would like help with.

For example if someone wants help with depression and they come to see me and I start talking about someone climbing Everest they know they came to see me to be helped with depression so the story will be absorbed in relation to the depression and the story is highly likely to have a therapeutic impact. If I knew someone had depression and met them in the street and they didn't know I knew they had depression and I told the same story it is unlikely to be successful as the depression and the patterns in the story aren't linked. If on the otherhand I meet the same person and start by asking how they are; even if they just politely say they are fine they will still access the thoughts about depression because these thoughts make up 'How they are'. If I then talk about someone climbing Everest this again has an increased chance of helping them with the depression.

An example of this idea is when I was on a plane and the person next to me was nervous about flying. I spoke about a child playing with an airport toy set and because the person had direct access to the problem the patterns I was laying down took effect and the person relaxed and found the flight OK.

For many years I worked with Children and Young People that had had difficult childhoods and had often experienced abuse whether this was physical, emotional or sexual. Many of these children and young people were wonderful, bright and intelligent people that unfortunately found certain situations would make them become angry, or they would lack confidence or self esteem or would become very anxious and often they didn't know why. Many people would ask them why and find the young person couldn't answer the question which often led to situations where the child or young person now felt stupid or angry with themselves for not even knowing why they do what they do.

Due to my training I knew that 'why' questions aren't the best way to go because the child or young person is unlikely to know why. The way to go is to create change from the inside out. With younger children especially I would tell stories that match the patterns that I see occuring. The brain is essentially a pattern matching machine; but it doesn't match patterns exactly; it can match a pattern with a 'near fit' so for example the pattern for suckling can be matched by the end of a finger or a bottle, it doesn't just need to be matched by a breast.

This means that if you have a general idea about a pattern you can lay that down in a story and know the brain will accept it. And if the pattern is way off and you were wrong the pattern wont fit at all but this doesn't matter it is just feedback to alter the story, or perhaps start more generally next time.

Stories that you use could be stories from books or even having the child watch certain films with you or it could be something you make up (either imaginary or based on real events). The important thing is to access the problem. This is often very easy to do indirectly. For example if I talk about my family people will unconsciously begin to think about their family. If I talk about when I was in school people will begin to think about when they were in school. This process of carrying out an internal search for related information is a 'transderivational search' and happens in every conversation you have. If someone says "You'll never guess what happened today?" A part of the person will probably try to think of what may have happened while another part of the person will think about what has happened to them today.

This process can be used by mentioning something that will create this search before or at the beginning of a story. Sometimes it can be done at the end of a story but I find it seems to work best near the beginning. This could be done in a brief conversation or whilst first mentioning a characters situation. You could even allow yourself to be overheard talking to someone (like on a telephone) about your day, or about having to do something you were nervous about that day etc...

If you incorporate it into the story it could be for example introducing Cinderella and how she was very nervous around her sisters.

Storytelling with children has many advantages. Children often have far better imaginations and can become absorbed far easier. Some ways I have helped children to become absorbed are to read to them with their eyes closed and ask them 'and what colour do you think the walls are?' and whatever colour they say you agree that they are correct. And you can ask them for the detail which means they have to imagine that detail building up an internal mental image.

Anyone wanting to use storytelling therapeutically with children should go and read short childrens stories and fairytales and look at what patterns are in those stories. For example do characters stand up for themselves successfully, do characters find they are good at things they used to think they were no good at, do they change their opinions, or do they become confident etc...

Self Hypnosis Session Hypnosis Scripts Demo Taken The Book 'Advanced Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Scripts'

Life Changer Self Hypnosis session created with scripts from Dan Jones book 'Advanced Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Scripts'. This book (available from the Amazon websites as a Kindle eBook or Paperback book) contains over 100 hypnotherapy scripts and strategies, here is an example of how they can be combined to create personalised hypnosis sessions. This book is a must for any budding hypnotherapist, anyone interested in hypnosis or anyone newly qualified in hypnosis.

Unlike many other authors of Hypnotherapy Scripts books here I am demonstrating the quality of the scripts for you first hand so that you can experience the scripts in the book before deciding to purchase the book or not.

Self Publishing Made Easy: How to self publish on Amazon Kindle and Print on Demand

This course on 'Self Publishing Made Easy' teaches you how to write and publish books and ebooks using Lulu Publishing's 'Print On Demand' service, and Amazon's 'Kindle Direct Publishing' service, so that you can generate an income that continues to get paid into your bank account or PayPal account long after you finished working on the books and ebooks that are continuing to work for you. You will get paid whether you are on a holiday, sleeping, enjoying your free time, or whatever else you choose to be doing.

You will learn:

• How to create your own professional looking book covers
• How to create book titles that get more sales
• How to find niche topics to write about to increase sales
• How to price your books and ebooks
• How to market your book to boost sales and exposure
• How to make money off of the back of your books

Following this link you can access 'Self Publishing Made Easy' for just $49 rather than the RRP of $197 (there are a limited number of discounted spaces available), and the course has a 30-day money back guarantee.

This course is made up of a series of video lectures which guide you through various stages of publishing. The course can be watched through in about 6 hours, but to do the course properly should take longer. To get the most from this course it is recommended that you write a book as you go through the various lectures, even if it is a short ebook. You can then use this book to follow along to the various stages you are guided through, so you can use the 'deciding what the write' stage to develop an idea for a book, and then the writing stages to write the book, and then follow the publishing stages to publish the book, and then at the end of the course you will have published a book or ebook and will hopefully be on track to begin to earn income straight from the end of the course.

The course is structured into a logical sequence, taking you from developing the initial ideas for what to write about, through content creation, to developing your print book and ebook and then marketing the book and making money off of the back of your book.

Why Take This Course?

So why should you take this course, compared to other courses available? With this course I share with you my process of coming up with ideas for books, through to publishing the books and making money from the books. I teach you exactly what you need to know, and teach you each stage. I don't say things like 'then create a cover' and expect you to figure out how you would create a cover, I tell you how you can create a cover. I take you through all of the stages showing you exactly what to do.

I share everything all in one place, I don't try to make money out of you by telling you to take my writing course about writing your manuscript, or take my cover creation course to create your cover. I teach it all here. You get everything you need and can apply it all straight away and be on the road to making money from self-publishing by the end of the course. You will only need to take this one course to know how to generate a passive income, to know how to give yourself more time to do what you would rather be spending your life doing, and to be making money whether you are working hard in front of a computer, lying back on a warm tropical beach, or trekking up a mountain. The money you make will be coming in whatever you are doing, and wherever you are in the World.

Imagine being able to live anywhere. With a residual, or passive income if you want to move, you don't have to worry about finding a new job, or taking time off work to move, you have income coming in the whole time. If you decide to spend six months living on a beach relaxing, you don't have to worry about needing to be earning money, with passive income work you have already done will be still paying you each month into your bank account or PayPal account, and that money will be waiting for you when you need it.

When you complete this course and publish your book or ebook I look forward to seeing the book or ebook you have created mentioned in your review of this course so that others can see what can be created, and I also enjoy checking out what people are writing and what books and ebooks I can recommend to others.

'Certificate in Ericksonian Hypnotherapy' Online Hypnotherapy Training Course

This course is about Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. It teaches you about the history of hypnosis, through to the work of Milton H Erickson and how to do Ericksonian Hypnotherapy. By the end you will know how to do hypnotherapy without the need for structured hypnotic inductions, without the need for hypnotherapy scripts, and without the need to just do 'suggestion therapy' hypnotherapy. You will know how to work with clients as unique, individual human being, and tailor what you do to each person as an individual.

There are around 75 lessons to this course, check out the first few lessons for free by following the 'PersonalFreedom' link below.

(Exclusive 'Personal Freedom Blog' Discount Code : PERSONALFREEDOM  - This discount gets you the course for just $49 rather than the RRP of $197)

The course is made up of video lectures with PDF's of the slides used within the lectures, and additional information to help with learning, as well as a video demonstration filmed at a live training event of Ericksonian Language Patterns being used, and some Ericksonian Hypnotherapy demonstration Mp3's which can be analysed for learning purposes, and used for self-hypnosis, or self-help. There is also a quiz at the end of most sections to help with your learning.

The course can be completed in about 10-12 hours, but to get the most out of this training it is recommended that you take time to absorb and learn from each lesson by going and practising with friends, family and like-minded people, as well as going and observing people and reading some of the books from the recommended reading list to broaden your knowledge. Curiosity is the key to developing mastery and success. It is also good to ask questions and interact with others to get others understandings and views and experiences on different elements of the training. This same amount of content when taught at Dan Jones live hypnotherapy training courses takes 60+ hours of classroom tuition (with the lectures taking about 15-30 minutes per lecture, including discussing lecture content, then 30 minutes of practice around the lecture topic, then 30 minutes of debrief and discussion following the practice for each lecture).

The course is structured to give you an overview of the history of hypnosis before focusing in on the work of Milton H Erickson. The course then takes you through the underpinning foundations of Ericksonian Hypnotherapy before building on this with Ericksonian Hypnotic Language Patterns and structuring hypnotherapy sessions.

This course is ideal for those that are new to hypnosis and keen to learn about how to do hypnosis, for those with experience with hypnosis who perhaps use hypnosis scripts or structured inductions and just suggesting problems away, that want to develop their skill and knowledge at being able to do hypnotherapy with people without the need for structured inductions and just the use of suggestion therapy. It is also ideal for hypnotherapist that perhaps don't have much knowledge or experience with Ericksonian Hypnotherapy and want to take a course for continued professional development (CPD), or Life-Coaches, NLP Practitioners, Coaches, Counsellors and other therapists that want to learn about Ericksonian Hypnotherapy to add this skill to the therapy or coaching you already offer.

Dan Jones, the course tutor, is one of the UK's leading Ericksonian Hypnotherapists with over 20 years experience. He teaches the UK's premier Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Diploma accredited by the General Hypnotherapy Standards Council, and is bestselling author of 'Advanced Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Scripts'.

Introduction To Solution Focused Therapy Online Course

This course on an 'Introduction To Solution Focused Therapy' is taught over a number of video lectures. There is also a solution focused therapy demonstration and annotated transcript of the session. Following the link above you can get exclusive access to the course for just $19 rather than the RRP of $79 (Limited discounted places available)

The course explores and includes:

The solution focused approach
Why the approach is useful
Many of the main solution focused techniques
Examples of solution focused sentences
Recommended reading list
Structuring Solution Focused Sessions
An article outlining the effectiveness of using a solution focused approach
PDF of a PowerPoint of the course content
Solution Focused Therapy Session Audio Demonstration
Annotated Transcript of the Solution Focused Therapy Session Demonstration (Explaining what the therapist is doing, what techniques are being used, and why the therapist is doing what they are doing)
The course is made up of video lectures, audio tracks, PDF documents and additional text. The course can be completed in about three hours, but if you read through everything, listen to the demonstration and do additional study and recapping it can take longer.

The course is structured to take you on a journey from how the solution focused approach developed, then giving you an overview and starting from the bigger picture, before narrowing in on why it is useful to use a solution focused approach and the key benefits of using a solution focused approach, and then into solution focused techniques like looking for exceptions to the problem, establishing what people really want and where the client is in relation to what they want to achieve/how close are they to the goal already and what are they already doing towards that goal.

You will learn how to evidence your work, by gathering information on how successful you are, which is invaluable in the current climate of expectation that everyone works in an evidence-based way. And you will learn how to use language and questions to identify client resources, strengths and goals, and help to move clients forwards.

The course is ideal for those that are new to the solution focused approach, as well as those experienced in therapy, NLP or life coaching and related fields that are looking for something to compliment and enhance their skills.

If you are interested in taking this course for just $19 you can access it here - Introduction to Solution Focused Therapy. This course comes with a 30-day money back guarantee.

Dan Jones, the course tutor, has had over twenty years of experience with solution focused working and has used the approach in a variety of settings from business leadership, to residential care homes, parent and family work, working with teenagers and children and a wide range of clients with problems ranging from depression, anxiety, PTSD, and confidence issues, to insomnia, addictions and anger problems. He has written a number of books on the topic and had his research on using a solution focused approach to reduce youth crime published in the peer reviewed journal 'Human Givens'.

Brief lecture introducing Solution Focused Therapy taken from the course 'Introduction To Solution Focused Therapy':

Interview About Big Brother With Author of 'The Psychology of Big Brother', Dan Jones

In 2007 I wrote a book 'The Psychology of Big Brother', this has lead to a number of radio interviews, newspaper interviews, magazine interviews, interviews with different websites and blogs, and more. One of the interviews I did was with Chris Gray which is across the four tracks below.

This interview was based on the content of the book 'The Psychology of Big Brother'. The book uses examples from Celebrity Big Brother 2007 (CBB5), and the interview uses examples from Celebrity Big Brother 2010 (CBB7) which took place shortly before the interview.

With Big Brother back on our screens and this interview being unavailable for some time now I felt people may find the content of this interview interesting. The interview covers how to read body language of Big Brother housemates, reading their unconscious communications, revealing hidden secrets about who housemates like and dislike and other secrets they may be reluctant to reveal. I also discuss how to interpret housemates dreams, secret signs of flirting, learn the essential skills for surviving Big Brother, how being in the Big Brother house can effect our basic emotional needs and bullying and gossip that can take place in the Big Brother house.

Part One of the Big Brother Interview:



Part Two of the Big Brother Interview:



Part Three of the Big Brother Interview:



Part Four of the Big Brother Interview:

The Hypnotic Assassin

As I work on the second book in the 'Hypnotic Assassin' story I have made the first story available for free as a Kindle eBook on Amazon Websites for a few days, then it will revert back to it's usual RRP

Find 'The Hypnotic Assassin' on Amazon here

Governmental Mind Control - Nudging, Priming & Reality Blindness

Dan Jones – In Dialogue With Mind-Body Therapy Master, Dr Ernest Rossi

Dan Jones – In Dialogue With Mind-Body Therapy Master, Dr Ernest Rossi

Introduction

Dan Jones, one of the UK’s leading experts in Hypnotherapy, Mind-Body Communication & Solution Focused Approach, and author of over ten books, including ‘Advanced Ericksonian Hypnotherapy Scripts’, ‘Hypnotherapy’, ‘Human Given's Approach to Supporting Parents of Challenging Teens’ and 'Guided Meditations for Health & Wellbeing' questioned Dr Ernest Rossi about mind-body therapy and his work.

Dr Ernest Rossi started out studying pharmacy back in the early 1950’s before following a psychology path in the late 1950’s which has spanned over 50 years. Dr Rossi is a Jungian Psychoanalyst, in the 1970’s he met with legendary Psychiatrist Dr Milton H Erickson with whom he wrote a series of books on Dr Erickson’s approach, and following Dr Erickson’s death in 1980 Dr Rossi co-wrote a number of books that were based on transcripts of lectures and workshops of Dr Erickson’s from the 1950’s and 1960’s, as well as completing the book ‘The February Man’ which is a transcript of a series of therapy sessions Dr Erickson had with a patient that includes the conversation and analysis by Drs Erickson and Rossi. Dr Rossi also worked on ‘The Collected Works of Milton H Erickson, which includes many of the papers Dr Erickson wrote over his career. Dr Rossi included with these papers in the ‘Collected Works’ updated neuroscience, putting Dr Erickson’s work in context with our latest understanding of how the mind works.

In 1972 Dr Rossi wrote ‘Dreams and the Growth of Personality’ (since re-released and expanded) which began an interesting direction around how people can heal themselves and facilitate new levels of awareness through creative and novel experiences, and how, during dreaming, psychobiological changes take place, leading to new responses and experiences of the World around you.

In 1986 Dr Rossi continued to share this new direction of thinking and forwarding the fields of Psychotherapy, Hypnotherapy, Mind-Body Therapies and what it means to be human with his book ‘The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing’. This book posed many questions and insights, and suggested areas of research still needed to confirm various hypotheses about how mind-body communication and healing may work and be facilitated. This book bought together information from fields ranging from Psychoneuroimmunology, Neuroendocrinology, Molecular Genetics, Neurobiology, Information Theories and more.

Dr Rossi wrote many papers on topics raised within ‘The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing’ and continued to advance themes from this book through various future books, workshops, lectures and audio and video programmes and continued research. Many of these papers have appeared in future books including ‘The Breakout Heuristic’ and ‘Creating Consciousness’.

In the 1990’s Dr Rossi explored the topic of Ultradian Rhythms and the ‘Ultradian Healing Response’ more fully with his book ‘The Twenty-Minute Break’ in 1991, ‘Ultradian Rhythms in Life Processes’ in 1992, and ‘Ultradian Rhythms From Molecules to Mind’ in 2008. Ultradian Rhythms, and other Chronobiological and Psychobiological rhythms have an important role in helping us to understand ourselves, understanding the time Psychotherapy and change takes, understanding when we are operating at peak performance and when we are likely to not operate at peak performance, and when we are likely to ‘give in’ to cravings, and so much more.

Life is full of rhythms, from mind, to gene, to sleeping and waking, to growth of our body and new neuronal growth within our nervous system, to our breathing and the beating of our heart. In 2002 Dr Rossi’s book ‘The Psychobiology of Gene Expression’ beautifully weaved life’s rhythms with the latest understandings of the interplay between gene expression and human experience to further advance our understanding of Psychotherapy and the Holistic Healing Arts and explaining the communication pathways from environment, to mind, body and spirit. This was Dr Rossi’s new Psychosocial Genomics.

Over the last decade Dr Rossi and a team of researchers have used DNA Microarrays to demonstrate the interplay from creativity, novelty and environmental enrichment to stimulate changes at a genetic level, showing that creative and novel therapy can, not just alter how someone thinks about a problem, but can also create new neuronal growth and changes within the cells of our body, making the change psychobiological, rather than just psychological.  

Dr Rossi’s research continues to gather new and on-going evidence, and Dr Rossi continues to write and lecture. He is one of the most passionate and genuine people I am aware of, his passion, humility, and love of life resonates and permeates his books and lectures, as does his desire to carryout and demonstrate evidence for his work and research and share his knowledge with others.

Dan Jones & Dr Ernest Rossi – In Dialogue

Jones: Dr Rossi, ever since discovering your work in the mid 1990’s I have been fascinated with your work, your insights into how, many different scientific disciplines interlink. I remember you talking about asking experts in different fields of study about different aspects of the interplay between the environment, the brain, psychology and the body, down to the genes and how you discovered that each person could give an answer from their perspective but few would commit to agreeing there is a continuous link between the environment, the mind and body, down to a genetic level.

What I am really curious to hear about here is what the latest understandings are about how the mind-body and environment interact, and what your view is of the mind-body system. I understand many people focus solely on how thoughts can influence our body, but they often fail to include the fact that we aren’t isolated beings, we live within an environment, and interact with, and are influenced by the environment with live within.

Relating to this interplay between the environment and ourselves there is now growing talk about epigenetics, unfortunately most of the focus on epigenetics seems to be relating to new drugs that will ‘turn genes on or off’ to treat a wide variety of conditions. My understanding is that epigenetic changes can be created psychologically and behaviourally rather than needing drugs?

Rossi: Of course, that’s what I have been working on for the past 50 years.  Epigenetics refers to the interactions between environmental factors and gene expression.  However, the field of epigenetics is dominated at this time by the biological and medical perspectives. Because of this you will not find much, if any, information about the influence of psychological and behavioral factors on gene expression in the current literature of epigenetics.  This is why I defined and initiated the new scientific discipline of psychosocial genomics about 10 years ago.  Psychosocial genomics deals specifically with how psychological, behavioral, social and cultural factors modulate gene expression in sickness and health.

Jones: I recall reading ‘The Psychobiology of Gene Expression’ and remember finding the ideas compelling and fascinating. In that book is a story about a twins that were born in a hospital, one of those twins was very ill and needed to be kept in an incubator. That twin’s health was deteriorating and was unlikely to survive so a nurse decided that, despite protocol saying it wasn’t allowed, she would put the healthy twin in the incubator with the other twin, reasoning that if their sibling was to die they should at least have spent some time together. Once the healthy twin was placed in the incubator it instinctively put its arm around its sibling, and the siblings vital signs increased, and eventually the unhealthy twin was healthy enough to leave hospital. I also remember hearing about Albert Mason in the UK in the 1950’s accidentally healing a young man of a genetic disorder with hypnosis that he thought was just warts, until after he had healed the person, and was told it was genetic and incurable. These stories, and many others, fascinated me, I wanted to know what was going on and why, and how this can be replicated. Over the years, especially through your work and lectures I have gained greater understanding about epigenetics and ways in which it can be possible to encourage changes on a genetic level for self-healing.

Something that changed my whole World view though, was the discovery that some epigenetic changes that occur within us can be passed onto future generations, so what we choose to eat, whether we smoke or drink, whether we suffer prolonged stress, or regularly exercise, can all lead to epigenetic changes that under certain conditions can be passed on to our offspring, and, at least with some changes, can be passed on through a number of future generations. To me, this was a shocking revelation, the idea that if I ate unhealthy food I could pass on the propensity for my child to have health problems, or if I smoked or drank I could again pass on an increased risk of related illnesses and diseases to my children. I read about the research relating to children born following the World Trade Centre attacks in 2001 and how mothers that were highly traumatised (stressed) by the attacks who were in the last trimester before birth had children born with a lower tolerance to stress, so they were born able to get stressed easily.

To me this is logical, if the parent is chronically stressed just before birth then this would imply the World must be a dangerous place (which it may not be in our modern World, but a chronically stressed person in a stone-age World probably had many threats present), if the World is dangerous then the child needs to be born hyper-vigilant to ensure their survival. Likewise if a parent doesn’t eat much food then finding food must be hard, so the child will be born with a greater ability to store fat, and so if the World turns out to actually have plenty of food the child is likely to easily gain weight.

With all this in mind isn’t it best that people take heed of this knowledge and choose to be more conscious over how they choose to lead their lives? And what kind of lifestyle is most conducive to maintaining health and wellbeing and securing the best health and wellbeing for future generations?

Rossi: In my 2002 book, “The Psychobiology of Gene Expression: Neuroscience and Neurogenesis in Hypnosis and the Healing Arts.”  …I outline how gene expression changes naturally every day to accommodate our daily activity in work and play.  Genes turn on and off during creative work, for example, to make the energy and encode new memory and learning.  This new memory and learning then becomes available for adapting creatively to whatever novel or changing circumstances are taking place in our lives.  At night when we are asleep and dreaming this creative process of gene expression attempts to update our neural networks to create new consciousness so we will be better able to understand and solve problems we could not cope with the day before.  This is the deep psychobiology behind the adage: “The morning is wiser than the evening.”

Jones: Thinking about dreaming and inner changes, many people like to learn self-hypnosis to overcome problems and difficulties in their lives, but then decide they don’t know how to use it, which leads them to give it up, or only use it for relaxation. I have read about your four-stage creative process and watched demonstrations of its use. Is this something people could use with themselves as a form of ‘self-hypnosis’ or do you have other ideas about how people can learn to do effective self-hypnosis?

Rossi: Yes, I have developed a new form of naturalistic therapeutic hypnosis or healing meditation that I call, “The Psychosocial Genomic Healing Experience.”  This is the new neuroscience foundation of all effective self-hypnosis, meditation, and spiritual rituals for mind-body healing that have evolved culturally over the centuries.  I believe this was one the original motivations for developing all the great world religions, for example. 

Jones: The ‘Psychosocial Genomic Healing Experience’ is a fascinating structure to the process we all go through that has similarities to the creative process Leonardo Da Vinci claimed to go through when working through discoveries or problems. Unlike traditional hypnosis or many meditation practices it allows for self-expression, and matches with how we work as humans, and is based on great insight into how we go through a stage of uncertainty, discovery, higher energy, through to clarity, relaxation and ‘a-ha’ moments. It is a process that is intuitive and ‘makes sense’ to people as being familiar to their own personal, current experiences, rather than something entirely new and ‘alien’. Yet despite this, the way the ‘Psychosocial Genomic Healing Experience’ is applied, includes ‘novelty’ and ‘creativity’ so even though it is familiar and understandable, it is also new and novel, which are some of the main aspects to triggering that inner change and healing.

Many years ago I first read your book 'The 20 Minute Break' where I learnt about Ultradian Rhythms. You also talk about 'tuning in'. What are Ultradian Rhythms, why do we have these regular rhythms, why should people learn to 'tune in' to their own Ultradian rhythms, what are the benefits (I've read it can help with things like weight loss, self-esteem, depression, anxiety, improved concentration, improved productivity, reduced pain, reduced psychosomatic symptoms, addiction, creativity, performance, memory, stress, etc.) and how should they use these rhythms and what are the negative consequences of over-riding the Ultradian rhythms? (Is there a negative consequence to over-riding the peak? I have seen writing and heard lectures talking about over-riding the rest-phase and the negatives of this but not the other way round?)

Rossi: Ultradian rhythms are shorter than our daily circadian rhythms.  One of the most important ultradian rhythms is the 90 to 120 minute basic activity-rest rhythm (BRAC) that modulates gene expression, biology, behavior, psychology and consciousness.  Stress and psychosomatic symptoms such as anxiety, pain and depression happen when we chronically try to override the normal peaks and limits of our daily activity.  We function normally and optimally by simply respecting and following our basic rest-activity rhythms.  We need to engage in creative work and play during the activity part of the BRAC and relax a bit (15 to 20 minutes) during the rest part of the BRAC.  It’s really all common sense!

Jones: I recall you talking about the moment you realized that Erickson seemed to have an instinctive understanding of the BRAC, that he used to often do 90-120 minute therapy sessions saying that during that time period people would drift into a natural every day trance state which he could utilize, rather than the old way of doing ‘hypnosis’ where, when the therapist is ready, they would tell the client ‘now is the time to go into a trance’, he would be able to wait, carry out the session, and when the time was right, they would enter trance themselves and he could just change and adapt to them. This idea of a therapist being led by the client, rather than the client being led by the therapist is a profound shift in thinking.

How have life events and different stages of your life and people you have met shaped and influenced what you have chosen to research and how have you used what you have learnt over the years to help yourself, how have you developed and evolved over time?

Rossi: I profoundly respect and tune into what my mind-body is trying to tell me throughout the day regarding where I am in my BRAC and I act accordingly.  Looking back l now realize all my best teachers who achieved advanced age, achievement, well-being and serenity followed their own natural rhythms of the psychobiology of gene expression even though they did not know anything about psychosocial genomics.  They all had a natural wisdom – they all may have given it different names: maturity, individuation, dedication or whatever.  My payback has been to trace out the scientific basis of their health, accomplishment and well-being so that others may emulate them.

Jones: If a client came to you for 'Hypnotherapy' how would it be different to if the client went to see an Authoritarian Hypnotherapist for example and what do you feel are the benefits of doing Hypnotherapy the way you do (would you even call it Hypnotherapy?) or the disadvantages of some other ways of doing Hypnotherapy? I remember you saying once that whenever you try to tell someone what to do they always end up doing the opposite, so it is easier not to tell them what to do.

Rossi: I prefer not to call what I do - anything other than facilitating “our naturally creative psychosocial genomic healing experiences throughout the day.”  To try to do anything otherwise in an authoritarian manner would be absurd!  It would assume that the so-called psychotherapist (councilor, guru, healer or whatever) can really know what’s going on in a person’s mind, brain and body with their trillions of connections on the neural and molecular level that are in a constant state of change and transformation.  Do you really think any human being can do that?  The presumption of being able to do such an impossible task leads to the stress of the psychotherapist and the lack of respect much of the general public has for those therapists who are so misguided.

Jones: It strikes me that the most respectful approach to take is an approach where the client is treated as the expert, even if they don’t realize they are the expert, and that the ‘therapist’ is just a guide or facilitator showing curiosity about how the client will do their own work.

Where do you see the future of psychotherapy going, do you see research similar to yours being absorbed into psychology courses and being taught to psychotherapists and do you see developments of techniques or understandings of how to use 'environmental techniques' to trigger relevant genetic expression to treat a wide range of conditions both psychological, psychosomatic and some physical?

Rossi: Of course!

Jones: Do you feel that this idea of ‘environmental techniques’ to facilitate change was what Erickson was doing with some of his task setting and 'experiential learning'? For example; making someone climb a mountain could trigger certain psychophysiological changes relevant to the problem. So it wasn't all a metaphor, or chore, or changing the pattern etc., could it sometimes have been holistic 'think this as you climb that'.

Rossi: Naturally!  Erickson called his approach “Naturalistic.”  I simply traced his naturalistic approach to its creative psychosocial genomic foundations.

Jones: If you were to recommend any one of your books to the average layperson to read which one would it be and why?

Rossi: I have already mentioned my 2002 book, “The Psychobiology of Gene Expression: Neuroscience and Neurogenesis in Hypnosis and the Healing Arts” and some of the best reasons for reading it.  I believe anyone – no matter what their level of education - can really appreciate the practical guidance for creative living presented in Chapter 6 on “How to Create a Great Day!”

Jones: I also think that the ‘Creating New Consciousness in Everyday Life’ Amazon Kindle eBook is an ideal introduction to your work that is an ‘easy to read’ book. One wonderful aspect of the eBook is your use of additional content, like videos and links to further information. There is also a shorter version of this eBook, that doesn’t have so much additional content that is great for those wanting their first introduction to your work available for free from your website www.ernestrossi.com, and also a range of papers you have made available for people to freely download and learn from.

Psychosocial Genomics, your books and lectures are fascinating, and I will continue to study and apply the knowledge I continue to learn for many years to come. Do you have any closing comments you would like to share?

Rossi: It has been said that any truly original book or life philosophy requires at least 10 years to find its audience. Well, Dan, I believe you have come along just in time to make my views available to a more general audience.  I sincerely thank you for the opportunity.

Jones: Thank you, for those wanting to learn more, I can highly recommend visiting www.ernestrossi.com and reading some of the free papers and the free eBook. For those that want to then take your learning to a new level I would recommend reading the ‘Creating New Consciousness in Everyday Life’ Amazon Kindle eBook, and as your knowledge increases, progress to the books ‘Creating Consciousness’, ‘The Breakout Heuristic’ and ‘The Psychobiology of Gene Expression’. There are also a number of audio and video lectures, workshops, demonstrations and short courses available from www.erickson-foundation.org.

Limited Offer - Free Access To My New Online Courses

I have created a number of new eCourses and as part of that I am offering 20 free places on each of the new courses for people that are willing to try out the courses and rate and review them. This offer is available first come first served until 27th September 2015.

My aim is to have some ratings and reviews on those courses over the next week or so. You don't have to have completed the course to give a rating and review, you can do this at any point during the course, and you can edit the rating and review at any point during the course.

The courses I am offering free places on are:

• Overcome IBS With Self Hypnosis
• Calm Anxiety With Self Hypnosis
• Overcome Insomnia With Self Hypnosis
• Reduce Stress With Self Hypnosis
• Pattern-Matching - Hypnotherapy Masterclass
• Trance & Reality - Hypnotherapy Masterclass
• Help Your Child To Sleep & Stop Them Wetting The Bed
• Boost Wellbeing & Life Enhancement
• Introduction To Mindfulness Meditation

You can access one or more of these courses for free by following the links, but only twenty people can sign up for free to each course. I would be grateful if ratings and reviews can be left by 30th September 2015. Remember you don't have to have completed the course to leave a rating and review, and you can edit the rating and review at a later date if you would like to.

Need Help Losing Weight? Use Facebook or Twitter

When you are trying to lose weight it can be difficult to keep motivated. If you use social networks then this can give you an extra boost which could mean the difference between success and failure.

Some of the advantages of using social networking sites when you are losing weight include seeing friends that are also losing weight and seeing what is working for them, also having encouragement and support from your friends and family.

One of the main problems that those losing weight have is that they lose motivation, if you are on a social networking site then the encouragement you can get from friends and family can be enough to keep you going through the tough times, when you post that you are struggling a little to stick to your diet or weight loss plan you are likely to get motivational comments from friends and family almost instantly rather than having to wait for that praise and added motivation.

Another benefit is that if you announce that you are going to be losing a certain amount of weight you are increasing your chances of success. In research when people publicly announce that they are going to do something they are more likely to do it, whereas if they privately decide to do something then if they struggle or fail no-one else was expecting anything of them so there isn't that added pressure or motivation.

So if you want to quit smoking, or if you want to lose weight or achieve something then announce it on Facebook or Twitter, say what you are going to be achieving and in what time period. If you may need some help or support or would like anything from your friends or family then you can mention this. As you work towards your goals you can keep people updated with progress and if you struggle at all you can mention that you are struggling and people are likely to offer motivational comments and ideas, if any of your friends are also working on the same thing then you can use some friendly rivalry to enhance motivation.

What is your experience of losing weight, quiting smoking or working towards a goal using Facebook or Twitter to help with motivation?

Honesty Vs Dishonesty - It May Depend On Where You Sign

Recent research has shown that when you get people to sign at the top of a form they are more likely to be honest when filling in the form than if they sign at the bottom of the form after they have filled it in.

When people commit to something in advance they are more likely to stick to what they have commited to. In therapy if you set tasks for people to do and ask them if they would do a specific task after you have told them the task they are generally less likely to do it than if you get their commitment before telling them what the task is.

For honesty or dishonesty if people have been dishonest on a form, or stretched the truth a little, they are likely to still sign the form to say that it is accurate, whereas if they have signed the form before filling it out or seeing what questions they are going to be asked then they are likely to base their actions on the fact that they have already agreed to be honest and they will be likely to base what they put on the agreement they have already made.

When we are primed with an idea this idea often influences our future actions, so if we are primed with honesty then we are more likely to have honest actions.

Sleepy Bedtime Tales: A revolutionary new approach to getting children to sleep at night

Sleepy Bedtime Tales is a revolutionary new approach to helping parent get their children to sleep at night. I have been teaching this approach to getting children to sleep for about 15 years, and first wrote about this approach to helping children to sleep in my 2006 book 'Parenting Techniques That Work'. I have also made educational YouTube videos teaching this approach to help parents get children to sleep, but until now I had never had the time to put together a collection of stories specifically designed around this unique approach to reading stories to guide children to sleep.

Everything I have taught previously has been about how parents can read any book to a child and use the techniques to help children sleep. But, depending on the book, not all the techniques I mention can be used. Over the last six months or so I have been very excited working on this book to bring you a book of bedtime stories to read to children at bedtime to help them sleep. These bedtime stories are tailored specifically for that one job. I also wanted to make sure they were still 'child friendly' bedtime stories, and not turned into psychobabble. This book, 'Sleepy Bedtime Tales' is the result of that.

In this book you will learn about a rabbit that lives in a magicians hat who goes for afternoon tea with a squirrel, through to a story about a boy who loves the experience of falling asleep listening to his parents reading him bedtime stories.

You can learn more about the Sleepy Bedtime Tales book here for kindle and paperback

http://apn.to/prod/B015HVQZV4 

www.alt-solutions.org/parenting

Do You Impulse Buy?

At times many of us impulse buy, it could be that we see a bargain and can't resist taking opportunity of that bargain, or we may feel that the bargain will only be at that price for a limited period of time and if we don't take that opportunity then we will miss out. Or it could be that everyone else is talking about something and we happen to see it and decide we are going to buy it even though we have been saying that we aren't going to 'jump on the bandwagon'.

There isn't anything wrong with the occasional impulse buy, the problem is when we do it often and seem to have very little control over our response to impulse buy.

There are some traits that go with people that seem most prone to regular impulse buying, often they are more social, image-conscious and desire status. Often impulse buyers are more likely to suffer with anxiety and struggle with controlling their emotions, they are likely to generally experience less happiness and live more in the moment without having much awareness of the future or the consequences of their actions.

These traits can lead to impulse buying being a natural consequence of the psychological make-up of the individual. Generally when people look externally to others for validation and place control externally from themselves, for example via superstitions or by making purchases to create happiness, then they are likely to impulse buy to increase status and to 'fit in' and to keep an image that they want others to see. They are also more likely to impulse buy as a way of feeling happy and having control over their emotional wellbeing. Unfortunately if the outcome of the impulse buying is an instant good feeling and the individual is detached from the negative feelings and effects that happen at a later time then they ae likely to associate the good feeling with the buying and so reinforce that behaviour increasing the chances of carrying out the behaviour again in the future.

One strategy to stop impulse buying or other negative habits is to recall the negative effects of the buying whenever you think of impulse buying so that with time the memory of the negative effects gets linked to the buying, replacing the positive memories and reducing the desire to impulse buy in the future.

Conservative or Liberal? Maybe People Can Tell By Your Dreaming

A survey of nearly 3,000 Americans show that liberals recall more of their dreams than conservatives and the dreams they have are often more vivid and 'just like waking life', they also reported more 'being chased' dreams.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303299604577323911583427648.html

As a therapist I often observe behaviours people do that they don't realise is giving away greater levels of information. Some examples of this are dream interpretation based on the latest understandings of what dreams mean, so that when people talk about their dreams I learn more about them and what is going on in the person's life than they realise they are revealing, another example is gestures and also the metaphors people use.

These latest findings can add to learning about people you are communicating with, imagine how many people discuss their dreams, and how many people say they don't dream or don't remember their dreams.

Following this survey, I wonder what is behind this outcome? What could be behind liberals remembering their dreams more, having more vivid dreams and more 'being chased' dreams? Do these findings fit with your experiences? What are your views?