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“Whether you think you can, or whether you think you cant, you’re right”

A quote from Henry Ford that many years on still rings true.  So why is it that what we think has such a huge influence on what we do?  Perhaps more interestingly, can we change what we do by how we think???

I recently followed a series on TV called  Inside the Human Body.  This documented how we develop as humans – from the fusion of 2 cells.  It suggested one of the most complicated things we learn to do is to walk – but how it quickly then becomes a subconscious action-ie it’s programmed in.  It also looked at ‘super humans’ – people who had trained their brain to do extraordinary things – like swim for 15 minutes in a lake that would kill most people after 1 minute of immersion.  The Scandinavian had ‘re-programmed’ his brain to create physiological changes in his body that prevented his body from shutting down – which is what it would naturally do. (Didn’t really address the question of why the heck you would want to do it though!)

So how does this programming happen?  Well, in his case, it was a very personal choice, but all of us are being programmed from the day we are born.

One way that programmes are set up is through repetition.  If a child hears the word ‘mama’ enough times, they then understand there’s a person called Mama and if they then say the word, she comes! Eureka! As we get older, this continues.  At school, we repeat times table until it becomes subliminal, golfers practice shots over and over again until it becomes a natural movement.  All the repetition is building up neural networks that then fire each time they are triggered, and the more they’re triggered, the stronger the network becomes.

Another method of programming  is through identification with a group or parent.  Again, children learn by copying their parent.  A good friend of mine said only yesterday, “ My mum was not a good cook so I never associated cooking as being something interesting”.   We see it also very clearly in teenagers – the identification with a group resulting in certain dress codes, language and behaviour. This can also extend to authority figures.  If someone has perceived authority, we tend to accept their word as gospel.  Think of patients in the past who allowed themselves to be ‘bled’ because the Doctor – the authority figure – told them it would cure their ailments.

Perhaps the most interesting form of programming is that which we experience at a very individual level – the result of an intensely emotional experience.  For example, a child  who is accidentally shut in a cupboard and then develops a fear of the dark for years afterwards.  Whereas all the other programming methods build up over time, in this case, one short instance can define a long-term behaviour.

The final way to programme minds is through hypnosis.  Many of us will have seen stage performances where people think they are stuck to the floor.  These are not set-ups, it relates to the hypnotist’s ability to talk to the subconscious –and the power of suggestion leads to a belief that the feet won’t move.  Whilst this can be very entertaining, there is a much more beneficial use of hypnosis.

Hypnotherapy can be used to re-programme dysfunctional programmes.  For example, the adult who has no self-confidence because they were told as a child so often that they were useless, or an obesity sufferer who was forced to empty their plate each meal, even if they were sated.  Hypnotherapy is also increasingly being used in areas such as sports, business and creative arts to help people develop the programming they need to achieve their goals.

The power of the mind is phenomenal.  If you would like to know more about hypnotherapy then I would love to hear from you….

Carolin