We do have the tendency to expect copious amounts of negative stress, accept this stress as a fact of life, and then seek ways to deal with it. I had to seriously consider if stress reduction was how I currently viewed the results of my yoga practice or if I was already subconsciously sophisticated enough to see it as stress prevention.

Stress prevention should replace stress reduction in our vocabulary. If we reprogram ourselves to see negative stress as unnecessary and not a normal part of life, we free ourselves to let go and relax just a little bit more. We can then focus on ways of preventing stress.

Our Hyp-Yoga practice is one of the best ways to prevent stress. Not only can we consciously focus on relaxing through movement and meditation, but we can also subconsciously work on the actual reprogramming part of seeing our activities as preventative as well as restorative.

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Mini Hyp-Yoga Practice: Mountain pose, inhale sweep arms up and forward fold to your toes. Inhale sweep to chair, hold to breaths and exhale forward fold. Inhale sweep arms back up to the sky with a tiny back bend, and exhale back to mountain with your palms together, hands at your heart. Close your eyes and feel the breath in your body. Take in three slow breaths, exhaling equally as slow and then repeating this affirmation 10 times:

Affirmation for Self-Hypnosis: “I am calm and relaxed. I am preventing stress while cultivating health.”

If the words seem to drift from your mind, that’s OK, just focus on the words that you do remember.

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In the next to last episode of this season’s “House,” the title character is hypnotized to recall details of a traumatic event. He has one of the doctors who is certified in hypnosis lead him into a very deep stage of hypnosis where House can see the event location in detail and search for clues within that context.

The show is only an hour long, so it doesn’t go into the process of relaxing and deepening House with an induction which makes it seem like he can instantly reach this stage. It’s good to know that this deep of a stage for someone new to hypnosis would take some time to reach (20 min or more) and not all the population can get to this deep of a stage of hypnosis - only 20-30% can ever get here.

So House was conveniently a deep subject and his hypnosis did help him in recalling details of his event. This is a real use of hypnosis and is often used by hypnotherapists to help clients recall events or reasons that have developed or triggered current behaviors. When using hypnosis to recall events, it is important for the the hypnotist to not lead the client or suggest anything that might or might not have happened. The mind has the ability to recall real memories, but it also has the ability to imagine new ones too. (If you really want more information on hypnosis and memory recall, you can read on here.)

Another TV Show that covered hypnosis as of late was “Oprah” (5/13/08), but hypnosis was not the focus - that honored belonged to a discussion on past lives. The show had on Dr. Brian Weiss, and expert on past-life regression, who hypnotized the whole audience and then individually, a funeral director and even Dr. Oz in order to bring back memories beyond birth and back into previous existences.

Yeah, so if you were not scared of hypnosis already, maybe you are now! My personal beliefs aside, it is widely publicized associations with controversial subjects such as past-life regression that scare some of the public away from a tool that is really so natural, healing and helpful.

I would like everyone to understand that hypnosis stands apart from past life regression and the former does not have to lead to the latter. Hypnosis is a process where you are always in control, but relaxed, and in a state of heightened awareness. You can use hypnosis for a variety of helpful reasons such as releasing stress, erasing bad habits, developing new behaviors and even recalling past events to help you heal in the present - just how far past you can go is something you can decide for yourself.

How alive are you? I am certain that you can physically find your pulse at this moment, but can you find your spiritual pulse? How about your emotional pulse? Your passion pulse? Can you right now find what we at Hyp-Yoga call your “Life Pulse”? Your Life Pulse encompasses all of the elements that contribute to your enjoyment and presentness in your own life at THIS MOMENT.

As we learn in and through our yoga practice, all we have in life is the present moment. We have no ownership of our past or our future, but we can shape our future and be comforted by our past using the moment we are in right now.

What Weakens our Life Pulse

The biggest thief of our enjoyment of the present moment is anxiety. Even when we are not aware of it, anxiety or stress is always there - causing us to eat faster (or more), multi-task, drive faster, lay in bed awake at night, and/or consume more. Take a minute now to sort through what is currently in your mind, even what is on the “back burner,” and see how much of it is stealing from your current peace of mind. Are you feeling anxious about the future, or is what you currently have enough? (Remember what you have is this moment.)

What Strengthens our Life Pulse

The strength of your pulse will be affected by your awareness/consciousness of life and at the same time the engagement of your subconscious mind. These two ideas really work hand in hand when they seem to contradict each other until you truly understand their meaning. Being conscious of your life means being mindful in your current activity. When you are eating, focusing on the delicious textures, smells, tastes and colors of the food. When you are practicing yoga, listening to your breath and feeling your prana, your life force, through your entire body. When you are working, giving your all and finding joy and passion in your activities without being anxious about the outcomes. (Yoga Sutras 1.12-1.16)

Once we have learned the process of becoming more present (and it is a process or a journey that will never end) the second element we develop in our lives is our subconscious mind. This is the part of your mind that is always working, even when we are not thinking about it. It regulates the autonomic processes in our body such as our heartbeat, metabolism, blood pressure, liver functions, breathing, etc. It also is holds our motor skills and learned behaviors such as walking, driving, reading, etc. Most importantly for our discussion, it is the place where our emotions and beliefs are developed and stored.

In order for us to fully enjoy life and feel alive, we need to change our beliefs and attitudes towards time. When we live in constant anticipation for the future, we feed ourselves harmful ideas that include the concept of time as money, regret, fear, guilt, and greed. All of these ideas are firmly planted in our subconscious minds and are reinforced daily by our own words and thoughts.

Changing your attitude is important and will take lots of time and patience, but it is a joyful journey that can and should be enjoyed! You may have years of damage to undo and for this reason, I would suggest tapping into your subconscious mind with the help of tools such as yoga, hypnosis, (try a Hyp-Yoga class!), self-affirmations, and self-hypnosis. You can learn more about these elements at hyp-yoga.com or at the library. You will be amazed at the power of your mind and its ability to help you in your journey to being more alive and enjoying every minute of it.

Take your Pulse: a practical way to be mindful of our Life Pulse

Here is an exercise to try this week to encourage you to be more consciously alive. Set an alarm that is near you most of the time to go off at a random time such as 9:56 am, 2:43 pm or 7:38 pm. Many of us have watches with alarms, cell phones with alarms or office/home clocks with alarms. (I know my cell phone has 5 different alarms to set, so as a personal check-up, I have chosen today to set my alarm for three random times.) When the alarms go off today stop and say to yourself, “This is it. This is my life. What am I doing to enjoy it right now?”

Taking your Life Pulse, daily might give you incite to your relationship with anxiety. Some of us might find we have an addiction to rushing, or a habit of living on “auto-pilot.” What ever you learn, feel free to share it with us in a comment on our Hyp-Yoga Newsletter Blog found at www.blog.hyp-yoga.com.

Namasté

Carly Halleen Cummings
President, Hyp-Yoga Inc.
Co-Director, Omaha Yoga School

carly@hyp-yoga.com

Take the Consumer Consequences Test to see how many earths it would take to sustain all humans if everyone lived just like you…

http://sustainability.publicradio.org/consumerconsequences/

Hyp-Yoga opened up its Gretna Studio and started having classes in May.

Becky, Kim, Meagan, LeeShell, Stefany and I all shot the Hyp-Yoga 6 Week Weight Loss Program DVD that is now in editing and will be out in the middle of August. We are already selling this wonderful program on our website.
We shot the DVD at NorthSea Films under the expertise of Jared Hart and Dana Altman.

We also launched our Hyp-Yoga Speaking Tour and have scheduled several speaking engagements around town promoting the benefits of fully utilizing your mind-body connection.

Another very exciting turn is that Hyp-Yoga class are now available for downloading at YogiChocolate.com! These classes are .mp3s that you can listen and follow along to on your computer or mp3 player. The first class up is 1 hour and 20 minutes of yoga and hypnosis focused on health and wellness. The site accepts donations for class downloads.

Hyp-Yoga had another teacher training in May and is welcoming in 5 new instructors that you will most likely get the opportunity to meet soon. You can see their pretty smiles here.

The last exiting news I will mention today is that Hyp-Yoga is starting a 6 Week Weight Loss Challenge that will run from August to December. Participants have the opportunity to win shares of $1500 in prizes. All participants will take a 6 week session from Hyp-Yoga and then detail out the results of their 6 week journey. The winner will be chosen not only on pounds/inches lost, but on changes they find in the behaviors, habits and attitudes.

I am taking a break there. Be on the look out for new Hyp-Yoga developments in the areas of Prenatal Hyp-Yoga, Hyp-Yoga for Menopause, and Christian Hyp-Yoga. Email me if you want more information.

Much Love! Carly

Hyp-Yoga had some fun this last Friday up in Chicago. We demoed a prototype for the 6 Week Weight Loss Program in DVD form for the Oprah and QVC big idea event. There were many wonderful people there with great ideas and we had a great time being a part of the excitement. Thank you to Missy for your help up in the Windy City!

Let’s keep spreading the word of the wonderful benefits of hypnosis and yoga! I don’t know how I would stay sane or skinny without them both.

Much Love, Carly

I understand that many of you might be curious, but tentative towards something this different sounding and new. That’s okay! That is our body’s natural response, but I would like to reassure you that a Hyp-Yoga class is not only safe, but one of the most powerful and effective things you can do for your health and fitness.

In a typical class, you will experience relaxation and rejuvination through the poses that you do and the healthy suggestions you receive. If you are unfamiliar with hypnosis or how it works you can read the previous post or visit www.hyp-yoga.com/hypnosis.

If you still have questions about anything you may email them to info@hyp-yoga.com and we will get back to you ASAP!

Our classes are fillng up quickly, so sign-up soon. Also, our first teacher training class is scheduled for March 3 and 4. There is only a couple spots left for this training. We would love to see you there!

Hypnosis on the other hand has not yet had the sweeping acceptance of our former topic. It is still feared by many. It is called satanic, magic, or imaginary. Don’t worry - yoga was in the same position a short while ago. Our western culture just needs some time, and heaps of education, to warm up to hypnosis and its many powerful benefits. While we are waiting for this mass acceptance, we, the informed and excited, can take pride in the fact that we are in an important group that will be the leaders of the hypnotic revolution and mass adoption.

Let’s briefly look at what hypnosis is, what it does/does not do, and why we need it to improve our lives. This will be brief, not an extensive study, so you may find yourself with many more questions after we are finished. (This is good. You can post them in the comments if you like, and I will try to answer them.)

The definition of hypnosis that I most often subscribe to is “a heightened state of awareness.” I like this definition best because it highlights the fact that the reader is aware. Not asleep, or not listening/comprehending, but more aware of what is going on than he ever is on a normal basis. In normal life occurrences we only use a small percentage of our brain to focus on the tasks at hand. Most of the research I have read mentions a percentage somewhere between 5% and 15% of our brain. The rest of our brain is dedicated to subconscious activities or inactivity.

Hypnosis brings us to a place where we are so relaxed that we can use 100% of our brain to focus on a task at hand. According to Doctor and Certified Hypnotist Garland H. Fross, using this much of our brain on one task is a hard goal to achieve without hypnosis because, “95% of. . . people do not listen because they are preoccupied with their own problems and thoughts.” The only way to get all their attention is with hypnosis. “With 100% concentration of the mind power on the suggestion, there are no units of the mind power left. . . to be preoccupied with problems.” You are not asleep in hypnosis and most importantly - you are in control still. You will not do anything you do not want to do and you can come out hypnosis when ever you want.

The process of bringing someone into hypnosis is not magical or scary - it is very relaxing and simple. One just needs to be relaxed and open. When I hypnotize someone for the first time, I make sure they are completely comfortable by going through a mental whole body relaxation before I deepen them into a hypnotic state.

Now why do we want to be in a hypnotic state? Well, just think about what you accomplish using 10% of your mind. Now think about what you could accomplish using 100% of your mind! The purpose of hypnosis is to bring you a state where you can work on changing your mind to change you into a healthier person. You can use this to work on self-esteem issues, weight problems, addictions, fears, sadness, stress, success and much more. Many times you are working to take away negative thoughts and beliefs that you have built up over many years and replace them with positive thoughts and suggestions.

Your emotions and reactions to events and comments over time have shaped you. In fact, according to Fross, “Emotion concentrates the mind into a condition akin to, if not identical with, hypnosis. Hypnosis may be defined as a ’super-concentration on the mind.’ Any idea introduced under emotional conditions will act with the force of a post-hypnotic suggestion.”

Think of all the times you have technically been hypnotized by your emotions either negatively or positively. You can see how powerful and deep concepts are that you have adopted through emotions and how just trying to think or rationalize these beliefs away (with a measly 10% of your mind) is near impossible! It takes years to do it this way. We need to use a tool just as powerful as these emotions to battle the negativity deeply ingrained in us - hypnosis - or the use of 100% of our mind. Fight fire with fire and you definitely stand a better chance of conquering your fears, insecurities and failures!

Hypnosis is a powerful tool in use in our society today, but only by a few brave souls. We now know that this tool can be used, even on a daily basis, to improve our lives and the lives of others. Hypnosis is not magical or mystical and has nothing to do with religion or evil. It is our duty as the charter members of Hyp-Yoga to spread this message in our mainstream, western culture in order to make the lives of our friends and family more productive, powerful and positive.

~Carly Halleen, CH, PT, YI

Merry Christmas!

~Carly