Please forget what you may have seen about hypnosis being used to manipulate people’s decisions. If that were true, company’s would pay millions of dollars to do exactly that during a Super Bowl halftime show. Oh, wait, they do. Well, at least they attempt to, and it obviously works enough of the time to make it a good business decision. But, you know it doesn’t work every time or even most of the time.

The word hypnosis applies to the ways you communicate when asking for a favor or when someone else tries to appeal to your emotions to manipulate a decision. Hypnosis is a word with odd interpretations that describes everyday situations.

Using hypnosis is about bypassing the analytical mind and stimulating a learned behavior response. A behavior response will tend to be more predictable. Like my wife gets mad at me for staying up late to write this article. I don’t want her to be mad because that makes me feel guilty. She unintentionally creates an emotional response in me that motivates me to do what she wants. Sounds complicated until you start seeing how common it is.

If you’re driving home from work and someone cuts you off in traffic, you might be irritated. The fourth person to cut you off on that same trip home? The fourth guy didn’t do anything different than the first guy. Unless you’re the nicest person in the world, odds are you’re MUCH more irritated. That’s emotional association controlling your reaction.

This is evident in all aspects of your life. Your mind began collecting these associations soon after you were born. It is the same for all of us. Of course, it is common sense, but we don’t always realize how powerfully it influences our behaviors and choices.

A habit, once formed with emotional association can become more deeply rooted with repetition. The more repetition, the stronger and more automatic the reaction is. Once deeply rooted, it becomes more difficult to change an emotionally based habit.

So, take this concept and apply it to someone with PTSD, or depression. Apply it to that person you know that can’t quite quit smoking or has a favorite comfort food. Apply it to your driving habits, your eating habits, and your stress level. At the risk of being boring, I’ll stop the examples and assume you get it.

Seeing this process in action and understanding the concept can give you a big step forward in changing your habits. Sometimes you can do it on your own. Sometimes it’s easier to use help. Find a professional hypnotist you can trust and use them. That’s their job.

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