I was sitting on a bench, my shoulders shaking, big tears rolling down my cheeks. I was with a man who made me cry. If you ever were in a similar situation, you know the rules. You are waiting for him to do something, to say something. That’s right. He made me cry – he had to comfort me. He signed. He put his arm around me. He lifted my chin and looked into my eyes. And he said:
“Oh, boy! You look so old and ugly when you do this.”
Let me just say, this was not the best phrase to comfort a crying woman. This was not what I wanted to hear.
And yet, it was true. When I came home I went to a bathroom and did an experiment. I frowned. I pouted my lips. I did my best to think angry, frustrated and unhappy thoughts. Then I looked in the mirror. Urggh… Who is this old, grumpy lady?
I closed my eyes. I smiled. I run my mind through a string of happy memories. I waited until the memories started feel really good. I opened my eyes. Can it be so easy? And yes, here it was – an instant rejuvenation.
The inconvenient truth of our life is that we all will age. This means that no matter how carefully we nurture our skin, no matter how strictly we adhere to a healthy lifestyle and no matter how fiercely we want to remain young, we will age.
Aging is inevitable. We know this. And yet, when it comes, it may be very difficult to accept.
We all age. However, we all age differently. Some people develop signs of aging remarkable earlier than others. Some people display fresh, dewy and youthful skin well into their 40s and even 50s. Some aged faces have deep coarse wrinkles, age spots and lax skin, while other have fine, gentle wrinkles and much smoother and younger looking skin. Aging is a race, which nobody wants to win.
There is a multi-billion industry that thrives on people’s desire to stay young as long as possible. We live in a fascinating time, where we have so many options available to those who intend to fight aging tooth and nail. There are cosmetic products, that promise miraculous rejuvenation, there are advanced procedures that can erase wrinkles and restore skin’s suppleness, and there are foods and dietary supplements, which can boost skin’s vitality from inside out.
And yet, there is one essential element, which most people fail to notice. Our faces reflect our inner life. All children are born with smooth, plump skin and a radiant look. Their eye bright and clear, their faces relaxed and quick to return to tranquility after any disturbance, they are naturally beautiful. And then, as we grow older, our emotions last longer, they build up and they start making deeper and deeper impression on our faces. We can say that people develop their personal mask. Crying, laughing, frowning, lip-pursing, scowling, and many more facial expressions repeated again and again, re-shape our face. Some of those masks look beautiful and some are much less attractive. Some emotions can make you look young and radiant and others age you and steal your glow.
No amount of worry can prevent wrinkles. However, a great deal of worry will age your skin.
From the very beginning of my career as a hypnotherapist, I couldn’t help noticing how every time my clients recalled an unpleasant memory, become angry or agitated, their faces would start looking older. The same face, after a relaxing trance filled with positive imagery and pleasant memories. would look refreshed, rejuvenated and radiant.
If a 30-60 min hypnotic trance can have such noticeable effect, what would happen if such techniques were applied deliberately and consistently? What if we could develop a way of thinking that would effectively erase worry wrinkles, increase skin radiance and overall make skin happier, healthier and more youthful?
Right now, it may seem like an impossible dream – thinking happy thoughts, feeling good, looking young and glowing… Easy to say, but what about stresses and struggles of our daily life? We do not live in a happy rainbow and unicorn filled place. We live on a planet Earth. Life is hard here. And it is true. But what if you found a better way to respond? What if you could shorten times when you feel bad and expand times of happiness? What if you could become a master builder of strong positive inner states? What if you could start solving your problems with more positive feelings?
You don’t have to be a beauty queen or a famous actress to benefit from these techniques. It doesn’t matter how old you are. Wherever you are right now, you can start moving toward younger and more beautiful skin. You can look more attractive, feel better, and be more radiant.
The truth is, you have a choice what to think.
Yes, up until recently, it was believed that our thoughts and feelings are dictated by our environment, other people and circumstances, as well as our genetic makeup. Some people were thought to be pessimists and others – optimists. Some – cheerful, and some – perpetually gloomy. Some happy and relaxed and some – stressed and tense. And if your mind resembled a personal torture chamber, there was little you could do. Yes, you were doomed to suffer, unless saved by religious enlightenment, prescription drugs or years of psychotherapy.
Today, thanks to geniuses of Milton Erickson, Richard Bandler and others, who followed in their footsteps or even explored the same exciting terrain independently, we know that mental habits, thoughts patterns, beliefs and perceptions as well as emotional responses can be changed dramatically through the power of hypnosis and its newest branch – Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
Today elite athletes, businessmen, performers, politicians and other individuals interested in personal development, use hypnosis and NLP to increase motivation, remove hesitation, relieve stress, boost confidence, fine-tune their skills and create the most productive emotional states, when they need them. If an athlete can use his or her mind to step into an optimal performance state, you can learn how to use your mind to create internal states that make your skin glow. I truly believe that hypnosis and NLP are not just for those who have problems. Hypnosis and NLp can be used by anyone who wants to look and feel younger, healthier and more radiant.
Your feelings are affected by what you see, hear, feel, smell, taste. Whether you see something in the outside world, on a movie screen, on a painting or inside your head – these images will affect your feelings. The good news is that you can learn to be a creator of your internal reality. You can choose your internal movies and sounds. You can design your feelings. And as you learn to create better, more pleasant and youth-promoting images and sounds, your skin will reflect these changes. You can look years younger in a matter of minutes. It just requires the right tools and a bit of patience as you learn how to use them.
Want to know more about NLP and hypnosis? Contact me for a free initial consultation.