I was at the Illinois State Fair for 10 days, learning how to do stage hypnosis. And it was an emotional roller-coaster.
From feeling blessed and excited to falling to pieces, crying, ready to give up and curl into a ball.
This special high from being on stage. Excitement. Thrill. And this special low from exhaustion – heat, dust, noise.
Feeling elated because I didn’t die on stage – I pulled through. Then melting into tears after watching recordings – this is how I actually looked and sounded? I thought I was awesome!
I was up and I was down.
AND I LOVED IT!
Again and again I am realizing that pain and unhappiness doesn’t come from negative emotions.
Pain doesn’t come from failures.
Pain doesn’t come from disappointment.
It comes from holding back.
It comes from resistance.
And it often comes from trying to fit an impossible ideal of being always happy, being always positive, always energetic.
One of the first boundary violations a child experiences is demands to stiffle or disown own emotions.
“Go into your room and don’t come out until you have a smile.”
Then it goes on and on.
“Try to stay positive. Be happy.”
“Real men don’t cry.”
This is impossible both from Ying and Yang philosophy and from the neurological point of view.
Neurologically, when we feel an emotion, our body produces neurochemicals. If we could keep the same emotional state going on indefinitely, we would exhaust the depot of these particular neurochemicals.
From the Ying and Yang point if view, there is no night without day, no joy without sadness, no fulfillment without hunger, no high without low.
In a healthy happy resilient mind emotions flow as they emerge in response to what happens in the present.
As the emotion served the need, the neurochemicals get reabsorbed and replaced by a different mix. One feeling fades, another emerges.
Deep lingering pain comes from tension and conflict.
Holding onto anger hurts.
Holding onto resentment hurts.
Stifling tears and holding onto sadness hurts.
But one of the the greatest hurts is disowning own deep feelings, blocking emotions which are condemned as undesirable, forbidden.
Putting on a happy face.
Wearing a mask.
I imagine imprisoned souls.
Souls, which were so happy the first time they won the great Cosmic lottery and received a body. Souls, which were so eager to dive into the colorful sea of human experiences.
Laughter. Love. Heartbreak. Sadness. Joy. Excitement. Thrill. Pride. Disappointment. Elation. Compassion.
In this short time we have on this planet as living, breathing, loving human bodies, there is so much to do, so much to experience.
This is why I love hypnosis – it opens minds and hearts. And it gives people permission to experience fully all those emotions which were blocked for so many years.
As I watch our volunteers laughing, dancing in their chairs, screaming, feeling thrill, I imagine stifling masks falling off their faces revealing free and playful human spirits.
There is nothing so liberating and energizing as freedom of expression.
Are you tired of being positive?
Are you tired of holding back?
Are you tired of being numb?
What it would mean to you to give yourself permission to let go and come alive as you embrace the infinite variety of experiences in your human body?
With hypnosis you can re-discover this primal joy of being alive. You can rediscover the thrill of feeling fully.
Hypnosis works. It allows us to go deep into the very core of our being and shift our beliefs, perspectives, attitudes and emotional reactions for a healthier, happier and more delightful state of mind.