Integrity: The Glue That Holds Your Success Together

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I built a model airplane when I was a kid. The instructions said to use modeling cement which we didn’t have. I asked my mom if she could buy me some. She said sure, we’ll go tomorrow.

But I was impatient. I couldn’t wait until tomorrow. I wanted to build the plane today. So I got the white Elmer’s Glue, and that’s how I built my plane.

When the glue was clear and dry I picked up the plane by one of the wings and the wing broke off. That really upset me so I glued it back and used scotch tape to hold it. While I was dealing with that, the propeller fell off. Soon, all the parts were coming off because you don’t use white glue to build a model airplane. You use cement.

My plane had no integrity. It had all the parts, except the part that mattered most of all: the right kind of glue to keep it together.

You can have the greatest plan, the most sincere intentions, the most brilliant idea, but if you don’t have the integrity to bring it together and keep it together, it just won’t fly. Or worse, after it gets airborne, it will come crashing to the ground.

Integrity is the ability to be your word.

It is the integration of your words and your actions.  With it, your words can move mountains. Without it, even though your talk is cheap, very few will buy it.

 Can you keep your agreement to be somewhere at an agreed upon time? If you can’t, it sends the message loud and clear: this person can not be counted on to keep his agreements.

Do  you honor your financial agreements by paying your bills on time? If you don’t guess what happens? Your credit score  announces to the world: you can’t count on this person to pay back money that they borrow.

Do you do what you say you are going to do? If you do it once, probably no one will notice. Do it five times, people start to respect you. Do it one hundred times and you become dependable. Do it every single time and guess what happens?

Your word now has power. When you speak, people listen. If you say it’s going to rain, people start buying umbrellas, and if you say it will flood, they start building dams. Need funds? A handshake will get you millions.

Now you show  up in the world as a rock, unshakable in your ability to gather people and resources, to move and inspire people to action. Just say the word and people will fight for you and die for you because they know you make things happen, because every time you said it was gonna happen, it did, sure as the day follows night.

But your ability to have this kind of integrity doesn’t start with showing up on time and paying your bills or keeping promises to people. Nope. Those are just the outward signs.

The power of integrity and the force that it wields starts with keeping your word to yourself. It grows from the integration of your own thoughts, words and deeds. It means you are whole, that all the parts are working together in unison and that your promises to yourself are not scattered to and fro by circumstance, but instead, are constructed to stand solidly in the face of breakdowns, obstacles, and the winds of change. You develop a degree of trust in yourself that knows neither fear nor doubt.

Want to tighten up your integrity? Want to start using a stronger glue?

  • Start waking up at the hour you say you will, everyday except one day. Do it come hell, high water, or late night parties.
  • Start showing up at the agreed upon time.  All the time.
  • Set an easy goal with a deadline. Accomplish it. Set a harder goal. Accomplish it. Set an audacious goal. Accomplish it.
  • Start taking 3 daily actions that you will do every day. EVERY DAY. Regardless of whether you want to or not or whether it’s convenient or not.
  • When you commit,do so with full responsibility of choice that you will show up. If you can’t, don’t.

It takes practice. It’s not easy, but it’s simple. You do what you say you are going to do.  Your speech and actions cemented together and taking wing on the power of your word: that’s integrity.

Ted

For a podcast of this blog, go to the Ted in Your Head podcast, Episode 27.

What’s The Deal with Affirmations?

Affirmations

Many people think that the practice of saying affirmations is kind of a new agey, hokey thing. (Maybe they saw that affirmation guy on Saturday night live …) However, I think they can be very powerful as a technique for programming your mind for achievement of your goals.

I’m no biblical scholar or even an avid reader of the bible, but there are two passages that I think speak to the power of affirmations.

First, in the Old Testament, Moses wants to know God’s name. God says his name is “I AM”.

Second, the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

A definition of God could be “the Creator.”  To me, the message is clear: Word is the creator. And the creator’s name is “I am.”

Even if you don’t believe anything in the Bible, I think we can agree that words, or language, are powerfully creative. We create with our language, not only by what we say, but by what we think, and we think mostly in language.

Both philosophers and shamans agree that our world is created through language. The Buddha said, 2500 years ago:

” We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.”

I use this idea of creative language to help my clients achieve their goals through the use of affirmations. I listen carefully to the language they use to describe their challenges. This gives me a clue as to their belief systems. As a hypnotherapist, my job is to help them create beliefs that help them get what they want. I do this by using the power of suggestion (language) while they are in hypnosis.

But, I also teach them how to use the power of suggestion on themselves.

Remember that language is creative. Well, it’s also hypnotizing. To put a person into hypnosis,  all I need to do is talk to them.

And that’s how beliefs are created. Someone tells you something over and over again when you are highly suggestible (such as when you are a child) and you believe.

This is how television advertising works. While you are in a highly suggestible state (watching television) you receive repetition and reinforcement of the belief that you need a particular product.

You can also talk yourself into a belief. People do it all the time. The only question is: Are those beliefs working for you? If not, you can talk yourself into a new belief.

I think one of the most powerful tools to do this is through the use of affirmations.

Using Affirmations.

Affirmations are declarations that something is true. But how does something become true? We affirm over and over again until we believe it. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t really matter except for how that belief affects us.

I help my clients develop new and empowering beliefs outside of our sessions by having them affirm the new belief over and over again. The key to learning anything is repetition and reinforcement.

What words will they use to affirm their new beliefs? Well, it’ll start with, you guessed it, “I am…”  For example, “I am confident and trust in my ability to achieve my goals.”

They might say “But that’s not true!” But it doesn’t matter, because an affirmation is not meant to be true. It’s a tool to get the subconscious mind familiar with new ways of thinking that’s empowering. If they say it enough times and with a high degree of emotion while in a suggestible state, it will become their new belief, and this will shape their actions.

Why?  Because the subconscious mind (88% percent of your mind by some estimates) will always move you towards what is known and familiar. So I use affirmations to help my clients’ subconscious minds get more comfortable with what they want and less comfortable with what they don’t want.

The technique I give my client is very simple. Come up with three affirmations, say them out loud every morning and night, (times when you are very suggestible) and hand-write them once each.

Have you ever heard someone say “Talk is cheap”? That’s simply not true. The truth is that people cheapen talk by using language that is dis-empowering.

Consider that every day you speak your world into existence and that talk is not cheap but quite valuable. So why not use this simple little technique to begin to speak into existence the world that you want to experience?

If you would like more information about how to use affirmations, just call me or email by clicking here. After all, talking the talk is good, but sooner or later, you gotta walk the walk.

To listen to a podcast of this blog, go to http:www.tedinyourhead.com

Ted

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Get Your Head on Straight for 2013 with Self Hypnosis for Success!

change ahead

Happy New Year! Did you make any resolutions or goals for 2013? Or, are you like most people that believe it’s not worth the time or trouble because they’ll be forgotten by March?

Even if you didn’t make any resolutions or goals, certainly there are things you want or desire in the coming year? Unless you are so incredibly happy with your life, I doubt that you looked into the future and said “Hmmm…I’d like more of the same…”

Whatever it is that you want, there is a small possibility that it will drop from heaven into your lap without you having to do anything! However, I would not advise waiting for that to happen…

Which is why now is a good time to take my Self Hypnosis for Success Class!

My Self Hypnosis for Success Class is being offered again through the  Pasadena City College Extended Learning program. It starts January 26 and continues for the next two Saturdays: Feb. 2nd and Feb. 9th.  Click here to register!

You can use self hypnosis to:

  • Get rid of procrastination
  • Become more confident
  • Get motivated to do what you need to do
  • Release limiting beliefs that stop you
  • Do better in your job or business
  • Let go of fear and anxiety
  • And much more!

This is what you’ll learn:

  • What hypnosis is and isn’t (most people have NO idea)
  • How to do a hypnotic induction on yourself (hint, you already know how)
  • How to use the power of suggestion to “change your mind”
  • How to program your mind for success in just a few minutes a day (so easy, yet most folks won’t do it)
  • Powerful tips and techniques for keeping your mind sharp, powerful and positive! (Most of this valuable information I share only with clients paying me a lot more than the cost of this class…)

You’ll get your Guide to Self Hypnosis and your Self Hypnosis Conditioning CD, which also includes my studio produced “Peaceful Place” relaxation track as an added bonus. In addition, you’ll get handouts at each class containing the material presented. Click here to register and learn to take control of your mind!

I’ve been offering this class since 2010. Here are some comments from previous classes:

  • “Has really motivated me  to improve from day one. Very well organized.”
  • “The whole class was wonderful!”
  • “…so much motivational talk -that was great!
  • “The class is perfect! Ted is a great teacher.”

When would now be a good time to take control of your own head? You have within you one of the most powerful forces in the universe – your mind! Why not have it work for you instead of against you? Click here to register so you can get started!

On the other hand, if you’re not interested in learning self-hypnosis but think that hypnotherapy can  help you, I’ll give you a free half hour consultation to discuss how you can benefit from working on yourself with an experienced guide -me. Call (626) 826-0612, email [email protected] or click here.

A subconscious mind is a terrible thing to waste! Put it to work for you.  Click here to register for Self Hypnosis for Success.

What Will Happen on December 21st, 2012?

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Something happened on December 21st at 3:12 am, PST. The sun was at it’s lowest point on the horizon, the point in the year where the the night is longest and the day is the shortest in the Northern Hemisphere. This is known as the winter solstice, and many people associate this with pagans, druids and Stonehenge.  However, it’s a natural, astronomical event that is scientifically calculated to the second.

Humans from ancient times on have observed this natural movement from the dark to the light, and have celebrated it in many different ways. It’s symbolic of rebirth and new beginnings, as the sun begins it’s conquest over the cold and darkness of winter. The days will now get longer and warmer until the summer solstice in June, when the sun’s daily path across the sky is at it’s highest. It then starts moving slowly closer to the horizon to where winter once again re-asserts itself.

I recently finished a book that  was quite excellent in portraying how indigenous peoples looked to nature for transformation and growth.  “Shaman, Healer, Sage”, by Alberto Villoldo, illustrates shamanism as one way that ancient people drew wisdom and healing from nature. He writes that this year’s winter solstice is accompanied by a lunar eclipse, further exaggerating the darkness, but symbolizing an opportunity to work on our inner transformation.

The following is from Villoldos’ email newsletter put out by his Four Winds Society:

Medicine men and women for thousands of years have celebrated the solstice as a time of moving from the dark to the light and acknowledging the continuity of nature’s cycles.  For indigenous cultures the sun was the source of life, and the center of spiritual awareness. This December’s alignment of the sun, with the moon, and the earth in this very short time period [eclipse] is significant astrologically and astronomically. For the shaman it gives … a heightened time of meditation and reflection, a time for inner work and transformation.

…the time of the dark…a time to explore not only what might be stopping you but as a time to plant the seeds you want to grow for the coming year.

Throughout the world there are many  celebrations this time of the year because  humans recognize that our existence depends on the light of the sun. We celebrate light, for example, with brightly colored lights hung on our houses and trees, and with holiday candles. We gather together to ward off  the cold and the darkness.

The most popular celebration is Christmas, celebrating the birth of Christ, believed by Christians to be the Light of the World, and as God’s son, bringing the world from darkness to light.

Jews celebrate Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights, and the Buddhists celebrate Bodhi Day on December 8th, the day the Buddha received enlightenment. Diwali is the Hindu Festival of Lights celebrating the victory of good over evil. The list of winter festivals goes on and on.

Light is the universal symbol for the light of spiritual awareness.  To me, spiritual awareness is acknowledging and connecting with that part of us which is infinite, and all knowing. (You might call it God, Infinite Intelligence, Higher Consciousness, whatever your belief system…) As a hypnotherapist  involved in transformational work, my goal is to help people increase their awareness on all levels, and to shine this light of awareness on those dark, shadow parts of themselves that hold all of us back from realizing our full potential as creative beings.

A popular word this time of year is peace. Amidst the hustle and bustle of the season, can you take time to connect with the peace that lies deep within you? Connecting with that quiet place within will give you the space to plant the seeds of your own transformation. You might do this through quiet reflection, meditation or prayer. Take some time to yourself to think about your life, and how you want it to be.

Don’t wait until the New Year to plant those seeds. Begin now to write down goals, dreams and visions of what you want to create for the coming year: happiness, health, strength, confidence, abundance. Think about what’s working for you, and what needs to be released that may be holding you back. If you need some help focusing, give me a call.

Villoldo believes that we are seeing a new species of human born now on the earth which he refers to as Homo luminous. If this is true, (and I would like to believe that it is) then we are continuing to evolve as humans beings. Let us walk courageously through this dark time, as well as through our own darkness, as we celebrate the light within,  in all of our many different ways. The evolution of our human family need not wait for generations, but can happen now, starting with you.

If you liked this post, please leave a comment and/or share it with your social networks using the buttons below.

Wishing you a warm and peaceful holiday season,

Ted A. Moreno                                                         

 (626) 826-0612
 

Self Hypnosis for Success Class Starts Sept. 22nd

You have been hypnotized. You are still being hypnotized. 

You’ve been hypnotized all your life by parents, teachers, friends, and by your own thoughts! We are still influenced by the hypnosis of the culture which includes the media and advertising. We are all subject to this type programming. It’s not all bad! That’s how we learn.

But some of your subconscious programming may not be working for you anymore.

  • Do you feel like you are controlled by negative thinking?
  • Are you consumed by anxiety?
  • Do you think you are holding yourself back from greater success?
  • Are you unable to move your health in the direction you want to?

It’s possible that you learned these habits of thinking and behavior from your parents, early environment, or you could have learned it as a way to cope with failure and disappointment. The good news is, there is a valuable tool for change that you can learn by taking my Self Hypnosis for Success Class! Read more

Happiness is Uncovering What You Already Have

Today’s excellent post is by guest author Leo Babauta, creator of the blog Zen Habits, one of the top 25 blogs in the world. 

When I set out to convert my unhappiness with my life into happiness, about 7 years ago, I had some ideas about how to do it.

I was going to get out of debt and lose weight and get a better job and declutter my house and get into shape and become productive and write a book.

And I actually did all those things and much more. It was great. They changed my life, and I’m very happy now.

Those things, however, didn’t get me happiness. Read more