Blog Archives - Page 9 of 11

The Most Important Thing

March 12, 2014/by Ted Moreno

John Everett Millais, The Somnambulist, 1871

The Most Important Thing. What is it?

The Dalai Lama says spreading a message of harmony is the most important thing.

Audrey Hepburn said it’s to enjoy your life.

Princess Diana said it was family.

John Wayne said tomorrow is the most important thing.

Steve Jobs said it was remembering that he will soon be dead.

John Wooden said it was faith.

Oscar Wilde said that when he was young he thought money was the most important thing but that when he was old he knew it was.

Some will say love. Some say success. Many say that to be happy is the most important thing.

What do you think is the Most Important Thing?

With respect to all of the above mentioned, I’ll tell you what I think is the most important thing.

The most important thing is to be awake.

Wait! You might say. I AM awake!

Are you sure?

To be awake means not only to have your eyes open and walking around but to be aware that you are doing so.

Have you ever driven to work and not remembered the drive?

To be asleep and dreaming at night means to see visions taking place in your head, while being totally unaware that you are asleep. (except if you’re lucid dreaming.)

To be driving, (or working or talking or walking) while your head is crowded with thoughts and images that leave you without a deep awareness of what’s in front of you is just another level of sleep. And in my opinion, many people are sleepwalking through life.

The most important thing is to be awake.

How important can your family be if whenever you are with them, you are a thousand miles away, consumed with stuff in your head that has no more substance than your nighttime dreams?

How important can love or money be if you are never awake enough to fully appreciate the love and money that you DO have?

To be awake is the most important thing because when you are awake you have a choice. YOU get to choose how you participate in life.

If you’re not awake, then you are on the couch watching an endless stream of sounds and images go by making you feel happy, sad or indifferent, never knowing that you have the power to change the channel whenever you want to.

If you are not awake, you are walking through life mechanically, like a robot, obeying your programming without question, a somnambulist (the technical term for people that walk in their sleep).

When you are awake, then it’s all simply fascinating and you can change the channel if you want to.

When you are awake, you are able to see what IS, unobscured by what should be, could be or how you want it to be.

When you are awake, you are aware that whatever meaning anything has, it has it because of you.

When you are awake, you are aware of the thoughts in your head as only thoughts in your head and aware of your tendency to believe everything you think.

When you are awake, it’s ok to feel the pain, just like it’s ok to feel the joy.

When you are awake, you are aware that your beliefs are beliefs and are not the “truth.”

When you are awake you can change any belief any time you want to.

To be awake, like Steve Jobs said, is to have the awareness that all too soon you will sleep the endless sleep.

Do you still believe you are awake? Did you once believe in Santa Claus?

If so, then challenge the belief that you are. Ask yourself “What if I’m not as awake as I think I am?” For a few days, go on the presumption that this may be true. Look for times when you are sleeping through your life while walking around acting as if you are awake.

Consider that it might be true that life is but a dream. Because, how do you know it’s not?

Ted

Belief: The Tie That Binds, The Wings that Soar.

February 26, 2014/by Ted Moreno

One day a man was strolling through the circus. As he passed by the elephants, he noticed that the only thing that prevented these huge animals from running away was a small chain attached to a collar around their leg. The chain was tied to a little peg hammered into the ground. The man thought to himself “Surely, that small peg can be easily pulled out by this 10 foot high creature. Is this safe?”

The man approached the elephant trainer and inquired as to the skimpy method used to hold the elephant.

“Yes, it is safe” the trainer replied. “When the elephants are babies, they are tied in the same way except using a metal stake deep in the ground. This is enough to hold the baby elephants. Tempted by the world outside, they try to break free again and again, but the chain pulls them back and inflicts pain on their legs. They learn that any effort to escape is futile, and they soon give up trying altogether.”

The trainer continued “Now, as a big elephant, it remembers the pain it felt as a baby. It remembers that as hard as it tries, it cannot break free and can only go so far as the chain will allow. It has long given up trying to escape, so we need only secure it with a small peg in the ground. It does not matter that this elephant stands 10 feet high, weighs 14,00o pounds, and can easily pull the peg out and trample both of us. The memory of its limitation prevails.”

The man walked away shaking his head. One of the world’s strongest animals, able to uproot trees and destroy villages, held captive by a skinny chain and a small wooden peg.

The parable of this story is obvious. As human beings, we are often no smarter than elephants.

We believe in limitations that keep us prisoners. We hold painful memories that keep us taking risks. Because we have failed once or twice, we have stopped even trying.

You have to cut elephants some slack. As big as they are, their brainpower doesn’t even compare to what we have under our hood. We should know better.

But we often don’t. We treat our self imposed limitations as truth. But they are not truths. They are simply beliefs about what is possible for us. And your beliefs can change. Now. Today.

After ten years in private practice as a hypnotherapist, I’m still amazed by the power of belief and it’s ability to bind us or set us free.

I’ll be examining the power of belief in the next few posts. I’d like to hear about how your beliefs occur to you and how your beliefs have changed if at all. I invite you to step back and see your beliefs as beliefs instead of truth and what impact they have on your life. Please share your thoughts in the comment section.

Ted

The #1 Thing Holding You Back from Success

February 5, 2014/by Ted Moreno

One day, employees at a company got to the office and saw a big sign on the door that read:

“Yesterday, the person who has been holding you back from success at this company passed away. We invite you to join the funeral currently in progress at the gymnasium.”

Many of the employees shook their heads at first, saddened by the fact that one of their colleagues had passed away.

But as they made their way over to the gym, they began to get curious as to who this employee was.

Was it that annoying account manager who told the stories that had no point?
Was it some renegade secretary that was throwing away important memos and documents?
Was it even some Vice President who had been embezzling funds?

The closer they got to the gym, the more curious they got.

As they entered the gym, they saw that many of their fellow employees were already there, standing in line to pay their respects.

But the eye-opening part was, as soon as each employee looked inside the coffin, the others could see that the viewer became shocked and silent, as if they had just seen a ghost.

And this just added to the intrigue of the deceased individual.

So as each employee approached the coffin, they felt an overwhelming sense of anticipation.

Can you guess who was inside the coffin?

You see, what the employees found was not actually an employee, but a mirror.

Everyone who looked inside the coffin saw themselves.

Next to the mirror was a sign that said:

“There is only one person capable of holding you back from the success you desire and deserve: that person is YOU.

Only YOU have the power to either achieve your goals or prevent yourself from achieving them.

You are responsible for your own life, and you begin your journey to success the moment you put to death the part of you that thinks you can’t.

So to that doubting, fearful, restrictive side that is holding you back from success… rest in peace.”

The only thing standing between you and your success is the belief that you can’t have it.

And that belief might not be working for you anymore.

However, many of our beliefs are like childhood friends. They may have worked so well for us in the past. The idea of letting them die can feel like a part of us has to die. And in a sense, that is true, because we are so identified with our beliefs that we feel they are who are are.

But our beliefs are not who we are. They are simply our beliefs. And they change: ever believe in Santa Claus?

It is possible for you to go from “I can’t” to “I can and I will!” But it takes a willingness to think differently and in a way that might be uncomfortable at first.

What beliefs are holding you back that need to be re-examined and released?

Try this: find a belief that you know is not true anymore yet seems to be still pulling your strings. Write it out on a piece of paper.

Then create a ritual. You can make a small fire and burn the paper with the intention of releasing the belief. Say goodbye to it as the smoke rises in the air. Or, you can fold the paper up in some cloth and bury it, with a little headstone that reads: HERE LIES A BELIEF THAT I — USED TO KNOW, NOW IT’S TIME TO LET IT GO. Then, walk away as you affirm your new, more empowering belief.

I’ll let you decide how you want to do it, but do something! If you need help, let me know.

When they finally do lay you to rest, refuse to be buried, as Les Brown says, with “hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, books that were never written, songs that were never sung, inventions that were never shared, cures that were never discovered…”

Only you can give them life, and it starts with your belief.

Ted

Special thanks to James Lee.

Integrity: The Glue That Holds Your Success Together

January 29, 2014/by Ted Moreno

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.

Self Hypnosis as a Tool for Change

January 1, 2014/by Ted Moreno

Why do most New Years resolutions fail? Why is it so difficult to change habits?

You hear about it all the time: people win big in the lottery, millions of dollars. Five years later they are broke.

Perhaps you’ve experienced this: you lose a bunch of weight just to gain it all back plus a few pounds.

Or you’ve quit smoking, just to start again when, after a few drinks, someone offers you a smoke.

Or you make a New Years resolution to start exercising, so you join a gym, go 3 times and then never again.

The problem is that sometimes it takes more than willpower, determination and resolutions to change.

Sometimes you need to re-program your subconscious mind.

Because if your subconscious mind (88% of your mind) is more comfortable with poverty, being fat, being a smoker, and being a couch potato, then it will sabotage the best efforts of your conscious mind (12%) to change. And your subconscious mind will win. Almost always.

So how does one go about re-programming one’s subconscious mind?

Self hypnosis is one of the most powerful ways to do this.

Self hypnosis has been used by celebrities, athletes, performers, business people, salespeople, and entrepreneurs.

From Einstein and Thomas Edison to Aston Kutcher, Matt Damon and the Chicago White Sox, self hypnosis has been an essential component of success.

Start the New Year with a Success Mindset. Learn to use Self Hypnosis!

You can learn self hypnosis by taking my Self Hypnosis for Success Class at Pasadena City College on three Saturdays: January 18th, 25th and February 1st. Click here to register!

The power of self hypnosis can be used to:

Have the correct mindset and attitude for success in business and personal life.
Get rid of procrastination that keeps you stuck and in a rut.
Feel less self-conscious and more relaxed and confident in social and professional situations.
Increase sales through higher confidence and less call resistance.
Get relief from anxiety and fear, and negative thinking.

Click to register and get your subconscious mind to work for you!

In Self Hypnosis for Success, you will learn:

How to put yourself into hypnosis.
How to use the power of suggestion to re-program your subconscious mind.
How to put it all together to create a mind conditioned for success in just a few minutes a day.

You’ll receive my Guide to Self Hypnosis and my 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. The class is being held at Pasadena City College on January 18, 25th and February 1st from 9 to 10:30 am.

Click here to register and learn to take control of your mind using self hypnosis!

Hope to see you there!

Ted

Sometimes You Just Need to Let Go

December 11, 2013/by Ted Moreno

Me Risking Life and Limb in Tucson AZ in 1984

During my “cowboy” phase, while living in Arizona, I decided to try my hand at rodeo. I made up my mind to do bareback bronc riding.

This is where a rider gets on a horse (or bronc) whose only desire is to buck the bronc rider off.

With only one hand, the rider hangs on to a “rigging”, which is a handle, like on a suitcase, attached to a leather strap strapped around the horse. To hang on, the rider wears a glove that fits tightly into the rigging handle, secured with resin (sticky) powder. The goal is to stay on for eight seconds.

I practiced for a while on a wooden sawhorse with a rigging attached and two buddies at either end bouncing it up and down. Thinking I was ready, I went to the practice arena one night and paid ten bucks for my chance to ride a wild bronc.

My legs felt like jelly as I lowered myself onto the horse in the chute. I jammed my gloved hand into the rigging. Out in the arena, the pick- up man waited on his horse. The pick-up man’s job is to rescue the rider from the bronc after his eight seconds.

I nodded my head to signal that I was ready. The chute opened. Eleven hundred pounds of horse rocketed into the arena with 130 lbs of me attached to it.

About 3 seconds too late, I realized that I had no business being on that horse. I was getting tossed like a rag doll in a clothes dryer.

The pick up man, seeing that I was a lost cause, rode up next to us on the right. I started to climb onto his horse. I got half way there with one leg on when he yelled “Take your hand out of the rigging!”

In all the excitement, I had forgotten to take my left hand out of the handle of the rigging. My hand was stuck tight with resin, on the other horse, all nice and cozy, the way it was supposed to be. Except now, it wasn’t supposed to be.

All I could do was climb back onto the bronc. After a few more bone-rattling bucks, I got my hand free and he gleefully sent me flying.

After I got all the dirt out of my mouth, and with some sense pounded into me, I decided to do horses a favor and end my rodeo career.

Sometimes you just need to let go.

The past year is just about gone. Soon a new year will come. Things come and things go. That’s life, isn’t it?

But sometimes, caught up in the excitement (or routine) of life, we forget that we are still holding on when we should have let go a long time ago. We can end up being dragged along by our involvement, shaken to and fro by our choices, or being owned by our physical and psychological “stuff.”

As hard as it might be, there are times when the best thing to do is let go and get off. This is how you make yourself available for a new ride. This is how you allow new, (maybe better) stuff to come in.

Are you aware of something that needs to be released from your life, now?

Material things you don’t use or need
A job
A relationship
A desire (like trying to ride horses that don’t want to be ridden)
Guilt or regret
A tradition
A belief
A habit

At this time of the year, trees shed their leaves as Nature prepares to create anew. Why can’t you?

Ted

To listen to a podcast of this blog, go to www.tedmoreno.com/ted-in-your-head episode 39

Persistence, Faith and the Chinese Bamboo Tree

December 4, 2013/by Ted Moreno

Here is a parable of persistence and faith: the story of the Chinese Bamboo tree.

This tree is like all trees in that it requires watering and feeding to make it grow.

What is unique about the Chinese Bamboo is that for the first year after the seed is planted, there in no apparent growth. In spite of all the watering and care, it seems as if nothing is happening.

After two years, there is is still not a shoot or a sprout.

After the third year of watering and feeding the tree, there still will be nothing to reward you for your efforts.

Even after the fourth year, after all those hours of care and attention, still there would be nothing to show for your time and trouble.

However, in the fifth year, something will happen. Not only will the tree sprout, poking its head out of the ground, but in one growing season, the Chinese Bamboo tree can grow up to 80 feet!

You might ask: “Did it take four years to grow or one season?” The answer is obvious. Four years.

What was unapparent and invisible to you, was that the tree was developing a strong and deep root system, a foundation that would enable it to support 80 feet of upward growth.

Persistence, Taking Action and Having Faith

Sometimes it seems as if all our work is for naught. It’s easy to get discouraged if we don’t see results right away.

But even though we don’t see results doesn’t mean that nothing is happening. We must continue to have persistence, take action, and have faith in our dreams.

Through thick and thin. Through good times and bad. Through ridicule and praise. Through feast and famine.

Taking action might mean starting over. Changing or tweaking your plan. It might mean regrouping after a breakdown where you are on the floor crying bitterly in frustration. It’s during these times that your foundation is being built, if you persist. Every challenging experience you overcome gives you what it takes to reach a greater height.

Persistence and faith combined with intention and action communicates our desire to the universe in the only language it understands.

Continue to nurture your dream. Cultivate it every day. Feed it with affirmations and inspirational material that you listen to or read. Find supportive people (such as yours truly) that will give you motivation and encouragement when you are discouraged.

Trust that you are affecting the universe in ways that you cannot know from your limited perspective. Have faith that there are unseen forces at work even when it seems nothing is happening. Continue to build your foundation and your persistence will be rewarded.

You cannot know the future or when the universe will reward your efforts. Trust that it conspires in your favor.

Ted

12 Ways to Cultivate Gratitude

November 27, 2013/by Ted Moreno

[leadplayer_vid id=”5296B9BEC1233″]

Take responsibility for your ability to feel grateful now. Realize that nothing outside of you needs to change or be different for you to feel grateful.
Have a mantra. Create the habit of repeating a word or phrase to say throughout the day to bring you into present moment awareness. “Be Here Now”, or “What is this?” or “This is my life, right here, right now.”
Get out of your head and observe the world around you. Notice objects, shapes, colors, designs. Be aware how things reflect light, how they are constructed, how things wear down. Notice without judgment, only with perception.
God is in the details. Take time to look closely and deeply into things. Feel the surface of something and get present to the textures and what that does for you (or not). Really look into peoples’ faces; notice eyes, hair, and how they use their hands.
Listen fully and completely. Choose to just listen. Not defend or retort. Don’t miss what is being said because you are formulating what you are going to say. When listening to music, just sit and listen. Right now, what do you hear?
Focus on something that brings you peace. Some people carry beads. Some listen to music. Some read. Playing music, walking, gardening, petting an animal, are all simple things. Powerful and easily done, they allow us to focus and become one with what we are doing.
Take time for things. We have been hypnotized into believing we should cram as much as we can into each day. Productivity to achieve goals is a worthy aspiration, but taking on too much and running around all the time becomes a grind. Do less better.
Be with nature.
Expand your awareness. At any moment, try to get connected to what is within 50 feet of you. (You’re in a building.) Then go out 100 yards. (You’re in a neighborhood, complex, city block.) Expand your awareness to your city, state, part of the world. See yourself as part of a larger whole.
Realize that it’s a process. It’s about the journey. Try to detach from results. They may or may not be important tomorrow or in a week or month. Instead, focus on how you are being, instead of what you are doing.
Visual reminders. Flowers, statutes of holy beings, little signs. Look at them throughout the day and breathe and say thank you. These things have a tendency to become unnoticeable as part of the scenery so move them often.
Just sit. Sit quietly. Don’t do anything. Eyes open or closed. Call it meditation or whatever. Be with yourself powerfully.

So much of living from gratitude comes from letting go of our ideas of how the world should be, ought to be, could be or how we would like it to be. Try to do this regularly for just a short period of time. The idea is to get to the point where you can say truthfully “It’s all good.”

Ted

626.826.0612

You’ve Got to Be Alive to Have Gratitude

November 20, 2013/by Ted Moreno

There may be some dead that are grateful aside from Jerry Garcia and the band, but maybe the highest form of gratitude is feeling lucky to be alive.

I find it interesting that we only have one day a year dedicated to giving thanks. What if every week we had a Thanksgiving day? (Minus the huge feast, of course.) If you lived 80 years, Thanksgiving Day once a year would give you 80 days when you were reminded to give thanks. If you had it every week, you’d have 4,160 days set aside for gratitude. Do you think that would make a difference in your life?

So what’s the big deal about gratitude? Well, try going one week without saying thank you or being appreciative for anything. Complain loud and incessantly the whole week. Walk around feeling that the world owes you, and see what that does for you. Compare and despair while you enviously desire what others have that you don’t. (What? You’re doing already that? Call me immediately at 626-826-0612 for 10% off a session.)

Gratitude is not just an attitude; it’s a feeling that you generate through presence. Get out of your head and look around you. Can you feel it while gazing into your child’s face? Stepping out on the porch at sunset to bid the day adieu? Standing outside at night awash in the glory of a full moon? It takes some practice generating it until you’re feeling moments of bliss on a regular basis. It’s worth it and not that hard to do.

Gratitude can sustain you through the tough times, or give you the icing when you’ve got your cake and you’re eating it too.

Everything looks better, feels better, works better when you’re grateful. Feeling grateful feels good and is good for you, physically, emotionally and spiritually.

Sometimes I’m woken up in the middle of the night. “I’m scared Daddy!” I let them get in the bed even though it means less of a sound sleep. It’s a small price to pay for the smell of their hair, the sound of their breathing. All too soon I might keep myself awake wondering if they are ok and when they will be home.

Life is fragile and unpredictable. One second too soon or a minute too late and there’s a funeral, tragedy, loss or catastrophe. Anything can be taken from you at any time. Some folks need to go through tough times to really appreciate the blessings that have been bestowed upon them. I suggest that you don’t wait for that to happen.

To be alive means you can be grateful. You get to have that chance. For your sake, take it. You’ve been given the fertile ground to plant and harvest the seeds of gratitude before that ground becomes your bed. Be thankful. For every single little thing.

Ted

Photo by Skye Moorhead

What’s The Deal with Affirmations?

October 30, 2013/by Ted Moreno

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