Tag Archive for: Personal Development

Sometimes You Just Need to Let Go

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Me Risking Life and Limb in Tucson AZ in 1984

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

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Persistence

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

 

Self Hypnosis Kept Me From Wiping Out

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Self hypnosis

Self hypnosis is a valuable tool that is really quite easy to use. Here’s an example of how I used self hypnosis in a very unlikely place.

I was camping out on Lake Mohave one summer with my brothers. One morning the lake was so smooth, we decided to go water skiing.

Now, I’m not the best water skier. I find it difficult to get up on the skis and if I go over a big wave I wipe out and get a lot of water up my nose. Not fun.

One of the more evil brothers must have know that because he suggested “Hey Ted, why don’t you sit in the water at the shore with your skis on and we’ll pull you from the shore?” (Muahahaha!)

You have to understand the dynamics of the testosterone that flows when you get a bunch of gnarly dudes  and boats together. You can’t just say, “Uh, no thanks, guys, I’ll pass” unless you want to be mercilessly heckled for the rest of the trip and beyond. So I said “Sure, sounds good.”

I put on my skis and life vest and sat in the water up to my chest with the tow rope in my hand. While everyone was getting in the boat I pondered my predicament.

If I didn’t get up on my skis the first try, I would be flailing around trying to retrieve my skis and would probably have to swim out to get the rope too. The water was shallow, so they would not want to come back and get me like they would in in the middle of the lake. The would watch with glee as I struggled over and over again futility to prove my water skiing prowess…

STOP! I told myself. What are you doing? You have the skill and knowledge to affect the subconscious mind! Why not use the powerful tool of  self hypnosis?

So I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, like Yoda before he levitates Luke’s ship out of the swamp. (Do, or do not! There is no try!) I relaxed my body and my mind and said “I will now enter a state of self hypnosis for the purpose of a kick-butt water skiing experience.” 

I felt myself going inside, connecting with the possibility that I can do anything I want. I imagined myself getting pulled up on the first try, water skiing on that glorious lake surrounded by beautiful desert mountains, having a great time. I told myself  “I am an expert water skiier” over and over again. I imagined the voices of my companions saying “Wow, that was a good run!”

After 5 minutes of sitting there in the water, I counted myself out of self hypnosis and waited for the moment of truth. “Ready?” someone shouted. “I was born ready!” I yelled back with confidence.

They hit the gas and the boat shot forward. The ski rope went taut. I was pulled up on my skis and skied for a solid 20 minutes. Sun, water, mountains, skimming along on the surface of a lake until my arms got tired. I let go of the rope, and floated there until they came and got me.

As they pulled me into the boat they said “Wow, you skied a long time. That was good.”

“Yeah” , I said. “It was good.” As I ran my hand through my hair, I noticed it wasn’t even wet. Yoda has the force, I have self hypnosis.

Learn to use Self Hypnosis!

I regularly offer my  Self Hypnosis for Success Class at Pasadena City College.  Click here to find out when the next class is!

Even if you don’t water ski, you can use self hypnosis to:

  • Get rid of nervousness and do better on a job interview
  • Get rid of anxiety to speak in public confidently and comfortably
  • Feel less self-conscious and more relaxed in social situations
  • Get rid of stage fright while acting or playing music
  • Perform better in sports
  • Present your product to clients persuasively and confidently
  • Get relief from procrastination, anxiety and fear, and negative thinking.

Put your subconscious mind to work! Click to find when the next class is being offered. 

In Self Hypnosis for Success, you will learn:

  • What hypnosis is and isn’t
  • How to do a hypnotic induction on yourself
  • Crafting suggestions to put into your subconscious mind
  • How to put it all together to reprogram your subconscious mind for success in just a few minutes a day
  • Little known, yet powerful tips and techniques for keeping your mind sharp, powerful and positive!

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 September 28th and October 5th and 12th from 9 to 10:30 am.

Click here to see when the next class is being offered and learn to take control of your mind using self hypnosis!

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

Ted

 

Go Back to School and Always Be Learning

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Back to School

Welcome to another edition of “Scribblings from Close of the Ground”, wisdom from the mouths of babes, namely, Rocky and The Chick, my two daughters who are back to school.

Go Back to School!

C: We just started school, I’m in third grade now. Everyone says it’s going to be hard. They make us do a lot of math.

R: I’m starting first grade. I know how to read already.

C: I hate it when I don’t know how to figure something out, like a math problem.

R: She starts crying!! Like a baby!

C: Rocky!!! I just don’t like when it gets hard, I just want to just go watch tv.

R: She’s a couch tomato…

C: It was really hard going back to school. It was like my learning muscle was weak.

R: Dad says that when he went back to school it was hard for him.

C: Sometimes I don’t want to go to school but dad says if you aren’t choosing what to learn than the world will give you lessons you might not like.

R: Like the School of Hard Rocks!

C: It’s the school of Hard Knocks, Rock.

R: That’s what I said.

C: Dad says that learning is uncomfortable, and if you are comfortable, you’re not learning anything. You have to learn to learn. He says that learning is discovering, and that most people stop learning after they leave school, and if you learn to like learning, you will always be learning and growing.

R: But if you learn too much your head might explode…

C: Be quiet Rock, no it won’t. Dad says you should  always be learning something. This way you’re brain doesn’t rot.

R: Like a pumpkin after Halloween.

R: So you should always be learning.

C: I’m also learning piano and I’m getting better at math. That’s what my piano teacher said would happen.

R: So you should not waste your brain because if you don’t use it it shrivels up like a raisin, then you are a raisin brain.

C: Don’t be a raisin brain. Always be learning, even it is uncomfortable!

R: Go back to school! Always be learning!! Even if it makes your brain hurt!

 Rocky and the Chick

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

 

Ted A. Moreno Discusses Hypnotherapy in Interview by Lisa Tarves of Just Believe Radio

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hypnotherapy

hypnotherapy

  I was recently interviewed on Just Believe Radio by Lisa Tarves discussing hypnotherapy related topics as well as my book.

To listen to the interview click here. The interview starts at 9:22.

In the interview I discuss

Want to listen to other interviews I’ve done? Click here.

Lisa Tarves, Metaphysician, Author of the book, Just Believe, Board Certified Holistic Health Practitioner and gifted intuitive, interviews experts in the area of metaphysics each Sunday at 1 pm Eastern. www.LisaTarves.com

Do You Know What You Stand For?

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Undergrowth with Two Figures, Vincent van Gogh

One summer I went on a river rafting vacation through the Grand Canyon. It was a week long trip rafting on the Colorado River and camping out surrounded by the ancient rock that is the Grand Canyon. You can get your perspective tweaked a little on one of these trips…

When vacation was over, I returned to my job selling used cars at a dealership in Tucson, Arizona. When I arrived for work it was already over 100 degrees. As I looked out over the lot, heat waves shimmered and the sun’s reflection off the top of the cars was literally blinding.

My mind went back to one morning in the canyon when I awoke before dawn. A thin sliver of moon was being kept company by a single star, probably a planet. All was silent save for the sound of the river flowing.

“You’re up Ted”, one of the salesmen said, shaking me out of my day dream. It was my turn to help a prospective car buyer.

I just stood there. “Go get ’em!” the salesman said. I stood looking out over the field of metal and asphalt. “You can have it” I replied. I turned around, went straight to the managers office, and quit. Read more

12 Laws of Life, Part 2

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Photo by James AllanHere is Part 2 of the 12 Laws of Life, an article by a man named Tom Hoobyar, who was an inventor and high tech CEO.  Tom Hoobyar died on September 25th, 2001. I really don’t know much about him or his life, but I very much appreciate his wisdom. I hope you do too. To read part 1, click here.

12 Laws of Life (Part 2) by Tom Hoobyar

7. EXPECT LESS FROM OTHERS AND MORE FROM YOURSELF. Most people expect way too much from others while they themselves actually get very little done. Inertia and distraction are insidious and damn near universal — expect it in others but guard against it in your own behavior.

Everyone listens to his or her favorite mental radio station — W.I.I.F.M., which stands for, Read more

Ted A. Moreno on “Amazing Minds” on HMI Web TV

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I had the bright idea of sending my book, “The Ultimate Guide to Letting Go of Negativity and Fear and Loving Life” to George Kappas, the director of the Hypnosis Motivation Institute, the hypnotherapy college I attended. Shortly after, I was invited to be on their web TV show “Amazing Minds.” HMI has streaming video 24/7 on HMI WebTV , if you are ever curious about hypnosis or what’s going on at HMI.

 

12 Laws of Life, Part I

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Recently I came across this article by a man named Tom Hoobyar, who was an inventor and high tech CEO.  It contains some of the wisest words I’ve ever read. Tom Hoobyar died on September 25th, 2001, but his words live on. Take some time to read one of my favorite guest posts.

12 Laws of Life by Tom Hoobyar

1. SELF-MANAGEMENT AND PEOPLE SKILLS ARE THE KEYS TO YOUR SUCCESS AND HAPPINESS. This is a MAJOR fact of life. And it took me a long time to get this. If you want to be smarter than me you’ll give this first principle serious consideration. Your skill level in these two areas will determine the quality of your whole life. Every champion and high achiever knows this. These simple skills are the clear difference between winners in life, and losers.

If you learn to manage yourself you can accomplish anything you can dream up. You can deal with negative experiences wisely and you can add skills as you need them. You can become unstoppable. Self management puts you on the launching pad to all the success you desire.

Most people limit themselves by their unwillingness to consider personal change. They won’t learn new things and they won’t change their behaviors even when they discover they’ve been wrong. The funny thing is, self-change is EASY. You are the one person that you can get to anytime you want. You don’t need permission or an appointment, and no one can stop you from learning and changing whenever you decide to. The only obstacle is you! Self-management is actually the first step to building people skills.

Once you commit to changing yourself into who you can be, you will notice the people around you in a different way. Now you see them as fellow beings with their own fears and drives. And they will see you with new respect and attractiveness.

You are surrounded by people who can help or harm you, based on how you treat them. Learning how people work is a skill, just like learning how you work. These people can multiply your efforts and supercharge your success It takes leadership and persuasion skills – people skills.

People skills are like a booster rocket propelling you to your dreams. And the process of succeeding with others can be learned just like you learn to make toast. If you follow directions and practice, you can develop the skills that will make you very happy and prosperous.

2. YOU ARE AT THE CENTER OF YOUR UNIVERSE. STAY THERE! As a young sailor I learned the hard way that Read more

New Monthly Feature: “Scribblings from Close to the Ground”

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This month I introduce a new monthly post called “Scribblings from Close to the Ground featuring my daughters, Rocky and the Chick. (The Chick is the one with glasses.)

Children have a lot to teach us. So along the lines of “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten“, I’ll let my kids loose once a month to share what they know. Since they’re always asking to play on the computer, I figured I’d put them to work.

It Gets Easier Every Time

R: Hi, this is Rocky, I’m four years old.

C: And this is the Chick. I’m six. We’re Ted’s daughters and we know some stuff.

R: Dad always calls us geniuses! Especially when he’s mad!

C: He’s usually pretty nice, but he gets mad when I Read more