Content from “Can You Be A Hypnotist?” by Erika Flint
We don’t discard or get rid of old feelings. Not really. We transform them. This is an important truth about the nature of the human experience. Consider a painful experience from your past. You’re not leaving it along the roadside of your past, discarded and unwanted. Rather you are inspecting it, looking closely at what it has to teach you about yourself and your life. Once understood, it is transformed automatically to something beautiful. A lesson learned, adversity overcome, a painful experience transformed to a beautiful expression of wisdom and compassion.
In a state of deep hypnosis called somnambulism, Joan realized why her mother embarrassed her. It came from her mother’s own fears and insecurities. She didn’t like what happened to her, but she understood it and was able to forgive her mother.
She released the old feeling of anger by transforming it into gratitude and peace for her mother.
We don’t really let go of feelings. We transform them. We change them. Joan transformed her feelings of fear and anger (embarrassment for her) to gratitude and peace for her mother. The anger was gone, and she had a new understanding based on love and grace.
Jim came to see me to improve his public speaking. He was the CEO of his corporation, and the company was growing and expanding into new markets around the globe. He regularly spoke to his small team of about ten and annually to his entire team of thousands. He wanted to ignite passion and drive into his employees.
And he was also a self-described perfectionist. He reported always being that way based on a strict upbringing by his military father.
In a deep state of hypnosis, I asked Jim to imagine being his father. Imagine what it was like to have a son like him(self), and what that would be like.
“I feel heaviness of my father’s struggle. He grew up so poor. His own father worked so hard, yet they never had enough. His father didn’t finish school. They survived many months by scavenging for food in the woods and forest during the depression. It’s so heavy, and painful.”