April 10, 2014 Bombardment

 Artist: Quint Buchholz

 

Bombardment.  This is on my mind lately.  The swirling tornado of imagery, advertisement, updates, news flashes, texts, emails, articles, website links, sorrows, celebrations,  that we exist in the middle of every day.

Our collective virtual plethorum of stuff that BOMBARDS us pretty much 24/7.

It is an assault on the senses.  I guess every period in history has it’s unique challenges, and this would be ours.  

Do you feel like some days; your thoughts aren’t even your own?  

Do you ever wonder if, in a sense, we are all somewhat under hypnosis all the time?

Fire.

Radio.

T.V.

Computer.

Smartphone.

Oh the things we have gathered around over time, to stare at and glean from.

At least the first 3, we used to do in the company of others, mostly.

Now we stare at these little rectangles in our hands.  

Alone.

And we are hypnotized.

I have heard the theory floated that modern Hypnotherapy is actually a way to become un- hypnotized, because in some ways we have actually become the zombies we joke about and secretly fear.  

Wonder why we are always buying things we don't need?

Constantly trying diets that don't work? Eating certain foods that offer us nothing? Why we are  “asking our doctors” about this drug or that?  Living in terror of driving the wrong car or wearing the wrong style? Going to the wrong school, choosing the wrong career? The wrong life?

Why we diagnose ourselves as addicts, and bi polars, and our kids have ADD, and we probably have this condition, or that and we should try this method, or listen to that guru... and I could go on. But I know you know what I am talking about.

It was a revelation to me back in 9th grade, in a social studies class, a lesson about advertising and how the very first two rules are (were, and remain)

1) Instill Fear

2) Show solution; give the FIX.

And nothing has or will change in regards to that.  

It makes perfect sense.  On some level we’ve always known that FEAR is an instant induction into a state of hypnosis.  

Oh and it is.

So we live in a kind of constant state of just-below-the-surface fear, therefore constantly searching for solutions.  And there is no shortage of expensive solutions being offered.  Everything we stare in trance at at nowadays; our phones, our computer screens, a little less now maybe; our tvs ….(and for my dad; the radio), offers the fixes….

Somedays I have to remind myself: NO FIXING!I have to remind myself that maybe my life does not need fixing as much as I have come to believe.  Allowed myself to believe. Been bombarded and hypnotized into believing.

And it is with this in mind that I never allow myself to impose any idea I may hold of “ the right fix” on a client.

I let my clients tell me. Not what will "fix" them, exactly, but what really needs to happen/shift/be revealed for them to thrive. To get what they want.

Even if they think they don’t know, they DO.

They practically scream it out at me, in between the lines.

 Sometimes even what they don't say or won’t say.

They tell me in metaphors, in word choices, in the order in which they recall an event.  How they describe the conflict.  How they paint a dream.

They tell me by their body language,  their gestures, their eye movements. Even the ease in which they do or don't make an appointment with me.  Even the questions they ask me.

It all tells me what it is that they really need.  

What they need unique to them.

No “one size fits all” here.

And yes, it is the language of their subconscious I listen to, as it is often very wise.

And I also have to listen to what they say to me consciously, also wise too.

The right path for them lies in finding the harmony between these two realms.  

All of us bombarded all the time with plethorum.  Hundreds of paths to choose, steps to take, every second practically of every day.  

But we always know, deep down inside, when we really are focused on the right thing or things for each of us.

If Hypnosis is actually a highly focused state (which I do believe it is),  then it is my greatest wish to be able to help people find the state that sings out in truth for them alone. No bombardment from outside, just seeds growing into flower from within.

That original and unique pathway our own selves want us to create and follow.