Looper lessons on the subconscious

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Created on Friday, 12 October 2012 17:23

I found a neat analogy for the subconscious mind in a recent science fiction movie, Looper.

Rest assured, you don’t have to see the movie to understand the analogy. That said, those who are especially sensitive to spoilers can go ahead and see the movie first and then come back to figure out why it pertains to your subconscious.

For the rest of us, here it is.

REALLY, THIS IS A MAJOR PLOT SPOILER, SO READ IT ONLY IF YOU HAVE ALREADY SEEN THE MOVIE, IF YOU DON'T PLAN TO, OR IF YOU HAVE A SHORT MEMORY FOR THESE THINGS!

One of the characters in the movie is a child named Cid, played by Pierce Gagnon. The character has some incredible powers and can make things explode with his mind. The movie is like that, by the way. There's time travel and lots of explosions, if that's your kind of thing.

Anyway, Cid is a pretty special kid. He's very smart and incredibly dangerous.

And that, in a nutshell, is what your subconscious mind is like. Smart and childlike, that is, and powerful more than dangerous... Iconic mind-man Sigmund Freud talked a lot about the subconscious/unconscious mind and its power. That was one of his things, you know.

The subconscious mind holds all those things you are processing but aren’t really aware you’re processing. Psychologists theorize that there are things we see, hear, taste, feel and lots and lots of other information buzzing through our minds, but most of that information never quite makes it to the surface, or the conscious mind.

The conscious mind is the part that does the mulling over, philosophizing and tries to remember how to use geometry when you're at the counter buying tiles to remodel your bathroom. It tries to remember to buy lemons or flour at the grocery store and takes over when it's time to worry about things that will never happen but that you worry about anyway.

Meanwhile, the subconscious mind is making sure your heart keeps beating and that you are still breathing and takes care of other trivial things like that. And it's doing much more than that. More than we really even understand.

So when you’re talking about the subconscious mind, what you’re talking about something that is very powerful, wonderful and childlike. Like the character of Cid from the movie Looper.

However smart and powerful Cid was, he needed an adult. That's the killjoy who tells him not to go around using his telekinetic powers to explode houses and cars because, even though its fun, it also brings down home values in the area. Or keeps time travelers from wanting to visit.

Something like that. I really didn't pay much attention to the plot.

Anyway, the job of keeping your world spinning smoothly on its axis, in this analogy, is where the conscious mind comes in.

And aligning your powerful, childlike subconscious mind so it will work well with your conscious mind is something your local, handy-dandy hypnotherapist can help you with.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not promising telekinetic powers. However cool that might be, we'll leave that part to the movies.

But what you can do is pretty incredible, nonetheless. With a little patience and some nurturing, you can train your subconscious mind to work with you and do any number of amazing things. That includes quitting smoking, eating right, keeping up with exercise, going to bed on time, or shortening your labor and birth while reducing pain.

And it certainly can help soothe some of the anxiety people often associate with childbirth and help you let your body do its job when the time comes to have your baby.

DID YOU KNOW? Franz Mesmer (1734 – 1815) is considered by some to have discovered techniques that led to modern hypnotism.

Mesmer was a bit wacky, though. He thought hypnotism was caused by magical energy transferred between all objects, something he called “animal magnetism.” He also believed that the hypnotist caused his subject to be hypnotized. It really doesn't work that way.

A better way of thinking about going into hypnosis, and one closer to our modern understanding, is that it is like being told a great story that transports you to another place. It doesn’t work very well if you don’t want to go along for the ride.

Nonetheless, the idea of “mesmerism” persists to this day.

What is the price of dreaming?

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Created on Saturday, 06 October 2012 17:23

What is the price of dreaming?

I ask my clients this sometimes. I often get a blank look in return.

Really, though, what does it cost you to dream big? I say the price of dreaming is actually very small.

Whole lives are created around the concept of protecting the ego. Gazillions of things don't get done because of all of the worrying about what might happen. "What if I dreamed big and failed? How could I live with the disappointment? What would people think?" Or at the first glimpse of possible failure, you pull your hopes back with the thought, "It probably isn't going to work out." All for the sake of saving yourself disappointment.

A friend of ours dared to dream up a special trip on a whim. She took off on that journey feeling hopeful and excited. It didn't go very well. Even though it was just what she needed at that point in her life and lots of fun, everything seemed to be going wrong, taking longer and costing more than she expected.  At one point she reported that she felt seriously panicky, thinking she had made a huge mistake and wondering why the universe was out to get her. Tears, fear and upset washed over her. Ouch.

So, THAT moment is what people are afraid of. And when you really think about it, is that moment such a big deal?

Sure, it feels yucky to fall on your face.

But, here's the revolutionary thought in all of this. What if you dreamed big anyway? What if you knew, right down to the center of your amazingly strong core, that you could handle it if something went wrong? You might have to let that moment wash over you, and you might suffer a bit. But after that... you'd be okay. And you'd have maybe learned something spectacular along the way, and seen some pretty great stuff.

If you know you have everything you need inside of you to handle anything that comes your way, you are safe. When you're safe, you have space to create, to build, to move toward pleasure.

In this space, what would you dare to dream about? What would you dare to try? What would you give yourself the chance to accomplish?

Dreaming big and birth.

We talk a lot in Blissborn about creating a sort of "blueprint" for your labor and birth.

This blueprint is important, because your subconscious mind is an association-making machine, which is part of what makes your mind so efficient. You learn a concept along the way and you have a lightspeed-fast connection to similar concepts.

In birth, we want your associations to be around happy and exciting thoughts and feelings. Creating a real and vivid association with the beauty of your baby's birth day is powerful. Your mind has THAT to associate with, instead of the old ideas. And that can make all the difference.

So we say go for it. Dream big and give yourself the good feelings. What do you really have to lose? The cost of holding yourself back is too much. The price of dreaming is small. And if you achieve that dream, there's no cost at all. This seems like a pretty sound investment to us.

Feel less (or no) pain in labor and birth, Part 2

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Created on Monday, 02 April 2012 03:04

In the last post, we talked about the physical approach to pain control -- understanding the physical structures that make the experience of pain possible, and how to stop them with hypnosis and visualization when it makes sense to do so.

In this post, we talk about the mental or emotional aspects of pain, and how to transform your experience of those sensations by shifting your perspective.  Try it!  It works!

Enjoy this excerpt from Class 4 in the Blissborn Parent Manual!

The philosophical approach

Signals about the body’s status travel through the nerves to the brain, where they are interpreted.  Your mental "programming" gives those signals their meanings ("this is good," "this is bad," or "ignore this").  Until they reach the brain, they are just signals, without positive or negative qualities.

When pain is assigned a negative meaning, it colors your experience of the sensations.  It is no longer just a signal, because now a degree of suffering has been added.  The emotionalized opinion that the pain shouldn’t be happening, or that it is useless, intolerable or undeserved, are examples of suffering.  Here are some more examples:

Negative physical experiences (pain):

- Intense
- Crampy
- Throbbing
- Stinging

Positive or neutral physical experiences:

- Mild
- Opening
- Soft
- Dull

Negative emotional experiences (suffering):

- Frightening
- Hard
- Uncomfortable
- Overwhelming

Positive or neutral emotional experiences:

- Bearable
- Peaceful
- Easy
- Comfortable

Pain is different than suffering.  Suffering makes pain seem worse.

Nerves transmit a certain amount of information physically, but philosophically your interpretation of the signal is within your control.  Studies have shown that people interpret pain differently depending on their perceptions of its reasons.  For example, a person wounded while saving a child’s life might describe significantly less pain and suffering than someone who had received the same injury due to another’s careless mistake.

Without a way to control it, pain can act like static in the mind, urging you to action, disrupting thought or focus.  Using hypnosis to become an observer of your experiences gives you the distance and clarity to choose new meanings for the sensations.

So how does this relate to labor and birth?  As the objective observer in hypnosis, you can restore focus, clear the static, release the need for judgment and action, and choose the meanings you’ll assign to the sensations.  We know that the sensations of labor are caused by the contractions of the uterus stretching and opening the sphincter muscle called the cervix, and by the pressure of the baby’s descent.  While this is a different feeling than you are used to, if there is no resistance, there is little inherent pain in contracting or stretching the muscles and tissues that are designed to do this.

In the pushing stage of labor, as the baby crowns, there is a different sensation: the stretching of the labia and pelvic floor muscles (the perineum).  The vaginal opening is also a sphincter.  What if these sensations were just new and different, but not painful?

Discarding the idea that damage is being done to your body in birth and choosing a positive emotional attachment to the sensations of birth frees your mind to interpret the sensations differently.  It’s entirely possible to have discomfort without suffering.

Once you have decided to assign positive value to labor’s sensations at the conscious level, using hypnosis tells your subconscious to do the same.  This is done primarily through visualization and direct instructions to the subconscious. The contractions become friends helping you accomplish your goal, instead of enemies to be resisted.  Your subconscious mind can maintain this comfort for you as you work on other things.

Women can lose sight of the bigger picture of what’s happening in their bodies and in their lives during labor.  Birth partners are essential for reminding the mom how important her work is, on all levels from the organic to the cosmic.  Many women report that staying mentally focused is the larger part of the work that is labor, and the natural laser-like focus of hypnosis is an extraordinary tool in this regard.

There’s a big payoff: When you raise your ideas about a situation to a higher level, suffering is decreased and you can look at it with new eyes.  The quality of your experience is determined by the quality of your thoughts and perceptions.  Everyone can experience the same situation differently; it’s only our perceptions of the situation that are different.  Changing your perspective can change your life.

Want to take it a step farther?

- Check out the website and movie about Orgasmic Birth.  It may seem shocking, but you can transform your contractions into something wonderful!
- Find your local Blissborn Educator to learn more or schedule a consultation or a session to experience hypnotic pain control.
- Email Blissborn to get your specific questions answered and receive personal recommendations.

Feel less (or no) pain in labor and birth

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Created on Thursday, 01 March 2012 12:53

Pain is a signal from a part of the body to the brain.  It is a built-in alarm that inspires action to protect the body from harm.  It is a necessary component of survival.

All pain is a mind-body experience. In Blissborn classes, moms learn how to manage the relationship between their minds and bodies to maximize their comfort and work with their bodies instead of against them.

In Blissborn's Parent Manual and classes, we talk about two approaches to coping with pain: physical and philosophical.  The Parent Manual excerpt below will take you on a tour of your body's magnificent design and give you some feel-good ideas for coping with the physical aspects of pain.  In the next newsletter we'll cover the philosophical approach.  When you take a Blissborn class, your instructor will show you exactly how to use these strategies.

The Physical Approach

Pain happens in the physical structures of the brain, and not in the part of the body in which the pain is felt.  Your brain deciphers and records the nature of the signals and their origins.

To experience pain, the body must send the pain signal, the nerves must carry it, the brain must decode the information and the mind must assign value to it.  When you control any of these factors, you can control or stop pain.

The pain message is not always accurate or useful.  Phantom limb pain, fibromyalgia and crossed nerves are examples of the way inaccurate and useless information can rob a person of peace and comfort.  In phantom limb pain, a strong message is interpreted as pain in a missing limb.  The pain cannot possibly be in the actual missing structure.

In normal labor, your body is not being damaged; your uterus and cervix are not broken. Your body is built for birth.  The intensity of labor is a survival mechanism to get your full attention. The powerful subconscious processes that run your body and mind are never more apparent than in labor and birth.

The new sensations can cause heightened physical awareness, which amplifies pain.  It’s good to know that using hypnosis naturally changes the way you experience sensations, even without taking direct measures to control them.  In hypnosis, people report lessened sensations of pain as well as greatly diminished suffering.  Hypnosis also provides you with direct control over the functioning of your body, nerves, brain and mind.  For example, you can:

-- Stop the pain signals at the source by imagining the area numbed by ice.

-- Shut down the nerves carrying the signals like turning off a light switch.

-- Program the brain to ignore the signals as if they’re not part of you.

Pain control requires deeper hypnosis and more practice than other hypnotic tools, but it’s well worth the effort.  Once you get the hang of it and begin to experience success, you’ll be able to control your physical sensations faster and more effectively.  This skill will serve you well in labor, birth and beyond.

These same skills are used for surgeries without anesthesia (go to www.BlissbornOnline.com for video links), and they have lots of less-intense applications as well.

For example, it’s not uncommon for a "hypnotically sophisticated" person to create rapid comfort by mentally putting ice on a burn, shutting down a migraine headache, or jamming the signals from a broken bone, just by quickly visualizing the steps they would have used in hypnosis. Some hypnosis students have reported that they found themselves creating hypnosis-style comfort before they had consciously decided to do so – evidence that the subconscious mind has learned the techniques and is automatically doing one of its main jobs, to move you from pain to pleasure.

When using hypnosis to alter pain sensations, your first priority must be to care for your body by tending to its signals.  Pain sensations are meant to deliver a message. After you have received the message and determined its usefulness, you may then stop the pain and its attendant suffering as you take appropriate action.  Hypnosis helps you stay calm and comfortable as you surrender to the energy of birth.

Next time, we'll talk about the philosophical approach to pain control.  Stay tuned!