I make my living helping people rewire their brains for a happier and more successful life. Whether I’m doubling your sales or eliminating your anxiety, my passion is the same; to give you back choice.

Emotionally healthy individuals have choice about their lives. Should I do this job or that? Should I stay in this relationship or leave? Should I engage socially with this group or another? Should I eat that chocolate death bomb or a nice salad?

Emotionally unhealthy people don’t have choice. Their fear, prejudices, or mental habits dictate their actions. They may want to approach that pretty girl, but their anxiety keeps them stuck. They may want to get that raise, but their sense of foreboding prevents them from asking for it. They may want to eat healthfully, but their addiction to sugar determines their food choices.

So, in an effort to return people to their rightful place of personal power, I show them how to hypnotize themselves; how to speak directly to their own subconscious mind. The notion is simple. Once you’ve changed a subconscious program, you’re naturally moved to take the actions consistent with the new program…and that means more options, more choice, more power.

But, can YOU be hypnotized; let alone do it to yourself? Well, it depends.

First, it’s helpful to understand that the state of hypnosis is not difficult to achieve. You’re already in it. Aside from the obvious reality that we live much of our lives in a trance; unconscious of what we’re doing or even thinking (how much do you remember about your last drive home?), we’re also at the effect of internal programs placed there when we were younger…and despite our current intelligence, we can’t seem to stop those programs from ruining our lives, and that’s because we’re hypnotized!

When I do a hypnosis show, I look for the 10% of good hypnotic subjects in every audience. That’s not to say that the other 90% can’t be hypnotized. As I said, they already are. The 10% I seek are the ones who are just awake enough to allow themselves the luxury of dancing with their own mental state, willingly releasing their illusory sense of control and embracing the power of their imagination.

The other 90% are so hypnotized that they actually believe they’re in control of their own mind, and they’ll be damned if anybody’s going to come in and fiddle with it. How little they realize the extent to which they’re already being controlled by the very mind they’re trying to protect!

For the 10%, self hypnosis is very easy…and very effective. It instantly provides access to those tricky internal programs, and it often allows for profound change in a very short period of time.

For the majority of people, however, self hypnosis first requires a willingness to let go of their firmly held beliefs about who they are. They need to awaken a portion of themselves; a part Buddhists call “the witness.”

We all have the capacity to step out of the stream of our own automatic, habitual thinking, and “witness” or watch dispassionately from a neutral place. We all have the capacity to notice ourselves being drawn into a desire, temptation or emotion.

For example, someone can see their longing for a cigarette, notice the sensations in their bodies, and rather than blindly collapsing into temptation, observe those sensations as they arise and subside… without ever lighting up.

This is called mindfulness. And it requires practice. If most people would develop a simple meditation discipline, they’d be able to cultivate the witness in themselves and, from that place, become their own hypnotist.

Without first taking that step, your efforts are like the blind leading the blind. In other words, you can’t hypnotize yourself if there’s no part of you that’s not already hypnotized.

Since it’s pretty hard to spot your own blindness, I’ve created a “mindfulness assessment” to give you a better sense of how awake you really are. You’ll find it at www.stevetaubman.com, but here are a couple highlights.

If you tend to get in a lot of disagreements…if you’re pretty damn sure you’re always right…if you’ve got eating habits you don’t like but can’t break…if you’re smug or self satisfied or convinced that hypnosis is a bunch of crap…you’re probably fairly deeply hypnotized.

While it’s always been hard for me to reach those who don’t want to be reached, I will offer this one enticement for those on the fence. Do the work. Learn to meditate. Quiet your mind. Discover for yourself just how blind you’ve been. Become an observer rather than a defender.

And from that place, learn to hypnotize yourself and reprogram your own mind to create a more satisfying life. Do it now, before another day goes by during which your mind can become even more set in its ways.

We all have the power to shed our sense of certainty, live from a place of open mindedness, and tap into our inner resources for greater courage, creativity, and wisdom. So, in the interest of your well being and the sanity of those around you, put the following three things on your to-do list.

Learn to meditate and quiet your mind

Watch the stream of your thoughts and determine which ones aren’t serving you

Learn to hypnotize yourself to release those unwanted thoughts and to reprogram your mind for success and happiness…

Oh, and pass it on! 🙂