Awareness | Conscious Change with Cognitive Hypnotherapy & Coaching

The power of trance

It is self-defence to understand how our mind works

My understanding is that trance is an altered state of consciousness that opens the door to the subconscious mind, making us highly suggestible to information and presenting an opportunity for new behaviours to be accepted and developed.

So, trance is this state that helps us program automatic behaviours. We use it all the time and we fall into trance daily when we disconnect with our here and now. Trance can be natural or can be induced.

Examples of naturally occurring trances:

Daydreaming,
high-way trance,
creative thinking,
fatalistic thinking,
meditation

Examples of induced trances

TV trance
Computer trance
Mobile phone trance
gaming console trance
medication/drugs high/low
hypnotic trance.

The trance can help but it can also be harmful.

Awareness of our suggestibility can help us resist manipulation that we might uncritically accept, or it can help us to use it to our benefit to learn what we want to.

What happens in trance?

Our conscious awareness is lowered
Our analytical mind subsides
The deeper the trance the more suggestible we become
The deeper the trance the less critically we accept anything we hear or view in that state
The stronger the emotional state the more suggestible we are
Our perception of time is altered – we can tell after coming out of trance
We are not present here and now
We disconnect with our ability to self observe or consider alternative perspectives
The way we perceive reality is distorted

If trance helps us bypass analytical mind and code behavioural patterns (beliefs, values) directly to our subconscious, then it is a very sought after state to understand and command.

We need its benefits for installing beliefs, values and automatic behaviours that will serve us when we are not present. Considering that we are not present for around 95% of the time and the unconscious mind runs our life, it makes sense to pay close attention to the quality of the beliefs, values and automatic behaviours encoded in our subconscious.

In the first 6 years of our lives we live in delta and theta brainwaves as our analytical mind slowly develops and we are wide open to suggestibility. We practically absorb beliefs, values and behaviours from the environment we were blessed with. Not all of the acquired set will serve us on the journey we would wish to undertake in the future. Most of us accept our acquired beliefs and values and behaviours as a wanted/unwanted gift of the ancestors and make do with what we have, wishing we received a different set. Many of though change any or sometimes many beliefs, values and behaviours becoming someone new. We certainly have the ability to self observe and change our beliefs, values and behaviours and it can be done with the help of a trance.

For that reason, knowing the power of the trance, it makes sense to get to know how, when and with what effect we enter trances in our life.

One of the easiest test to make is to check the loss of time we experience when we are with another person, with a device. If the time is lost, we were in a trance and therefore in a state of heightened suggestibility. We can then evaluate if the content of suggestions during that trance with analytical mind fully on. When we do not evaluate, then the seeds of suggestions start to grow in our subconscious, developing and building our personality. The control and responsibility always remain with us for who we are. So, who are we becoming?

Anosmia – Loss of sense of smell

Awareness

Impact on cognition

Are you one of the people who recently experienced the loss of sense of smell? I lost my sense of smell and taste due to Covid this autumn. It is slowly returning in sets of scents – there are still some types of scents that are not available to me.

It was indeed a brand new experience to move in this world without a sense of taste and without the ability to sense scents. One can say it is more of an inconvenience than an actual health threat. The sobering realisation of how much we rely on the sense of smell came in stages.

First, when I started to experience appetite or hunger, after a week of just recovering, I realised that I was unable to check anything in the fridge if it was off or not. It made me realise that I could be eating spoilt food and not be aware I am eating food that can harm me. How would I ensure the safety of my food?

Then, my sister burnt the dinner while in the kitchen. She did not smell anything, and her attention got caught up elsewhere for a prolonged time. She was lucky she spotted the developing disaster in time, and there was only a black pot to clean.

We could not smell our body scents, and I could not smell my children. Checking if they brushed their teeth required a different procedure. There was no substitute for the bonding ritual, though – I just had to compensate here with memories and imagination.

My Mum likes to bake sourdough bread. The smell usually brings me to the kitchen from the furthest corner. I have loved sourdough bread since childhood. The memories of my grandparents, my parents bringing fresh, warm, sourdough bread home and sharing it between us left me with such warm and loving memories. I realised how pivotal the sense of smell is in creating memories. My Mum baked the bread, and I was unaware of it. I spotted freshly baked bread on the kitchen table, but nothing moved in me to want to eat it. I remember that it used to be enjoyable to taste it, but all I could experience was the warmth and the soft texture of the slice of bread. There was no desire to eat it. There was no taste. The moment did not connect old memories but created a new experience disconnected and isolated from the past.

I indeed started to experience this world as an impaired person. Just like a blind person must learn to move without sight, I had to learn to experience and adapt to function in the world safely without the sense of smell. Some adjustments had to be made, and the greatest was the adjustment to the effect on the memories.

We are making sense of reality through our senses. We are plugged into this world through our senses. I pondered on that for a moment. I entertained a thought: what if I sit in the danger of being burnt and I cannot smell it, I cannot see it, I cannot hear it, I cannot feel it. Am I still existing? Indeed, I still am. I am very aware, just not of my external environment. I then wondered if I would continue to be aware if my body burnt down… I have no direct experience of what this would look like, but I certainly had a glimpse into my awareness. I appreciated how I use my body to express myself and how I am not this body.

The good news is: we can train our brain to smell again.

The olfactory system is highly responsive to training. In one study, a 12-week smell training session significantly increased the sensitivity to detect odours in those with anosmia.

The basis for smell training is that using a neural pathway, such as that used by your olfactory nerve cells, reinforces and strengthens it. To try it, all you need is four different fragrances, such as rose, lemon, clove and eucalyptus essential oils. Actively sniff each scent for about 20 seconds a couple of times a day, such as immediately after waking up and before going to bed; be sure to focus your concentration on the scent while you’re sniffing, trying to recall your experience of the scent.

My sense of smell is gradually returning. I hope that the intensity of some of the smells improves further, and some scents are yet to return.

I invite you to notice how many memories you have are linked to scents. The smell is a powerful sense for capturing experiences into memories. Take your time to appreciate your sense of smell and use it intentionally to create links, as it is a potent ingredient in memorising things.

Chilling

Awareness, Children, Identity, Relationships

Reflection on Young Adult Death

A couple of days ago news reached me that my nephew no longer lives. He went missing after an argument with his girlfriend. He wrote to a record producer that he would not be signing the contract he had been waiting for for about six years.

We never properly met. My nephew was in his Mother’s belly at my wedding 25 years ago. Since then, we were separated by a few countries in Europe.

Why would I feel any connection? I know his Dad and his Dad’s parents. I never truly got to know his Mother. I cannot help but feel their deep sense of loss.

How are family and friends to deal with the loss of a loved one, loss of a child, grandchild, friend, idol…?

Such a young life lost, because…? Even if we find out the cause of death, we know that it is just a method of terminating a heartbeat. What we all long for establishing is the intention behind the method — intention, the source of any action.

If it was coincidence and accident, then that’s that. If it was not coincidence or accident, what could be a strong reason to override the instinct to survive?

Is it a reason, or is it a lack of ability to deal with causes?

Any reason can only be the meaning we give it to be, how we perceive it. How aware are we when assigning meaning to things, events, people in our lives?

What truly matters? Collating all the facts? Justifying the reasons, judging? Or healing?

My Great Grandmother had one of her sons murdered. She went to the field where his body lay and brought it home on a cart. Many people and family members were coming forward with information on sighting suspicious strangers, reasons someone could have had, bad intentions, casting shadows of suspicion. My Great Grandmother stood in front of them and firmly declared there would be no inquest. She must have firmly focused all her energy on healing. She was very loving, and I am proud to have met her and remember her taking me to milk a cow. An event I remember like yesterday.

Healing, above all I crave healing.

Expensive Multitasking

Attention, Awareness, Vitality

We have a set, a limited amount of energy each day to spend on living. We will spend it paying with our attention.

Single Focus

When we focus on one task at a time, we build and capitalise on our concentration, allowing us to create more robust, complete results. Check how well you can hammer a nail while multitasking.

A hidden charge in multitasking, costing us a lot of energy

When we attempt to focus on more than one task, we must pay for every move and re-focus of our attention. There is no movement without using energy after all.

If you think it is a small charge to pay, ask any parent of an infant/toddler / pre-schooler as children are great at challenging what can be done and when. How productive do those parents feel, and how ready are they to go out and party at the end of the day? Could it be because most of their energy leaks on jumping between tasks constantly?

When you catch yourself multitasking, take this chance to self-observe and review if it really has to be done simultaneously.

Pay Attention

Awareness, Inspiration

The greatest gift we have to give is our attention.

It is a tool that directs and uses our daily bank of energy. Where attention goes, energy flows. It is like a currency which we use to spend our most precious resource: energy or life.

When we marry a powerful positive emotion, produced by buckets of dopamine, with the attention, we bend reality as the time comes to a stand-still. We lose ourselves in the activity as if no time has passed, while our bodies keep the exact passage of time.

If the activity gives us the feeling of a fulfilled life, then bingo, we have no regrets. What if the activity is not our conscious choice that produces happiness but a way of escaping other aspects of our life that we feel unable to resolve?

We use our attention to gather information and experience life which then forms our decision-making process. No wonder attention is such a valuable commodity sought after by all parties in our environment. Parents want our attention so they can instruct us. Teachers want our attention so we can learn. Friends want our attention so they can share their ideas with us. Screens want our attention so advertisers can impress us with their services and goods, increasing the likelihood that we become subconsciously programmed to buy their products.

It is worth knowing the value of attention. Our attention is creating more of what we pay our attention to in our lives. Knowing what we want to fill our lives with and training our attention as a dog to focus on what we want to pay for could be the most critical investment in ourselves.

Attention left unattended wonders. If we leave it wondering in the wilderness, we expose it to a magnetic pull of lower frequencies, negativity. If we leave it wondering within a boundary of creative intention, it will tune our brain to pick up higher frequencies of creation.

I wish you paying attention to what you unconsciously allow yourself to pay attention to as if your life depended on it because it does.