Last week a lawyer called me to help a client who is nervous about testifying. She has a fear of speaking and combined with the anxiety of being in front of a jury has caused her to be even more anxious.
Her attorney wants me to help her because her fears have taken over her life. She can’t sleep, she’s overeating, and she’s having trouble focusing when she is at work.
As a Certified Hypnotist, my goal is to help clients reduce their stress and get over their fear of speaking in public.
One of the ways I do this is to help my clients understand that they have the ability to choose their thoughts. Often it feels as if our thoughts are in control of us. Frequently thoughts seem to be random, and it may feel as if you have no control over them.
This is the furthest thing from the truth. In fact, the ONE THING WE CAN CONTROL is our thoughts.
Choosing your thoughts has a measurable benefit. The first benefit is that you will feel better when you think positively. Thinking positively means that you can thing about what you want, rather than what you don’t want.
Simply said, you will feel better when you think about what you do want.
The flip side of this is that you are guaranteed to feel bad whenever you think about what you don’t want.
Need proof that you can be in control of your thoughts? Take a look at Viktor Frankl’s life and his writings. In his book, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl describes his life in a concentration camp. Even in the degradation and abject misery of a concentration camp, Frankl was able to exercise the most important freedom of all – the freedom to determine one’s own attitude and spiritual well-being.
Everyday we get the opportunity to choose our thoughts.
How is my client doing? In two sessions her fear has dropped dramatically. When she met me her fear was at a 10. (On a scale of 0 to 10, 10 being the highest.)
She reported that her fear has dropped to a 2. She is sleeping better. She noticed that she is eating less junk food. She can even see herself on the witness stand and imagine herself responding calmly. Is she looking forward to testifying in court? Not really. But she is feeling better about doing it. She is no longer overcome with anxiety.
When you use logic to try to get over our fears you’ll keep on struggling. When you use hypnosis and EFT Tapping to eliminate your negative thoughts where they reside – in the subconscious mind – you can overcome them easily.
Are you choosing your thoughts or are you letting them just happen?
What do you do when you when you want to change some of your thoughts? Please share your tips and techniques!
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