Some Simple Ways to Manage Your Stress

Ron Eslinger, RN, CRNA, APN, MA

Andrew Weil, MD an internationally recognized physician and expert on mind body interactions and integrative medicine said; “A person with a digestive problem or a skin problem should see a hypnotist before they see a dermatologists or a gastroenterologists.  Why? Because around 85% of this type problem is stress related.  Hypnosis is one of the best stress management techniques available according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

If stress is the underlying cause of 85% of visits to the doctor for things like Fibromyalgia, Headaches and other Chronic Pain syndromes then what is the prescription for stress?  Why do we ignore the stress in our lives when it is causing so much emotional and physical pain?  How do we combat stress?  These questions are being studied more than ever before as can be seen in issues of Time, News Week, US News and World Report, National Geographic and a host of other weekly and monthly magazines including O, The Oprah Magazine.

Listed below are a few things you can do to combat stress in your life.

Ten Ways to Cut Down on Stress

1.        Talk it out. Get support from family and friends.

2.        Exercise regularly.

3.        Avoid false guilt.

4.        Set realistic goals and priorities.

5.        Avoid perfectionism.

6.        Keep a sense of humor.

7.        Hang loose. Set aside idle time to relax every day.

8.        Live by the calendar, not the stopwatch.

9.        Avoid overindulging in drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine.

10.    Think positively

Learn to relax.  Take time for yourself.  Purchase some stress management CDs and biorhythmic music to listen to.  These can be found at www.healthyvisions.net

Everyone experiences relaxation differently.  Here is a list of things you can do to enhance your ability to relax.  Albert Einstein had what I think is the best answer which was to time each day to creatively day dream and time each day to play.

Here are some additional ways to help yourself relax:

§         Sit or lay down in a quiet place

§         Say positive happy things to yourself

§         Listen to biorhythmic music (60 beats a minute)

§         Day dreaming about good things (avoid worry which is negative day dreaming)

§         Taking a walk in nature and listen to the birds the wind and other nature sounds.

§         Turn off the news

Breathe Stress Away:

Gently push your stomach out like blowing up a balloon.  This will drop the diaphragm down and automatically pull into the lungs a deep breath.  This will get more air into the two lower lobes of the lungs.  The two lower lobes of the lungs are highly vascular and will get more oxygen into the cells of the body, which greatly helps decrease stress. It would be like this: In for a count of five hold for a count of five and then breath out for a count of ten.  Do this once or twice and hour and you will be surprised at the change in your life.

This is only a short comment on what you can do to combat stress.  For more information and ideas you can email me at ron@eslinger.net 

Some Simple Ways to Manage Your Stress

Ron Eslinger, RN, CRNA, APN, MA

Andrew Weil, MD an internationally recognized physician and expert on mind body interactions and integrative medicine said; “A person with a digestive problem or a skin problem should see a hypnotist before they see a dermatologists or a gastroenterologists.  Why? Because around 85% of this type problem is stress related.  Hypnosis is one of the best stress management techniques available according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH)

If stress is the underlying cause of 85% of visits to the doctor for things like Fibromyalgia, Headaches and other Chronic Pain syndromes then what is the prescription for stress?  Why do we ignore the stress in our lives when it is causing so much emotional and physical pain?  How do we combat stress?  These questions are being studied more than ever before as can be seen in issues of Time, News Week, US News and World Report, National Geographic and a host of other weekly and monthly magazines including O, The Oprah Magazine.

Listed below are a few things you can do to combat stress in your life.

Ten Ways to Cut Down on Stress

1.        Talk it out. Get support from family and friends.

2.        Exercise regularly.

3.        Avoid false guilt.

4.        Set realistic goals and priorities.

5.        Avoid perfectionism.

6.        Keep a sense of humor.

7.        Hang loose. Set aside idle time to relax every day.

8.        Live by the calendar, not the stopwatch.

9.        Avoid overindulging in drugs, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine.

10.    Think positively

Learn to relax.  Take time for yourself.  Purchase some stress management CDs and biorhythmic music to listen to.  These can be found at www.healthyvisions.net

Everyone experiences relaxation differently.  Here is a list of things you can do to enhance your ability to relax.  Albert Einstein had what I think is the best answer which was to time each day to creatively day dream and time each day to play.

Here are some additional ways to help yourself relax:

§         Sit or lay down in a quiet place

§         Say positive happy things to yourself

§         Listen to biorhythmic music (60 beats a minute)

§         Day dreaming about good things (avoid worry which is negative day dreaming)

§         Taking a walk in nature and listen to the birds the wind and other nature sounds.

§         Turn off the news

Breathe Stress Away:

Gently push your stomach out like blowing up a balloon.  This will drop the diaphragm down and automatically pull into the lungs a deep breath.  This will get more air into the two lower lobes of the lungs.  The two lower lobes of the lungs are highly vascular and will get more oxygen into the cells of the body, which greatly helps decrease stress. It would be like this: In for a count of five hold for a count of five and then breath out for a count of ten.  Do this once or twice and hour and you will be surprised at the change in your life.

This is only a short comment on what you can do to combat stress.  For more information and ideas you can email me at ron@eslinger.net 

A 66-page, extensively footnoted but unsigned article “An Examination 
of Obama’s Use of Hidden Hypnosis Techniques in His Speeches” is 
available at: http://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Find-Freedom.htm?At=039963&From=News

Nursing and Hypnosis – A Perfect Combination
Ron Eslinger, RN, CRNA

In her book, Notes on Nursing, published in 1859, Florence Nightingale said, “Volumes are now written and spoken upon the effect of the mind upon the body.”  She discussed in detail how nurses should help patients vary their thoughts.  Florence Nightingale was more in tune with complementary therapy in 1859 than most nurses and physicians are today.  She spoke at length in her book on the benefits of music, color, aroma, physical activity, fresh air, and exercise.  She understood the power of words and how using hypnosis to help patients change their thoughts helped them heal.

Another nurse, Alice Magaw, a pioneer in nurse anesthesia wrote an article in 1906 titled, A Review of Over Fourteen Thousand Surgical Anesthesias.  When patients were told what to expect and how to respond, the amount of stress was decreased to such an extent that she was able to use only 10% of the normal anesthetic dose.  Still today many anesthesiologists and thousands of nurse anesthetists use hypnosis as a part of their anesthesia.  Most nurse anesthetists who practice hypnosis are taught clinical hypnosis in Oak Ridge by Ron Eslinger.

Blue Shield of California reported in a research study that patients listening to guided imagery and hypnosis CDs prior to surgery saved Blue Shield an average of $2000 for each surgical patient. The patients had less nausea and vomiting, less pain, and recovered faster. Few hospitals even consider something so simple let along trying it.  However hospitals will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for a new piece of equipment on the grounds that the patients will have less pain, get better sooner and go home faster.  Makes you wonder doesn’t it?

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness. Patients entering hospitals, clinics or physician’s offices for procedures are in an altered state, which makes them more susceptible to suggestions by health care workers. No health care worker spends more time with the patient than the nurse; therefore, it makes sense that hypnosis and nursing are a perfect combination.

You probably know someone who was told they had three months to live, or someone with pain being told they would have to endure it. Perhaps you’ve heard of a patient getting an MRI, being told it is dark, loud and scary in there, or when getting an injection being told to hold still, this is going to hurt. There are thousands of small comments that can greatly affect a patient’s response. That response will be either positive or negative.  It is the nurse’s responsibility to know the difference between negative toxic language and therapeutic positive language. 

Conclusion

Every thought we have affects some organ or gland in our body.  Imagine you are eating a lemon and you experience the salivation and the tart tanginess in your parotid gland. In the same way negative thoughts (worry) can make us sick and positive thoughts can make us well.  Florence Nightingale directed nurses to use words to help patients to change their thoughts.  Words are still the most powerful tool a nurse has.

ANGER IS ONLY ONE LETTER SHORT OF DANGER

Ron Eslinger, RN, CRNA, APN, MA, BCH, FNCH

Dr. Phil said, “Anger is nothing more than an outward expression of hurt, fear and frustration.”  Anger is also a natural protective mechanism against danger.  When one is a victim of hurt and frustration anger can turn to rage. Rage is unhealthy and can lead to destructive and violent behavior.  We hear about it everyday. We even gave it a name, “Going Postal.”

A friend I went to school with was married shortly after graduation. Six months later she and her husband were driving home from dinner and while sitting at a traffic light were harassed by some young college students who had been drinking.  Vulgar remarks were made by the young men, and the husband of course fired back with his on insulting words. The boys battled back with more curse words.  The young husband got angrier as he opened the door and his feet touched the pavement. The boys feeling safety in their numbers and seeing the man standing by his car took the jester as a challenge and walked to the car. Another word from a young man as he stood face to face with the husband resulted in a blow to the boy’s stomach rupturing his spleen. He never got up.  He died.  An evening of fun followed by anger, followed by rage turned to a life time of tragedy. Families on both sides were changed forever by their grief and loss.

We are all aware of the anger based tragedies that occurred at Campbell County, Virginia Tec, and Columbine High.  These tragedies create concern in every school system and some schools have implemented programs to prevent and to recognize the symptoms of impending doom. Lake City Middle School (LCMS) Students, Parents and Teachers are embarking on a program through Healthy Visions Wellness Center’s anger management program that offers coping skills and techniques for middle school young men and women to deal with destructive angry behavior.

Colin Powell said “Get mad, then get over it.” Good advice, however, most who get mad, then want to get even.  It is like the story above.  There was a time when saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me” ended the conflict.

LCMS students will learn how to “get over it” by understanding the meaning of anger, why it occurs and how to keep their buttons from being pushed and to stop pushing the buttons of others.  Coping games for recording over old behaviors and developing new conditioned responses is the basic of this four week course.  Change the thought and you change the brain’s chemical response which in turn changes the behavior.

Bruce Lipton a biological researcher discovered that when the brain enters the alpha or theta brain wave frequency, which happens when we fall to sleep, drive or day dream, the thoughts we have at that time can actually record over old behaviors just like recording over a cassette tape.  Lake City Middle School Students, teachers, and parents will learn how to manage anger by treating the brain like the computer it is.  

From: Ron Eslinger, Healthy Visions Wellness Center - www.eslinger.net

PTSD Part 2

Changing the brain:

PTSD is a conditioned obsessive condition that enters into a loop of continued on going triggered responses. The only way to change the response is to record over the perceptions.  The only want to do that is to get the brain into an Alpha or Theta brain wave pattern.  The easiest way to do this is through hypnosis.  However, fear, resistance and lack of compliance to self-hypnosis and self talk with sabotage the process. It is if the brain is addicted to the PTSD responses so I also treat as I would some one addicted to alcohol or drugs. But for a left brained person logical thinking and constantly living in the past takes over.

Today is a brand new day – a day that has never been lived before – it is a brand new canvas that has never been painted and it is your day to live.  The past is done but only when you say so.

Technique for memory change and left right brain interfacing: A type of EMDR

I have client sit up straight in a chair across from me.  His hand are on his/her thighs right on right and left on left.  I ask for permission to tap the back of the hands.  I have them close their eyes and I begin a three minute tapping.

I tap twice a second right, left, right, left so every second I have tapped both the right and the left hands.  Firm but not hard just enough to create a vibration to the thigh.

Once started I ask the client to think about his problem and I am quite for about 15 seconds;  Then I ask the client to clear their mind as much as possible – knowing that no one can completely empty their mind of thoughts but to do so as much as possible.  I am then silent for 10-15 seconds.  Next, I say open your mind to the possibility of a solution.  Don’t look for a solution – just let the thoughts flow through the possible solution will make itself know to you. I say nothing and continue tapping to the end of 3-minutes.

I then have them open their eyes or I let this continue into a hypnotic session.  If I have them open their eyes I will ask them what changes in their life with the solution?  I next say tell me about the solution or possible solution came to you?  If nothing there I will repeat the procedure one more time.  I also teach them to tap on their own thighs as they are going to sleep at night this stimulates right and left brain as they fall asleep and sleeping improves.

If I let the process take them into the hypnotic session then I will give the suggestions of cutting the strings to the past and I may say count backwards to yourself starting at 925 and if you lose count go back to what ever number you thought you were on.  Then I tell them I am going to talk to their subconscious mind and my voice my fade away or go away all together as they are counting back.  I then tell them to continuing counting by subtracting 3 from each number.  Next I begin talking to the subconscious mind autonomic nervous system and the same system that is causing the problem and tell it that the danger is over and it is OK to go back to the normal daily responses it is designed to do.

I then describe what that is by giving the opposite of what the clients PTSDF and anger behaviors are.

I hope this helps – let me know if you want to go moiré in detail.  I think you are probably way ahead of me on this, but I have worked with a lot of PTDD and I about 4-8 session there is a major change.

PTSD

Ron Eslinger

First of all you already know that the basics of PTSD is nothing more than a hyper fight or flight response to stress or perceived stress.  I start with using a guided imagery of eating a lemon.  In doing so I can pin point their most dominant senses.  When they respond with salivation and sometimes pain in the jaw you can point out that just from that though they created a biological and physiological response.  Every thought creates some type of biological response to the body.   The body response to a thought as if it was real because the subconscious mind does not know the difference to what is real or not real. All is real to the subconscious mind. To change the behavior we must first change the thought which changes or rewires the brain which changes the behavior.  To do this means letting go of the past, living in the present letting go of guilt and having forgiveness.

How to do that:

There are different things that trigger these biological responses many are from memories of real or perceived threats and those threats become an imprint on the subconscious and the body goes into fight or flight mode.  It wants to protect us in the same manner as when we see a red traffic and the foot comes off the break and goes to the break with us having to think about it. That is a healthy conditioned response.  When we put our hand out to shake another’s hand and they automatically put their hand out that is another conditioned response.

Part 2 - Tomorrow

Changing the brain:

Question 8

Insomnia

Hi Ron!
      Thank you again for all the info you sent home with us. There’s very little that I have not read through including the computer discs and videos.   The course was the rock to build the foundation on and the materials you sent home are the masonry to build the practice.

      I took your suggestion that we begin hypnotizing within the first five days to heart. I started the same day class ended and have been doing at least one person per day since then. An interesting assortment – several pain mgmt, a chemo due to hepatitis, a radiation,  several depressions, better study habits, and the one I’m concerned about… an insomniac.

      She’s in her mid 30’s, a special ed music teacher who actually did better with the sense of touch than with auditory. She recently went back to work after having her first child, who spent his first 5 weeks in neonatal ICU due to meconium (sp). She was blissfully unaware of just how close they were to losing him until after he was home. She was put on sleeping pills (didn’t help). I’ve had the first session with her and she responded extremely well. I went to her house at 8:00 pm, did the initial interview, suggestibility test  and then had her get ready for bed and did the induction and insomnia
  induction in her bedroom. Instead of the coming up induction I told her she
  would go into a natural sleep and would sleep until she was ready to awaken
  naturally or awaken when she was needed. She slept for six hours – the longest sleep she’d had in two months - and woke only when the baby started crying.

      My concern is that she was diagnosed with sleep apnea four months ago and
  wears a mouth guard. Tomorrow night’s session I’m using the Getting Rid of  Problems technique (backpack on the mtn.) because I know she feels guilty at returning to work and guilty that she was unaware of the seriousness and  she’s not a good mother, wife, etc. I also think there might be some fear there of the apnea.  I made her a tape and stressed throughout that she breathe normally and comfortably, but I wanted to double check that hypnosis is ok for someone with  apnea. Knowing how the hypnosis affects my breathing, I just wanted to make sure I was doing all I could to protect her - particularly since it’s an insomnia. Feedback? Thanks again. Hope all is well with you!
 

Answer 8

Hi Laurel,
WOW! You are doing great.  I am so proud of you. You are right on track with
your insomnia client.  A couple of observations which I think you are
already in line with which is her fear and her guilt.  Number one fear is
not her sleep apnea, but what if she falls asleep and something happens to
the baby which she is already filled with guilt about.  In her mind is the
question what did she do drink, smoke, work, and etc..  It doesn’t matter if
there was any or not she has created it and probably also transferred some
to her husband.So now you can home in on letting the guilt go and assure in and out of
hypnosis that just lime when she drives and her conscious mind keeps her
between the white lines he subconscious mind will also awaken her if her
baby needs her just like it has already done.  That she also now has the
gift of forgiveness for herself and others including her baby and her
husband.  That every day she is becoming more and more a loving wife and
mother and that every day she will do better and better because she now
focuses on the present and future and not the past.  Any guilt associated
with the past have no place in her new responsibilities and relationships.
Just like water that flows by in a stream it will never pass that way again,
it is free of that time and place in its travels.

Every night she rest more comfortably and sleeps more peacefully and
restfully because her subconscious mind is on guard not only to alert her if
the baby has needs, but also to change her sleeping position so that her
breathing through out the night is peaceful and rhythmic bring healing
relaxing oxygen into her lungs.

I think you can add to what I have said just maintain you focus on the
freedom from guilt, that she has more control in a restful sleep than
tossing and turning trying to get to sleep and that because she gets a
restful nights sleep that she is more relaxed and confident with both her
husband and her new baby.

Let me know what happens - you really do not need to go to her house, but it
was a nice touch.  Make her a tape or give her a copy of the freedom form
stress tape to go to sleep with.  Always reinforcing the fact that she will
be alert when she needs to be.

Good luck and thanks for sharing this with me.
Ron
 

Hypnosis is an extension of nursing
 

Michael R. “Ron” Eslinger

RN, CRNA, APN, MA, BCH, CMI, FNCH

Captain United States Navy Retired

Owner, Healthy Visions Hypnosis & Wellness Center, Oak Ridge, Tennessee

www.eslinger.net

Eslinger was awarded researcher of the year 2003, Presenter of the Year 2004 and Educator of the Year 2008 by the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH).  He was nominated by the Navy to represent the Department of Defense to the National Institutes committee on Complementary and Alternative Medicine. He has been a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists since 1975 and Certified in Clinical Hypnosis since 1978. He is a Board Certified Hypnotist and Certified Master Instructor of Hypnosis through NGH. He is owner of Healthy Visions Wellness Center and President of the American Association of Moderate Sedation Nurses (AAMSN). He speaks extensively to National Nursing Associations on the benefits of hypnosis in nursing.

Most hypnotists enjoy empowering others by teaching them to examine how their feelings and thoughts affect their lives. Florence Nightingale in Notes on Nursing 1859 directed nurses to use words to help patients change their thoughts. Nurses are in a perfect position to use words to change thoughts. They can say to patients, as they enter general anesthesia, “You will wake up feeling better than you thought you would - feeling pleasantly hungry.” And when the patient is emerging from anesthesia, they can say, “You should be comfortable; if not let us know.” It makes such a difference that Post Anesthesia Care Unit (PACU) nurses can tell you which anesthesia providers use hypnotic language and which ones do not.

When patients are rolled into PACU or returned to their hospital room, they are asked, “On a scale of 0-10, how bad is your pain, or are you nauseated?” It would have been just as easy and better for the nurse to ask, “On a scale of 0-10; 0 being very comfortable and 10 the most uncomfortable you have ever been; what number are you?” If nurses ask if there is pain, the patient’s interpretation is that there should be pain and they will comply with the nurse’s or suggestion.

The nurse could also say, “It has been a long time since you have eaten. I bet you are hungry.”  A person cannot be nauseated and hungry at the same time.  The brain can only handle one thought at a time. Therefore, the nurse by channeling the patient’s thoughts, also channels the patient’s responses.  Positive channeling of thoughts gives a good response and negative channeling gives a bad response. Keep in mind that the medicines used in anesthesia and conscious sedation are classified as hypnotics, which means  suggestions, made while anesthesia drugs are onboard, are post hypnotic suggestions and can make a world of difference in the patients recovery.

Patients in an altered state of consciousness respond to words as hypnotic suggestions.  An example is a 34-year old lady referred for hypnosis with a two-year history of painful chronic cystitis, post-abdominal hysterectomy. She woke up in the PACU two years earlier, screaming in pain.  The treatment plan was to admit her for three days of drug detoxification followed with hypnosis.  The first session would be followed in three days by the second while she was still in the hospital. She would then be discharged from the hospital with follow up sessions at one week intervals as needed. She emerged from her first session asking, “Why didn’t they send me to you two years ago? My pain is gone!”

One session and the pain was gone.  During a later hypnosis session, the patient was asked if she was willing to uncover the cause of the pain.  She stated she was and during the session she learned that while her surgeon was dissecting the uterus from the bladder, she had heard someone say.  “This will be one hurting bladder when she wakes up!” She had no conscious memory of those words but her subconscious heard and did what it was told to do and she hurt for two years.  She had only four sessions of hypnosis and many years have passed and the pain has not returned.

·        Hundred’s of nurses use hypnosis to work with patients in:

o       Pediatrics – children are the easiest to hypnotize

o       Surgery for faster recovery with less N/V and pain

o       Diabetes to enhance compliance

o       Dermatology to lessen skin reactions

o       Gastroenterology to decrease IBS by 90%

o       Burn units to decrease pain and to increase the immune system

o       HIV and AIDS counseling

o       Wellness such as smoking cessation, stress, and weight management

o       Insomnia to enhance sleep

o       Childbirth (Below)

o       Pain (Below)

o       Cancer survival “I can-cer-vive” groups (below)

·        Work with patients in oncology using hypnosis to:

o       Create time distortion making chemotherapy seem much faster

o       Help patients have less N/V and hair loss when using chemotherapy

o       Make IV insertion easier and more comfortable.

o       Help maintain the function of the immune system, decreasing possible opportunistic infections.

Conclusion

Every thought we have affects some organ or gland in our body.  Imagine you are eating a lemon and you experience the salivation and the tart tanginess in your parotid gland. In the same way negative thoughts (worry) can make us sick and positive thoughts can make us well.  Florence Nightingale directed nurses to use words to help patients change their thoughts.  Words are still the most powerful tool a nurse has.

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as there are no changes to the text and if published electronically, all URL’s or Mailto addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author’s Resource Box are set as Hyperlinks (clickable links). You may serialize long articles if you prefer (breaking it into a part 1 and 2 and publish it in two issues).A notice, courtesy copy of newsletter or URL emailed to ron@eslinger.net is appreciated.

Change your Mind - Change Your Brain - Change your Behavior

Ron Eslinger, Healthy Visions Wellness Center

www.eslinger.net

How can our beliefs change our behaviors?

Bruce Lipton, Ph.D. professor at Wisconsin University and Stanford University Schools of Medicine pioneered stem cell research in the 1960’s.  His research asserts living beings are not machines run by biochemicals and DNA. In his book Biology of Belief he states; “What we now know is that our entire biology is shaped by the intelligence of each of our fifty trillion cells.  And the single most important way to influence them is through the energy of our beliefs.”

With this in mind we must explore our own thoughts and how they shape who we are and who we become.  What we know from his research is that we were programmed starting five months before we were born by the energy of our parent’s thoughts and our surroundings.  The stresses, the happiness the fears and the worries they had were programmed into us.  We continued to be affected by outside environmental signals until the age of six and continuing to a lesser degree until the age of nine.  So in actuality we are today in attitude and personality what we learned before birth and until the age of nine.  We were programmed like computers or recorded on like a cassette tape so that we just keep playing the same programs over and over.  Unless we change the recording, we can not change the behavior.

For example, you may have a fear of snakes because one or both of your parents was afraid of snakes. Imagine yourself as a child with a parent playing in the back yard. Now imagine seeing a snake in the grass. Your parent screams “Snake!” The parent grabs your hand and jerks you into the house.  You were just taught that snakes are something to be feared.  However, when your parent sees the snake and says “look there is a snake in the yard” and explains that some snakes are harmless and that others are dangerous, perhaps you would have a respect for snakes but not associate them with fear.

The most amazing thing discovered by Dr. Lipton is that any behavior we have acquired in the computer brain or cassette tape of the mind can be re-recorded or “written over”.  However, the only way that can be achieved is while someone is in the Alpha or Theta brain-wave frequency; which is actually the frequency we are in all the time until the age of six and Alpha until the age of around nine. Therefore, if we can only record over behaviors in the Alpha or Theta Brain wave frequency, how do we do it?

Simple - either by meditating or practicing self-hypnosis. Both involve Alpha and Theta brain wave states.  Therefore, if you allow yourself to see new possibilities while in a hypnotic state you begin to change or rewire the brain.  When you rewire the brain, the chemicals produced by the brain send new messages to the cells which change the cells response which changes the behavior.  The reason most people have trouble making the changes they want is because they live as if today were yesterday. They continue to carry around the baggage from the past.  When I teach people how to use self-hypnosis I instruct them to “see yourself, not as you are, but as you want to be…, as if you have already achieved your goal and imagine it in a realistic and believable manner.” 

You can make changes in your life by changing your thoughts. Your thoughts change your brain activity. When your brain activity changes, so does the behavior.   

Hypnosis can help. Chronic pain, smoking, and over eating are all results of behavior that can be changed. If you’re ready for change, please learn more about hypnosis - visit www.eslinger.net.

About the Author: Michael R. “Ron” Eslinger, Captain,  U.S. Navy, Retired is a Board Certified Hypnotherapist, Advanced Practice Nurse, Certified Master Hypnotherapy Instructor, Fellow the National Council for Hypnotherapy (United Kingdom) and Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. He has served as Chief Nurse Anesthetist, Assistant Department Head for Administration Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Portsmouth, VA. and is the Past President, Virginia Association of Nurse Anesthetists. He is Owner/Director of Healthy Visions Wellness Center in Oak Ridge, TN USA. For more information regarding hypnosis as an adjunct therapy, Ron Eslinger can be reached at The Healthy Visions Wellness Center.  Email ron@eslinger.net or go online to http://www.eslinger.net  for more information.