Hypnotised

In my continuing quest for self-improvement, I recently underwent a session of hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy means being put in a mental state such that you are conducive to subconscious suggestion-hypnosis. As applied to trading I can see the benefits if you have issues with hesitation, adding to losing trades, not setting stops, selling winners too early, not taking profits, the whole gamut of trading mistakes and counter productive thoughts.

I signed up for an initial three-hour session but didn’t leave his office until five hours later. It was one of the most profound and enlightening/interesting experiences of my life.

I wanted to explore and connect my conscious and subconscious minds. To make them stronger, to set my trading plan and philosophy in stone in both minds. To utilize my skills to the highest degree possible. I’ve tried to do this on my own but wasn’t satisfied so I looked for outside assistance to show me how.

A few days before I had sent him my affirmations and suggestions for areas of improvement so to start the session we discussed what I wanted out of it and where I wanted to go based on that. The hypnotherapist is only the facilitator in the journey to connect to your subconscious mind. You are in control and awake the entire time but in a zone of complete relaxation. The process of suggestions, connections, realizations made is a two way street of question and answer between the two of you.

To start, I reclined in a comfortable chair, legs slightly elevated, not lying down but not sitting either. More like a La-z-boy position. There was relaxing music playing discreetly in the background which is important. I said I listened to music while trading to occupy that sense and give the mind something to focus on, keeping wayward thoughts out. He summed it up by saying that since trading doesn’t involve taste, touch or smell, what I am effectively doing when listening to repetitious music and taking that sense to the sidelines is to focus my mind on the remaining sense- which is sight. It’s an example of the little things contributing to 100% focus.

So I’m sitting there and he says close your eyes and take a deep breath, let your body relax from the top of my head down to my toes, relax your eyelids. Exhale. Take another deep breath. Relax your eyelids. Feel the tension flow out of your body. Relax your eyelids twice as deep as before. Let the waves roll over you. Relax your eyelids twice as deep again. He repeated this perhaps 6 or 7 times. By this time my eyes were fully relaxed. My arms and legs were possibly not attached to my body any longer but nonetheless felt heavy as solid rock. This feeling would last the entire session. Sometimes I felt as if I could move them if I wanted to, but I didn’t really want to move them as if moving them would lessen my experience somehow. So I stayed in the same position for three hours without moving a muscle.

At this same time, I crossed into my subconscious while awake. I don’t know if I can adequately describe the sensation. It is like being in the zone only much, much more intense. No worries, no distractions. One mind. One thought. Absolute clarity. A monitor in your minds eye where ideas and instructions are seen and explored. Like some kind of pure thought energy. Very powerful yet inline with your ideals. A connection to your core. Also a feeling of like, “Hello, you’re here!. I’ve known you for a long time but we’ve never met before. I’m happy to see you here.” A very strange yet peaceful, joyous occasion if that makes any sense.

So we started with why I trade, how I trade, what I believe in, how I work my system, reinforcing the positives, exploring the negatives, self confidence, self image, always reinforcing the positive aspects. Goals. Question and answer. Refinement of the questions. Realizations. Cementing the realationship between the two minds. Securing a cooperative working environment.

He said that the subconscious mind will do what it is instructed to do and believes. It’s just like your autonomic body functions. Your heart beats, your lungs breathe. Instructions to your subconscious at this level won’t let you be any other way.

This is the place I have been wanting to arrive at with my affirmations, my visualizations, my practice and study. It all seems so very clear. If I thought I was there before, it is nothing compared to what I know now. That’s what learning is all about.

I would recommend this to anyone. Not just for overcoming problems and obstacles but also for the positive reinforcement and attitude that gets imparted to you sometimes in a most unexpected way.

For example early on in examining why I trade, the line of questioning took me to that I hate authority and anyone telling me what to do. It’s why I have always been an entrepreneur and been in businesses for myself. I do individual sports like motocross racing and skiing as opposed to team sports. Regressing back in time we came upon a place in my memory when I was about 5 years old. I had gone back into school after it closed perhaps to do some sort of mischief or just to get somewhere I am not sure of the why. Anyway I was caught and yelled at very strongly and at that very moment 40+ years ago I remember thinking to myself that this event will affect me for the rest of my life. As the hypnotherapist asked me to describe the surroundings I was taken back to that moment. It was in a long corridor, it was darkened but had a bright light at the end, the floor was shiny, there were lockers and lots of green doors with brass doorknobs. He asked how I felt at that moment. Fear, shame, guilt, anger, hurt. How did I feel about these new emotions. “I’m scared. I’m sorry. I don’t like it. I don’t like someone telling me what to do.” He introduced the adult me into the picture. What would I say to the child me? “It’s OK, I’m here for you, I will help you , I will protect you”. What would the child say? “I’m sorry, I wasn’t doing anything wrong”

There was numerous bounces back and forth between what the child me or adult me point of view would say. Cumulating when the adult me said “ Look at me now. I’m big and strong and successful. You turned out OK. Everything is going to be alright. It’s over now.” The child me, said “Thank you” and was raised up in my arms and we walked out of that hallway, out of that situation and into bright sunlight. In the end I wept and blubbered uncontrollably to a complete stranger I had met only an hour before over my innermost thoughts I’d never revealed to anyone prior to that. Potent stuff.

In examining the trading plan and edge, bouncing back and forth between my determined, confident side and fearful side, examining stops, losing trades, wrong decisions, illuminating the reasons and neutralizing the negatives, accentuating the positive by making both sides realize the others need and work together to fulfill my ultimate trading goals. I have changed that tagline on the FNG header to reflect this. Manage your emotions instead of eliminate emotions.

As I delve deeper into the power of the mind I am constantly amazed by how much your attitude controls your success or failure. A positive attitude unencumbered by sabotaging thoughts can lead you to wherever to desire to go. You become what you think about most. Let those thoughts be totally inline with your subconscious thoughts and there will be no stopping you.