Artwork credit to: Clara NathanMind Hijack
Conscious thought is regularly hijacked by associations that capture the mind and hold it hostage in the past. While in the process of thinking we automatically find our thoughts pulled to past events or imagined future results. Thoughts that provoke fear and anger always lead us back to the past while worry and anxiety keep us stuck in the future. We spend most of our waking day in the past or the future remembering what has already happened and no longer exists or expecting something to happen that has not yet occurred. As a result, the time we spend fully in the present moment is minimal and this is the main reason why we are unable to correct this debilitating condition and heal ourselves without the assistance of a psychotherapist.
Action is Unconsciously Motivated
Imagine you are an observer watching a woman walking on the pavement. She was bitten by a dog when she was a child but you are not aware of this. You see her cross the street as she is approached by a dog and its owner.
Unless you knew that the woman had been bitten by a dog when she was a child you probably wouldn’t think anything more of her action to cross the road. As an observer you can only observe her action but not the thinking behind the reason why she crossed the road. I say the thinking behind the cause of her action because it is, strictly speaking, not her thinking that caused her to cross the road but her feelings and emotions. Let me explain … the sight of the dog transports the woman back in time to the incident when she was bitten by the dog as a child. She is not consciously aware of this regression because it has become an unconscious association and all she is consciously aware of are the emotions associated with the experience of being bitten. It is these feelings from the past that cause her to cross the road. She crosses the road to avoid a dog that is probably long since dead and more importantly escape the uncomfortable feelings she has buried and wants kept buried. To an observer who knows her past it would appear that she is only avoiding the dog.
Subconscious Strategies to Avoid Pain
We do things to seek pleasure and avoid pain, physical and emotional and this is one of the reasons why people drink excessively and over eat. Someone who drinks alcohol excessively or over eats has learned to use these actions as strategies to avoid uncomfortable feelings but strategies do not solve the problem they help manage the problem that never goes away.
Repression
The buried feelings I refer to in this article are the feelings felt at the the time a person experiences a trauma such as a dog bite and are called repressions. If you think back to your childhood you can remember a number of incidents that traumatised you but more difficult to consciously recollect are the feelings associated with the incident. The reason for this is that they have been filed in the subconscious and are then triggered every time it looks like you are about to experience a similar incident. This all happens below the level of your conscious awareness so you have no conscious control over your spontaneous reaction.
Hypnotised by Trauma
When a repression is triggered our conscious analytical or thinking mind is suspended and we become hypnotised. We are unable to think and our mind is in fact captured by an event that happened in the past and we are stuck there while the old video plays out below the level of our conscious awareness. It is only after the video of the past event has played out that we regain access to our conscious thinking mind but until then we are at the mercy of our repressions. We often wonder later why we were unable to think straight or take more effective action in a particular situation and many never realise that they are not in control during those times.
Hypno-Psychotherapy to Address the Emotional Root Cause
In Hypno-Psychotherapy, which is the therapy we provide at Setanta Hypnotherapy Clinic in Peel, Isle of Man, the client is given the opportunity to uncover the repressions that are responsible for their condition and ultimately release these repressions in a safe environment. Repression release results in spontaneous healing as the mind reclaims its thinking space and power to make conscious decisions in ways no longer determined by events in the past.
Video by Xavier and Mary Nathan Explaining Hypno-Analysis
To learn more about the subject of this article you might like to read the following articles:
Addressing the Emotional Root Cause of a Condition with Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy
Using Hypnosis to Regain Your Freedom From the Past
