I used to write this section in our monthly Inspired Minds newsletter, but we figured it would be easier to read online, and all our blog subscribers would enjoy reading it too. At least I hope you do Read October’s Inspired Minds newsletter here.

Mark

Getting dead good with deadlines

Deadlines are funny things. We depend on them, resent them, respect and defy them. We don’t just measure the success of projects by them but also the dependability, professionalism and integrity of people. Some people are terrible with deadlines. They procrastinate, make excuses, beg for extensions or just plain ignore them completely. But being true to important deadlines (inasmuch as this is humanly possible) is also a way of being true to yourself as well as others. And becoming better at delivering on time can make people more honorable, trusted and respected, and even lift self-esteem.

This month’s new session meet deadlines focuses not just on meeting externally imposed deadlines but becoming more effective and fulfilled by meeting your own internally imposed deadlines, regardless of whether other people even know about them.

Are family gatherings doomed to be ghastly occasions?

Looming social occasions can feel a bit like impending (and not always entirely welcome) deadlines, and some folk find it a real struggle to enjoy family gatherings. Another new session seeks to change those unhelpful ‘automatic’ responses to relatives, even if they’ve been in place for years. You know: the button pushing, the aggravation because Aunt Mabel has given you ‘that look’, the resentments, the bad memories from past family gatherings which you just ‘can’t forget’ and which threaten to wreck the whole event, the whole shebang…

Once the deeds and words (ill-intentioned or not) of your ‘nearest and dearest’ stop automatically pressing your emotional buttons, you have more psychological independence in life generally. After all, families are meant to be enjoyed rather than just suffered! And, of course, some people feel guilty about their own attitudes or past actions toward members of their family and need to get past this.

Coming to terms with the past and facing the future with no regrets

The no regrets session would seem indicated for that last group, but in fact it encompasses more than just getting past guilty feelings. We can use up so much valuable time in the present agonizing over missed opportunities for love or career, a missed financial deal, a cruel word to someone now deceased, a failed relationship, or self blame over something that led to injury or even death but which was, in reality, an accident. But somehow we all have to find a way to ‘move on’.

We all need to take responsibility and learn from our mistakes, and regrets help us to do this, so they need to be there for a while, until they have served their purpose. But then they need to fade so that we can live better lives for ourselves and others in the future. As someone once said: “Don’t look back unless you intend to go backwards!”

Mark’s Tip for the Top

Meet deadlines – it just has to be! I remember when I didn’t work to time deadlines and you know what? Nothing got done. Years ago I actually felt like I didn’t need them. I told myself that if anything was really important, I’d be bound to ‘get round to it’! Setting – and keeping – deadlines has, in the words of the overused sales line, ‘changed my life’. It’s the sole reason you are reading this now.

Podcast: Download (2.2MB)

Full hypnosis download Keep weight off

Weight loss is one thing, but keeping it off is quite another. It’s a cliché, isn’t it? Someone loses a load of weight, feels fantastic and everybody tells them how amazing they are – but then you see them a little while later and you’re shocked to see they’ve put it all back again!

Actually, it’s not weight loss that overweight people need to think about, it’s fat loss.

If someone has been chronically sweating (due to over-exercise) and starving themselves, their metabolism will switch into ‘famine mode’. Most of what they’ll lose is fluid and muscle density, because when you chronically restrict calorie intake, metabolism slows right down and the body actually gets better at clinging onto – and creating more – fat cells. This is why people often bounce back fatter than when they first started losing weight.

There’s also a psychological element to this, of course. People can get a ‘high’ (not surprisingly) from the positive attention they get from others when they first lose weight. But as people become more accustomed to the ‘new you’, all that fades away. Without the ‘fuel’ of positive reinforcement from others, the old bad eating and inactivity habits may rear up again.

The new Keep weight off download created specifically for hypnosisdownloads.com is designed to create sensible fat reducing (not muscle or water reducing) habits of eating. The idea is to create a sense of real and easy healthy sustainability – because it certainly is possible to be happy, content, relaxed and slimmer.

All the best

Mark

Podcast: Download (1.8MB)

Full hypnosis download No regrets

Regrets… I’ve had a few
But then again… too few to mention…

The words of the famous song remind us that anyone who has had any kind of a life can look back and see mistakes, wrong decisions and missed opportunities. But for some people regret over past events becomes all consuming and prevents them moving on with their lives, enjoying the moment or even planning for the future. Many depressed clients I work with are so consumed with regret that it’s almost as if their lives have come to a complete stop at the point in time they’re obsessing over.

Yes, we need to learn from our past mistakes to avoid future mistakes if possible but regret (like feelings of guilt) tends to just sit there inside you, not serving any useful purpose at all.

“If only I had/hadn’t done that!” Beating ourselves up for past failings leads nowhere and self punishment needs to have an end lest we end up regretting the time we wasted regretting.

Some people feel terrible regret that what they did (or didn’t do) led to tragedy, or to the break up of a special relationship, or some other awful consequence, but whatever mistakes we’ve made, at some point we need to stop paying the price and re-engage fully with life.

This new hypnosisdownloads.com session No regrets seeks to help people do just that.

Mark