I don’t know whether you recall a particular Charlie Brown cartoon. For some reason, Charlie has to walk up onto a stage (if you can recall why, please let me know). Anyway, he becomes terribly self-conscious and finds that suddenly he’s very aware of how he’s walking! He slows right down and is practically dragging his feet – like in slow motion – in front of the crowd. We laugh at this scene because we recognise a universal truth in poor Charlie Brown’s experience.
Stop being so conscious!We human types are supposed to have some sense of how we present to other people. This allows us to be sociable, considerate and… well, not too selfish and obnoxious. The dawning of self-consciousness in humans would have been one of the precipitating factors that led to the evolution of ‘civilisation’. We need to have some awareness of how we must (or might) seem to others. This is a tool to be used by us – but it’s not so good to use against ourselves.
We human types are supposed to have some sense of how we present to other people. This allows us to be sociable, considerate and… well, not selfish and obnoxious. The dawning of self-consciousness in humans would have been one of the precipitating factors that led to the evolution of ‘civilisation’. We need to have some awareness of how we must (or might) seem to others. This is a tool to be used by us – but it’s not so good to use against ourselves. Because when we become too consciously aware of processes which are normally (and best left to) the province of the unconscious ‘automatic’ mind, then that self-consciousness often disrupts the very process itself.
Take having a conversation. If we are trying too hard to impress our listeners, our words may begin to stumble as we focus too much conscious attention on what and how we are saying things. The communication promptly becomes stilted. We don’t want to rant either (see our nervous talking download for help with that), but we need to relax and ‘forget ourselves’ enough to flow. This is trusting your unconscious.
Too anxious to perform
Performance anxiety is all about the self-consciousness which hijacks ‘going with the flow’. This can happen, for example, in sexual relations, or during sports performance (And you can stop sniggering at the back! I know the two can be connected. Stop distracting me!). Musicians, actors, surgeons, lovers and would-be public presenters have all told me how self-consciousness has interfered with their ability to be the best they can be when they feel that others are watching and judging them.
The key to overcoming self consciousness
In order to relax, we need to focus on some things and forget about others. If I am playing the guitar, I need to ‘forget’ about you listening and instead flow with the activity of plucking the strings. If I am speaking to an audience, I need to ‘forget’ in large part what you might be thinking about me and just focus on the material I am presenting. I can remember you up to a point, but this should never outweigh how much I focus on what I am actually doing.
Hypnosis and self consciousness
Hypnosis is a great way to encourage the mind to remember some things while forgetting others. Using hypnosis well, we can sometimes even get people to completely forget about their physical pain, for instance, and focus on or ‘remember’ feelings of comfort or healing instead.
Charlie Brown needed to forget about all the people watching him and focus instead on receiving his award (yes, I think that’s what he was doing there). The new self-consciousness hypnotic download session from Hypnosisdownloads.com will, I hope, help all of us who have ever felt like Charlie Brown and would rather not.
Cheers for now.
Mark
