Stop hypnotizing yourself towards your failure! The word and concept of ‘Hypnotism’ has an eerie emotion attached to itself, that is what we have been fed throughout our lives, through stories, cinema, and generic conversations. However, various psychologists have been conducting research and practicing hypnosis for treatment purposes all around the world for decades altogether. The concept of hypnotism needs to be looked at with a different angle altogether in order to use it for our benefit. If I say, you hypnotize yourself with every single serious thought of yours, will you believe me? It is the truth, our thoughts have the capability to hypnotize ourselves. How?

Let’s know more about this below.

Thought governs your mind, your life. You all must have heard about ‘induced trance’. Trance can be induced via various external agents, however, thoughts can induce trance as well. A high or a happy state of life induces a happy trance and a low life state, extreme negative thoughts can induce a negative or a consuming trance-like state. Hypnosis involves induction of trance which leads you towards one direction, makes you act in one way or another.

While through happy thoughts and motivation, you hypnotize yourself to have a positive outlook towards life and hence are encouraged to face every challenge with confidence, negative thoughts, and fear can hypnotize your mind into believing in lies, and you eventually lose faith in yourself.

I’m sure you all must have come across the ‘Pavlov’s dog theory’, the theory which talks about training your dog at the sound of a bell to have its meal.  Your mind is that dog, and your thoughts have the capability to train it. Let me share with you an incident to explain the effects of self-hypnosis:

As a child in school, we were supposed to assemble for morning prayers and announcements in our school ground. One day, one of my friends felt uneasy and nauseous in the assembly; she fell down unconscious. She went to visit a doctor and she was told that she fell unconscious because of suffocation and that her nausea was a result of an upset stomach. However, she became so scared after this incident, that she began to avoid the assemblies out of fear. The picture was set in her mind, she had connected crowd to suffocation, and further to dizziness. Her fear had consumed her in a psychological trap so badly that she actually felt dizzy every single time she stood in the assembly, or joined a crowd. Despite being healthy in her body, she had infected her mind and hypnotized herself into believing that she will fall or feel suffocated in crowded places.   Her repeated failure was a direct result of self-hypnosis.

It’s almost like you being scared and extra-conscious of falling in a pit, and you end up falling right into it. You attract your thoughts and your fear, and hence become psychological slaves to those thoughts. However, one needs to realise that self-hypnosis can also be done for good, for changing the course of your life in a positive direction. How? Let me tell you:

• Change the stories you tell yourself and to others!

Have you ever noticed that if you tell a lie repeatedly, with conviction, you start believing it to be true, and eventually you end up turning it into reality. Why does that happen? Because you give energy to a thought by repeating it in your mind, or through your words. Changing your story, your words, is extremely important to change the course of your life. Tell yourself, that you’re capable of overcoming any challenge and achieving success, start believing in the same and you eventually will. Everyday you wake up to a positive thought, you will automatically act in the direction of bringing it into reality!

• Ask yourself, are you believing too much and too quickly?

Every time you realise that you’re dwelling on a negative thought, check yourself, have you been believing too much on what others or what the social media has fed you? Social media in today’s date is one of the biggest hypnotizers of the mind. Fact check everything, before you place your belief. Be careful with every thought you’re letting in your conscience.

• Begin training yourself, today!

Instead of letting your negative beliefs train your mind to act in a negative direction, make conscious efforts to train your mind in the other direction. Imagine the scenario you fear, face your fears head on, and imagine utmost success for yourself in that event. Imagine it repeatedly, every day. Believe in your success like there are no two ways about it. This is exactly the story you will create for yourself. This is how you train your mind to act in a particular manner, for your benefit!

• Meditate to de-clutter your mind!

In order to use self-hypnosis for your benefit, the mind needs to be free of complexities and doubts. If you’re unable to think straight, it becomes difficult for your mind to focus and it begins dwelling in confusion. Remove confusion, and meditate in order to get clarity of thought.

In the current global lockdown-like situation, the fear of coronavirus has consumed numerous minds and people are unable to fight against the negativities that surround them. Be conscious not to self-hypnotize yourself, or to create your own problems. Realise the opportunities that come your way. Train your mind to succeed, instead!

Stay Motivated, Happy and Stress-Free!

Stop letting greed take over your need! The world is currently battling the coronavirus pandemic and struggling to devise ways to counter the downfall of global economy. This is an unusual and challenging time for all of us. While most of us are being able to spend the days in lockdown with sufficient food and essential supplies, there are thousands of people struggling to find essential items for survival. Stores are facing a sudden supply crunch and are unable to deliver items to the population in need.

Let me ask you, did the news of lockdown push you toward a state of panic and fear? As a result, did you, like many others, end up panic-buying items in quantities way beyond necessary? Do you remember hoarding your carts and spending thousands on grocery without giving much thought about your actual “need”? If your answers have been “yes” to all the questions above, let me tell you, you’ve become a victim of greed.

“There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

How is Need different from Greed? Let me make the difference clear for you:

The root of Greed is “Fear” and the root of Need is “Survival”. When we act from survival instincts, our needs are legitimate and are fulfilled. But when our survival needs are fulfilled, we start having the fear of losing them. This triggers the greed in us and we end up wanting more of what we already have. The more we have, more we want. We even start comparing these things with others, we start indulging in a competition with them in our minds and this creates “Jealousy”.

Greed makes us selfish and self-centred. We no longer remain compassionate and loving. We become hard hearted and cold. In short, we no longer remain human beings, we begin developing an animal instinct. We stop helping others.

Do you remember the news about the people who bought thousands of toilet paper rolls, some to make use of them amidst the lockdown, and others to sell those for greater prices? These people acted out of fear and greed. Let me tell you a story to explain this further. A man, George and his friend Michael wished for a huge house, an expensive car and a bungalow as teenagers. Eventually, George grew to become a businessman, and his business flourished in a short period of time. Michael on the other hand joined a firm in service, however, enjoyed his job. As success came George’s way, he started spending more and more time with affluent people, and began comparing his life with theirs. Michael started noticing a difference in the behavior of his friend, who had started being rude owing to the constant stress he felt. With every little success, George wanted more, and pined until he achieved it. Michael, however, was content with what he had. Eventually, Michael realised that his friend isn’t really happy in his life, and that at every point of time, he feels someone else is better than him. He was never really content with the money he had earned, since he had become a victim of greed.

Let me ask you, what do you think leads us towards greed? Especially in difficult times such as these, what are the reasons we, as a part of our society, act through greed? These challenging times have unfortunately been able to reveal the most frightening faces of the human race. Why is everyone around the world acting in such a greedy manner? People have been hoarding toilet papers, hand sanitizer bottles etc. out of panic. Why? Let me tell you the factors which lead people to act this way:

Thanks to technology (which is a boon in our times), all sort of negative news and rumours reach in our living rooms. Instead of keeping news at a level of information and analysing them with our intellect, we start getting influenced by them. Unfortunately, negativity attracts our attention and our mind starts getting subsumed by fear. Fear in turn infects our mind  & we start believing in everything that goes around, succumbing to distrust. Panic-buying, which is the most common scenario these days, is a result of extreme fear and lack of unity in the society.

Every problem has become a business in the modern world, which has ultimately led to greed in the affluent, and scarcity in those in need. 

What happens when Greed takes over your Need?

The moment you let greed take over your need, the universe finds a way to balance the imbalance created due to your actions. Greed blinds you and keeps you from your real goals and ambitions which can take you towards success in life. As the fear of the pandemic spreads around the world, let us all learn to act a responsible citizens and act sensibly. Through unity and compassion, we can win over this pandemic together! Before buying anything in bulk, or strongly acting towards your desires, ask yourself, “Do you really need this? Can you lead a happy life without this? Will the others suffer if you do this?” If your actions might disturb the universal balance, if you’re wishing for something out of jealousy, you’re letting greed overpower you.

Stand with the fellow human beings in this time of crisis! Stay healthy and happy!