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Discarding Dumbo's Feather - Banishing Anxiety by Taking Action · The Hypnotist

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  Welcome to The Hypnotist, the show that gives you inside
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  access to cutting edge hypnosis with real clients facing
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  genuine. Issues.
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  Brought to you by The Hypnotherapist, demanded by
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  celebrities, CEOs and even royalty, Adam Cox.
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  These recordings took place live from Adam's clinic in London's
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  world famous Harley Street. So get yourself comfortable and
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  enjoy today's episode of The Hypnotist.
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  Hi, it's Adam here. This is a session all about
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  discarding the beliefs that would lead to anxiety.
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  I was working with a client that would get quite anxious when
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  they were doing presentations, public speaking or even just
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  important meetings. And it came from a previous
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  traumatic event where they had a panic attack in those kind of
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  situations. And from that point onwards, the
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  brain was on high alert to warn them against that horrible
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  feeling in certain situations. And it wasn't based on their
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  capabilities. They were clearly a capable
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  communicator, even a capable presenter.
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  It's just that they had certain beliefs or fears of what if I
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  get anxious in that situation? And what this client was using
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  was a form of anxiety medication called a beta blocker.
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  And what they found is that they would take that before certain
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  situations and it would help. But here's the interesting
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  thing. They had no idea whether it was
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  the medication that was helping or the belief that the
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  medication would help but actually made them feel more
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  resourceful in that situation. And I call this Dumbo's feather.
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  And it comes from a Disney film from many, many years ago, I
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  think in the 1940s or 1950's, the story of Dumbo, this
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  elephant with big ears that can fly.
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  But if you remember that movie, Dumbo has a black feather, a
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  feather given to him by a crow. And Dumbo starts to believe that
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  it's the magic feather that enables him to fly rather than
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  his huge ears. Now, Dumbo's feather for me is
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  essentially the placebo effect, the belief that something will
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  work, then makes it work. But in the movie of Dumbo, he's
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  in this circus, in this very, very high ladder and he loses
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  the feather while he's halfway down and before he crashes into
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  the floor of the of the circus, he then trusts his own
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  resources, his own capabilities, and then can fly without the
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  feather. Now for this particular client,
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  it was my belief that they clearly had the resources and
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  the capability to not need anti anxiety medication, but they
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  needed evidence to prove that that was true.
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  So this idea of doing the thing and not needing the medication
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  would be what's called a convincer strategy to give them
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  irrefutable evidence that they didn't need it.
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  And once they don't need it, then the evaluation says I can
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  handle this and then that becomes a new self fulfilling
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  prophecy. So I want you to think of
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  something that you are anxious about and maybe you do something
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  to give you some kind of a help. I used to have social anxiety
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  and I would drink alcohol and that was Dumbo's Feather for me.
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  I believed that if I had alcohol then that would give me the
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  social confidence I needed in certain situations.
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  It was never true, but I believed it to be true and
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  because then I would drink that felt like I then needed it.
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  And there is a real danger that these things that you believe
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  can help instead of helping become a crutch that you become
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  dependent on. So think of something in your
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  life that you feel that you need some help or you struggle to do
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  that. And then this hypnosis is all
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  about instilling the kind of self belief for you to just do
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  that thing without any additional resources at all.
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  And once you do that a few times, it becomes impossible.
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  To go back and feel. Like you need that additional
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  help because you've got irrefutable evidence that you
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  don't. And that becomes a self
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  fulfilling. Prophecy again, because
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  experience is the best. Reference to.
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  Back up a belief system if you like the idea of having a
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  customized or bespoke session specific to your needs.
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  There will be a link in the description where you can
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  schedule a completely free consultation call.
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  Or you can check out my website, adamcox.co.uk.
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  Book the free consultation call there for now, though, you might
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  get some real value from this session.
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  Find a quiet, comfortable place, the kind of place where you're
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  not going to be interrupted or distracted.
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  Relax and. Enjoy the session.
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  Take a deep breath in, and as you breathe in, breathe in.
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  That's long, long, relaxing breath of relaxation.
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  And as you exhale, just feel a wonderful sense of release, as
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  if any tension, stress, and worries are leaving your body as
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  you exhale. And as you exhale, continue the
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  outward breath for longer than you normally would.
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  And then when you breathe in, breathe in for deeper.
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  And the deeper you breathe, the more resourceful you feel.
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  And the longer you breathe out, the more stress, worry or
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  tension it starts to leave your body, each breathtaking you
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  deeper and deeper, relaxed. That's it.
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  And I want you to use the power of your imagination to imagine a
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  futuristic room. And the room has a large screen,
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  almost like a private cinema, and on a table nearby there is
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  something that looks like a futuristic virtual reality
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  headset. But I want you to imagine
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  looking at the screen first and seeing you in your past when you
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  were confident, resourceful, and relaxed.
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  Even if you were communicating to a big audience, even if you
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  were being evaluated, even if people were assessing what you
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  were doing, that version of you from your past was absolutely
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  fine, perhaps even enjoyed it. I want you to imagine mimicking
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  the breathing, the facial expressions of that version of
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  you. And I want you to imagine
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  thinking what you thought back then, what evaluations you were
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  making when you did whatever that thing was.
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  Maybe evaluations like I'll be fine, I can handle this, this is
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  easy for me, no big deal. And just notice that the
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  evaluations back then were two things that you had the
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  capabilities, you knew enough or had prepared enough.
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  And secondly, it was a low stakes environment.
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  Nothing to worry about because it's no big deal.
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  I want you to get a sense that there are three ingredients to
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  either increase or decrease anxiety.
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  The first ingredient is evaluating how capable you are.
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  You say to yourself, I don't know what I'm doing.
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  Anxiety may go up. You tell yourself you've done
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  this many times before. Anxiety goes down.
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  The second ingredient is the stakes.
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  You tell yourself this will be humiliating, embarrassing,
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  devastating for my career. Anxiety will go up.
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  You make evaluations that it's just a talk, just a
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  presentation. People are more interested in
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  themselves than they are in me. This is no big deal.
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  Anxiety goes down, and I wonder if your brain could treat it
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  like a game. A game of evaluating that you
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  have the skills, resources and preparation required and that
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  it's no big deal anyway. That in the big scheme of
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  things, in a world of wars, famine, geopolitics and
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  scandals, this thing is tiny. And if your unconscious believes
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  that you have that ability to assess accurately your
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  capabilities and assess accurately the importance of
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  this thing, let me know if I'm nodding your head.
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  That's it. And the third ingredient is just
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  your Physiology, how you breathe, how relaxed you are.
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  I want you to get a feeling that all you need to do to calm your
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  nervous system down is 3 or 4 long outward breaths.
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  It activates that parasympathetic nervous system,
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  the part of you that rests and digests, the part that helps you
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  drift off into sleep. People don't realize that when
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  they're anxious, they breathe shallow from the chest.
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  So those long, deep, diaphragmatic breaths are all
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  you need to help you really feel more and more relaxed, more and
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  more comfortable. That's it.
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  And I want you to get us feeling that you are unlocking a new way
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  of thinking. Whenever you avoid something,
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  you're programming your mind to perceive it as dangerous or a
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  threat. Whenever you volunteer, you're
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  communicating to your unconscious that your resources
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  can handle this demand. Consider fear like shadows or
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  darkness, and action like light. The more action you take, the
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  more that fear disappears. I want you to imagine seeing
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  that screen yourself in a future meeting, presentation or talk.
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  I want you to see that version of you relaxed, calm, confident,
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  like something has shifted. That version of you internally
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  is making evaluations and assessments that you can handle
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  it. It's a low stakes thing anyway,
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  and your body is relaxed and calm and I want you to see that
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  version of you not needing anything else to help.
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  Like Dumbo without Dumbo's feather.
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  Dumbo never needed the magic feather, but it took losing the
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  feather to realize they didn't need it.
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  And I want you to think of what's been your magic feather
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  in the past. I want, If you've been clutching
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  onto that all this time and didn't need it anyway, see
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  yourself without needing anything, doing well-being fine.
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  And just imagine a month of saying yes to everything you
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  possibly could. Leading more presentations, more
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  group talks, talking more on video calls, volunteering to
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  maybe chair a committee, host a presentation, do a talk, do
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  something educational. And I want you to get a sense if
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  your unconscious believes that if you said yes to everything
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  you've been avoiding for a month and didn't need anything to help
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  you, would that be enough to banish this fear?
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  And if your unconscious believes that it would be enough, let me
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  know by nodding your head. And if it needs something else,
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  think of what that other thing would be.
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  Maybe it's a bigger challenge, a bigger audience, when you're
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  clear on what that thing would need to be to give you
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  irrefutable evidence that your fear is gone and you're clear on
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  that. Let me know by nodding your
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  head. That's it.
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  And now that's your goal. The Stoics believed that
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  whatever the barrier was, was the way.
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  Whatever that thing was they were avoiding was exactly the
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  route to pursue. And I want you to get a sense
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  that that's how you feel now. So imagine putting on that
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  virtual reality headset, dialing up confidence, self belief,
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  activating all of the resources from your past.
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  And then imagine saying yes to everything that you've been
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  avoiding. And imagine feeling how good you
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  would feel to be in meetings and feeling relaxed to be speaking
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  in groups, sitting or standing, feeling calm, confident and
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  relaxed. Get a sense of feeling so
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  relaxed even on video calls with 1020 thirty people or more.
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  It all makes you feel completely calm and relaxed.
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  That's it. And you've watched films where
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  they have a montage like Rocky training for a fight.
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  They can collapse days, weeks, even months into minutes.
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  And with this VR headset, imagine you're doing that.
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  A whole month of saying yes to things you've been avoiding from
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  a first person perspective, all going well, not needing anything
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  to help, not needing to prepare too much.
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  Maybe there was a bit of anxiety for the first 2-3 four times,
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  but that dissipates quickly. Experience that montage and then
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  imagine what victory would feel like.
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  A month of doing something or doing that challenging thing,
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  and then feeling that you have indeed faced your nemesis.
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  But to face a nemesis, you can't avoid it.
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  You have to do the thing you've been avoiding and fearing so it
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  loses all power over you. And when you've imagined doing
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  that and feeling confident and resourceful while doing it, let
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  me know by nodding your head. Hands in and each time you
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  listen to this, you will be priming more and more calm,
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  confidence, more resources, more self belief.
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  You will be awakening all of those neural pathways from your
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  past. That has already.
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  Done this successfully many many times before.
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  Some people think of FEAR as an acronym, false evidence that
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  appears real. But how will you know what is
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  real or not if you don't call its bluff?
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  By doing the thing and feeling confident and calm.
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  FEAR cannot coexist. Imagine taking the VR headset
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  off, seeing yourself on that screen a year from now, doing
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  something that would have been impossible for you had you not
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  banished this fear and see it going well one year from now.
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  Because when you go through the barrier of anxiety, many doors
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  of opportunity open. And I wonder what opportunities
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  you see in your future. That are on the other side of
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  this barrier. You've been avoiding the very
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  door you were meant to walk through, and now you will feel
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  resourceful and motivated to do what your unconscious was urging
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  you to do for so long. You don't need a crutch.
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  You don't need a feather, you don't need a pill.
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  You just need to trust that your capabilities exceed these
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  demands and allow real experiences and real evidence to
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  prove you right. It's time to float back to the
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  present. Now take a deep breath in
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  through your nose and out through your nose.
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  Wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes.
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  Connect and calibrate into the here and the now as I now count
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  from 1:00 to 10:00 to awaken you.
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  Starting to count 123 waking up 456 more alert 7-8.
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  Open your eyes. Open your eyes 910.
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  Wide awake. Wide awake.
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  Wide awake. Thank you so much for joining me
• 21:47
  on today's episode of The Hypnotist.
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  If you've enjoyed this episode or got some value from it,
• 21:53
  please give it a five star rating and review.
• 21:57
  And maybe, you know someone that would also benefit from this
• 22:00
  particular episode, in which case share the episode with them
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  so they can also get the benefit too.
• 22:07
  And if you would like to listen to this episode where it's just
• 22:12
  the hypnosis. So no.
• 22:13
  Intro No outro. No explanation, just the
• 22:17
  hypnosis and completely ad free. There will be a link in the
• 22:20
  description where you can subscribe at a very low cost and
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  only get access to the hypnosis, so if that's of interest please
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  check that out. Thank you again for being a
• 22:32
  regular listener of The Hypnotist and I'll see you again
• 22:35
  soon for more.