Latest / The Everyday Awesome Project / 122: 30 Days of Self-Hypnosis: What Changed My Fear and Self-Doubt

Transcript

122: 30 Days of Self-Hypnosis: What Changed My Fear and Self-Doubt · The Everyday Awesome Project

• 0:26
  Polly Mertens: Hey superstars, Polly here, and no Sam Pruitt.
• 0:30
  Polly Mertens: It is a solo episode today, and this is me sharing.
• 0:34
  Polly Mertens: I I know we have a title, I Rewired My Brain in 30 Days, and here's what happened.
• 0:38
  Polly Mertens: Not meaning to be like all sizzly or whatever, but I am excited to share what I've been noticing.
• 0:44
  Polly Mertens: Um, in a previous episode, we had talked about how I was doing the Silva method, and uh Silva method is a form of self-hypnosis.
• 0:52
  Polly Mertens: I could think it is.
• 0:53
  Polly Mertens: I mean, it's maybe called its own thing, but basically, for I've probably been doing it five weeks now, so more than 30 days, and I just wanted to share some things with you.
• 1:02
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, if you don't know my background, I had an eating disorder for 20 years.
• 1:07
  Polly Mertens: I've been now 20 years without an eating disorder, and that was a hard frickin' road.
• 1:11
  Polly Mertens: So just so you know, eating disorders, addictions, major habit patterns, it can feel like a prison.
• 1:17
  Polly Mertens: You know, you can be super tied into it, right?
• 1:19
  Polly Mertens: And you're like, how come I can't get out of this?
• 1:22
  Polly Mertens: And I fought and fought and fought that damn eating disorder.
• 1:25
  Polly Mertens: Um, and since then, you know, I've done a lot of work in personal development.
• 1:29
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, I've even I'm even a hypnotherapist and I know this hypnosis stuff, and I wasn't necessarily using it.
• 1:37
  Polly Mertens: And something clicked earlier this year, thank gosh.
• 1:41
  Polly Mertens: And I did something about it.
• 1:42
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, besides the eating disorder, which was a hell of an overcome story, I feel like this is my next major breakthrough.
• 1:50
  Polly Mertens: And I'm excited to share it with you guys, you know, what's been happening, the results I'm seeing.
• 1:54
  Polly Mertens: And I just want to like say I'm a huge fan of all things hypnosis, all things rewiring the brain, whatnot.
• 2:00
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, if you're like me, and I've done this, and I still have this in areas of my life.
• 2:05
  Polly Mertens: So I'm not here to say, like, I'm perfect, I figured it all out, right?
• 2:08
  Polly Mertens: But like, you know what to do, right?
• 2:11
  Polly Mertens: Maybe you're like me, you've read the books, you listen to the podcast, you know, and you've had that moment where like something clicks and you're like, all right, this is it.
• 2:18
  Polly Mertens: This is the time, I'm gonna do something different.
• 2:21
  Polly Mertens: And then you don't, you know, or you go back on it, right?
• 2:23
  Polly Mertens: And I'm even in a group right now in my mastermind group, and we meet weekly.
• 2:28
  Polly Mertens: And I just see people who make a commitment to something.
• 2:31
  Polly Mertens: And and as a habit coach, you know, that's one of my specializations, is I try and give them the advice.
• 2:37
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, start small, do it for five minutes, do it one day, you know, all these things that just I know through habit work.
• 2:44
  Polly Mertens: And they try and go big, like, I'm gonna walk every day, you know, for 30 minutes, um, five days a week, and they were not walking before.
• 2:50
  Polly Mertens: And I'm like, that's probably not gonna happen.
• 2:52
  Polly Mertens: And it doesn't, right?
• 2:53
  Polly Mertens: And then they fall down and they try and get back up, right?
• 2:56
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 2:57
  Polly Mertens: Well, you know, we're not alone, right?
• 3:00
  Polly Mertens: It's just it's our brain, it's our wiring, right?
• 3:03
  Polly Mertens: So if you, you know, maybe you've had something and you do it for a week and then you slide back into your old patterns, you have a hesitation, maybe you have doubt show up, you know, the same behavior that you've, you know, already decided that you didn't want.
• 3:16
  Polly Mertens: Like it's, it's there's there's a reason why it happens.
• 3:19
  Polly Mertens: And I want to explain some of that to you.
• 3:21
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, at some point you have to ask like this question if I know what to do, why do I keep doing it?
• 3:29
  Polly Mertens: Like I know, you know, when I was in my eating disorder, I'm like, I know I just need to not put that food in my face.
• 3:35
  Polly Mertens: Like, I know I need to not do that.
• 3:37
  Polly Mertens: And I would still do it, right?
• 3:38
  Polly Mertens: Like, why do I keep doing this?
• 3:39
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 3:40
  Polly Mertens: And oh, the insanity loop and the shame loop of like doing something that you know you shouldn't.
• 3:46
  Polly Mertens: Now I want to say that what so where I've taken this recently, and this will be in the story that I want to tell you, is um I'm doing it not with like a physical pattern, you know.
• 3:56
  Polly Mertens: So, like some people are like, I want to walk, I want to go to the gym, I want to do meditation, whatever.
• 4:00
  Polly Mertens: Mine was just all up in my mind, right?
• 4:03
  Polly Mertens: So what I was noticing is, and I've probably no known this pattern for a while, but I've really, since I studied the gene keys in human design a few years ago, it was like, oh, okay.
• 4:15
  Polly Mertens: I'm sort of like, you know, they say in your DNA, you're predesigned, you're predestined like for whatever a health condition or an addiction or whatever.
• 4:26
  Polly Mertens: Um and it was like, these gene keys showed me that like I have a predisposition to doubt and to, you know, compromise and different things.
• 4:34
  Polly Mertens: Well, doubt and fear were definitely worlds that I was living in on the regular.
• 4:39
  Polly Mertens: And so mine wasn't it, it would translate into outward patterns, but they would be sort of like the root is the doubt and the fear.
• 4:47
  Polly Mertens: And the fear was around financial fear, right?
• 4:50
  Polly Mertens: Um, which we're not gonna go into that whole thing right now, but just know that like doubt and fear was what I was working on.
• 4:55
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, I just want to reframe this for you a little bit before we get into my story is like most people think that change is like effort, right?
• 5:04
  Polly Mertens: More discipline, more motivation, more willpower, like effort, ever, effort.
• 5:09
  Polly Mertens: But here's the shift that I just want to say um go about this differently, right?
• 5:14
  Polly Mertens: Change doesn't happen at the level of effort.
• 5:18
  Polly Mertens: It's not about more, more, oof more get myself to do it right.
• 5:23
  Polly Mertens: It's at the level of identity, right?
• 5:25
  Polly Mertens: And the identity is driven by your subconscious mind.
• 5:29
  Polly Mertens: And my friend Tony Robin says, you know, I there's no force stronger in the human psyche than the need to stay consistent with how you see yourself, the need to stay consistent with your identity.
• 5:40
  Polly Mertens: So if you have an identity that's out of date, that's locked into whatever patterns you're, you know, running for yourself.
• 5:48
  Polly Mertens: Like for me, it was this fear is like, you know, whether it was scarcity, not good enough, um, you know, undervaluing myself, these identity patterns.
• 5:58
  Polly Mertens: I just hadn't upgraded that identity.
• 6:00
  Polly Mertens: And some of that, who cares where it gets formulated in childhood or I made up stories or blah, blah, blah, whatever.
• 6:05
  Polly Mertens: Like I was living that.
• 6:06
  Polly Mertens: We don't need to go into all that.
• 6:07
  Polly Mertens: But research shows that 90%, 95% of our thoughts, behaviors, and our emotions are driven by your subconscious mind.
• 6:14
  Polly Mertens: You probably knew that.
• 6:15
  Polly Mertens: Like we've heard that statistic before.
• 6:17
  Polly Mertens: And it's not the part of you that sets your goals or listens to this podcast that's running the show.
• 6:22
  Polly Mertens: It's what's in the background, right?
• 6:25
  Polly Mertens: So if the part of you that is programmed by fear or hesitation or doubt in my case, like no amount of surface level effort was gonna override this for very long in my life, right?
• 6:36
  Polly Mertens: Like I would try and do this, and and it was just like, okay, just it's just my good friend doubt.
• 6:42
  Polly Mertens: Guess I'm just living that way, right?
• 6:43
  Polly Mertens: And I just want you to know, like for me, you know, it felt like failing and it felt like I'm just in this another fruit loop of just going back into it, back into it.
• 6:52
  Polly Mertens: And I would see it, and you might see it in your own life, like this pattern of, ah, okay, there I am, doubting myself again, right?
• 6:58
  Polly Mertens: Or I'd be telling friends, you know, having stories, and I just hear my own story, and I'm like, fuck, I'm telling the same story again.
• 7:04
  Polly Mertens: Like I was tired of hearing it, right?
• 7:07
  Polly Mertens: And tired of seeing it show up in my life.
• 7:09
  Polly Mertens: The financial struggles were like annoying to say the least, right?
• 7:14
  Polly Mertens: That's what I would say, like the the short version of this is I had a highway to what I didn't want, like the fear of running out of money, the doubt of like, can I, can't I, right?
• 7:27
  Polly Mertens: Whatever.
• 7:28
  Polly Mertens: And like, like it was oblivious to like success, and I can do it, and of course I can, and you know, money's coming, and whatever.
• 7:36
  Polly Mertens: It was like, nope, didn't have that pathway yet.
• 7:39
  Polly Mertens: So just know that your brain is wired for efficiency, not transformation, not your happiness, not necessarily your success.
• 7:49
  Polly Mertens: It's wired for efficiency, for safety, for keeping that damn body of yours, that you know animal alive.
• 7:57
  Polly Mertens: It doesn't care if something's good for you.
• 7:59
  Polly Mertens: It just cares if it's familiar.
• 8:01
  Polly Mertens: Like if it's something you've known, like inside of your box, you might say, or safety zone, that's what it wants to do.
• 8:07
  Polly Mertens: It's like, okay, yeah, I know this, I've experienced this before, can categorize it, know the risk, right?
• 8:12
  Polly Mertens: Check, right?
• 8:13
  Polly Mertens: Outside of that, don't know it.
• 8:15
  Polly Mertens: And so, you know, there's this concept in neuroscience called predictive coding, where your brain consistently tries to match your current behavior to past patterns.
• 8:27
  Polly Mertens: In other words, it's always asking, what have we done before in this situation?
• 8:32
  Polly Mertens: And then it runs the script and just does it over and over again, right?
• 8:35
  Polly Mertens: And you may not even remember how you got into that.
• 8:38
  Polly Mertens: It might have just been like you had, you know, for me, like I might have had, like I remember losing a job in my 20s, and I was like, oh crap, where am I gonna get the money?
• 8:46
  Polly Mertens: And you know, and this kind of thing.
• 8:48
  Polly Mertens: And you know, you're it's like survival, right?
• 8:50
  Polly Mertens: And so it's pretty damn important.
• 8:52
  Polly Mertens: So the brain wired for that, you know, and I I didn't go in and, you know, do deep psychoanalysis on myself.
• 8:58
  Polly Mertens: I'm just like, crap, I know I got it, don't want it anymore.
• 9:02
  Polly Mertens: But that's what's going on in the background, depending on where and what in your, and I'll ask you at the end, you know, like where in your life is this showing up?
• 9:10
  Polly Mertens: So that's why fear for me, it felt so immediate and so real, right?
• 9:16
  Polly Mertens: Even when logically I know I'm safe.
• 9:18
  Polly Mertens: Like, you know, I would have conversations, even with Samantha, podcast co-host.
• 9:21
  Polly Mertens: I'd be like, she's like, dude, if something happened and you didn't have money, what would you do?
• 9:26
  Polly Mertens: You know, and we talk through things.
• 9:27
  Polly Mertens: She's like, you would come here, you would live with us, you have some friends, you would, you know, and I was like, I know, I know, but the mind was just like running on empty.
• 9:37
  Polly Mertens: It had a highway to like, oh, I'm gonna end up under a bridge.
• 9:41
  Polly Mertens: So stupid.
• 9:43
  Polly Mertens: And that's where also, you know, and I had doubts too.
• 9:45
  Polly Mertens: Like I said, I swear that gene keys that said like I was predispositioned for doubt.
• 9:50
  Polly Mertens: I was like, yep, I know it, I know it.
• 9:52
  Polly Mertens: It shows up automatically, right?
• 9:55
  Polly Mertens: Even when I'm even when I'm capable, like all the things, like all you could stack up, like all the medals I've won in racing, all the careers that I've had, all the success that I've had, still doubt in the background.
• 10:08
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, these patterns they just they get ingrained, or you know, we come baked in in some cases, whether you believe that or not, right?
• 10:17
  Polly Mertens: And we just run them.
• 10:19
  Polly Mertens: And I just hadn't dealt with this deeply ingrained pattern.
• 10:22
  Polly Mertens: Like I hadn't really sat myself down.
• 10:24
  Polly Mertens: So the fear, the hesitation, you know, 20 years ago when I had my eating disorder, I didn't even go into how, I mean, I won't tell the whole story of like, you know, how I overcame the eating disorder, but when I finally did overcome it, I wasn't like taking it head on.
• 10:38
  Polly Mertens: I was like, okay, I'm this is, you know, I'm gonna go into this personal development workshop and I'm gonna solve this.
• 10:43
  Polly Mertens: It it sort of like came upon me, right?
• 10:46
  Polly Mertens: Like that was a powerful transformation in my life.
• 10:49
  Polly Mertens: So I just want to say, like, I know what it feels like to be trapped in something that makes completely no sense.
• 10:56
  Polly Mertens: Like, why do I keep doing this?
• 10:57
  Polly Mertens: Why do I doubt myself when I have so much success?
• 10:59
  Polly Mertens: Why am I so afraid when I have so much stability and security and I can totally take care of myself, right?
• 11:05
  Polly Mertens: It's just nonsense.
• 11:06
  Polly Mertens: So it's not weakness, okay?
• 11:08
  Polly Mertens: It's just conditioning.
• 11:10
  Polly Mertens: So here's where people get stuck, right?
• 11:13
  Polly Mertens: And I want to help you.
• 11:15
  Polly Mertens: And this is where I was like, bing, freedom key, unlocked, unlocked inner prison.
• 11:20
  Polly Mertens: So I have done this myself.
• 11:21
  Polly Mertens: So we try to solve subconscious of problems with conscious effort.
• 11:26
  Polly Mertens: We just think, ah, well, if I just try harder, if I stay consistent, if I push through this feeling, or just ignore it, or try again, or you know, don't be so hard on yourself.
• 11:37
  Polly Mertens: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 11:38
  Polly Mertens: The problem is willpower, man, it's a limited resource.
• 11:42
  Polly Mertens: And you've probably heard this too, like studies, you know, in behavioral psychology, they show that decision fatigue and that cognitive load, you know, it's it's reduced, it reduces our ability to follow through over time, right?
• 11:55
  Polly Mertens: Like if we have a long day, we're doing a lot of things, and if you try to go to the gym at night, it's like, oh yeah, good luck, or try to resist that chocolate cake or or or or or those negative thoughts, or the fear thoughts, or the lackful thoughts, or whatever your particular, you know, drug of choice sounds like.
• 12:12
  Polly Mertens: That's why you can feel strong in the morning and completely drained by the afternoon.
• 12:16
  Polly Mertens: That was like 101 my addiction for 20 years.
• 12:20
  Polly Mertens: Is like I'd get up in the morning, I'm like, I'm not doing it.
• 12:22
  Polly Mertens: And then like three o'clock in the afternoon, I was just exhausted from, you know, being critiqued by my boss all day, or um, angry customers, or just stressed out in whatever form or fashion.
• 12:34
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, the shame carrying the lingering shame from what I had done the night before or the day before.
• 12:40
  Polly Mertens: So that eating disorder just like it perpetuated, right?
• 12:44
  Polly Mertens: And not quite in the same fashion, but I definitely noticed this leaning towards fear, you know, fear of running out of money.
• 12:54
  Polly Mertens: It's just like the umbrella of the way I'll describe it.
• 12:57
  Polly Mertens: And that was just like overbearing looking at my bank statement and you know, where's money coming from and this and that, and just lingering in that energy.
• 13:05
  Polly Mertens: God.
• 13:06
  Polly Mertens: So just thinking like, I'll just try harder, or if I can just be consistent, like, yeah, I'm just here to tell you, like, yeah, it you're not alone.
• 13:16
  Polly Mertens: It's just the way we're wired.
• 13:17
  Polly Mertens: And especially, you know, you can override your patterns for a short period, but A, the system resets back to what's familiar.
• 13:25
  Polly Mertens: Your brain's just gonna be like, default, right?
• 13:27
  Polly Mertens: Whatever's programmed in your subconscious mind, unless it starts to create new patterns and gets new evidence and gets out of that old rut, it's gonna go back to what's familiar, what it knows, right?
• 13:38
  Polly Mertens: Like, yep, it knows that you are a doubter, right?
• 13:41
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, okay, already, you know, and then and then we make it mean something about ourselves, right?
• 13:48
  Polly Mertens: Like, I was like, I'm just lame and you know, I'm a doubter, like I didn't have confidence.
• 13:54
  Polly Mertens: And it was like surprising to me because I have so much confidence in so many areas.
• 13:59
  Polly Mertens: But this was just lingering.
• 14:00
  Polly Mertens: And, you know, it feels like this Jekyll and Hyde inside if you have these experiences where you're like, I'm so capable, and then I'm such a piece of shit.
• 14:10
  Polly Mertens: I'm I can totally do this, and like I don't know if I can do this, right?
• 14:14
  Polly Mertens: So just that you're not alone.
• 14:17
  Polly Mertens: That's what was going on for me.
• 14:18
  Polly Mertens: So don't over try, don't try to override your system.
• 14:22
  Polly Mertens: Let's just get in the, you know, under the hood and you know, and update the the wiring, update what what's going on in the background, the subconscious, right?
• 14:29
  Polly Mertens: All right, so what does this look like?
• 14:31
  Polly Mertens: So how did I do it?
• 14:32
  Polly Mertens: And so it shows up in very specific, frustrating ways, you know.
• 14:36
  Polly Mertens: For you, you know, for me, it looks like knowing what I what I should take action on and overthinking until and then I don't, right?
• 14:44
  Polly Mertens: Or, you know, it looks like having opportunities in front of me and then I pull back at the last second.
• 14:49
  Polly Mertens: Or I'm gonna start something with energy and then just abandoning it, right?
• 14:54
  Polly Mertens: So if any of that looks like repeating like emotional patterns, you know, reacting the same way, feeling the same feelings, even though you know better, okay, that's that's something to work on, something to look at.
• 15:07
  Polly Mertens: So for me, it looked like that, like I said, the fear showing up where it didn't belong.
• 15:11
  Polly Mertens: Like, like there's there's like this irrational states of doubt and fear, just crazy.
• 15:17
  Polly Mertens: So that's just the underlying program.
• 15:20
  Polly Mertens: So, and I didn't even do this, I would say, necessarily as a 30-day experiment.
• 15:25
  Polly Mertens: I was I I bumped into the Silva Method.
• 15:27
  Polly Mertens: I must have just been scrolling on YouTube or something, and it appeared.
• 15:32
  Polly Mertens: And I'd heard actually, you know, I'd heard about that because I I was a big fan of Mind Valley and Mind Valley's founder, um, Vishn Lakyani, he teaches Silva Method, and he's a huge believer in it.
• 15:43
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, that's great, good for you, you know, whatever.
• 15:45
  Polly Mertens: And because I'm a hypnotherapist, I was like, oh, I know this stuff, but I wasn't doing it.
• 15:52
  Polly Mertens: I was like, wasn't doing it on myself.
• 15:54
  Polly Mertens: And I I even had thoughts at times.
• 15:56
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, why don't I use hypnosis more?
• 15:58
  Polly Mertens: Why don't I?
• 15:59
  Polly Mertens: I mean, I do, I would say in the evenings, um, one of my favorite things is sleep hypnosis.
• 16:04
  Polly Mertens: Like, I love listening to hypnosis to go to sleep and like programming at night just for well-being or you know, calming my mind and things like that, but never like with intention.
• 16:14
  Polly Mertens: And so somehow Silva Method came across my screen.
• 16:19
  Polly Mertens: I was like, you know what?
• 16:21
  Polly Mertens: I I did, I do want to like back up and say, So um, if you've heard any of our recent podcasts, uh last year in 2025, I was big involved in something called uh landmark education's team management and leadership program.
• 16:34
  Polly Mertens: It's a year-long commitment.
• 16:35
  Polly Mertens: So coming out of that program in mid to late February, I said, okay, for the next 90 days, I want to keep some structure around me.
• 16:43
  Polly Mertens: So a bunch of my cohorts from that, we all sort of graduated out of team one, and we created it's called a miracle quarter.
• 16:50
  Polly Mertens: So we're all in this 90-day experiment with ourselves, and like each one of us has whatever we wanted to get up to.
• 16:56
  Polly Mertens: It's like, okay, set your own game, create your own goals, outcomes, whatever you want to get up to, and we'll support each other.
• 17:03
  Polly Mertens: And it was like, wow, man, miracle quarter.
• 17:06
  Polly Mertens: I was like, I want some freaking miracles.
• 17:07
  Polly Mertens: And just so you know, and I'm speaking this out loud again because I love reinforcing this both to my own mind, which is listening and to you, my listeners, you know, like you guys have the listening for Samantha and I and yourselves to be powerful.
• 17:20
  Polly Mertens: And that is, I declared in 2025, end of 2025, by December 2026, my life will be unrecognizable.
• 17:29
  Polly Mertens: I will be unrecognizable to the version of myself from back then, because I was so tired of just a lot of little patterns, right?
• 17:36
  Polly Mertens: This fear and doubt that I'm talking about being a couple of them.
• 17:39
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, all right, game on, motherfuckers, you know, and so coming into this miracle quarter, I just started looking for things.
• 17:47
  Polly Mertens: I have a, you know, a list, and I'm not going to go into them of the things that I'm taking on.
• 17:50
  Polly Mertens: One of them I will double-click on because it is a part of this, and I think it's had an impact or they've worked together, is I declared that by the end of May, I will be an A like a master of AI, like a wizard in it.
• 18:05
  Polly Mertens: Like, you know, and I wrote some things like, I'll be like shocking myself how much I know, things like that.
• 18:10
  Polly Mertens: And I was like, all right, came on.
• 18:12
  Polly Mertens: And I swear the combination and the timing of those two coming together at the same time, taking on the study of AI and mastery, you know, all of that, and Silva method, and which is like accelerated learning and you know, just really um just programming myself for success and badassery and like having the outcomes that I want.
• 18:34
  Polly Mertens: That combo has me just on fire.
• 18:38
  Polly Mertens: Um, and somewhere in there, I think the other thing that's laced in here that now that I think about it is Samantha and I are doing A Year to Live, which is a program about living more fully for one year, as if you were dying at the end of that year, so that you really get down to the root of like what's most important to you, right?
• 18:56
  Polly Mertens: And so one of the things that came to me, I think this was in February, February or March, was like I don't have time for negative energy.
• 19:05
  Polly Mertens: Like, if I have a year to live, like let's play, let's enjoy, let's live full out, let's, you know, not be held back, not be stuck in freaking, you know, ruminating in doubt or fear.
• 19:17
  Polly Mertens: So I just decided like I'm not spending time in those energies.
• 19:21
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, instead of like continuing that that over abundance of thoughts and stewing in fear and doubt, I was like, I don't have time for this.
• 19:34
  Polly Mertens: So it was like a declaration.
• 19:35
  Polly Mertens: And I was describing it to someone who's like, um, I feel like I had these suitcases of fear and doubt, and I just set them down.
• 19:44
  Polly Mertens: I'm just like, I'm just gonna leave these here and start walking and go further into my life.
• 19:49
  Polly Mertens: And guess what?
• 19:50
  Polly Mertens: The further I get away from that baggage, it's like don't miss it, don't think about it, you know.
• 19:56
  Polly Mertens: And it's um it's a little bit, you know, eating disorders are a little different in the world of having an addiction because unlike, you know, alcohol or drugs, you can't set that thing down and never touch it again.
• 20:08
  Polly Mertens: You can abstain from doing that behavior.
• 20:11
  Polly Mertens: Well, eating you can't abstain from.
• 20:14
  Polly Mertens: So it's a it's an interesting addiction to overcome because it's the overeating in various ways or under-eating for you know anorexics, but you still have to have it in your life.
• 20:26
  Polly Mertens: Whereas doubt and fear don't need to have it in my life.
• 20:29
  Polly Mertens: I get this is one of those ones where I could abstain from those.
• 20:32
  Polly Mertens: And so I just set down that baggage, and it's like the and the energy.
• 20:38
  Polly Mertens: So part of what I want to share with you is like the thoughts led to the feelings.
• 20:43
  Polly Mertens: And I'm such a vibrational energy snob of like, you know, I got a year to live.
• 20:49
  Polly Mertens: I'm not gonna feel that way.
• 20:50
  Polly Mertens: I'm not gonna sit in those emotions, those chemicals any longer.
• 20:53
  Polly Mertens: So that was like one of the starts to this shift is just not gonna do it.
• 20:58
  Polly Mertens: Put that baggage down, thank you very much, let go, self-hypnosis, enter, you know, Silva method, enter AI.
• 21:04
  Polly Mertens: And then it's like foot on the gas, man.
• 21:07
  Polly Mertens: You know, so instead of just trying to fight the system, and I just was like, no, I'm I'm not gonna have those emotions.
• 21:14
  Polly Mertens: And it's been amazing, right?
• 21:17
  Polly Mertens: So what happened, you know, what matters most is, you know, and people tend to overcomplicate it, right?
• 21:24
  Polly Mertens: I would say first, consistency mattered more than intensity.
• 21:28
  Polly Mertens: So one of the things like I was just saying earlier is my friend, um, you know, he's like from not walking, like not leaving his house because he's so like indoors and you know, just working on his business or whatever, I'm gonna go out and walk every day for 30 minutes.
• 21:41
  Polly Mertens: I was like, oh shit, that's a disaster.
• 21:45
  Polly Mertens: Because it's so far from what your current pattern is.
• 21:48
  Polly Mertens: So I would, I'd always like James Clear, I love that part in his book, Atomic Habits, where he says, man, start with like the lowest minimal effort and just start there, like five minutes.
• 22:00
  Polly Mertens: Just put your shoes on every day, even if you don't walk out the house, right?
• 22:03
  Polly Mertens: Just getting like I did that every day.
• 22:06
  Polly Mertens: And then go up around the block or go to the driveway or whatever.
• 22:10
  Polly Mertens: I know that sounds like really you're like, why would I even bother?
• 22:12
  Polly Mertens: Well, the thing is like just getting out of the house, like make a commitment to get out of the house.
• 22:16
  Polly Mertens: And if you turn back around because it's like I don't have time for it, okay, well, you got out.
• 22:19
  Polly Mertens: Of the house, right?
• 22:20
  Polly Mertens: So, and you know, sort of like once a body's in motion, it tends to stay in motion.
• 22:24
  Polly Mertens: So that's what happens, right?
• 22:25
  Polly Mertens: So for me with Silva Method, it's consistency, right?
• 22:29
  Polly Mertens: And I wasn't doing hour-long sessions, I was doing, I, you know, I love um Jose Silva when you listen to his audios.
• 22:36
  Polly Mertens: He's like, five minutes a day is good, 10 minutes a day is excellent.
• 22:41
  Polly Mertens: No, 10 minutes a day is great.
• 22:43
  Polly Mertens: 15 minutes is excellent, right?
• 22:45
  Polly Mertens: And so the achiever in me is like, I'm excellent.
• 22:48
  Polly Mertens: So I'm gonna do 15 minutes.
• 22:50
  Polly Mertens: So I would say for 30 days for sure, morning and night, 15 minutes before bed, uh, and in the morning when I woke up.
• 22:57
  Polly Mertens: And then there's science behind that, I'm not gonna go into that, but you could do it for five minutes, right?
• 23:02
  Polly Mertens: Like just the consistency.
• 23:04
  Polly Mertens: And now I'm doing it, I would say 95% of the time.
• 23:08
  Polly Mertens: So like last night, I didn't do it in the evening, got home late, whatever.
• 23:11
  Polly Mertens: But it's morning, yep, got up, did it, right?
• 23:14
  Polly Mertens: And I already have a lot of patterns and habits built in.
• 23:18
  Polly Mertens: Um, so you know, it's tying it to those other habits.
• 23:21
  Polly Mertens: But I want to say I also focused on identity, you know, not these outcomes.
• 23:27
  Polly Mertens: So I there's various ways that you can do self-hypnosis.
• 23:32
  Polly Mertens: You know, there's a lot of people who say, like, visualize yourself and this and that.
• 23:36
  Polly Mertens: I love not only like the mental rehearsal, but doing it with energy, right?
• 23:43
  Polly Mertens: So like energizing that feeling.
• 23:45
  Polly Mertens: Some of mine can get so powerful, like I just have just this enthusiasm or love or power or success or like excitement for what I'm doing, right?
• 23:55
  Polly Mertens: And uh research says from mental rehearsal studies that the brain activates many of the same neural pathways during vivid visualization as it does when you're actually living that thing, right?
• 24:07
  Polly Mertens: So in um various magazines and publications, they say that participants who mentally practice a physical task showed measurable brain changes, even without physically doing the task.
• 24:18
  Polly Mertens: There was this one city I remember they talk about um, I think it was high school or college, and they were basketball players and they had three versions, uh, three groups, little subsets.
• 24:28
  Polly Mertens: And so they would have, you know, the the one, you know, they're used to playing, let's say, or practicing, I don't know, an hour a day or 30 minutes a day, doing free shots, right?
• 24:38
  Polly Mertens: Free throws.
• 24:39
  Polly Mertens: Um, and they took one subset and they did in the gym, go practice for 30 minutes.
• 24:45
  Polly Mertens: Another group, um, go and uh mentally rehearse practicing and making free throws.
• 24:53
  Polly Mertens: And the third group, no extra, like they didn't get extra.
• 24:55
  Polly Mertens: And they all maybe like had their regular um teen training, but this was like additional.
• 25:00
  Polly Mertens: So 30 minutes extra of three throws in the gym, 30 minutes of three throws in their mind, and no extra.
• 25:07
  Polly Mertens: You might actually be surprised which ones improved the most.
• 25:11
  Polly Mertens: I was like, huh, I love this.
• 25:14
  Polly Mertens: Because it wasn't the ones that were in the gym throwing or you know, shooting free throws that actually improved the most because sometimes they'd miss, right?
• 25:24
  Polly Mertens: And so the brain was like, eh, I don't get it all the time, kind of thing.
• 25:27
  Polly Mertens: The ones that improve the most are the ones who mentally rehearsed, shooting free throws, and they landed every time.
• 25:35
  Polly Mertens: I love that.
• 25:36
  Polly Mertens: I love that, right?
• 25:38
  Polly Mertens: So that's the mechanism, right?
• 25:40
  Polly Mertens: You're not just thinking differently, you're rewiring your brain differently, right?
• 25:45
  Polly Mertens: And then, you know, also want to just add like bringing emotion into it, right?
• 25:49
  Polly Mertens: Like your brain and your body, like, you know, what is it?
• 25:53
  Polly Mertens: The brain is electrical and the heart is magnetic.
• 25:57
  Polly Mertens: So you're an electromagnetic field, right?
• 26:00
  Polly Mertens: So if it's just up in one part of your body, like the electric part, and you don't integrate the other part, the heart, the emotional body, the electromagnetic field, the combo, it's just a different, let's just say like it amps it up, right?
• 26:17
  Polly Mertens: So I would definitely say it, you know, change comes from emotionally charged repetition.
• 26:24
  Polly Mertens: Emotionally charged repetition.
• 26:25
  Polly Mertens: Like, not just like seeing yourself, like looking out into the future, like, oh, wouldn't it be nice to be on a vacation or take a cruise or you know, have a loved one or something like that, you know, have someone in your life, but like feeling the feeling of being on that vacation or having that person in your life and hugging them and like can't wait to see you and like talking to them and texting them or um you know, going on that vacation and actually enjoying smelling the roses on a hike or whatever it is, right?
• 26:53
  Polly Mertens: So the emo and as many um senses as you can bring in, definitely the emotional, like I said, the electromagnetic field in your body.
• 27:03
  Polly Mertens: Huge, huge.
• 27:05
  Polly Mertens: All right.
• 27:06
  Polly Mertens: So here's what like hit me is like, you know, I wasn't stuck because my life was hard, right?
• 27:11
  Polly Mertens: I was stuck because my identity was outdated, my mind was outdated, and it was frustrating, right?
• 27:17
  Polly Mertens: And then like once you see that you can't unsee it, you're like, I know I'm doing this to myself.
• 27:22
  Polly Mertens: Like I know that I was, I would just, and I mean, you know, as somebody who's quite self-aware, and then as a life coach, you know, I know what it looks like to identify patterns, and especially the subconscious ones, and especially when I see it and I speak it, I'm like, this has got to go.
• 27:39
  Polly Mertens: And once you see it, you can unsee it.
• 27:40
  Polly Mertens: It's like, all right, I have a pattern of doubt.
• 27:43
  Polly Mertens: I have a pattern of going into fearful, lackful thoughts, um, that you know, type that running out of money.
• 27:50
  Polly Mertens: But I just wasn't doing anything about it, right?
• 27:53
  Polly Mertens: And I just wanted you to know because I have seen it myself, is we are trainable.
• 27:58
  Polly Mertens: You know what?
• 27:59
  Polly Mertens: And I just want to say, if I can change this and I have, then you can too.
• 28:03
  Polly Mertens: Like there, like I set those bags down called fear and doubt, not picking them up anymore.
• 28:08
  Polly Mertens: The Silva Method and AI, like I am so on fire right now, like powerfully moving forward with belief in myself, belief that I can help people, believe the things that I'm learning in AI, like they're so valuable.
• 28:21
  Polly Mertens: And you know, I'm just gonna make a difference in my clients' lives in the future and all this stuff.
• 28:25
  Polly Mertens: It's like it feels unstoppable.
• 28:28
  Polly Mertens: So, and if I can do it, and if you can, then at some point you have to ask yourself, like, why wouldn't you?
• 28:34
  Polly Mertens: Um I I like I feel like I'm walking around with like, I don't know, when I learned hypnosis, like, this is so dang powerful.
• 28:41
  Polly Mertens: Why don't more people use it, right?
• 28:42
  Polly Mertens: And now that I've done this, I wouldn't call it an experiment, it was just like I'm sharing this with you because I was just like, this like has me so lit up and fired up.
• 28:51
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, people get on it.
• 28:53
  Polly Mertens: Like, get about making whatever, you know, change you're up for in your life.
• 28:57
  Polly Mertens: And so just like this isn't complicated and it doesn't need to be.
• 29:02
  Polly Mertens: And if you make it complicated, guess what?
• 29:04
  Polly Mertens: You won't do it.
• 29:05
  Polly Mertens: Right.
• 29:06
  Polly Mertens: So basically, there are videos out on the web on the silva method.
• 29:11
  Polly Mertens: If this is something you want to try, or you can find other ones yourself, or work with a coach, work with a hypnotherapist, whatever you want to do, but like start with one area of your life where you already know you're the bottleneck.
• 29:22
  Polly Mertens: It's not the circumstances, it's not other people, it's you.
• 29:27
  Polly Mertens: All right.
• 29:27
  Polly Mertens: And then five minutes a day, just you know, promise yourself five minutes in the morning, five minutes in the evening, you have five minutes.
• 29:34
  Polly Mertens: I promise you, you do.
• 29:35
  Polly Mertens: And if you don't, you don't have a life.
• 29:37
  Polly Mertens: Like get over whatever is in the way of that.
• 29:41
  Polly Mertens: And I like to do it, you know, going to bed, because your your brain is the most susceptible to subconscious programming right before you fall asleep and right when you wake up.
• 29:49
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, learn about this, try this out yourself.
• 29:53
  Polly Mertens: I just wanted to share this.
• 29:54
  Polly Mertens: And it's like, I am like, I can't wait to see where this is going.
• 29:59
  Polly Mertens: It is April of 2026 when I'm recording this, and it's like, look out, like, I can't wait to see.
• 30:05
  Polly Mertens: So May is approximately 30 days from my target goal of when, you know, it's said to myself, you know, I'm just gonna be this AI master.
• 30:14
  Polly Mertens: And already I'm just like shocking myself.
• 30:16
  Polly Mertens: I mean, I'm like, oh my God, I have 30 more days.
• 30:18
  Polly Mertens: This is awesome.
• 30:19
  Polly Mertens: And then, like, that's about six months from the end of the year, or eight, six, seven months from the end of the year.
• 30:24
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, it is gonna be unrecognizable.
• 30:26
  Polly Mertens: Cannot wait.
• 30:27
  Polly Mertens: So just know, like, start with something small, don't overcomplicate it.
• 30:33
  Polly Mertens: You don't have to have a perfect vision or version.
• 30:35
  Polly Mertens: Not every day for me is like jaw-dropping the most amazing, you know, self-hypnosis, but it's the consistency.
• 30:42
  Polly Mertens: It's right, it's like I go to the gym each day or workout, whatever, and they're not always just like 100%, not always slam dunk, right?
• 30:50
  Polly Mertens: But it's the repetition.
• 30:52
  Polly Mertens: It's you feel it and you see it in your mind, and then you do it again tomorrow, and then you do it again tomorrow.
• 30:57
  Polly Mertens: Because this only works if you give your brain enough repetition to believe you, right?
• 31:02
  Polly Mertens: So emotional repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition.
• 31:06
  Polly Mertens: You've got to reprogram with repetition.
• 31:08
  Polly Mertens: It's not just once it's gonna do it, right?
• 31:11
  Polly Mertens: So I hope you're getting something out of this.
• 31:13
  Polly Mertens: Look, you don't have a discipline problem, you have a programming problem.
• 31:17
  Polly Mertens: Okay, your identity is not fixed, it is trained, it's reinforced, and it's changeable.
• 31:24
  Polly Mertens: It's changeable.
• 31:25
  Polly Mertens: And if you're willing to work at the level of your subconscious mind, you can change patterns that have been running your life for years, decades, maybe, right?
• 31:34
  Polly Mertens: So do something with this.
• 31:36
  Polly Mertens: Do something about this, right?
• 31:39
  Polly Mertens: So, you know, where in your life are you getting results that you don't want?
• 31:45
  Polly Mertens: Right?
• 31:46
  Polly Mertens: If you're honest with yourself, you're the common denominator.
• 31:49
  Polly Mertens: It's not other people, it's not the situation, it's not the world, whatever.
• 31:53
  Polly Mertens: What pattern are you still running that you already know isn't working?
• 31:58
  Polly Mertens: You already are aware, oh that, whatever it is, right?
• 32:01
  Polly Mertens: Whether it's a physical thing you're doing, the physical thing you're not doing and you need to be doing, or is it something like me, like a mental pattern, an inner dialogue, let's say, an old story?
• 32:12
  Polly Mertens: And my question to you is this if you had the ability to change that, why haven't you?
• 32:18
  Polly Mertens: Because guess what?
• 32:19
  Polly Mertens: Now you do.
• 32:19
  Polly Mertens: You know enough.
• 32:20
  Polly Mertens: I've given you at least one method, one place to look.
• 32:23
  Polly Mertens: Get on YouTube, it's little method, it's out there.
• 32:27
  Polly Mertens: So don't feel stuck.
• 32:29
  Polly Mertens: Feel an action, take an action.
• 32:31
  Polly Mertens: What is something that you are already thought of?
• 32:33
  Polly Mertens: If you've made it to this point, you probably have had at least one, two, or three ideas of like, oh yeah, I should probably look at that and do it.
• 32:41
  Polly Mertens: Just like, just freaking do it.
• 32:42
  Polly Mertens: Take it for take it on for 30 days.
• 32:44
  Polly Mertens: I promise you.
• 32:45
  Polly Mertens: You I promise you, it will, you know, and some of this thing is like we think we need like earth shattering results or whatever.
• 32:53
  Polly Mertens: Like, I didn't, I don't feel like this is earth shattering, but I know it's a pivot in my life.
• 32:58
  Polly Mertens: Like setting down the fear and doubt, that mental exercise, that feels, I don't know, that feels like such a transformation, an inner shift inside of me.
• 33:10
  Polly Mertens: So that is pretty fucking jaw-dropping to me.
• 33:12
  Polly Mertens: I'm like, wow, I don't have those states in my body anymore.
• 33:16
  Polly Mertens: That's freaking amazing.
• 33:17
  Polly Mertens: And layering that on top with the self-hypnosis of like, I'm a genius, I can do this, whatever.
• 33:23
  Polly Mertens: Like, it's amazing.
• 33:25
  Polly Mertens: So get after it, go do it, take on, take this on, take this on.
• 33:29
  Polly Mertens: If I can do it, you can do it.
• 33:31
  Polly Mertens: And if you can, you must.
• 33:33
  Polly Mertens: All right, my friends.
• 33:35
  Polly Mertens: Uh, wish you the best, Miss Samantha.
• 33:37
  Polly Mertens: We missed you today.
• 33:38
  Polly Mertens: And to all of you listening, remember how your life feels is more important than how it looks.
• 33:44
  Polly Mertens: And every day is your opportunity to find your awesome.
• 33:48
  Polly Mertens: Love you guys.