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Hypnosis for Overthinking - ACT Metaphors to Calm the Mind and Release Intrusive Thoughts · The Hypnotist

• 0:05
  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 Smith 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. And in this session of the
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  hypnotist, you're going to be listening to a hypnosis session
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  all about intrusive thoughts. And I was working with a.
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  Client that had an event that had made them think about stuff
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  in a really emotive way. And since that point, every
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  thought that related to their relationship felt like a really
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  high stakes, really serious thought.
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  And they also felt that they had to do something about that,
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  whereas in the past they would think about things and it
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  wouldn't really be that much of a big deal.
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  So in this particular session, you're going to hear various
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  metaphors from something called Acceptance and Commitment
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  Therapy. And that's.
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  Fused within a hypnosis session to really give them a feeling of
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  detaching from the thoughts and suggestions about considering
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  these thoughts to be low stakes. Rather.
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  Than high stakes, If you have intrusive thoughts and it really
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  seems to put you in a spiral and things seems to amplify and
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  really exaggerate and catastrophize, then I think
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  you'll get some value from this session.
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  Just be aware of course that it was created for an individual
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  and some of the suggestions might be perfect for them and
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  not quite right for you. But if you do like the idea of
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  something more bespoke, there will be a link in the
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  description where you can get a free 30 minute consultation call
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  to discuss me being your hypnotherapist and then we can
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  actually do a session together. For now, though, find a quiet,
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  comfortable place where you won't be disturbed.
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  Relax and enjoy the session. Take a deep breath in, and as
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  you breathe in, breathe in that long, calm, relaxing breath.
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  And as you exhale, just feel a wonderful feeling of release, as
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  if any tension, stress or worries are leaving your body in
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  that outward breath. Breathing in relaxation and
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  exhaling tension, each breath taking you deeper and deeper.
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  Relaxed. And I want you to think.
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  Think of that part of your mind responsible for being vigilant,
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  being on edge. Maybe you could imagine a
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  bodyguard on high alert or a guard dog expecting a problem,
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  but as you breathe in that resourceful relaxation, send a
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  message that it's time to stand down.
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  They don't need to be on high alert.
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  There is no threat. There is No Fear, there is no
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  danger, so for now they can just go off duty and notice when it
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  feels like they're no longer with anything they have to do or
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  need to do. It's a signal to yourself that
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  everything is manageable now, and I want you to feel that
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  sensation in your body of being able to cope easily, that
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  feeling that everything will be all right, everything is
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  manageable, everything will be fine.
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  So as you breathe in and breathe out on every outward breath,
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  just imagine tension leaving your body and look for clues in
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  your body, like the tiny muscles in your forehead relaxing,
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  shoulders loosening, jaw releasing any tension until your
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  body feels just a little lighter, a little freer.
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  As your mind opens up, becoming more receptive and curious.
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  And I wonder if you can use the power of your imagination to
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  imagine that you are sitting by a quiet stream somewhere in
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  nature. And maybe you could imagine
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  sunlight flickering through the leaves, and you notice the
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  gentle sound of water flowing. And on this stream you notice
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  leaves drifting by, one after another, slowly carried along by
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  the current. And I'd like you to place a
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  thought, any thought at all, onto a leaf and watch it as it
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  drifts away without effort, without resistance.
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  That you don't need to do anything with that leaf.
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  You don't need to distract yourself from it.
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  You don't need to submerge the leaf underwater.
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  Just allow it to float on by. And then imagine another thought
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  comes, and just imagine picking it out of your head, placing it
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  on the leaf. And again it floats away.
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  And some leaves drift quickly and some more slowly, but all of
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  them keep moving. And as you notice this, you
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  realise that thoughts can come and go without you needing to
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  hold them, fight them or chase them.
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  And then I want you to imagine there by the stream, there's an
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  old fashioned radio. And you might imagine that your
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  mind is like a radio station on that old radio, and sometimes it
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  plays music you enjoy and other times static, noise or a genre
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  of music you don't really like. You don't have to be annoyed.
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  The radio can just play in the background while you go about
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  your life connected to what matters most, and you don't have
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  to turn it off. You can choose to have it
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  playing while your attention is elsewhere and suddenly by that
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  stream, a bus turns up to take you somewhere.
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  And I want you to imagine that the bus driver, instead of
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  asking for your ticket, offers if you would like to drive the
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  bus. And just imagine you're driving
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  that bus in the direction of what you value most in your
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  future. Consider yourself driving
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  towards love, connection, playfulness and intimacy.
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  And sometimes there's noisy passengers that climb aboard
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  that bus. Doubts, worries, what ifs.
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  And they may shout and they may distract, but only you can steer
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  the bus. They can try and distract,
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  provoke, or perhaps just be there making noise, but it
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  doesn't change the direction that you're driving towards.
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  They cannot steer the bus, only you can.
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  And the more you keep driving towards where you want to go,
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  the less power those passengers really have.
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  And you may imagine leaving that bus.
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  And I want you to imagine seeing a monster, a cartoon monster,
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  perhaps in the style of The Simpsons cartoon, you know, the
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  style of animation. And imagine that monster is
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  holding a rope. And for a while, it feels like
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  you've been on the other end of that rope, pulling against a
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  monster of worry, straining, exhausting yourself, believing
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  you must win. And I wonder how long, how many
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  weeks or months you've been playing that tug of war with
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  that monster. But as you let go of the rope,
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  you realize that you're free. The monster may still be there,
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  but now it's just holding a rope, and that rope is no longer
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  connected to you. So without your grip, your
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  effort, your focus, your energy, that monster loses its pull over
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  you. And in this calm, resourceful
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  state, you can remember the feelings of love, attraction or
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  arousal can flow naturally when there is no pressure, no test to
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  pass. And I want you to think of the
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  person you love the most and feel a connection between you
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  and them. And that connection is also
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  connected to life and with yourself.
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  And every now and then a thought will try and break that
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  connection, but it can only do it if you allow it to happen.
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  I want you to imagine drifting back to perhaps 5 or 6 months
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  ago and to feel how you felt back then.
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  Feel that connection and feel that when thoughts and worries
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  came up, it kind of felt that they were no big deal, that it
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  will be all right. That even if a challenge comes
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  up, I want you to get that feeling, that sensation that
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  it's a piece of piss to just deal with that issue as you
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  consider yourself dialling everything down, leaving a high
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  stakes environment to a low stakes environment.
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  I want you to imagine if you were in a casino and your entire
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  life savings was dependent on one spin of the roulette wheel.
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  That would feel that whatever happens is so important, but if
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  it was a tiny amount, no big deal.
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  Even if it doesn't land on the number you want, it will be all
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  right. And I want you to think for a
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  while now that you've been treating something like it's a
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  high stakes environment. And I want you to feel that you
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  are reducing your stake. Because actually, when you
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  reduce the stake, the emotional investment in the thought, the
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  idea, the memory, it will be all right, it will be manageable.
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  Everything is no big deal. And maybe you can recall times
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  in your past when you felt that way, when a thought was just a
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  thought, when it was no big deal, it would pass like a cloud
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  in the sky. And I want you to feel that you
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  are reawakening all of those neural pathways and taking them
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  all the way into the present. So you don't have to distract
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  yourself or suppress a thought. You can notice thought.
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  Thank you for showing up. Extract the wisdom, the inside
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  if there is any, and let it drift away while you return to
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  living. And I wonder if you could
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  imagine seeing a short movie on a screen about how you've been
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  these last few months on edge, hyper vigilant, spiraling.
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  And I want you to see you on that screen like you're a
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  cartoon character, maybe with exaggerated features or yellow
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  skin. But I want you to play this
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  short summary of what it's been like and then imagine watching
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  it backwards in reverse, like everything's happening
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  backwards. Just rewind it as I go.
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  You rewind it all and just imagine what that would look
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  like if you rewound everything to before it all started.
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  Just rewind it, seeing yourself do everything backwards, all the
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  worrying in reverse, the thinking in reverse, see it all
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  happening backwards, and then imagine stepping into the end of
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  that movie and feeling what it would feel like of three or four
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  months worth of worry all happening backwards.
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  When you've got to the beginning, jump back to the end
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  and just rewind it again, thinking backwards, walking
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  backwards, moving backwards. And then imagine doing it one
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  more time, but going all the way back to when you felt absolutely
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  fine, that everything would be all right, that these thoughts
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  were no big deal. So in the end of that movie, and
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  find yourself back in your body maybe six months ago, and
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  imagine having the same thought and feeling that this is
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  nothing. Nothing to do, nothing to think
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  about. Consider it the opposite of
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  spiralling insignificance. And if your unconscious feels
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  that you've messed up a current pattern and reactivated a
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  previous pattern, let me know by nodding your head.
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  And let's reawaken it even more as you imagine two or three days
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  from now, having a thought, the kind of thought that may have
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  spiraled you in the past and now it almost makes you smile.
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  It's so low stakes, it's a piece of piss.
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  It's no big deal. It will be fine and allow it to
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  pass like a leaf on a stream. And if it feels like that's what
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  your future is, that even if the thought does come up, it has no
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  significance over you anymore, let me know by nodding your head
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  and let's test it out. One month forwards now, one
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  month from now, imagine having an intrusive thought about a
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  relationship or a big event. Allow the thought to come up and
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  allow it to pass. No big deal.
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  Nothing to do, nothing to dwell on, no one to talk to.
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  No big deal. And imagine it perhaps one or
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  two days before a wedding, and just imagine there's a thought
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  of a doubt. Call it a second thought, and
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  just allow it to pop up in your mind and float away.
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  Because there's a part of you that already knows that you've
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  been feeding these thoughts. You've been feeding these
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  thoughts emotions, and that's what's made them bigger and more
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  frequent. But I want you to feel that you
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  can starve these thoughts of your attention and your emotion.
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  You can have a thought and you can allow it to pass and
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  everything will be all right. And if you could imagine
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  something like that, where not only does it not spiral, but it
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  hardly becomes a blip on your radar.
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  Let me know about nodding your head.
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  That's it. And then imagine going back to
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  that stream, realizing that you've been playing a tug of war
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  with a monster, pouring petrol on a frame.
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  You've been feeding thoughts to make them bigger and treating it
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  like it's a high stakes casino. But now all of those things are
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  undone. It's low stakes, the monster has
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  the rope by itself, the stream is carrying away your thoughts,
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  they're on the leaves and you are driving your bus in the
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  direction that you want to take it.
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  It's time to leave this place realizing that you've been on a
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  journey in your imagination, a journey of thoughts within
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  thoughts, ideas within ideas, and dreams within dreams.
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  But it's time to return now to the here and the now as I 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.
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  More alert 7-8 Open your eyes. Open your eyes 910.
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  Wide awake, Wide awake. Wide awake.
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  Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of The
• 25:27
  Hypnotist, and if you've enjoyed today's episode, I would
• 25:31
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• 25:44
  Also, by doing that, it lets the algorithm know that you like
• 25:48
  this show, and that will put it in front of even more people
• 25:52
  that might not know that this show exists.
• 25:55
  So that would be helpful for me. And if you like the stuff that I
• 25:58
  do, take a moment just to have a look in the show notes or the
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  description because there's lots of free things that I have to
• 26:05
  offer, including free hypnosis downloads without the intro or
• 26:09
  the outro like I'm doing now. So thank you again for joining
• 26:13
  me on today's episode, and I'll see you again soon for the next
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  one.