This year promises to be amazing. I can feel it already. I had the opportunity to spend New Years with Siva Baba also known as the Tamil Siddhi Yogi who mentored Wayne Dyer for his book Manifest your Destiny.   The first time I met him was two years ago and it was designed to “clear your karma.” That looking back was a turning point in my life and many things began to take shape after that experience. The New Years event was also a karma clearing opportunity as this is what Siva Baba believes his life purpose to be and his unique gift or the reason why he incarnated in this lifetime.   The focus of the event was on prosperity and the two magical things that go with that: faith and performance. For those of you who have never experienced this, it involves initiation into mantras which are powerful technologies using sound to create inner transformation and of course karma clearing. I have been meditating on the mantra (brezee)he gave us for prosperity and can feel its power.  I will be giving out more information on how to use this powerful process and how it is changing my life.

The secret is similar to anything you want to achieve: focus and concentration. In the case of weight loss, however we are also dealing with changing habits some of which have been “wired” in to the pathways of the brain making it very automatic to do the same old same old. That is why focus is so important and the idea of being in the moment so you can remember the goals you set and why and make a more conscious choice in that moment. I use hypnosis in my practice to help imbed this way of thinking into the mind’s of the people with whom I work, you can be your own hypnotist by thinking about it consiously and setting the intention lets say before you go to a party to follow a certain course of action. It is so much more likely that you will if you tell yourself you will.

Jane Brody a heath writer in the New York Times whose articles I have enjoyed for years wrote an interesting article on 11/4/08: The Possibilities in Hypnosis, Where the Patient Has the Power. Unfortunately, she made it seem as if the domain of this practice is in the medical community. She referred to it as being able to produce rapid change even in difficult cases, and quoted Dr. Alman as it being: “underutilized as a therapeutic tool.” Jane calls hypnosis ”the epitome of mind-body medicine” and mentions several cases where it has been used to accomplish amazing almost miraculous things in the article. The reason it is underutilized is that the medical community barely recognises it as a therapeutic process. Most of the hypnosis in this country is being practiced by people like myself who function outside of the medical community (I am not a doctor) and are trained to do hypnosis for non-medical outcomes although the benefits it provides end of having tremendously positive effects on the individual of a health and medical nature. Imagine using hypnosis to stop smoking in just one session, or cure your fear of flying. Some of what is accomplished in just a few hypnosis sessions puts the process of talk therapy to shame. How long do you have to go to talk about something to change. Hypnosis is all about change. The article was right on that the power lies in the person doing the change: you have to be ready, willing and able to do what it takes. Hypnosis greases the wheels and helps to develop the way of thinking that is both automatic and conscious to achieve the results you want. My clients are always amazed at how powerful it can be. I am just like the Wizard in the Wizard of Oz: I help people to access the power that is in them to achieve what they want. I agree that many people have a false impression of what hypnosis is which can interfere with the outcome. That is why I have them understand in advance what to expect. Hypnosis comes from the Greek word sleep and was practiced in ancient Greece and in Egypt to achieve many powerful healing. When hypnotized one is not necessarily asleep, but in the stage just before deep sleep which is aware without thinking. This creates a powerful focus that it is said is also a state of mental receptivity. People in Europe are learning foreign languages in this state. It is known as the alpha state and is similar to the state in which we meditate. For my clients, hypnosis is considered to be a form of active meditation. I am happy that this potentially powerful process is getting the attention it deserves although as Jane writes: ” hypnosis has been mired in controversy for years.” Just ask Dr. Anton Mesmer he can attest to that.

Yesterday two of my clients told me that prior to starting their program with our Center they felt they had no will. Upon working with the process we use that includes hynosis(the power of suggestion), the life coaching and mind training techniques we use from meditation that doing what they need to: eat only what they need, eat the right food, and eat only when they are hungry now comes naturally to them. This includes finding that they are thinking like this. It surprised one of my clients when she was relaying to her son why she no longer eats candy: “becasue I do not like it anymore.” This is what I call thinking like a thinner person. The power of suggestion works and it helps to empower your will to do what you want to do yet what has eluded you.

It was 4 years ago today that I had my last cigarette.  I was 25 years old at the time, and had been a smoker for 8 years. I started in high school and by college I was smoking a pack a day. When I met Skyler I had no intention of quitting. I was more interested in awaking my potential in a creative way.

After reading her ad in Time Out New York and looking at her website, I called to make an appointment to meet with her for a consultation. It was at this meeting that I felt the need to discuss my smoking habit; Skyler told me that if I wanted to quit, I should smoke my last cigarette before we met the following week…and I did.

Today on the show we talked about how we can cope better in these stressful times. I suggested that now more than ever we need to be on a spiritual path. That could mean the obvious: practicing meditation but it also includes cultivating community, spending time with nature, reading spiritual and uplifting books, and as Lewis suggested creating healing circle. A healing circle can just be a goup of like minded people who get together to support one another on the spiritual path and can include a family get together on a weekly basis for that purpose. I believe that and stressed on the show, from pain comes gain, depending on how we choose to view it. This is the time to re-orient our values, and reconnect with what is important and that is the opposite of the consumption/ me-based and often selfish society that led us to where we are now.

Eight years ago I started The Center for Wellbeing in New York. I wanted to create an integrated mind/body approach to help people look, feel and be the best they can be. This integrated approach is why the program ended up being so successful. What I help and inspire people to do is to achieve what they want on the outside by changing what is in the outside. This is very different than therapy and more like self empowerment. The goal is to move beyond awareness and action it. You could say it is wisdom in action.

Check back for updates coming soon!