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Day 47 of 50 ideas in 50 days is The Silva Mind Control Method of Mental Dynamics by Jose Silva and Burt Goldman. Before 50 ideas, I had heard of Jose and Laura Silva’s work before but was more familiar with Burt Goldman since he is a fellow hypnotherapist. There are some excellent, practical tips in this book you can utilise in your everyday life, techniques that I have used myself and with clients, to great effect.

First things first, let’s think about our different levels of brain waves. (This was covered also in my post about Bill Harris and Holosync) The different states are as follows:

Delta – 0.5-4 cycles per second (deep unconscious sleep)

Theta – 5-7 cycles per second (deep comfortable sleep)

Alpha – 8-13 cycles per second (REM sleep and meditation)

Beta –  example: approx. 19 cps (conscious aware state, creativity)     

                               approx. 21 cps (stress and anxiety)                       

So if we want to slow our brain from a stressed to a relaxed state (beta to alpha) there is a wonderfully simple little hypnotic technique that is so effective. I have taught this technique to over 90% of clients. The trick is to do it often, initially every day until you get to the point where your mind is so conditioned that you can bring about this change with a single breath or visualisation. Inhale and in your mind say, 3,3,3, do another 2 deep breaths for 2 and 1. If you are particularly stressed, begin from 10. Practise this often and before long you can bring on the relaxation with one inhale and exhale.     

The book says, “fear is imaginary just as faith is imaginary – and both being imaginary, they are subject to your mental control.” Fear is just negative expectation, think about it, you are imagining what could go wrong. Silva and Goldman say to get rid of the fear, we must turn our expectations round from negative to positive. What good is there in imagining the worst outcome? Focus on the positive things that could happen. (Then the Law of Attraction works in attracting the positive outcome too but that’s a different blog post.) How about changing your thoughts from, “I’m going to fail this driving test because I’ll forget to do x, y and z” to “I’m going to pass this test with confidence and ease, I’m a careful and relaxed driver.”

Finally Silva and Goldman give 5 superb little rules of happiness, they say “stress is not caused by problems, it is your attitude toward the problem that causes stress…the question is not, how can I rid myself of stress but how can I change my attitude toward work, events, disappointments, fears and people?

1. If you like something, enjoy it.
2. If you don’t like something, avoid it.
3. If you don’t like something and can’t avoid it, change it.
4. If you can’t or choose not to avoid or change something you don’t like, then accept it.
5. You accept something by changing your perception of it.

Simple steps and essentially, changing your perception is not as difficult as you may think. Find something, anything good in the situation and focus on that instead.

Day 39 of 50 ideas in 50 days is Thresholds of the Mind by Bill Harris. Neuroplasticity is a favourite subject of mine, the power to mould and shape our minds to install the changes we want. Bill focuses on the power of meditation and says, “whatever the technique, the effect on the brain is substantially the same: synchronisation of the two brain hemispheres – and after much practice, an experience of connection with the rest of the universe, accompanied by profound inner peace and happiness.” So how does it work? Meditation, as well as hypnosis, slows down the brain to give a greater balance of the two hemispheres and as a result, creates a more peaceful state of mind.

Bill has created a meditation system called Holosync that can hold your brain in the theta state after a few minutes. The theta stage is stage 3 in the slowing down of the brain and it requires many years of meditation usually, to experience. Most of our day to day experience is in the beta state (alertness, arousal, anxiety, fight or flight). When we are in relaxation, meditation or pre sleep state, we experience alpha brain patterns. Dreams, memory and deep meditation are when our brain is in the theta state and delta brain waves are dreamless sleep and the collective unconscious.

Bill makes an important point about using Holosync that is significant with personal development in general. He says, “no matter how gung-ho you are, no matter how eager you are to be in great shape, you don’t run a marathon in the first week.” The results come steadily with daily practice and conscientious discipline. This then remoulds the brain and utilises its plasticity.

Another big idea in Bill’s work is the idea that resistance causes suffering. He says, “it isn’t that change is painful; it’s our resistance to the process that creates the pain…end the resistance and the discomfort ends.” This is an idea that has been addressed by many self-help authors, to resist reality is futile and can cause much pain, both physical and mental. The amazing author and teacher of ‘Hypnobirthing,’  Marie Mongan cites this to be one of the main reasons for the experience of pain in childbirth. Fear creates the fight or flight syndrome which sends oxygen and blood to the arms and legs – away from where they should be in the birthing process. This causes extreme tension which then causes the pain. Breathing, relaxation, going with the flow creates an experience as it should be and one that has been experienced by so many women in other parts of the world for thousands of years due to their positive social conditioning.

Bill says, “not resisting what is does not mean that you cannot want to change what is and the difference is one of the attachment to the outcome.” The secret is to have happiness and contentment within oneself and one that is not dependent on external results.