HAPPY NEW YOU TWENTY TWENTY TWO

I’m kind of addicted to Frank Herbert’s DUNE books, all six of them.

I’ve been cycling them around on a continuous loop for so many years now that reading them has become like chatting to a wise and valued old friend. I love his aphorisms and observations, like this one on habits:

“Your habits come hunting after you. The habit self you construct will haunt you, a ghost wandering in search of your body, eager to possess you. We are addicted to the selves we construct.”
Frank Herbert. Chapter House, DUNE.

IMPORTANT: NOT ALL HABITS ARE BAD

Walking, for instance is a habit. So is speaking, driving, reading, toilet training … We are pattern making creatures. It’s a spectacularly useful item in our survival kit. It means we don’t have to start at the beginning each time we perform some ordinary function. We don’t need to think all the time about the right way to walk; how to place the correct weight on that foot so we can move forward confidently, and not stumble about like an infant. We never have to really focus on all the separate elements of living because once these patterns are set, they’re set for Life!

THE PROBLEM

The problems occur when this marvelous pattern making capacity gets wired to an unhealthy behavior like smoking, or over-eating or drinking; or an emotional response like fear, or anger, or self hatred.
These response patterns can become like a negative avatar, a habit-self that takes over and distorts your thinking, smothers your motivation, drags you around behind it like a beaten dog on a heavy chain.

HELP!
Some people can break the chains of addictive thinking on their own. I’m in awe of them. I couldn’t do it. When I was younger I was caught in a self-sabotaging behavior trap until I was released by a hypnotherapist. I was so impressed that I decided there and then to become a hypnotherapist myself!

HYPNOTHERAPY WORKS!

Not always, and not for everyone, that’s true. But it is a really powerful tool for change. It doesn’t change the world, but by changing how you experience yourself in the world, the world is necessarily changed for you.