Activating Attunement and Mindful Absorption

Welcome to The Hypnotist, the show that gives you inside access to cutting-edge hypnosis with real clients facing genuine issues. Brought to you by the Hypnotherapist demanded by celebrities, CEOs, and even royalty, Adam Cox. These recordings took place live from Evans Twin in London's world-famous Harley Street. Sure, get yourself comfortable and enjoy today's episode of The Hypnotist. One of the wonderful things I get to do as a therapist every now and then is to work with other therapists, and I think that's because although the main audience for this podcast are just people that want to make changes in their life, there is a secondary audience of other therapists, of the hypnotherapists, of the psychotherapists, cognitive behavioral therapists, because they're looking for maybe inspiration or different approaches that they might integrate into their work. This client that I was working with in this session wanted to be more mindful, more present, more able to be aware of the client in front of them, and that's a very admirable and positive desire, because some therapists are an autopilot, and they have the client in front of them, but they're kind of thinking about other things. To do therapy well, it's really useful to be able to pay attention to the client and calibrate to very subtle things that might be pupil dilation, how frequently they blink, their breathing rate, facial expressions, ab reactions, all of these things you can amiss if you're not focused on the client. One of the things that I feel I'm pretty good at is really listening to the client and uncovering unconscious belief systems that the client doesn't even know they believe, but it's implied within the language that they're using or unconscious metaphors, but you can only do that if you're really paying attention. This client used a phrase that I hadn't heard of, but I like it. I tend to use the word sensory acuity, but this client used the word attunement. To attune means to hone in, to kind of pay attention, and what I like about it is it expands my vocabulary, because if to attune is to hone in, attunement is the state of being highly attuned, so this kind of attunement. So if you like that phrase, borrow that phrase, but this was for a therapist that wanted to be more present, but I would say almost anyone would benefit from that same quality, a parent could be more attuned to their children, a partner could be more attuned to their partner, you know, a employer to their employees. Paying attention has a lot of benefits, and this hypnosis is designed exactly to do that, and it uses an element of regression for them. They had the experience of feeling very present and very attuned when they were kayaking, when they were on a river with rapids, they had to be paying attention, so we use an element of that and then various metaphors and levels of disassociation for them to really prime the resource state and then activate it in the very context that would be useful for them. So again, I'm going to ask you to set an intention. I want you to think, where would it be more useful for you to be more mindful in your life, to be more present, to be more attuned? And if you think about that, before the hypnosis session starts, you'll get so much more value from this session than if you just passively listen, you'll still get some benefit from passively listening, but you'll get more benefit if you make it relevant to you and think of where in your life would you like more of that mindfulness? That said, find a quiet, comfortable place, ideally where you're not going to be distracted or disturbed, relax, and enjoy the session. Take a deep breath in, and as you breathe in, breathe in a wonderful feeling of calmness, and as you exhale, feel a sense of release, as if any stress or tension is starting to leave your body in your outward breath. I want you to get a sense that, as in most things, this feeling of looseness is on a spectrum of extremes. I want you to get a feeling that it's possible for something to be completely rigid and brittle, but also so loose that it has no function, and I want you to get a sense that there is a midpoint where the level of relaxation, the level of calmness is optimal for this natural relaxation, and I want you to imagine making yourself more tense just briefly, tighten the muscles in your arms, your neck, your shoulders, your jaw, and on the outward breath release. That's it. And then just imagine that if all the muscles in your neck were so relaxed, your head would just flop forward. And I want you to get a feeling of, your body knows what's just right for you, what feels comfortable, and just position your body in that way where your head feels like a helium balloon on a string, held upwards, but without tension, because the helium balloon is on a string, not a stick, but it's held there, floating, not forced, so as you breathe in and breathe out, feel that your body knows how to get it just right. The deeper you breathe, the more relaxed you become, and the more relaxed you become, the deeper you breathe. And as your body relaxes, your imagination awakens, and I want you to imagine keeping your physical body where it is, and allowing your imagination to float deep within your imagination. As you start to imagine a tranquil river at a part in the river where the water is not fast flowing, where it's more shallow, water is clear, clean, fresh, cool, but not cold. And I wonder if you could imagine yourself there on the edge of that river, almost knee-high in the water, feeling the smooth stones under your feet. And I wonder if you could feel that sense of alignment and safety, a feeling of what it would feel like, to be able to be aware, to notice, but not force or control. The midpoint of acceptance and control could be considered flexibility, alignment, or just being present, and I want you to feel that mindfulness, some people, instead of calling it mindfulness, would just call it noticing. Sometimes people are so caught up in their own heads, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, they're not there in the present, and I want you to imagine how good it would feel, to imagine being in that water, feeling the sensation of smooth rocks under your feet, not just the temperature, but the flow of water against your skin, the sounds of the river moving, breeze on your skin, and I want you to accept the suggestion that noticing things through your senses, is a gateway to being attuned, and I want you to imagine that an old radio has all of the radio stations, but they are invisible if it's not set to the right frequency, and I want you to get a sense that there is a frequency that makes you highly attuned to the circumstances of yourself, but also the ability to pick up on details that many would miss from others, and I want you to get a sense that there are frequencies all around us, radio waves, television waves, the frequency of your voice, the frequency of light, the sky is blue because of a frequency, it's all frequencies, and I want you to consider that there is a particular frequency that is a combination lock that activates you at your most attuned, and we can call that attunement, to be attuned means that you have to be in a state of attunement, and as you imagine yourself there in the river allow a memory to come up of a time when you were in that state, maybe a time when there was you in a canoe, on the white waters, rapids and suddenly there was a waterfall, a threat, a danger but you didn't perceive it that way, I want you to get a sense of a ritual, a breath, a movement of the canoe, an extra bit of force, an awareness, not a logical evaluation but just an intuitive evaluation of what needed to be done, and I want you to get a sense that that has a frequency, your breathing rate had a certain number of breaths per minute, your heart rate had a certain number of beats per minute, and your brain waves were at a particular frequency, it's all frequencies and the frequency you had in that moment could be highly useful in a different context, paying attention but not forcing a thought, knowing what to do rather than thinking what to do, I want you to feel that self-trust, that feeling of time doesn't exist in that moment, being absorbed in whatever needs to be done, I want you to imagine successfully navigating the water form, feeling a sense that your resources exceeded the challenge and then imagine leaving the river and seeing a nearby Labrador, but this Labrador is a service dog for someone that's blind and I want you to see that Labrador attentively looking at their surroundings and then their owner and then back at their surroundings, almost in that moment the Labrador doesn't exist because they are so attuned to the owner and their surroundings, and just for a moment imagine what it would be like to be that Labrador, to be that focused, that absorbed, that sense of knowing what needs to be done and doing it intuitively and just feel that part within you expanding, almost like you're teaching your neural path ways how to find that frequency more often, because sometimes when you find something, it becomes easier to recreate it, rather than by accident, by intent, I want you to imagine leaving that Labrador and drifting off to a different memory, a memory of a time when you know for sure that you were in that state of being highly attuned to a client you were working with, but I want you to observe like you're a watcher, someone in the room, seeing that version of you in that state, and I want you to notice your eye movements, what are you focused on, your breathing rate, are you breathing shallow from the chest or deep from the diaphragm, what is the level of looseness in your body and I want you to play that game that every child plays of mimicry, I want you to mimic the breathing of that version of you highly attuned, the level of relaxation, the concentration, the openness, the acceptance, just mimic that version of you, everything leaves clues, there will be multiple frequencies in that version of you, the frequency of your voice, how often you blink, words per minute, it all has a frequency, and when you're absolutely certain that that version of you that you observe is in that state of attunement, then float into that version of you, feel how it would feel to breathe that way, think that way, a sense of knowingness, I want you to get a feeling that even if there were distractions you wouldn't notice them, being physically comfortable, how loose or relaxed your body is, how natural words come to mind, the right question to ask or response to give, of being open, observing and really connected with that felt sense within, I want you to notice that this isn't rapport, this is something where it almost feels like you are highly focused on the person in front of you, and you don't have to evaluate how their breathing, their facial expressions, their tone of voice, you just know that your mind is absorbing, observing and evaluating everything intuitively, and in that state I want you to feel, somehow you are channeling the right thing to say, do or be in that moment, I want you to feel that when you breathe a certain way or allow your voice there in the vocal cords to resonate at a particular frequency, you are activating and amplifying this state, whenever you are in this state you will observe what's around you, a temperature, a smell, a sound, so that these are the breadcrumbs to find your way back to this feeling, to this state, knowing that before long you will be able to get there by design, I want you to think of yourself as a child maybe, there was a bicycle and there was a time you couldn't balance on the bike, but then something happened and you could just two wheels, if you try to explain how you balance on the bike it would be difficult, you just know, and I want you to feel that attunement is like balancing on that bike, the more you do it the easier it gets until you can just get to that place whenever you need to because you want to, and if your unconscious agrees let me know by nodding your head, before we leave this place I want you to imagine a full length mirror and in that mirror you are seeing yourself one year from now and in that future is a version of you that can just access that state in the same way that an Olympic gold medalist can not hope to be in that zone, but ensure they get in that zone and I want you to see that future version of you, maybe with a challenging client or outside of where you normally work and yet you can still get to that place and get a sense that that comes with practice, repetition, but more importantly noticing unseen patterns that then become visible, each time you notice something, how you feel, how you breathe, how you are when you are in that state increases your ability to get back to that state, stop to leave this place but you take all of these thoughts and resources with you, knowing that a smell, a sound, a vibration can take you all the way back, so take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your nose, wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes, connect and calibrate into the here and the now, as I now count from 1 to 10 to awaken you, starting to count, 1 to 3 waking up, 4, 5, 6 more alert, 7, 8, open your eyes, open your eyes, 9, 10, wide awake, wide awake, wide awake. Thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of The Hypnotist. If you've enjoyed this episode or got some value from it, please give it a 5 star rating and review, and maybe you know someone that would also benefit from this particular episode, in which case share the episode with them so they can also get the benefit too. And if you would like to listen to this episode where it's just the hypnosis, so no intro, no explanation, just the hypnosis and completely add free, there will be a link in the description where you can subscribe at a very low cost and only get access to the hypnosis. So if that's of interest, please check that out. Thank you again for being a regular listener of The Hypnotist and I'll see you again soon for more.