The Swan - Changing Unwanted Thoughts, Feelings & Behaviours
Of all the ways to engage the subconscious mind in changing unwanted thoughts, feelings and behaviours, my favourite is The Swan.
More traditional hypnotic techniques might be to engage the imagination or the emotional aspects of your mind into solving the problem, using metaphor and direct suggestion.
I like The Swan because all I have to do is ask and I can usually find the reason for the problem that you have come to change, find out what suggestions your mind is willing to accept and which ones it has problems with, and I can reach an agreement for things to be done differently from now on.
This process works by simply asking the subconscious to come and say hello. I will arrange your hand in The Swan position and ask the subconscious to move it. Sometimes this is very quick and sometimes I have to really switch on the charm, but over 70% of people will experience some movement in the hand that it is not deliberate. Sometimes this is quite subtle and sometimes it is quite dramatic. Everyone is different.
Once we have some movement I ask for a rotation of the hand and wave which usually brings a smile to my client's face. So now the subconscious is responding to my requests I can get a signal for YES and a signal for NO. Once in conversation I can speak to the part of the mind that is causing the behaviour.
All thoughts, feelings and behaviours are habitual. Once your subconscious has made up its mind about something it will keep doing it even when that habit is out of date or far from the best way to achieve the end result. Fear or anxiety for example is usually your mind's way of trying to protect you from a perceived threat that is not actually a real hazard. Using The Swan, I can find out what belief that perception is based on and change it which means the fear response dramatically reduces or disappears completely.
The Swan can achieve things in a session or two that might otherwise take weeks of counselling or that you have so far been unable to change in all of your life. So much of what we feel, think or do is based on a core belief or single experience for which there are unresolved emotions. By resolving those emotions, the belief will change and once your subconscious has a new belief all related feelings, thoughts and behaviours will change. That is not to say that your personality will be different, just to say that you will be more comfortable in your own mind. It is often like carrying something really heavy around with you without being aware of it and then suddenly putting it down – everything just gets suddenly easier.
I have used The Swan to help clients:
Stop smoking
Stop feeling low or depressed
Stop feeling mild and crippling anxieties of all types
Up their confidence and motivation
Be free of PTSD
Increase feelings of self-worth
Get over jealousy issues in a relationship
Let go of previous relationships
Change unhealthy eating and drinking habits
Increase sporting performance
Stop obsessive thoughts
Get rid of unresolved anger
Get out of their comfort zone
Be free of phobias
How Do you Know If You Need The Swan's help?
Quite often it can feel like thoughts and feelings are happening to you rather than you are creating them. You might find yourself acting in a certain way against your better judgement. This means the subconscious mind is in charge and it is doing everything it is doing for a good reason though those reasons can be misguided or just an out of date habit that is no longer relevant.
You can fight it with your conscious mind, try to stop doing it, but your conscious mind has a very limited capacity and as soon as you are consciously distracted by other aspects of your life your subconscious will run the habit again.
Counselling and other talking therapies can help you understand the reasons, can help you peel back the layers, one by one, and in time you may get there or at least feel better about it. The Swan and other hypnotic will go straight to the source, straight to the part of your mind that believes that emotion or behaviour is necessary and change it. Once that is changed the rest of the layers sort themselves out and there is no longer any need to cope or understand as it's simply not an issue.
If you find this hard to believe then ask yourself: do you accept that someone can have a traumatic experience and be increasingly anxious from that day on? If negative thought processes can be created so easily then so can healthier ones!
I usually perform sessions face to face but if you do not live in or around Worthing then I can do Skype sessions so please do not let that stop you getting in contact or making an enquiry.
And as a bit of fun, I am so impressed with The Swan that I wrote a poem about it:
Chaos flies from a butterfly’s wings
A world’s destruction in the wake of winds
Order flies from a large bird tamed
A mind’s repair and a world reframed
At the hands of one, a world laid to waste
By the hand of the other, inner conflict erased
A twitch of the finger is a twitch in my soul
The start of fragments becoming whole
A turn of the hand is a turn of the mind
My world is turning back into mine
A finger for no and a finger for yes
Psychology’s answer to the butterfly effect
So who is this bird of whom we speak?
It is not a bird of feathers and beak
This bird in the hand is worth all in the skies
As it has all the answers the conscious is denied
So if things in your mind seem to go wrong
Before you despair, consult with The Swan