Convincing Ourselves

I recently came across the idea of Energizing Meditation (EM) in the "National Council for hypnotherapy Journal SUMMER EDITION". The protocol has been proposed by Howard Baron, a retired management consultant, whom I believe still dabbles in workshops and corporate training. While traditional meditation is about staying mindful and relaxing, Energizing Meditation (EM) aims to converse and boost one's energy. Basically, you are to feel 'energized' after an EM session. Howard has an interest in managing oneself under highly stressful situations, and I can see how he came up with the protocol in order to ensure managers and leadership can function in the best manner when confronted with difficulty (we are talking oil spills and disasters here!). Given Howard's background is in management consultancy, I feel Energizing Meditation (EM) is worth looking into. The protocol has been deliberately keeping very open and flexible because he rightfully believes...

::SPOILERS::: I just finished watching the first and only season of the German/Austrian Netflix Orignal 'Freud'. A reimaging of the early life of Sigmund Freud, before he became famous for his work in psychoanalysis. The show starts off as an autobiography. It shows a young Freud who has just encountered hypnosis and is trying to convince his peer of its powers. The show gives the impression that Freud was a big believer in hypnosis early on and among his peers was the only one who believed that neurosis was due to 'thoughts and beliefs' rather than physiology. This is not entirely accurate, but the show does a good job of portraying him as a genius waiting to be discovered. The show quickly turns into a crime thriller with Freud coming into contact with a group of Hungarian rebels. These Hungarian rebels at first glance seem like trickers playing around with the feelings of people and letting them talk to their dead loved ones through Fleur, the medium. Howeve...

The markets last night took a dive globally. Everywhere from New York to Karachi, we saw sudden selling and almost panic in the past 24 hours. All of this on the back of coronavirus. Coronavirus? Coronavirus or nCOVID-19, is a new coronavirus that has been identified. It spreads as easily as the common flu and is about 10x more fatal. That may sound like a lot, however, considered the low mortality rate of flu, cCOVID-19 is only slightly more dangerous than pneumonia and far less dangerous than the recent Ebola or SARS, although it spreads more easily. Impact? The main reason why nCOVID-19 has become such a big deal is that in the beginning of the outbreak, no one was really sure how high the mortality rate would be. China was vigilant and the media reports were haunting, to say the least. Wuhan remains the city with the highest mortality rate and it set the stage for how coronavirus would be portrayed throughout the world. According to worldmeters.info there have been 11...

Psychology, in general, is based on the same paradigm as medicine in general. The patient develops a problem, you diagnose it and help the patient heal. A new paradigm emerged a few decades back which is about prevention, where an attempt is made to catch a disease early on or prevent it from ever happening. Both these paradigms were well adapted to psychology in general and organizational psychology in particular. Not only were mental health professionals helping employees deal with stress and anxiety, but they were making sure the workplace is vibrant and healthy enough to help avoid depression and ensure as many needs of the employees are met as possible. The new paradigm A third paradigm has now developed in psychology about 2 decades ago, called 'Positive Psychology'. While traditional psychology is mostly concerned with mental illness, positive psychology is concerned with building on an individual's strengths and helping them lead meaningful lives. In o...

This is a follow up to my article on goals: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/what-do-you-really-want-umair-usman/ When starting a business, a workout regiment, or any project for that matter, when starting with a blank sheet. No idea of how to move forward. We try things, we fail, we stumble, we fall and even with advice or a coach, we tend not to be able to attain what we set out to attain. A big reason for not being able to achieve our goals is because we lack a strategic plan. Now whats a strategic plan? A strategic plan is simply a break down of a list of goals over a period of time. All you need to do is to answer three questions to really set out a strategic plan -Where are you? -Where do you wanna go? -How do you get there? Example 1: BUSINESS Say you are starting a coffee trading business, how will you answer these? -Where are you? Define your objectives, mission, assets, strengths, weaknesses etc. All are necessary to understand know to figure out what can...

Exercise is necessary to maintain good health, there are no doubts about that. However many of us find it difficult to stay motivated to exercise long term. However what if there was a way to make exercise more palatable and enhance its benefits even further? Enter Active Alert Hypnosis. A little known and sparsely studied form of hypnosis that is essentially induced with vigorous body movement rather than relaxation. While regular hypnosis helps you ‘ focus and relax ’ , active alert hypnosis helps you ‘ focus and arouse ’ .  It is simple to induce. While exercising, focus on body movements and tell yourself you are becoming ‘ active ’ rather than ‘ relaxed ’ . It will help you go in a sort of ‘ zone ’ while exercising and while in this ‘ zone ’ you can exercise and perform sports activity better. Theoretically, you can also include other hypnotic suggestions as well that have to do with the activity you are doing or anything else So there you have it. Using Ac...

There are few things that are as important to health, as what you eat and drink. It directly affects your weight, mood, blood sugar and so much more. Yet, most people look for quick fixes. They want to lose weight do so by going to extremes diets that are unhealthy and unsustainable. Unless one is being offered millions of dollars for a photoshoot, why would someone use unhealthy methods to lose as much as weight possible as quickly as possible? The reason is that they ‘hate the way they look’. It's not health or fitness but their ‘looks’ that are the motivation.   Being motivated to be fit in order to  look good is fine, but being motivated to ‘not to look bad’ is something entirely different . Its the route to being  unhappy, to take risks with one’s life  and end up on unhealthy quick fixes . We cannot forget that the most important opinion of themselves comes from themselves and not other s . Only when we accept ourselves wholly as we are. Onl...

We daily encounter situations which are uncomfortable. It can be talking to a boss, going into a meeting and for some even getting up to take a walk. Whatever the case, anxiety provoking events are common and everywhere. For severe cases of anxiety or panic, which may be due to some form of trauma or even a deeper mental health issue, I would recommend seeing a professional, however for everyday life, there are many techniques that one can use and one of them is 'nudging' We we need it: Many situations in life make us question ourselves i.e our self concept as well as our abilities. Going into a meeting a young graduate may think that they dont belong there or they cannot contribute enough. Similarly a new CEO may wonder if they have what it takes or even if they are meant to run a company. Such self doubt is common and is often accompanied by even questioning ones role or position in particular situation. However often these are situations one can either not avoid, or p...

I have written about failure before but it is not something discussed so often these days. Literature and gurus are out there to preach the path to success and how it is inevitable, when in reality the fact of the matter is that every now and then failure will come looking for you. Successful people are not those that never fail, they are the ones who keep going despite failing. When one fails, it is hard to get an objective look at the situation however one of the best ways that I have found of being able to convince myself that failure is only a part of life is by looking at other successful people are recognizing how many failure they have been through themselves. Keep in mind who failed Steve Jobs : The greatest example in modern times may very well be Steve Jobs. The once upon a time young heartthrob of silicon valley who was thrown out of his company. More than a decade later he came back and implemented the biggest corporate turnaround in history. His story, if anyone has...