Hypnosis: Experiencing The Expansive Powers Of The Mind With Rick Paddock

 

If you are looking to make some kind of change in your life, you may be exploring many new and different forms of treatment or therapy. More and more, clinicians are now recommending these “alternative” options as a way to help people improve their quality of life even more safely and effectively. One of these such treatments is the use of hypnosis. Rick Paddock is a hypnotist, instructor and podcaster whose mission is to increase awareness around the expansive and healing powers of the human mind. Rick and Adam delve into the power of hypnosis, especially when making a change is proving just too hard to do alone. Could hypnosis be the start of a whole new pivot for you?

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Hypnosis: Experiencing The Expansive Powers Of The Mind With Rick Paddock

I’m feeling lucky to be able to share an amazing conversation with you. I know it’s going to be an amazing conversation because I’ve already been to his show and we had a wonderful conversation. I’m already anticipating the richness of the discussion that we’ll engage in and where it may be exactly what some of you are wanting and ready to know. I always think the timing of things is perfect and this will be no exception.

Rick Paddock is an instructor, hypnotist, and podcaster. He loves to teach others about the expansive powers of the human mind. Rick is an instructor for the International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy and the Founder and Director of MidAmerica Hypnosis & Mindset Training Center as well as the Milwaukee Hypnosis & Wellness Center. He’s an author and producer of many successful personal improvement products enjoyed by thousands of people around the world, including three books and over 50 audio and video programs. He’s also a highly sought-after speaker, host, and producer of the Mind Flipping podcast, in which he interviews world-class experts in hypnosis, NLP, meditation, neuroscience, and coaching. Rick, it’s a pleasure to have you on our show.

Thank you, Adam. Thanks for having me. You are a world-class expert. I love to have you on and I love your show. You’re doing important work, so I’m excited to be a part of it.

The process of visualizing the future you want makes a big difference in your life. Share on X

I take that and receive it. It’s important these days that we are focused on the language that we use when we’re talking about ourselves because it’s telling when you say, “I am,” and then look at what follows that statement. It’s a declaration and a statement of ownership. What exactly are you willing to own in the world? I’m happy to own world-class anything but something good, of the heart and it’s giving something that’s contributing anything valuable in the world to be world-class. That is a high compliment and great for any of us to aspire to. Let’s jump into your work in the world. What I would love for our people to know is what’s not written in your bio that you’d love for people to know about you to start?

I don’t know what is important for people to know. In that bio, I recognize that I’ve always had a lot of interests. An author, Barbara Sher, I heard that she coined the term scanners and I’m a scanner. She described it as people who love to learn, get involved in a lot of different things and then we move on to something else. I’ve always been that way. People that take training, for instance, in hypnosis, coaching or CPR, and they want to find out everything about that. They want to learn how to redo their kitchen so they’re going to learn how to sand, paint, dovetail and all these things. Then they move on to something else. I’ve been that and also, I’m a simple guy. The most important things for me are relationships. In many ways, I’m easily pleased. My wife and I joke when we go out to eat, I don’t need much. I’m a fast-food guy and I love great food but I’m simple. Despite all those different interests, that’s what it comes down to. People that know me know that I’m an emotional guy. I cry tears of joy and sadness a lot because I love people and I love relationships. That’s probably the other thing.

You are probably well-suited to the podcast arena. I could see you being a radio or a TV talk show host because you have a relaxing tone in your voice. It’s an excellent voice for this medium for sure. Is that the reason why you got into hypnosis? The question I wanted to ask you all along is how did you become a hypnotherapist?

It’s not the reason why. Part of the journey was I first became a life coach and I was calling a woman colleague who’s become a friend, Joan Sotkin. She’s a prosperity coach out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. We were talking about business and coaching EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, and she said, “You’ve got the voice for it,” or something like that. Through the years, I’ve only heard it or recognized it since then. I joke when people say that my voice is perfect to “put people to sleep” and relax them. It also makes me a terrible singer, so don’t pick me for karaoke. We won’t win anything.

 

That’s good to know. What was it that drew you in? You started as a coach. People are fascinated. I’m going on no great limb here to say, “Hypnotherapy is one of those things that we’ve probably seen on a stage performance where it’s mind-boggling what people will do under the trance.” I’ve seen it enough to truly believe that people do get entranced and then they will do things that they wouldn’t normally do. I saw it with our daughter, Chelsea, when she was about 18 or 19 years old. We had taken her to a personal growth seminar and we were part of this thing. She got called up on stage to swallow fire. She’s a timid kid at that age. She might have even been younger, in fact, and she was completely entranced. She was in a state and ate this fire like it was nobody’s business and declared it out loud, “I am unstoppable.” She owned it. Lead us into how you ended up doing this.

The things I love about your show and your message in the world are about resilience and reinvention. That’s how I came to be a scanner and an entrepreneur. I was in my second business and I was a full-time real estate investor. I was a house flipper and then after the market turned, it hit me hard. I lost properties and I gave up properties. At that point, as a single dad, I lost a bit of who I was. I forgot what I had always known that who we are isn’t based on those outside things. My head was spinning so I ended up being anxious and depressed.

A friend who was a pastor at the church I went to, had gotten some life coach training and asked me to come to his office because he wanted my feedback on a talk or a seminar series that he was going to put on. It was about coaching and how more powerful it was than the traditional pastoral counseling model that he had been using. It was looking in the past about your upbringing instead of the coaching model you’re looking at where you are now and more importantly, where you want to go. In that process of telling me about it, he took me through. I don’t know if he had a name for it. If he did, he would have called it a visualization.

It made a difference in my life. It was what we would call the future self-visualization. I visited my future self and felt some peace and clarity and took away the anxiety. I got into coaching and learned some of these visualizations. Fast forward, probably a couple of years later in a serendipitous way, a chiropractor friend was telling me he was going for hypnosis training. I recognize that I, in hindsight, probably had a light bulb go on that perhaps some of your readers may be flickering like, “Here’s this friend of mine, who’s a chiropractor, is going for the training of hypnosis.” I never thought about it much. I thought hypnosis or hypnotists were people who had this skill they were born with. They had a way with words or energy that they could make a difference in people’s lives.

It dawned on me, “What’s probably like coaching, EFT, tapping, havening or all these processes that help people release blocks and obstacles, and move forward and get their answers?” That’s what it was. That’s how I came to hypnosis. I then recognized through my studies and training that visualization was hypnosis. It had all of the traditional characteristics. In general, there are four parts to hypnosis. In a more traditional hypnosis session, there’s the induction where you induce that trance state. There’s often a deep in that state and then there’s the suggested part where you, for instance, imagine that future self or many different things.

The practice of hypnosis has proven effective in helping people quit smoking. Share on X

Some hypnotherapists, not myself, usually will regress to a pass, maybe a cause, although we don’t know the causes. In the end, there’s the awakening. For your readers that are fascinated or wondering what it is, in many ways, hypnosis is the thing they’ve probably already done or familiar with visualizations or meditations. Maybe you’re a little bit more goal-oriented or a little bit more with some parameters around it to release and achieve a more specific goal than perhaps a meditation.

What’s history? I’m fascinated to know and I’m sure other people are thinking to themselves. Where does hypnosis even begin? Is there a way to track it back to its real origin state?

I should know this and I did take history courses. A good hypnotherapist or hypnotist will study it. Hypnosis comes from hypnosis, which means sleep in Greece because it’s a sleep-like state. It’s, “Not sleep.” The challenge with our field of hypnosis is that you get 100 hypnotists that have been doing it for ten-plus years and you’ll get 90 different definitions. If we look at religious leaders, their ability to be suggestive is hypnotic. There’s Franz Mesmer if you’ve heard of mesmerism. The things he did were mesmerizing and intentionally hypnotic. Although some of his things were questionable.

Émile Coué came up with the term, “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” It’s an emphatic affirmation and he did many things that by modern-day standards are considered hypnotic. There is a long history of hypnosis, but it wasn’t until probably the 1950s where people like Dave Elman and Milton Erickson were real leaders that brought it into the medical field intentionally. The American Medical Association has given its blessing that it’s appropriate for use in medical situations.

There’s a long history and one of the challenges we face in the field is the thing that you mentioned. I have a lot of friends that are both clinicians and stage hypnotists. I have clinical hypnotist friends that hate stage hypnotists because it looks like a bit of a parlor trick. If we think about all the different ways that we end up helping people release blocks and obstacles, reinvent their lives, and different things from coaching to acupuncture to tapping, havening, Reiki and chiropractic work. There aren’t any other fields that have this type of entertainment aspect. In many ways, it harms the clinician. It’s an interesting field. I love it more than the field of hypnosis. I love our ability to flip our minds to be resilient, grow, learn and change.

Tell me a little bit about Mind Flipping. Knowing a little bit more about your personal history, you combined two areas that you had a passion for and you were scanning. You found these two areas and then put them together, which is the mind work and then that flipping component from your real estate days. What is Mind Flipping?

It’s a term I came up with. The similarity is my interest and fascination with your ability to recreate, to reinvent. That’s what I loved about being a house flipper. As a full-time real estate investor, I did flip houses. I had crews that did the work, but seeing something that had deteriorated and then bringing it back to its original splendor or perhaps even better, was fascinating. As a hypnotist and as a coach, it’s neat to be able to do that. I’ll often say that the clients that come to me, what we’re doing is getting back to where you were. These habits that people come to me for, these blocks and obstacles are learned behaviors. You didn’t come into the world with this.

What we’re doing is renovating and updating your mind like I used to renovate and update homes. When I was looking to create a podcast, I came up with a name. There are many reality shows and house flipping shows, so I thought, “It’s what I ended up doing. It’s what we do. It’s not only what hypnotists and coaches do, but we do it all the time.” We’re designed to grow, learn, change, renovate and update our mind, thoughts, feelings in our lives. Sometimes, we have to do it. As we’ve talked about together, and you and your guests on your show have, life happens, tragedy happens and markets turn. There are vehicle accidents and many things so then we have to shift how we think and feel. Gratefully, we have times where we can choose to.

I love the analogy of renovation personally because it’s something that we can wrap our brains around. It’s something that needs to be renovated. It could be the windows that need to be replaced. We could talk for hours about what those renovations could look like and the idea that maybe we all are on some level at this old house episode. The house is being the rooms of our mind and renovating, updating and even reinventing in some ways. What is going on in between our ears is a big opportunity and a big deal. There are a couple of things about habits. If there’s a way for people to understand a little bit about the hypnosis process so that they might be able to work on themselves, that’s one goal for this episode that I’d like to get at. Also, looking at where that might dovetail with habits. Meaning the habits we were looking to create, as well as habits that we might want to break. That would be a great trajectory for the show. If you might lead us into that a bit, that would be great.

While you’re determining that, my premise here is we’re all hypnotized. From our habitual thinking, the ways that we think from the moment we wake up and start having conscious thoughts and awareness, there’s a hypnotic rhythm to those patterns of thinking. It goes back from wherever they were formed. It could be early on, something you picked up last week, I suppose. We are on some level of hypnotized. Are we the ones hypnotizing ourselves? If so, what do we do about it? If it’s coming from elsewhere, how can we be aware and a little bit more conscious of that happening? It’s a place to lead in and then ultimately, how is it that we might be able to take more of the reins of control there if that’s even possible?

 

A couple of things that you mentioned is a great way of looking at habits, in many ways, are hypnotic. In this field, we often say that our work isn’t as much about hypnotizing somebody as it is dehypnotizing them. They’ve developed this hypnotic habit, belief, behavior, thought or feeling often without their intention or consent. The work that we do is getting clear about what would you rather be thinking and feeling? I have heard through the years and believe that our subconscious is a place where all of our habits are. If we look at our thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and habits as things that we do automatically and we don’t think about them, they’re on a subconscious level.

How do we get those beliefs? I’ve shared that there are three primary ways that these habits stick and stick is a tie into the acronym. The acronym is TAR. The first way is through the trauma of our subconscious, which has the prime directive to keep us safe and comfortable, see something around us or hear something. For instance, mom or dad is jumping up on a chair as a mouse runs across the room. We’re a child and we think, “Anything that looks like that, we should be afraid of.” There are many other little traumas or big Traumas that create beliefs in us. Our readers can understand that.

The second way is through authority figures, especially as kids but even as adults. A person that’s important to us whether they’re close or not, there’s a part of us that uses them as an authority and they say, “Do or express something,” and we take that as our belief. The third way, gratefully, is through repetition. We can think of all the different ways that we develop habits through repetition like driving. We’re conscious at first, but then eventually, it’s automatic. Also brushing your teeth, learning how to type and a musical instrument. We’re conscious at first and then in real-time, it’s subconscious and automatic.

That third way is the way that we can always intentionally choose to create a new habit. How do we do that through repetition? We do it in a little bit different way because we’re trying to change that subconscious level below awareness and that’s because our subconscious processes information is in a different way than our conscious mind. Our conscious mind, that part of our mind where our awareness comes from, processes information through words, language, logic, and reason. I look at the conscious and subconscious of an iPhone and an Android. iPhone apps won’t work in Android and Android apps won’t work on iPhone. The same thing with these two parts of our mind. They process information differently. Unlike our conscious mind, which processes information through words, language, logic, and reason, our subconscious processes information through our five senses or our imagination.

As we imagine seeing, hearing or feeling primary, the feeling part is not only kinesthetically through our body, but through our emotions. That’s how it processes information. How can we make those changes through repetitively imagining ourselves, especially in a relaxed meditative state making the change? It’s in that place where our subconscious is open and receptive to a new way of thinking and feeling. We’re communicating directly with that part of our mind. If it’s in alignment with our morals, ethics, values, and goals, it has no reason to reject it.

Is this one of the benefits of mindfulness training? This is certainly an area that a lot of people are exploring and more open to these days, meditation in other words. When you are quiet or create stillness in your mind, it doesn’t mean your thoughts disappear. Most meditators or people that practice that, know your thoughts don’t stop and maybe they even race a bit. The process of bringing yourself back to a point of focus, whether it’s in number counting, mantra repetition or any other form that it’s the state of mindfulness or this process of mindfulness. In that state, is that the fertile ground or the fertile soil where you can introduce new ideas or things that you want your subconscious to adopt?

Yes.

Am I paraphrasing you a little bit there?

You’re on the right track. There’s a great book by Dr. Michael Yapko, which compares mindfulness to hypnosis extensively from research to anecdotal and they’re similar. You’re getting to a similar place. The things that I talk about on my Mind Flipping podcast, in my office, and when I get talks, it’s what we think we know. We know that in ten years, we may know something differently or think we were wrong. In general, there are four different measurable brainwave states. There’s a beta, which is where we’re at, active brainwave cycles, between 13 and 30 cycles per second. Beta is there. Right below that is alpha, below that is theta, and the deepest level, deep sleep is delta. Getting to those middle two, alpha or theta, is that relaxed state of mind, almost like you’re asleep or maybe in light sleep where that critical, analytical conscious mind gets out of the way. Our subconscious is more open to receiving suggestions.

We’ve heard the expression or if you have kids, you’ve seen that up until they’re 5 or 6 or 7, they’re like sponges. They don’t know the difference between make-believe and reality. They’ll take anything and that’s because their prefrontal cortex hasn’t developed it. They don’t have the ability to think critically and analytically to reject thoughts and impressions. When we get to that relaxed hypnotic state, we’re in that same brainwave state. We can get there through mindfulness and meditation, and have that more relaxed state. I don’t know if you and your readers are familiar with the Muse, the little EEG thing you put on your head. It’s a way to practice meditation. You listen to audios and it changes the audios as your brain starts to rest. It’s a little portable EEG and you can see that you’ll drop from beta to alpha level by simply closing your eyes because you’re removing all that visual stimulation. There are a lot of ways to do it. Mindfulness is a fantastic practice and way to get to that open and receptive state.

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A question I have about habits is related to this idea of the things we say to ourselves. Those, “I am,” statements that I would call identity. You’re giving yourself an identity, in essence. That is part of making a change. Anybody reading this is saying to themselves, “There are some areas of my life that I’d like to improve.” We know that to improve anything, we’ve got to change something. That’s the first basic level of awareness and then understanding that there are things you do to change. Frankly, if we could change that easily, we probably would have already. It is a bit of a process.

What I love is to help people to understand that in the process of creating a new habit, do we have to change our identity? I’ll give you an example. I was reinventing my career from that of a lawyer to a public speaker, trainer, facilitator, and author. I had to stop referring to myself or change the way I was referring to myself at that time. I would stop saying, “I am a lawyer,” even though I was still a lawyer. I was a lawyer for more than 2.5 years professionally as I was moving into this other area.

Along that path, I started to refer to myself differently. I would refer to myself as a speaker or as an author. I began to adopt a new identity. In the book, PIVOT, I talked about this pivot phone booth. That’s a figurative thing. It’s like Clark Kent, who goes into the phone booth as that guy and then emerges as Superman. It’s a good analogy for this idea and the concept of changing your identity. Do you have to change your identity or is that a part of the process of creating new habits on some level?

Yes, and.

I love it, not “but.” Those of you that probably read this will say maybe and maybe not. Anytime you put that word, but, “I respect you but or I respect what you’re saying but. I love you but,” it’s a negation of everything that came before the word ‘but.’ Thank you for saying “and,” Rick. I have a feeling you’re going to plus me here so I appreciate that.

That is a great place. Everybody is different. I’m curious though, I want to know a little bit of your story. As you recognized that ownership in your identity, did you intentionally say, “A part of me may always be an attorney, but now I’m going to refer to myself like this?” What was that process like for you?”

I am still an attorney. I just don’t practice law anymore. At a point in time, in my process, I needed to lean forward onto something that I wanted to become and not lean back on something that I already was. I started to consciously say to myself that, “I am,” and then I would change from, “I am a lawyer, counselor, etc.,” into this new thing. In the beginning, I didn’t believe it. The cells of my body knew better. I was still a lawyer and I was still practicing law more frequently than I was doing anything else. It was the repetition of both saying, “I am something different,” and the things that I was doing in connection with that.

I could say, “I am an Olympic athlete. I am a world-class new gymnast.” If I’m not in the gym doing gymnastics or competing or registering to compete, then there’s a disconnect. Because I was saying, “I am a speaker,” and I was speaking on weekends 2 or 3 times a month, then I had the repetition of doing the thing. The statements I was saying to myself that my new identity is this and the repetition of the activity that at a certain point, I stopped questioning it. In the beginning, it didn’t make sense because to go from one thing or one way of thinking or one way of being to a different one is artificial.

I’ll give you one more example. Years ago, I started waking up in the morning and putting my feet on the floor. Instead of saying some of the things I used to say, I started saying, “I love my life.” Those words, “I love my life,” I didn’t love my life 100% then. There were lots of areas that I was unhappy about but I started to say that. It started to be not only a repetitive behavior, but it was also the belief that I was saying, “I am someone who loves life. I am someone who loves my life. I am someone who’s grateful for my life no matter what is going on in my life.” At that time, I was in that icky stage with the caterpillar. I wasn’t a butterfly and I wasn’t quite a caterpillar in the middle. It didn’t feel great. It was both of those things.

Thank you for sharing that. I’ll often share with my clients or people in the audience that in many ways, it helps to look at my mind and for us to look at our subconscious as a five-year-old. A lot of your readers know that there’s a lot of research that shows that the processes of hypnosis are effective at helping people quit smoking. Most research shows it’s the most effective. I’m using that as an example. Let’s say I’m a smoker, looking to step into the identity of a nonsmoker. I metaphorically put my arm around my five-year-old subconscious and say, “Thank you for that habit but now I recognize in my life. I’m ready to quit smoking. I’m ready to love my life. I’m ready to step into being a speaker. It’s my choice and these are the reasons why.” At first, it can feel like a little bit of incongruence.

It’s a lie at the beginning.

It’s a lie until you can find one little proof so you started speaking on weekends. People that would come to me through the years to quit smoking, before they come for their first session, I would say, “Make sure you have your last cigarette. Consciously have your last cigarette and then see me. Bring any remaining ones or throw them away.” “That’s it. Congratulations. You’re a nonsmoker. You’re done. You’re not smoking now.” You may relapse. That’s the reality. Some people relapse, but you are a nonsmoker.

 

My experience and for most of us, when we’re looking to change a habit and we remind ourselves, “This is who I want to be,” only you have the right, power and authority to choose your identity. Sometimes, there is work but we’ve got that five-year-old subconscious. We’ve got our armor on and say, “Stick with me. I may always be an attorney. I may always be this or that, but I’m choosing to step into the identity of this and together, we’re going to do it.” Does that make sense?

We truly own that. Nobody can take that from us. Whatever we fill in the blank after those words, “I am,” is ours to own. Nobody can change that for us or stop us from adopting that. That is true freedom. You brought up the issue of relapse and when it comes to quitting smoking, with diets or anything like that, relapse is a big thing that people fall off the wagon. That’s important because when we’ve changed our identity, there’s less likelihood, in my experience that we do relapse. That’s why I asked you about identity.

I’ll give you an example. My son-in-law, who I’ll refer to as my son for the sake of the story, is marrying our oldest daughter. He wanted to get in better shape for the wedding. A few months before that, he put himself on quite a regimen of exercise and even eating more healthily. He’s been health-conscious. For sure, he’s done a good job of that already, but he wanted to make a change, so he did. He lost quite a bit of inch and pounds, and looked great on the wedding day and everything else. He did a great job.

A couple of weeks after the wedding, like you, ‘d imagine with a lot of people, the wedding’s over, pictures are done and everything was great. Some of that weight has started to come back. The goal was to look his best on the day of his wedding. The wedding happens and that’s no longer the force. That’s not the goal that he has in mind anymore because he’s achieved that goal. His identity didn’t change. The goal of, “Looking the best I can on my wedding day,” is not an identity goal but to say something like, “I am a healthy eater,” that’s my identity. “I’m a health-conscious person or I’m committed to eating as well as Olympic athletes eat.” Fill in the blank.

That shift in identity would mean that even after the wedding was over, the identity would have continued to drive the behaviors that would ultimately lead to either looking the way he did on the wedding or looking a little differently when that was no longer the goal. Is there a place where you think that people are more likely to keep their habits or other mindsets? I’d love if we can give people a recipe to hypnotize themselves.

One of those things to me is that “I am,” statement. That’s a hypnotic statement. At least that’s how I look at it. What are some of the other ways that people can use hypnosis to get themselves to maybe do things that they’re reluctant to do? Maybe they think of themselves like, “I’m a procrastinator. I am not a morning person. I’m not an evening person.” The number of things that they are hypnotically saying to themselves that create an identity, what can we do to empower them to other intentions?

Three things are popping up. First of all, I agree with you 100% that identity is huge. When we can step into that place where we choose our identity, that’s huge. There are different types of habits and depending on the level of habit change you’re looking to make. You recognize the different identities of who you are when you were in this habit and who you’re stepping into when you don’t, and be aware of that decision.

The second thing is our words, our self-talk, and recognizing that there’s a difference between saying, “I procrastinate at times and I’m a procrastinator,” or “I’ve got a sweet tooth or I have a history of liking sweets.” We always had the ability to step into a different thing, identity, and belief. One way to help with that is to tell yourself, “I may always remember how I used to like sweets. I may always remember how I was a procrastinator, but I’m choosing to no longer be that way. Occasionally, I may remember it more than I used to.”

How do we remind our subconscious? Speaking of hypnosis or a hypnotic level, it’s through communicating with your subconscious in the way that it needs to be or likes to be communicated. Continue to see yourself, especially if your Primary Representational System is visual. If you can see yourself stepping into the life and habit that you want, see it more. If you can hear, let yourself talk or let yourself imagine others saying, for instance, your son-in-law, “You look fantastic. I can tell that you’ve taken a turn in life. You view yourself differently.”

Imagine other people talking about you the way you want people to talk about you. Feel in your body and feel the emotions of empowerment and control of whatever the opposite of those habits are. The last way is I’m thinking of Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz. He still does a lot of work with OCD patients. Identifying that while you may be relapsing, doing, thinking, feeling it or the way you’re used to that you’re trying to step out of, you can tell yourself, “It’s not me. It’s just my brain. Those old neural pathways are firing but I’m creating new ones and this is how I’m going to do it.” You continue and through repetition, it’ll happen. It’s through imagining, seeing, hearing and feeling and then acting on it and doing it as you did. You got out and you spoke. You did it and eventually, your subconscious, all it knows is, “I’m a speaker.”

“I love my life.”

“You can beat yourself no matter what.”

There are many ways to use hypnosis. If you could, give us maybe one thing that people could do, something that they can adopt on a daily basis to start the day or finish the day. Do you believe it’s more powerful how you begin the day or how you put yourself to sleep at night?

If I had to choose, I’d say begin the day. The one thing that bubbles up, one tip and perhaps like mindfulness for some people that might be on this is gratitude. Starting your day is a place of gratitude when you can open your eyes and either say, “I love my life or thank you for another day. I’m excited about this.” The reticular activating system is that part of our brain that looks for that, which we’re talking about and setting the intention for. If you set that in the morning, you’re going to find it throughout the day. The flip side, speaking of improved incongruence, if we go through our day and at the end of the day, we say, “I’m grateful. Thank you,” and yet we haven’t acted that way throughout the day, there’s a bit of incongruity. They’re both important, but I would say starting and then ending your day from a place of gratitude.

How do you define resilience?

I don’t know that I would define it but a word that comes up for me is the belief in yourself. I have it in my office where I see clients one-on-one. I have what’s called the lenticular print. It’s like those decoder rings where you turn them and it would look different. We’d have greeting cards and it’s a print of a tree. It shows the tree in all four seasons. I show my clients that and it looks cool. I’ll turn it, you can see, “That’s cool.” It’s neat how they can print it like that.

They say, “You’re hypnotizing me now.”

This is where it starts.

“This is where it begins. Look deeply into the tree.”

I show that because for me, it’s a visual reminder of what we sometimes forget. Like the trees and nature around us, we are designed to grow, learn and change. Resilience is remembering and believing that we can start over, rebuild and renovate. We are resilient and that’s in our DNA of having that belief that anybody, and not only can be, but we are resilient.

It’s the seasons as well. You see the trees or anything in nature, and how it adapts. Adaptability is such a big part of resilience. It’s hard to adapt if you think things are permanent. I forget this psychologist that talked about permanence and pervasiveness. He has this idea that you see those there’s no light at the end of the tunnel versus you’re in the middle of winter. Even the most pessimistic person doesn’t think winter is going to last for the next nine months because we already know it doesn’t work like that.

Like nature, we are designed to grow and learn and change. Share on X

When we lived on the East Coast, I know we were always excited about Groundhog Day because if we ever get that weather, Punxsutawney Phil would see his shadow. If he didn’t see a shadow, it meant one thing. When he saw a shadow, it meant it’s going to be a long winter. You knew it was going to end at some point. Spring was going to follow naturally. Resilience, in many ways, it’s understanding that’s something that we do go through seasons.

If you have that intellectually about yourself as well as in nature, there’s reason to be hopeful that the warmth will return. The change of season will occur like the tides. There are many examples in nature to see tides coming in and coming out what that means and even in connection with things like paying your bills. People have lots of money worries as many people do, and this whole idea of being upset when money is leaving, but happy when money’s coming in. It’s the season and title process of things coming in and going out. Could you be grateful? Is it possible to feel gratitude for the tide that is going out as much as you’re feeling gratitude for the tide coming in? It’s interesting. What is one thing that you do for yourself to maintain or create resilience?

What’s bubbling up is gratitude. Gratitude can come from this moment. Speaking of mindfulness, I’m here, I’m breathing in and everything is okay at this moment. When appropriate, I’m not big into looking into the rearview mirror, but I am grateful for the life I’ve lived and excited about what’s coming up. That’s what comes up for me.

Rick, the last time you and I chatted was on your show and I enjoyed it so much. This is the same. I feel blessed that you’re with us and people could get a taste of you. Thanks for being on the show. I appreciate you being here. For all of you out there, this is a wonderful way to follow this thread. It’s my intention that there’s no doubt that we get to wake up again tomorrow because there is no guarantee. We all get that. It is truly a miracle when we wake up tomorrow to take that first breath, knowing other people are taking their last breath at that moment, it makes that moment a miracle. I can’t say it enough. I do repeat it again and again because I want to hear it again. A part of me says that this is a message other people ought to hear or need but it’s a good message to share. Yet, I know I want to hear that message again and again to start the day. Plant those first seeds in the fertile soil of our mind at the start of the day that something true on a basic level and it’s a blessing to be alive.

If you are also inclined in the moment of feeling that gratitude or that blessing to put words to it, find words that make sense to you to put to it with an, “I am,” statement or some other statement. My four simple words worked for me. They didn’t work at the beginning necessarily the way they work today because they were new and they were different. I hadn’t completely adopted the identity of somebody that could love their life in the midst of anything, chaos or any number of things that we conceive that can happen. Yet, that’s my identity and that’s after a lot of making that through repetition and talking directly to the subconscious. That’s been great. Rick, do you love your life?

I love my life. I love you, Adam. I’m grateful for the opportunity to be here. Thank you so much. It’s a blessing.

Everybody, ciao for now. Have a wonderful rest of your day or evening. Wherever you are in the world, we appreciate you. As Rick said, I love you. Thanks, Rick. You’re awesome.

Thank you.

Bye.

 

Important Links

• show – Adam Markel on Mind Flipping podcast
• International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapy
• MidAmerica Hypnosis & Mindset Training Center
• Milwaukee Hypnosis & Wellness Center
• Mind Flipping
• Dr. Michael Yapko
• PIVOT
• www.RickPaddock.com

 

About Rick Paddock

As an instructor, hypnotist, and podcaster, Rick loves to teach others about the expansive powers of the human mind. Rick is an Instructor for the International Certification Board of Clinical Hypnotherapists and the founder and director of the MidAmerica Hypnosis & Mindset Training Center, as well as the Milwaukee Hypnosis & Wellness Center. He is the author and producer of many successful personal improvement products enjoyed by thousands around the world, including three books, and over fifty audio & video programs. He is a sought-after speaker and has presented at HypnoThoughts Live, the 2018 Virtual Hypnosis Convention and HypnoBizNY. He is also the host and producer of the Mind Flipping podcast, in which he interviews world-class experts in hypnosis, NLP, meditation, neuroscience, and coaching.