New Year, New Resolution, Same Old Results...

Yes, I know it's still October, but the New Year is less than 10 weeks away!

Most people think about New Year resolutions sometime between Christmas and December 31st - "I must go on a diet - I've eaten too much!", "I'm so unfit - I'll join a gym in the New Year", "This time I'm definitely giving up smoking!".

Most of these sincerely-held resolutions will have burned out before Twelfth Night, not through lack of intention at the start, but through lack of preparedness.

You must have heard the old adage: 'fail to plan, plan to fail'.

Well this is as true for New Year resolutions as anything else.

Firstly, deciding to take up or give up something on New Year's Day when you're hungover on champagne from toasting the New Year and hoarse from karaoke and ciggies is probably not the best time.

Far better to plan to start a week or so later when things have quietened down and your brain has recovered.

Secondly, plan your strategy: cold turkey (and  I don't mean Christmas leftovers) is not always the best way. Cutting down on your intake of food, booze, ciggies etc. a little bit at a time gives a far more reliable result than giving something up totally from the off.

The same is true for exercise - trying to commit to an hour a day at the gym when you haven't exercised for years is almost a recipe for failure. Instead, consider a short session one day a week, plus a bit more walking the rest of the week. As you get fitter you will naturally want to take more sessions.

Thirdly, if you fall off the wagon, get back on again! One bad day when you break your diet, or have a smoke, or miss the gym doesn't mean that all is lost. Just get back on track the next day.

If you feel that your willpower is lacking you might want to consider some extra help and the self- hypnosis MP3s from www.hypnosislive.com may be just the thing.

They cover a huge range of subjects including weight loss, giving up smoking, reducing alcohol abuse, stopping nail biting and exercise motivation as well as self growth and personal improvement. All these cost less than $20 per session and some are available in bundles of 4 for less than $35. And they all come with a 14-day 100% money-back guarantee.

Check out their website and see if this New Year you can keep those resolutions.

Dancer Scared Of Heights Becomes A Trapeze Artiste

The young lady in question was a trained dancer who was so afraid of heights she couldn't walk over a high bridge or go up tall buildings.

Now she has managed to overcome her fears and performs a solo act twice a day 20ft in the air (from the Daily Mail).

She did it with sheer determination and persistence (she fell off several times) and the help of a safety harness.

Fear of heights can be crippling - just standing on a stool or low stepladder can leave you shaky or even paralysed with fear. A simple thing like changing a light bulb is almost impossible. And it doesn't get better with time - quite the opposite in fact, as your brain is trained to expect problems if you aren't standing on terra firma.

Is there a d-i-y at home solution?

Now there is: if you're afraid of heights - and there isn't a circus nearby - then why not try HypnosisLive's 'Fear Of Heights' MP3 session. Using NLP 'Fast Phobia Cure' to undo fears, this program will free you from the restrictions of your fear, deleting it from your mind once and for all.

You'll be able to go on amusement park rides, sightseeing, in fact anywhere that you've been afraid to go. Even up a ladder to put the Christmas decorations on your tree this year!

The program costs less than $20, and at the moment there is a special offer bundle of 'Fear Of Heights' and 'Fear Of Spiders' for less than $32. Both carry a risk-free 14 day 100% satisfaction guarantee.

'Fear Of Heights' MP3 download.

A Diary Of New Freedom - One Crippled Day At A Time.

This is the title of a blog by a young lady I am extremely proud to call a very close friend.

Born with cerebral palsy, she developed an excruciating and inexorable pain condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) as a child. She was hospitalized in a psychiatric unit as a teenager and told it was 'all in her mind'.

She's in pain each and every day, and takes a cocktail of painkillers that'd knock out an elephant.

I first met Lynsey about 13 years ago - she was my son's first girlfriend. I can remember coming home from somewhere and seeing a wheelchair folded up in the porch, When I asked my son who's it was, he simply said,"Lynsey's".

I knew he'd met a girl online, but teenage sons being what they are you generally have to drag information out of them so I didn't probe any further.

At that time, Lynsey was using a wheelchair to get around and I must admit that pushing her around in that did my couch-potato son's waistline a world of good! However, the wheel chair was heavy, and because Lynsey's cerebral palsy affects the whole of her left side she couldn't wheel herself around and was always reliant on other people to take her out.

Sadly, Lynsey and my son parted company after about 4 years together but she and I stayed in touch.

She then met Mike and they bought a flat together, not far from her parent's home. Mike works away a lot and Lynsey still needed people to push her wheelchair to get her shopping, go to the doctor etc.

And then, in 2010, Lynsey got a mobility scooter. At last she could leave the flat on her own! In fact, the first time she tried it out was to meet me for lunch. I knew she was getting the scooter, but I didn't know it had arrived. So when she told me to meet her somewhere else than her home I thought a friend was pushing her manual wheelchair to meet me.

It was amazing to see the joy on her face as she suddenly appeared, barrelling along the precinct at 4 miles per hour!

And this scooter is what prompted the blog. Now she was able to go places - even just to the supermarket for a pint of milk - without having to wait for a pusher.

Lynsey's condition has deteriorated over the years but she hasn't let that stop her. There are days when she can't function. The side effects of the drugs she takes are horrible.

But the scooter has given her a new confidence and she has travelled more in the last 3 years than she'd ever thought possible including to Australia and New York.

Don't get me wrong, Lynsey is a feisty lady who's spent her whole life being treated as though she was blind, deaf and dumb just because she uses wheels to get around. But one change - a mobility scooter - has suddenly opened her to possibilities that she'd not encountered before. She's now a guest writer for a local newspaper, appears on local radio and speaks on disability issues and has made many new contacts in the media and online.

When I first met her she told me she was considered unemployable - her wheelchair was a fire hazard (health and safety, you know) and her unpredictable health issues meant that she'd never have a job.

Now she's carving a niche for herself. She has found something she loves to do - writing - and is also an amazing ambassador for all people with disabilities as well.

Read Lynsey's blog here.

On A Diet - Again?

It's that time of year when you have a sudden panic and realize you need to shift a few pounds to get into shape for the Christmas Party.

Hang on - didn't you do that last year? And again before your holidays? And again before [insert your own event here].

So what happened? You lost a few pounds starving yourself, and then it all went back on again - and more!

This is a typical pattern of weight-loss. That's because your body rebels against the idea of less food and compensates as soon as you start eating 'normally' again.

Supported weight loss, where you join a club or diet plan, does work, but if you leave you can find yourself slipping back into bad habits.

That's where the 'Virtual Gastric Band' can help.

The what?

The Virtual Gastric Band.

It's an hypnosis MP3 session that programs your mind to align it with your desire not only to lose weight but keep it off.

If you can change your relationship with food you can control what you eat. That doesn't mean giving up all your favorite foods - just eating them in moderation. You'll have fewer cravings and feel full quicker.

So if you want to lose weight now and keep it off then this may be just what you're looking for. For less than $20, and with a 14 day money-back guarantee, what have you got to lose but a few pounds?

Get the Virtual Gastric Band here now.

Does Hypnosis Really Work?

I think it's fair to say that hypnosis DOES work.

Hypnosis was approved for medical use in 1958 by the American Medical Association, and almost all modern hospitals now utilize hypnosis to some degree.
It has a reported 90.6% success rate in stopping smoking. (The University of Washington School of Medicine.)
It was found to be over 30 times more effective than regular weight loss routines. (Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.)
It was found to bring 'immediate' and 'significant relief' to 75% of women who used it to assist with their IBS symptoms, with 80% still reporting improvement up to six years later. (American Psychological Association.)

It has also been proven to dramatically reduce migraines, speed up recovery from surgery, reduce the intensity of pain, help overcome drug addiction, relieve chemotherapy symptoms, and lower blood pressure.
It's been found to be as effective as Ritalin in treating ADD in children. And those are just a few of the actual medical applications!

Hypnosis has also been used by thousands worldwide to improve confidence and self-esteem, release addictions, let go of fears and phobias, lose weight, stop smoking, improve brainpower, and much more.

A research study by American Health Magazine found hypnosis to be more effective than other forms of self-change, such as behaviour therapy and psychoanalysis.
It reports that hypnosis had a 93% success rate after just 6 sessions -- compared to behaviour therapy with 73% after 22 sessions, and psychoanalysis with 38% after 600 sessions.

So why is it still looked upon by some as 'quack' medicine?

Mostly that stems from Hollywood movies with the baddie'hypnotising' someone to do their bidding.

In reality, it's not like that at all.

Hypnotists don't have any special powers. They simply have the knowledge and experience to help induce a deep state of relaxation, and deliver the right kind of message to your inner mind.

Effectively, all hypnosis is 'self-hypnosis'. You're the one doing the work and changing your thought patterns. The hypnotist (or the hypnosis recording) simply facilitates the process.

And contrary to the Hollywood myth that only weak-minded people can be hypnotised in fact it's actually those who can focus and have a more creative mind that get the best results with hypnosis.

That's because all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. You're not being influenced by someone else. You're actually guiding yourself. And those people with greater focus and imagination get much more powerful results with that process.

But suppose you get 'stuck' in a hypnotic state? There has never ever been a single recorded case of this. The state you reach during hypnosis is similar to that of day-dreaming. You're just super-relaxed. You can 'wake up' again whenever you want to. Usually that will be at the end of the session, when guided to do so by the hypnotherapist.

"Hypnosis is an occult! And it's against my religion!"

Hypnosis is not an occult, and doesn't go against any religion at all. Hypnosis is simply a safe and natural method of relaxing your mind, and feeding yourself with positive affirmations and ideas.

Hypnosis is a branch of psychology, and has absolutely zero connection to any religion whatsoever.

So, if you've thought of hypnosis but been put off by scare stories and misinformation they perhaps you'll now consider it.

More information can be found at HypnosisLive

Welcome to All In The Mind...

Hello! Over the past few years I've become very interested in just how much of our daily existence is affected by our minds. Did you know you can literally will yourself to death?

Your brain is an amazing thing - not only does it keep your body ticking over, it absolutely determines everything about you: your weight, your fitness, your ability to change your life even.
How come?

Well, there is a well-known quotation attributed to Henry Ford 'whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't; you're right'.

And that's basically it - whatever your brain decides, that's what'll happen.
If your brain says you can't lose weight, then sure as eggs is eggs, you won't lose weight.
If your brain says you're a born loser then it's Skid Row for you. Nothing you can do about it.
Or can you?

My research leads me to believe that you can. You just need to take control of your brain: your thoughts, your attitude, your feelings.
How many times have you read about someone with severely limited capacity, either mental or physical, who has overcome their limitations and achieved amazing things?

How did they do it? By not accepting their brain's assertion that their problem somehow meant they couldn't do things.

And if they can do it, so can you.

So I'll be posting here about things that can help you achieve the sort of life you want, despite your brain telling you that you can't have it.