Green Mountain Hypnosis - Articles #trauma

Don't Let Negative Thinking Create Negative Outcomes

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Do you ever find yourself dreading something because you just know how it's going to turn out? And then, sure enough, you do the thing and it is almost as bad as you think it will be, or worse.

It's completely natural to plan emotionally for something. When we do, we end up creating an expectation of how things will turn out. For example, we might hear ourselves thinking, “Ugh, I have to go to work and it’s going to be so busy and I’ll never get anything done.”

When we start this way, we create a kind of template our subconscious mind begins to follow. From that point on, the subconscious is looking out for things that match the expectation we've created, and the whole day can tilt in that direction.

Our minds are goal oriented. We will tend to move toward whatever we are focused on, and often end up finding exactly what we expected to happen.

When we notice ourselves predicting the worst, that can be an opportunity to redirect our thinking. In that moment we can expand our thinking and offer ourselves a different way to look at what's coming up. We're not denying or sugar-coating anything, just choosing better which things to focus on.

For example, you may be tired and telling yourself that today is going to be long and difficult and awful. That is one potential outcome, and if you lean into that expectation, you are likely to have that experience.

A more positive alternative is to notice what is already working. Maybe the sun is out. Maybe the coffee tastes especially good. Maybe there is someone we’re looking forward to seeing. And you may simply realize that you don't have the ability to see into the future. (Just because a situation went a certain way in the past, doesn't mean it will go that way again!)

When we catch ourselves leaning into the negative, we can pause just long enough to look for even one or two things that feel good or positive. That small shift in focus is often enough to redirect the momentum of the entire day.

What Went Well? Why?

Another powerful reframing is to ask yourself what went well in a situation, and why it went well. This will help you to recognize the positive impacts of an experience, boosting your confidence and self-esteem. From here it's easier to keep things in perspective.

We can even ask this before something happens. “What is going to go well, and why?” The moment we explore this, we begin shaping the experience in a new direction.

I've created a worksheet to help you sort through those negative thinking patterns and reframe them in more positive ways. Get your free worksheet here: https://zfrmz.com/AicRLltKb3wUJk1VApNk

How Hypnosis Helps

Reframing is a powerful hypnotic tool for creating changes in how we experience life. When we practice these small shifts in focus during a session, our subconscious mind learns to follow those new pathways automatically. Those practiced patterns that once pulled us toward dread give way to more positive and empowering results.

We already have the ability to shape the way we move through a day. If you had been creating negative expectations, these hypnotic strategies help you create a more positive outcome with more ease. And as you use these reframes, you'll find yourself noticing changes appearing in places you didn’t expect.

Discover what changes you can create.

Use the button below to schedule a free strategy call, and let's get started!

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Creating Space Between Our Emotions and Our Actions

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 07:00:00 -0500

We all have things that trigger an emotional response in us. Someone cuts us off in traffic, interrupts us mid-sentence, or something is said or done that lands the wrong way.

And, before we can even register what’s happening, we react.

The Pattern of Reacting

Reactions are subconscious. The moment our mind notices something that has the potential to feel bad or threatening, it initiates the reaction and we're already knee-deep in it before we're consciously aware of what's going on.

Those subconscious reactions are built from old emotions, old experiences, and the ways we learned to protect ourselves in the past. In that instant, there’s no filter. The harsh words spill out, the body tenses, the heart pounds, we might cry, or yell, or say things out of anger that we don't really mean (or we do mean, but wouldn't have said them that way). Sometimes our reactions are physical, either internally or externally.

And when the moment passes, we’re often left with a mess of hurt feelings, things we wish we hadn't said, and a mix of emotions from shame to guilt to more frustration, or worse.

Now, reacting isn't all bad. It's the same mental mechanism that keeps us alive in unexpected situations. If you let the mind run without direction, it will react to everything, often emotionally, and sometimes physically. In our day-to-day lives, reacting becomes a problem when our reactions are causing more problems than they are solving.

The Shift Into Responding

Responding is different. We're supposed to feel stuff. Those emotions are there to let us know that the mind thinks something needs our attention. It's like a notification bell going off whenever our subconscious notices something familiar.

When you hear the notification chime on your phone, you get to decide how you'll respond to it. You might check it right away, or save it for later when you have the time and bandwidth to address it, or you might ignore it entirely. Instead of letting the mind react automatically to every notification, you can be more selective about what you respond to , and how. We can create just enough space between us and our feelings to decide how to respond.

It begins with noticing that you're feeling something. I've heard from a lot of clients that they just can't catch the emotion before they're having it. And they're right! That would be the same thing as knowing the notification is coming before the phone chimes.

Taking into account how our mind works, it's way more effective to interrupt the feeling when you notice it, and pause. Just pause for a second. Sit down, turn your body around, do something that changes your momentum.

That pause doesn’t erase the feeling. It gives us just enough space to begin to decide how we want to respond to what's happening. You're probably still upset in that moment, but your direction has shifted, and you're giving yourself the opportunity to decide what to do with that emotion.

Practicing P.A.C.E.

One tool I use myself, and often teach my clients, is called P.A.C.E. It’s less a formula and more a gentle pattern to lean on while we're healing the things that cause us to react.

We pause as soon as we notice we're feeling something big.

We ask ourselves what’s really going on. What's happening right in front of us rather than the thing from the past that's driving the emotions.

We consider what to do next. What response is most likely to get us closer to a better feeling outcome? Maybe we walk away, or ask more questions, quietly stand our ground, or begin to open up to looking at things from another perspective.

And we empower ourselves to respond to what's happening in this moment, rather than reacting from a place of fear, hurt, or anger.

How Hypnosis Helps

Hypnosis helps by collapsing emotional triggers while reinforcing your sense of safety and security. So you're not losing anything, you're just clearing out the debris of past hurts. You're giving your mind better, more updated information to help you respond differently to situations that used to trigger big emotions.

Remember, we're supposed to feel stuff. Hypnosis doesn’t erase emotions. It changes the way we experience them. Situations that used to trigger fear, hurt, or anger can now have a different automatic response, giving us the ability to choose who we want to be in every moment that follows.

Discover what changes you can create.

Use the button below to schedule a free strategy call, and let's get started!

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How To Un-Stress The Holiday

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 08:00:00 -0500

Every year, the holidays seem to creep up a little faster. One minute it’s September, and the next you’re juggling shopping lists, travel plans, family schedules, and that quiet pressure to make sure everything is just right.

And yet so many of us are bracing for impact. With all that's going on, you might notice yourself snapping more easily, sleeping less, and feeling pulled in too many directions.

And for many, the holidays are difficult because of loss, insecurities, and traumas. It can be hard to find a place of peace in the middle of all those triggers.

Whether it's expectations, memories, relationships, money, or something else, everything carries extra weight around the holidays. The invitation you don’t want to accept. The family tension that’s been simmering for years. The price of groceries. The endless stream of noise coming from every direction. Stress builds as our minds try to navigate it all at once. And the harder we push to keep up, the further we get from the ability to rest and recharge.

It Doesn't Take Long to Recharge

Spending just 10 minutes in a focused state can refresh you enough to handle the next thing you need to do. Find something that reduces stress by clearing your mind, slowing your breathing and restoring inner calm. Take a walk, listen to a hypnosis program, do some yoga or meditation, or just be for a minute.

Try this:

When you feel yourself wearing thin, sit for a moment and breathe lower in your body, deep in your belly. Feel the air move in and out slowly. Allow your shoulders to come down, and your jaw relax. Notice how your breath starts to find its own rhythm. Then allow yourself to imagine one moment where you felt calm, comfortable, and relaxed. Whatever first comes to mind is perfect. Just let yourself be in that relaxed memory, seeing it through your own eyes, hearing the sounds around you in your own ears, and feeling it in your own body.

After a bit you'll feel that you're ready to do the next thing. Your battery is recharged enough to keep going for a while.

How Hypnosis Helps

Working with a hypnotist, you can lower your stress levels, calm your nervous system, and find yourself reacting differently to those stressful situations. Stress is created by your reaction to and anticipation of what your mind believes might happen next. Hypnosis teaches your mind to react to situations differently, reducing stress so you can feel better, healthier, and happier.

Hypnosis is an excellent tool for trauma resolution as well, guiding you to heal and move away from past events without having to relive them, so the triggers aren't triggering any more.

The holidays will keep being what they are, busy, emotional, and even unpredictable. But inside all of that, there can still be a sense of peace. Every time you pause to focus on a feeling of calm and relaxation, even for a moment, you remind your mind and body what that feels like. And the more often you return to that feeling, the easier it becomes to find, no matter what the season brings.

Discover what changes you can create.

Use the button below to schedule a free strategy call, and let's get started!

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What I Leaned in the Toothpaste Aisle

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0400

How Healing Happens

After I left my abusive marriage, I went shopping for toothpaste.

It doesn’t sound like a big deal. But it was the first time in years that even something that small was mine to decide. The brand, the flavor, the price - tiny things, but unfamiliar.

As I stood in the toothpaste aisle at Walmart, looking at hundreds of boxes, and I realized I had no idea what kind of toothpaste I liked.

I stood there, completely overwhelmed by the options in front of me and before I knew it I was crying. Loud, snotty, full-body sobs. Everything came at me all at once. How had I lost so much of me? How was I ever going to move forward?

All the choices, all the permission, all the pain and past and stress. It cracked me wide open.

How Healing Happens

You don’t have to know what you want. That’s the part that surprised me.

I used to believe that healing meant just getting over it. Making the right choices. Knowing exactly what I needed and becoming the kind of person who never doubted it. Because really, there's no reason why I shouldn't be that person, right??

But that’s not how healing works. Especially not for someone that spent years adapting to someone else’s rules.

When you've had to live inside someone else’s preferences, someone else’s moods, someone else’s version of safe, you create patterns of safety and tolerance and we forget what freedom feels like.

The effects of gaslighting and emotional abuse create a loss of trust, not just in the other person, but in ourselves. We forget how to want, or express our needs and desires. And in the space after, even small choices can feel deafening.

Because when you’ve spent years adapting, pleasing, bracing, or surviving, the freedom to choose something for yourself can feel like a threat.

Your mind may freeze. Your chest may tighten. You may hear yourself thinking, “What if I get it wrong?”

That’s your subconscious doing exactly what it was trained to do—keeping you in familiar patterns, even when those patterns no longer fit.

And those patterns run deep. Not just in your thoughts, but in your body. In the part of you that knows how to keep the peace. Stay quiet. Stay small. Stay safe.

Change starts when you do something unfamiliar on purpose… and survive it.

We don’t rebuild trust in ourselves by trying to solve everything all at once. We rebuild trust by picking one box. One flavor. One small, ordinary thing, and deciding that's okay.

It’s not about the toothpaste. It’s about the pattern.

Because every time you choose differently (no matter how small that choice is), your body realizes it’s still okay you weaken that old loop. You rewrite the pattern. You show your system that it doesn’t have to brace for impact every time you pick something for yourself.

You don’t need the right answer. You just need an answer that is yours.

So pick something. Any something.

Pick the toothpaste. Rearrange the furniture. Say no to a thought that used to feel automatic. Let your nervous system learn, in real time, that you can choose something new and still be okay.

How Hypnosis Helps

Hypnosis helps your system learn faster. The magic of hypnotic language is that it speaks directly to the subconscious mind and helps it sort through those old patterns, letting you decide which ones to keep and which ones you can let go of.

And in that space, you can create a new narrative. One that gently reminds you that this isn't then, and right now you're okay.

Because you’re not just changing a behavior. You’re rewiring the part of your mind that decides what’s safe. And when your subconscious understands that freedom doesn’t mean danger, and that your new choices are safe, and real, and yours, then healing happens.

The choices get easier.

And then you find yourself in the aisle, reaching for exactly what you want.

Because you can.

Discover how you can create the real, lasting changes you’ve been working toward.

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