Full hypnosis download Stuck in a Rut

“You only live twice – or so it seems,
One life for yourself and one for your dreams.
You drift through the years and life seems tame,
Till one dream appears and love is its name.”

Nancy Sinatra – from the theme tune to the movie You Only Live Twice

We can all get stuck in a rut and one reason why falling in love feels so compelling is because it scoops us up out of the mundane and adds velvet and verve to our lives. But falling in love all over the place and staying head over heels through time… well, it just ain’t practical, Nancy!

But she was right. Life can feel a bit too tame sometimes.

So what causes a rut? That sense that life has become predictable, ‘tame’, the same old same old? We all have a need for security, for some sense of predictability to make us feel safe in a sometimes chaotic world. And, as with any intrinsic need, some people have a greater need for a sense of safety than others. But we also have a need to be stretched, to discover new things and to be stimulated by life. Without this we fall prey to boredom. Again some people have a greater need for challenge and excitement than others. So if one need is catered for – safety, security and a certain amount of predictability – while the other – newness, novel experience and excitement – is not, then boredom and disillusionment set in.

Nature encourages us to stretch ourselves by learning and extending our ‘comfort zones’ by producing dopamine and endorphins in our brains when we have achieved something new. But the reward quickly stops, because nature wants us to keep on developing. So once you’ve mastered, that new dance routine or musical piece then, after a while, it no longer satisfies you as much as it used to. You need to learn more for the same ‘brain reward’.

(Addictions latch on to this natural mechanism that originally evolved to keep us developing. In addiction-speak it’s called habituation.)

Throughout life we need to feel we have challenges (although not overwhelming ones). This gives life its all important sense of meaning. When we get stuck in a rut, life feels much less meaningful and this is in turn depressing.

Feeling bored, under-stimulated and disengaged can lead to a certain level of cynicism about life, a sense of having “seen it all before”. Life holds no surprises and this attitude sucks energy from the individual quicker than cola through the straw of a hyperactive teenager at a movie premier.

So what to do?

Well, you may not have the funds to close your eyes, stick a pin in the map and head off just to break free of your daily habits and shake off the deadly dust of dreary routine for a while to put a spring back in your step, but we can start to loosen the rut (to mix some metaphors) in lots of small ways. Talk to folk we wouldn’t normally speak with. Take up a class we’d never normally take. See movies or read books we’d never usually consider. However, the more ‘rutted’ we’ve become, the more courage that takes. Perhaps you feel the need to energize yourself to take what feels like a big risk of making some major changes in your life, or just desperate for something new and fresh. The new ‘stuck in a rut’ download session from hypnosisdownloads.com is designed to encourage the sort of mindset that naturally focuses on new challenges. Because we all need some fun, excitement and challenge and a little bit of the unexpected too.

All the best

Mark

Full hypnosis download Supercharged smell

Smell is extremely evocative and we are all highly sensitive to associations with our favourite smells. But how often at the end of the day do you think about – or talk about – what you have smelled that day? We might mention what we’ve seen, or heard, or felt, but smell, for all its power over us, seems to get rather overlooked.

How many times do people return to somewhere they haven’t been in perhaps decades and spontaneously comment on how that ‘school smell’ or ‘hospital smell’ just brings all the memories flooding back? Even now, the smell of freshly cut grass always fills me with a familiar sense of excitement that’s all tied up with the prospect of a long summer holiday with NO SCHOOL!

Smell seems to provoke strong feeling within us because it’s directly linked to emotional centres in the brain. (1) The power of smell to spark particular responses in us has long been recognised. People viewing a property, for instance, have been found to respond more positively if there is a background, almost subliminal, whiff of vanilla in the air. It may be that vanilla carries an association of ‘homeliness’ that subtly influences them.

People who lose their sense of smell may report feeling much more distressed about it than they expected to be. One reason for this is that we rely more than we realize on our sense of smell. Another is that smell is intrinsically linked to taste. Part of enjoying a really good meal is the expectation and the smell of delicious food. When we go to the seaside we don’t just see the sea – we hear, taste and smell the sea. When we stroll around a beautiful garden, the smell of the flowers enhances our pleasure. I know people who never touch coffee but who draw great satisfaction from smelling it. The new Supercharged Smell download from hypnosisdownloads.com is designed to encourage us all to develop, refine and enjoy our sense of smell to the full and add to our overall appreciation of life.

All the best

Mark

Note

(1) See Lorey K. Takahashi, Brandy R. Nakashimaa, Hyechong Hong and Kendra Watanabe, ‘The smell of danger: A behavioral and neural analysis of predator odor-induced fear’, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 29, Issue 8, 2005, Pages 1157-1167

Full hypnosis download Supercharged smell

Smell is extremely evocative and we are all highly sensitive to associations with our favourite smells. But how often at the end of the day do you think about – or talk about – what you have smelled that day? We might mention what we’ve seen, or heard, or felt, but smell, for all its power over us, seems to get rather overlooked.

How many times do people return to somewhere they haven’t been in perhaps decades and spontaneously comment on how that ‘school smell’ or ‘hospital smell’ just brings all the memories flooding back? Even now, the smell of freshly cut grass always fills me with a familiar sense of excitement that’s all tied up with the prospect of a long summer holiday with NO SCHOOL!

Smell seems to provoke strong feeling within us because it’s directly linked to emotional centres in the brain. (1) The power of smell to spark particular responses in us has long been recognised. People viewing a property, for instance, have been found to respond more positively if there is a background, almost subliminal, whiff of vanilla in the air. It may be that vanilla carries an association of ‘homeliness’ that subtly influences them.

People who lose their sense of smell may report feeling much more distressed about it than they expected to be. One reason for this is that we rely more than we realize on our sense of smell. Another is that smell is intrinsically linked to taste. Part of enjoying a really good meal is the expectation and the smell of delicious food. When we go to the seaside we don’t just see the sea – we hear, taste and smell the sea. When we stroll around a beautiful garden, the smell of the flowers enhances our pleasure. I know people who never touch coffee but who draw great satisfaction from smelling it. The new Supercharged Smell download from hypnosisdownloads.com is designed to encourage us all to develop, refine and enjoy our sense of smell to the full and add to our overall appreciation of life.

All the best

Mark

Note

(1) See Lorey K. Takahashi, Brandy R. Nakashimaa, Hyechong Hong and Kendra Watanabe, ‘The smell of danger: A behavioral and neural analysis of predator odor-induced fear’, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 29, Issue 8, 2005, Pages 1157-1167

Full hypnosis download Supercharged taste – in production

Taste is closely aligned with smell. In fact, some people who have experienced a loss of smell report no longer enjoying taste, or even being able to taste.

The new Supercharged taste hypnoisdownloads.com session is a great way of maximising this most wonderful of sensory pleasures so that food, and mealtimes, can be ‘savoured’ in every sense of the word. Learning to take pleasure in our senses can make us more happy and content. So much of life is hurried and harried, and ‘convenience food’ (‘inconvenience food’, in my opinion!) gets rushed down our throats while we barely notice the flavours. Or we can find ourselves hooked on sugar in a one dimensional and destructive relationship with food.

Yet when we truly begin to properly relish all flavours (and not just the sweet and artificial) then not only can we eat more healthily but we can also learn to love spending time over meals, preparing and appreciating one of life’s true fundamental of pleasures.

I think many people will come to love this download and also experience ripple effect benefits in health and happiness; possibly in quite unexpected ways.

All the best

Mark

Full hypnosis download Supercharge your hearing

I recall, years ago, waking up in a tent near the sea one summer morning, and lying there quietly, not exactly listening, but just having a feeling of the sounds all around me, the hush hush of the waves along the sand, the rustle of the breeze through the reed beds, the sharp high calls of the seabirds, just washing over me, in a sort of all over sound massage. It was ecstasy. And what a way to start the day!

Really relishing our sensory experience, taking time to tune into the delights of sound, touch, sight, smell and taste can make us feel happier and connected to the moment. Some people naturally relish their sensory experience more than others, but we all have the capacity within us to connect not just to visual beauty but also to the beauty and wonder carried by our other senses into our minds.

The latest in our hypnosisdownloads.com Supercharge your senses series is supercharged hearing – for anyone who wants to really tune in to the beauty of sound around them and to better equip their ears, through their minds, to better pick up and appreciate the music of life.

All the best

Mark