A Teaching Tale for Insomnia

A woman came to a hypnotherapist stating that she was suffering from insomnia and hadn’t slept for three days. The hypnotherapist asked her what was keeping her awake. “I’m a bit of worrier and of late I’ve been worrying about everything,” she explained. “Everything?” the hypnotherapist replied. “Yes, everything,” the woman confirmed. “And so, I…

The Cactus – A Teaching Tale from Milton Erickson

An alcoholic who came to Erickson felt he was a hopeless case. His parents were alcoholics, his grandparents on both sides were drinkers, even his wife and brother were alcoholics. In addition, the man’s working environment and friends encouraged a hard drinking lifestyle. Instead of sending the man to Alcoholics Anonymous, Erickson suggested something quite…

Slurp slurp slurp – A Teaching Tale from Milton Erickson

A young girl was constantly sucking her thumb as form of hostility and rebellion towards others. Erickson challenged her by calling her stupid because she was not being clever and wasting her hostility on a lot of people that didn’t count. In this way, he applied the principle of joining the patient. He then prescribed…

Making Things Disappear – The Troxler Effect

Sometimes, fixating on a problem can cause us to be blind to a solution even though it maybe staring us in the face or obvious to everyone else. To experience this visually, simply stare at the centre of the image without blinking. After a moment or two, the image will begin to disappear until you…

Motivational Food for Thought

If you always wait until you feel like doing something, then you might never do what needs to be done. Concerning all acts of initiative or creation, there is one elementary truth… that the moment you definitely commit yourself, then Providence moves. too. © pic by Ivan Dementievsky All sorts of things occur to help you that would otherwise never have…

How True is Your Perception? – The Ebbinghaus Illusion

 Can you tell which red circle is larger? While it appears that the red circle on the right (surrounded by smaller blue circles) is larger than the one on the left, both circles are exactly the same size. In other words, what you believe you perceive does not always correspond with reality. Which is why, when…

Pythagoras and the Oracle at Delphi – an Ericksonian-style Teaching Tale

According to the ancient Greek mathematician Pythagoras, three is the first true number and the first number that forms a geometrical figure – the triangle. What is not often known about Pythagoras is that he had trouble sleeping. One day he thought, “I can use my talents to help myself,” So he decided to put his…

Are You A Convergent or Divergent Thinker?

If you’re a convergent thinker, you’d probably make a good investigator. A convergent thinker needs to draw on a number of facts to discover the common denominator or what links them all together to discover right answer. Convergent thinking is for the most part linear. This means that steps can be followed to the logical conclusion.…

Brain Waves and You

“Researchers have speculated that a fully functioning brain can generate as much as ten watts of electrical power.”* The electrical activity emanating from the brain is displayed in the form of brainwaves. There are four categories of these brainwaves, ranging from the highest to lower frequency. Beta waves ~ the brain is aroused and actively engaged…