How I Discovered My Inner Guide
Last time, I described how I came to learn self-hypnosis. And how I learned about, and tried, the Inner Advisor technique. To review, it was suggested that you could enter a self-hypnotic state, imagine yourself in a lovely place, and the first living being you see will become your Inner Advisor, an inner entity that has access to your entire memory bank. You can ask it for help with problems and get answers.
I Tried this Technique
But I got a different result. After several weeks of doing self-hypnosis regularly, one day I saw, not one, but three images, all with the same significance. They all represented various aspects of my ideal self, that is, my idea of the person I would most like to be. The qualities I have valued most highly have been wisdom, kindness, and, of course, emotional comfort. (By emotional comfort, I mean a life without anxiety, sadness, or anger. Without any feelings of guilt or shame. To live with just positive feelings.) That is why I became a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, to provide emotional comfort both for myself and for others. The images that I now "saw" in my mind's eye conveyed these qualities. I understood that these images represented an entity of some sort. Was this my Inner Advisor?
No, this was Something Different
This entity would do much more than just answer questions. She had an agenda of her own for bringing me wisdom, kindness, and full emotional comfort. She would use her access to my memory bank to learn the origins of my discomforts and gradually eliminate them through a process that I would come to understand later. And she also had access to all of my subliminal perceptions. What should I call her? It made sense to call her an Inner Guide.
How did I end up with an Inner Guide instead of an Inner Advisor? I came to understand this later.
A Problem She Solved
Regarding discomforts, most of them begin in childhood, as the result of painful experiences. One example of a chronic problem I had was perfectionism. How did this develop? My father was a perfectionist and he expected me to be one, too. As children do, I identified with him. Everything had to be right. I didn't realize this was a problem. I thought it was a good thing. What I didn't fully realize was that it cost me unnecessary time and effort. And drudgery. And worry. My Inner Guide understood all this and worked to relieve me of this burden. It took some time, but as this problem disappeared, I felt a sense of relief and a new feeling of lightness.
Not only can an Inner Guide help with problems that began in the past; she can also help with new problems that come along. For instance, having discovered her, I wanted to help others create their own Inner Guides, too. How? First of all, my Inner Guide gave me the courage to teach this new, unknown technique to my patients. And then to many others. She helped me to write my book, to create the online course Achieving Emotional Comfort, and to find the right people to help me disseminate this knowledge.
Does Everything Take Time?
Eliminating problems that have arisen in the past typically takes time. I know that you would like help right away with your current anxieties, irritations, and perhaps depressed feelings. Does every discomfort that an Inner Guide solves take time to disappear? No. An Inner Guide knows that you want help right away, and each time you do self-hypnosis, you'll emerge from the trance state feeling refreshed and calmer. You may even find that you have the solution to a problem right then and there, as one of my patients routinely did.
Next time I'll tell you how an Inner Guide makes use of your subliminal perceptions to help you.
If you would like to start right away to decrease your stress and solve other discomforts, you can acquire an Inner Guide with my course, Achieving Emotional Comfort®, which is available at: go.emotionalcomfort.com/getcourse
