We have this mistaken idea that to go green, we have to spend green dollars. Well, actually, you do not need to strain your budget just to adopt an eco-friendly lifestyle. In fact, you will be fattening up your wallets with these tips on going green without spending your green dollars. And trust us, these ways are easy, effective and convenient.
Reduce Food Waste
Your grocery bill may constitute more than 50 percent of your total household bills. Thus, any and all efforts to reduce food waste will add up to big benefits to your pockets and to the environment for many reasons. You can achieve this end by:
* Reducing your food consumption in terms of shopping for groceries.
* Using leftovers for new dishes and enforcing a no-dregs policy
* Planning meals in advance to avoid too many leftovers
Use Heaters Wisely
We are so dependent on hot water for many of our needs from washing our bodies to washing our dishes and clothes. Well, go green by choosing cold water for many activities in the house. Start by taking cold showers when the weather permits instead of hot tub baths. Then progress into using unheated tap water for washing your hands, dishes and clothes. Studies have shown that tap water is just as effective in killing germs as hot water. The trick is in washing your hands properly for 20 seconds, soaking the clothes for 30 minutes to remove stubborn dirt and washing off the dregs on the eating utensils before placing on a full dishwasher.
Unplug the Appliances
You can save as much as 10-15 percent of your electricity bill simply by unplugging the cords from their sockets when these are not in use. This is because so-called phantom electricity does not flow from the grid into your appliances. And speaking of appliances, you can save money by either buying ones with the Energy Star logo or ones that have been refurbished. Of course, make sure that the refurbished appliances are also energy-efficient. You ought to save money in the long run instead of sticking to your run-down appliances. However, do recycle said old appliances with the manufacturers or with the recycling centers.
Use Recycled Materials for Your Home
As much as possible, use recycled materials for your home. You can purchase scrap lumber from hardware stores, vintage wood and glass panels from garage sales and old houses, utensils and ornaments made of recycled materials from green stores and sites, to name a few options. You will often spend less on these items and yet get as much mileage as you possibly can from them. Better yet, you should adopt the motto of environmentalists everywhere - reduce, reuse and recycle. You will soon find that indeed being eco-friendly has its rewards for you and for your children's children.
Starting today, take a look around your home and see what else needs to be done to be as environmentally-friendly as possible.
Read about ways to start going green in the kitchen and more about the different ways to recycle.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Defining A Better Fit For Your Data Center Outsourcing Needs
The key to a successful outsourcing relationship is identifying a partner who can provide cost-effective solutions with the relevant resources and the ability to adjust services as business changes over time. Outsourcing decisions should be made by examining whether an organization is effective and efficient in providing a function that is strategic to the business. IT operations and support organizations are often viewed as an overhead that provides a commodity function that can be easily and safely outsourced. However, IT operations and support functions may be core capabilities because flexible, stable and reliable operations are the foundation for enterprise applications and business processes. IT operations outsourcing proposals are often evaluated and executed with inadequate information about services and costs. The result may be an agreement that does not define the full set of services required, does not result in expected cost savings, and requires retaining a significant number of internal staff to close service gaps and monitor the outsourcer. Good business decisions are based on understanding services and costs, the impact of change, and the risk associated with IT services that do not meet business requirements.
What Should Be Outsourced?
Data center outsourcing services are one of the most mature IT service categories available in the market. In a mature market, one should expect external service providers (ESPs’) to understand market dynamics — as well as client’s wants and needs — and invest in making their services better, faster and less expensive. No “one size fits all” exists for outsourcing. The build-or-buy decision will be based on different criteria for different organizations.
Sourcing decisions may also be influenced to a great extent by factors such as politics and culture and economic stability. Therefore a long-term decision — typically, five to 10 years requires an ability to align IT with business goals, identify gaps in IT capabilities, understand the capabilities available in the market and determine how in-house and supplier responsibilities can best be shared.
Cybernet-SlashSupport is a leading provider of technology support services for enterprises and technology service providers. As a diverse end-to-end IT solutions provider, CSS provides flexible, customized solutions tailor-made to meet specific requirements.
CSS provides a complete portfolio of infrastructure management solutions and support services for geographically distributed network resources, 24x7. Our infrastructure management solutions are based on an architecture that is open and scalable thus enabling easy integration of vendor or customer-supplied tools. CSS provides infrastructure management solutions for a broad spectrum of servers, storage, networks, security, databases, desktops, and applications. By automating corrective actions, IT organizations decrease problem resolution time and improve system availability and reduce downtime.
At CSS Corp, our processes and systems are exclusively tuned to support the client’s operations, with extensive simulation labs and resolution focused environment. Our Centers of Excellence (CoEs) are dedicated to provide superior support services required to succeed in today's competitive marketplace. Our global delivery model provides flexibility, and ensures high quality service, cost savings, localization and reduced risk. We help enterprises drive software and IT process improvements by aligning their internal practices to industry best practices and frameworks such as CMM/CMMi, ITIL, RUP, ISO, SAS 70, COPC and BS 7799.
CSS supports and manages technology infrastructure platforms and applications for Fortune 2000 companies, and provides support solutions for products and applications from ISVs and consumer technology providers.
Data Center Migration
Data center migration services
What Should Be Outsourced?
Data center outsourcing services are one of the most mature IT service categories available in the market. In a mature market, one should expect external service providers (ESPs’) to understand market dynamics — as well as client’s wants and needs — and invest in making their services better, faster and less expensive. No “one size fits all” exists for outsourcing. The build-or-buy decision will be based on different criteria for different organizations.
Sourcing decisions may also be influenced to a great extent by factors such as politics and culture and economic stability. Therefore a long-term decision — typically, five to 10 years requires an ability to align IT with business goals, identify gaps in IT capabilities, understand the capabilities available in the market and determine how in-house and supplier responsibilities can best be shared.
Cybernet-SlashSupport is a leading provider of technology support services for enterprises and technology service providers. As a diverse end-to-end IT solutions provider, CSS provides flexible, customized solutions tailor-made to meet specific requirements.
CSS provides a complete portfolio of infrastructure management solutions and support services for geographically distributed network resources, 24x7. Our infrastructure management solutions are based on an architecture that is open and scalable thus enabling easy integration of vendor or customer-supplied tools. CSS provides infrastructure management solutions for a broad spectrum of servers, storage, networks, security, databases, desktops, and applications. By automating corrective actions, IT organizations decrease problem resolution time and improve system availability and reduce downtime.
At CSS Corp, our processes and systems are exclusively tuned to support the client’s operations, with extensive simulation labs and resolution focused environment. Our Centers of Excellence (CoEs) are dedicated to provide superior support services required to succeed in today's competitive marketplace. Our global delivery model provides flexibility, and ensures high quality service, cost savings, localization and reduced risk. We help enterprises drive software and IT process improvements by aligning their internal practices to industry best practices and frameworks such as CMM/CMMi, ITIL, RUP, ISO, SAS 70, COPC and BS 7799.
CSS supports and manages technology infrastructure platforms and applications for Fortune 2000 companies, and provides support solutions for products and applications from ISVs and consumer technology providers.
Data Center Migration
Data center migration services
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Budgeting For Your Online Business
What we are going to recommend here is a methodology for those who plan to establish their online business with a limited budget.
One of the most important factors for being successful in online business, or any business for that matter, is budget control regardless of how big or small your budget is.
First we need to define what the meaning of limited budget is. First, you need to believe in your heart that it is impossible to start and run an online business for free. Do not believe anybody who tells you otherwise.
The second rule is you need to budget at least $200 for marketing and administrative costs. To give you an idea of what these costs might be here are few examples:
1- Administrative Cost Items:
a. Internet Connection
b. Hosting Service for your website (If you have one)
c. Phone Bill.
d. Electricity
e. Credit Card Charges
f. Post and Courier (If applicable)
2- Marketing Costs (Depending on your general Strategy)
a. Software Programs
b. Traffic Generation Services
c. Offline Advertising
d. Pay Per Click
e. Leads
f. Autoresponder Service
g. Any other Paid advertising Tactic
Now you can add on top of the above mentioned $200 any direct costs related to your business. Mainly this includes one or both of the following:
1- What you have to pay to stay in business including a monthly subscription if applicable.
2- Inventory of Products that you have to buy.
To be able to spend your budget wisely we recommend following these steps:
1- Do not start your online marketing activity by choosing paid options. In a previous article we detailed what are your free online marketing strategy tools. We will just list them here:
a. Submit your link(s) to directories and search engines.
b. Write and Submit articles to article directories
c. Reciprocal linking
d. Posting in active forums
e. Make your website content rich and dynamic
f. Blog and Ping.
g. Traffic Exchange Services
2- Buy software programs that will help you automate the processes of the above free online marketing options. Try not to opt for subscription based services. Make sure to have software programs that have a one time payment option.
3- After few months you will realize that you have a free amount in your budget that now you can use for paid online or offline marketing options.
Our final and sincere recommendation to you is not to get involved in any online business if you cannot spend a total of $300 - $500 per month.
Online Business Opportunities
Affiliate Marketing Program
One of the most important factors for being successful in online business, or any business for that matter, is budget control regardless of how big or small your budget is.
First we need to define what the meaning of limited budget is. First, you need to believe in your heart that it is impossible to start and run an online business for free. Do not believe anybody who tells you otherwise.
The second rule is you need to budget at least $200 for marketing and administrative costs. To give you an idea of what these costs might be here are few examples:
1- Administrative Cost Items:
a. Internet Connection
b. Hosting Service for your website (If you have one)
c. Phone Bill.
d. Electricity
e. Credit Card Charges
f. Post and Courier (If applicable)
2- Marketing Costs (Depending on your general Strategy)
a. Software Programs
b. Traffic Generation Services
c. Offline Advertising
d. Pay Per Click
e. Leads
f. Autoresponder Service
g. Any other Paid advertising Tactic
Now you can add on top of the above mentioned $200 any direct costs related to your business. Mainly this includes one or both of the following:
1- What you have to pay to stay in business including a monthly subscription if applicable.
2- Inventory of Products that you have to buy.
To be able to spend your budget wisely we recommend following these steps:
1- Do not start your online marketing activity by choosing paid options. In a previous article we detailed what are your free online marketing strategy tools. We will just list them here:
a. Submit your link(s) to directories and search engines.
b. Write and Submit articles to article directories
c. Reciprocal linking
d. Posting in active forums
e. Make your website content rich and dynamic
f. Blog and Ping.
g. Traffic Exchange Services
2- Buy software programs that will help you automate the processes of the above free online marketing options. Try not to opt for subscription based services. Make sure to have software programs that have a one time payment option.
3- After few months you will realize that you have a free amount in your budget that now you can use for paid online or offline marketing options.
Our final and sincere recommendation to you is not to get involved in any online business if you cannot spend a total of $300 - $500 per month.
Online Business Opportunities
Affiliate Marketing Program
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Introduction to the Online Nursing CEU
For those in need of completing nursing CEU credits, online options may be a new area. This introduction to the online nursing CEU will help you get started in your research of online CEU options.
State Requirements
An introduction to the online nursing CEU would not be complete without a mention of state requirements. Before you choose a CEU program, first determine if your state requires specific CEU credits. Many states do require these as new health care issues arise. Before you spend time and money on other CEU programs, first determine if you need a specific program, and then you can research to see if the required CEUs are available through an online program.
Variety of Options
No introduction to the online nursing CEU would be complete without a mention of the many options from which to choose! If you have met your state's requirements and are looking for CEU options to further your career or to learn more about a particular area of health care, look no further than online! Regardless of your interests and career goals, you can find a CEU program. Again, ensure that your state licensing body will accept the credits before enrolling.
Costs
As soon as you begin researching online nursing CEU options, you will see that many CEU programs are free. Others are quite expensive. Some of the differences are the number of CEU credits offered by the program. Free CEU courses can be quite good, but as with all CEU credits, some research into the provider and your state's acceptance of the credits is necessary. This holds true for expensive programs as well! A pricey course does not guarantee its quality nor that it will be accepted by your state.
Where to Look
As a professional nurse, you're likely involved with one or more professional organizations. Contacts through these organizations can be a great way to learn about online CEU options and to talk with others who have completed the courses. Ask others for their opinions about any courses you are considering.
Online LPN Programs
Online LPN Nursing Programs
State Requirements
An introduction to the online nursing CEU would not be complete without a mention of state requirements. Before you choose a CEU program, first determine if your state requires specific CEU credits. Many states do require these as new health care issues arise. Before you spend time and money on other CEU programs, first determine if you need a specific program, and then you can research to see if the required CEUs are available through an online program.
Variety of Options
No introduction to the online nursing CEU would be complete without a mention of the many options from which to choose! If you have met your state's requirements and are looking for CEU options to further your career or to learn more about a particular area of health care, look no further than online! Regardless of your interests and career goals, you can find a CEU program. Again, ensure that your state licensing body will accept the credits before enrolling.
Costs
As soon as you begin researching online nursing CEU options, you will see that many CEU programs are free. Others are quite expensive. Some of the differences are the number of CEU credits offered by the program. Free CEU courses can be quite good, but as with all CEU credits, some research into the provider and your state's acceptance of the credits is necessary. This holds true for expensive programs as well! A pricey course does not guarantee its quality nor that it will be accepted by your state.
Where to Look
As a professional nurse, you're likely involved with one or more professional organizations. Contacts through these organizations can be a great way to learn about online CEU options and to talk with others who have completed the courses. Ask others for their opinions about any courses you are considering.
Online LPN Programs
Online LPN Nursing Programs
Monday, January 11, 2010
iPod Downloads- 7 Reasons To Purchase Membership
Are you considering purchasing a membership to a website to get unlimited music downloads for your Ipod? Well here are 7 reasons why you should.
1. Unlimited Music Downloads - you get unlimited access to the latest music. No need to purchase the whole cd when you can just load your favorite songs to your Ipod.
2. Millions of Songs to choose from - when you purchase a membership to the Ipod download site you get access to millions of songs. There is no limit to the amount of music you can download to your Ipod.
3. No Per Download or Hidden Fees - with memberships you usually pay a one time fee which that can range anywhere from $28-$40.
4. You save money - Some sites charge you 0.99 to download songs which can be quite costly when you want to download a lot of content to your Ipod. By purchasing a membership to a website you will save money because you will only be paying a one time fee. You can download as much content as you want without paying any additional fees.
5. Unlimited Movie, Video, TV, & Game Downloads - You get unlimited access to all your favorite movies, videos, tv shows, and games. You don't pay any extra fees as it's all included in your one time membership fee.
6. Lifetime Access - Most of these websites offer access to unlimited music downloads for a lifetime. So there are no monthly or yearly fees.
7. Free Stuff - Some websites offer free software to download and manage you music, rip your cd, or covert your dvd's to play on your Ipod
If you have been considering purchasing a membership to an Ipod download website to get unlimited music downloads you really should. You will definitely get all the music, movies, videos, tv shows, games and more to download to your Ipod while saving money.
Thomas is a successful webmaster. Find out how you can access to unlimited ipod music and movie downloads - full length DVD quality videos easily from home, visit http://www.topdownloadz.net
Bestel iTunes Gift Card.
Monday, January 4, 2010
SEO Or Page Rank – Which Is The More Important
Whether you believe in SEO or Page Rank and wonder which is more important, your thinking is irrelevant. You are wasting your time in wondering what is the correct answer to that question, since even if you knew it there is little you could do to use that information.
Why do I say that? Because SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way of designing your website, and placing content in it, to satisfy search engine algorithms. Search engines are so sophisticated today that if you achieve that, then you will also satisfy visitors to your website. If you satisfy visitors to your website, then they will stay on the page they landed on and read it. They will then click to read other pages on your website, and might even make a purchase.
Sure, some will leave right away, but if the search engines feel that your content is good enough for a high placement in their indices for the search term, or keyword, that your visitor used to get to your web page, then it is more likely that you will achieve a relatively high stick rate of people to your site than a lower one.
Now, consider if you thought Google PageRank more important (and PageRank is correct, not Page Rank). You would then spend more of your time trying to get links back to your website than you would properly optimizing your site and filling it with good content. If you were successful in that difficult job, then Google, and possibly other search engines, would list you a bit higher in their indices, not because their spiders thought your site was relevant to the search term used by the potential visitors, but because other websites though so.
You will then get visitors to your website, and the page they land on would have to be relevant to the search term they used or they will immediately leave. If it is relevant, they will stay, perhaps visit other web pages and perhaps make a purchase.
So what is the difference? You get basically the same end result. How can you tell which is the more important. There is one simple way to do this, and one that I have used more than once. Design two websites round the same keyword. Make the keyword the name of the website and then apply classical theoretical SEO to one site, including some of the extra special tips that can make the difference between success and failure – in fact that DO make that difference.
Now apply only minimal SEO to the other and make sure you have exactly the same content on each, but rewritten to avoid duplicate content or that would negate the test. However, with the second site, you must generate as many links back to your website as possible, using non-reciprocal links where possible, but reciprocal links where necessary. There are a few ways in which you can generate lots of one-way links to selected pages on your site, and you should make that your home page for the purposes of this test.
Wait 4 weeks then check Google, Yahoo and MSN for the position of each of your home pages. You will find that your first website will generally be listed higher for the keyword that both sites are built round. Check again about 3 months later, and will likely find that website 2 will feature higher as the links start to take effect, but then the first site will overtake it as it generates its own links naturally.
Basically, what this proves to me is that it is essential to optimize your website for search engines in the classical way, but that for best results you must also have a good level of links back to your website. There are simple, ways to achieve both, but that would be the topic of another article. However, in the end, if you apply both, then you will achieve best results. I know that there are exceptions to this, and I have highlighted them in some my ebooks, but generally that is the case.
So, the answer to the question: SEO or Page Rank, is that neither is the more important. They are both equally important, but it is possible to do one better than the other and then you would be tempted to say that your way was best. But you would be wrong!
If you did find what was the best you couldn’t use that information since search engines rules are transitory but good honest content and classical SEO has always prevailed, as has a good number of links that others follow to reach your website.
Bourne SEO offers Web Design in Sussex and other services.
Why do I say that? Because SEO, or search engine optimization, is a way of designing your website, and placing content in it, to satisfy search engine algorithms. Search engines are so sophisticated today that if you achieve that, then you will also satisfy visitors to your website. If you satisfy visitors to your website, then they will stay on the page they landed on and read it. They will then click to read other pages on your website, and might even make a purchase.
Sure, some will leave right away, but if the search engines feel that your content is good enough for a high placement in their indices for the search term, or keyword, that your visitor used to get to your web page, then it is more likely that you will achieve a relatively high stick rate of people to your site than a lower one.
Now, consider if you thought Google PageRank more important (and PageRank is correct, not Page Rank). You would then spend more of your time trying to get links back to your website than you would properly optimizing your site and filling it with good content. If you were successful in that difficult job, then Google, and possibly other search engines, would list you a bit higher in their indices, not because their spiders thought your site was relevant to the search term used by the potential visitors, but because other websites though so.
You will then get visitors to your website, and the page they land on would have to be relevant to the search term they used or they will immediately leave. If it is relevant, they will stay, perhaps visit other web pages and perhaps make a purchase.
So what is the difference? You get basically the same end result. How can you tell which is the more important. There is one simple way to do this, and one that I have used more than once. Design two websites round the same keyword. Make the keyword the name of the website and then apply classical theoretical SEO to one site, including some of the extra special tips that can make the difference between success and failure – in fact that DO make that difference.
Now apply only minimal SEO to the other and make sure you have exactly the same content on each, but rewritten to avoid duplicate content or that would negate the test. However, with the second site, you must generate as many links back to your website as possible, using non-reciprocal links where possible, but reciprocal links where necessary. There are a few ways in which you can generate lots of one-way links to selected pages on your site, and you should make that your home page for the purposes of this test.
Wait 4 weeks then check Google, Yahoo and MSN for the position of each of your home pages. You will find that your first website will generally be listed higher for the keyword that both sites are built round. Check again about 3 months later, and will likely find that website 2 will feature higher as the links start to take effect, but then the first site will overtake it as it generates its own links naturally.
Basically, what this proves to me is that it is essential to optimize your website for search engines in the classical way, but that for best results you must also have a good level of links back to your website. There are simple, ways to achieve both, but that would be the topic of another article. However, in the end, if you apply both, then you will achieve best results. I know that there are exceptions to this, and I have highlighted them in some my ebooks, but generally that is the case.
So, the answer to the question: SEO or Page Rank, is that neither is the more important. They are both equally important, but it is possible to do one better than the other and then you would be tempted to say that your way was best. But you would be wrong!
If you did find what was the best you couldn’t use that information since search engines rules are transitory but good honest content and classical SEO has always prevailed, as has a good number of links that others follow to reach your website.
Bourne SEO offers Web Design in Sussex and other services.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Debt Relief -- Why Most Programs Have A 75% Failure Rate
Debt consolidation, equity loans, credit counseling, debt management plans, even Chapter 13 bankruptcy – it doesn't matter which of these debt programs you're talking about. They all suffer from one fatal flaw, the number one problem that causes most people to fail at eliminating their debts through these techniques. Can you guess the problem?
It's probably not what you're thinking. It's not the fees, interest rates, or the quality of the companies behind these debt solutions. No, the number one problem with most debt programs is that they require FIXED monthly payments without exception. This major flaw is the main reason that very few people make it through a credit counseling program or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan.
Do you make exactly the same amount of money each and every month? If you are like most people, the answer is probably NO. It's easy to understand why. Salespeople, for instance, often experience ups and downs based on how much commission they earn from one month to the next. Seasonal workers experience boom and bust times depending on the time of the year (think retail workers getting lots of overtime around the holidays). Overtime hours come and go depending on company workloads. Part-time jobs may offer hours that vary widely from week to week. And so on.
Now, what about your expenses? Do you spend exactly the same amount of money each and every month? Sure, your mortgage or rent and your car payments are a set amount each month. But doesn't your utility bill go up and down depending on the weather? What about your phone bill? How much will you spend on car repairs over the next 6 months? Medical bills? Dental bills? Can you predict such variable expenses with any accuracy?
If you have lots of room in your budget, with money left over at the end of the month, then fluctuating income and expenses are probably not a major issue for you. However, if you are struggling to make ends meet, living from one paycheck to the next, then an unexpected expense can destroy your monthly budget.
People enter debt relief programs with the best of intentions. Take credit counseling, for example. You enter a program to get some help in bringing your credit card debts under control. The monthly payment of $500 sounds good. You're humming along just fine for a few months, then wham! The water heater blows up. Time to shell out $800 for a new one. Unless you like cold showers, you'll need to skip the $500 payment to the agency this month, and part of next month's payment as well. Where does that leave you with the credit counseling program? Back on the street, that's where. You simply CANNOT miss payments into that type of plan and expect anything but failure.
Or look at Chapter 13 bankruptcy, where the court requires you to pay a set monthly amount to your creditors over a 3-5 year period. Even before the drastic new law went into effect, 2 out of every 3 people failed at Chapter 13 bankruptcy. It will get much worse under the new law, because the court will set your monthly budget for you, based on what the IRS says it should be for your state and county. This is simply unrealistic, and once people realize how bad the new law is, they will run in the other direction from Chapter 13. (Forget about Chapter 7, where you wipe the debts away. The new law will make it very difficult to qualify for the old Chapter 7 fresh start.)
Again, the big problem with most debt relief programs is lack of flexibility. You cannot call your loan officer, the credit counseling agency, or the court trustee and say, "Hey, my kid broke his leg and I had to pay the hospital $500 to cover my insurance deductible, so I'll need to skip my debt payment this month." If you could, then these plans might have a chance of working. But such inflexible programs simply do not reflect the unpredictable nature of the average household budget.
So is there any debt program that does provide this flexibility? Yes. It's called debt settlement, or debt negotiation. It's certainly not for everyone. Debt settlement is an alternative to bankruptcy. It's not for people who can pay their bills in full without hardship. But it can be a real blessing for those seeking relief from a crushing debt burden.
The reason debt settlement is so flexible is simply because YOU control the cash. You build up money in a separate savings account until you have enough to make a reasonable offer to one or more of your creditors. Like any debt program, debt settlement has its downside and its risks, but no other program provides this level of flexibility. Because the monthly payment is going into a negotiation fund that you set up and control, a bad month simply means you have less money to settle with. If you can make it up later, that's great. If not, that's life. When you have enough to settle ONE account (usually between 35% and 50% of the balance owed), then you make an offer. If your creditor takes the deal, then you start building up funds to knock out the next debt, and so on. It's the only program out there that recognizes a basic reality: Your budget should set the pace for your debt elimination program, not the other way around!
Again, debt settlement is not a magic bullet. It won't cure every debt problem. But if you need to skip a month, or adjust up or down a little to reflect what's going on in the real world, it doesn't mean the end of the program. It's truly a shame that the financial "experts" who have set up the bankruptcy rules, consolidation loan terms, credit counseling plans, and debt management programs haven't figured this out yet. If they would just recognize this fundamental problem, then the success rate on their programs would increase dramatically and they could stop misleading the public about what works and what doesn't in the world of debt relief.
Kristy Sinsara
Kristy Sinsara
It's probably not what you're thinking. It's not the fees, interest rates, or the quality of the companies behind these debt solutions. No, the number one problem with most debt programs is that they require FIXED monthly payments without exception. This major flaw is the main reason that very few people make it through a credit counseling program or a Chapter 13 bankruptcy plan.
Do you make exactly the same amount of money each and every month? If you are like most people, the answer is probably NO. It's easy to understand why. Salespeople, for instance, often experience ups and downs based on how much commission they earn from one month to the next. Seasonal workers experience boom and bust times depending on the time of the year (think retail workers getting lots of overtime around the holidays). Overtime hours come and go depending on company workloads. Part-time jobs may offer hours that vary widely from week to week. And so on.
Now, what about your expenses? Do you spend exactly the same amount of money each and every month? Sure, your mortgage or rent and your car payments are a set amount each month. But doesn't your utility bill go up and down depending on the weather? What about your phone bill? How much will you spend on car repairs over the next 6 months? Medical bills? Dental bills? Can you predict such variable expenses with any accuracy?
If you have lots of room in your budget, with money left over at the end of the month, then fluctuating income and expenses are probably not a major issue for you. However, if you are struggling to make ends meet, living from one paycheck to the next, then an unexpected expense can destroy your monthly budget.
People enter debt relief programs with the best of intentions. Take credit counseling, for example. You enter a program to get some help in bringing your credit card debts under control. The monthly payment of $500 sounds good. You're humming along just fine for a few months, then wham! The water heater blows up. Time to shell out $800 for a new one. Unless you like cold showers, you'll need to skip the $500 payment to the agency this month, and part of next month's payment as well. Where does that leave you with the credit counseling program? Back on the street, that's where. You simply CANNOT miss payments into that type of plan and expect anything but failure.
Or look at Chapter 13 bankruptcy, where the court requires you to pay a set monthly amount to your creditors over a 3-5 year period. Even before the drastic new law went into effect, 2 out of every 3 people failed at Chapter 13 bankruptcy. It will get much worse under the new law, because the court will set your monthly budget for you, based on what the IRS says it should be for your state and county. This is simply unrealistic, and once people realize how bad the new law is, they will run in the other direction from Chapter 13. (Forget about Chapter 7, where you wipe the debts away. The new law will make it very difficult to qualify for the old Chapter 7 fresh start.)
Again, the big problem with most debt relief programs is lack of flexibility. You cannot call your loan officer, the credit counseling agency, or the court trustee and say, "Hey, my kid broke his leg and I had to pay the hospital $500 to cover my insurance deductible, so I'll need to skip my debt payment this month." If you could, then these plans might have a chance of working. But such inflexible programs simply do not reflect the unpredictable nature of the average household budget.
So is there any debt program that does provide this flexibility? Yes. It's called debt settlement, or debt negotiation. It's certainly not for everyone. Debt settlement is an alternative to bankruptcy. It's not for people who can pay their bills in full without hardship. But it can be a real blessing for those seeking relief from a crushing debt burden.
The reason debt settlement is so flexible is simply because YOU control the cash. You build up money in a separate savings account until you have enough to make a reasonable offer to one or more of your creditors. Like any debt program, debt settlement has its downside and its risks, but no other program provides this level of flexibility. Because the monthly payment is going into a negotiation fund that you set up and control, a bad month simply means you have less money to settle with. If you can make it up later, that's great. If not, that's life. When you have enough to settle ONE account (usually between 35% and 50% of the balance owed), then you make an offer. If your creditor takes the deal, then you start building up funds to knock out the next debt, and so on. It's the only program out there that recognizes a basic reality: Your budget should set the pace for your debt elimination program, not the other way around!
Again, debt settlement is not a magic bullet. It won't cure every debt problem. But if you need to skip a month, or adjust up or down a little to reflect what's going on in the real world, it doesn't mean the end of the program. It's truly a shame that the financial "experts" who have set up the bankruptcy rules, consolidation loan terms, credit counseling plans, and debt management programs haven't figured this out yet. If they would just recognize this fundamental problem, then the success rate on their programs would increase dramatically and they could stop misleading the public about what works and what doesn't in the world of debt relief.
Kristy Sinsara
Kristy Sinsara
Adventures with Hypnosis
In 1949, I had a real problem with a dental phobia. Four dentists had turned me down as a patient. I had two abscessed teeth and a mouthful of other cavities. My dental phobia was so bad that it had forced me to go to a hospital some years earlier in order to have three abscessed teeth removed while I was unconscious.
I went to a dental convention where I found the recommended dentist who did hypnosis. He couldn't work on my teeth, but he said he thought he could help me. So, at the lunch break, I went to his room with several other dentists, and he hypnotized me with a “standard” induction technique. Then, he taught me a psychological trick of relaxation. If I raised my left hand whenever I felt my right hand becoming a fist, indicating tension, the dentist would stop, and I would relax my right hand, and lower my left hand.) I didn't believe it would work, but I made an appointment with the last dentist who had turned me down and had recommended hypnosis.
For the first few minutes, I kept raising my left hand, and he stopped immediately. After that, I didn't need to raise my left hand much at all, and he worked fast.
He pulled the two bad teeth, and drilled and filled a dozen more in one single hour and half session. I had Novocain for the bad ones, and didn't need it for the others. Both the dentist and I were amazed at this, and he asked if I were really twins
To me, a 22-year-old engineering student, this was a genuine “miracle”, and I started to learn all I could about this miracle cure. I read everything I could find, from the 1700's literature about Mesmer, Coue, etc, up to Erickson, Barber, etc.
I became an electronic engineer, and pursued this as my major career, but my avocation continued to be hypnosis, and by extension, psychology. (Much of behavior psychology is similar to hypnosis). I used it professionally, taught it in a major university to doctors, and continued to learn about it. I performed some “shows”, and considered a career as a stage hypnotist, but was more interested in using it for helping people, as it had helped me.
In 1979, I left electronic engineering, and turned to psychology. I went back and obtained a Doctorate in Psychology based on my education, life experience, and my doctoral dissertation. I became a successful Behaviorist Psychologist for years in private practice in Florida. I gradually converted to an Orthomolecular practice when I found that these types of therapies worked better than any “talk therapy”, although talk therapy is sometimes useful as well.
Hypnotic Relaxation
During this many years of study, and later career as a psychologist, I realized that what that original dentist who hypnotized me had actually done. With hypnosis, he had simply given me a “new” conscious tool of relaxation. Using this simple tool, I could actually change something in my unconscious called a “phobia”. It wasn't really a miracle, though I had thought so at the time. Adding this knowledge to my knowledge of Pavlovian “conditioning responses”, I came up with what I called the Bate Relaxation Technique.
This is very simple, yet it can be very powerful - much more powerful than most realize because of its simplicity. It starts with a general hypnotic induction technique of relaxing the body muscles, starting with the toes and going up to the scalp and face. Then, in a state of muscle relaxation, ask the subject to visualize a very beautiful relaxing scene he/she is in. Describe the scene. Ask them to concentrate on how beautiful and very relaxing it is.
Then, ask the subject to memorize the feelings of relaxation and concentration they are feeling at that time. Have them put these feelings into their memory like a photograph. Then, give them a post-hypnotic suggestion that they can now recall those feeling any time they simply count to three. End the session, and have the subject stand up, take a deep breath and simply count to three.
It's simply amazing how the shoulders often slump 2-3 inches or some other muscles that the subject usually tenses from stress relax. I describe the “strange” feeling as sort of a “blah” feeling. (As subjects stand up from the session, their “normal” pattern of muscle stress takes effect, and the “instant” relaxation is definitely experienced.)
I then tell the subject that they now have the pattern, but it up to them to use it often, several times a day, even if not needed, for the next week or so. This will set this pattern into their unconscious as a “conditioned response”. (Remember Pavlov's dog?) Now, they have the same tool I got from the original dentist, but it is much more enhanced and valuable. It instantly relieves stress of any kind.
Driving a car a long distance is very stressful. My wife and I recently drove over 20 hours straight thru, with me driving about 14 of those hours. At 78 years old, that's not “usual”. The secret - we both simply count to three every so often and are able to relax behind the wheel. Muscle tension is very tiring, and few are able to relax this muscle tension behind the wheel.
This relaxation technique is very useful in many ways in helping to solve psychological problems of phobias, compulsions, and even some serious physical problems. I was able to solve dozens of Asthma problems in all persons between 7 and 15 years old, and was often successful with older persons as well. (Kids in this age range are very suggestible; some adults are too cynical.)
The system is simple, but effective. First, teach the relaxation. Then, have the patient emulate a really bad asthma attack. “Come on, get really bad, your throat is closing more and more.” It's getting worse and worse.” When the patient really starts to become in distress, say, “Now, count to three”. As he gets to three, he relaxes, and says, “Now, it's gone, and you are in control”.
Many years ago, I did this routine on the 14-year-old son of lifelong friends. When I was visiting them a few years ago, I walked into the store of the son, and he recognized me immediately. I was surprised as it had been over 20 years since he had seen me. He said, “Do you think I could ever forget the man who cured my Asthma?”
It was another great day for my ego.
There's nothing magical or even mysterious about it. All you are doing is teaching a new “trick” to the unconscious mind. This “trick” of instant relaxation is learned as a conditioned response by repetition and use. It becomes a tool for the conscious mind to use in all types of situations to reduce stress. As everybody knows, stress ages us, diminishes the immune system, and helps to kill us.
The various forms of yoga and other meditation techniques are similar, yet different. They relieve stress of course, but are of little use in immediate stressful situations. This relaxation is immediate.
This also can be used for self-hypnosis, positive statements and visualizations.
I also used it for patients that wanted to stop smoking as a “substitute” for that instant craving that comes to an addicted smoker.
One idea makes a lot of people “afraid” of hypnosis. The idea that another person has “control” over them, and can make them do literally anything. Every experiment ever conducted has shown that this is simply not true. Hypnosis cannot force a person to do anything that is against his/her moral code. The unconscious mind is very protective, and is what we are working with either with hypnosis or subliminal training.
There is some possibility of “indirect” misuse of hypnosis. I once witnessed a hypnotist demonstrating this. He had a very attractive woman who was very hypnotizable (instantly into somnambulism by snapping his fingers). He hypnotized her, and told her to take off her clothes. She awoke instantly and was embarrassed, but had no conscious memory of why.
He then hypnotized her again, and this time, told her that she was at home in her bathroom with the door closed, and she was going to take a bath. She calmly started to take off her clothes. He stopped her before she got too far, but she was obviously going to completely strip.
It was interesting how he stopped her. He told her that someone had come into her home, and was near the bathroom door. She said, “Don't come in. I'm not dressed”.
He then had her get dressed, and woke her. She had no memory of the incident.
When I was a young man, I had a girlfriend who I had sex with once or twice. And she had been hypnotized several times as well. One night I wanted sex, but she didn't. I used the cue that hypnotized her, but to no avail. She refused, even hypnotized. So, the idea that someone can make you do something you do not want to do is false. I can testify to that personally. Our unconscious mind is very protective of us in all ways, even though some ways may be wrong.
Of course, if you work with either hypnosis or subliminal training, or virtually any type of serious psychology you have to be aware of the unconscious mind, as that entity is always what you are trying to influence.
Hypnotic Age Regression
This is a very useful tool for a psychologist, or, for that matter, any doctor of any stripe. Under even “light” hypnosis, it can be used to “pull” details from the life of the patient that he/she has forgotten consciously. (The unconscious memory has everything in it.)
There are several “tricks of the trade” involved. After my Relaxation Technique, I used a “deepening” technique that went something like this, “Now, I want you to imagine and visualize yourself going down an escalator as I count to ten. One, imagine yourself stepping on and feeling the steps form under your feet. Two, as you move down, relax even more. Three, as you go down further, concentrate more and more. Four, and as you relax more, you can concentrate more. Five, this positive circle of concentration and relaxation continues as you move down.”
Continue with similar repetitions thru nine, and then, “Ten, step off the escalator into a room. This room is yours alone. It is only in your mind, and no one else can ever get into it. You can make it anything you want. In this room, you can do anything or visualize anything that will help you to be a better person. In this room you can remember anything you want.”
Next, I would start the questioning. For example, a man came to me to try to find a lost valuable diamond engagement ring. He and his fiancé had broken up, and she had returned the ring to him. He remembered taking the ring, but when he got home, he couldn't find it at all. I did the above technique, and then started.
I said. “I want to you to go back in time to the moment when she handed you the ring. Where were you and she at that time?”
He replied, “We were in her living room.”
“Alright, see yourself taking the ring. What did you do with it?”
He said, “I'm putting it into my small watch pocket of my jeans.”
“OK, now you are leaving her. What happened next?”
“I'm getting into my car, and driving home”
“Good, what happens next?”
“I'm going into my bedroom, and changing clothes.”
“Why?”
“I have to go to a baseball presentation dinner.”
“OK, what did you do with your jeans?”
“Oh NO! I had put them in the washer!”
That was the story. He went home and found the ring stuck in the washer. (The usual story of such is that it gets caught in the “U” drain under a sink.) This illustrates the value of “age regression” as a memory aid.
Of course, it's also useful to uncover the beginnings of phobias and compulsions. A woman came to me with a cat phobia and asthma. I did the usual as above, and with a couple of other useful techniques found the problem. One “trick” is to say, “OK, now you are going back in time. It is your 15th birthday. You are awake in that morning. Do you have asthma?”
She replied, “yes.” (She had earlier said on intake questioning that her asthma had started very early. I start well past that so as to get the patient used to going back.)
“Ok, now you are ten years old, just waking up on your birthday. Do you have asthma now?” Same answer.
“OK, you are now five years old, on your birthday. Do you have asthma now?” Same answer
I worked back thru 4 and 3 and 2, 1, and started back in months. I got to the ninth month, and she didn't have asthma. Still she had no memory of anything that was related. So, I went to her tenth month, and went backwards, day to day with the same question. I got to the day when she did have asthma. Now I asked her, “What happened to you during the last day that caused you to have asthma? I am going to count to three, and when I get to three, you will remember everything. One, you're starting to remember. Two, memory is coming back. Three, you now remember everything.”
She then related, “I was lying on my back in a crib, and the cat jumped into the crib, and lay across my mouth. I couldn't breathe, or call out, and I was scared. I don't know what happened, but I think I hit the cat, and she went off me.”
It was two birds with one stone. Cat phobia, and asthma caused at that point. Asthma is often a “protective” device used to keep oxygen in the body. Most can easily breath in but have real problems breathing out. This was her case.
Then, we get to the really interesting part. Age regression to past lives. As an agnostic, I don't really know if the many stories I have heard from many persons are true, or something from the universal mind or what?
Probably the single most impressive story is from the man who came to me with two lifelong phobias that he had had since earliest memory. He was deathly afraid of fire and water. He thought that these phobias might be from past lives, and asked me to try to find out.
He was easily hypnotizable, and with little urging went back thru birth to the previous life. He had been a circus clown, and been burned to death in a circus fire. It was then simple to go back to a previous life to that. It seems that he had stolen a horse, and was caught. The vigilantes didn't have a tree, so they hanged him from a bridge. The rope broke, and he drowned. Of course, it took much more time to go thru, and some suggestions from me. He was cured according to a phone call a week later.
I've had several such interesting cases. Another was fascinating to me. Under hypnosis, a man kept saying, “All I can see is a bird”. I kept after him about this bird for 10 or more minutes, but he couldn't see much more than this bird. Finally, he said, “It's a black bird, and it's on my shield”.
I pressed him harder about his shield, and did he have a sword and a horse. He suddenly screamed, “There's blood all around me, and all over me and my horse. I'm killing people all around with my sword, and they're trying to kill me! ”
I questioned him closely, and it became evident that the date was 1066 at the battle of Hastings as the Normans conquered England.
Is the story true? I cannot say with any certainty, but it was impressive.
When I gave seminars and talks on hypnosis, I usually finished with doing my Relaxation Technique, and my deepening. Then, I would say, “In your room, sitting comfortably, I want you to let your mind go out of your body. Let it go out into space, and as you see earth behind you as that familiar blue and white marble, see space as almost velvety, with stars and planets being very clear and steady. It's really beautiful out here in space. Now, you are coming to a white cloud that is getting bigger and bigger, and you are now entering it. On the other side, there is another blue marble world. As you approach, it looks like Earth, but as you get really close, you see no huge cities, but beautiful parks and lovely buildings that seem to be a part of the landscape. As you come to it, and walk about, you notice that the people are all friendly, and the animals are all friendly, and the gardens and parks all around are simply the loveliest you have ever seen. You are filled with the same sort of happiness that it seems everybody there has. You are at peace with yourself and that place.”
“Now, it's time to leave, and we are going back into space again. Ahead of us is that same white cloud, and this time, as we enter it, we make a left turn, and we are now going back in time. The year is 1700 on Earth, and as we come back to Earth in that time, we are going to each go into a body in that time and place. I want you to look at your feet, and your clothes, and your surroundings, and have a sense of who you are in that body. Now, it's time to return. We are leaving this time and place, and going back thru that white cloud, and back to that blue marble of earth, and back to that comfortable seat, and into your own body again. As I count to three backwards, you are gong to awaken, not drowsy or sleepy or affected by my voice at all, and you will remember everything you experienced.”
Then, I count, “Three, two, one, awake fully awake. Now, how many persons really experienced that beautiful planet?”
About a third or more really did visualize it clearly. (A few were somewhat angry with me for not leaving them longer!) Then I asked, “Now, how many persons experienced themselves in 1700?” Surprisingly, about one third had very good and clear visualizations. One woman was indignant “I had bare feet, and scratched legs, and I was a serving woman”. She had a very high opinion of herself in this life obviously. Needless to say, these stories were very interesting, and varied. One woman impressed me with, “I was in a dark place waiting to be born.”
Of course, such stories do not prove anything. They could be products of imagination, or simply scraps of something from the unconscious or universal mind. However, or whatever they are, taken in bulk from honest persons with no known vested interest, they do prove something beyond our conscious knowledge.
An “Impossible” Story
Here's a true story that is unbelievable to many people. In reading about hypnosis, I came across an article where a professional hypnotist had claimed that he had been able to increase a woman's breast size using hypnosis. I dismissed that claim until in 1978; I read an article by Dr Ted X. Barber in the Journal of Clinical Hypnosis about hypnotic phenomena. This article discussed many different hypnotic phenomena, including several experiments at several different colleges that had all done a similar experiment. As I recall (at this much later date), each college used 8-12 women, all of whom were somewhat flat chested, and all wanted larger breasts.
All were carefully measured, above and below the actual breasts, and across them at the nipples. Once a week for 12 weeks, they were hypnotized as a group, and told to visualize things like, “See yourself in a mirror naked with larger breasts. Admire your larger breasts. See how good they look, and how good you feel with them. Now, see yourself dressed in a very becoming dress, and how well it looks on you with your new breasts. It increases your self-confidence as well. “
These comments were repeated several times. As I recall, the average for all of the various experiments was that 80% actually increased their breast size, and the average increase was 2.1 inches.
Let's take another deeper look at this. The average success rate for losing weight by hypnosis is considered to be less than 65%. In other less reported breast size experiments, DECREASING breast size in women with overly large breasts, the success rate was negligible.
In addition, this suggestion is specific - add body cells to a certain part of the body only! We have no knowledge if actual mammary cells were added, or only fat cells, but still!!!
I've won two bets from other psychologists that this story was published in a reputable scientific journal. I made a hypnosis tape specifically for “breast enlargement”, and heard for a few of the women who purchased it that it did indeed work for them. Unfortunately, few people report either success or failure.
Why doesn't hypnosis work better on the “lesser task” of losing weight, or losing breast weight? The explanation is difficult, but in my experience the social “advantage” to women of large breasts inhibits the unconscious from losing this “advantage”. Some women are “punishing” their selves (or their husbands) by being fat. (Sort of “love me for me, not for my body”). Motives of the unconscious mind are often murky and difficult for our conscious minds to understand. The computer analogy of “garbage in - garbage out” applies here.
Harmful Unconscious Ideas
The unconscious mind can be a force for good or bad. It apparently doesn't discriminate - again like a computer. If a virus gets in, it can distort many other programs in different ways.
Let's examine a very illustrative case. A woman brought in her 8 year old boy for hypnosis for bedwetting. I did the usual direct suggestion, and told her to keep him off all milk products for at least a week.
Two days later, she and her son were back. No success. This time, I did age regression hypnosis. He went back (with a little urging) to when he was 4. He was in bed almost asleep when he heard someone trying to get in his window. He was so scared that he wet himself, and cried out. The burglar (real or imagined) left. The unconscious “logic” to this boy - urination protects from intruders in night. It wasn't difficult to remove this logic (computer virus), and his mother said that he hadn't wet again a few months later.
The great master of hypnotic therapy, Milton Erickson, once had an almost comic situation that he solved in a unique way. It seems that a recently married couple came to him because each was a bed wetter. On their honeymoon, the bed was wet each morning, and each thought the other was very thoughtful in not mentioning it. After a few days, they each confessed and came to Erickson.
He made them agree to do exactly what he said, and then told them to kneel on the bed when they were ready for sleep and each had to urinate, and then sleep in it. They came back several days later, and they had kept their word. He then told them, “Since you did as I told you, tonight you can go to bed normally without the urination, and come back tomorrow”. The next day, they said the bed was dry in the morning, so he “allowed” them another dry night. Then another, and then he declared them “cured”.
These two stories illustrate the immense power of the unconscious for both good and bad. One of the major jobs of the unconscious mind is to “protect” the physical body (home of the unconscious mind) from harm. If a threat is perceived whether real or imaginary, it goes into action, even if the action may be harmful to itself.
Phil Bate PhD - Retired Orthomolecular Psychologist
Inventor and Patent Pending Holder for
Brain Wave Amplitude Changing via Auditory Training
hypnosis
lose weight with hypnosis
I went to a dental convention where I found the recommended dentist who did hypnosis. He couldn't work on my teeth, but he said he thought he could help me. So, at the lunch break, I went to his room with several other dentists, and he hypnotized me with a “standard” induction technique. Then, he taught me a psychological trick of relaxation. If I raised my left hand whenever I felt my right hand becoming a fist, indicating tension, the dentist would stop, and I would relax my right hand, and lower my left hand.) I didn't believe it would work, but I made an appointment with the last dentist who had turned me down and had recommended hypnosis.
For the first few minutes, I kept raising my left hand, and he stopped immediately. After that, I didn't need to raise my left hand much at all, and he worked fast.
He pulled the two bad teeth, and drilled and filled a dozen more in one single hour and half session. I had Novocain for the bad ones, and didn't need it for the others. Both the dentist and I were amazed at this, and he asked if I were really twins
To me, a 22-year-old engineering student, this was a genuine “miracle”, and I started to learn all I could about this miracle cure. I read everything I could find, from the 1700's literature about Mesmer, Coue, etc, up to Erickson, Barber, etc.
I became an electronic engineer, and pursued this as my major career, but my avocation continued to be hypnosis, and by extension, psychology. (Much of behavior psychology is similar to hypnosis). I used it professionally, taught it in a major university to doctors, and continued to learn about it. I performed some “shows”, and considered a career as a stage hypnotist, but was more interested in using it for helping people, as it had helped me.
In 1979, I left electronic engineering, and turned to psychology. I went back and obtained a Doctorate in Psychology based on my education, life experience, and my doctoral dissertation. I became a successful Behaviorist Psychologist for years in private practice in Florida. I gradually converted to an Orthomolecular practice when I found that these types of therapies worked better than any “talk therapy”, although talk therapy is sometimes useful as well.
Hypnotic Relaxation
During this many years of study, and later career as a psychologist, I realized that what that original dentist who hypnotized me had actually done. With hypnosis, he had simply given me a “new” conscious tool of relaxation. Using this simple tool, I could actually change something in my unconscious called a “phobia”. It wasn't really a miracle, though I had thought so at the time. Adding this knowledge to my knowledge of Pavlovian “conditioning responses”, I came up with what I called the Bate Relaxation Technique.
This is very simple, yet it can be very powerful - much more powerful than most realize because of its simplicity. It starts with a general hypnotic induction technique of relaxing the body muscles, starting with the toes and going up to the scalp and face. Then, in a state of muscle relaxation, ask the subject to visualize a very beautiful relaxing scene he/she is in. Describe the scene. Ask them to concentrate on how beautiful and very relaxing it is.
Then, ask the subject to memorize the feelings of relaxation and concentration they are feeling at that time. Have them put these feelings into their memory like a photograph. Then, give them a post-hypnotic suggestion that they can now recall those feeling any time they simply count to three. End the session, and have the subject stand up, take a deep breath and simply count to three.
It's simply amazing how the shoulders often slump 2-3 inches or some other muscles that the subject usually tenses from stress relax. I describe the “strange” feeling as sort of a “blah” feeling. (As subjects stand up from the session, their “normal” pattern of muscle stress takes effect, and the “instant” relaxation is definitely experienced.)
I then tell the subject that they now have the pattern, but it up to them to use it often, several times a day, even if not needed, for the next week or so. This will set this pattern into their unconscious as a “conditioned response”. (Remember Pavlov's dog?) Now, they have the same tool I got from the original dentist, but it is much more enhanced and valuable. It instantly relieves stress of any kind.
Driving a car a long distance is very stressful. My wife and I recently drove over 20 hours straight thru, with me driving about 14 of those hours. At 78 years old, that's not “usual”. The secret - we both simply count to three every so often and are able to relax behind the wheel. Muscle tension is very tiring, and few are able to relax this muscle tension behind the wheel.
This relaxation technique is very useful in many ways in helping to solve psychological problems of phobias, compulsions, and even some serious physical problems. I was able to solve dozens of Asthma problems in all persons between 7 and 15 years old, and was often successful with older persons as well. (Kids in this age range are very suggestible; some adults are too cynical.)
The system is simple, but effective. First, teach the relaxation. Then, have the patient emulate a really bad asthma attack. “Come on, get really bad, your throat is closing more and more.” It's getting worse and worse.” When the patient really starts to become in distress, say, “Now, count to three”. As he gets to three, he relaxes, and says, “Now, it's gone, and you are in control”.
Many years ago, I did this routine on the 14-year-old son of lifelong friends. When I was visiting them a few years ago, I walked into the store of the son, and he recognized me immediately. I was surprised as it had been over 20 years since he had seen me. He said, “Do you think I could ever forget the man who cured my Asthma?”
It was another great day for my ego.
There's nothing magical or even mysterious about it. All you are doing is teaching a new “trick” to the unconscious mind. This “trick” of instant relaxation is learned as a conditioned response by repetition and use. It becomes a tool for the conscious mind to use in all types of situations to reduce stress. As everybody knows, stress ages us, diminishes the immune system, and helps to kill us.
The various forms of yoga and other meditation techniques are similar, yet different. They relieve stress of course, but are of little use in immediate stressful situations. This relaxation is immediate.
This also can be used for self-hypnosis, positive statements and visualizations.
I also used it for patients that wanted to stop smoking as a “substitute” for that instant craving that comes to an addicted smoker.
One idea makes a lot of people “afraid” of hypnosis. The idea that another person has “control” over them, and can make them do literally anything. Every experiment ever conducted has shown that this is simply not true. Hypnosis cannot force a person to do anything that is against his/her moral code. The unconscious mind is very protective, and is what we are working with either with hypnosis or subliminal training.
There is some possibility of “indirect” misuse of hypnosis. I once witnessed a hypnotist demonstrating this. He had a very attractive woman who was very hypnotizable (instantly into somnambulism by snapping his fingers). He hypnotized her, and told her to take off her clothes. She awoke instantly and was embarrassed, but had no conscious memory of why.
He then hypnotized her again, and this time, told her that she was at home in her bathroom with the door closed, and she was going to take a bath. She calmly started to take off her clothes. He stopped her before she got too far, but she was obviously going to completely strip.
It was interesting how he stopped her. He told her that someone had come into her home, and was near the bathroom door. She said, “Don't come in. I'm not dressed”.
He then had her get dressed, and woke her. She had no memory of the incident.
When I was a young man, I had a girlfriend who I had sex with once or twice. And she had been hypnotized several times as well. One night I wanted sex, but she didn't. I used the cue that hypnotized her, but to no avail. She refused, even hypnotized. So, the idea that someone can make you do something you do not want to do is false. I can testify to that personally. Our unconscious mind is very protective of us in all ways, even though some ways may be wrong.
Of course, if you work with either hypnosis or subliminal training, or virtually any type of serious psychology you have to be aware of the unconscious mind, as that entity is always what you are trying to influence.
Hypnotic Age Regression
This is a very useful tool for a psychologist, or, for that matter, any doctor of any stripe. Under even “light” hypnosis, it can be used to “pull” details from the life of the patient that he/she has forgotten consciously. (The unconscious memory has everything in it.)
There are several “tricks of the trade” involved. After my Relaxation Technique, I used a “deepening” technique that went something like this, “Now, I want you to imagine and visualize yourself going down an escalator as I count to ten. One, imagine yourself stepping on and feeling the steps form under your feet. Two, as you move down, relax even more. Three, as you go down further, concentrate more and more. Four, and as you relax more, you can concentrate more. Five, this positive circle of concentration and relaxation continues as you move down.”
Continue with similar repetitions thru nine, and then, “Ten, step off the escalator into a room. This room is yours alone. It is only in your mind, and no one else can ever get into it. You can make it anything you want. In this room, you can do anything or visualize anything that will help you to be a better person. In this room you can remember anything you want.”
Next, I would start the questioning. For example, a man came to me to try to find a lost valuable diamond engagement ring. He and his fiancé had broken up, and she had returned the ring to him. He remembered taking the ring, but when he got home, he couldn't find it at all. I did the above technique, and then started.
I said. “I want to you to go back in time to the moment when she handed you the ring. Where were you and she at that time?”
He replied, “We were in her living room.”
“Alright, see yourself taking the ring. What did you do with it?”
He said, “I'm putting it into my small watch pocket of my jeans.”
“OK, now you are leaving her. What happened next?”
“I'm getting into my car, and driving home”
“Good, what happens next?”
“I'm going into my bedroom, and changing clothes.”
“Why?”
“I have to go to a baseball presentation dinner.”
“OK, what did you do with your jeans?”
“Oh NO! I had put them in the washer!”
That was the story. He went home and found the ring stuck in the washer. (The usual story of such is that it gets caught in the “U” drain under a sink.) This illustrates the value of “age regression” as a memory aid.
Of course, it's also useful to uncover the beginnings of phobias and compulsions. A woman came to me with a cat phobia and asthma. I did the usual as above, and with a couple of other useful techniques found the problem. One “trick” is to say, “OK, now you are going back in time. It is your 15th birthday. You are awake in that morning. Do you have asthma?”
She replied, “yes.” (She had earlier said on intake questioning that her asthma had started very early. I start well past that so as to get the patient used to going back.)
“Ok, now you are ten years old, just waking up on your birthday. Do you have asthma now?” Same answer.
“OK, you are now five years old, on your birthday. Do you have asthma now?” Same answer
I worked back thru 4 and 3 and 2, 1, and started back in months. I got to the ninth month, and she didn't have asthma. Still she had no memory of anything that was related. So, I went to her tenth month, and went backwards, day to day with the same question. I got to the day when she did have asthma. Now I asked her, “What happened to you during the last day that caused you to have asthma? I am going to count to three, and when I get to three, you will remember everything. One, you're starting to remember. Two, memory is coming back. Three, you now remember everything.”
She then related, “I was lying on my back in a crib, and the cat jumped into the crib, and lay across my mouth. I couldn't breathe, or call out, and I was scared. I don't know what happened, but I think I hit the cat, and she went off me.”
It was two birds with one stone. Cat phobia, and asthma caused at that point. Asthma is often a “protective” device used to keep oxygen in the body. Most can easily breath in but have real problems breathing out. This was her case.
Then, we get to the really interesting part. Age regression to past lives. As an agnostic, I don't really know if the many stories I have heard from many persons are true, or something from the universal mind or what?
Probably the single most impressive story is from the man who came to me with two lifelong phobias that he had had since earliest memory. He was deathly afraid of fire and water. He thought that these phobias might be from past lives, and asked me to try to find out.
He was easily hypnotizable, and with little urging went back thru birth to the previous life. He had been a circus clown, and been burned to death in a circus fire. It was then simple to go back to a previous life to that. It seems that he had stolen a horse, and was caught. The vigilantes didn't have a tree, so they hanged him from a bridge. The rope broke, and he drowned. Of course, it took much more time to go thru, and some suggestions from me. He was cured according to a phone call a week later.
I've had several such interesting cases. Another was fascinating to me. Under hypnosis, a man kept saying, “All I can see is a bird”. I kept after him about this bird for 10 or more minutes, but he couldn't see much more than this bird. Finally, he said, “It's a black bird, and it's on my shield”.
I pressed him harder about his shield, and did he have a sword and a horse. He suddenly screamed, “There's blood all around me, and all over me and my horse. I'm killing people all around with my sword, and they're trying to kill me! ”
I questioned him closely, and it became evident that the date was 1066 at the battle of Hastings as the Normans conquered England.
Is the story true? I cannot say with any certainty, but it was impressive.
When I gave seminars and talks on hypnosis, I usually finished with doing my Relaxation Technique, and my deepening. Then, I would say, “In your room, sitting comfortably, I want you to let your mind go out of your body. Let it go out into space, and as you see earth behind you as that familiar blue and white marble, see space as almost velvety, with stars and planets being very clear and steady. It's really beautiful out here in space. Now, you are coming to a white cloud that is getting bigger and bigger, and you are now entering it. On the other side, there is another blue marble world. As you approach, it looks like Earth, but as you get really close, you see no huge cities, but beautiful parks and lovely buildings that seem to be a part of the landscape. As you come to it, and walk about, you notice that the people are all friendly, and the animals are all friendly, and the gardens and parks all around are simply the loveliest you have ever seen. You are filled with the same sort of happiness that it seems everybody there has. You are at peace with yourself and that place.”
“Now, it's time to leave, and we are going back into space again. Ahead of us is that same white cloud, and this time, as we enter it, we make a left turn, and we are now going back in time. The year is 1700 on Earth, and as we come back to Earth in that time, we are going to each go into a body in that time and place. I want you to look at your feet, and your clothes, and your surroundings, and have a sense of who you are in that body. Now, it's time to return. We are leaving this time and place, and going back thru that white cloud, and back to that blue marble of earth, and back to that comfortable seat, and into your own body again. As I count to three backwards, you are gong to awaken, not drowsy or sleepy or affected by my voice at all, and you will remember everything you experienced.”
Then, I count, “Three, two, one, awake fully awake. Now, how many persons really experienced that beautiful planet?”
About a third or more really did visualize it clearly. (A few were somewhat angry with me for not leaving them longer!) Then I asked, “Now, how many persons experienced themselves in 1700?” Surprisingly, about one third had very good and clear visualizations. One woman was indignant “I had bare feet, and scratched legs, and I was a serving woman”. She had a very high opinion of herself in this life obviously. Needless to say, these stories were very interesting, and varied. One woman impressed me with, “I was in a dark place waiting to be born.”
Of course, such stories do not prove anything. They could be products of imagination, or simply scraps of something from the unconscious or universal mind. However, or whatever they are, taken in bulk from honest persons with no known vested interest, they do prove something beyond our conscious knowledge.
An “Impossible” Story
Here's a true story that is unbelievable to many people. In reading about hypnosis, I came across an article where a professional hypnotist had claimed that he had been able to increase a woman's breast size using hypnosis. I dismissed that claim until in 1978; I read an article by Dr Ted X. Barber in the Journal of Clinical Hypnosis about hypnotic phenomena. This article discussed many different hypnotic phenomena, including several experiments at several different colleges that had all done a similar experiment. As I recall (at this much later date), each college used 8-12 women, all of whom were somewhat flat chested, and all wanted larger breasts.
All were carefully measured, above and below the actual breasts, and across them at the nipples. Once a week for 12 weeks, they were hypnotized as a group, and told to visualize things like, “See yourself in a mirror naked with larger breasts. Admire your larger breasts. See how good they look, and how good you feel with them. Now, see yourself dressed in a very becoming dress, and how well it looks on you with your new breasts. It increases your self-confidence as well. “
These comments were repeated several times. As I recall, the average for all of the various experiments was that 80% actually increased their breast size, and the average increase was 2.1 inches.
Let's take another deeper look at this. The average success rate for losing weight by hypnosis is considered to be less than 65%. In other less reported breast size experiments, DECREASING breast size in women with overly large breasts, the success rate was negligible.
In addition, this suggestion is specific - add body cells to a certain part of the body only! We have no knowledge if actual mammary cells were added, or only fat cells, but still!!!
I've won two bets from other psychologists that this story was published in a reputable scientific journal. I made a hypnosis tape specifically for “breast enlargement”, and heard for a few of the women who purchased it that it did indeed work for them. Unfortunately, few people report either success or failure.
Why doesn't hypnosis work better on the “lesser task” of losing weight, or losing breast weight? The explanation is difficult, but in my experience the social “advantage” to women of large breasts inhibits the unconscious from losing this “advantage”. Some women are “punishing” their selves (or their husbands) by being fat. (Sort of “love me for me, not for my body”). Motives of the unconscious mind are often murky and difficult for our conscious minds to understand. The computer analogy of “garbage in - garbage out” applies here.
Harmful Unconscious Ideas
The unconscious mind can be a force for good or bad. It apparently doesn't discriminate - again like a computer. If a virus gets in, it can distort many other programs in different ways.
Let's examine a very illustrative case. A woman brought in her 8 year old boy for hypnosis for bedwetting. I did the usual direct suggestion, and told her to keep him off all milk products for at least a week.
Two days later, she and her son were back. No success. This time, I did age regression hypnosis. He went back (with a little urging) to when he was 4. He was in bed almost asleep when he heard someone trying to get in his window. He was so scared that he wet himself, and cried out. The burglar (real or imagined) left. The unconscious “logic” to this boy - urination protects from intruders in night. It wasn't difficult to remove this logic (computer virus), and his mother said that he hadn't wet again a few months later.
The great master of hypnotic therapy, Milton Erickson, once had an almost comic situation that he solved in a unique way. It seems that a recently married couple came to him because each was a bed wetter. On their honeymoon, the bed was wet each morning, and each thought the other was very thoughtful in not mentioning it. After a few days, they each confessed and came to Erickson.
He made them agree to do exactly what he said, and then told them to kneel on the bed when they were ready for sleep and each had to urinate, and then sleep in it. They came back several days later, and they had kept their word. He then told them, “Since you did as I told you, tonight you can go to bed normally without the urination, and come back tomorrow”. The next day, they said the bed was dry in the morning, so he “allowed” them another dry night. Then another, and then he declared them “cured”.
These two stories illustrate the immense power of the unconscious for both good and bad. One of the major jobs of the unconscious mind is to “protect” the physical body (home of the unconscious mind) from harm. If a threat is perceived whether real or imaginary, it goes into action, even if the action may be harmful to itself.
Phil Bate PhD - Retired Orthomolecular Psychologist
Inventor and Patent Pending Holder for
Brain Wave Amplitude Changing via Auditory Training
hypnosis
lose weight with hypnosis
Choosing The Right Home Appliances
Choosing the right home appliances from a variety of choices meeting your actual requirement is indeed a difficult task. If one does not make a wise choice it may end up in sheer waste of one’s hard earned money. The first and fore most point to bear in, mind is to have an objective assessment of the actual requirement at home and the budget for the same. Any impulsive decision on the requirements of your house hold may be immature, shortsighted and defeating the very purpose.
Many busy homemakers do not bother to do any planning or research about the budget that can be spend on a product or on the required features of the needed product before ending up in the store. The planning process at the store where the heart takes over the head results in purchase of either not the most essential ones or the most expensive ones. On the other hand the pre planned budget and the list of the most essential gadgets to be purchased would help us save the precious time and valuable money.
These days wide variety of products in different brands are available in the market and choosing the right brand with the right features requires plenty of time and research. The best alternative is to relay on the consumer publications. Most of the publications are available either in the net or at the public library. These publications give valuable advice based on research. They comment on a variety of features found in different brands. It is well advised to go for a better quality product rather than for more features. Now a days most products are available online at cheaper rates than in a local market, sometimes it would be wise to buy these products online to have better choice and to save tax.
The space the item would occupy at home is a factor normally neglected while making a decision for purchase. Crammed or cluttered bath or kitchen would lead to resentments later. The last but not the least is the warranty offered for the product that requires attention one has to make sure about period and parts covered by the warranty. The place of after sales service or facility for home repair should be looked into.
Except In the case of newly weds or couples who set up new homes, most often people replace their old or obsolete home products or home appliances. It would be wise in such situations to keep in mind the additional features that one would like to add in the new make.
Though detailed literature on the new brands and innovative products that floods the market is available in any show room or in the web sites it would be wise for a prudent buyer to take into confidence an already satisfied customer going by the old saying ‘only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches’
One who follows these basic principals and guidelines before adding to their home appliances, many an embarrassment and post purchase resentment can be avoided.
UK Chest Freezers - Deep Fat Fryers - UK Fridge Freezers
Many busy homemakers do not bother to do any planning or research about the budget that can be spend on a product or on the required features of the needed product before ending up in the store. The planning process at the store where the heart takes over the head results in purchase of either not the most essential ones or the most expensive ones. On the other hand the pre planned budget and the list of the most essential gadgets to be purchased would help us save the precious time and valuable money.
These days wide variety of products in different brands are available in the market and choosing the right brand with the right features requires plenty of time and research. The best alternative is to relay on the consumer publications. Most of the publications are available either in the net or at the public library. These publications give valuable advice based on research. They comment on a variety of features found in different brands. It is well advised to go for a better quality product rather than for more features. Now a days most products are available online at cheaper rates than in a local market, sometimes it would be wise to buy these products online to have better choice and to save tax.
The space the item would occupy at home is a factor normally neglected while making a decision for purchase. Crammed or cluttered bath or kitchen would lead to resentments later. The last but not the least is the warranty offered for the product that requires attention one has to make sure about period and parts covered by the warranty. The place of after sales service or facility for home repair should be looked into.
Except In the case of newly weds or couples who set up new homes, most often people replace their old or obsolete home products or home appliances. It would be wise in such situations to keep in mind the additional features that one would like to add in the new make.
Though detailed literature on the new brands and innovative products that floods the market is available in any show room or in the web sites it would be wise for a prudent buyer to take into confidence an already satisfied customer going by the old saying ‘only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches’
One who follows these basic principals and guidelines before adding to their home appliances, many an embarrassment and post purchase resentment can be avoided.
UK Chest Freezers - Deep Fat Fryers - UK Fridge Freezers
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