There was a time when I sat at my desk and looked at the flower giving to me by my partner, (now husband), wondering when I would be able to put a picture of him on the desk, along with the flower. Thirty Eight Years ago, the LGBTQ community still had some hard battles to be fought before we could completely Open the closet Door and express our love and commitment to our partners.  

I am seeing more and more clients who are stressed out and anxious about the new law(s) of the land as more and more rights are being taking from, or being threatened to be taking from,  people who do not fit the white, straight, male model in this culture. What is causing this? Is it the outside events or is it our / your reaction to the outside events.

As I teach all of my clients, we are not our thoughts, we are not our emotions, we are the masters of our thoughts, the masters of our emotions. . Our thoughts and emotions are created by our brains, and the main reason is to make sure that we are safe and secure. When we feel threatened or we feel the need to protect ourselves, we respond with the Fight, Flight, or Freeze, response. This type of response has saved us from dangers such as wild animals, hunger, and natural disasters, and these days these responses cause us to get stuck in issues of stress and anxiety.

When we become stressed or anxious about the events and people around us, we allow ourselves to be controlled by those events and people around us. How can we stopped being controlled by outside forces?

The first step is to sit back, take a deep breath, and focus on letting go of built up tension and stress that lie in the cells and muscles of our bodies.

Many people who come seeking help through Foundations Medical Hypnosis have been trying to build their own meditation mindfulness practices and these practices are acting as their own Foundation, their own first steps into the world of self control and self power.

Think about how you were raised, think about the images and messages that were programmed into your brain / ego in regards to your sexuality and what is acceptable or appropriate for you to move freely and happily through this culture.  Often times we take those images and messages and bury them deeply into the subconscious portions of your brains, we bury them so deep that often times we don’t consciously remember those images and messages, but despite our lack of conscious memories, we are still effected and guided by the images and messages.

Suicide in the LGBTQ community is on the rise, as we all face more hate crimes, and watch the news with stories about our community being put back in its place with the loss of the right to marry, and the right for gay couples to adopt.

Are you trying to deal with your own version of internalized homophobia? Are you still living behind the closet door and desperately seeking a way out? Call Foundations Medical Hypnosis and Life Coaching, and gain the skills and techniques that you can use to escape from this self imposed prison. with the addition of a technique called Emotional Release Therapy, ERT for short, you can reclaim your responses and thus your life.

Don’t delay, call (206) 417-4900 or e-mail Foundations at dlscott2@comcast.net, YOU WILL BE SO GLAD YOU DID!!!!!

The post Open the Closet Door with Hypnosis appeared first on Hypnotherapy North Seattle | Everett Counseling | Hypnotherapist Shoreline | Stop Smoking Hypnosis.

A lot has changed in the last several months. We, as member of the LGBTQ community, have fought long and hard to gain simple rights such as the right to marry whom we choose, or the right to be open in our careers, (including professional and military). Now on a daily basis we are reading about and hearing about how certain members of the government want to strip those rights away from us, we are constantly reading about not being accepted by others, and thus lessening our own Self Acceptance.

As stated in an earlier blog, do you ever wonder why the gay community has a higher incidence rate of suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, and a higher rate of HIV / AIDS. While at the same time you read about how the members of the gay community have a higher expendable income than most. Perhaps it is time to turn our attention to what is inside of ourselves, instead of constantly focusing on what is going on in the outside world.

Utilizing the tools of Hypnosis and Life Coaching, you can start turnning inwards and develop, self awareness and self acceptance.

From the moment we are first born, we are taught how to exist in the culture that we were born into. Our conscious minds, our EGO is fillied with images, messages, and agreements that we carry through out our lives, that tell what it takes to be a good boy, or a bad boy, or a good girl, or a bad girl. Unfortunately, most of us in the community, are taught that it is not natural to be attracted to someone of our own gender. If someone is attracted to someone of their own gender, they are taught that they are not as good as, and they do not deserve the same abundance and prosperity that their straight counter parts deserve. Our Self Acceptance is very low, sometimes almost non existant. Many of in the community still feel as though they have to hide themselves from certain segments of the population, they constantly feel attacked and belittled by the majority of the population. After years of fighting for basic rights, and struggling to come out, there still seems to be a tough road that lies ahead.

Our unconscious minds, our EGOS, contain three main archetypes that pretty well run our lives. The Inner Judge, The Inner Victim, and the Inner Punisher. Without any conscious thought, we judge everyone and everything we are exposed to, based on the information that we were given by the adults in our lives,  Parents, School, Friends, Churches, Movies, Books, etc. These judgements include our selves.How many times have you been focused on “I am not good enough, I am going to loss my job, I am going to loss my relationship, or in some cases I am going to have my rights taking away”.

In the case of many in the LGBTQ community, our Inner Judge is constantly creating self talk that is very negative and self defeating, from old messages and incidences. Many people find Self Acceptance hard to achieve when they live with the scars of “bullying” about our same sex desires and feeling”. As the Inner Judge deems us as unworthy, not good enough, our Inner Victim accepts this judgement withour much question. Then the Inner Punisher takes over, and merits out whatever punishment is felt necessary to take care of the Judgement, such feelings of low self worth, low Self Acceptence, constant stress, anxiety, or serious and long bouts of depression.

What can you do?

The first thing to do is learn how to shift your attention. Learn how to meditate using self hypnosis. With Foundations Hypnosis you will learn how to let go of emotions with a technique called Emotional Release Therpy, (ERT).

By learning to meditate, by learning how to use Hypnosis, and ERT,by developing Self Acceptance,  you can begin to take charge of your emotions and your thoughts and start attracting the kind of life that you want instead of the kind of life that you don’t want.

I have been a hypnotist and chemical dependency counselor for a little over twenty five years. I have been exposed to numerous therapy techniques and ideas over the years, but the ones that work are based on the idea that we are not our thoughts, and we are not our feelings. We are actually the consciousness behind those things. We are master of our thoughts, we are the master of our feelings, and until we learn some simple and basic techniques to actually start taking control of what is on the inside, until we start actually learning how to switch our focus from negative old belifs and ideas, and start focusing on posirive and powerful images and messages, we are going to continue to get stuck in a life of addictions, phobias, low self worth, fears, and anxieties.

Foundations Hypnosis, Life Coaching Seattle and Everett, has a program that is guaranteed to get you moving in the direction that you want and desire.  Just listen to these two satisfied customers:

“I strongly recommend D.L. to anyone looking to seriously face their challenges/fears. He has an amazing ability to zero in on an issue and not waste time talking about all the trivial stuff. During the toughest period of my life, D.L. was one person who I knew believed in my ability to overcome the greatest challenges. Rather than allow me to focus on the problem, he helped me see things in a new light and discover a completely new way of living. Today, I enjoy my life and have a hopefulness and confidence I could never have imagined. I believe that D.L. was the spark that helped fuel my new life.”  S.S.

Over the years I’d managed to define my existence with a whole lot of, I can’t. I can’t find love, I can’t get a job, I can’t go to school, and so on. With DL’s patient wisdom and experience my eyes began to open and realize there was an entire lifestyle out there for me that I’d yet to tap into. The only thing holding me back was my own belief system. And now the only thing “I can’t” do is be restricted by self imposed limitations. I now enjoy healthier relationships with my partner, friends, and family and am very excited about my progress as a student working towards the career of my dreams. Thanks DL.

So whether you are a member of the LGBTQ community dealing with comming out issues, or simply dealing with your own issues of self worth, and esteem, or stress related issues that include obsessive compulsive behaviors and you are seeking help in dealing with those issues, Call NOW!!!! Ccall for your first session now, and start living the life you have always dreamed of. Foundations Hypnosis, and Life Coaching Seattle ~ Lynnwood ~ Everett, (206) 417-4900. https://www.dlscottpersonalenergymastery.com

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The older boy use to hold bible classes with him, the subject was almost always about the sins of man, and how the SNAKE would always trick and seduce him. The the older boy always used his own snake to embelish the lesson, and the young man put up with it until he was old enough to leave home.  The man had spent much of his adult life trying to drown out the feelings with various drugs, and repeated sexual encounters where he recreated the same situations in which he could continue to prove to himself that he deserved the humilation, abuse, and pain that the older boy had inflicted upon him. The continued drug induced sexual encounters eventually lead to a diagnosis of HIV / AIDS.

As I explained to the man, who was having trouble even sitting in the room alone with another male, this was not intended to be a magic cure, or intended to replace any other therapy that he was encountering. What the process was intending to do was to help him let go of the extreme emotional response that he was experiencing due to the memories he carried with him.

The story was not an uncommon one, the man grew up with a great deal of guilt and shame heaped upon him due to the fact that he was gay, but he also grew up carrying around the guilt and shame of a continuous sexual relationship with this older boy that my client felt he felt was his responsiblity and his fault, because in someway he knew that he was different from other boys, even at the young age of 9, and it was because he was different that the older boy had sought him out and used him for sexual services.

Please be aware that this situation could have just as easily been between a young girl and an older boy, and it would have been just as devestating, (in fact I have worked with clients under those circumstances), but this particular case had the added peice that the young man had already been taught by society that his own feelings for his same gender made him less than, and in someway unclean, and worthy of the abuse.

As a seattle hypnotherapist, and emotionl release therapy specialist, (working a lot in the gay and lesbian community), I have found that by using hypnosis and emotional release therapy to help in the forgiveness process, my clients are able to let go of deeply held feelings of shame, and guilt that have kept them stuck with feelings of low self worth, low self esteem, and often times issues of chemical addiction or abuse.  

Working as clinical coordinator for Project NEON, a Public Health funded program in King County, located in Seattle Wa., for over nine years, I have been able to develop many tools and skills that help gay and lesbian community members break through issues of internalized homophobia, and learn to accept who they are without the shame and guilt. 

At the end of the session with the above client he was smiling and told me that this was the first time in many, many, years that he could actually breath easily while sitting in a room with another male. I explained to him that this was due to the nature of the hypnotic induction, and the fact that he had been able to let go of traumatic emotional baggage through the application of emotional release therapy.

Many people have trouble with the whole idea of forgiveness. They believe that to forgive someone for what they have done, is like letting the person off of the hook for their behavior. In truth the act of forgiving, is not about the other person, but it is about “giving up all hope of having a better past”.  When you are able to really forgive someone, you will find that you are able to lift a big weight off of your own shoulders. You can, as my client said, breath again for the first time in many years. 

Using hynosis, when applied by a qualified Hypnotist / Hypnotherapist, and state cerified counselor, can and does speed up the process, making it easier, and sometimes more long lasting. As an emotional release therapist, I can assure that this is true as I have witnessed this with many of my clients.

(If you are wanting to know more about this powerful life altering experience, if you are dealing with emotional stress, and behavioral issues that have you kept stuck, then don’t delay, call Foundations Hypnosis Seattle ~ Everett at (206) 417-4900 today. Everett counseling therapist and North Seattle Hypnotherapy )

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Welcome back, a friend of mine told me, as I arrived back from a two week retreat / vacation, on Cortes Island in British Columbia.

Things never really turn out exactly the way that you expect, and this vacation did not turn out as I expected. First off I had not expected to learn as much about myself as I have, and second off I never expected to learn as much about my counseling and hypnotherapist agency as I did.

Upon return from my vacation I opened up my e-mail and everything that I had been experiencing and learning was contained in the following e-mail:
                                   
   I know you’ve never heard this before, but you were RIGHT!! All the worry, stress, freaking myself out and falling into the deep Hole of Dispair and depression over an unknown factor in my Future…. with the Demons controlling my thoughts, though I should have been concentrating on the present moment fighting with Positive Thoughts, Self- Confidence and Keeping those Damaging influences at bay!!
      In my defense, and considering what I still feel my vulnerable personality , being down to less than $20. to my name and uncertain as to my continued U.I. and convinced that I had NO place to turn….
     As it ultimately turned out, a relative came through with $1000, AND the next day my paperwork and check and 15 week extension of Benefits arrived in the mail…
     So, sorry to ramble on like this , but I felt I needed to explain to someone! Thank you for your concern and your Help in facing similar situations in the Future!
       As it turns out, I’m almost Giddy at the moment about the way it DID turn out, but I know I probably did both further physical and mental damage
by the way I reacted to the situation…
     So, I’ll let you go for now and Hope you have a Fantastic Vacation in every way possible!!!!  Yours in Peace, xxxxxxxxxxxx

I have been in the field for about twenty years at this point in my career. I have clients who come to me for a variety of reasons, smoking cessation, drug addiction, self worth & self esteem, panic & anxiety, sleeping issues. pain management control, insomnia, gambling addiction, internalized homophobia, and coming out issues for the Gay and Lesbian community. When I first learned the art of hypnosis, I was trained in specific inductions, and techniques, that could help a client refocus or reprogram their minds. During all of that time as a Seattle Hypnotherapist, and Washington Certified Counselor, what have I found that works really well? What I have discovered over the years, is that clients don’t have to reprogram their minds, they simply need to be reminded that they don’t have to buy into every thought that is created or produced by the brain. They are actually the observer, the watcher, the Master of their thoughts.

I cannot repeat enough that a technique I use called Emotional Release Therapy, helps every single client let go of old lingering emotional wounds and traumas, while applying the techniques of Mindfulness, and Deep Clinical Hypnosis, provide very fast, and reliable changes in thoughts and emotions, that allow for permanent and lasting changing in the clients environment.

You see, we as a species do not create and live our lives from the outside in, but we do create and live our lives from the inside out. The outside world, our environment is a mirror of what we believe and have been taught about ourselves.  According to one of my favorite writers, Don Miguel Ruiz, “The Four Agreements”, we have been domesticated / raised with certain beliefs that we have accepted and agreed to truth. The interesting thing is, that very few of these beliefs and agreements are true.  We act as if every thought, every belief, that we have is absolutely the truth. When you come to Foundations Hypnosis, serving the greater King County area, and surrounding counties, you are taught that you are not your thoughts, you are not your feelings, you are not even really your body. You are something much more, you are the consciousness, the spirit, the soul, that inhabits that body, and it is your brain, (the most sophisticated computer in existence), that creates and produces 1000(s) of thoughts each day. Thoughts that we buy into, and believe to be true. Once you are able to become the observer or those thoughts, the watcher of the thoughts and emotions, that have ruled your life for years, you will be able to easily let go of anger, addictions, internalized phobias, fears, and insecurities that have kept you stuck for years.

Just listen to what one client said to me about how Foundations Hypnosis has helped him with his life long anger issues, issues that he had at one time been mandated to attend more traditional anger management classes:

“DL Scott, I just wanted to take a minute to tell you what you and Emotional Release Therapy have done for me. I know I still have a ways to go, but after just a few short weeks I feel more satisfaction and closer to reaching my goal than I ever did while spending almost two years in a traditional form of anger management. People in my life are already noticing the positive changes that I’m making and I’m beginning to feel myself getting closer to the ones I love. Thank you for the hope of happiness in my life.
K.L.
Oct 2009

(If you are wanting to know more about this powerful life altering experience, if you are dealing with emotional stress, and behavioral issues that have you kept stuck, and you want counseling that cares, then don’t delay, call or contact Foundations Hypnosis Seattle ~ Everett at (206) 417-4900 today. <a href=”https://www.dlscottpersonalenergymastery.com/>

The post Seattle Hypnotherapist Counselor – DL Scott appeared first on Hypnotherapy North Seattle | Everett Counseling | Hypnotherapist Shoreline | Stop Smoking Hypnosis.

Do find yourself struggling with issues of self acceptance. Do find that despite everything you have read about the Law of Attraction, from watching the movies by Louise Hay, Dr. Wayne Dyer,  “What the Bleep, and The Secret”, reading books by  countless new thought authors such as Jerry and Ester Hicks, or Gregg Braden, you are still not getting the results that you want.

Do you ever wonder why the gay community has a higher incidence rate of suicide, alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, and a higher rate of HIV / AIDS. While at the same time you read about how the members of the gay community have a higher expendable income than most. Perhaps it is time to turn our attention to what is inside of ourselves, instead of constantly focusing on what is going on in the outside world.

The one thing that gets over looked is that members of the  gay community are hypnotized into believing that they are less than, they are not as good as, and they do not deserve the same abundance and prosperity that their straight counter parts deserve. Many of in the community still feel as though they have to hide themselves from certain segments of the population, they constantly feel attacked and belittled by the majority of the population. After years of fighting for basic rights, and struggling to come out, there still seems to be a tough road that lies ahead.

As you may known from the already mentioned movies and books on the subject, the secret to a happier and prosperous life is to think positive thoughts and focus on what we really want in life, but something seems to always get in our way.  That something is our own BRAIN and how it functions. You see no matter how many positive thoughts you can think, no matter how often you can get yourself into a happy mood, the brain is designed to react to anything that threatens your survival. The problem is that we have been raised to believe that every negative thought, every negative or uncomfortable event; from a car cutting us off in traffic, or a client who is less than receptive to our sales presentation; is responded to swiftly and single mindedly as a threat to our existence. How many times have you been focused on “I am not good enough, I am going to loss my job, I am going to loss my relationship, or in some cases I am going to have my rights taking away”. 

Every time you hear something that does not feel good, your brain immediately perceives this as a threat, and goes into a fight or flight response. When you go into a flight or fight mode, our emotions go into a negative spiral, we get angry, we depressed, we get afraid, we begin to worry about what might happen to us because of the perceived threat, and it gets to the point that no matter how much you try focus on what you want, your worry about what you don’t want overpowers you, and pretty soon all of those negative things that you have been worried about are starting to actually occur in your life, and when they actually occur in your life, you BRAIN becomes even more reactive, and more focused on the negative events.

What can you do?

The first thing to do is learn how to shift your attention. Learn how to meditate using self hypnosis, and learn how to change the vibrational frequency of emotions.  If you are angry, afraid, worried, or upset, just thinking about making more money, getting a better relationship, is not going to happen very easily. First you have to let go of the old emotions, and start feeling different.

By learning to meditate, by learning how to use Hypnosis, and a technique called Mindfulness, you can begin to take charge of your emotions and your thoughts and start attracting the kind of life that you want instead of the kind of life that you don’t want.

I have been a hypnotist and chemical dependency counselor for a little over twenty years. I have been exposed to numerous therapy techniques and ideas over the years, but the ones that work are based on the idea that we are not our thoughts, and we are not our feelings. We are actually the consciousness behind those things. We are master of our thoughts, we are the master of our feelings, and until we learn some simple and basic techniques to actually start taking control of what is on the inside, until we start actually learning how to switch our focus, and start utilizing The Law of Attraction, to produce the life that we truly want and desire, we are going to continue to get stuck in a life of addictions, phobias, low self worth, fears, and anxieties. 

Foundations Hypnosis Seattle and Everett, has a program that is guaranteed to get you moving in the direction that you want and desire.  Just listen to these two satisfied customers:

“I strongly recommend D.L. to anyone looking to seriously face their challenges/fears. He has an amazing ability to zero in on an issue and not waste time talking about all the trivial stuff. During the toughest period of my life, D.L. was one person who I knew believed in my ability to overcome the greatest challenges. Rather than allow me to focus on the problem, he helped me see things in a new light and discover a completely new way of living. Today, I enjoy my life and have a hopefulness and confidence I could never have imagined. I believe that D.L. was the spark that helped fuel my new life.”  S.S.

Over the years I’d managed to define my existence with a whole lot of, I can’t. I can’t find love, I can’t get a job, I can’t go to school, and so on. With DL’s patient wisdom and experience my eyes began to open and realize there was an entire lifestyle out there for me that I’d yet to tap into. The only thing holding me back was my own belief system. And now the only thing “I can’t” do is be restricted by self imposed limitations. I now enjoy healthier relationships with my partner, friends, and family and am very excited about my progress as a student working towards the career of my dreams. Thanks DL.

So whether you are a member of the GBLT community dealing with comming out issues, or simply dealing with your own issues of self worth, and esteem, stress related issues that include obsessive compulsive behaviors and you are seeking help in dealing with those issues,  then DON”T DELAY, call for your first session now, and start living the life you have always dreamed of. Foundations Hypnosis and Chemical Dependency Seattle ~ Lynnwood ~ Everett, (206) 417-4900. https://www.dlscottpersonalenergymastery.com Everett counseling therapist and North Seattle Hypnotherapy

The post Hypnosis and Coming Out and The Law of Attraction in the GBLT Community appeared first on Hypnotherapy North Seattle | Everett Counseling | Hypnotherapist Shoreline | Stop Smoking Hypnosis.

While this may be true, Internalized Homophobia does not always manifest itself in obvious ways. During a discussion on the subject of Internalized Homophobia in one of the Recovery Groups that I facilitated, one of the members of the group declared that they did not have internalized homophobia, that they were proud to be gay, and they held no deep seated hatred of their sexuality. When I asked the group member to tell me more about that, to tell me what there feelings toward being gay are, and how do they act upon those feelings, I got an ear full.

When I was in high school, I was very out about my sexuality. I did not care who knew I was gay, I wanted to make sure that everyone knew, and if I made anyone uncomfortable, then that was there issue not mine.

I paused, smiled, and explained that all of our feelings are internal. Every image every thought, every feeling that we have all come from inside of our selves, thus the word Internal.

Sure, the group member said, but what about being homophobic, I am not afraid, or hateful towards myself for being gay.  “Then why did you feel the need to announce your sexuality to everyone around you, whether they were comfortable with it or not?”

“We have spent all of our lives having to hide ourselves! Why shouldn’t we be able to make people uncomfortable the way they made us uncomfortable?”

“I thought you told me, you were proud to be gay, how can something that you are proud of make you uncomfortable?”

The group member hesitated, unsure of how to answer.

The actually manifestations of Internalized Homophobia show up in many forms and many ways, many social masks and identities. It may indeed show up in the simplistic form of “I hate all fags!”  It may show up in the form of a member of the GBLTQ community trying desperately to hide their sexuality through the façade of a straight marriage,  it may show up in the form of a gay youth committing suicide because they can’t face having to deal with being different, or loosing the love and respect of their peers,  and family. It may even show up in the form of a member of the GBLTQ community becoming very aggressive and in your face about who they are.  All of these identities spring from feelings we have about who we are, and the feelings about who we are all had their origins in our upbringing, or as Don Migual Ruiz; author of the Four Agreements; puts it, our domestication. I simply put it under the heading of internalized homophobia.

I want you to think, for just a moment, about your social mask, about your gay identity. Are you out to friends, to family, at work? Do you proudly proclaim your sexuality, do participate in Gay Pride Rallies, or do you keep quiet, and keep yourself in the closet, unwilling or afraid to let your friends and family know who you really are? Are either of these approaches wrong, or are they simply ways of dealing with a very tough reality in our society?

Recently, through such movies as The Secret, people have been told that we create the circumstances of our lives, based upon the images and thoughts that we have in our heads.  Given that this is true, I want you to think about it means to be a member of the GLBTQ community? What are the images you have of yourself and of other members of your community?

Do you think of fabulous parties, gay night clubs, gay pride parades, rainbow flags, pink triangles, proposition 8, don’t ask don’t tell,  Queer Eye for the Straight Guy?  What images come to mind when you think of the GBLTQ community and your place in it. What was your first and earliest memory of what it meant to be gay?

I can tell you for myself that my first memory of what it meant to be gay, came from a James Bond film that I saw when I was about eight years old. I was conscious of all of the implications, but I do recall that there were two guys skipping hand and hand through a desert terrain, laughing and happy after they had just blown up a jet causes it to crash in, killing many innocent passengers.  Without  knowing why, that memory haunted me for many years.  I was given an image, I was socialized, or domesticated to think and feel about homosexuals, about myself, as someone who would be happy about killing and destruction. Not the most appropriate thing to begin to believe about myself. As I grew up I was given more messages about who I was as a gay man. I was to shunned, I was to be the butt of locker room jokes,  my life was to be defined by the fact that I was and am attracted to other males.  My own internalized homophobia was festering and seething with self loathing. How I would deal with that self loathing was going to be as unique and individual as everyone else in my community. Sometimes the manifestation, the identity would take on very familiar patterns, many similarities with my GBLTQ family members, and thus was born the GBLTQ community.

What is your social mask, your social identity? Where do you fit into your community?

Where Does Your Pride Come From Part II

The post Where Does Your Pride Come From? Part I appeared first on Hypnotherapy North Seattle | Everett Counseling | Hypnotherapist Shoreline | Stop Smoking Hypnosis.

For the last few blogs I have been talking about the origin of Internalized Homophobia and how it manifests in each of our lives. What does all this mean in terms of Hypnotherapy , NLP, & Mindfulness?
Your brain is an incredibly sophisticated piece of equipment. In fact it is said to be so sophisticated that no computer will ever match it’s ability to think and reason.
Like a computer it receives information through the central nervous system, translates it into electro – chemical bits of vibrating bytes, down loads it into our hard drive, and has been doing so from the moment we are first born. According to some theories this process has been going on for several months before our birth.
Think of your mind as having three different components, the conscious, the brain, and the subconscious.
Our Conscious is comprised of all our central nervous system, our five senses and possibly more. In this way we download every piece of information that we are ever exposed to. From birth to puberty (about 11 – 13) we take in this information accept it all without any analysis. Much like a keyboard on a computer, the Conscious records every bit of information and imprints it onto the physical mass of cells and tissues that we call the Brain.
The Brain, like a hard drive on a computer, stores the information for future playback in the form of neuro firing patterns, electro – chemical bits of information that travel along the pathways producing behaviors that make up our personality. Since we simply absorb this worldly input and stimulus, it all contributes to what becomes our agreements, our blueprint, our personal individual road map of reality. Many of these beliefs are woefully defined by merely a same gender attraction which must therefore, be the sole primary motivation of our lives. From the age of about 13 on we start developing the capacity to analyze the information that we receive. Many of those pieces of information, our original agreements, become what many people call our inner child. In the LGBTQ community the majority of us start out with false beliefs and agreements about who and what we are. We often accept agreements that we are sinners moral deviates, and less than our straight companions. These thoughts and ideas becoming our core beliefs, and ultimately contribute to internalized homophobia.
One of many human challenges is that we identify with our bodies, and our thoughts and feelings as the ultimate truth of who we really are. This is simply not so. We are that which has a body; we that which possesses and creates thoughts and feelings but we are not these things. We came to believe that our value is defined by the external.
We strive to create success. We can pull ourselves up, get a good career, make a good living, and take fabulous vacations, but none of that is going to matter until we release our false beliefs and agreements.
Finally the subconscious, vast in scope, truly and simply tailors our experiences to its programming. Like what we see on the screen of our computers, the things we manifest in our lives our actions and more importantly perhaps, our reactions and responses to the people, situations, and circumstances of our daily lives is dictated by our deepest core beliefs.
It is interesting to note that the subconscious processes off of images in our mind. If I were to ask you, describe your mother, would you see a paragraph in your mind that says, “my mother is 72 years old, 5’ 8”, 165 lbs, reddish blonde hair, etc.”. or would you see an image of your mother, a picture in your mind of what she looks like and a feeling she evokes.
We can rationalize, we can minimize, we can deny our agreements each & every moment of every day. But until we face our innermost core beliefs, we will always end up continuing down that old familiar path.
Utilizing the power of our brains with hypnosis, you can release yourself from the debilitating trap of old beliefs, your images, and old feelings. Foundations Hypnosis Seattle – Bellevue uses a technique called Emotional Release Therapy that can actually cut the emotional ties, at a very deep level, to those old images and agreements. Once those ties are cut you are able to rebuild a crumbling negative foundation with a strong positive one, a foundation that allows you to accept yourself as A PERFECT WHOLE & COMPLETE HUMAN BEING who just happens to be a member of the GBLTQ community!!!!
As a community as far as we’ve come, we’re still exposed to a multiplicity of challenges on various fronts.
We are each armed with a wondrous and amazing and mighty tool, our brain. This tool can be either a merciless master or a wonderful servant and we each absolutely possess the power to master this tool and live the life of our dreams.

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Where Does Pride Come From Part III

The post Where Does Your Pride Come From Part II appeared first on Hypnotherapy North Seattle | Everett Counseling | Hypnotherapist Shoreline | Stop Smoking Hypnosis.

We each have our own understanding or interpretation of the meaning of the phrase – Internalized Homophobia. To some of us it means a straight person who has a deep hatred of anything and everything that has to do with homosexuality. For some it means the deep inner feelings of self loathing that a homosexual has towards themselves. In most cases people immediately think of some kind of fear and or loathing regarding the gay community.
While this may be true, Internalized Homophobia does not always manifest itself in obvious ways. During a discussion on the subject of Internalized Homophobia in one of the Recovery Groups that I facilitated, one of the members of the group declared that they did not have internalized homophobia, that they were proud to be gay, and they held no deep seated hatred of their sexuality. When I asked the group member to tell me more about that, to tell me what theIr feelings toward being gay are, and how do they act upon those feelings, I got an ear full.
When I was in high school, I was very out about my sexuality. I did not care who knew I was gay, I wanted to make sure that everyone knew, and if I made anyone uncomfortable, then that was their issue not mine.
I paused, smiled, and explained that all of our feelings are internal. Every image every thought, every feeling that we have, all come from inside of our selves, thus the word Internal.
Sure, the group member said, but what about being homophobic, I am not afraid, or hateful towards myself for being gay.
“Then why did you feel the need to announce your sexuality to everyone around you, whether they were comfortable with it or not?”
“We have spent all of our lives having to hide ourselves! Why shouldn’t we be able to make people uncomfortable the way they made us uncomfortable?”
“I thought you told me, you were proud to be gay, how can something that you are proud of make you uncomfortable?”
The group member hesitated, unsure of how to answer.
The actually manifestations of Internalized Homophobia show up in many forms and many ways, many social masks and identities. It may indeed show up in the simplistic form of “I hate all fags!” It may show up in the form of a member of the GBLTQ community trying desperately to hide their sexuality through the façade of a straight marriage, it may show up in the form of a gay youth committing suicide because they can’t face having to deal with being different, or loosing the love and respect of their peers, and family. It may even show up in the form of a member of the GBLTQ community becoming very aggressive and in your face about who they are. All of these identities spring from feelings we have about who we are, and the feelings about who we are, all had their origins in our upbringing, or as Don Migual Ruiz; author of the Four Agreements; puts it, our domestication. I simply put it under the heading of internalized homophobia.
I want you to think, for just a moment, about your social mask, about your gay identity. Are you out to friends, to family, at work? Do you proudly proclaim your sexuality, do participate in Gay Pride Rallies, or do you keep quiet, and keep yourself in the closet, unwilling or afraid to let your friends and family know who you really are? Are either of these approaches wrong, or are they simply ways of dealing with a very tough reality in our society?
Recently, through such movies as The Secret, people have been told that we create the circumstances of our lives, based upon the images and thoughts that we have in our heads. Given that this is true, I want you to think about it means to be a member of the GLBTQ community? What are the images you have of yourself and of other members of your community?
Do you think of fabulous parties, gay night clubs, gay pride parades, rainbow flags, pink triangles, proposition 8, don’t ask don’t tell, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy? What images come to mind when you think of the GBLTQ community and your place in it. What was your first and earliest memory of what it meant to be gay?
I can tell you for myself that my first memory of what it meant to be gay, came from a James Bond film that I saw when I was about eight years old. I was not conscious of all of the implications, but I do recall that there were two guys skipping hand and hand through a desert terrain, laughing and happy after they had just blown up a jet causing it to crash, killing many innocent passengers. Without knowing why, that memory haunted me for many years. I was given an image, I was socialized, or domesticated to think and feel about homosexuals, about myself, as someone who would be happy about killing and destruction. Not the most appropriate thing to begin to believe about myself. As I grew up I was given more messages about who I was as a gay man. I was to shunned, I was to be the butt of locker room jokes, my life was to be defined by the fact that I was and am attracted to other males. My own internalized homophobia was festering and seething with self loathing. How I would deal with that self loathing was going to be as unique and individual as everyone else in my community. Sometimes the manifestation, the identity would take on very familiar patterns, many similarities with my GBLTQ family members, and thus was born the GBLTQ community.
What is your social mask, your social identity? Where do you fit into your community?

The post Where Does Your Pride Come From?Part I appeared first on Hypnotherapy North Seattle | Everett Counseling | Hypnotherapist Shoreline | Stop Smoking Hypnosis.