I'm undergoing something I've always been curious about - hypnotherapy. I don't have any of the typical problems which Mind Matters hypnotherapist, Dagi Heider-Fray usually helps people with - biting nails, smoking, a fear of talking in public. I was thinking I'd ask her to cure my sweet tooth but a friend told me I should celebrate this, so I have decided to think more laterally. I'd like to somehow cure my impatient nature.
Auckland traffic lights drive me mad. Were they designed by a sadistic cyclist who goes through the red lights anyway? I also tend to be a bit too materialistic and want things NOW. I'd really like to just be more chilled.
Dagi, who describes herself as a clinical hypnotherapist - she is certified by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners - seems to think this is a perfectly normal request. Hypnosis, by the way, is a natural yet altered state of consciousness in which the critical faculty (your inner chatter) has been relaxed and selective or focused. Dagi believes that hypnotherapy plus therapy are what are necessary to make a change.
I am really excited about being hypnotised, probably not the best state to be in. Dagi asks me to fix my eyes on a spot on the ceiling. Which was tricky because she'd taken my glasses off, so I just concentrated on the white blur above me. Then she tipped me right back in her very comfy armchair, telling me to listen to her voice and to close my eyes. She tells me if I try to open them they will be locked shut even tighter which makes me feel a bit panicked, but I make myself relax.
Satisfied that I am in the right place (though I'm still able to remind myself I need to pick up some fruit on the way home), Dagi asks me to visualise in which part of the body my impatience starts. I envisage myself driving behind some imbecile and decide it all begins down in my gut and rises to my head. It looks a bit like the steam that comes out of the bottle in I Dream of Jeannie.
