Wanna Hear A BIG Secret?
Well, okay not so big. I just finished editing and uploading one of my recent “DrumSongStory” programs to Youtube and it’s kind of strange but it’s something that I just don’t talk too much about….
You see, I’ve been doing these programs for schools and libraries since around 1993 and I always thought of them as kind of a “compromise” because it was one way that I could actually make a living as a singer/songwriter/storyteller/drummer…
But now I’m not so sure of that old belief…
I was just reflecting back a bit and I realized that it was literally my storytelling programs that led me to being open to the work of Milton Erickson, the father of modern hypnotherapy.
Erickson would tell stories to people rather than use “official” or “traditional” hypnosis techniques and they would simply go home and change… and interestingly the clients would often complain that Dr. Erickson “never hypnotized me”.
But I saw over and over again the power that a spoken or sung story can have on large groups of people (teachers would often comment that even the kids who can’t sit still were “mesmerized” by my programs) and it got me curious to explore deeper.
The entire field of Neuro Linguistics was modeled on Erickson’s conversational hypnosis techniques and the result is an incredibly useful array of tools and techniques that incorporate the therapeutic use of stories as part of the arsenal of change and transformation.
So I thought you might enjoy watching one of my school programs.
I set it up so you can easily skim through it because I know you have a lot of other stuff to pay attention to.
This just might be interesting to you… or not.
And who am I to suggest that it might be interesting to you?
That’s like saying to a person who wants to change, you can change whenever you are actually ready to change… and perhaps this story might help to enlist your unconscious… mind… in the process of giving you more health, more love, more satisfaction in your career and relationships…
And how is it possible that simple stories can affect us so deeply?
And… Why DOES it work out better than you can possibly imagine?
Here’s the link:
Mark Shepard’s DrumSongStory
But to get back to my point.
In the process of attempting to make a living at being a songwriter, I felt doing school programs was a bit of a compromise but it was way better than getting a day job in an office so I jumped in to it… I discovered quickly that I had to actually bill myself to schools as a “storyteller”. Folktales are part of the Curriculum. Songwriting is not. So what I found myself doing is finding stories that inspired me as well as supported some kind of “educational” theme or angle and then I would turn them into songs… and because I finally got to play the drums in my mid 30’s I became obsessed with drumming and making my own drums… so it made sense to combine them…
And it was very, very , very obvious that while every kid and his cousin has seen a guy with a guitar, the sheer novelty of my huge drums with the lights inside them and the weird overtone singing through a digital delay unit WOULD TOTALLY GRAB THEIR ATTENTION…
Now, to keep going with THIS story, this school has asked me back for a return engagement in the Fall… They want my “Bully Proof Kid” program next…
And here is where it all comes together… it was actually a SECRET to myself until this moment…
The Bully Proof Kid Program is literally how I teach kids to overcome and immunize themselves to bullying…
WAIT FOR IT…
USING HYPNOTICALLY MESMERIZING STORIES AND NEURO LINGUISTIC TECHNIQUES…
It is an opportunity to teach them how to literally rewrite their own stories about themselves as “bullies” or “victims” so they can :master their minds for a change”.
Do you see now why there is no way to separate out my music from my hypnosis work from my storytelling?
The reality is that this “career stream” is NOT a compromise at all. It’s not something I do to make money on the side while my music career gets off the ground, it is totally and legitimately one ASPECT of my career. One stream of value being exchanged along with other streams of talents and values being exchanged…
It’s quite literally just one way I can show up in the world using my skills, talents, abilities, and passions to make a positive difference in the world and in exchange for the value I provide, I receive value in return in the mutual exchange form we call Money….
(a massive subject for a different day).
So for years when I thought I had to choose between being a storyteller, a singer/songwriter, a Hypnotist, an NLP Trainer or whatever, it was all the same thing. And there was never a need to choose.
It’s all connected… like the threads of a good story…
So my my dear Transformation Nation members in good standing, Your assignment today (should you choose to accept it) is to take a good, long, loving look at all the different “careers” or jobs you’ve had that didn’t seem to be “what you were born to do”, and look at all the talents and interests you have in your life, what are the things you most love doing? And how do those things you love to do or that you are passionately interested in connect?
For example I met a woman at the recent thought leader immersion mastermind who was a journalist. She was a journalist because she loved to write. She also loved all kinds of motorsports. So she ended up writing for motor sports magazines. She was also a passionate gardener… so yeah, she wrote for gardening magazines. She was also into horseback riding… Equestrian magazines. She found a way to support herself doing the things she most loved to do… Bringing them together in her own unique way is her truest art form.
Same exact skill set but different interest areas and different potential streams of value exchange…
So look at your own skills and interests.
Look at ’em good and hard and see if you can see how they totally honor and contribute to something fabulous that you’ve been brewing up all along in your life.
How do all the seemingly disconnected interests that you have actually connect?
Seriously. Play with this. This is worth putting your phone on airplane mode and taking some time with yourself. Today.
The bottom line is, IT’S ALL CONNECTED. But you are the WRITER of your own SCRIPT. How do you want the story to go from here? What would be cool if? What would be cool if it were totally and realistically possible? Look back and see the various story threads as they move up to now from the past… how does each of the difficult lessons from your “tough times” contribute to your current level of mastery?
How does it all connect? How does it all connect?
The really important thing is just to be fully aware that you can realize the change you’re looking for…
And here’s how
Click the link below to:
- Check out my new PTSD course
- Review my hypnosis video programs
- Contact me today
Or just leave a comment below 🙂
whew! time for a nap.
– Mark
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