Honest Hypnosis

Master Your Mind... for a Change

Hypnosis for anxiety

CRUSH anxiety FOREVER Beta Test1

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36502431_mHey there oh Magnificent Mind Master in the Making!

I just wanted to drop you a quick note this afternoon to let you know that I’ve been really, really deep in the last few days, creating module # 7 of my ULTIMATE anxiety crushing, anxiety eradicating, anxiety relieving “course of courses”,

CRUSH anxiety FOREVER! (Pre-Release Beta Test #1)

It’s designed to perfectly compliment CRUSH anxiety NOW! (which is all about IMMEDIATE relief from anxiety).

CRUSH anxiety FOREVER! is all about LONG TERM SUSTAINABLE TRANSFORMATION.

It is developing into something that I continue to add to and tune as I help more and more people and incorporate YOUR questions and YOUR concerns so that you can finally shed the old worry, fear, panic, stress, shyness, anxiety chains and step out into your life free.

I have a very special, limited time opportunity for you to jump in and give this course a thorough and uncompromising test drive. It’s crazy cheap for the moment, but please do not judge its value by it’s price. I am building a course that I personally would be happy to pay $1,000 bucks for.

I want this course to be EVERYTHING you need to totally and completely start OWNING your own life and reality.

I can say this better than I can write it so here’s the video… (it’s short)

So t’s something that you’re curious about, you owe it to yourself to check it out at this link.

CRUSH anxiety FOREVER!

Please don’t be surprised if the price goes up almost immediately. I hate to be like that, but the bottom line is this is a very limited release so we can get immediate feedback and YOUR opinions. Honest opinions. I personally think this is the best course I’ve ever created, but of course I ALWAYS think that! LOL.

I want the honest truth from YOU. Is it helpful? Does it truly live up to it’s potential? How can I make it better.

If it is helpful, how specifically is it helpful? How would you describe it to someone else like you?

I want this course to give you the power tools to literally kick the ass of anxiety forever.

Only you can determine that.

I am determined to keep adding to this course continuously. Always making it better. Always finding better ways to explain or demonstrate. By answering your questions right inside the course, I’m certain that we can literally change the world by giving more and more people the power to access and transform their own “programs” so they can set themselves free to be awesome!

What that seems to be indicating is that this course will be an ongoing program so that you can dial in the tools repeatedly and whenever necessary. Repetition and ongoing support are CRUCIAL in any personal transformation program.

But for the moment, you can get all of that for a single, tiny, one time investment…

This is so early in the release process that I’ve got nothing to tell about it other than it covers literally EVERY aspect of transforming your life from anxious, powerlessness to kick ass confidence and personal POWER.

Real quick, in this course we cover: 

  • How your mind works
  • How you create your “reality”
  • Resistance
  • Self pity
  • the victim mindset vs. the victor mindset
  • We clear past traumas and dramas and install a powerful future worth living for…
  • and a whole lot more.

Check it out and I will see YOU on the INSIDE! :o)

CRUSH anxiety FOREVER!

Photo Credit- Copyright: nexusplexus / 123RF Stock Photo

Going Deep With Hypnosis For Anxiety…

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29159142_mHoly Guacamole!

I’ve been going soooo DEEP working on this new hypnosis for anxiety module for CRUSH anxiety FOREVER!….

Crazy deep…

This module is big. really big because It’s all bout clearing “stuff” from the past.

Like old, blecchy stuff,

  • toxic emotions…

  • limiting beliefs….

  • negative childhood “vows”…

  • Limiting decisions (like “I’m not good enough” or “nobody likes me”)

  • those old movie loops of the worst, most embarrassing, humiliating, shaming memories that haunt you?

  • Those old past lives where you definitely were NOT Cleopatra OR Caesar and you didn’t exactly have fun (or live very long)?

blecch…. blecch, bleccch…

(did I say “blecch” enough times and spell it enough ways to really mess with my spell checker? Yup.)

So it’s been a great process but to be honest, that’s where all my attention is right at the moment,

so please watch this space for an important announcement about YOU…

getting a chance to CHECK THIS NEW COURSE OUT…

before anybody else…

before the actual release date…

for insanely, crazy cheep… cuz I want your honest feedback…

I think you’re gonna love this course…

so I’m gonna jump back into it because Module 7 is almost done…

If you can’t wait and you want to go deeper right now you can check out the companion course, CRUSH anxiety NOW!

CRUSH anxiety NOW! is a 31 one day step by step coaching program to teach your how to STOP doing anxiety IMMEDIATELY. it’s a massive set of tools that you can use any time, any place to get your shit together and stop that horrible panic, worry, fear, freakout blizzard of toxic disempowering thoughts FAST… as in RIGHT NOW.

also, PLEASE NOTE:  if you bought one of my earlier versions of CRUSH anxiety please hit me up with an email to let me know and I’ll make sure to get you set up in the most recent release at no extra charge. Lifetime access is lifetime access even if I constantly upgrade and improve the course.

Check out CRUSH anxiety NOW!

CRUSH anxiety FOREVER on the other hand is all about the long game. Keeping anxiety GONE for the long term…. CREATING a life where you truly are the MASTER of your own mind.

The two courses are ultimately designed to work perfectly together… to help YOU… take charge of your change and master your mind… so you can be, do and have more and more of what you want… faster, easier, better…

Got questions? Contact me baby!

Photo Credit – Copyright: coleong / 123RF Stock Photo

Real Quick

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hh-10-08-promise-ss2cropReal. Quick.

Real quick.

or REEL Quick!

[The following is a blog post by America’s Honest Hypnotist, Mark Shepard. It is a devilishly well intentioned hypnotic experience that is designed to leave you feeling extremely impressed with him as a human being…]

It’s Saturday afternoon and I haven’t forgotten you.

I REMEMBER you.

I got started on a new mod for CRUSH anxiety FOREVER this morning and I got so deep into it that I just flaked on my
Daily Mind Mastery Responsibilities…

So I need to jump back in to setting up the next step to totally CRUSH anxiety FOREVER…

This one technique I’m teaching today in this module simply kicks ASS!.

Old traumatic memory? POOF!

NEUTRALIZED…

Damn! I LOVE this work.

Special thanks to Linda for asking me better and better more intelligent questions every single day.

And yeah. You are intelligent. We all are over here. Only SMART people get anxiety.

Seriously.

Some of us are so smart that we create, almost impossible to escape, “traps” of thinking that we get stuck in…

Double Binds…

…suck

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t…

No. Way. Out.

(it appears)

But it’s an illusion.

You’re free.

“You’re free little bunny! You’re FREE!”

to change your mind about your problem.
To change your mind about what’s possible
To change your mind about the fact that
you can change everything with your mind.

So, let’s chill out a bit today and kick back with this song:

What If We Could Be Real?

(The Velveteen Rabbit Song)

| 9/25/12 | #456

If I were a velveteen rabbit
worn away with love from a child
would I be grateful?…
if I were a rock in a river
tumbling until I was smooth
would I be grateful?…

If I were a word on the air
spoken only to disappear
would I be grateful?
And if there was every reason to cry
And it caused my heart to open up wide
would I be grateful?

Refrain:
What if we could be real?
What if we could love ourselves exactly as we are
and allow the love of others past the bars of our hearts
What if love made us real?
Brave enough to feel
So we could finally allow ourselves to heal?
Truly Grateful for this moment
Grateful for this moment
Grateful for this moment of our lives

If you were a velveteen rabbit
worn away with love from a child
would you be grateful?…
if you were a rock in a river
tumbling until you were smooth
would you be grateful?…

If I were a dandelion seed
And everybody called me a “weed”
Would I be grateful?
If I was a hole in the road
That everybody cursed as they drove
Would I be grateful?

If I dared to go for my “dream”
And my world fell apart at the seams
Would I be grateful?
If I was a breath of fresh air
And you breathed me in but didn’t much care
Would I be grateful?

Refrain:

Bridge:
What if we weren’t so focused on lack and pain?
What if when we fell down we just got up again?
What if love was like sand on a beach
plenty within everyone’s reach
Nothing to steal, nothing to hide, nothing to fear?

Copyright 2012 by Mark Shepard

 

===============

Damn! I’m GOOOOOOD! :o)

 

  • Mark

P.s. Hey! do you have questions? Contact me.

The Myth of Fast Results

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44341045_mThe “Myth” of Fast Results

mmmmmmm

those sweet sacred moments between waking and sleeping… slowly rising to the surface of awareness from deep dreams…

And ahhhhhhhhh

the smell of coffee brewing…

and then the harsh sound of a phone ringing…

WTF?

[here’s the video version in case you like that better or keep reading below the video]

OH! It’s my friend Michael Guerin calling me on the phone…at 7:30 AM eastern time…
If anyone else called me that early I would NOT appreciate it. LOL

He was driving back from the airport and had some rare, uninterrupted time to talk.

In so many ways Mike is the foundation for my success here at HonestHypnosis.com.

Just in case you think the “Mark Shepard” you see here at Honest Hypnosis got here the easy way, you might want to consider that Mike and I started helping each other with our online businesses back in 2007…

It’s been almost 10 years of trying different ideas, different approaches, different cameras, different websites, different niches… in some peoples eyes we’ve FAILED more than anything.

But here’s the deal. We all want fast results. Some people seem to get them. But usually it’s because they “Primed the pump” and put in years and years of trial and error, failure, giving up too soon, whatever…

Here’s what I mean:

When I rolled up my sleeves and wrote my very first program, “The Clear The Fear Fast Home Study System” I did the best damn job I could do to translate what I was doing with my clients, many of whom paid $3,500 to work with me, into something that a person could do on their own and that would only cost $900.

I recorded it professionally with my sound engineer, Joe Mennonna, and got it professionally printed… it cost me thousands of dollars to produce… and it was an 8 CD set with a massive loose leaf binder of a manual.

I think I may have sold 3 of them.

3… of… them….

So THAT clearly wasn’t the way to paying my bills. :o(

It was a massive struggle. A huge learning curve. What some people would call at “FAILURE”.

And then the entire economy went into a meltdown in 2008. My private practice just crashed. The phone stopped ringing. My debts mounted…. and I ended up kind of… homeless… squatting in an empty apartment in a building being foreclosed on by the bank…

But even then I kept at it… I couldn’t afford internet so I parked my butt at starbucks and worked there…

Putting my entire NLP Certification Training up online… A MASSIVE project…

and one that that I think only 3 people bought… (but they were some of the BEST people I’ve ever MET. So I forced myself to smile and call it a “win”. )

Then I moved to the middle of nowhere in upstate New York and kept at it… then moved to Schenectady… and kept at it… trying different approaches, different ways to communicate what it is that I do… online…

My girlfriend at the time basically came right out and called me a “loser”… a “failure”… told me to “get a job”… and it hurt…

Because I just KNEW THAT IF I COULD GET WHAT I HAD, OUT into the world TO ENOUGH OF THE RIGHT KINDS OF PEOPLE, I COULD MAKE A POSITIVE DIFFERENCE… AND A GOOD LIVING.

But whatever I did just didn’t seem to be “good enough”… (Transformation Nation member Margaret asked me about a course for help with the “not good enough stuff” and trust me I’m working on a course about How to install “good enough” in your unconscious mind :o)

And then one day it all came crashing down on me…

I just couldn’t take it any more.

And I was ready to unplug all my different websites and just call it quits.

I called Michael Guerin and said, “Dude. I’m just gonna shut all this shit down.”

I think at the time I had:

ClearTheFearFast.com – my first program
CrushAnxiety.com – my anxiety prevention course
ModernJedi.com – my online NLP trainings
ReluctantSales.com – my persuasion power for shy professionals
ShyGuyHelp.com – my site for shy men
DrumSongStory.com – my storytelling site
BullyingPreventionNow.com – my bullying prevention site
MarkShepardSongs.com – my music

[most of these sites are now being folded beautifully into HH by Mike]

I had poured my heart out into each of them… but it was too many directions… I was overwhelmed and burned out…

I was working hard, but not really noticing that I was making progress…

And it hurt. I hurt as much as my anxiety clients hurt before I help them…

Hurt… just plain hurts… and we want it to stop… and sometimes we react like a wounded animal…

and that’s where I was. It all started because I wanted to share my songs with the world… and I couldn’t… and it became a legendary, epic adventure that I would have gladly avoided to stay home in the “Shire with the other hobbits” LOL…

But Michael Guerin stopped me.

“Don’t quit he said. I’ll help you.”

And he did. You see on HIS journey (which kind of mirrored my own), he was totally intimidated by the fact that he didn’t have a website and had paid a guy thousands of dollars for a website that never got built…

So with my encouragement, he started teaching himself how to build websites…

I was one of his first clients… He practiced on ME…

First he helped me set up a website to market my hypnosis practice to my new hometown of Albany NY.

Within 6 months my practice was up again and running and I was knocking all the other local hypnotists down off of their perches on google… That was pretty much all Mike’s web design and Search Engine Optimization knowledge put into practice.

Plus my willingness to make video after video even though they were pretty bad… I kept at it… learning. adjusting, learning some more…

the story goes on…and on…

but the point is… And yes there IS a point Mildred! LOL

It (whatever your “it” is) often takes longer than we think it will.

It often takes longer than we want.

But when you have someone helping you who has been there, done that, who has long hard won experience, they can settle you down and encourage you to have at it one more time and then another time and another until one day you too have the experience and the wisdom you’ve earned.

The greatest mistake I made in my 30 plus years of being an entrepreneur was trying to make it work all by myself.

Screw that stiff upper lip, solitary struggle shit. BLECCH!

I helped Mike to clear his agoraphobia and social anxiety, his fear of the phone etc. He had tried to clear that alone for years and I was able to help him with that, faster, easier, better. But it still took some time and effort on his part.

Once he discovered there were tools and techniques he could use to understand how he was creating his anxiety and then clear it, he applied the tools and got results.

And on the flip side, He’s been able to help ME in so many ways that I can’t even begin to tell you.

Without Mike you would probably not even know about me or be reading these words right now.

Because he experienced my work first hand, he knows how helpful and valuable it is, and when I wanted to quit he insisted that I keep going.

Ultimately that’s what I want to do for you.

I want to insist that you keep going…

You are worth it.

You are getting closer.

Stay the course.

I got an email from Transformation Nation Member in good standing,  E. yesterday that really confirmed this, he’s been trying valiantly to crush his anxiety and just didn’t see that he was making progress, he ended up speaking to someone who had managed to clear it who said, “I just went for a 5% to 10% level of relief and worked from there…”

BING! A light went off for E. He’d been thinking that anything other than 100% instant anxiety relief wasn’t relief.

Well, like me, with learning how to share my music and hypnosis work with people who ‘get’ it, I wanted instant, massive results, E. had to discover for himself that sometimes slow steady improvement is where it’s at.

But we also have to learn to stop beating ourselves up for our apparent lack of success…

It’s just a journey… success is taking the next damn step… and then the next…

So regardless of your level of anxiety or your dreams for a better life, a better future, today is where the rubber meets the road. The small things we CAN do today, matter. They DO make a difference.

You have me now.

I am here every single day rooting for you.

I totally believe in you.

If I could spare you the learning curve to make your progress, faster, easier, better I would. I can save you time by modeling for you how your mind works and the tools and techniques you can apply to take charge of your own change and master your own mind for that change.

Faster, easier, better… IS possible…

AND ultimately it comes down to YOU taking action.

Some action is more like a drowning swimmer flailing away…

We are talking INTELLIGENT sustainable action…

Facilitated by having a coach, having a mentor, having a team, a tribe, a community that supports you, loves you, believes in you…

Well, THAT my friend makes all the difference. You still have to do your work. You still have to take action.

But the thing that puts you over the top is the fact that you are not alone.

Innovators often live on the edges or the “fringes” of the larger culture.

Like Jonathan Livingston Seagull in the classic 1970’s bestseller by Richard Bach, we can only go so far by ourselves… and then others begin to be attracted to our different way of thinking because it offers them freedom.

Soon, even though he was rejected and ejected from the “flock”, other outcasts began finding Jonathan and asking him to teach them how to fly better…

Today you have me.

And… behind the scenes making everything work… is a guy by the name of Michael Guerin… He’s overcome his own anxiety and built the kind of life most people can only dream of… he works from home. He’s there to take his kids to the bus stop and to meet them at the end of the day. No time wasted in traffic or dealing with bureaucratic nonsense.

So when I ask you to email me and tell me your story, ask me your questions, I mean it.

This is a two way street. When I can be useful to you through my songs, or my words or a course or video it helps me to know you are out there practicing this stuff…

It keeps me fired up and motivated to put in the hours… and I put in a lot of hours at this and I LOVE doing it… I like knowing that it is actually making a difference in folks lives… but I will do it regardless.

Great music usually starts with the composer alone in his solitude… but it doesn’t really EXIST until it is shared WITH an audience. In a way the audience is the CO-CREATOR. It’s a shared experience that lifts both listener and performer up and transports them someplace neither could go to alone…

And I want to reward your attention, your desire to go deeper and to truly benefit from my years and years of experience CRUSHING anxiety in my own life, and helping others to do the same.

Sometimes you just need to know you are not alone. Sometimes you just need someone to hang with you while you put some new ideas into practice…

Ever watch a kid learn to walk? They just practice RELENTLESSLY. They may cry in frustration at times, but they get back up and give it another go…

Today. My new course, CRUSH anxiety NOW! is in it’s last day of “beta testing price”.

It’s currently $59 but going up at midnight to a modest $99 bucks.

It’s 31 days of me coaching you.

Working with you. Encouraging you. REMINDING you to use your tools.

I set it up so that it’s as if you came and did a private session with me every single day for a month.

NO ONE could afford that. I couldn’t afford the time to do that with ANY client. I don’t care how much they paid. And even if you had all the money in the world, NO ONE goes to work with ANY COACH every single day. It would just be too much.

Even Olympic athletes and coaches have days off.

HOWEVER, you CAN have that kind of persistent support every single day with this course. And at it’s current price it’s a little over a buck a day… plus at the end, if you don’t think it was worth it, you can get your money back…

Seriously? Yeah SERIOUSLY. We’ll take all the risk to give you a chance to check it out with a clear mind.

I will still be here for you with the Mind Mastery Daily every single day whether you buy the course or not, but if you want to go deeper, if you want to give yourself the benefit of having the same tools in your tool kit that Mike and I and all the amazing folks who have jumped in in the last few days, have in ours and that we still use every single day “as needed.”

The time to take action is now.

Eventually CRUSH anxiety NOW will probably be priced at about $300 which would be about $10 a day. Still cheap. I would rather make less money and help more people, but a lot of times if something is too cheap people don’t respect it or value it or it makes them suspicious that there is some “catch”.

And there is a “catch”.

YOU… are the catch.

Will investing in yourself motivate you to “get your money’s worth” and actually apply the information immediately in your own life?

Only YOU can answer that.

If you’re ready. Here’s the link.

CRUSH anxiety NOW! For only $59 bucks

If you’re not ready that’s ok too. No pressure, No rush. It’ll still be here when you’re ready it just may cost more.

But please at least take away this thought today:

It always takes longer than we want.

It is our desire for results that moves us forward.

So I beg you to be patient with your own journey, your own process and trust that even if it seems like there is little progress going on with you, under the surface, roots of transformation are growing and finding nourishment.

Peace.

– Mark

p.s. THAT was a hell of a good cup of coffee!

p.p.s.  Get it before midnight

CRUSH anxiety NOW! For only $59 bucks

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p.p.s. Speaking of things taking longer than you think they “should”. I’ve been working on this Mind Mastery Daily post since Mike First called me at 7:30 am… it is now almost 2 pm… And you know what? It’s all PERFECT! ttyl

Why Anxiety Is Not A Disease

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24561941_mA lot of people have been hoodwinked by the big pharmaceutical companies into believing that anxiety is a disease…

Big Pharma wants it to be a “disease” so they can get doctors to prescribe their shitty pills with all their addictive and soul killing side effects so that they can make the big bucks. Cha Ching! Month after month.

It’s not. I repeat. Anxiety is NOT a Disease.

There is no “anxiety” germ. There is no anxiety “virus”.

Other than the metaphorical “thought virus” that anxiety really is,

Anxiety is thinking about what you do not want to have happen.

It’s really the same as “worry”… just a bit more intense.

What’s worry? Thinking about bad shit happening. Often to our LOVED ones! Why would anyone DO that?

We all have this ability. It comes with the “human software download” you got when you signed up for this lifetime.

Unlike all the other animals, we can imagine a future that we don’t like.

The flip side of this is that we can also imagine a future that we DO like.

Either way, your unconscious mind gives you the “biochemistry” of whatever you are focusing on with your “mental movie screen”…

Before this morphs into a full blown “rant”… I’m going to go turn the video camera on just in case it gets interesting…
[Here’s what I ranted up for you]
Okay, that felt better…   (BTW If you ever feel so inclined to “go deep for cheap” you can always check out all 80 or so videos I’ve  uploaded to my Honest Hypnosis YouTube channel so far since JULY!  :o)

The bottom line is that only YOU have the power to stop your old patterns and habitual ways of thinking that cause your unconscious mind to react with fight, flight or freeze biochemistry.

As I mention in the video, sometimes our negative thinking patterns about the future are so insidious and “normal” that we don’t even notice that we are doing it… Kind of like the fish in the ocean don’t really “notice” the ocean.

Well that makes sense right? That’s literally what we mean by being “unconscious”.

It’s happening outside of our conscious awareness…

And though it may be outside of our conscious awareness, it is really happening on your “internal storyboard” and it really affects what hormones are triggered in your body which in turn creates “how you feel.”

The Honest truth is that the only way to actually “cure” anxiety is to change your thinking, to change your focus and to do it enough so that you install a new habitual way of automatically responding to the world and life’s little (and not so little) bumps, curves, hills, valleys, or mountains.

You see, one thing nobody else is telling you, is that your immune system is constantly eves dropping on your self talk. Immune systems have the ability to actually listen and LEARN.

So what you are doing unconsciously actually matters a great deal. And as I’ve said a gazillion times, hypnosis is really the “process of communicating effectively with your unconscious mind”.

It’s not hocus pocus or some magical power that suddenly happens when some creepy asshole starts swinging a watch and telling you to go into trance…

Hypnosis is YOU running your own stream of consciousness in a way that actually gets you what you want instead of what you don’t want.

Oh! What a surprise!?!…

All that stuff that you’ve been getting i n your life that you don’t want? Your “old” hypnosis brought that in. Hmmm Let’s see what the “new” hypnosis could do if  you gave it a chance!

So just a quick reminder, CRUSH anxiety NOW! increases in price Tomorrow. It will still be reasonably priced and affordable but it will never again be THIS CHEAP. So if you are curious about going deeper with me, check it out. The risk is on me. A bunch of you awesome action takers have already jumped in and are already CRUSHING the “beast” of anxiety… Cowabungah!  Looking forward to your questions and success stories! OH YEAH!

CRUSH anxiety NOW!  Cheap… Price… set… to expire…

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In the meantime, I will see YOU on the… INSIDE!

p.s. A shout out to all the new Transformation Nation Peeps like locals, Dottie and Jeremy from my home town of Albany NY and the fabulous, far away Peter from New Zealand… NEW ZEALAND. Where it’s already tomorrow! Way to go Peter! Also Brian from California! Kristan from Pennsylvania, Welcome!!!! The “Transformation Nation” is assembling… MIND MASTERY ROCKS!

I am OUTA HERE! Talk to you tomorrow!

photo credit – Copyright: lightwise / 123RF Stock Photo

Life Outside The Box

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19728676_m-2Imagine a box.

You’ve lived your entire life in this box.

It is beautiful.

It is comfortable.

It is safe.

You’ve got all your favorite things right there…

And then one day…

[Here’s the video version or just keep reading. It all leads to the same place…]

One day you hear a sound…

It’s coming from a long locked, unused closet door that somehow no-one knew about… or that hatchway in the ceiling… that someone painted shut…

It sounds like Someone or some thing is knocking on the door… of your box.

Whoever is knocking keeps banging and banging until the plaster of that part of your beautiful home begins to crack and fall …

What a mess! You think. And you also might be feeling a little “trepidation” or uncertainty or downright fear.

“Who is out there!?!?”

“What is out there?!?!?!?”

You retreat to the farthest corner of your “box”… and watch in horror and fascination as…

Eventually the hatch swings downward  or the door swings inward and some friendly guy who you’ve never met before pops his head into your little world and says,

“Hey! There’s a great big world out here for you to explore! I’ve come to rescue you from your limited little world, your box… your cage. Your comfort zone. Come out and be free! Come out and Play!”

If you’re like most people. You would do just about anything to shut that guy up, close that door, and reseal it like it was never there…

“Cage! How DARE he call my lovely world a ‘CAGE!’ GO AWAY!”

And if you did that, no one would blame you….

However… after a time wandering back around through your “known world”, your “box”… your “home”… you will find yourself wondering,

“hmmmm What IS out there? What if I AM missing something really good?”

Eventually, you might want to open that door yourself… curiosity can be insatiable…

And I’m not suggesting you are curious… but if you were curious, what would that be like?

And when you do…. carefully,…. gingerly peek out…

at first you might not even be able to focus in the new light… or you may not be able to conceive of what is out there, or perceive it…

And the guy who originally knocked on your door? Pounded your hatchway open a bit… is he a god? a saint? a messiah?

Nope.

He’s just a guy who went through exactly the same thing, just a little sooner than you did.

So he has set about finding all the little cages and boxes that people have shut themselves up in and he is calling you OUT.

Calling you out into a vast adventure that we call “the awakened life”.

At the end of your first day out in the wide open spaces, you might want to slip back in to your familiar comfortable “place”… and that’s fine… it’s a good place… it’s a relief…

But eventually you will want more… The brilliant sun and sweet breezes and the fullness of life in the vastness of the universe is simply too breathtakingly beautiful to ignore.

You want it. Don’t you?

Well you can have it. Come on out and play. Join us!

Essentially what I’ve described is the bare bones formula of pretty much every adventure/fantasy story or “heroic journey” ever written, filmed, or told around a fire.

The main character is going along quite nicely in his or her life, Bilbo Baggins has very little need of Wizards and Drwarves, Elves, or dragons… But something interrupts that routine, that pattern, and he is called out of his limited comfort zone into something bigger. Along the way he learns some things about himself and the world and his place in it. His knowledge and confidence grows, he begins to respond to events as they arise. As best he or she can. And it turns out, our little scaredy cat character has grown into an actual hero.

In the Russian story of Baba Yaga, a young girl is forced out of her home and on an unwilling adventure… along the way she meets a mysterious stranger on the road… she is kind to him. He gives her advice, or a magic hunting horn, or the gift of a talking crow… Whatever it is, it has magic powers for her to call upon when she most needs it…

She continues on… eventually she makes other friends whom the witch has treated badly, A dog, a gate, a comb, a fish, a certain tree… whatever. It changes depending on the version of the story…

By the time she meets the witch, she has support, help arrives from many places, many sources…

Since our unconscious minds LOVE story and metaphor. Crave it, actually, these lessons are internalized into our deepest beings…

When we commit fully to our own heroic journeys, I believe the “universe” conspires to support us.

This is such a human universal that I believe we need to pay attention to it. As a professional storyteller, I used to watch hundreds of school kids settle down into what can only be described as a trance, as I told them stories…

We are a storytelling people. But what stories have we been telling ourselves lately?

In CS Lewis’ classic, “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” Access to the “other world” is through the back of an old wardrobe… Time is different there. The “rules” are different there.

But the characters we step into as we read or watch a story unfold are as real to your unconscious mind as anything else you might imagine… remember?

Your unconscious mind is your imagination.

That’s why when you go to see a movie, your heart rate increases as the main character runs head long to a cliff and then jumps…

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hunted down by a posse, choose to leap off a cliff into a raging river rather than be caught… boom! Fourth grade. I’m watching that movie with my next door neighbor Peter Miller. All I have to do is remember and I’m there… I’m in the movie seat but I’m also in the movie and my heart catches in my mouth as we jump over the edge into that crazy river…

Alice falls down a rabbit hole into a totally topsy turvy, crazy different realm.

Harry Potter discovers that he’s not like other kids… for real.

Wherever you go in your imagination, your unconscious mind believes it’s real.

Once you know that, you can start imagining better and better worlds… and then begin to live them authentically in your life, and that’s how we make them real.

I can’t climb down into your world… It doesn’t work that way…

But you CAN come on up and out into this one…

and there are others even bigger than this!

This is the adventure of your life.

I dare you.

I double dare you.

I double dawg dare you!

Explore it with me or without me.

Today I could be playing the part of the mysterious “stranger” on the road.

Whatever, my job is to let you know it’s here… and it is yours.

– Mark

p.s. One way to stick your toe in the water before you fully climb into your greatness, is to check out CRUSH anxiety NOW!  at its, soon to be forever gone, “beta test” price… you can always get a refund… it’s ridiculously cheap… It’s worth 10 times the price.

Give it a shot. Take a test drive. You’ve got nothing to lose except your fear.

Take the puppy home and keep it overnight… see how you like it in the morning…

Peek your head out today… that’s all I’m saying…

No big commitment. If you don’t like it you can go back to being the way you were… Not everybody is ready for freedom. There is no judgement. But I HAVE to knock. It’s my job. It’s my calling. It’s my destiny.

Come on out and play!

CRUSH anxiety NOW! 

 

photo credit – Copyright: nexusplexus / 123RF Stock Photo