Honest Hypnosis

Master Your Mind... for a Change

Storytelling

Day 6 Update

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Hey Kids! It’s Day 6 of the Fourth 90 Day Transformation Challenge! Here’s a quick update…

I was on the road yesterday for one of my DrumSongStory school gigs so I made my daily video FRESH from a NYS Thruway rest area. You can always see what I’m up to over at my Youtube Channel
(Please remember to Like and share and subscribe. It helps a lot! thanks)

Day 5 Short Video from the Road

The night before I made a pretty cool musical hypnosis session for you which you definitely might want to check out… while you listen… remember it’s me, “the singing hypnotist” singing a spontaneous hypnosis song for you inspired by the theme of day 4 (becoming your own parent) which is turning out to be yet another new song… as the lyrics begin to from a little more solidly…

Day 4 Evening Full Musical Hypnosis Session on becoming your own parent

TODAY? I’m working with a Fear of Heights Phobia Client (who has agreed to be on camera as soon as we clear his fear of being on camera… just kidding he’s fine being on camera ;o)

So that’s what’s up next for me today. I hope to have a little bit of video to share with you from that soon… The full breakthrough session may become part of my next course. We will have to see…

Since I was doing a storytelling gig yesterday (and remember, stories are deeply, powerfully HYPNOTIC) your Transformation tune for today is a Story Song about the magical seals in Ireland who can become human when they take off their sealskins… or “Selkies”
Song 466 “The Selkie Man”

So that’s the news from here.

How are YOU doing? How was your first week of this challenge? Still motivated? Still fired up?

How about you drop me a line? I would appreciate hearing from you. Contact me!

BTW I heard back from one of my favorite former anxiety clients yesterday, as part of HIS 90 day challenge, he got up the courage to move out of a difficult living situation. I CELEBRATE his courage.

I remember when I first moved out on my own… I was 39. SERIOUSLY! True Story!

Up to that point I’d always been in a “couple”. Moved from Mom and Dad’s house to my first marriage… never soloed… until I was 39 freaking years old… sheesh! I HAVE come a long way folks. At the time I was freaking terrified. I was pretty much convinced that I was gonna die from lonliness…

But I didn’t!

So please know that whatever you are going through in your life that isn’t perfect, some of us have gone through similar stuff before you. You are not alone.

Got it? Good! Now get out there into your life and start LIVING! today.

Cowabungah!

– Mark

p.s. Have you subscribed to the Daily Mind Mastery and Transformation Tune yet? Use the handy form in the side bar or at the bottom or where it pops up around here… you don’t have to stay subscribed forever, just check it out ok? I’m giving you a lot of my best stuff for free. You get to watch me create new songs, and explore radical ideas about self love and personal mastery… it’s way kewl… Join us!

The 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:

Or just leave a comment below 🙂

Storytelling & Conversational Hypnosis

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FCDS ss2 monkey leopardWanna 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:

Or just leave a comment below 🙂

whew! time for a nap.

– Mark

Dr. Donnie Epstein: Focus & Meaning

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hh-12-07-donnie-ss3Okay. Here we are.

We MADE IT TO MONDAY!!!

Cowabungah baby!

I LOVE Mondays don’t you?!

(you will by the end of this Thrilling, action packed, “Mind Mastery Daily” Episode)

I have a pretty big story to tell you, which I’m going to just look into the video camera and speak to you. It will flow easier that way… Then I have some thoughts after that with your Daily Mind Mastery “Transformation Take Away”

What you are about to watch is the demonstration of the long term effects of focusing on what you want…

Video:

(So hopefully you watched the whole video… If you haven’t, please go ahead and do that. I kept it as short as possible because I know you probably think you’re too busy to take the time to watch it. But it sets up everything I say below so please give it a shot.   :o)

Ok. So. Yeah, I’m starting to trust this…

this life thing. I’m putting the techniques into practice every single day and they seem to be cumulatively working.

Donnie Epstein said, there are only two things in life we can control.

  1. What we focus on.
  2. And the meaning we attach to what we focus on.

That’s it.

And that’s what I’ve been saying’ for years now perhaps in different words. And what the wizards and sorcerers and Mages and saints and Brujos, Shamans, Medicine Men, and witches (the good kind) have been saying forever.

It is a basic human truth that our culture seems to do it’s best to gloss over or ignore or outright condemn because it’s not good for business.

Most people are miserable and stressed out, so they try to soothe it with buying things that they THINK will make them happy.

But if they just owned their response-ability to make themselves happy at any given moment by focusing their mind on something that actually makes them happy, They wouldn’t need to spend money on something that they don’t need now.

That would really fvck up the economy if more than a fraction of the population actually did it.

That’s why it’s revolutionary.

What if everybody refused to eat meat that was full of antibiotics and growth hormones? Well 80% of the income pharmaceutical companies generate from ALL antibiotics is from factory farming sales… That would be bad for their business model… So they will do everything they can to preserve their income stream no matter what the cost to you or the environment.

What if everybody turned off the mainstream media and stopped the constant bombardment of holiday advertising, not to mention stopped listening to the “bad” news spinners at CNN, Fox News and even NPR?

What if you didn’t have to buy Christmas presents for all of your relatives? And what if they didn’t have to buy any for you?

What if you all agreed to just enjoy each other’s company for the holidays?

Or if you don’t enjoy each other’s company, be able to say with love. “Hey, I love  you AND this year, I’m going to give myself a trip to Cancun for the holidays…  (Just saying’).

So do whatever you want to do but let’s stop doing things that we kind of resent doing. Let’s only do things that we truthfully, congruently want to do.

Otherwise we’ve given away our power, failed to own our “stuff” and placed an unpleasant burden on the other people in our lives.

I used to do things that I didn’t really want to do all the time. I didn’t want to hurt other people’s feelings. and So guess what? I was a fake and a phony. And I was filled with frustration and resentment. Yuck.

Do you want someone to hang out with you who doesn’t really want to?

NO! It’s a drag! :o)

and by the same token, If you don’t want to hang out with me, I would prefer that you go do what YOU want to do. Make yourself happy! When you are happy, you’re a lot more fun to be around. Does that make sense?

Your take away today is to pay attention to where you’re focus is going. Are you focusing on what’s right in your life? or what’s wrong? When we focus on what’s right, it expands. When we focus on what isn’t right, THAT expands.

Are you focusing on what you don’t want? Or are you holding a steady vision of what you DO want for your life? For the people you love? For the planet?

Choose your focus carefully.

This takes conscious attention. And guess what? practicing focusing on what you appreciate and love and are grateful for and desire more of, gives energy to that.

I heard someone a long time ago say, “Feed the Faith. Starve the Doubt”.

Pop that into a Why question and you’ve got something that can actually change your bio-chemistry! “Why do I feed the faith and starve the doubt?”

or even better, how about, “Why do I feed the faith?”

Forget about the doubt. FAH-GET ABOWT IT!

The next thing you have complete power over is to interpret whatever happens as being a perfect unfoldment of events. A perfect gift. “Pronoia” (the opposite of Paranoia), this funny feeling that somehow, some way, the Universe is conspiring to support you.

So interpret everything, every event, every emotion, every physical challenge, every “problem” as something that is for your good. EVERYTHING.

Even tho it may not at first appear to be to your benefit, it IS. And it will definitely be to your benefit if you actually are willing to BELIEVE that it is to your ultimate benefit.

We have the power to choose our focus and to choose the meaning we attach to everything in our lives.

That’s it. The secret to happiness.
1. Focus on what makes you happy. Focus on the fact that you already ARE happy.
2. Interpret that to me that you actually ARE happy. Right Now.

Ok? Got it? Any questions?

Boom! I’ll see you on the inside!

– Mark

p.s. there WILL be a test, there is ALWAYS a test. How else will you know that you’ve “leveled up”?
p.p.s. Here’s a link to Dr. Donnie Epstein’s website.

p.p.p.s. I am gearing up for my best year ever in 2016. I’m working on couple of big ideas for courses and webinars and I’d love to hear what you would like help with in the next year. Got any specific challenges that you’d like help with? Head over to my contact page and drop me a line or two about what personal transformation targets you would like to FOCUS on and turn into fabulous reality.  Contact Mark Shepard

The Big Orange Splot

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hh-10-01-splot-ss1cropA Story About Living Your Dreams…

In Today’s POWERFUL, TARGETED transformation Tip To Help YOU Master Your Mind For A Change:

I read you one of my all time favorite “kid” books (which is really for the grown-ups READING the book to the kid),

The BIG Orange Splot!

By Daniel Manus Pinkwater

I think this is some very positive, powerful, HONEST hypnosis IF we can let it in enough so that we begin to live it.

I make some DEEPLY hypnotic conversational SUGGESTIONS after I STUN you with my FABULOUS “reading a story out loud” skills… LOL.

Here’s the Video:

Definitely a book to keep around in order to “brain wash” any kids in your life. That’s Brain wash as in “wash your hands”. A clean brain is a beautiful thing!

In the meantime, a little mental hygiene is always available here are Honest Hypnosis, whenever you’re ready (check out the growing course catalogue below)

All the best! AND may you live your dreams today!

– Mark

p.s. Keep those emails coming! I love hearing from you.
p.p.s. Do you think there MIGHT be a reason we read kids great stories like this before bedtime? Do you THINK it might be a positive and helpful form of “hypnosis”? hmmmm

Got questions? Comments? Thoughts?

Contact me!