LOS ANGELES HYPNOTHERAPY SERVICES - THERAPEUTIC HYPNOSIS FOR PROCRASTINATION & MOTIVATION

Pain and Pleasure

 

To truly understand why we all procrastinate, we need to revisit our old friend Sigmund Freud. Freud was the first to recognize that we all operate under the dictates of the "Pain/Pleasure" principle. In other words, we seek pleasure (or pleasurable experiences) and we avoid pain (or discomfort, both physical and psychological).

 

And since the tedious and unpleasant tasks listed above offer no pleasure and, in some cases, at least a little discomfort, we procrastinate. We are simply avoiding some perceived pain or fear, and unfortunately, the very act of avoiding itself eventually increases our discomfort. And the longer we avoid the task at hand, the stronger the discomfort becomes.

 

We all have our reasons

 

All of us experience the pain of procrastinating. It is painful because procrastinating prevents us from doing or becoming better; from living a richer, fuller life; from attaining goals we know would make us happier and more fulfilled. How do we do this to ourselves?

 

• For some procrastinators, non-doing represents not having to deal with success or failure and new expectations either would bring. The subconscious thinking might be: "If I wait until the last minute I might fail, but I won't have to deal with any new expectations of me that would accompany my success." Or, "If I don't do anything, I cannot fail; nothing will happen to me, I'm safe." Safe maybe, but in a very deep rut.

 

•  Some people procrastinate for extra validation, waiting until the last minute and then pulling it off brings that extra validation; "I must be pretty good; after all, look what I just did." And if they don't pull "it" off, once again there is a handy excuse—not enough time—that places the cause and responsibility for the lack of results away from the individual. 

 

• The "occasional procrastinator" can generally overcome the inertia of resistance to change; their bouts of procrastination may be nothing more than a minor nuisance, a mosquito in the tent of life that they can track down and swat away. For the chronic procrastinator though, the behavior creates an endless cycle of suffering, and the disappointment and guilt of having let themselves and sometimes their loved ones down... again.

 

The cycle of chronic procrastination can lead to a spiraling crash of self esteem and a feeling of abject failure. Thankfully, it is also a cycle that can be broken, though most people need assistance. Therapeutic Hypnosis is a wonderfully powerful tool for providing that assistance.

 

Therapeutic hypnosis makes it work

 

Overcoming procrastination begins with identifying and dealing directly with the cause(s). And it's important to understand that regardless of the cause or combination of causes that result in your procrastinating, you had to learn how to behave that way. That's right. We all learn our fears, our lack of self esteem, our need for extra validation, our limiting beliefs through the chain of our experiences, until they become the behavioral patterns that hold us back.

 

Therapeutic hypnosis can make you less sensitive to any task, by reducing the amount of pain, fear, or discomfort the task represents. You'll eventually find the "anxiety reaction" can be replaced with a "relaxation reaction", and you'll find yourself not only accomplishing a great deal more, you'll actually be calm and happy while doing it.

 

Through hypnotherapy we help the subconscious mind, the engine of behavior, to unlearn the old patterns and attitudes and relearn new positive ones. We can desensitize you to all your fears of failure and/or success, and then teach you a new lasting positive behavior. With appropriate reinforcement—The Change Method has many efficient and fun ways of providing this reinforcement—this new response becomes your new behavior, in every bit as automatic as the old negative pattern of procrastination was.

 

We all deserve a happy, productive and fulfilling life and procrastination does not have to stand in the way. Rid of procrastination, anybody can engage in the excitement and adventure that creating and attaining goals can provide. I work with a lot of procrastinators and every day I see these them literally transforming themselves into the achievers they've always wanted to be. So, once again, what are you waiting for?