Auto Mentor-expert coaching at your fingertips

By Phil Parker Do Dip E Hyp Psyc CMPNLP

Have the core skills for making your life and work even more productive, successful and enjoyable at your fingertips. Read Phil Parker's handbook for self coaching "The 10 Questions" available at www.philparker.org

Who do you know who could benefit from you being an even more effective coach?

Our subscription list is just growing and growing thanks to you; thanks for telling you friends and passing it around- they can join by mailing yes!@hyp.no.com.

If you've received this by mistake please email us, we've had some database problems recently, so please accept our apologies.

Trance at work.

I'm guessing that a few thoughts probably sprang to mind as you read the title of this article. Maybe it was, "What's trance got to do with work?" or "Trance, that's scarey mind control stuff, isn't it?" or " Yeah, that's exactly how I feel after lunch when the aircon's pumping out warmed recycled air and my spreadsheet somehow seems much less interesting than just staring into those fascinating trees swaying in the breeze outside the window..."

Let's have a look at each of those ideas and see how valid they are.

Trance is mind control- isn't it ?

We all have ideas about what trance is. Unfortunately most of these expectations come not from our own actual experience of trance and hypnosis but from other more questionable sources such as films, novels, cartoons and stage hypnotism, and as the business of entertainment isn’t always too concerned with factual accuracy it is not surprising that many of our basic assumptions about trance and hypnosis are wrong.

The modern definition of trance is probably quite different from what you might imagine; it's defined as:

" being in a state of mind where you

1. feel very absorbed in what you are doing
2. have a specific and limited focus of attention
3. are often more aware of your internal world rather than the external one."

This modern definition allows to us to begin to recognise how many different trance states there are,in fact you could say everything is a trance experience. This perspective changes our view on trance entirely, so that if for instance we look at feeling anxious before an interview, then it's clear that:

If we're in an anxious trance,

1. we feel very absorbed in what we're are doing-we're completely wrapped up in the anxiety of the situation, creating nasty movies inside our heads of how bad the interview is going to be .
2. we have a specific and limited focus of attention-we focus completely on the things that make us anxious.
3. we are often more aware of your internal world rather than the external one- so we exclude any information from the external world (like the interviewer isn't really a cold-blooded monster who can read our inner thoughts) that might calm us down and focus on horror movies of how bad it's going to be.

So we would say anxiety is a great example of how people put themselves into trance of one kind or another all the time.

The question is not "do people go into trance and is it safe?", the question is " what kind of trance are you in right now?" There are millions of trance options, here's a few..a relaxed trance, an anxious trance, a being captivated by a book and not being able to put it down trance, a trance where you doubt yourself, a trance when your reflection in the mirror is definitely two sizes larger than you actually are, a trance when you just know you're going to make a sale or mange a project fantastically, a trance when you notice the speling and typo's in an artcile ,a depressed trance, a trance where you believe in yourself fully, where you're on the ball, sharp minded and firing on all cylinders.

By discovering this new relationship to our states of mind (or mood) we are prompted to ask an even more important question, "How can I change a disempowering trance state for something more useful?"

If you could learn to do that, surely you'd me more in control of the choices you make in your life, and if you could do that at work, how would that make you more productive, motivated, focused and successful?

People from all walks of life, including many Blue chip company executives, Hollywood movie stars and the shining lights of the music industry, are drawn to his practice in North London, where he works and teaches. Contact him through office@philparker.org

His latest book is

Ten Questions

The handbook for self coaching

"In this concise and engaging manual Dr. Phil Parker manages to deliver the key elements for creating change and managing the challenges of business and personal life.

The genius idea of this book is that it transforms these change concepts into simple, understandable, practical, universal Questions.

I highly recommend this book to everyone interested in personal and professional development and success."

Steve Andreas, Author, trainer and NLP pioneer

For information on how to order the book '10 Questions' http://www.philparker.org/