Reprogramming the Mind for Lasting Change + Resiliency with Craig Meriwether (part 2)

Unlock the profound potential of your mind as hypnotherapist Craig Meriwether joins us to reveal how hypnotherapy can transform your life. Discover the parallels between reprogramming your subconscious and editing computer code—sometimes a minor adjustment is all it takes for significant change. Craig shares his personal journey with hypnotherapy and the determination needed to retrain our minds, likening the process to mastering music or sports. Through engaging analogies, learn how our tightly held negative emotions or habits can be released, offering a liberating simplicity that many unknowingly overlook.

Explore the power of hypnotherapy in addressing procrastination and self-worth issues, illustrated by the touching story of an older woman uncovering deep-seated fears from childhood. Craig discusses how these unconscious memories and feelings can manifest as physical sensations, affecting our growth and well-being. By accessing these hidden layers of the mind, hypnotherapy provides a pathway to healing and transformation, offering a fresh perspective on personal empowerment and self-discovery.

Experience the growing recognition of hypnotherapy in healthcare as we touch on its efficacy in reducing pre-surgical anxiety, leading to quicker recoveries and significant cost savings. Craig highlights the accessibility of resources online and the added value of skilled facilitators for deeper healing work. Embrace daily practices that nurture emotional and mental well-being, from gratitude lists to deep breathing exercises, empowering you to face unresolved issues with resilience and self-healing. Stay connected with Reignite Resilience for continued insights and inspiration on your journey to holistic health.

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:06

All of us reach a point in time where we are depleted and need to somehow find a way to reignite the fire within. But how do we spark that flame? Welcome to Reignite Resilience, where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. Resilience where we will venture into the heart of the human spirit. We'll discuss the art of reigniting our passion and strategies to stoke our enthusiasm. And now here are your hosts, natalie Davis and Pamela Cass.

Speaker 2 0:41

Welcome back to part two of our two-part conversation with hypnotherapist Craig Merriweather. We're going to dive right back in to listen in as Craig shares with us how we can tap into what else is possible and really going through the process of reprogramming our subconscious brain. We know that the mind is made up of the conscious and the subconscious brain 3% of it conscious, 97% of it subconscious. It's time for us to take control of that subconscious portion of our brain. We hope you enjoy.

Speaker 3 1:17

Well, you're allowed to heal it. You're allowed. It just maybe doesn't have the instructions on how to do it. It's computer code.

Speaker 3 1:23

When you reach that level of mind, the unconscious mind or subconscious part of mind, you're really dealing with computer code. And if, let's say, you're writing an accounting program for your business and you put in there two plus two equals five, well, it doesn't matter that that frustrates you and that it misses up your equations, that doesn't matter how much you type on your keyboard or slam your keyboard with your fists out of frustration, or talk to your friend about how unfair it is that two plus two equals five, or take a marker and write it on your computer screen two plus two equals four. It's not. Until you go into the computer code, go through those lines of code like oh there it is, two plus two equals five. That's okay, let's just erase it, amend it, edit it, delete it. Put in there two plus two equals four. Now all your equations equal out. And I don't mean to make it sound that easy and simple, but sometimes it's that easy and simple.

Speaker 3 2:12

There's a saying of, like we grip onto a pen very tightly with our hand and sometimes we grip onto a pen so tightly with our hand, it starts feeling really familiar to us. And it feels so familiar gripping onto this pen, that starts feeling comfortable, comfortably miserable. But we're comfortable because it's so familiar. And then we grip onto this pen, making a fist for so long. It's so familiar, so comfortable, we start thinking that this is who we are. It's not. It's so fun with your fist. Drop the pen. Yeah, you don't need to know how a pen is made. You don't need to know what color ink it is. You have to know what ink is or how it's made. Just drop the pen. Right, you know? And again, I don't want to make it out to seem like it's that easy and simple, but sometimes it's that easy and simple just drop the pen so when you found yourself, you had said you woke up one day and all of a sudden you just felt better.

Speaker 4 2:57

Yeah, so how did you get to that place? Was it just because you hadn't started researching hypnotherapy yet, correct?

Speaker 3 3:05

well, yeah, I'd done hypnotherapy at that point. It wasn't that I just felt better, it's that I noticed I felt better, okay, okay, and I had just grown into a new way of being and just didn't notice it. Okay, you know, because you're working and then you have, you have small children, and you have work and you have a relationship, you're married and you got to mow the lawn, you got to shovel the snow, and but you're still working on yourself, even if it's just five minutes here or 10 minutes there. You know, using the in-between times and everybody's a little different and things, and that's why hypnotherapy is filled with different kind of processes and techniques and strategies. But you know, a lot of times it's just the relentlessness of doing the work, yeah, the persistence of continuing, because that's how you train your mind right, just doing it over and over again. What's strongest within your mind is what you do over and over again, and so just by practicing we get better at something. We know this by playing the piano, or playing the guitar or violin, or learning dance, or learning martial arts, getting in a black belt in taekwondo or judo or something, or you know even a little kid learning to walk or riding a bicycle. What you practice, you get better at it, unfortunately. What if you're practicing anxiety? What if you're practicing anger, being angry at the world? What if you're practicing fear? You're just really going to get better. You're literally going to be wiring that into your brain, you know. And so really a lot of this work is just the persistence, the relentlessness of just practicing something else. You know, there's many studies out there, hundreds of studies, that show exercise will cure depression for a lot of people, a majority of people, and works as well as medication, if not better than medication. Now, it's hard to get out of bed and go exercise when you're depressed, but moving your body and just changing how you sit and you can change your state and how you feel right away.

Speaker 3 4:48

It was a Ted talk that came out. Amy Cuddy, I think, is the third most popular Ted talk on headcom or whatever it is. Ted dot, o-r-g, whatever it is, but the third most popular Ted talk of all time. And she's talking about the power poses and she's a Harvard sociologist, oh yes, and the power poses and she's a harvard sociologist, oh yes. And amy cuddy. And she got a lot of flack because it was a new idea and academia doesn't like new and different. But she put her research out there and of course everybody started ripping her apart because she got famous on you know the internet for doing all her research. And it's not like she's just some schmo just putting something, something out there on tiktok. She's a harvard sociologist or psychologist or something so. But she did a little research and then she got a lot of flack for some of the research. So what do you do? You do more research and she proved it again and so.

Speaker 3 5:33

But the idea is, and it's a wonderful ted talk, but she just talks about how, just standing in a power pose some of them are like the wonder woman pose, with your hands on your hips, your kind of feet kind of spread apart, a little bit shoulder width apart, or you know, I guess it's not superman pose or whatever that is burning all the. You know the feet on the desk and you see that on the old movies, feet on the desk smoking the cigar kind of thing. But the hose of power will actually start changing the brain chemistry so you feel more confident and so just little things like that, just changing your state in your body. You, you know, rolling your shoulders around. You know, a lot of us keep our stress and tension in our jaw. We clench our jaw and grind our teeth.

Speaker 3 6:09

So, you know, do jaw yoga, move your jaw around. You know, move your shoulders around. Just take a quick walk around the block or something. Get some sunshine. Watch what you're eating, watch what you're drinking. That in and of itself will do wonders. And then taking care of maybe some deeper wounds that you may be holding on to doesn't take that long. It really doesn't. But like anything, there's a certain persistence and a certain relentlessness, just like your physical health. You know, you just don't get to go to a personal trainer once and then work out at the gym twice and you get to look like a marvel movie superhero for the rest of your life.

Speaker 4 6:46

We can hope.

Speaker 3 6:46

You hope you wish. Personally, that's not the way life works. Yeah, yeah, and the people who are in Marvel movies and looked all ripped and got the six packs and all the stuff they're working out three, four hours a day. Yeah, and I mean that's one of the reasons Hugh Jackman quit Wolverine is because of the utter relentlessness he spent for 10 years keeping his body in that kind of shape, even when he was doing other movies, because it's harder to lose it and gain it back than just do it every day. And the amount of money, because when we're recording this, that Deadpool Wolverine movie just was a big summer blockbuster. Can you imagine the kind of money they offered him to get into that kind of shape again? And so it's pretty extraordinary what you can do with mind.

Speaker 3 7:29

But there may be some blocks, there may be some walls that needs to be taken care of.

Speaker 3 7:34

And what's nice about working with a facilitator like a hypnotherapist?

Speaker 3 7:38

Again, they're not healing you in and of itself, but they may be able to help you negotiate those walls and those blocks that maybe you can't do on your own or by listening to a YouTube recording or video or something, because there's a lot of good, cool stuff out there on YouTube you can just listen to help you just calm down and feel better and reset your nervous system.

Speaker 3 7:56

But sometimes there's blocks to that deeper healing and the main task of your subconscious mind is to protect you and keep you safe. Right, and so it may be doing so in a not very resourceful, resilient way, like armoring you with a lot of anger or anxiety or fear or things like that, but it's trying to protect you and keep you safe, which doesn't necessarily mean happy and successful. So if you can kind of see what the codes are, what that computer code is on how, what is keeping you safe from, and heal those wounds and install new instructions on how to keep you safe and for confidence and feeling good and for joy and happiness, whatever it is you're looking for, and then practice that you can have everything you want, you really can.

Speaker 4 8:40

What does that process look like of helping people identify what those codes are that may be holding them back?

Healing Past Trauma With Hypnotherapy

Speaker 3 8:47

oftentimes you just start with the feeling state okay. A good example of this is a few years ago, during the covid years in 2020, 2021, 2022, I guess I was teaching some classes for the cancer support community of arizona and I live in flagstaff, arizona, and they opened up a office up here in Flagstaff, so I was teaching some classes on Saturday mornings or Thursday evenings or whatever it was, and then COVID happened, so everything went to Zoom. They were one of the first institutes or offices or whatever that I saw that shut down Because you know you're dealing with cancer, everybody has a compromised immune system, and so they shut down in-person stuff and went to Zoom. So that was a way I learned how to do zoom stuff. In fact, you know, majority of my sessions now, just even the one-on-one stuff, are zoom, you know, just like this. And so I was teaching these classes and there'd be a series of classes like on pain control and healing acceleration and boosting your immune system, things like that. And in one of the series of classes, an older woman there and I'm guessing she's in her 70s, and you know these classes are an hour long and you have 12, 15 people. So there wasn't a lot of engagement, maybe a little bit before, maybe a little bit afterward, but we were just doing process. It wasn't like talking to each other, it was like, okay, we're going to start the process and we start now. And then everybody wake up, open your eyes, continue you on with your day. A lot of people okay, I gotta go, uh. So there wasn't a lot of engagement.

Speaker 3 10:03

But on the third class, the beginning of the third class, she was early you know I'm setting up the zoom room getting ready for class and she was at the classroom saying we're just chit-chatting about our days, about the weather and all that chit-chatty stuff. And then she asked does hypnotherapy work with procrastination? I said, yeah, that's a mindset issue. You're blocking yourself from moving forward, even though it might be beneficial, might help you get the promotion at work or the investors to your business or graduate, university or college or high school or whatever. But there's a block there because there's some fears trying to protect you, thinks it's unsafe, like there's a rattlesnake in the trail or something. So you want to move away from that. That's good fear. Don't walk down the dark alley at midnight. That fear and that anxiety about the dark alley is going to keep you safe, keep to the lighted streets. That's a great way to live life, but sometimes it gets a little confused and now you're blocking yourself from moving forward. So you got some procrastination Hypnotherapy can certainly help with that and so we actually set up an appointment for the very next day.

Speaker 3 10:59

And what's interesting about this work, when the subconscious mind realizes you're going to be doing some deeper healing work kind of starts turning the gears and say well, we can work on a problem, but why not just work on the problem? And so when she got to the session about just 24 hours later, she says I know, I told you I wanted to work on procrastination, but what I really want to work on is why I don't matter in life. This is a 70-year-old woman who thinks she's worthless and doesn't matter. There's a feeling state to that. There's a pain somewhere in the body where you hold on to that, whether you want to define it as anxiety or anger or fear or worthlessness or not feeling like you matter in life. You feel that somewhere in your body. To feel that in your body, you have to change your brain chemistry. So let's say, for anxiety you have to start creating the hormones of adrenaline and cortisol. You create these neuropeptides, these molecules that the brain creates that send the message of emotion. Hundreds of millions of these neuropeptides, these molecules, into your bloodstream, looking for cells in your body to attach to. They have the right receptors, send the message of emotion to the cells of your body. So that's why you feel like that, that's why you feel the difference between anger and depression and anxiety and joy and happiness, because these neural peptides, these are little molecules of fear, molecules of joy, molecules of anger.

Speaker 3 12:13

And so to change your brain chemistry in this way that we're talking about, to feel that anxiety or that worthlessness or that anger can only happen through a memory or a thought. Now, these thoughts and memories may be unconscious, but in order to feel that way, that you're worthless or that you don't matter or you just have all this anger, even if you're not sure what it's about, the only way to change that feeling state in your body is to change your brain chemistry. And the only way to change your brain chemistry in that way is by a thought or accessing a memory, even if it's unconscious. So there's a direct connection between the thought or memory that's causing that feeling state. So sometimes we start with the feeling state. And so that's what we're doing, this work, you know, and the processes we're doing.

Speaker 3 12:51

I say now I focus on that feeling state. Where do you feel it in your body? Some people say their heads or the back of the neck, or their throat, or their chest, or their heart or their gut or their stomach, or I just feel it in my arms. Where do they? And by one you'll be at the very first time you ever felt that feeling. And so we did that process. Go back to the very first time you ever felt worthless or that you didn't matter in life. Ten down to one.

Speaker 3 13:20

And I ask her where are you? And she says I'm standing up in my crib and my father's screaming at me because I won't stop crying. Now you know, standing up your crib, that's like 12 months old, I'm guessing 14 months old somewhere around there. And if she's 70-ish years old, you know a few years ago, you know that's late 1950s, maybe early 1960s, and maybe men weren't exactly trained on how to be nurturing fathers, at least in the early years, maybe, or maybe dad just isn't a very nice person, or maybe dad's just having a bad day and mom's out of the house and he doesn't know how to deal with a crying baby, supposed to be asleep and just having a bad day, a bad week, having a bad life, maybe not just not being a very nice person. The only thing he can think to do to get some peace and quiet in the house is to scream louder than the baby and tell the baby to shut up. And in that instant the child has to justify why this is happening. Here's who's supposed to protect her and keep her safe and nurture her and love her, instead of screaming at her, telling her to shut up and to justify why this terror, why this trauma is happening.

Speaker 3 14:23

The subconscious, her subconscious mind, came up. Well, I guess I just don't matter, I guess I'm worthless, I don't matter, I'm unworthy of anything. And that's how she went through life with that computer code. And what kind of procrastination is that going to be? What's the point of even trying? What's the point of being creative? What's the point of going out and trying if I'm worthless and I don't matter in life? And she held on to that for some 70 years until one day she decided to change it and she didn't change happens in an instant. And she healed that. And that's the last time I saw her, never saw her again. Now I checked up. Now I checked up with her. We check up with each other, you know, every few months or so for about a year. See how she's doing, doing fantastic, doing great, because she healed that computer code.

Speaker 3 15:00

Change happens in an instant. Now that wasn't her only session. She had two, three group sessions, but not on the topic that she wanted to heal Doing the pain control and healing acceleration and immune system boosting. So change happens in an instant. There may be some setup to that change. There might be 65 years of setup to that change. But when she was ready to change it, when she was ready to heal, she said can you work with this? I said, absolutely, hypnotherapy can help with that. And she changed it all by herself. I was there to lifeguard the situation. And so that's when I say maybe this isn't exactly easy and simple, but maybe it can be that easy and simple. It's like you know how many years of talk, therapy was it going to take her to get back to being 12 months old, standing up at credit, being yelled at by her father?

Speaker 4 15:45

you, know, yeah, may not have.

Speaker 3 15:47

May never have had because it was so far behind that curtain, within the unconscious part of mind. But you know what the problem is. She knew exactly what the problem is. She knew exactly what that origin was of that feeling that she was worthless and she healed. She healed the child and by moving that healing forward through time, across her timeline. Again, it's like you're using a lot of metaphor, using a lot of symbolism, because subconscious mind loves that. I can't, can't tell the difference between what's real and what's imagined, and this is most noticeable when people are having a nightmare in the middle of the night, right, and it doesn't matter how crazy or how ridiculous, a cheeseburger is chasing down the street throwing coconuts at you. It's dumb, it's not going to happen.

Speaker 4 16:26

but even scary, it's still scary.

Speaker 3 16:29

And you won't turn on the stress response. Yeah, even in deep sleep, your brain will start creating a adrenaline cortisol. You've heard the crazy stories of grandmothers lifting cars off of babies. That's adrenaline doing that. That's all coursing through your body. 300% more blood is moving to the big muscles of your arms to fight. 300% more blood moving to big muscles of your legs to escape. Got to come from somewhere, so it's turning down the power in your digestive system. That's why people get irritable bowel syndrome when they're stressed.

Speaker 3 16:57

This is all happening in deep sleep. So imagine what's happening in your waking world. And so the mind can't tell the difference between what's real and what's imagined and will change your physiology, how you feel in your body, by what you're thinking and feeling. So if you have to pretend that you're healing the child and then moving that healing forward across some sort of timeline to your age today, knocking out every other event that ever caused you problems, so you're this strong and empowered person by the end of it. Did that really happen? Maybe, maybe not, but it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 17:28

Your imagination allowed that healing to happen. Your mind can't tell the difference between a real event or imaginary event. So it happened, yeah, and that that again. That's why this doesn't take a long time, you know, and it can be. I don't want to say it's that easy, but it can be that simple, if that makes any sense. It's kind of twisty, topsy-turvy language, but but this doesn't have to take a long time. This doesn't have to take years or even months. Yeah, the lady I was just talking about, she did two or three group sessions on a topic that she you know that wasn't need to heal the deeper issue and then one session on that deeper issue that was it you know, and I'm not saying that's everybody's story, but it can be.

Speaker 3 18:07

You are that powerful?

Speaker 2 18:09

yeah, if you want it, if you want you mentioned, you have to want it right, like in order to actually have that healing and the example of the patient that you worked with she'd reached a point in her life that she wanted yeah.

Benefits of Hypnotherapy in Healthcare

Speaker 3 18:22

If you're reaching the point of calling a hypnotherapist, you're ready. You're at the last of the list. You know it should be the first. Yeah, unfortunately, yeah, yeah, well, thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, well, thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah, we should be, but unfortunately, because we're looked at as the witch doctors out there. It's really just like you got nothing else to lose. Yeah, you are in so much pain, you're so depressed, you're so anxious, you're so angry. There's so much emotional pain. It's like I guess I'll do hypnotherapy, which is unfortunate because you probably spent years doing everything else and you know again, not to say that it's going to take just two or three sessions, but sometimes it just takes three sessions, you know, even if it's something you've been holding on to for 70 years.

Speaker 4 19:58

Yeah, now, as coaches Natalie and I we know working with people, the mindset piece of it is really what impacts almost every part of their life and their business. But hearing the power that it has to actually be able to heal people's bodies, I think I knew that. I mean, I think we knew that at some level. But to hear how quickly it can happen just by focusing on that is absolutely amazing, and it's just so interesting to me that it's not something that's talked about more yeah, yeah, and my hope is is that it's going to become more commonplace.

Speaker 3 20:37

A lot of research out there with hypnotherapy is done in hospitals and some of the and this again, this is like harvard, this is yale this is published in the journal of medicine, the frontiers of psychology on the big places, and some of the research was done on people before they had surgery and what they found is a half an hour 30 minute session before surgery decreased anxiety rates by 56%, as opposed to the increase of 42% if they just have the regular pre-surgical standard of care or whatever. But by decreasing the anxieties by those levels, people's blood pressure lowered, of course, or their heart rate lowered. They bled less in surgery, so surgery took less time and they were also released from the hospital sooner with less complications. And so that's money. Now, in and of itself, maybe per patient it's not a lot of money maybe $5,000, $10,000 per patient in terms of taking a 60-minute surgery down to 45 minutes and being out of the hospital in a day and a half instead of three days.

Speaker 3 21:39

In and of itself, maybe it's not a lot of money per patient, but how many people had surgery today? I mean just in Phoenix Arizona? How many people had surgery, let alone the rest of the country times 365 days a year. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. That, for the insurance companies, right, and your premiums are going to stay the same, your deductibles are going to stay the same, but they're leaving a lot of cash on the table there, all because of a 30 minute hypnotherapy session. And so even if it pay, you know, and they're going to charge you, of course, a hundred bucks for that 30-minute hypnotherapy I don't know, but it's a hospital they'll probably charge you two hundred dollars for a 30-minute hypnotherapy session. This insurance companies could be saving ten thousand dollars off that two hundred dollar hypnotherapy session you know what I?

Speaker 3 22:21

mean what's going to happen, that's money, that's money talks you know, that's why they're saving the rain for us right down in south america, for the chocolate you, they realize, hey, we're running out of chocolate. We better save the rainforest. It's about the money.

Finding Healing Through Hypnotherapy

Speaker 3 22:32

And so we're going to see hypnotherapy, I bet in the next five, six, seven years, in every major hospital. All they have to do is kind of standardize education, you know, sort of like being a MRI tech. You learn how to be an MRI tech in Arizona and then you can go be an MRI tech in Georgia or New York or Washington or Oregon or wherever. So once they standardize the education around it and I don't know, maybe they put it in certain universities or something they'll allow it in, or maybe you have to be a social worker or psychotherapist of a certain degree or something, but it'll be in there because we're talking big money.

Speaker 2 23:05

Yeah, absolutely Absolutely. Craig, you mentioned this and I'd love to just hear your thoughts and opinions on the tools and resources that are available on YouTube or any of those other platforms, because there are and I've gone down this path and I have my own thoughts on it, but I'd love to hear your opinion on that. If someone were looking to get started, is that an option that you'd recommend, or do you truly, in fact, recommend having a facilitator, because you are uncovering and discovering quite a bit in those sessions?

Speaker 3 23:32

yeah, you can get some great generalized healing, especially like things like pain control. Yes, I feel that works pretty well with things like youtube videos or if you get a recording or something right, you know you're at your used bookstore and you see an old cd, if people remember what cds were, whatever, and if you have something to play it in it's probably all on spotify.

Speaker 3 23:52

Now you find the record, healing recordings and visualization techniques and yeah, those are going to work. But you also run into people and say, yeah, I tried this healing technique. I just feel blocked. It's like, okay, well then, maybe there's something more there that needs to be taken care of. Yeah, absolutely Same with that person. You'll know, your intuition is going to tell you. That's your subconscious mind talking to you. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 24:17

And just like the example I gave the woman I was working with, she was just taking a class, a generalized class, and those could have just as well been you know, youtube videos or recordings I was doing, because I, you know I got 12, 15 people in class that all may be dealing with something different and so it's not like I can be very specific with 15 people. So it's a more generalized thing. And she trained her nervous system to relax and rest and her subconscious mind says you need to go deeper. Yeah, let's work. Let's work on a deeper issue, and maybe wouldn't even tell her what the issue was. Uh, procrastination, okay, that got her into the appointment. And then it's like your subconscious mind leading her down okay, take this class and relax and learn and listen to the recordings that I send to people to practice at home, and it settled her nervous system to the point where, okay, now we can do the deeper healing.

Speaker 2 25:09

That's the safer problem, right. It's easier to walk in and connect with someone and say, oh, procrastination is my challenge versus I'm not worthy.

Speaker 3 25:19

I don't like dropping people into the deep end of the pool. Nobody knows whether you can swim or not. Let's get into the pool like a little kid gets in the pool. We'll get into our ankles and our knees and our waist and our chest and we're swimming in the pool. We'll get into our our ankles and our knees and our waist and our chest and we're swimming in the pool and then, if we need to go over to the deep end and we could do it in a safe and gentle way. You're already your nervous system's used to the work. Yeah, but that's not years and months. Yeah, you know that's like two, three sessions. Maybe you know that's great and so, again, it's not this. I don't say it's simple and easy, but maybe it's simple and easy. But maybe it is simple and easy. And but the kind of part two of that is, yeah, there's a relentlessness to this work.

Speaker 3 25:55

Just like your physical health. You know everybody listening here knows there's a relentlessness and a persistence to your physical health. You got to go to the classes, whether it's a dance class or aerobics class or a spin class, or you're just going to the gym or you're just taking a walk around the block in the sunshine or whatever. You know you got to do that something every day. Yeah Well, what about your emotional health? What about your mental health? What about your spiritual health? Is there not a certain persistence and relentlessness to that as well? You know, of course there is, and I know, you know I listed out. Talking to somebody today, it's like, yeah, I got my list of everything I want to do during my day. You know, get up and exercise, and then do you know a half an hour yoga and then do my qigong and then do my inspirational reading and then write my gratitude list and then do my prayer work and then meditate, and then, you know, I got this list of five, six hours.

Speaker 2 26:45

Yeah, I don't have five six hours no you know, that does sound like a lovely morning. That would be great.

Speaker 3 26:55

But you know, even on my days off I don't do that. You know, oh God, I got to get changed. You know, like this morning I was like I could change the headline in the car before I get another fix it ticket, or I got, you know, when I got into my way hey, can you run and do the thing? Okay, I'll run and do the thing, and you know so there's a real persistence. But you got to use the in-between times. You know, if you've got five minutes here, 10 minutes there, that's fine, then use that. Yeah, that's awesome.

Speaker 4 27:20

Love it.

Speaker 2 27:20

Craig, how can our listeners get a hold of you or touch base with you if they are wanting to learn more about your work or even just schedule a session to visit with you?

Empowerment Through Daily Practices

Speaker 3 27:31

Well, the best way is just find me at my website is Arizona Integrative Hypnotherapy. I know that's a mouthful. If you just go to Google and you type in Flagstaff Hypnosis, you'll see me there on the map, arizona Integrative Hypnotherapy, or in the search there somewhere. That's the best way to just contact me through there. I also have Test Anxiety Course and the name of that is ACE Any Tests which is a way easier to remember than the other name. So if you just went to acnetestcom and not just for high schoolers, but if you're 65 years old and you want to start your board and want to start a new career as a real estate agent, you're taking that real estate agent exam, or electrician or firefighter, you know, let alone a doctor or a lawyer. So there's tests all over the place, let alone auditions for musicians and actors and job interviews and things like this. So it's called ACNE Test and you can also email me through there. That's beautiful.

Speaker 2 28:21

I love that. Well, we will make sure that we drop that in our show notes as well, so that our listeners can get ahold of you. It has been an absolute pleasure. Do you have any last tips or words of advice for our listeners before we sign off today?

Speaker 3 28:36

I would probably just say, just to kind of reiterate what we've been talking about is what you practice you get better at. What is strongest within your mind is what you do over and over again, which is great if you're learning to play piano or learning martial arts or dance or something. But what if you're practicing anxiety? What if you're practicing that anger? Are you not literally wiring that into your head like you're learning a foreign language? So a lot of this work is, yeah, the part one may be the deeper healing work you need to do. Even if you don't know what that is, your intuition is telling you yeah, there's something in there that needs to be dealt with. Okay, deal with that. Deal with the hurt, the pain, the wounding. That may have happened, maybe when you were a child. But the part two of that is now. What are you going to do?

Speaker 3 29:15

If you want a black belt in joy or a black belt in confidence or a black belt in happiness, you can have it. But, like getting a black belt in judo or taekwondo, it's going to take some persistence and some relentlessness and, just like your physical health, you don't get to just work out during your early 20s and then you look awesome for the rest of your life. You're always watching what you eat, always watching what you put in your body, let alone the exercise and stuff. So same with your mental health, your emotional health. What are you doing every day, even if it's just five minutes?

Speaker 3 29:43

What can you do every day? Whether it's just a gratitude list or, you know, reading an inspirational page from a wonderful book, or just taking a moment to breathe in deeply into your gut. And, oh, you know, this is one of the greatest things you can ever do is breathe in deeply into your belly. Blow up your belly and I know we want to suck it in for the wedding and the high school reunion, or jeans don't fit like that anymore but blow up your belly, get that air into the bottom of your lugs. 20 of the oxygen goes directly to your brain. So breathe and send all that fuel, that oxygen, up to your brain and then exhale out with a sigh. So breathe in and then one more top, then, ah, that will reset your nervous system in just like five minutes. Do that three, four times. Simplest thing you can do, hey, cam, maybe not in the middle of a meeting or if you're teaching a class or you're on a Zoom call.

Speaker 2 30:34

But definitely in the car before the meeting or before you go live on the Zoom call. Yes, yeah, just watch your body In the car before the meeting or before you go live on the Zoom call.

Speaker 3 30:41

Yes, yeah, just watch your body to change your state, change your body and breathe deeply with an audible sigh. It can be that simple. It's awesome.

Speaker 2 30:51

That is fabulous. Thank you so much, oh my gosh, craig Merriweather. We appreciate you so so much this has been a pleasure. Yes, now we have some insight into hypnotherapy. And again, it's for both physical, mental, emotional challenges, trauma, obstacles, hurdles, you name it. There's a solution and I love what you said. It's oh my gosh the placebo. It is the non-deceptive, placebo Deceptive.

Speaker 3 31:18

We're not going to trick you into healing.

Speaker 2 31:24

I try not to say that word. I try not to think about the placebos being deceptive, like you said. That in my mind just went there and I was like, oh shoot, the non-deceptive placebo is in hypnotherapy. So being able to heal yourself. We all have the power to do it. So, taking that power back and taking control and really facing it when we're ready to face it, you've given us a fabulous tool. We will make sure that we add your contact information into our show notes so our listeners can find you and for everyone else. If you're wanting to learn more about what's happening in the world of Reignite Resilience, head on over to reigniteresiliencecom or find us on Facebook and Instagram so that you can see what's happening and make sure that you subscribe to our upcoming Think Letter. Until next time, we'll see you all soon. Thanks, everyone, thank you.

Speaker 3 32:04

Natalie. Thank you, Pam.

Speaker 1 32:06

Thank you for joining us today on the Reignite Resilience podcast. We hope you had some aha moments and learned a few new real life ideas. To fuel the flames of passion, please subscribe on your favorite streaming platform, like or download your favorite episodes and, of course, share with your friends and family. We look forward to seeing you again next time on Reignite Resilience.