Ep 33 - Reconnecting with Your Creative Self: Hypnosis, Identity Shifts & a Guided Meditation

Have you ever wondered why certain patterns seem to repeat no matter how much personal development work you do?

In this week's episode of Midlife Audacity, I'm sharing insights from a powerful two-day hypnosis training with Penny Chiasson that completely deepened my understanding of the conscious mind, subconscious mind, and how lasting transformation really happens.

We explore what hypnosis actually is (and what it isn't), why it doesn't override free will, and how accessing the subconscious mind can help us move beyond old stories, beliefs, and resistance that may be quietly shaping our lives.

I also share my experience learning how to perform a hypnosis induction, why this work fascinates me as a coach, and how I believe it can help women create identity-level shifts from the inside out.

Then, instead of a traditional teaching episode, I guide you through a gentle meditation designed to reconnect you with the playful, creative part of yourself that may have been buried beneath responsibilities, expectations, and productivity.

Inside this episode:

✨ What hypnosis really is and why it's often misunderstood

✨ The difference between conscious and subconscious resistance

✨ How beliefs are formed and repeated over time

✨ Why creativity and play are essential parts of your Zone of Genius

✨ A guided meditation to reconnect with curiosity, joy, and authentic expression

If you've been feeling the pull to create, explore, play, or simply reconnect with yourself in a deeper way, this episode is for you.

Resources Mentioned:

📖 Book Study Seminar – August 2026
The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron
Explore creativity, intuition, authentic expression, and flow in a supportive community of women.

Registration link in the show notes.

If this episode resonates with you, please share it with a friend and leave a review. Your support helps Midlife Audacity reach more women who are ready to rise into their next chapter boldly, soulfully, and unapologetically.

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Book Study Seminars:  Soul School has opened up new room called, Book Study Seminars.  This room meets four times a year to read, study and unpack not only the words, but our lives, together.  Our summer theme is identity FLOW and we start May 7th. For four weeks, we’ll study together using, The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, as our anchor text. Together, we will explore reconnecting to creativity, intuition, fun, movement, and authentic expression.  

Soul School: A curriculum for midlife women who are ready to remember their wisdom, protect their energy, project their power and come back into alignment. You don’t need fixing. You need to remember. Open for enrollment NOW.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Midlife Audacity. I'm your host, Celeste Dona, teacher, writer, speaker, and guide for women who are ready to rise into their next chapter boldly, soulfully, and unapologetically. Hey, hey! Welcome back to Midlife Audacity. I spent this past weekend doing something I haven't done in quite a while. I sat in a two-day workshop. Now, if you've been around me for any length of time, you know I'm pretty particular about what trainings I sign up for these days. As a recovering workshop junkie, I have learned that more information isn't always the answer. So when I registered for Penny Tyson's Hypnosis Secrets Unlocked training on the first weekend in June, I did it with a lot of curiosity, but also with discernment. And I'm so glad that I said yes. Over the course of two days, we explored hypnosis, the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the unconscious mind. One of the biggest misconceptions, I think, about hypnosis is that it somehow overrides your free will or controls your mind. And it doesn't. If you happened to listen to my episode last week when I interviewed Penny, you would have learned a little bit about hypnosis. She does a really great job explaining it all because she is a hypnosis professional. What hypnosis really is, is it's a state where the conscious mind relaxes enough for us to move beyond resistance and begin to introduce new ideas that the subconscious mind can accept. So it's really a heightened state of suggestibility. And if you think about it, we are exposed to hypnosis more than we think if we're watching TV or if we're scrolling social media and we see these ads. They are designed to put us into a state of heightened suggestibility, obviously trying to get us to purchase whatever it is that they are selling. Now, the reason why I happen to be so curious about hypnosis is because as a coach, I feel like this is a vehicle that I can use to really help more women speed up their transformations and also create lasting transformations. It's a way that they can really go into the subconscious mind and move beyond that resistance so that they can open themselves up to some of the ideas that will help them to get past old stories, old misconceptions, old conclusions that they didn't even know existed. The subconscious mind is incredibly powerful, as I learned this weekend. And it's where so many of our beliefs and patterns and habits and emotional responses live. And often those beliefs weren't chosen consciously, right? They were formed through experiences and interpretations and repeated messaging over time. And so what fascinates me so much about this process is that realizing that when we have access to the subconscious mind, we can begin updating that old software. We can actually reprogram the computer in our mind, not by forcing change, not by going back and reliving past experiences, not by fighting with ourselves, but by creating new possibilities. And here's the really fun part. We learned how to perform an induction. I wasn't aware that we were going to be able to do that, but we learned how to perform an induction with a script that Penny gave us. And this really helps someone move into that relaxed, receptive state. And yes, I actually ended up putting my partner into hypnosis. And I thought that was really, really cool. So watching her like settle into that relaxed state and seeing how quickly the mind can shift was absolutely fascinating. It left me incredibly curious about how this work can support the work that I currently do with the women that I work with. And I see it as being an excellent component into my book study seminars as well. Because it's not surface level change, it's not another checklist, it's genuine shifts in identity. And that can happen only from the inside out. So at the same time, right, this week, you may have noticed if you follow me on social media, I've been posting a lot about creativity and play and operating it from your zone of genius. And I've been asking people who follow me questions like what makes you lose track of time? What lights you up? What activities leave you feeling energized instead of feeling depleted? Because I think many of us know those things. The challenge isn't about identifying them, the challenge is allowing ourselves to actually do them. So, on the heels of this powerful weekend that I had, I thought that instead of doing some teaching or sharing some personal moments or life lessons, I thought that I would guide you through a short meditation. A chance to step out of your thinking mind for a few minutes and reconnect with the part of you that already knows. That creative part, the playful part, the part of you that remembers. So if you're driving, please save this for later. And if you are in some place where you are comfortable, I would like you to get yourself into a relaxed, comfortable position. Put your feet on the floor, grounded on the floor, and we're going to slowly begin. Take a deep breath in and gently exhale out. Allow your shoulders to soften. Relax your jaw. Notice the surface beneath you supporting your body. You don't need to do anything right now. You don't need to solve anything. You don't need to figure anything out. Just allow yourself to arrive. Take another slow deep breath in and exhale. Imagine that with each breath you are stepping a little further away from the noise of the day. The responsibilities, the expectations, the lists, the roles, and a little closer to yourself. The version of you underneath all of it. Now imagine yourself standing in front of a beautiful path. A path that feels familiar. As though you've walked it before. You begin moving slowly down the path, feeling safe, feeling curious, feeling open. As you walk, you notice a younger version of yourself waiting ahead. Not necessarily a specific age, just a version of you that still knew how to play. The version of you before life became so serious, before productivity became the goal, before practicality became the filter for every decision. Notice this version of yourself. What does she look like? What energy does she carry? How does she move? As you approach her, she smiles because she's been waiting for you. Notice what she's doing. What she's creating. What she's exploring. What is she enjoying simply because it feels good? No agenda, no outcome, just joy, just curiosity, just expression. Now imagine sitting beside her. Ask her gently, What do you wish I remembered? Pause. Listen. Don't force an answer. Simply receive whatever comes. Maybe it's a memory, a feeling, a word, a color, an image, a knowing. Ask her what have I talked myself out of that my soul still wants to experience? Pause again. Listen. And now finally ask, What would happen if I gave myself permission? Permission to play. Permission to create. Permission to be curious. Permission to follow the nudge. Permission to trust what lights me up. Notice what arises. Now take a deep breath and imagine this younger version of you placing something in your hands. A gift. A reminder. A message. Something you can carry with you as you return to your life. Take a moment to receive it. And when you're ready, thank them. Knowing they never really left. They've been within you the entire time. Waiting patiently for an invitation. Begin bringing your awareness back to your breath. Back to your body. Back to the room around you. Take a slow breath in and exhale. Wiggle your fingers, wiggle your toes, and when you're ready, come back into the room. My friends, creativity isn't reserved for artists. Play isn't something that we outgrow. Your zone of genius isn't hiding from you. It's often found in the things you've stopped giving yourself permission to explore. And that's one of the reasons why I wrote this particular meditation. Because so often we get caught up in all of the doing that life hands us. That we forget that we can play, that we can work and also experience joy. It's not an either-or. It can be an end, right? So I want you to think this week, give yourself permission, notice what lights you up, notice what energizes you, notice where time seems to just disappear. And instead of talking yourself out of it, see what happens when you lean into it. Because I can promise you that we often will use a lot of excuses to avoid letting ourselves simply be in that space. In the space that feels good, in the space that brings us joy, in the moments where we lose track of time, where we feel like we can be creative, where we are just playing around and it's fun. We don't allow ourselves to go there enough. So instead of taking yourself out of those situations, see what happens when you lean in to that. So if this conversation resonated with you, I would love for you to join us in August inside of Book Study Seminars, where we are going to be unpacking The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. We're going to spend four weeks exploring creativity, intuition, authentic expression, and what it means to really reconnect with the parts of ourselves we've neglected along the way. So you can find the registration link in the show notes below. And I hope that you enjoyed that meditation. Please feel free to play that over and over again throughout the week. And if you feel like this was a powerful meditation that you can then share with friends, please do so. And until next time, keep being audacious, keep being curious, and keep following what lights you up. Bye bye.