You are a hypnotist and you don't even know it

When we say hypnotist we automatically assume a person
waving around a clock with a pendulum motion.
This is often not the case at all.

Most times people who joke they mean it.

Recently I moved to the city into an apartment. One of my good friends, whom I also consider a mentor, had said to me he would never see me again. He lives in the suburbs, and he was right.

At the time you don't take it seriously. Subconsciously it is programmed into their hard drive. The input that goes in eventually becomes the output that comes out.

So how does this work?

We are not able to consciously remember all of the information that is presented to us at any given time. We can process more information than what our conscious mind is capable of understanding.

So basically you have 3 stages of which the information gets stored. Before I get into that I want to also explain that we have 3 layers of which we process the information. I do not want to bore you with science and neurology of the details of every stage, and besides I am no expert.

I do have an understanding of how it generally works and it also relates to what I would like to convey in this post.

The 3 stages of storage are:

Sensory Memory, the shortest term memory storage acquired through the different senses within a very short amount of time. Remembering what something looks like by looking at it for a very brief moment. 

Short-Term Memory, Remembering and processing information at the same time, can usually hold up to 7 items at a time. To understand my next sentence you are holding the last sentence in your short term memory.

Long-Term Memory, Being able to recall information that has been stored for longer periods of time and that can be easily accessible when going through the process of retrieving it.

The 3 layers of processing this information are:

Conscious: Begins in our fore brain, it is our superego, spiritual awareness.

Subconscious: Mid brain, our ego, mental awareness, social growth.

Unconscious: Behind brain, our ID, Basic level growth, Physical awareness.

Why am I explaining all this technical jargon?

By being able to better understand this we can become more mindful of our input/output of information.

What you focus on is what you will process consciously, everything else gets processed subconsciously and unconsciously. We cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. Even though some of us may think we are great at multitasking. We are actually switching focus from one task to the next.

When my friend suggested that we wouldn't see each other, it came from his conscious state, he than stored it into the long term memory, and he trained his mind to believe that it is truth.

When this happens the mind will do everything it can to work for that statement. Meaning the story that he tells himself and myself creates a barrier between us.

We are all hypnotists. I subtly tell someone something and when they don't acknowledge the information, it then moves into their sensory memory. They act on it without even realizing it.

Let me give you a personal example of this.

My girlfriend would say "I hope you carry the spray on you at all times when you walk the dogs." I would then brush that statement of saying "I always do". Two things happen here, first she programmed me to always remember to bring the spray whenever I am ready to walk the dogs, second I program myself to always remember that.

Be careful of how you say something, more importantly what you say. Saying things like "Don't forget to..." or "Don't do that..." You are storing the negatives in both yours and the other person's memory.

How?

Our conscious mind has a filter, fortunately and unfortunately our unconsciousness and subconscious minds have no filter.

What goes in, goes in and becomes a part of you.

What I find very interesting is the amount of information that we are able to store. The more difficult part is retrieving that information.

Cal Newport and Scott Young have been able to distinguish the research behind how to successfully store information into the long-term memory and to retrieve it as needed.

The brief run down of it is this. Forget your basic studying techniques and become unconventional with them. Meaning involve your other senses in your study habits.

So what does this all mean for you?

Be mindful. Of what you do, what you say, who you say it to. What you watch, what you listen to. This all shapes you to become well....you guessed it, YOU.

Credit resource to Human-memory.net, Dr Francis Vala, Image copyright by minddisorders.com