50 Shades of Blues

Have you ever read a self help book? Maybe more than one? Perhaps even devoured anything and everything you can get your hands on.  Reading stories, theories and practices on how to focus on the positive regardless of the feeling state you are in.  The words of the book inspiring and encouraging you to turn your life around.  A few weeks later you find yourself searching for another book that may deliver another message and words of wisdom to allow you truly to see the glass half full and change the way you feel.  Did this practice ever leave you feeling frustrated? Annoyed? Maybe even angry because reality is such that sometimes we do not feel so good and to focus on happy thoughts in that moment seems such a chore, doesn't it?  How can that be, when everybody seems to preach to focus on the positive?  How do we as human beings exclude that which we are feeling?

I am here to incite you to embrace your emotions...ALL of them.  There is a world of negative emotions out there and while they are accompanied by some discomfort, they are designed to make you feel better in the long run.  They are crucial, otherwise they would not exist!

We have always been emotional beings first.  During our first years of life we literally are what we feel.  Our emotions, are the only tool we have to communicate to others what we need.  Our emotions and the expression of them, help us achieve our end result; a baby crying for food,for attention or simply for a diaper change.

Say what?

It is only human to yearn for happiness and dwell on that yearning.  Happiness is a worthy individual goal; however I conclude that socially and culturally there is a sense that anything BUT positive and happy is taboo.  Anger, frustration, sadness and the expression thereof has become unacceptable and a nuisance.  Reality is that we can not all live like Buddha, Jesus, Yogananda, ... and that is ok.  An excessive focus on ones own happiness and judgement of the lack thereof, minimizes emotions that are equally important albeit less fun.

The experiencing of these emotions assists us in finding out what we do want, in detail.  You may have heard the analogy of the contrast of light and dark.  It is only the contrast of them that makes us aware what the other is and allows us to differentiate between them.  When walking into a room at night without any light, you wouldn't walk in and pretend that you can actually see and that there is light in the room.  You just walk in and notice it.

Allow all emotions to be a part of your story, notice them, acknowledge them and feel the contrast to which they are guiding you to.  Instead we suppress them, medicate them, ignore them, numb them.  Allow these emotions to assist you in writing your life story even more clearly, chapter by chapter, discovering what it is specifically, with much detail, that makes your light go on.  Knowing how to better channel and accept these emotions allows you to better live with yourselves and others.

Instead of choosing to see the glass half empty or half full, how about we choose to see the glass in its entirety and let that be enough.  Focusing on the present in itself will be sufficient.  I challenge you to try... you will notice emotions identify opportunities for change and provide feedback and clarity in what you do want.

Would any human being ever have been successful if failure wasn't a part of the experience?

A Hypnotherapist's Journey

The Roots

As long as I can remember I have always found joy in helping people.  Cliche? Perhaps... yet isn't there always a bit of cliche in simple truth?

Growing up in Belgium, in a small town where everybody knows one another, helping people is just something one witnesses on a day-to-day basis.  It is never questioned or analyzed, just lived.  Interestingly enough as time goes by and we 'grow up', obtaining financial rewards and social status often pull us in different directions and this was most definitely the case for me.  Graduated from culinary school and later obtaining a degree in business management I was ready to take on the world and conquer all possible titles in the shortest amount of time.  That in itself would grant my satisfaction in life....or so I thought...And so it begins:

As I packed my suitcases at 19 years old and left Belgium for the prestigious life in Paris, I was certain to obtain happiness through wealth and corporate status.  I joined the team of the luxurious and world famous Hotel de Crillon and worked many a long days among highly driven and competitive individuals.  Promoted every year I seemed to be well on the way to achieving what I had set to obtain.  Yet I couldn't understand why happiness and satisfaction didn't come with the rise in status and title.  How much hard work would it take?

After 4 years of working myself into exhaustion I decided to take a year off and fly as far as possible: Australia.  Packed my same 2 suitcases, yet again said my goodbye's to family and friends and started this new adventure.  I was certain that if Paris couldn't fully provide what I was looking for...than Australia would.

My oh my, it was indeed a magical place and time.  Traveled the whole country, made new friends, many of which I am still in touch with today and partied like a rock-star... Yet I discovered that even though life was fun, something was still missing.  How could that be?

As my year of fun and adventure came to an end it was time to pack my bags once again and make my way home.  My real home: Belgium, to gather my thoughts and decide on my next step.  When an opportunity presented itself to come to the United States to once again work in hotel management I grabbed it, and yes packed those 2 suitcases again and said my goodbye's.  I figured if Paris and Australia couldn't provide what I was yearning for than certainly the USA would.  Off to the land where dreams come true.

8 months after arriving I obtained my first promotion and salary increase, working even harder than ever before, my body was screaming out to slow down.  Since I refused to listen, my body made me.  I was under 30 and the Doctor was astonished to diagnose: shingles...  The staff looked at me puzzled and strongly urged me to make a change in lifestyle.  10 days later I was back at it and making up for lost time by working even harder.

Yet again my body urged me to listen and doctors scared me with a breast cancer diagnosis, still under 30 years old it was a very uncertain time.  I decided to make a change and truly search for my calling.  As I made those changes it became apparent that I was misdiagnosed and that the breast cancer symptoms were created by stress.

The Change

All of a sudden I remembered being hypnotized when I was 5 years old and how fascinating it was.  I made the decision to change and leave the world of titles and employees behind to take on a simple 9-5 type of job that allowed me to go back to college.  An intense time of training, study and practice including lots of room for personal development have led me to now be a clinical hypnotherapist.  I find myself in a world of helping people, a world of relaxation where personal growth and happiness is the main focus.  A world of change.

The Mission

Changing the world one hypno-session at a time; To share all that hypnosis has to offer. To allow individuals to explore a world within the subconscious mind, gaining access to old belief systems; ready to change associations that no longer serve them, into new ones through positive suggestions and idea's, assisting them to overcome obstacles, on their journey to complete happiness and satisfaction.  It may lay where you least expect it, but trust that it is up for grabs.