It's been awhile since I've been here. Our poor old computer was on its last legs, groaning and coughing, so we turned grave diggers and cobbled together parts of old computers to use while we save up for a new laptop for me and a new desktop for the family. (I'm always amazed how people can just find a couple of thou to renew their IT facilities... Don't they have anything else to spend it on?). In the process of rebuilding our system we have lost patches of our email history, my entire contacts list and ALL the calendar items. Bloody nightmare! I have no idea what's going on...
But I've also not been updating this because I'm useless. I've got too many things to obsess about, and writing this somehow makes me feel slightly uncomfortable. I think it feels self-indulgent, and the words 'self-indulgent' were always spat derisorily in my family when I was a child.
However, I'm going to plough on. So here are a few things which have happened to me recently:
1) I had some indirect positive feedback on me as a teacher from the parent of one of my students. I am unreasonably happy about this. I tend to focus on my shortcomings as a teacher - and there are many to choose from. It's nice to hear that someone has been "going on about how great you are."
2) I was invited to be recorded reading one of my short stories for a CD of authors reading their work to accompany an anthology of short stories. I'm going up to town tomorrow for it. While there I will be meeting up with a few writers with whom I've been communicating but have never met. I'm really looking forward to it.
3) I signed up for a course of hypnotherapy to deal with my excesses - food, drink, nicotine. The hypnotherapist told me not to drink alcohol for three weeks and gave me a few food rules, which I didn't really expect. I just thought I'd have a nice rest while he put my subconscious off the idea of smoking and drinking. And the other slight fly in the ointment is that now I've made the decision, I'm rather feeling that I'll miss the immoderate me - it's always been an outlet for my inner rock star...
4) Apparently the film development is going well. The producer has apparently been engaged in at least one funding meeting. I'd quite like to have an update at some point. In the meantime I've been calling agents and punting myself as a client. Everyone's been very nice and encouraging. That obviously means diddly-squat. I've already received two email dismissals. Apparently they're 'not looking to take on new clients'.
5) Yesterday my dog ate my will. Unlikely, but true.
6) The day before yesterday my dog ate eight mini double-choc muffins, a pack of Cadbury mini-rolls (including the packing), three fillets of smoked mackerel and my wellington boots all in one sitting. He spent the next day shitting fishy chocolate puree and farting rubber.
7) I discovered that the woman who lives opposite with her 5-year old went to the same school as me. In Singapore. What are the chances? There is at least one other woman in the neighbourhood who went to the same school. I know because she stopped me in the pub one day and told me that she'd done the common entrance exam on the same day as me in the school san in Singapore twenty years ago. I've got a good memory but really...
8) In the day before I lost all my email I posted a pitch for my new 9read rewritten) script and recieved 5 replies. All lost.
See what I mean? Stuff happens. Some good, some bad. Just got to deal with it.
1 comment:
A typical dictionary definition of hypnosis states that it is: a state that resembles sleep but that is induced by suggestion. However, anyone who has tried hypnosis (and any self respecting hypnotist) will tell you that this is a very simplistic view of the subject!
A much better description comes from the Free Online Dictionary which states that hypnosis is: an artificially induced state of consciousness, characterised by heightened suggestibility and receptivity to direction. So what does this mean and how can it be used to your advantage?
Well, the subject of hypnosis has been discussed and pondered since the late 1700s. Many explanations and theories have come and gone though science, however, has yet to supply a valid and well-established definition of how it actually happens. It's fairly unlikely that the scientific community will arrive at a definitive explanation for hypnosis in the near future either, as the untapped resources of our 'mostly' uncharted mind still remain something of a mystery.
However, the general characteristics of hypnosis are well documented. It is a trance state characterized by extreme suggestibility, deep relaxation and heightened imaginative functioning. It's not really like sleep at all, because the subject is alert the whole time. It is most often compared to daydreaming, or the feeling you get when you watch a movie or read a captivating book. You are fully conscious, but you tune out most of the outside world. Your focus is concentrated intensely on the mental processes you are experiencing - if movies didn't provide such disassociation with everyday life and put a person in a very receptive state then they would not be as popular (nor would TV advertising be as effective!). Have you ever stated that a film wasn't great because you just couldn't 'get into it'???
This works very simply; while daydream or watching a movie, an imaginary world becomes almost real to you because it fully engages your emotional responses. Such mental pursuits will on most occasions cause real emotional responses such as fear, sadness or happiness (have you ever cried at a sad movie, felt excited by a future event not yet taken place or shivered at the thought of your worst fear?).
It is widely accepted that these states are all forms of self-hypnosis. If you take this view you can easily see that you go into and out of mild hypnotic states on a daily basis - when driving home from work, washing the dishes, or even listening to a boring conversation. Although these situations produce a mental state that is very receptive to suggestion the most powerful time for self-change occurs in the trance state brought on by intentional relaxation and focusing exercises. This deep hypnosis is often compared to the relaxed mental state between wakefulness and sleep.
In this mental state, people feel uninhibited and relaxed and they release all worries and doubts that normally occupy their mind. A similar experience occurs while you are daydreaming or watching the TV. You become so involved in the onscreen antics
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