The Power of Positive Suggestion

In the right state of mind, every one of us is susceptible to the suggestions of others. Advertisers have been planting ideas, catchphrases, taglines, mottoes, and anything else they can slip through our mental filters for the length of human history. Every day, we witness how powerful irrational and sometimes dangerous beliefs can be, yet we constantly expose ourselves to them through the inputs we choose.

Just today, I heard a well-known senator plant the seed that Americans are ready for civil war. And I know he knows exactly what he's doing. He's made a long political career out of the power of suggestion. If you hear the same messages over and over and over again, at some point, you stop questioning their validity, and they become "true" to you.

After several hours of concentrated work this afternoon, I listened to a YouTube video while finishing some reports. About 45 minutes after the video had ended, there was a phrase that kept inserting itself into my awareness, and I couldn't remember where I'd heard it. It was from the video that I hadn't been paying direct attention to, but it had gotten past my filters and into my subconscious.

My plea here is that we'll recognize our susceptibility and do two things. First, guard what you let into your psyche. The one thing you can control is what's in the background as you go about your day. If it's life-enhancing and positive, leave it on. If it leads to a negative feeling at any level, you can turn it off, and your day will be better for it.

The second thing we all can commit to is offering positive suggestions to each other. Let's put forward suggestions that actually make people feel better after they've been around us. Keep your own thinking in check, and when you feel it slipping into depths you don't want, bring it back up again. Make this a practice because we're not in the habit of doing this.

We can make our experience here heaven or hell. Our choice.

#hypnotism #suggestion #trance