When We Surprise Ourselves

kitchen
Post Written By Eugene Morgan

It’s nice to look back on what we’ve done. Sometimes we don’t see the progress when we’re in the mist of working on something. But when we do, we’re surprised.

We’re surprised by how well it’s done. Sometimes it’s difficult to know when you’re done with a project because we see how much we can improve upon it.

It’s easy to get our perfectionism in the way of our work because we see an uncompleted project. Some of us like to bring order to what we think is chaotic.

No matter how many times we walk into a dirty kitchen and continue to prolong washing the dishes, we’re still going to say to ourselves that the kitchen needs to be clean.  But once the kitchen is cleaned and a time has passed since the kitchen has been clean, we go back and say, “wow” look how clean everything is.

The Year 2012

Happy New Year!
Post Written By Eugene Morgan

The year 2012 is approaching us. We wonder how things going to be in 2012. We all hope for the best because nothing happens perfectly.

There will be some challenges ahead that are inevitable. There will be some changes we will have to make to make adjustments to a situation. We’re going to be shocked and surprised.

We will get outrage about an event. We will get sad when bad things happen. We will get happy when good things happen. We will experience new learnings.

We’re going to make an adjustment in writing 2012 instead of writing 2011. Next year is a new year. We can look forward to new things in our lives to happen. We can only hope for the best and do a lot of learning.

Surprise, Shock, and Affirmations

Surprise!
Post Written By Eugene Morgan

Being surprise is a temporary moment when our minds open up and want to grab hold of something meaningful before the moment of surprise disappears.

Milton Erickson uses shock and surprise with his students and his subjects to get them out of rigid mind sets.  His subject is caught off guard and is looking for something to make sense of what just happened.

Erickson would say something shocking or surprising to his subjects. This awakens the unconscious mind, and is ready for a suggestion.

The suggestion helps break up the rigidity of the conscious mind and appeal to the unconscious mind.

So the next time we find ourselves surprised or in a shock, we can say to ourselves positive affirmations, such as “I have a vast storehouse of experiences and knowledge forged with integrity.”  “I am unique in every way.”

Surprise, Shock and Barriers

Barrier Of Entry
Written by Eugene Morgan

Milton Erickson often uses surprise and shock to break up the barriers of the conscious mind.  Surprises are meant to be delivered unexpectedly to the person. In life when we’re presented with something unexpectedly, our conscious mind is temporarily off-balance. This unbalance of the conscious mind awakens the unconscious mind. This creates an unconscious search to make sense out of what just happened.

Erickson capitalizes on this by giving his subjects positive suggestions to their unconscious mind, this is after telling them shocking statements. The suggestions are then appraised, evaluated, and reviewed by subject’s unconscious mind before accepting or rejecting it. If the suggestions are useful for the subject, then the unconscious mind will accepted it. Hopefully, a seed is planted and we wait and see what grows.