Publish your story of Recovery

Please write to me with your story of recovery.  I am fascinated by success stories in overcoming all difficulties.  We all have our issues.  Let us know how you overcame your particular problem.  Whether it be illness, or alcoholism or addiction or co-dependency or divorce.  I love to hear from people who overcame childhood trauma to become happy healthy adults.  With one voice there is power, with many voices there is triumph.  Sharing recovery gives us all a voice that has immense power to heal ourselves and others who need hope.  

Make your voice count - tell your triumph - lend your voice to those in need!

christinepatrick@mindspring.com

Recover from Addiction Your Way

I recently wrote a chapter on the use of Hypnotherapy and Meditation with Alcoholism and substance abuse.   The book is being put together by a Doctor in Los Angeles in the same style of the Big Book of AA.  I will let you know the publication date!!!  The stories are personal recovery journals of people who used all types of ways to recover from substance abuse.  No one treatment works for everyone because we are all so unique.  I am fascinated with the stories of genuine people that have turned their lives around in the most unexpected ways.  Most of the research shows that Alcoholics Anonymous remains the most successful recovery tool available but in my experience as well as the real life stories of actual people that I have known or talked with, who were able to maintain long term recovery, all had implemented the most unique and inspiring ways to life themselves out of the nightmare of alcoholism and addictions of all kinds.   Relaxation and meditation of all kinds topped the list.  I personally have used meditation and hypnosis and many ways of going within to overcome so much in my life.  I personally triumphed over a severe panic disorder with a number of meditation techniques - guided visualization has seen me through mind-numbing pain management as a result of operations associated with Cancer.  I have been free of all sorts of addictions and am Cancer free for over 20 years.  I have had recovery on my mind because of the book.  I looked back over 20 years of "going within" in one way or another and the amazing things that came as a result.  I am a firm believer in life being an inside job.  I have personally accessed strength and wisdom from within that I would have told you was impossible.  I always wondered why we only use 10% of our brains and have concluded that that lazy underused 90% can and has worked for me for a long time.  I love when I have one of those A-hah moments after some quiet meditation moments, or I see it in someone else, when things begin to fall together and I realize what is or isn't working.  I find most of my answers within.  I love getting info from all sources and then seeing the fascinating answer that is perfect for me and then watching it play out in my life.  Writing part of this book has reminded me to be aware of how special and beautiful that I am and how colorful and fascinating all the people have been that I have had the pleasure to get to spend a little time with on my journey.  I would love to hear from anyone who has overcome difficulties in special and unique ways.  I look forward to hearing from you - until then I wish you every opportunity to manifest the best you.

Peace,  Christine

www.stressbustters.com 

Attracting Love made easy

I have been divorced for a long time and dating is something I try to avoid even thinking about.  Where do you go?  Is online dating safe?  Am I going to attract the SAME MAN - DIFFERENT BODY?  I seem to attract the same thing over and over again.  Funny story - I did a free trial test with an online service and I filled out pages and pages of information about myself in order for this group to determine my "perfect match".  You gotta love it - I am a comedy performer/hypnotherapist who lives what I consider a free thinking lifestyle - The first 3 responses from my 'PERFECT MATCH" were from engineers - who can guess what my ex-husband does for a living?  I began to think that I am doomed to attract the same thing over and over.  In the meantime I was researching information for a hypnotherapy recording on love - the whole concept how we attract the people we do - and Voila - of course I attract what I put out!   The idea of pheromones is fascinating to me - add that to body language and vibes and it all made sense -  What if I subconsciously changed what I attract by changing what I put out. What a Concept.   Common sense (and all available research) tells me that if I want loyal decent people in my life - I become a loyal decent person.  Humans tend to pack together with commonality of ideaology - I hang with "like" people - It is instinctual.  So I wrote and recorded a cd  (see Attracting Love - www.stressbustters.com).  I test my recordings on my devoted friends who are willing to be guinea pigs -  (signing up for friendship can be done by responding to this blog or by trying out the free Fly Free session on the site!).  Anyway the results were so much fun - a friend told me that she met a guy at Home Depot!!  Another really shy friend said that she had been approached by people that she found a lot in common with  at college - not just guys.  I remain single - I have opened my social circle and have been asked out more times recently than I have for years.  When you think about it -  Mating has been going on for centuries, long before speed dating or online sites - The secret I found was to use a little common sense - - mix in the instinctual, biological nature of men and women  -add in the enormous power of the inner mind to favorably alter the signals that you are putting out and the result is extraordinary!   This recipe for dating success is the best thing I have found.  Let me know about your success in the dating arena.  I am always fascinated by alternative ways of approaching life - especially when it comes to the opposite sex.

What is Hypno - Anesthesia and Why Should I Care

What exactly is Hypno-anesthesia and why would anyone want to know?  I became a Hypnotherapist and then got certified in Hyno-anesthesia for the usual reasons.  I wanted to fix myself.  Way back in 1987 I was diagnosed with Cancer - fast forward to 1991 and I had endured surgery 5 times.   In the process, major nerves were severed and the MD's shook their heads while informing me that I would need to be in some sort of "pain management" forever.  I won't go in to the details of what transpired next in the  traditional medicine arena - I don't want keep you up nights - think electrodes - implanting foreign objects and mind numbing chemicals.  There had to be a better way.  I discovered a whole different group of healing practitioners who taught me to use the enormous power of my mind - What a concept!   The journey from then until now is the practical application of what worked for me and those healing teachers and students that have shared the road with me.

Hypno-anesthesia - a long way of saying pain management using hypnosis works.  It is the mind's perception of pain that is so individual.  It explains phantom limb pain.  It explains to me how the level of pain can be so different for all people.  It explains why I feel pain when I am stressed and am able to divert my attention away from the pain when I am totally focused on a different - mostly pleasurable - activity.  I am all about common sense.  This I know - Stress Makes Emotional and Physical Pain Worse - Relaxation and pleasurable experience makes it better.  We all have the power to learn to focus or divert our attention to or away from WHAT WE CHOOSE.  The effectiveness of Hypnosis and other relaxation modalities go back centuries. see - About Hypnosis - www.stressbustters.com.  Hypnosis was used to perform surgery on the battlefields in both World Wars.  Meditation and guided imagery go back centuries - long before Prozac or Vicodan.   

Think about the Body as a Robot theory.  The body only responds to what the mind tells it to do.  My mind is telling my body - right now - to touch certain keys on my computer - I am not thinking about each individual key before I push it - My mind is telling my body to breathe. to regulate digestion, to make my heart beat etc., - what if I accessed that same inner mind and learned to regulate the perception of pain!  What a concept!  So much of what we respond to physically and emotionally is simply what we have always felt - it is automatic.  We have the power to reset - renew - refresh - those thoughts - those responses.  Hypno-anesthesia uses this individual power of your unique mind to refocus - reestablish response.  I say these things not soley based on some study or some research, although opening myself to all information - all possibilities and putting them to the test has been the touchstone of my practice - so much of this comes from my experience and the experience of those I was blessed enough to share.

I went in alternative, holistic medicine for the most selfish reasons - to ease my pain - to renew my balance - to restore my emotional and physical health.  Imagine finding out that the best part of this journey has been sharing it with others, which is healing in and of itself.  

I invite you on this journey and will be sharing information as I have the pleasure of opening and expanding.  

Tears to Guffaws

Welcome - I am an expert on the tears to guffaws issue.  Being a hypnotherapist and comedy improv performer and teacher - I have a lot of experience in the CALM DOWN - TAKE A BREATH- GET A BETTER PERSPECTIVE  and then LAUGH OUT LOUD.   So far in my experience there is little negativity that stands up against a huge belly laugh.  

In the enormous frustration in setting up my hypnotherapy site - stressbustters - I found that an hour of improv or a good  laugh was the only true antidote.

I look forward to laughing out loud right here on this stage  - 

Let me know what does it for you -