Below: A modern medical miracle facilitated by hypnosis.
Lennie & George
George Bien's hypnosis graduate Lennie (above), was casually sitting on one of those large exercise balls, she slipped back and hit the top of her spinal column in such a way (one shot in a million) that her head was literally disconnected from her spinal cord. If she had moved a fraction of an inch in any direction, her head would have literally disconnected completely!
As a performer, remember: "Minimizers tend to blame failure on a lack of ability. Maximizers perceive failure as due to a lack of effort."
The Curse of Perfectionism
Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary defines "perfect" as "being entirely without fault or defect: flasless; satisfying all requirements . . . lacking in no essential detail." These definitions create terrifying standards - standards that imploy external judgment.
Abraham Maslow, the Father of American Psychology, believed that peak performances are the results of myriad of things, such as:
Breaking up an illusion.
Getting rid of a false notion.
Learning what your talents are.
Learning what potentialities you lack.
Creating Outcomes
Establish realistic goals.
List strengths and weaknesses (be as objective as possible). Begin by focusing on the physical results of your efforts. Evaluate one movement at a time. Is it consistent and complete? Feeling too heavy? Feeling too light? Feeling too loose? Feeling too tight?
Evaluate the mental or internal aspects of your efforts - one movement at a time. Is there: Negative thinking? Excess mental tension? Failure to use an effective routine? Over arousal - trying too hard? Under arousal - sleeping on the job? Is there complete mental control?
George Bien (1999)
Basic technical concepts:
An habitual action, being automatic, is performed without conscoius supervision by the mind.
We cannot think of more than one thing at a time.
It is obvious, however, that we are constantly doing many things at the same time. We can walk, talk, and open an umbrella, all simultaneously. But in such cases of combined actions you will invariably find that mental supervision is only needed for one action, the others being governed by the nerve-center. If you could think of ten things that you could do simultaneously, then at least nine of them must have reached the automatic stage.
We are apt to talk about dancing-technique, singing technique, piano technique, and so on. as if the word "technique" meant something different in each case. But our bodily movements are all muscular movements, and there are certain ways of using muscles which are right—for the reason that they re more reliable, are easier in the end, and lead more quickly to automatic action—and other ways that are wrong. These basic rules can then be modified and adapted to particular purposes.
The above video one segment from "Hypnosis and You", A Perfect Partnership!, the DVD that professional hypnotherapists everywhere are excited about.
To get your copy of the complete DVD contact IACT at: 570-869-1021, or staff@iact.org
Basic Considerations on Muscle Usage in Performance:
1. The muscles of a joint can be in any of three conditions: absolutely rigid, absilutely loose (i.e., relaxed), or balanced.
(a) "Rigid" means all muscles tight, as when you clench your rist.
(b) Loose" means no muscle tightened in any way, as when you shake your hand to warm your fingers.
(c) "Balanced" means one muscle tight, the other loose, as when you lift your arm and hold it at a certain height. As soon as you relax the holding muscle, the arm falls, and the "pulling-down" muscle has not been used at all.
2. Never tighten any muscle except those whose tightness is necessary for the technical excution. You will find that nearly every difficulty in any muscular activity, turns out to be, when mastered, merely the discovery of how to loosen certain muscles whose tightness was holding you back.
3. When tightening the muscles of a joint, do not allow others to tighten sympathetically.
George programming a guitarist for extended reach
and superior technical facility.
George programming a guitarist
for intense focus and the ability
to enter the "Zone" at will.
Hypnotic Imagery:
External Imagery is a completely visually imagined experience of oneself perfoming with precision.
Internal Imagery involves a proprioceptive or "feeling" type of mental rehearsal and is usually non-visual.
