Basically, there are two types of hypnosis. (Really, there are as many “types” of hypnosis as there are hypnotists. But I’m generalizing styles and techniques into two broad categories.) The first is “Direct Suggestion.” This is when we get you into a trance and I simply tell you good things about yourself. “You are confident. You are a non-smoker. You eat only healthy foods and only when it is healthy to eat them. You are comfortable and pain-free.” And so on. Direct Suggest

Can you take a compliment? I mean, really, hear something nice about your person or personality, and absorb it into your being, let it sink down deep into you and have it affect the way you think about yourself and your place in the world? I didn't think so. Honestly, neither can I. There always seems to be some barrier, some instinctual prejudice against myself, so that I can't easily accept positive observations about me or my character, and have that be meaningful. I doubt

Depression seems at record highs in recent years – and there is evidence to support that. Some point to social isolation with increasing divorce rates and social media. Some point to the increased anxiety in our culture and lifestyle over the past ten-to-fifteen years. But there is also evidence that depression has always been a part of human existence, in every culture around the world. Now, let me make a distinction between severe, clinical depression and what I call “healt

Have you ever overreacted? I mean, like out-of-the-blue lost it without even realizing why you were so upset? Sure, whatever happened sucked, but the level of anger, anxiety, fear, sadness or frustration you felt wasn't really appropriate to how sort-of-bad that one situation or "thing" was, right? Sure, we've all been there. Some of us live there. This happens all the time because when we are responding to something in our lives in the present or even in the future, we are r

"You are getting very sleepy - soon you will be in a deep trance - soon your warts will disappear." Hogwash? No, hypnosis. And it may be a formidable weapon against warts. According to psychiatrist Owen Surman, M.D., of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, "Hypnosis does seem to be a scientifically validated tool for treating warts. Why it would be is subject to guesswork. Currently, people are very interested in this area called psychoneuroimmunology. It's attractive to

I just spent the last weekend in silence. Or, at least a few moments of it. Actually, I was at a wedding, but my sister's family had booked us all at a beautifully rustic log cabin next to a small lake. Early in the morning and late at night (when the kids were asleep, mostly), it was awesomely quiet. Then I come home to this article trending among my friends. Science backing up what I knew in my gut already. The best kind. (In addition to the kind of science that blows your

We hardly need convincing. We all know that exercise is beneficial in so many ways. Yet we rarely commit to even incremental increases in our physical activity... if we can help it, or until a doctor prescribes it as part of treatment for disease. Well, I am not your doctor. Chances are I'm not even your coach. But I am prescribing more exercise for you right now. No matter what your ailment is, almost certainly you can benefit from a few more minutes of elevated activity. Le

Our hearts are deeply important to us - both physically and symbolically (or psycho-emotionally). Is it any wonder that this organ that is so integral to our wellbeing, health and activity is also the symbolic seat of emotions like love, care, empathy? If I may wax poetic, I think there is something to be learned by exploring the biology of the heart metaphorically. The heart has two sides, two parallel functions that work in tandem to achieve ends as opposite as they are ess

Common experience is being confirmed by scientific research that when we are happy we are more productive. More surprising, perhaps, is that the inverse is also true: we are happier when we are more productive. Research by Daniel Sgroi and others at the University of Warwick has shown that happiness can affect productivity up to 12% or more. That's a real difference. (https://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases/new_study_shows/) What's more, productivity - even in

The root of the word "health" is "whole." Which kind of makes sense. In many ancient worldviews, disease or corruption or even evil weren't so much distinct entities in themselves, but were rather a fall from the original and good whole. Augustine of Hippo, that famed North African Christian Saint and philosopher of the third century, used the analogy of a hole in a shirt: the hole, while bad, isn't itself a thing, but the absence of the shirt. He was working toward a descrip