Problem solving

There are three aspects to consider when seeking to make your life better:

• recognising a problem (P)

• establishing a solution (S)

• finding and actioning (J) a viable path from problem to solution.

Yoga is a practice of awareness to identify your problems - to notice what’s preventing you from fully enjoying the present moment.

Hypnotherapy is a tool that utilises altered states of consciousness for creating neural connections to resource solutions to a problem (if one isn’t apparent)

Coaching offers a framework to action oneself away from the problem towards the solution.

For example,

(P): recognising you have an anger problem

(S): finding the cause/targeting a solution

(J): working to resolve your anger issues

Present and presence

The solution to all of life’s problems is not simply to just be in the present moment. All that does is give you a front row seat to your problems as they unfold. Presence is part of the solution, but not the solution in its entirety. You *can* simply be present and watch as life unfolds, flowing with its will (and potentially becoming a victim of its unfolding); or, you can realise that you are God, and so possess the power to influence life to unfold to your flow of will (…just make sure not to become a narcissist).

Be present, AND have presence.

Direction

We practice yoga because on some level, consciously or unconsciously, we know it’s good for us - it’s making our life better in some way. The way it does this is by focusing the mind on a set of tasks, thereby bringing you into the present moment.

(The only problem with that is it can become a drug, and rather than solving our underlying problems it becomes a short-term pain relief.)

The focusing of the mind on postures then invites meditation. The practice itself teaches you how to meditate, by getting you to fully consider your relationship to the movements your making. This teaching enables you to practice meditation in stillness - to witness your relationship to all the things that come up when focusing on stillness. In doing this you begin to notice all the things that are preventing you from being in your natural state of bliss.

Now if you can resolve these disturbances yourself then your mind can allow those things to rest, but if any of the disturbances are beyond your self then at least now you’ve identified them and can seek resolution appropriately.

Yoga helps us feel better because it brings us into the present moment. (And what’s worse, it’s more difficult to recognise that you’ve become an addict!)

Once you’ve spotted your obstacle to bliss, if it’s something that keeps coming up then that is your unconscious inviting you to address it properly and find resolution. This is where hypnotherapy can come in.