Would you use a crystal ball if you had one?

The conclusion of four weeks of hypnotherapy got me wondering ‘Would I?’ to this question

Well I made it to the other side of my four week course of hypnotherapy and EMDR. And sitting here now, would I have said Yes to those four weeks, feeling how I feel now?

Wouldn’t we all love to look in the future so we can make more educated decisions ~ should I do this or should I do that?

“Crystal Ball show me what will happen if…”

You’d think with anxiety that a crystal ball would be at the top of my wish list. To take away all the worry of ‘What if?’

And perhaps before starting hypnotherapy I would have agreed with this.

Stepping into the future

Going back a couple of years ago, I could not entertain a conversation around anything in the future. I’d shut down as soon as someone started to speak more than a couple of months into the future.

‘Where do you want to be in your career in five years time?’

‘We can use this room for something else in a few years time!’

‘Next Christmas…’

The me of two years ago would have been shrivelling up inside at these conversations. ‘We don’t know what could go wrong in that time’, my internal dialogue would whir.

Now…I regularly have conversations about the business I’m building. Where it could be in a years time, visions of what is possible in ten years time. I dance with the possibilities and opportunities life can bring.

And my last hypnotherapy cemented that.

It was beautiful.

My therapist took me through an exercise called ‘Stepping Stones’. It’s aim is to focus less on the negatives in your past, and instead focus fully on the positives in your life and how to carry them forward into the future. This exercise is pretty much the opposite of what anxiety tries to instil in you.

I had to focus on things I was proud of about my life.

I had to focus on my attributes (skills & resources).

I had to focus on ways I feel loved and cared for.

I had to focus on things I find exciting.

My therapist took these statements and more to guide me along the ‘stepping stones’, as I walked into my imaginary future carrying all of these positive things with me and leaving behind the negative. As I walked with my eyes closed onto each stepping stone, my body stood taller, my back straighter, confidence emerging.

It was like a physical representation of changing your thought process from ‘But what if’ into ‘Or what if I bloom?’

So would I use a crystal ball if I could?

Absolutely not.

And would I do hypnotherapy feeling what I feel now?

100%.

Because from where I’m sat right now, the future looks bright and sunny. Shimmering rays of hope beaming in from all directions.

The truth is, I don’t want a crystal ball to ruin my new outlook on life.

Isn’t it exciting to see what opportunities arise? While living in the present of a soft Sunday morning.

Hope blooms here. Come and join me. 🫶🌸