Upon awakening this morning, my first thought came from The Grasshopper, which I promptly recorded in my Grasshopper Journal. He said:

“Most need a shake to become awake.”

He was referring to more than alarm clocks and pestering.

Awake in this context is noticing that you’ve been asleep.

Some of us never notice until we have a startling event happen in our lives – a personal alarm.

The severity of the shock can cause us to become present to that which has remained hidden – our unglimpsed nature.

We get flashes of it along the way but most of us never seek it out because we are too busy doing “important” things.

It’s not until things become unimportant that we get a real good look at this part of us that is our driving force. You can call it Divinity, God, Animating Intelligence, or Mother Nature. The name is unimportant; the noticing is.

When reality gives you a shake, it’s an opportunity to become awake.

Many when presented with this crossroads of life go into a deeper sleep. We are presented with yet another crossroads if we choose to slumber. We can either hide from the world so it no longer can hurt us, or we can set out to conquer the world and show it who is boss. Both options keep us groggy.

A shake can serve as an invitation to go deeper, or an urging to seek more control over life. Those who follow the circular path of control keep coming back to the same crossroads.

The clue that you are awakening is when you get the gift of awareness that control is a dead end. Hiding from life is the illusion of control; Attempting to capture life in a jar and bending it to our whims is control’s evil stepsister. Both keep us sleepwalking in circles.

The quake to awake is ever present. We just have to notice that it’s a doorway to discovery.

If you have been shaken, it may be time to wake up.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com

SAVE THE IRISH

The human condition: I’m afraid.

Afraid, it’s more prevalent than dog poop. It’s everywhere.

Everyone is fearful. Everyone!

Those who deny their fear are consumed by it. Those who recognize it as their birth right use it to their best advantage.

The bravest person you know is afraid of something. No one escapes.

Fear can flatten you or fuel you; you have a choice.

You just have to recognize that “choice” is an option.

Talking about your fear to other fearful folks makes it into an object that needs to be overcome, rather than a feeling that can be transformed.

Remember: That fear feeling you are feeling, belongs to everyone. You are not alone.

The only question is: How do you handle it? Does it eat you up or do you metabolize it?

It’s not a case of getting rid of fear; that’s snake oil. It’s more about recognizing it as a condition of existence, like breathing, and guiding it when it gets out of rhythm.

The best way I know to neutralize fear is to find it. It’s easy to find in your head. Just listen to your own conversations with yourself. That conversation isn’t fear. It’s just fear’s shadow. Real fear can only be felt in the only place you can feel – in your body.

The next time you are fearful, notice where that fear lives. Chances are you are going to feel it in the front part of your body somewhere between your throat and your bowels. If you pay attention, you’ll be able to pinpoint where your fear lives. It’s now a knowable sensation. It’s no longer an unknown fear, or an unreasonable fear, or an imaginary fear. It’s real!

All fear is real. It can be verified in your body.

Once you locate your fear, you are in a position to do something with it. Just like when you notice that your breathing is askew, you can take some deep breaths to steady the ship.

The way to best manage fear is to fully feel it. That means to locate it in your body and give it your full attention. That doesn’t mean to discuss it; it means to feel it. Put your attention on the part of your body feeling the fear and keep it there. Notice what it feels like and stay with that feeling. You’ll be tempted to distract yourself with something else so you don’t have to feel this feeling. Decline that invitation and stay where the action is.

This is how you metabolize fear so that it passes through the immobilization stage and becomes somewhat inert and levels off to a manageable level.

You’ll have plenty of opportunities to practice this technique because we are conditioned to so many stimuli that trigger fear. Once you begin to recognize fear as a feeling, you have a new choice to do something about it – feel it fully.

Being afraid is normal. Staying afraid is a choice.

Feeling your fear is not a matter of bravery where you have to stand up to it. It’s more of an opportunity to offer this hitchhiker a ride out of town.

NOTE: Not all fear is immobilizing. Sometimes it’s a feeling you can use to your best advantage. It can fuel you to do something your normal octane level couldn’t accomplish. That’s usually a case of one fear overriding another when you fear the consequences of inaction more than you do the fear feeling itself.

It’s scary to be afraid. It’s scarier not to feel it.

The next time fear makes a visit, invite it in and give it a massage. Feel it fully and watch your tensions melt and fade away.

All the best,

John

It’s a pretty bold statement to make but there is no such thing as self improvement.

The self is perfect; therefore any attempt at improvement would be futile.

It really comes down to which self you are talking about – the facade or the foundation.

There are people who decorate the outside of the home so that it’s beautiful and inviting looking. The lawn is manicured, the flowers bloom on a time schedule, the siding is maintained, the paint is fresh, and the outdoor brass is polished. Anyone looking at this home from this vantage point is quite impressed.

If they go inside, it may be another story. The house could be in disarray and falling apart.

Taking care of the outside only is traditional self-improvement. We look good to anyone who takes a cursory look at us. If we let them behind the curtain, they may get a different perspective. If we only take care of the outside, any improvements we make are superficial rather than structural.

It’s sort of like a Hollywood movie set – all storefronts and no store.

Which house will serve you better, the one with new windows or the one free of termites? “New windows” is the more popular answer but it does little to improve your overall situation.

The inside is our mindset. The facade mindset has been conditioned to put on a grand show for others to see and then go home and wallow in the gloomy, dilapidated dark.

The key to self-improvement is to have your mindset remodeled so that the inner and the outer are just as impressive. How do you begin the process?

You have to find your interior designer – your perfect self.

Here’s the first tip in finding your interior designer: They only appear when you shut up.

If you are telling yourself how to refurbish and decorate, you’re like a weekend golfer telling Tiger Woods how to improve his game. Be quiet and learn!

It’s productive to ask “how to” questions of your interior designer, but stop telling them how to do their job. “If you give me more confidence, then I would be perfect” is a demonstration of meddling. It’s better to ask, “How can I improve that serves me best?”

Allow that answer to bubble up during your moments of quiet reflection. The answer comes into a less cluttered mind and has room to breathe. Your mindset improves and your external actions become more focused.

If you’re seeking improvement, ask an expert – your perfect self.

Just don’t be too surprised if you get a blueprint that doesn’t look anything like the one you designed.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com

SAVE THE IRISH

Can’t answer your call

The U.S. Open is on

Tiger, Tiger Woods ya’ll

I was out walking yesterday and I was struck with the idea of how ineffective judgements are. I was looking for an upside to judgements and I couldn’t find any. If you own an ego, and who doesn’t, you judge.

It seems that judgements come in two parts – an assessment and then the addition of a moral value (good or bad, right or wrong).

The assessment has benefits; the moral value adds nothing but distance between you and another.

An effective assessment is fact based. “That man is talking to that woman at high volume and pointing his finger at her.” A judgement is adding to the facts. “Look at that Neanderthal idiot bullying that poor woman.”

“But he IS a chauvinistic pig if he’s acting like that,” you may say. My question is: What’s the benefit to you in making that judgement? Is it that you are right again? Notice that we have the same judgements over and over again.

Reminds me of a story . . . Years ago we drove on family trips from New England to New Jersey/Pennsylvania a couple of times a year. We would pass through New York City and listen to a certain New York City radio station. There was a DJ on the station that I derogatorily imitated aloud. About the 50^th time we passed through, my wife said to me, “Must you always do that?” There I was sharing my judgement again. Of course, I wasn’t the only one. Back at home, my wife would hear a promo for the 11 O’clock news on TV and disparagingly imitate the way the newscaster said the word “eleven.” You could set your watch.

A judgement is a conditioned pattern of behavior. We weren’t born with any judgements, just the ability to learn how to judge. We also weren’t born with assessments, just the ability to learn to assess. I wonder if we can learn in this lifetime to separate the two.

Most judgements are made inside of your head for a private audience of one. The question you may want to ask, “What is the benefit to repeating it to myself over and over again?” You were intelligent enough to grasp the meaning the first time. The repetition of it keeps you in your head and reassures you are right. So what?

How likely are you to have a stellar interaction with someone you are judging? From my personal experience, the judging gets in the way of the communication. You have to work doubly hard to communicate with someone you are judging.

Judgement is a tool of separation. For example, if you have a judgement issued against you in court, you will be separated from some money. If you continually judge others, you will separate yourself from society. And now for the 500 pound gorilla . . . If you continue to judge yourself, you will be separated from ever getting to know you.

Most people don’t know themselves; they know their judgements of themselves. There is a huge difference.

Getting to know yourself is a process, and one of the steps is recognizing that judgements are standing in the way. That’s an assessment.

Begin assessing the behavior that you currently judge. Stick with the facts. One of the immediate side benefits is less guilt – the least useful emotion I can think of.

Effective assessors are like great artists; they know when the painting is done. It doesn’t need one more thing. If you go over the assessment border, you will land in the field of judgement. Stop after the assessment is made. It’s all the information you need to notice your behavior, so that you can remedy it. Judging keeps the behavior alive.

Start to recognize your judgements while they are happening. It’s the first step in separating you from your judgements. Every time you interrupt your judgements, you are one step closer to connection – with others and, most importantly, with yourself.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com

SAVE THE IRISH

All the best,

John

PS I sent the following reminder email to my John Morgan Seminars subscribers this morning. I request that you pass this new along to a friend.

Our HALF PRICE Summer Sale with FREE SHIPPING ends exactly at Midnight on July 6^th.

All of America’s Best Known Hypnosis DVDs and CDs will return to full price when the sale ends.

The email I dread answering is “I just found out about this amazing sale. Could you please offer me the sale price since I’m only a day late?”

Our computer system works on specifics, just like our subconscious mind. If you don’t focus on a precise goal, you get imprecise results. If you don’t act by Midnight on July 6^th, you’ll have to pay full price.

Robin M. was precise in what she wanted. She wanted her old body back – the one she had just a few short years ago. She wondered if this weight loss method was too good to be true. She got her answer.

YES, YOU CAN LOSE WEIGHT AT HOME BY WATCHING A DVD!

Here’s what Robin said in her email:

“Thank you, I have watched the DVD and listen to the CD, and have lost 20 pounds in just a little over a month. Never thought I would stop drinking soda but I did. And also don’t desire the candy I put in the office for our patients. Thank you so much! Thank you for my new body!”

You can see pictures of Robin’s before & after results on the LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF page at http://johnmorganseminars.com

Precisely imagine losing 20 pounds in just a little over a month and you’ll have the Summer look you’ve been longing for THIS Summer.

No, Hypnosis is not a pocket full of fairy dust. It’s a technique for laser focusing your mind on precisely what you want. That’s what our DVDs, CDs and Digital Downloads do – focus your mind on your goal.

STOP SMOKING BEFORE THE FIREWORKS FLY ON THE 4^th OF JULY!

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You can STOP SMOKING FOREVER or LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF NOW!

The best news is you can do either at HALF PRICE with FREE SHIPPING at http://johnmorganseminars.com All 50% discounts will be taken at checkout.

I’m not as good with figures as our bookkeeper. Maybe you’re like me and percentages don’t work as well for you as dollars and cents. So here it is in plain arithmetic.

Our STOP SMOKING and WEIGHT LOSS DVD sell for $49.95 plus $7.50 for shipping and handling. You can buy either one NOW for $24.98.

Notice there was a period after $24.98. That means there is no additional shipping cost added. You can be on your way to better health and a new body NOW for $24.98. (period)

SAVE 50% on all our life changing CDs. Here it is in dollars and cents:

SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT    FULL PRICE $29.95    NOW $14.98

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RELAX IN 2 MINUTES        FULL PRICE $29.95    NOW $14.98

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THE SHIPPING IS FREE!

Here is additional 50% off pricing:

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CALM & COLLECTED        FULL PRICE $10.00     NOW $5.00

I may not be as good with figures as our bookkeeper, but some of these amazing sale prices add up to our cost when we include FREE SHIPPING.

As I mentioned in previous emails, we are moving our base of operation and don’t want to pay to move our inventory. So we are having a HALF PRICE Summer Sale with FREE SHIPPING at http://johnmorganseminars.com

It’s a Win-Win. You get our in demand products at HALF PRICE and we don’t have to pay to ship them to our new location in Plant City, Florida.

FATHER’S DAY is this Sunday. It’s too late to order a DVD or CD for it to arrive in time. BUT you can order a DIGITAL DOWNLOAD for Dad or the man in your life. All of our CDs are available for Digital Download at http://johnmorganseminars.com

If you’re computer savvy, you could burn it to a CD for Dad in time for gift giving. Or maybe your man has an iPod or portable music player that you can load it into.

I request that you buy the products that make the most sense for you NOW while they are HALF PRICE with FREE SHIPPING at http://johnmorganseminars.com

A FINAL NOTE: Our products are more than about price. I realize that you are more interested in what you can accomplish with our Hypnosis DVDs, CDs and Digital Downloads than you are in a sale price. I have been doing this work for more than a quarter of a century and nothing brings me more joy than knowing I’ve helped someone do something they thought was impossible.

Here’s to accomplishing your goals!    

All the best,

John

PS Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers.

The blank page is an invitation. “Welcome to my new home” it seems to say. And then it adds, “Please furnish and decorate me.”

We were all a proverbial blank page at one time and then we got decorated.

As the years pass, styles may change but we continue to display what was in vogue then. The only way we get into Architectural Digest
is to let them display our “after” as their “before.”

It’s hard for our intellect to comprehend that we are mentally the same age as the day a specific pattern formed. We recognize that we have physically aged, so that proves we’re no longer who we were then, except for the fact that a pattern gets locked in time.

Some call that immaturity; I view it as reality.

When you continually have the same response to the same stimulus, that should be your first indicator that the cycle had to begin somewhere. You weren’t born with it.

It had a beginning and that beginning, for the most part, doesn’t evolve. It’s like the insurance maxim my brother-in-law shared with me many years ago: “Some people in the insurance business have 25 years of experience repeating their first year over and over again.” The phenomenon is not isolated to insurance.

The hurts we’ve endured early in life often don’t evolve because we still experience them as we did at that age, and we respond just like we did then. That’s childishness and reality wrapped up together in an unevolved pattern.

The reason we act like children sometimes is because our pattern of behavior is that age.

Outgrowing or updating a pattern first and foremost needs the light of day known as recognition. We have to recognize that we are responding now as though we were back then. With that recognition in hand, we have an opportunity to evolve.

A powerful recognition question to ask is “Who’s responding, me or my history?”

Your history is a very powerful pattern that can keep you trapped in the past.

The old saying is profound: “If you don’t pay attention to history, it will repeat itself.”

Begin to recognize who is responding and you’ll have a much better chance of redecorating yourself to fit in with who you are today.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com

SAVE THE IRISH

The most freeing moment in my life was when I discovered “I got here by myself.”

It was also a very sad moment.

It was sad because I had no one to pin the tail on the donkey on anymore. That’s a sobering realization. It all came together in a phrase for me a few years ago – “I created this.”

It’s very difficult to take responsibility for what we’ve created especially if it doesn’t match up with our hopes, dreams and aspirations.

It’s so easy to find someone to be your foil, your nemesis, fall guy, or scapegoat. It’s so easy to come up with the story and the facts and the figures that support your claim that it’s someone else’s doing, but at the end of the day it’s fictional no matter how factual.

If you just said, “But my story is different,” you are trapped in an excuse that will buffer you from finding your creativity.

The upside to the downside of “I created this” is the realization that you are a creator.

“If I created this, what else can I create that serves me better?” is the question you may want to ask in your moments of quiet reflection.

It’s a possibilities question that illuminates the way out of the victim box.

If you can adopt the idea that you have created everything that shows up in your life, you will begin to notice lights shining on paths that you’ve never noticed before. That’s the light of creativity encouraging you to take a walk.

If you hang on to the notion of being a victim of circumstances or worse, no amount of clapping will bring your Tinkerbelle light back and you will remain shuttered in impenetrable darkness.

Light only needs a tiny crack to shine through. Take a crack at pretending “I created this” and see what real light shows up.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com

SAVE THE IRISH

Quincy, M.E. was a popular TV show in the mid 70’s that introduced us to forensic pathology.

It showed how this forensic coroner from Los Angeles was actually a detective solving the mystery of people’s deaths. He would follow the clues the body left and come up with stunning conclusions that solved the case.

Seems we need a show about forensic Life-o-logy. It would not detail how we died, but how we stay stuck in this dead end. Life also leaves clues.

We didn’t get to this place by accident or serendipity. There is a trail of bread crumbs to follow that answers the question: “What rabbit hole did you fall down?”

On the surface, Life-o-logy would look like psychology, but it’s more profound than that. Psychology is wonderful in outlining the circumstances that lead to painting yourself in a corner, but our limiting behaviors are more complex than circumstances. It’s like James Allen told us over a hundred years ago, “Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him.”

Allen went on to tell us in his seminal book, As a Man Thinketh, “He thinks in secret and it comes to pass: Environment is but his looking-glass.”

How we really got to this point is a secret, a mystery. It’s the secret of patterns and how they drive our behavior and don’t care about the reasons we make up for them. They will continue to run no matter how eloquent we are. They are not influenced by explanation, but we keep looking for one. Like Alice, we’re looking down the wrong hole for answers.

We want to explain and justify our patterned behavior. The more time you spend explaining, the darker the dead end gets and the further you are from a solution.

How often do you have to explain yourself? That’s a clue that you’re clueless.

You were chauffer driven to where you are by the patterns that are in the driver’s seat. Our Miss Daisy demands and explanations won’t do anything to change the location we’ve arrived at.

The excuse machine runs on nuclear power and is perpetually in motion. The bypass switch needs to be thrown in order to have a prayer of getting extricated from this dark place. (Think anal canal).

Here’s the clue that you’re on the right path. You start noticing that you are running a pattern of behavior. The minute you attempt to explain it away, blame it on circumstances or someone else, the deeper you will go into the mud. It’s your pattern that got you here, no one else’s.

Notice that you arrived at this dead end destination on purpose. It was the purpose of your conditioned patterns to bring you to where you are right now – not circumstances.

Noticing, taking responsibility for, interrupting and outgrowing your patterns, routines, and way of life is the only way out. When you begin to realize that you have been your own chauffer all along, it’s much easier to pilot yourself back to the highway.

All the best,

John

PS I request that you visit one of the websites listed below and find a new path to follow.

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com

SAVE THE IRISH

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Here’s a math quiz. Solve the following equations:

17 + 21 + 3 + 11 + 12 = ?

14 + 7 + 18 + 16 + 9 = ?

6 + 5 + 15 + 24 + 14 = ?

If you are impatient or math challenged, the answer to all three is 64.

Many people claim they are making changes in their lives by substituting different numbers in an equation that always add up to the same result.

It’s what I affectionately call “rearranging the underwear drawer.”

In this endeavor, nothing really ever gets changed, just moved around.

Here is the mindset that prevents people from changing. “I’m willing to change if I don’t have to change this.” More on “this” in a bit.

Change is non-negotiable. It’s either do or don’t do. We keep attempting to manipulate that reality to fit our unwillingness to follow the rule.

Your exception to the rule – your “this” – is the self imposed roadblock to change.

The sad truth I see is that people who don’t change don’t think they have to. It’s the hidden agenda of hubris that we “know better” than anyone else and the laws of the universe don’t apply to us.

It’s pure delusion and mental illness of the highest order.

Let me repeat this. People who don’t change don’t think they have to.

They keep moving numbers in and out of the equation, which gives the appearance of effort, but they are careful enough to manipulate the math so it always adds up to the same number, most often, until their number is up.

They talk a great game and they always disappoint. They can also be quite charming. You may expect the outward attitude of these folks to be over the top, but it oftentimes manifests as a quiet smugness. They believe they’re keeping it under wraps but it’s written on their forehead in magic marker for anyone who’s willing to pay attention.

The misguided belief they operate from is that everyone will eventually come around to their way of thinking. As my sainted mother used to say, “Don’t hold your hand on your ass waiting.”

Make no mistake. They own the patent on being right. Reminds me of a sad story . . .

One of my best friends growing up had this pattern of behavior. His “this” was that he never did anything wrong. He never thought there was anything to apologize for and he was as oppositional as they came when it came to taking any responsibility for what happened in his life. There was always a scapegoat he used as a mascot.

He piled on some more destructive behavior while serving in the military. When he was discharged, he came home and made his living robbing mail trucks looking for credit cards to use to support his drug habit. He spent time in prison. Then, as a “rehabilitated” 49 year old, he was shot dead while robbing a liquor store. He died being right.

What’s your “this”? It has to change if you’re going to change.

It’s like The Grasshopper said a long time ago. “Some people would rather be right than happy.”

There is a trade off for being this right. You are left out. “No one understands me.” Yes they do. You just never listen to them because you “know better.”

It’s a pathetic place to live but you may as well buy furniture because you’re not moving anytime soon – not until “this” becomes “that.”

You can continue to tinker with the math but it will never add up to a workable answer until you outgrow your “this.”

The unspoken rule of people who don’t change is: I refuse to give up what I have in order to get what I tell people I want.

The hardest thing to change is something you don’t think needs changing. Or in the words of author, Julia Cameron, “Nothing dies harder than a bad idea.”

Dogs don’t recognize themselves in the mirror and neither do humans who continue to rearrange and dodge change.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

http://www.cafepress.com/grasshoppernote/3580301

http://HypnosisForDogs.com

SAVE THE IRISH