The term “breaking a habit” is such a part of our culture that it seems an upstream swim to semantically take it on, but I like a good swim.

I answered a query this morning about the best way to break a habit. Here’s what I said:

“Broken habits repair themselves. Habits outgrown leave town for good.”

Broken habits suggest willpower which is the weakest agent for change on the planet. It’s a sprinter in a marathon world.

President Obama admitted recently that he still smokes occasionally. Putting your politics aside for a moment, I think most would agree that he’s a pretty bright guy with a lot of discipline. His brilliance and his willpower aren’t enough to break his habit.

If he’s like the hundreds of thousands of smokers I have presented my seminars to, he’s made extraordinary willpower attempts in the past to break the habit. I wonder how likely he is to grow out his hair like he wore it as a teenager. He’d probably laugh at the suggestion. He won’t be doing that because he’s outgrown the pattern. It doesn’t make sense to him anymore.

When you outgrow something, the gravitational pull is suspended and your habit floats away.

Here comes my broken record message again: Noticing a habit, while you are in the middle of it, is the routine that puts you at the doorstep of change.

Replication of this noticing routine weakens the hold of the pattern and presents the opportunity to grow into a new way.

Outgrowing the old way and growing into a new way is a process. It may look like a break for someone who makes a permanent change quickly like we see in hypnosis, but upon deeper inspection it’s a progression from the old to the new.

Outgrown habits are like faded memories – they just don’t have the allure to attract us anymore.

Think of anything that you’ve outgrown, and in retrospect, you’ll notice the process. More to the point, you know at the deepest level that it doesn’t make sense to you anymore. It’s no longer important.

If the quality of your life is being interfered with by a recurring routine, it’s time to take notice. The more often you notice, the less likely you are to repair a broken habit.

All the best,

John

PS Our HALF PRICE Summer Sale at http://johnmorganseminars.com ends at Midnight this Monday, July 6^th. Every Hypnosis DVD, CD and Digital Download is HALF PRICE with FREE SHIPPING.

A lot of folks are already gearing up for the July 4^th Weekend and may forget to take advantage of this HALF PRICE sale. I trust that you have the good sense to order while everything is HALF PRICE with FREE SHIPPING. This offer is only good till Midnight, July 6^th.

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SAVE THE IRISH

“The reason for unhappiness is the cause of continuing misery.” So said THE GRASSHOPPER during a recent visit.

Notice that we are always unhappy for a reason. That’s a myth. We are unhappy and then we find a reason; that’s reality.

The myth behind your misery is easy to find. Just fill in one blank. “I am unhappy because (your answer).”

I’m sure your answer is reasonable. They always are.

It’s the reason that continues to fuel feeling unhappy. The longer you hang on to the reason, the longer you remain unhappy.

Just notice that unhappiness shows up and then we attempt to find a reason. The more convincing we can make the reason, the more we experience unhappiness.

The reason is the roadblock to happiness.

Everyone feels unhappiness. It’s a state of internal unrest. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t experience unhappiness. That being said, it’s time to claim ownership of our unhappiness instead of pretending we’re renting it from an evil slumlord – reason.

When people get to the border of recognizing that they own their unhappiness, they take a step back and justify it – another reason. They fight to retain their unhappiness. It’s called arguing for your limitations.

Are you justifying your unhappiness? If so, it will take a lot longer to feel happiness again.

I’m remembering the declaration that Eckhart Tolle offers: “I have unhappiness inside of me.”

That’s stating a condition of fact. It can be verified by the feelings you are experiencing. Adding to them by piling on reasons makes it a heavy weight to get out from under.

Release your reasons and you’ll have a clearer path to happiness. Remove the word “because” from your unhappiness and it will be a quicker transition.

Does that sound reasonable?

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 other day, out of the green, THE GRASSHOPPER arrived with this morsel:

“Don’t wait for a date to celebrate.”

It seems we are always waiting for something – to be next in line at the deli, for the right circumstances, the planets to align, the new season of 24, etc.

We make celebration dependent on something else rather than treating it as the independent contractor it is. You can celebrate independent of events. There is no more waiting necessary.

There is a pretty widespread mindset that suggests that we have to complain before we can celebrate. It’s the “My God it’s only Wednesday” club.

The arithmetic of their actions has never reached these folks. Here’s the equation: It’s impossible to celebrate when complaining.

Do the math; complaining is on a parallel path to celebrating. You can’t get there from here.

I think that we’ve been conditioned that we can only celebrate big things: Birthdays, holidays, vacations, weekends, weddings and the like. That’s a surefire formula to cheat yourself out of a lot of celebrating.

Celebrating is a mindset that can be built “poco un poco.” (It’s so easy when you know the language).

It all starts by noticing you can celebrate just about anything. Getting out of bed can be a celebration. Having your favorite tea or coffee blend on hand is worth celebrating. Celebrate your ability to breathe or walk, or anything else that if it wasn’t available to you, would make living more challenging.

It’s only conditioning that taught you to complain. You can recondition yourself to celebrate. You just have to notice.

Here’s the exercise: The next time you notice yourself about to complain, find something to celebrate – anything! It doesn’t have to be big.

The interruption of the complaint with something to celebrate, when practiced, sets up an automatic program to shift from one to the other. It’s called reconditioning your mind. It takes some discipline to begin the process and the results are worth celebrating.

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

There is a giant upside to open book tests – all the answers are there.

The downside is if you haven’t studied how to best access the material, your search is somewhat scattered and time consuming and the answers take longer to come.

Life seems to be an open book test. Many of the answers are multiple choice or true or false and that causes us to guess correctly more often than if we had to give an essay answer to each question.

But, for the most part, we are guessing about life until we consult it first-hand. Then the answers come to us much more quickly without furtive searching.

All the questions have answers, they just may not be in the section of the book we’re looking in, and even if they are, they may not be in the form we were looking for.

When we go looking for a pre-determined, one size fits all answer, we may run into an imposter with a fake nose and glasses and select it. When the test results come back, that answer has a big red line through it. It didn’t work, but that doesn’t prevent us from selecting it again and again in the future.

We could use a bit of test prep if we want to get better answers. It takes the guess work and pedantic thinking out of the process.

Step one to better test scores is to know the answer is available. This mindset paves the way for better results. “It can’t be done” is just not a workable mindset in an open book test.

Step two is to know that every section of the book may contain the answer, not just a few preferred pages or chapters. Too often the answer may lie in a footnote or the appendix or the table of contents that we consistently skip over.

Step three is the action step. Let someone more qualified than your intellect do the searching. Think of it as the difference between your intellect having access to an old set of encyclopedias and the part of you that knows how to search more quickly having access to Google. No contest!

The key to activating the part of you that knows how to search is twofold:

1. Wonder
2. Trust

Socrates told us, “Wisdom begins in wonder.”

Following his sage observation, we can take the pressure off of ourselves of having to know the answer and allow ourselves the freedom to wonder. Wonder is the speediest search engine on earth. Once we set the wonder search in motion, it’s time to set our thinking aside. Once you wonder, it’s time to trust that the wisdom is forthcoming. It’s the same type of trust you give to Mother Nature to produce a plant from a seed you planted.

You needn’t dig the seed up every day to see if it’s sprouting roots. That delays the process and often thwarts fruition. The same is true with thinking. Thinking our way to the answer is the slowest process on earth. It lacks the sophistication of wonder and trust.

Every day is an opportunity to use wonder and trust because every day is an open book test.

I wonder if you see the wisdom in this testing procedure. I trust that you do.

All the best,

John

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!”

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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.

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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:

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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.