It all started on an ordinary day, sitting at my piano, enjoying my practice time. Suddenly, I heard footsteps in the hall of our apartment building. You would think it was a thief, a mass murderer, a terrorist from the way my body reacted. I felt beads of cold sweat begin to trickle down my head as my hands trembled uncontrollably. The sheet music in front of me suddenly looked like an unfamiliar foreign language in an unfamiliar script. I struggled to push through, desperately trying to recognize the notes and translate them to the keyboard, but with little success.
True to my character, I abruptly got up, determined to find a solution. This was ridiculous! My performance anxiety was through the roof. My conscious mind knew there was no reason to worry about being judged while practicing piano in the privacy of my home. After all, I was proud of myself for taking the initiative to learn piano after the age of 32. My neighbors didn’t care at all as long as I wasn’t bothering them, and my elementary skills at the piano were hardly capable of anything beyond a simple waltz. But try telling that to my subconscious mind, which sat there trembling like an abused puppy.
I wasn’t surprised by where this was coming from. A long-buried experience from my childhood, when I was just six years old, replayed in my subconscious. No matter what my adult mind said, my inner child was terrified. So, I turned to the yellow pages (cell phones, Google, and Instagram weren’t an option at the time) and looked up “Hypnotist.” I found three in New York City, and after a brief conversation with each, I made an appointment with the one that resonated most with me.
I was beyond excited to try this out. I imagined being knocked out cold after staring at a pendulum or pocket watch swaying back and forth, and then, with a snap of her fingers, I would open my eyes and be free of this fear. However, the reality was far from what I had imagined. It felt more like a gentle therapy session. I never even closed my eyes. She guided me to visualize certain things, and after a 90-minute session, she suggested I rebook.
“I thought I was going to be hypnotized,” I said.
She assured me that I absolutely was. It was strange—nothing like the movies. But I decided to keep an open mind and determine later whether to rebook.
A couple of days after that first session, I was searching for my headphones so I could practice piano without worrying about being overheard. I couldn’t seem to find them. My boyfriend kindly offered to search for them, and somehow, out of my mouth came the words, “Don’t worry about it. It doesn’t matter,” and I sat down at the piano and started playing despite his presence. Shortly after, a friend of his came over, and I simply continued to play. It was all so organic.
You can believe I made that follow-up appointment and walked in with a laundry list of behavioral changes I desired. Over the next six months, I worked intensely on these improvements and was amazed at how organic the changes were. It felt wonderful to be comfortable in my own mind and body.
Years later, as I tried to understand how my very strong intuition worked, I decided to learn hypnosis myself. I fell in love with the process; I was intrigued by how the mind works; and felt fulfilled by my passion to help others find their inner peace. So, I closed the chapter on a long and successful career in software engineering and stepped into the world of wellness establishing Self Empowered Minds.
Today, I look back at that first encounter with hypnosis with gratitude. It was the beginning of a journey that not only transformed my life but also inspired me to help others overcome their own fears and anxieties. Hypnosis became the key to unlocking a new path, one filled with peace, confidence, and a deep understanding of the mind’s incredible power.
