Here’s an open letter to you.

Believe in something besides yourself.

There is no pain that forgiveness cannot wash away. Allow yourself forgiveness.

Be grateful for the gifts that you already have and watch them multiply.

Learn to apologize with heartfelt sincerity. It mends wounds.

Getting the most out of life is an inside, not an outside adventure.

Go deeper than superficial and you’ll be more than liked; you’ll be respected.

Divorce yourself from denial and watch yourself blossom.

Your secrets are transparent. Everyone knows them at some level. Stop hiding.

People who help keep your excuses alive are not true friends.

Confession is more than good for the soul, it’s necessary for growth.

Accept natural endings and you’ll never endure the pain of staying at the party too long.

Clean up your life and let everyone see your light.

Give yourself to something or someone and watch your ability to risk rapidly mature.

The weight of the world exists only in your mind.

Gently dismantle your conditioned image and you’ll love what you see in the mirror.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

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

http://HypnosisForDogs.com

Here is an observation from exactly 5 years ago:

The prevailing myth surrounding acceptance is that you can will it to happen. You can’t.

Acceptance has nothing to do with setting your mind and all to do with opening your heart.

I’ve likened acceptance to the Christian concept of Grace in the past. You can’t will Grace to come to you, only open yourself up to it being possible. The same is true for acceptance.

You can certainly give lip service and say you accept something, but that act of will doesn’t deliver the feeling of acceptance.

What does acceptance feel like? The same question has been asked about love over the centuries. It’s different for everyone, but everyone who experiences it knows it instantly.

If you are wrestling with the concept of acceptance in your mind, you are not experiencing acceptance. “I know I should accept this but I just can’t.” As The Grasshopper reminded us just a while ago, “Should is evidence that there is an argument going on in your mind.” Arguing and acceptance both begin with the letter “A” but that’s their only similarity.

If you are arguing for acceptance, you are arguing for your limitations. Truth be told, you don’t have the conscious ability to accept. Your consciousness can set the process in motion by being willing to experience acceptance should you encounter it, but that’s all you can do with your will.

Acceptance will come when it comes and not a moment sooner, no matter how much you attempt to will it to happen. Willingness is the softer side of will and when you employ it, you have a much better chance of acceptance responding to your invitation.

“I am willing to accept” is a more useful mantra than a declaration of will that states, “I will accept things as they come.” No you won’t; you’ll resist them, and anything you resist always takes longer to happen.

If you are struggling with acceptance, end the argument now. Just be willing to accept acceptance. Willingness is a lure; will is a cement wall.

Are you willing to give up arguing for something that can’t be argued for? When you are, you free yourself from The Acceptance Myth.

All the best,

John

The prevailing myth surrounding acceptance is that you can will it to happen. You can’t.

Acceptance has nothing to do with setting your mind and all to do with opening your heart.

I’ve likened acceptance to the Christian concept of Grace in the past. You can’t will Grace to come to you, only open yourself up to it being possible. The same is true for acceptance.

You can certainly give lip service and say you accept something, but that act of will doesn’t deliver the feeling of acceptance.

What does acceptance feel like? The same question has been asked about love over the centuries. It’s different for everyone, but everyone who experiences it knows it instantly.

If you are wrestling with the concept of acceptance in your mind, you are not experiencing acceptance. “I know I should accept this but I just can’t.” As The Grasshopper reminded us just a while ago, “Should is evidence that there is an argument going on in your mind.” Arguing and acceptance both begin with the letter “A” but that’s their only similarity.

If you are arguing for acceptance, you are arguing for your limitations. Truth be told, you don’t have the conscious ability to accept. Your consciousness can set the process in motion by being willing to experience acceptance should you encounter it, but that’s all you can do with your will.

Acceptance will come when it comes and not a moment sooner, no matter how much you attempt to will it to happen. Willingness is the softer side of will and when you employ it, you have a much better chance of acceptance responding to your invitation.

“I am willing to accept” is a more useful mantra than a declaration of will that states, “I will accept things as they come.” No you won’t; you’ll resist them, and anything you resist always takes longer to happen.

If you are struggling with acceptance, end the argument now. Just be willing to accept acceptance. Willingness is a lure; will is a cement wall.

Are you willing to give up arguing for something that can’t be argued for? When you are, you free yourself from The Acceptance Myth.

All the best,
John

LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF

STOP SMOKING FOREVER

SLEEP ALL NIGHT

IMPROVE YOUR SELF IMAGE

ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING

RELAX IN 2 MINUTES
I LOVE MY BODY

FOREVER YOUNG

HYPNOSIS FOR GOLF MASTERY

VIRTUAL MASSAGE

HYPNOSIS FOR DOGS

CALM & COLLECTED

You can’t see it on the horizon, so I’m asking you to take it on faith that it’s there. If you’ve already experienced it, you know I’m not making this up. If you haven’t experienced it yet, this warning sign may seem like it’s for someone else, certainly not you.

You will approach this fork in your life. The easiest way to know you are there is the attitude you have when you approach it. The telltale sign you are at the fork is finding yourself constantly asking the question: “Is this all there is?”

There aren’t road signs telling you where each fork goes, but you will head down one of these roads. Since I’ve been down both, I will label the destinations for you – Superficial and Substance.

It’s my experience that people rarely make Substance their first choice; it certainly wasn’t mine. It’s the road less travelled. Superficial is the one we most often pick. It’s like the main drag into Vegas – glitz everywhere you look. It looks like the Promised Land, but the road to Superficial is littered with broken promises.

The road to Superficial leads away from reward, or more accurately stated, away from a rewarding existence. It certainly looks like it will fulfill all our hopes and dreams, but at the risk of sounding sarcastic, “Dream on.”

Superficial simply put is: “The search out there.” It’s where the horizon lures you to, yet, one more grab for gusto and, again, you come up with a handful of air.

It’s really not our fault that we willingly travel this road. We’ve been conditioned to do so our entire lives. You can’t live in our culture and not be affected by the ever present promise that what you need is “out there.”

Sadly, it may take many crashes on the road to Superficial to convince you that you’re in a never ending bumper car race – a loop to nowhere.

It takes a lot of courage to say the following: “Stop the ride; I want to get off!” Your whole world view is at risk and you have to face the fact that you’ve been chasing your tailpipe.

Recognition that you are stuck on the road to Superficial is the first step to opening your eyes to the exit ramp for Substance.

The road signs for substance will lead you back home – “in here.”

“Out there” is filled with tasty treats and trinkets but lacks the substance you can only find “in here.”

You may not know you are stuck on Superficial Highway, so let me offer you this landmark: You’re there if, at the end of each day, you find that you’re still lost. Being lost takes many forms – Depression, drugs, detachment, divorce, denial, drowning your doldrums and many other things that don’t begin with the letter “D.”

When you end the search for superficial, substance finds you. You no longer attempt to fill a hole in your soul, but rather find out you were whole all along.

Substance feels better than superficial. It makes you comfortable in your own skin, and keeps you from continually skinning your shins to feel alive.

It’s not my intention for you not to choose Superficial, because the chances are good that you will. My request is that you keep this post in your glove compartment and use it as a roadmap where you get tired of being lost.

All the best,

John

JOHN MORGAN COACHING
ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING
LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF
STOP SMOKING FOREVER
SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT EVERY NIGHT
IMPROVE YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE
I LOVE MY BODY
RELAX IN 2 MINUTES
FEEL FOREVER YOUNG
VIRTUAL MASSAGE

The strategy of the everyday convincer is like the opening line of a Beatles song, “Try and see it my way.”

That rarely works but is the most often used strategy.

The person who has the best chance of convincing is the person with the most flexibility. Using this gift, which is available to everyone, they have the foresight to step into your shoes and view the situation from your angle.

They give themselves the benefit of a panoramic view which offers many entry points, rather than one.

We all have positions that we take on something and we know how immobile we can be. Someone who takes us on directly engages our polarity and gets our fur up. We do the same to them when our only position is: “Try and see it my way.”

About 25 years ago, I learned a technique from Tony Robbins called The Agreement Frame. He asks you and another to debate a hot topic and to take one position. You go back and forth for a few minutes and then you switch sides. That means you argue the other side of the debate. You have to do this without the aid of the word “But” or any of its second cousins like, “However.”

It’s a pretty powerful exercise. Not only does it teach you flexibility, but the secret benefit is that you gain appreciation for the other side of the issue, simply because you adopted it as your own for just a few minutes.

One of life’s hardest truths to swallow is that there is another way besides yours. Like any major undertaking, it is best to break it down into bite sized chunks because, as I’m fond of saying, “You can’t eat a whole cow at once.”

Start with something that you are mildly married to. (Think of it as an arranged wedding). Now explore the counter position and create a narrative for it. Convince yourself that this is the only way it can be. Then go back to your regular position and convince yourself that it’s the only way to go. Keep going back and forth until you can boil down each argument into a trigger word or picture.

This is an exercise that Jerry Stocking offers to help people make decisions without having to consciously make them. After doing the back and forth to the point where you can switch sides in the blink of an eye, you find the magic of the exercise – the decision makes you. It may happen a day, week or month later, but your decision is totally congruent with no afterthoughts. You have convinced yourself.

So before you can convince anyone of anything, you have to convince yourself. That means that you have to employ flexibility and discover different arcs on the 360 degree circle of controversy and adopt them as your own.

Doing so gives you a fuller appreciation of the topic and, even more rewarding, more appreciation for another and their point of view.

Make it a point to convince yourself because the person with the most flexibility garners the most rewards.

All the best,

John

HOW HEALTHY CAN YOU BE?
LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF
STOP SMOKING FOREVER
SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT EVERY NIGHT
IMPROVE YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE
RELAX IN 2 MINUTES
VIRTUAL MASSAGE

Watching the funeral Mass of Senator
Ted Kennedy this past weekend and hearing the various eulogies, I was struck with a novel idea – Living eulogies.

It seems odd to me that we share our most vivid and heartfelt memories with a corpse. I have this silly notion that a person would enjoy hearing your eulogy while they are alive. And it’s my further sense that delivering it would make you feel wonderful too.

So how come we don’t do it? Fear? Embarrassment? (fill in your excuse here).

What moving thing can you say now that you are saving until someone dies?

Notice that eulogies are filled not only with glowing memories, but also with unvarnished truth. Nothing is held back as you express caring and cathartic words and feelings.

A living eulogy can be delivered at any age. Think of it as a new birthday tradition. Reminds me of two stories I told my son and grandson last night at dinner . . .

When I attended grade school, we were graded by numbers rather than letters. Instead of an “A+” being the highest score, we were given a 95. An “A” was a 90, a “B+” was an 85, a “B” equaled 80. You get the idea. You were awarded first honors in our school if you received all 90s and 95s on your report card. It was indicated by a little commemorative card attached to the report card – quite the get! When I was fortunate enough to bring home first honors, with mostly 90s and an occasional 95, my father’s reaction was not one of praise. He would ask me, “How did Joe Mayberry do?” Joe was the smartest kid in our class. He had all 95s.

The second story came later in my teens when I worked summers for my father in construction. He took a vacation week during the last summer I worked for him. In my father’s absence, the bricklayers invited me to eat lunch with them in the shanty (a small trailer that housed the plans and drawings and served as my father’s office). Each day of his vacation, one of the guys would tell me this wonderful story they heard about me from my father. I could have caught an entire swarm of seven year locusts with how wide my mouth was open. “My father said that?”

It’s not that we don’t have these feelings, we too often don’t express them to the person. I believe we do a disservice to ourselves and others when we engage in this practice.

There seems to be plenty of room for admonishment in life and precious little room for praise. I’m not recommending that you turn over a new leaf if this applies to you. I’m only suggesting that you get a little religion. Find something minor to praise in someone you care about and let them know it. It opens up a new line of communication with them and is the ultimate Win-Win – you both feel good.

A Living Eulogy: A great way to “Rest in Peace” while we’re all still living.

All the best,

John

LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF
STOP SMOKING FOREVER
SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT EVERY NIGHT
IMPROVE YOUR SELF CONFIDENCE
RELAX IN 2 MINUTES

Did you ever notice that “formative” and “family” begin with the same letter?

Most of who we become as a person is set in that time frame we spend as part of a family. Family can range anywhere from “The Waltons” to “The Osbornes” or any level of functionality that lies in between. An orphanage may well have been your family structure. Whatever the case, they’ve added to the conditioning of your form.

My neighbor, Kathy gave me a book to read about a dysfunctional family. It’s called, “The Glass Castle.” It’s an autobiographical look at the upbringing of writer and reporter Jeannette Walls. I won’t spoil the book for you by revealing too much of its contents. Suffice it to say, it ain’t pretty, yet eye opening.

There is enough debate about “Nature” and “Nurture” on who we become that I’m sure there is truth attached to each position. The debate revolves around the question, “Are we formed by our innate, hard wired qualities or our experience?” According to Wikipedia, the famous psychologist Donald Hebb is said to have once answered a journalist’s question of “which, nature or nurture, contributes more to personality?” by asking in response, “which contributes more to the area of a rectangle, its length or its width?”

The formative years do contribute and our family is quite responsible for a portion of who we turned out to be. I’m certain there are pluses and minuses we could all cite. I’d like to focus on the plus column.

I can only speak first-hand about my own family. I’ve had two of them – the one I grew up in and the one I helped raise. The interesting thing I notice is attitudes. Please define attitude as “angle of approach.” I witness myself having a response to something and then get the gift of awareness that it was my mother or father responding, not me. I then get to see one of my sons respond to something and notice it’s me responding, not him.

There is a certain pride when you see the plus side of inherited attitude. It means you received or passed on something worthwhile. Whatever part of Jeannette Walls’ unenvied upbringing we recoil at, there is little question that part of it helped form the successful attitudes she formed to achieve the success she enjoys. We all enjoy some sort of success because of the attitudes we absorbed.

I know there are case history books filled with the damage that’s been done by adopted attitudes that immerse us neck deep in mud. There are strategies to help with that. I’m just curious if we give enough credit for our plus side to the people who we also blame for our limiting attitudes.

So no matter what your upbringing, can you find something about yourself that you like, that you can attribute to someone from your formative years?

Take a moment today and celebrate that attitude and express gratitude that you received it, no matter from whom.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

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

I’m sure someone keeps track of the number of words that are in each language and I’m sure you would need a solar powered abacus to count them all. The focus today will be on just 3 of these words, and they are magical.

You rarely, if ever, hear these words. It seems as if you were a contestant on Wheel of Fortune, you would have to pay too dearly for the letters, so they aren’t used there either.

District attorneys are amazed that a convicted criminal would take a longer prison sentence rather than say these words in open court.

Deathbeds are devoid of these words as well.

It seems that the mouth freezes when these words come to mind.

The hidden secret is that these 3 magic words easily open doors that have been nailed shut and bolted. The speaking or writing of these words allows forgiveness an opening to flow through. The heart mending that’s felt when hearing these 3 words is indescribable.

So why are these words so hard to speak? It’s because your ego knows if you utter them, it’s given a death sentence. The conditioned you, the ego, keeps these words unspoken in an attempt to lengthen its life and continue the strangle hold it has on you. The ego knows that once you discover the magic power of these words, it becomes yesterday’s news that you put down for the dog to pee on.

The conditioned you, with all its patterned behaviors, will do anything to survive and keep up appearances. It knows that its façade of impenetrability that it presents to the world will be shattered by these 3 words, and it will be found out to be the giant pretender that it is.

WARNING: When you say these words to someone, you have to do it without an agenda otherwise they lose their magic.

So what 3 magic words open the door to forgiveness, mend fences and hearts, and grease the skids for the ego’s demise?

You may not believe me when I tell you because I could have made this up. This is one theory that will remain a theory until you, as the British say, “give it a go.” You will never own the magical experience that I promise until you put these 3 magic words to use. Once you own the experience, it will no longer be theory and the benefits you receive will be ongoing.

I didn’t say it would be easy, just rewarding. Even practicing these words in a mirror is difficult because the ego is more afraid of them than the Wicked Witch of the West is afraid of taking baths.

You may not be ready to use these words yet because it may take some time for this message to sink in. Don’t put it off too long though because the longer you wait, the less likely you are to say them.

So if you’re ready to take an adventure ride that there is no going back from, and if you’re ready to put the past behind you, and if you’re ready to open the door to forgiveness, take a deep breath and say these 3 magic words.

I WAS WRONG.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

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

I got one of those long, tedious emails last night that I generally never read. They usually contain a long joke, a long dissertation, or the “pass this along or you will have bad luck” message. This is one my nephew passed along, so I read it. It was poorly written and could have come to the point about 5 minutes sooner but I waded through it.

One of the things in the story was that there really is no such thing as dark. It went on to explain that dark is the absence of light. Reminds me of a story . . .

I was taking a photography class many years ago and part of the class was developing our own film. You were encouraged to create a dark room in your home. I chose the laundry room in the basement. I sealed all the light from the door with masking tape and had a suitable dark room for developing. The next day, I did my radio talk show and told people about my make-shift darkroom. I then asked them, tongue and cheek, to send me all their burned out light bulbs for my darkroom. The next day, I had about 6 packages of burned out light bulbs from 6 different people. The scary part is, after reading their letters, many of them didn’t know I was kidding.

I was reading Chapter 2 of Eckhart Tolle‘s book A NEW EARTH and came across this:

“Whenever tragic loss occurs, you either resist or you yield.”

That prompted the following equations:

Yielding = acceptance = openness = light

Resisting = rejection = closed off = dark

Yielding is accepting and cooperating with reality and becoming open to the light of possibilities. Anything less than that causes suffering to continue.

Resisting has you defy and fight with reality which always has sad consequences.

When you resist, you are rejecting the inescapable truth that’s staring you in the face. Call it denial. You start to build a dense wall around yourself and close yourself off until there is only darkness.

But darkness doesn’t exist. It’s the absence of light.

Light is like water – it can find the smallest crack. Sometimes when we shroud ourselves in darkness, it only takes a glint of light to illuminate the way out.

We create our own darkness when we seal out the light of truth. The mirror has no agenda and it never lies. Take a good look today and find out which equation you are using and notice the results you’re getting.

Resist or Yield? We have that choice every time we bump into life’s dilemmas.

Now that you have this awareness, I wonder, are you going to let the light in or remain a victim of darkness?

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

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

Below is a newsletter I sent out yesterday to my John Morgan Seminars database. It contains some eye-opening nuggets for people on a quest to lose weight.

LOSE WEIGHT WHILE YOU SLEEP!

Looks like a headline from an ad you would see in the National Enquirer. There is more to this claim than a come on headline, and when you go deeper into the story you find that there is tangible proof.

The word “Hypnosis” is Greek word which literally means to sleep. This is due to the fact that when some people enjoy this relaxing state of mind with their eyes closed, they can appear to be asleep.

And hypnosis is one of the best methods on earth for training yourself to sleep deeply.

Over 50 million American have insomnia – difficulty sleeping, interruption of sleep, inability to get back to sleep. This causes them irritability, sluggishness, and a constant state of feeling tired. The cause for most sleeplessness is a restless mind and that is why hypnosis is so effective because it quiets your mind which naturally quiets your body and allows you to rest comfortably and deeply.

You may not suffer from insomnia but you still may not be enjoying satisfying, therapeutic sleep. You may get a full night’s sleep but you don’t feel energized and ready for the day. That is the difference between just sleeping and sleeping deeply.

Many people sleep at a very shallow level which cheats them out of the full benefit of their nightly slumber. When you sleep deeply, there is a natural, refreshed feeling upon awakening. Think back to that day when you woke up fully rested and notice how that vibrant energy permeated your whole day.

Fully rested needn’t be just an occasional memory. More on that in a moment . . . First, let me tell you how deep sleep helps you lose weight.

My colleague, Doug O’Brien has done extensive research on deep sleep and weight loss. Aside from being one of the best hypnotists on the planet earth, Doug helped found the Department of Complimentary Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in the mid-nineties, under Dr. Mehmet Oz (yes, the same Dr. Oz you see on Oprah). When Doug speaks, I listen.

Here’s the non-technical version. When you sleep at deep levels, you produce coveted growth hormone which stimulates healthy cell growth and reproduction. So what does that have to do with weight loss?

One of the amazing benefits of growth hormone is that it naturally speeds up your metabolism. When you metabolism increases, your excess weight begins to burn off. Did you ever wonder what those Hollywood actors and actresses were having injected at those foreign spas to help them lose weight?

You don’t have to leave the county and get injected with growth hormone to lose weight. You can produce it naturally by sleeping deeply. It’s really that simple. You don’t have to take dangerous doses of something that your body produces naturally, and in appropriate amounts, when you sleep deep.

Speaking of dangerous doses, have you ever read the side effects listed on the packaging of sleeping pills? “Suicidal thoughts, nightmares, abnormal thinking, withdrawal, anxiety, amnesia and decreased testosterone” just to name a few. If you are taking sleeping pills, you will sleep, but at very shallow levels. The chemicals prevent you from reaching that deep, nourishing level of sleep that most people can only remember.

Deep, nourishing, metabolism increasing sleep is available to anyone who makes the effort to learn how to do it.

Since announcing this natural way to speed up your metabolism, the sales of my SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT Hypnosis CD have increased by a factor of 5. People who suffered from insomnia naturally bought it because it was such a perfect fit for their needs. Now with this new information, people can not only enjoy restful, rejuvenating sleep but speed up their metabolism and naturally lose weight as well.

There is another benefit to growth hormone that may interest you; it acts a virtual fountain of youth producing sexual vibrancy that seemed to get lost over the years.

I am happy to share these findings with you and all the people who attend my seminars. If sleeping deeply, with all the attendant benefits it delivers, is attractive to you, I request that you get yourself a copy of my SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT Hypnosis CD. It’s available at http://JohnMorganSeminars.com and the best news is it’s affordable at $29.95.

Sleep deep and lose weight is more than a headline. It is science.

All the best,

John

http://JohnMorganHypnosis.com

http://GrasshopperNotes.com

http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnmorgan

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