Mindhacks

by Burt Goldman

It was Amy who had come to me hoping that I could help with her problem. She wanted me to Alphatize her and wave a magic wand so that her depression would go away. I told her that I didn’t have a wand but that sometimes trance worked so well it almost seems like magic.

Alphatize: A method of relaxing a person into the alpha area of mind that is similar to meditation and hypnosis but is neither. More like an alpha trance.

Alphasis: A descriptive term that denotes the art of putting a person into an alpha trance.

Before using Alphasis I asked her a question our of curiosity. “How do you get depressed?”

“What do you mean how? I just do.” She looked at me and raised her eyebrows. “I think it’s chemical.”

“No, it ‘s more than that. Oh I know it could be chemical. But let’s find out. Whether you realize it or not you use a process for depression. If you can figure out what the process is, I will teach you how to reverse it so you become un-depressed. So tell me, what do you do to become depressed?”

Deep in thought, she was silent for a few minutes, then, with even more of a furrow in her eyebrows she reported what she thought when she got depressed. “I think that people are against me, that they don’t like me and that whatever I do won’t help me or anyone else.  Food is bland, I have little or no appetite. I begin to see bad things in my husband.  I just want to sit on a couch, or lay in bed. I don’t want company. I think about all the bad things that are going on in the world.” 

She paused finally and looked at me asking whether or not that was enough.

I told her that it was just enough, as a matter of fact she gave me a list of ten things that either caused, or were the result of her depression.

She told me the process. To overcome the depression, we simply reverse the process.

You think that people are against you - so you…

1. Visualize people doing good things for you. They are helping you and being nice to you and that they like you.

2. Switch the thought immediately to seeing yourself doing something that helps you. It could be a small thing, something like you buying a shirt or blouse that you love. Visualize that.

3. And then think about the best meal, the best dish you ever had. Imagine the scene when you ate that food.

4. And now quickly think about one good thing that your husband does. Now another thing.

5. Then imagine yourself taking a brisk walk, see yourself taking a deep breath of fresh air.

6. Imagine that you are with a few friends.

7. Imagine that you are talking about all the good things in the world. Like TV, and VCRs and computers, and instant communication, and planes that allow you to be anywhere in the world in a day or less.

She looked at me and smiled.  “I feel good.”

“Depression gone?” I asked and she nodded asking.

“That’s all you do? Just turn all the things that bother you around?”

And that is exactly how you do it. Whenever you learn how to do a thing, you also learn how to do the opposite. When you learn how to be depressed, you have also learned how to be comfortable.

Just develop the process used and reverse it. Simple, and effective. You will notice we use the rule of 10.  I like to get 10 things in every process. That means you need 10 of the opposite of the things. It’s really just a simple matter of changing one’s attitude.