118: Hypnosis Curious?

Odds are- you are probably getting “hypnotized” every day and not in the stage-show way! When you’re half awake in bed, locked into a movie, stuck in doomscroll mode, or deep in a run where everything goes quiet, you’re in a trance-like state that can shape your subconscious mind. We talk about how to stop leaving that doorway open by accident and start using self-hypnosis and hypnotherapy on purpose.

We walk through what hypnosis actually is: a deep state of relaxation where you are aware, your nervous system settles, and your mind becomes more receptive to new programming. Polly explains why “all hypnosis is self-hypnosis,” the best times to practice (right after waking and right before sleep), and how a good session is like a massage for your brain. We also unpack the myths that keep people skeptical, plus the safety basics like properly coming back out of trance and being careful about what you consume when you’re most suggestible.

From habit change and anxiety reduction to sleep improvement, confidence, and identity rewiring, we explore why willpower often fails when subconscious beliefs are running the show. You’ll hear practical examples, including scarcity mindset shifts, performance and flow state training for athletes, and surprising real-world uses like hypnotherapy for childbirth and dental work. We also share starter paths like the Silva Method style approach and guided hypnosis audio, plus how to choose reputable voices and avoid sketchy “instant transformation” promises.

If you’ve been trying to change the same pattern for years, this is a different doorway. Subscribe for more tools like this, share this with a friend who’s stuck, and leave a review if it helps. What would you reprogram first if you could?

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Transcript

Polly Mertens 0:08

Hey superstars, welcome back. Polly here. And Sam Pruitt back at it. Let's go, lady. Let's go. Today, a fun topic for us.

Samantha Pruitt 0:18

Hypnosis curious. It's really, well, I'm the curious one. We're the hypnotherapist. And it will be really fun

Meet Your Hypnosis Guides

Samantha Pruitt 0:27

for us to have this combo because I don't really know much about hypnotherapy. I believe in it. I know a little bit. Um, I know the power of it, but I don't really know much about it in any detail. And you're a certified therapist in it and have practiced it for a long time with patients, with clients, with yourself, etc. So I can't wait to dig into this.

Polly Mertens 0:49

Well, you know, and I do want to give one um caveat. So I have not been doing so there's hypnosis and self-hypnosis, and that's one of the things that we wanted to like talk about a little bit. And um, I just want to say one of our sort of taglines as hypnotherapists is all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. So that's just something to just keep in mind. Is like they're not totally distinct. It's just sometimes you could say, is the therapist in the room or or not? You might say.

Samantha Pruitt 1:17

Or is there an audio of the therapist?

Polly Mertens 1:20

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, um you know, so today we'll go into like what is hypnosis, probably dispel a bunch of myths. Like when I first learned about hypnosis for myself. So I had uh I I could talk about my journey through what that we'll say that for another time. But you know, I had a hypnotherapist, did hypnotherapy, you know, with her for a while, then I got so curious in it. Number one, because you know, wherever I came from with my coaching background was a lot of like addiction and people with severe eating disorders, 30, 40 years and stuff. And it's like, you know, it's kind of like you got a major overhaul in there. You know, you know, you gotta get

What Hypnosis Really Is

Polly Mertens 1:59

some serious tools because there's a lot in the way with addiction that uh keeps those patterns in place, right? Right. And so I was really drawn to what else was available, like how else could I help these people unpack and you know, because the typical therapist works with an eating disorder client and not even treating them like like in recovery, seven years, like seven years is the average.

Samantha Pruitt 2:26

Wow. I have I had no idea. Yeah, wow.

Polly Mertens 2:29

Who wants to be doing this for the next seven? Like you, when you want it done, you're like, no, I kind of want that change now, you know. Yeah. So yeah. So I was like, all right, well, how else, how else are people getting results? How else are people, you know, transforming addictions to whatever they are or improving? You can do it on like stopping doing things and starting doing things, right? And we'll go into lists of like ways that you can use this. So um A, I think one of the things I just wanted to touch upon, and we said this a little bit before we went on air, is I really see hypnotherapy and just hypnosis in general becoming more and more mainstream. Like, um, and maybe it's like a West Coast thing, because I'm in California, we're in California, it's a little more adopted, but um, or acceptable, if you will. Um, but I could definitely see as part of the consciousness movement, and you know, I mean, hypnosis has been around for hundreds of years. This is not like, oh, developed in 1990, you know, or 2007 or something. It's like totally yeah, and actually hypnosis, what it is, and maybe this is a good time to just talk about that, is hypnosis is just a state of relaxation. And so one of the things I think that helped most of my clients are people that are like hypnosis, it's woo-woo, what is it? Is you're actually in hypnosis a lot during the day. And people don't realize it, right? So some really easy examples. So it's states of mind. So if we think about being at rest, like asleep, is like like like alpha, like you're out, right? You're not conscious, if you will. Brain, you know, you've got activity and stuff like that, but you don't remember anything. Um, or you, you know, you won't conscious

Everyday Trances You Already Enter

Polly Mertens 4:06

sometimes you remember your dreams, whatever. Yeah, but then you know, we're we're up here in active mind and you know, actively engaged, and then there's states, so like that drowsy, sleepy on your way to sleep. So you're like, you're like, I'm just laying there, but you're kind of still having thought. That's hypnosis. Oh wow, okay. That's all it is. So hypnosis. So I look one of the ways that I really started to distinguish it as I was getting trained in it. And the funny thing is like, so when you do the certification, you're hypnotizing people, like you're in class with people and you're practicing, you know. So I'm I'm hypnotized a lot, a lot, practicing a lot, and I was getting hypnotized a lot, right? So they were doing it on me. So there was one day where I got hypnotized five times, and it was like, wow, it was amazing. Yeah, and you know, one of the things I can remember um, because I I don't do it actively with clients right now. Like I don't have my office and people come in and I hypnotize like on the daily. I mean, I was doing it a lot, is um I like I would tell my clients, it's like I just recently gave blood, and they're like, oh, you know, drink water and take it easy tonight and no heavy lifting things, whatever. And like when you go get a massage, they're like, be gentle with yourself, drink some water. Hypnosis is like that. Like it's such a deep state of relaxation that it's like you like don't make your brain do hard things after this, if you will. You know, just like like it's such it's you know, it's like a I would kind of liken it to a massage for your mind, right? Like you go. That's fascinating. You get a massage and you feel all like, ah, right. So depending on the length of the hypnosis and what you're doing, I mean you could just go in for like a little tiny thing, but it can be it's so such a state of relaxation for mind and body. And you and I know the subconscious is your body, basically, it's an expression. So when you have this relaxed state of body, your mind is still active. So in hypnosis, you're not asleep. It's not like you're not there. You're actually like like one of the common questions is like, Am I hypnotized? Like, you know, like one of the first things you go, Am I hypnotized? You know, like you'll you'll ask that or wonder. And it's like, yeah, you know. So anyway.

Samantha Pruitt 6:18

Uh so a couple questions. I'm gonna ask lots of questions today.

Polly Mertens 6:24

What's that mean? Oh, your your audio broke up on me for a second. Say it again, please. Can you hear me?

Samantha Pruitt 6:29

Yeah, yeah. So one of my questions is if it's that state of relaxation, we'll just liken it to that kind of you know, minutes or time before bed sort of thing. Um, and it is a massage and really a reprogramming of your brain. We'll get into all of those things, how it works. There must be an ideal time to do it, because an example would be we probably don't want to hypnotize somebody five times a day, even though you were in classes and you this is just how it went, right? It's like when I was studying holistic health and we were doing therapies over and over and over to learn the therapies, and you're like, I'm pretty sure this is not how we should do it in the real world.

Polly Mertens 7:14

Cleansing five times a day, exhausted, chiropractic. You know, somebody's like learning chiropractic. You're like, I don't think I need another adjustment. Thanks.

Samantha Pruitt 7:23

Don't touch me. Totally. But there must be an ideal time for it to be most effective, correct?

Polly Mertens 7:31

Yeah, 100%, especially when it comes to self-hypnosis. So like I said, you always have two states of hypnosis per day. I I guarantee you probably have a hundred, but you always have two, right? In and out of sleep. Okay.

Samantha Pruitt 7:44

In and out of sleep.

Polly Mertens 7:44

In and out of sleep. So the number one best time for self-hypnosis is coming up from sleep. The number

Best Times For Self-Hypnosis

Polly Mertens 7:50

two best time for hypnosis, self-hypnosis is right before you fall asleep. And the other best time I would say is just like after lunch, you know, kind of midday. But there's no wrong time to do it. Um yeah, and and it's not the I've had, you know, so with good practice and good practitioners, I've definitely known when people in my chair go so deep, and not asleep, but they just go so deep that they kind of like come up and they're still a little groggy, you know. So they're sort of like in that state still. And you know, and I you do everything to make sure they don't drive and leave driving, you know, because you don't want hypnosis driving or heavy machinery, and you know, all those right. Exactly. Disclaimer warnings and stuff. So yeah, yeah. So attach it to a siesta is the ideal. Yeah, exactly. Interesting. Yeah, exactly. My brain is naturally in that state, right? So, like what I'm doing right now, so one of the things we're gonna talk about is I'm doing a lot of self-hypnosis. I'm actually, you know, like in a run, like doing it three times a day. I'm doing it at those times, so in the morning, in the evening, and midday. And there's ways that you can trigger yourself to go into a hypnotic state that you know you can put yourself in quickly, if you will. Um and it's it's it's great, you know. I mean, so I'm doing it at those times, and just you know, I do it before I get out of bed, you know, like sit up in bed, get my headphones on. I do have a program that I listen to, so and maybe this is a good time to talk about it. So I had heard about the Silva method. You probably heard of it from the 70s or whatever, you know, it's making a comeback. I don't know. Well, in in my world anyway, it seems like it. So I've and I had never heard of, never did any of that work. It wasn't part of my hypnotherapy practice, but as I look into it, it's very much self-hypnosis basis, it feels like. So

The Silva Method And Scarcity

Polly Mertens 9:33

and I find it to be quality work. Like I'm listening to them and and I'm doing that material, and it's awesome. It's awesome. So feels good to be back in you know, strengthening that muscle. And I really think that that's where, like for me, um, you know, there's and we'll go over like some of the possible use cases, or how could you apply this, or you know, why would you do this? You know, um, I mean, people do it to run faster, jump higher, you know, those types of things. Some people, like we talked about addiction and habits and stuff. Mine is like, I found that my brain was going so much to scarcity thinking and just like these, like I just saw these negative pattern loops that I'm like, that's like no. And I did a little work with a uh coach therapist on narrative therapy, which helps me see like one of my stories was actually one of my inherited stories from my parents, you know, on scarcity. And I was like, hold up, right? At least getting it out of my subconscious and getting it where it was. I was conscious that it was in my subconscious helped me. I'm not attacking that one, but I'm doing some other things through my self-hypnosis that are, you know, um retraining those pathways. So I'm not going down this scarcity, scarcity, scarcity, you know, mindset.

Samantha Pruitt 10:47

Let's kind of you were starting to go there, like walk us through what you're doing. So you're listening to an audio, but like from start to finish. So A, what's your intention behind doing the series of hypnosis, self-hypnosis sessions or audio-driven self-hypnosis sessions, however they're called? Um, and then what's like the walk us through it for the virgins in the room? Like, what do you what does this even look like? You know, people visualize weird things, you know, like whatever they saw on the movies or on TV and they think zombie apocalypse kind of bizarre things.

Polly Mertens 11:20

And people do see what we call stage hypnosis, so in hypnotherapy, and then there's stage hypnosis, right? Which is even surprising to me. I'm like, damn, how do they you know? I mean, I did take one class which was I wouldn't call it stage hypnosis, they weren't training you to do that, but I was like, I could see how these techniques,

Stage Hypnosis Versus Therapy

Polly Mertens 11:40

like crazy things, like you just pull someone's hand and they just like go right into hypnosis. I was like, wow, you know, that's amazing. And they fully were like, I saw it all like hours of it. I was like, okay, so it's not we're not we're talking about a totally different thing that's totally possible and sure, whatever. Um, but like just so you know, like a lot of social media is hypnosis, all right? Because you get very doom, you know, scrolly scrolly related. I call that a trance, and that's hypnosis. Okay, okay, that's wild. Watching television, you know. So why TV, you know, in the days of old where you know, you and I, we would sit and watch television, our parents watch television, you're just kind of like checking out, right? Like you're in, you know, so hypnosis. Have you ever been to a movie and you're like so in the movie you like forget that you're in a theater, right? That's okay, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 12:32

Yeah, that's hypnosis. Oh, dude, I think I hypnotized myself on the treadmill today. I know that sounds freaking weird. Yeah, totally. But it I do meditate while I'm moving, so why would this be any different? And I was doing a particular type of workout where I was lifting really heavy, then running on the treadmill, lifting really heavy and then running on the treadmill. And I was doing this really fun, crazy ass workout. And every time I went to jump on the treadmill and like kick it up, like go, you know, it was five-minute treadmill sessions. I just got so tunnel vision. I literally was staring at a plant, one plant, outside the window across the lawn. I was just like literally like and I was ramping up my pace during intervals, and then stopped and then back to, and I did that three times. And every time I just got on this plant and I didn't think about anything, my body was just doing it, doing it at a remarkable pace, form, everything just felt in sync. It was wild. My breathing, everything, it was remarkable. And I just thought, what am I? I had a lot of caffeine. I'm just crushing this workout. I didn't think about the mental side of it.

Polly Mertens 13:44

Yeah, well, you know, so one thing that translates for me, and so there's similarities of how I think that could. I mean, you're it's surprising me like you could be that much movement. Like, I think about me on the treadmill, I'm so spastic that like if I like just focus on one thing, I'd probably hurt myself. So I'm like, could you do that?

Samantha Pruitt 14:00

But I could see you. Well, remember, I'm an ultra runner, we go zombie apocalypse a lot, we go into trances all the time.

Polly Mertens 14:07

No, it is, yeah. I think that's why you enjoy that so much. Because I was thinking about that for you. It's like, you know, a lot of your just hours and miles of running is trance. Exactly. Exactly.

Samantha Pruitt 14:19

Okay, let's talk about your session. So you go into each session with an intention.

Polly Mertens 14:24

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 14:25

Okay.

Polly Mertens 14:26

Well, so you can have so like there's training, you know, so like learning how to do it. So, like some of it was I'm just learning the silva method. Like there's I don't know how I haven't gotten to the bottom of the I I'm literally just cheating and going on YouTube. I haven't bought anything, so I'm just like finding their library online. I'm like, oh, what's this one about? And you know, doing it. So there's um a couple I think that they do regularly, sort of like the core. And then I'm sure it feels like there's lots that they developed over a lifetime of study of this. They've got a bunch of them, but you know, some core ones. Like the first one is just like self-hypnosis 101, like getting yourself, let's say, with intention, how do you take yourself into a trance state, right? How do you go from this active mind talking to me, blah, blah, blah, to you're in trance, right? Okay. So some of their videos are just that over and over again. And then they can be laced with. So this is a you know, this is kind of like hypnosis 101 is whatever the we call them inductions. So whatever the induction is to get the person into

Inductions Scripts And Metaphors

Polly Mertens 15:26

the meditation, sorry, not the meditation, the hyp hypnotic state, get them in a state where their body is calm, mind is calm, they're open to subconscious, you know, messages that they want to have, you know, programmed, transformed inside themselves. Whatever the induction method is, and there's lots of them. Like on the stage, it's like boop, yanked your hand, boop, they're out, right? Like, wow. But you know, it could be so, and then it's various phases in the session of what you're programming, what are you doing, right? So definitely I've seen and have done, you know, guided journeys, you know, so metaphors, the brain loves metaphors. So sometimes it's like guided journeys of pictures and whatnot, and the brain um takes the story and interprets it, right? So, like I'll do ones that like give people confidence or releases baggage or you know, gets them self-expressed or gets them in action where they're procrastinating, you know, different things, right? So there's that. So whatever it is, and it can be very hyper-specific for you. So if you work with hypnotherapists, they're literally, you know, when I would take an intake with my client, I was like, what's going on? What's holding you back? You know, and a lot of times when you think about hypnotherapy, one of the key things is I know I should do something and I'm not. That's like fucking perfect for hypnosis.

Samantha Pruitt 16:43

Yeah, that's pretty much everybody has those things, if not one significant, many, many, many. Okay, so this really makes me feel strongly about you having a practitioner, a hypnotherapist, because having the conversation is also a critical element, which is, you know, it's a type of coaching. Understanding, you're talking about intakes and conversations in advance, what's really going on with the human rather than just plopping somebody down in the chair or just listening to an audio of whatever, like your unique person and your particular program, programming for the hypnotherapy should be unique to you.

Polly Mertens 17:22

And that's where, so like if you have an outcome or result or something you specifically know you're being held back by, like I can't lose this weight, I can't stop whatever. I, you know, like like you said, you're wanting to do something and you know you're not doing it. If you've got that hyper-specific yes, you can through self-hypnosis, I can tell you how you do it yourself. But I think number one, go work with somebody because the way that they'll language it and they'll know they'll they'll put it in and they'll keep create a cadence with you. Maybe it's like three, five sessions or something, they'll have you come back on the weekly. Um, just really will fine-tune that, you know. So definitely. But there's like a lot of hypnosis can be very just generally well-being. You know, you can do a lot for your health. Like if you just want to maintain a healthy body, um, you want to like the one with Silva, what one of the things my favorite things that he said is um every day and every way I'm better and better. I'm like, what the fuck? That's brilliant. That's that's just like golden. Like in the message inside the subconscious, it can solve a lot of, you know, it's sort of like a um, you know, it's like a disinfectant, and it can just like clean up a lot of bacteria quickly, you know, it can just it instantly reprograms the stuckness that many people sit in.

Samantha Pruitt 18:37

Um, and what immediately came to my mind too was people who are ill, you know, I've got three people that are uh in cancer battles right now and talking about their nervous system and different things going on with them and how to work with that. Hypnotherapy could be an amazing tool for anyone in chronic pain and illness and all of this stuff, whether it's mental or physical.

Polly Mertens 18:56

Well, imagine so two of the most remarkable, and I'm sure there's ten that I don't even two of the most remarkable, I think, just touching upon what

Surprising Uses Like Birth And Dentists

Polly Mertens 19:05

you said when we go to the body, you know, like we were talking about like the mind and stuff, like oh, habits and stuff. Hypnotherapy for childbirth is a thing. Hypnotherapy for dental work is a thing. Wow, no Novicaine. Yeah, that's crazy. Crazy amount of work, yeah. So hypnotherapists go into the dentist office with you and they will hypnotize you for your session with the dentist.

Samantha Pruitt 19:30

Like, what and there's like so basically to put it in simple layman's terms, since that's who I am, it is a type of therapy, and you can use a therapist, a practitioner to you know utilize this therapy, just like any of the therapies that are out there, and the more we have these tools and different types of therapies, the better we're all gonna all gonna be because society is suffering if people haven't noticed, right? So this is one of those therapies, but it allows you to get yourself into a deep relaxed state, to be open to changing programming. That's kind of how I'm vibing. This am I on track so far?

Polly Mertens 20:11

It has so many that I I want to say. There was like a list of 200 common uses of hypnotherapy when we studied like 200 common, right? And not to mention all the ones that people I don't even know, you know, like the dental one is not everyday common, but it's common. Like there's like it's it's a thing. The childbirthing, it's a thing, right? Surgery, you know, like it, these are not unheard of, if you will. So um, phobias, fears, I mean, like you name like like that one I gave you. Like, if you've got something that you know you should be doing and you're not, that's like a clock like that's a classic one. If there's like things that you want to get better, I absolutely would use it for anyone that has the inkling of a start of a disease or a breakdown or a malaise or some sort of disease that they're starting with. You can even just do like I talked about like that um every day, every way, I'm getting better and better. That's just like um disinfecting, you know, just like wipe that shit on everything, you know. And you can also get very specific with like, I mean, there's people, and I would venture to say if we studied them, that transform illness, like deep illness, into recession or you know, cure themselves, like blindness of that type of stuff. It's probably because they broke through something in the subconscious mind and they did that through a series or some hypnotherapy hypnotherapeutic style work, trance-like work, putting themselves or working with a practitioner or whatever.

Samantha Pruitt 21:38

So, how does it work? What's going on in this subconscious?

Polly Mertens 21:42

Yeah, I I wish I could do it so we don't have like spries and stuff. Yeah, yeah. Because I used to always, whenever somebody would come to my office, the first thing is I'd draw them a picture of their mind and just so they'd understand. So,

The Iceberg Model Of Mind

Polly Mertens 21:53

you know, you've probably seen this classic meme on social media where there's like an iceberg and you see like the top of it, and then there's the Bottom of it, right? So that's probably the closest that you can visualize, like for now. So the top of the iceberg is your conscious mind. That's what you think is listening to me right now and translating all this. Running the show. They're running that show. Yeah. Subconscious is under the surface. Exactly. So that's like your identity, the stuff you're doing, the things that you're doing that you don't want to be doing. Like that's where all programming. Yeah, that's leading to disease and all whatever it's you know doing. So the that that where the um water brain. Yeah, your brain has a so the human brain as a baby. Babies kids are in a state of natural state of hypnosis and all the time. All the time. So like I just want to do a little disclaimer here for some parents. Kids up until about the age of six, eight, ten are always in hypnosis. That's why they're so creative. That's why it's like you can tell them, like, oh, Santa Claus, whatever. They're like, ah, they can like believe it, right? Because it's like poof, like they have no filter, right? And then about that time they start not believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy or really dad, you know, like those kind of like they put that's that filter. So you have this natural filter that starts to form over the brain that protects the subconscious. Because if we were walking around totally in trance all the time, and can social marketers would have their way with us, they're already having their way with us, but we would just very little discernment might be happening. Exactly, exactly. So the brain forms this natural filtering to protect, you know, what what you've created, let's say, in the subconscious, right? Like this is sort of like baked in, this is who you are. Good, bad, or otherwise, right? So things come in in the outer world. So this is where I mean, one of the great things I've seen people use it for is like deep learning, like they want to learn stuff fast. Hypnosis, and then deep learning because it just goes right in. It's almost like like inserting it into your programming, right? Wow. So hypnosis is like if we took that um that filter and we just opened it up and we opened the doorway and you said, okay, I'm allowing myself to be susceptible right now, right? So, for example, when we go to a movie and we get so into that movie, we're allowing ourselves to be in a trance and be taken away with where that director wants us to go. Same with commercials and social media if we're not paying attention, right?

Samantha Pruitt 24:26

Like so unfortunately.

Polly Mertens 24:28

Yeah. So, and you want to be careful where when you open up that doorway, what's going in, right? So have that be very intentional, being very self-efficacy, you know, like giving you agency, more powerful, more of who you are, that type of a thing. So that's all it is. So, what hypnosis is is it opens that doorway to your subconscious mind, allowing messaging, allowing new programming, allowing replacement programming to go in, right? Sometimes if you can note where the root of an old program is, right? Like working with a good hypnotherapist, they can like let's say I was a smoker. Yeah. I know it's used a lot for smoking. Yeah. So say smoking and smoking is typically tied to two things. One, it's like your friend, or it's cool, right? So that that's often it. So like the hypnotherapist can go in. I have a friend in like hypnotherapy smoking one session. Fucking A. Been smoking for a long time, too. I was like, damn. So they can go in and they can help with the root of what's created it or caused it, right? Like that person's like, I know I shouldn't be doing this because I and they even know what caused it, right? Like my dad did that, and I still do that, and I show up in relationships and I let him walk all over me, whatever, you know. So, yeah, so it can go in and help break up that root and like sort of like pull the weed, if you will, and plant a new seedling in there, and then you water it. Yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 25:50

What's happening in the brain? How is that working? It's like you're in this state where you're open, you know, the veil or the covering or the protective uh, you know, elements have been.

Polly Mertens 26:06

Yeah, so a lot of what a lot of the way that the brain, so a couple there's a few ways to share about this. I and I don't know it's like, oh, it's this one, it's not that one. So your brain is very much programmed in pictures and images. We love to hear

Rewiring Associations With New Pathways

Polly Mertens 26:20

words and stuff like that, but the most responsive hypnotherapy is actually in pictures, right? So oftentimes when I like working with people, I love creating metaphors for pictures for their mind because the mind is less this is where being in a story, like why adults love um parables and stuff. Because like it can slip past that subconscious brain's filter of like, what's this story about? And then it goes, Oh, that's good. No, so yeah, so some of it is pictures, so you're planting new pictures in the brain, and then there's like a lot of the brain is neuroassociations, right? So like these things are related to these things, and so when you have addiction, you've got a lot of neuroassociations going in a direction and bound up on a yeah, this is the problem.

Samantha Pruitt 27:05

This yeah together. Exactly.

Polly Mertens 27:07

So part of hypnotherapy can break it up, loosen it, and then give it the new pathways. Like, okay, this is what we're doing now. This we're so here's for any like this is a this isn't even totally related, but I noticed this this morning, right? So I've been doing some of my own programming. So just this morning, so I have this idea, and we haven't even talked about this because this has me to do with me coming to Coachella Valley, by the way, and there's a whole story about that. So we'll talk about that. So there's someone who's having an event in Coachella Valley in the beginning of May, and my scarcity brain would have been like, oh, you know, I'll ask Samantha if I can stay there, and you know, I'll do all this stuff on the cheap, right? Like, I'll, you know. And I was like, and I know from having gone to other conferences and dah-da-da, like proximity is key, right? Like staying with or being around those people or those impromptu, like, oh, you wake up for coffee and then you bump into somebody at the Starbucks in the hotel lobby, and you know, you right, those synchronicities. And if I stay somewhere else or whatever, like I have I limit that. And so this morning I was like, you know what? Going to that event. And and I'm still deciding if I am, but I was like, if I go to that event, I'm totally gonna stay at that hotel, like and that would not have occurred to me before. So I'm just saying, like, so the it's not always like a linear thing, like I like it can be very linear. It's like um, I remember I was one working with this one gal uh who had I called it like a caboose. So she would eat dinner, and then the caboose was she would eat pie or dessert or something like that, right? And I was like, we gotta let go of this caboose, right? So I helped unhook that from you know the the tie-in, right? We talk about the neuroassociations. I was like, let's unhook that. And it just stopped that pattern of like the the what drove her into the kitchen after dinner, or what had her mind go thinking about that or looking for the dessert or whatever. It's like we we walled that off, and it was like, nope, the caboose is not on the train anymore. So it can be very like more just discreet and linear like that, or like mine just now, which was like, I didn't even know when that scarcity mindset turned abundance mindset would come up, but that was it's starting to show up.

Samantha Pruitt 29:16

I mean, it's a rewiring. Totally, you know, it's completely a rewiring, and you can fixate on one thing like I want to stop smoking or I want to do XYZ, or you can focus the therapy on a scarcity mindset or a victim mindset or a whatever addict mindset, all of the things, right? We take on these personas as part of our identity. So it can be this giant thing that you're re-really just breaking down. I kind of like the idea of thinking about it as scars and scar tissue, because I am a physical person and very, you know, knowledgeable about the physical body and scar tissue and muscles and all the connective tissue, blah, blah, blah. So I like the idea of like going in and you know, breaking down that scar tissue, those lesions that have had that arm, muscle, brain, body, person, fully exactly in limited range of motion, in limited capability, you know, and in breaking that down and rewiring that area, be creating health again in that area and getting full range of motion, movement, and all of a sudden they can build a bicep or they can do a lunge or they can whatever the hell the thing is they want to do, run again.

Polly Mertens 30:30

I mean, imagine if, and I love that, you know, analogy, if you know, for me for eating disorder, I had a hundred um trails going towards overeating and like no pathway to healthy non-eating whatever. If you apply that kind of repetition, like to something that you really care about, or like, you know, like some people can take it too far, you know, you go to bodybuilding and then you get like super into bodybuilding or whatever. You can supersize it a little too much, you know, and some people, but like apply it in an area where instead of it being for harm for yourself, you apply it for good in whatever way that works for you. Like, you know, people want to get up early, they want to meditate every day, they want to go for runs, they want to be a better student, they want to say nice things to their spouse or you know, whatever it is, right? Like apply that sort of programming and those neuroassociations towards something that you care about with intention. Exactly, exactly.

Samantha Pruitt 31:28

You know, and I don't even know what the number is, but how much of the time throughout the day that we're basically in this just default mode operating out of these habits, these grooves, these pathways, this programming that's not serving us, but yet we just allow it day after day after day to run the show.

Polly Mertens 31:47

Yeah, for sure, for sure. And once they're programmed, you know, it's just as much. We talked about like how addiction can be very pulling, like like a pull to the addiction, like they can't help themselves. You could have them in positive addictions. You could have like positive consequences and train yourself towards things that bring you more of what you whatever you want, right? Like, I want to be out in nature more, I want to be talking to my friend. You know, you can create those. They seem small or whatever, but use it for good. So I have um I thought of like, okay, what are 10 ways that people could use this practically every day? I just want to like fire a couple of these off. I think we've done a great job of sharing. So breaking habit loops, right? So whatever the habit looks like um that you're not liking, right? By interrupting the autopilot, reducing anxiety. Totally reducing anxiety. Who doesn't have that?

Ten Practical Ways To Use It

Polly Mertens 32:34

That's thought loops, dude. Thought loops, right? Totally, yeah. Reducing rewire self-talk. I did that. I've done that from like pity to like fucking amazing, right? Improve sleep conditioning. Hypnosis is used a lot in sleep. I didn't even mention that. Yeah, but helping people sleep better. Um, improve shift emotional reactions. So, like, I was just giving that example of like scarcity mindset versus abundance mindset, where I was just programming myself for more abundance instead of scarcity, and it just showed up in this. Oh, I'm gonna go to this event. And I just how I come into the event or how I start looking at it is a totally different frame of mind. The same thing with like training for relationship. Like, like, oh, I want to come in instead of like, what have you done for me lately? But like, how can I be more kind to my spouse? Whatever. So it's like setting your, or even very hyper-specific things. If you know you have emotional triggers that, like, oh, I could line up and say these three things with this person, whatever, working on those. So strengthen identity by reinforcing who I am becoming, like on if you're on a path to somewhere, right? Athletes do this all the time, especially Olympic athletes, right? Support behavior change without willpower. We talked about that. Um, enhance creativity. Yeah. So, I mean, and there's just like that's just the doorway. Like I said, there's like a list on most hypnotherapy websites of like 200 common uses of it.

Samantha Pruitt 33:56

Yeah. Well, a lot of times people don't seek out these sort of therapies, alternative therapies, maybe we'll call them, unless they're suffering from something. And the suffering has to become so great, so bad, so extreme before they will seek out help or a therapy to deal with it, which is absurd. We're wasting years of life over this, you know, deep ingrained idea that suffering is part of it. It's bullshit. I know, but look around. It is just it's what we're taught and sold, and blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean?

Polly Mertens 34:36

Don't fall into seven years to change something. No, don't, you know, like I said, seven years.

Samantha Pruitt 34:39

You can do a lot of damage in seven years.

Polly Mertens 34:41

Oh man, that's that's just like, well, on the average, somebody's just gonna like get tired of doing it in seven years. Like, therapy didn't help that much.

Samantha Pruitt 34:49

Yeah, yeah. No, uh, why not? Or is this something you use in conjunction with um mindset training and just habit change training, like those kind of programs? How this just feels like it's like foundational for being able to do those things.

Polly Mertens 35:06

Absolutely. I would say, you know, so why I think I went into hypnosis and I believe so much in it is I would see how much from myself, like, dude, 20 years. I'm a pretty fucking willpower person.

Why Willpower Hits A Wall

Polly Mertens 35:22

You've seen me, right? You too. Like, there's a lot of right. For me, not for me to for an addiction for 20 years to say I wasn't gonna do it, do it that night, get up and do it again. Do it, you know, like just this. Like I felt just like I was just beating myself up, and I know what caused that, but like mindset training is bumping up against that natural filtering that is in place between your conscious and subconscious mind, right? So you have this subconscious that's like, this is known, this is who you are, this is the identity of who you are. It's like, oh, I'm a I'm a nice person, you know, like you're trying or whatever. I'm a multimillionaire, right? When people talk about like, oh, affirmations, do they work or do not work, right? It's like, what's down here? Some people have so much that needs to be, you know, purged and detoxified down here that's going to prevent. It's like bullshit. No, no, no. Like we've talked, you know, those neuro associations, right? So I think of it like a table. And so if I have an idea of myself or can I do something or the way that the world is, it's just like a table with no legs. But if I start to have experiences and I put legs underneath that table, it's like that's that creates a belief. It's like I have an opinion about something, and then oh, I see it in the world. That person's doing it. Oh my god, now everybody's doing it. Like, oh, I I'm doing it, right? Like it becomes a belief or a conviction, right? So when you have these in place, all those neuroassociations that create that's true for you, subconscious, whether it's true or not, you know, we got some people in the world that have done some wacky things. You try to get just this outer, like pew, pew, like try and like change it from the outside at the conscious level, depending on the the strength and depth and how many legs are standing on that table or how many experiences, or how emotionally charged it is. So something has a really strong charge, like people have fear of death, dying, rape, hurt, you know, all threats of all sorts. If that's really emotionally charged, all this, like, oh no, it's gonna be okay, you can walk down that dark road. Some people are like, I ain't walking down that dark road. So I hope that helps. Totally, totally.

Samantha Pruitt 37:30

Yeah, why do people do it? Well, it sounds like there's a million reasons to do it. It's more like, why not try it?

Polly Mertens 37:39

It's you're already doing it. You're alright. I mean, like, if you're already doing it, you're you're doing it by watching a movie, you're doing, you know, like you running. That was amazing.

Samantha Pruitt 37:47

You know, the one that I was saying, I don't know if that's what, but like based on what you described, that's how I felt. I felt like so in this zone. Some people will call that flow. So, what's the difference in like being in flow? And I've had that in other nature experiences, outdoor experiences for sure. For me, generally, I am moving my body, it's very rhythmic. Um, you know, my heart is at a certain beat, and my breath is doing this, and like there's this thing that happens in my physical body

Flow State Visualization And Training

Samantha Pruitt 38:16

that allows my mind to go to those places.

Polly Mertens 38:18

But is it the same thing? I think it very much is. So, what's happening is you're using hypnotherapy to use that optimal state to do something about your subconscious with it, right?

Samantha Pruitt 38:29

Okay, so when I was in those states, I shouldn't be listening to something, reprogramming my old bullshit story. I need to get I need to get that cued up.

Polly Mertens 38:37

Yeah, so so let me just say one thing about so when we talked about help self-hypnosis, so you can either create a script and I would not just do this willy-nilly, I would look, you know, use an AI or use something to help you get some formatting to this, right?

Samantha Pruitt 38:51

To or a coach, get a coach to help you.

Polly Mertens 38:54

Definitely. That's where hypnotherapists are like, okay, and a lot of so it's like AI prompting is a thing where it's like, oh, prompt AI and it does these things really well. Like you're this and do this, right? Same thing with hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapists have a repertoire of wonderful prompts for, oh, you've got smoking. Okay, I know the prompts for that. Oh, you've got the you know, the rewiring, let's say, the language and the story. And yeah, there's some some nuances to this. So this isn't um, I don't want people to walk away and say, like, I can hypnotize myself to become the president or something, you know, whatever. But like, can you do some things through, like I said, me with self-hip hypnosis right now? I'm working on my abundance, replacing scarcity with abundance and seeing myself in a lot of it's great when you know we talk about um Olympic athletes see themselves winning the race. You know, that's oftentimes I tend to want, I'm guessing, they're doing a lot with their body and their mind in a hip in a trance-like state. And the imagery and they're they're just programming their mind with that, right? Over and over again. Like I did that with Iron Man, like I saw myself crossing that finish line and getting the medal.

Samantha Pruitt 39:58

So, you know, so and it's not just visualization, you need to be in a certain state, this hypnotic or whatever state we're talking about, flow state, to be able to receive that, to be open to it and to receive those visual cues, et cetera, et cetera, those verbal cues. Yeah, yeah.

Polly Mertens 40:16

And so the thing, just as like a PSA here, is like social media, oftentimes people are just like hanging out, head down, you know, in bed or whatever, just like you're you're probably very close to a trance state, and whatever you consume at that time, you know. So

How To Start Safely On YouTube

Polly Mertens 40:35

I used to never have one of my big things with clients is like never watch the news before bed because you're right, likely in a trance-like state, or coming out in the morning and listen to it, write to emails, that stuff's most likely going through that barrier. So whatever you consume, absorb, or environmentally are around, your mind is open. So you could it could get populated in there pretty quickly. So yeah.

Samantha Pruitt 41:01

Yeah, and that's probably maybe why when people go to bed and then they have these dreams. I don't know exactly all the things about dreams, but like sometimes things that just came into your sphere, if you will, or into your body, or into your emotional body, your energetic body, however you want to call all this, will show up.

Polly Mertens 41:21

Totally, well, and there's a whole body of work in hypnotherapy around dream um analysis too. So it's like I started to learn a little bit about it. I didn't do deep into it, but there's a whole thing about dream analysis.

Samantha Pruitt 41:33

Girl, you gotta do that. I dream all the time. We gotta start figuring these things out.

Polly Mertens 41:37

And then uh the other one is um your handwriting is a part of hypnotherapy too. So, like how you write stuff or whatever, that says, and you know how people say uh um so they can do that with handwriting analysis and then also like physical cues, because a lot of things hypnotherapists were trained to do is like see what's going on with the person's face and their body and stuff as they're going into hypnosis. So there's lots of nuances to this, and I don't want to overwhelm people with all of it, but the the basic was what we talked about, which is the induction, something that brings you down into that trance state. You have a period of whatever distance and length, it doesn't have to be very long. I mean, like hypnotherapy session can be like 15 minutes, you know, with a couple minutes for the induction, the trance, and then it's really key, remember, coming back out of it, right? So if you leave that doorway open to your subconscious mind, like I'm all you know, I'm always like one, two, three, four, five, and you're wide awake, you know. So making sure you have that at the end also.

Samantha Pruitt 42:34

What's the best way before we wrap? How can people get started? Like, obviously, they can find you and you can facilitate this, but what are other ways that they can get started if they want to give it a try?

Polly Mertens 42:44

Yeah, well, I would just be curious, right? So I think there are enough um hypnosis video. So like one I have a very favorite hypnosis guy that I just enjoy his uh YouTube videos. Um, what's his name? Michael Oh shoot. Michael Seely, S-E-A-L-E-Y. So like he's one of my guys that for years I just listened to his, you know, all I do his a lot for helping me sleep, right? So I'll listen to his before sleep, if you will. So and again, you're not gonna be able to likely go, I have trouble with this in my relationship X, and like going on YouTube and likely finding it, you know, like that's right. You're gonna find more of the generic, like help with sleep, maybe help with some confidence, maybe help with, you know, smoking is pretty specific too. Like smok smoking is actually quite intensive. Like smoking hypnotherapy practice or practitioners are hyper surgical. Like they get in there, they do some intense stuff. Anyway, so I would say maybe just play around with some videos on YouTube and see, not play, but like go to some of the popular hypnotherapists on YouTube, like a Michael Sealy, and just listen to some and see if you enjoy it. See if you and you can listen to it wide awake. So, like one of the things that some people are like nervous, like, what's gonna go in my brain? What are they gonna say? You know, it's like, well, just listen to it and don't be intending to be hypnotized. You'll probably be hypnotized anyway, but like, don't be intending, just just watch it or listen to it, you know.

Samantha Pruitt 44:16

Um, don't pick some Yahoo who's spouting off some stuff that you don't want to become in.

Polly Mertens 44:24

It's very calming, it should have you feel really comfortable with that person, not any like, oh, something's not okay here, you know. Very and um even in hypnosis, finding some, like there's some out there that I do that have like the I am affirmations, right? And so you can do the induction to go in, and then just listening to the I am affirmations, it's like programming, program. Like, I'm I'm a beautiful person, I I take good care of people, I'm loved, or whatever, you know, and then they can bring you back out. So those tend to be a little bit longer, and some I don't know. I've I I'm a little more hit or miss on hypnosis on YouTube or whatnot. Um, I would say if you really have something you want to work on, like there's a blank that you want to not have anymore, work with somebody professional, you know, like do the work and try it. But it's a therapist, you know. Be selective. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But if you want to start, just you know, just like meditation, there's meditations and yoga videos out there, there's hypnosis, um, just to give it a little sample, you know, and you'll find your favorites and then you'll find that you're just some, you know, like uh this person doesn't do it for me, you know. Like I'll listen to some and I'm like, oh, this guy's voice, I can't stand it.

Samantha Pruitt 45:38

Energy, voice, all of it has, you know, has an impact. Exactly. I might have you uh do one up for me for my pre pre-training, like when I'm gonna go into a big training session or something like this. I kind of like this idea. That's so fun. So I know. Maybe one for like my long runs and then one for like my gym sessions.

Polly Mertens 45:58

Yeah, I'm gonna crush it. Well, and then you can just have it in the background of like, who are is that like the general, you know, it's like programming yourself. You know, remember when um in The Matrix where they're like, Oh, I need to know how to fly that helicopter, and they're like, you know, can fly the helicopter, right? And so, like, program you for like, I want to be X many miles runner a week or a or speed or I wanna whatever. And it's like it will just like your body will get there. It's amazing. I love this, I love this.

Samantha Pruitt 46:31

So thanks for sharing one of your many, many, many talents with our audience and with me today. Sure.

Polly Mertens 46:38

Yeah, and I I just you know, like we call it hypnosis curious because I was like, we've been talking about sober curious, and I'm like, come on over. Like, I think this is just gonna become more and more mainstream, you know, as people go, oh, that's like sitting on the couch and getting into a movie. Oh, I'm doing it right before I go to bed. It's just the

Anchoring Quick States And Takeaways

Polly Mertens 46:55

state of theta. It's that's all hypnosis is with hypnotherapy is to work with it, you know, or you know, elite athletes use it, you know, in high intention. Yeah, put it to work for you. Exactly. Exactly. So what's our one thing? Like, um, let me see if I have any notes here. Like one key takeaway. So you're already experiencing hypnosis every day, so like make it work for you, right?

Samantha Pruitt 47:18

Embrace it, embrace it, exactly.

Polly Mertens 47:20

You know, one of the things I found just with working with a lot of people with addiction is um to get at that identity level. Hypnosis is one of the key ways to get into those root things that either you want to pull out the weeds or put in something new at the identity level, like truly some reprogramming. Like, I don't want to be doing this to myself or the world anymore. Um, and then self-hypnosis is really fun to play with, you know, as a just a tool in your toolbox of your self-development. So I'm gonna play. Let's go. Well, thanks for letting me talk about this. This was really fun. So it was. Do you have any takeaways for you? Anything that you've discovered, or uh no, but if I'm gonna play, everybody should play.

Samantha Pruitt 48:01

Let's play. Let's go. Let's get great. You know, yeah. I mean, here's the thing: we spend a lot of time trying to improve our lives, ourselves, our physical body, our emotional body, our career path, our relationships, our financial status, blah, blah, blah. Right? This is an available tool to you that A, you can do it for free if you're gonna do the self-hypnosis, right? Why not try it? Why not try it? And I can't tell you how many people from the athlete side of my world and even business professionals are always like, I how do I get in flow? Or even creatives, I want to get in flow, I want to get in flow, right? So, this is one of those ways to like play with flow and maybe build that muscle a little bit more, build those grooves a little bit more, right? That's kind of turning me on. Like, that's one of the reasons I want to try it.

Polly Mertens 48:52

I didn't even talk about something called anchoring, but we could talk about that. That's NLP tied with hypnosis, which is fabulous. So it's like how to create that state quickly. Like, I have an anchor, it's basically a touch point on my body right now that if I do it, I go into that state, right? And you can create that, like, oh, I want to be hyper focused for business, or I want to be like really attentive and listening for my kids or whatever. Like you can do that with what's called anchoring. So there's so many fun ways. And I like in this, I was thinking about when you said, you know, why wouldn't they do this? Like, you know, there's an inertia. It's like it's so easy to put on a pair of shoes and go out for a walk, right? And it's also so easy not to, right? And it's like it's easy now that you've heard about hypnosis, you've here like it can be very easy to do and it can be very easy not to do. So just know that it's there and it's available, just like walking in nature and getting outside and you know, drinking water for your health. It's also if you just want to ignore it, but like you can find ways through this to take care of yourself and help yourself, like people who you know.

Samantha Pruitt 49:52

Dude, you can feel better because how your life feels is more important than how it looks. Hello. Yes, and every day is your opportunity to find your awesome hold on.