Nicholas Pollak

How do you limit yourself? Is it your thinking? Is it your lack of doing? Do you know what you want but just can’t get there? As a clinical hypnotherapist, I have the good fortune of helping people daily. Helping them to see how they limit themselves with their self-imagery and restricted self-belief systems.

With the economy the way it is today, and for those of us who are still employed, am issue is:

What to do with vacation time?

Even though we have the time, many cannot afford to go anywhere.

In this current economy, many of us are losing our jobs.

If it is the first time, finding a new job can be difficult, depressing, fraught with uncertainty.

I was in a situation recently where I had to give an hour-long presentation to a group who had an interest in hypnotherapy. Whether you know it or not, what most Americans fear more than anything else is public speaking. I am no different.

It is amazing how we can find little things we need to do or create for ourselves to fill in what might otherwise be a dull day. Have you noticed that when we wake up with things to do, whether we like the obligations or not, we get out of bed with more resolve than when we have nothing to do. We like to be busy, constructive, innovative, inventive, communicative. Note the explosion of cell phones, text messages, picture messages, Twitter, Flickr and Facebook. If we are removed from people, an isolationism occurs.

Ever been scared of flying? You know the feelings. Hyperventilation. Hypersensitivity. Sweating. Nervousness. Dizziness. Hoping alcohol or drugs will help the problem. (They only make it worse.) The unrelenting "what if’s" continually churn in your mind. What if that all went away?

Did you know that there are approximately197 different character traits revealed in any individual’s handwriting.

Consciously, we write what we want to write. But the handwriting style itself comes from our subconscious.

Have you ever noticed how pain can affect the quality of your life?

Stress also can, and generally, people who are about to undergo surgery experience not only the pain that the surgery is attempting to remove but also the mental and physical stress associated with an upcoming surgery and the post-surgery healing process.

If you still don’t believe that it is all in your head, let me offer you a story of an incident that occurred to me a few weeks ago.

I was riding my Harley along the No. 2 lane, eastbound, on the Ventura Freeway, the 101, when the car in front of me abruptly changed lanes.

I had an appointment with a new dentist the other day, and when I told him I was a hypnotherapist, he said if he had not seen it with his own eyes he would not have thought it possible.