How I Fell Into My Own Trance
By Ron Fender, Clinical Hypnotherapist, NLP Practitioner
I found myself in the summer of ‘07 on a highway in Las Vegas, and one split second changed the next five years of my life,when I was rear ended on the highway, I immediately felt a shooting pain in my back and nerve pain down my leg. What followed was the demise of my business, finances, and relationship as the chronic pain took over my identity. I had hypnotized myself into being a “Chronic Pain Sufferer.”
Post surgery X-ray.
I opted on April 5th to go for a fusion surgery TLIF/E L5S1 and a decompression on L4-5. A “risk all to have all” decision in life. Now fortunately for me, having a practice for 15 years as a hypnotherapist/NLP practitioner gave me the good fortune of being able to use the most powerful psychological tools on the planet to help me prepare physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually for the surgery and the recovery.
The picture that you see in this article is my back after surgery. Thanks to some of the best surgeons available I am on the road to recovery. That surgery fixed my body, but it did not fix my mind. I realized that even with all my training in Hypnotherapy and NLP I had to learn some new lessons…
“You are a complete success, according to your subconscious mind.”
Change Your Mind, Change Your Identity: My teacher, Dr. John Kappas, taught me: “You are a complete success, according to your subconscious mind.” We believe that the subconscious mind is seven to ten times stronger than the conscious mind, which is why some people can eat a double cheeseburger while stating that they are on a diet. I had to change my subconscious mind in order to lose the “Chronic Pain” Identity.
Priorities Change: Because of my broken back, my priorities changed. For part of my life I was totally focused on being a world-class working musician, and I became just that. For a time I was focused on creating a business that was #1 in its category at the time, and I did that. Because of my broken back I had to focus on healing my body and mind.
Certainty and Confidence: Without a doubt the number one trait I had to embrace to accomplish anything worth doing is “Certainty and Confidence.” Notice that it’s not “Happy and Peppy.” It is by no means the Pollyanna principle. I made a decision to heal, be better and get my attention back on living life, not surviving. That journey has been plagued with pain, doubt, more pain, and lots of medication that dulled the senses. I started replacing the base code in my brain to deal with the certainty and confidence in order to not only heal but become a productive and successful person regardless of the pain.
At five weeks post-op I was already at the gym, in the pool, hiking three miles a day, and moving quickly toward a 100 percent success outcome. This was due in large part to my conditioning myself every day before surgery and again after with hypnosis and NLP,
As I return to practicing Hypnotherapy, I still want to help people who want to “Build a Better You,” but in addition I have found a new passion to help people pre/post operations dealing with the mental aspects of chronic pain and how to be productive, regardless.
They asked me to write an inspiring article, I could have gone with some cliché feel-good stuff, but this is real. This is really my back; this is really my story and I hope this helps a few people.
Ron Fender is a Clinical Hypnotherapist and NLP Practioner based in San Diego, CA. Visit RonFender.com or Call 619-847-8502 for more information.
Category: Health & Fitness, Life Style
