Many times, a client will come to me and tell me that the only time that they can listen to the reinforcement tape of their session is as they're going to sleep. I tell them, "That's fine. As a person goes to sleep, they're going through the same level of awareness that we use in hypnosis." I go on to explain that it generally takes longer than thirty minutes to get into the deep level of sleep, and even then the subconscious is still hearing and listening to what's being said. Have you ever been deeply asleep, and had a strange sound bring you wide-awake? That's the subconscious mind monitoring your environment and recognizing when there's something unusual or dangerous, and waking you to deal with it.

But a person doesn't need an audiotape to utilize this excellent time. Just repeating an affirmation as you go to sleep is a great way to imprint new concepts, goals and ideas. Joseph Murphy, author of many books on the subconscious, suggested repeating the word "Wealth," rather than "I am wealthy" to avoid any resistance from the subconscious. "I am wealthy" might bring up arguments that "No, I'm not," "I don't have a cent to my name," etc. Simply saying "Wealth" brings up the images and feelings of being well taken care of, which is what impresses the subconscious.

Many people use the time before sleep to think of a problem they have, and then affirm, "I'll have the answer to it in the morning." There is now research to support that sleep can be a creative time. If a person believes that their subconscious will be working on a solution, then they will awaken with the answer. A study has found that the person who "Sleeps on it" will be twice as likely to awaken with insights and solutions than the person who stays awake to think and worry about the problem.

One of my colleagues calls the time before sleep "My time." When he has a particular goal, he uses his imagination to make it real for him. He visualizes how it would feel to have accomplished it, and lets his subconscious figure out the way to make it happen. By doing this, he went from having barely enough to live on to owning a beautiful house, investments, and retiring at an early age.

Decide on one area of your life that you want to improve. Then find a short affirmation or word that embodies your desire. Use your imagination to visualize your goal as if it were already accomplished. To reduce weight, imagine yourself at your perfect weight, exercising and enjoying the activity, leaving food on your plate, feeling slim and energetic. To stop smoking, imagine yourself saying, "No thank you" to a cigarette, being free of urges, and being able to breathe better. For prosperity, imagine your bank account at a particular amount by a certain date. If you want more appreciation at work, imagine being congratulated on a job well done, being promoted, feeling satisfied.

Answer: I understand the conflict between wanting to help, and having that help rejected and stomped on. You can't force someone to accept help. You can only offer it, and if it's rejected, move on. There is no reason why you should put up with unacceptable behavior from other people. That behavior shows their disrespect of you, others and themselves. We tend to train others how to treat us, so if you set boundaries and stick to them, people will learn what you'll accept and what you won't.

I recently discovered that new subscribers were not receiving the autoresponder "Welcome" message that included the email link to send for the ten articles and affirmations they were promised for subscribing. I sincerely apologize. It was a misunderstanding and server error, and I have no idea how long the problem existed. It has now been remedied.

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This book is a classic. Although the title suggests that the book's subject is only about getting rich while sleeping, the author covers a lot more territory than that. The beginning of the book does explain how to utilize the subconscious while going to sleep and sleeping. And if those were the only chapters read, it would be well worth it. He details various affirmations to use as one is going to sleep, to help program the subconscious. He explains exactly what to do and how to do it to contact the creative mind to get it to work on what it is you want.

But that's only a small amount of information contained in this jewel. In very simple language, with lots of examples, the author explains how the creative mind works, and how we are "a mind with a body." He gives an exercise to practice to become more positive, along with other exercises to improve one's success consciousness. Along with affirmations, he gives specific directions on how to go about conditioning the mind for abundance.

Although this book was written almost forty years ago, and some of the details in the examples are outdated (such as what a good salary is), the basic information is timeless and extremely beneficial.

To read more about it, click on the book image to the left.