The feedback I’ve been getting online and offline for the interviews is great, and to those of you following the interviews, thank you for listening.  But I want to make sure I’m talking about things that interest you as well.  I would love to hear your suggestions for what we should talk about on the radio!  Please leave your suggestion below.  Thanks for your input!

Talk to you soon.

I have an embarrassing confession to make.  Ever since I changed to this new blog format a few months ago, I didn’t realise that I did not have a subscribe button.  D’oh!

What can I say, I’m not immune from making stupid mistakes   Anyway, to subscribe via RSS just click the button orange button on the top left.

If you don’t know what RSS means, watch the video below.

Talk soon.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

Enjoy!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

The brave attendees were:
Sultan Mashood
Ebrahim Ahmadi
Karim El Komaishy
Hameed Hassan
Marjon Norder
Hussain Al Fardan
And Saba Saleem

Well done guys!  I commend your bravery and dedication!  The class was conducted by Sensei Hussain as our Senior Instructor, who was supposed to be teaching the class, was busy snoozing away.

After doing some basics, combinations, bag work and playing dodge ball (!!) the group had breakfast at Costa Coffee, cool!

Well done again guys and look forward to doing it with you next year!

Here are two photos:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3m3I7iMnvw

I’ve been fascinated with hypnosis for quite a few years.  it first started when I read a sales book about the world’s top sales people.  The book revealed that they were using some hypnosis techniques in their sales presentations, and most of them didn’t even know they were using then.

It was in that book (sorry I forget the name now) that I first heard about Milton Erickson, considered one of the greatest hypnotists of all time.  He could hypnotise people instantly, and he could do it without them even realising it!

Milton Erickson subsequently became one of my heroes, and I read more and more about him over time.  I probably started to take the subject of hypnosis seriously in the last year and half or so.  I read more and more about the subject and today I’m proud to say I’m a newly minted, certified a hypnotist.  But I consider myself an amateur hypnotist as I don’t practice hypnosis on a regular basis (or don’t I?  Look deeeeeeep into my eyes!) and I don’t have a clinic or anything.

I don’t consider myself a pro yet by any means, but I’m still learning and I consider hypnosis a life long interest for me.  And with that in mind, let me share some thoughts about hypnosis with you.

What The Heck is Hypnosis Anyway?

According to the dictionary on my Mac, it is “the induction of a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction.”  Let me try to explain that in every day language; You could say that us humans have two minds, the unconscious mind, and the critical, conscious mind.

The unconscious mind is pretty much a sponge and will absorb whatever is fed into it.  The conscious mind, prevents that from happening.  What the hypnotist does, is by-pass the conscious mind in order to make suggestions to the subconscious mind.  And the way you by-pass the conscious mind is by putting your subject into a trance.

Milton Erickson was so good, that he could put people into a trance without them even realising it.  He used what is now called conversational hypnosis.  He could hypnotise people during a normal conversation.

Can Anyone Be Hypnotised?

Well, there’s no easy, straight forward answer to this question.  The quick answer is yes, anyone.  But being in a trance is not like what you see on TV, where people lose complete control of their senses and are at the hypnotists command.  It rarely works like that in real life.  When you’re in a trance, you can still snap out of it when you want to.  And you can’t really make people do things like a mindless robot.  I think that’s what most people think hypnosis is; giving up all your control to the hypnotist.

Milton Erickson once tried to make a nurse he had in a trance get up and slap another nurse.  After hearing the suggestion a couple of times and resisting, the nurse finally said something like “Dr. Erickson, the only person who will be slapped is you!”

The reason this did not work is because our morals are in our subconscious, and even if you by-pass the conscious mind, you can’t make someone do something that goes deeply against their morals.  So if I were to put you in a trance, and then ask you to strip down and run naked in the streets, you probably wouldn’t do it.  Unless, that wasn’t against your morals. get my point?  Makes sense, right?

Remember the definition above says a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action.  They don’t lose full power.  I’ve been in a trance where the hypnotist raised my arm up in the air and asked me to hold it there.  I could have just resisted and dropped my hand, but I chose not to.  Makes sense?

Can YOU Be Hypnotised?

It’s very difficult to put someone into a trance if they don’t want to.  Besides, why would you see a hypnotherapist if you didn’t want to be put into a trance?  But having said that, a master hypnotist like Erickson can put anyone into a trance.  And like I said, they can do it without the other person even realising it.

But make no mistake my friend, you’ve been in a trance many times before.  You don’t need a hypnotist to put you in a trance (an altered state of mind).  If you’ve ever driven for a while and then arrived at your destination, wondering what happened during the drive, then you were in a trance.  It’s called highway hypnosis.  Or if you’ve been enthralled (or “entranced”) by a movie, then you were in a trance.  It happens all the time.  Get my point?

Thanks for reading and talk to you soon.

Dear Suhail,

I hope you are well and Tameen is doing well also.  This invitation is for your colleagues who have children ages 8 to 12.

We invite you to participate in the 4th Arts Olympiad, the world’s largest and most prestigious arts and creative education initiative for children ages 8 to 12.  We also invite you to participate in the 4th World Children’s Festival to be held on the National Mall in Washington DC in June 2011 to honor the Arts Olympiad winners. Information on previous Arts Olympiads and festivals is at www.icaf.org <http://www.icaf.org> .

Attached is the Arts Olympiad Lesson Plan for you to forward to your child’s school.  The International Child Art Foundation does not charge any fee for participation in the Arts Olympiad.  The World Children’s Festival is also free and open to the public.

Sincerely,
Ashfaq

Ashfaq Ishaq
Chairman
International Child Art Foundation
P O  Box 58133
Washington DC 20037
1 202 530 1000
1 202 530 1080 fax
http://www.icaf.org

You can download the lesson plan for more information: 4th International Arts Olympiad Lesson Plan.Oct09.

Evening view of the new DreamBody Centre in Hamala (tel 17613 352)

[wpvideo g4MRke1j]

I’m delighted to announce that -FINALLY!- the new DreamBody Centre (DBC) in Hamala will open this Tuesday the 10th of March at 7:00 am!  I picked up the Commercial Registration (CR) from the ministry of commerce this morning.

It took us about three months to get the CR.  To say it’s been a stressful period for me would be an understatement.  For those who don’t know, The DreamBody Centre is Bahrain’s first and only 23-minute weight loss and body transformation centre.  It’s a place where you can get your “Dream Body” in just 23 minutes, 3 times a week.

It’s also the only place in Bahrain that has the audacity to offer you two money-back guarantees – including a double your money back guarantee!  This is not a joke.  You can find out more at http://www.DreamBodyCentre.com.

You may recall that a while ago I made a crazy, once-in-a-lifetime offer where I offered people the chance to get a whole year free when they join the DreamBody Centre.  I made this offer on the occasion of the birth of my son Tameem.

I know that some people were very keen on using this offer in Hamala, but were never able to because we were not open yet.  Well, since we had to keep people waiting, I’d like to extend this offer.

Basically, if you join the Dream Body Centre in Hamala (and pay one year in advance), I will give you a full year FREE added to your membership!  Really.

There’s only one condition… this offer is only available to the first 10 people who respond, and it expires in one week, Tuesday the 17th of March.

The next 20 people who join after that will get 3 months added to their membership!  This offer is valid only until Tuesday the 31st of March 2009, at 12:03 pm.

Make sure to come in first thing Saturday morning to take advantage of this offer!  The number there is 17 613 352.  The centre is located in the Al-Dhila compound on Wali Al Ahd highway, where the old Harley Davidson showroom used to be.  It’s right next to New York Coffee.

Please note you have to go in person to take advantage of this offer, you can’t call in to reserve a spot.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and if you’re one of those who’ve been waiting for DBC Hamala, thank you for your patience!

“Hmmm…” I thought, as a general rule, I never see anyone without an appointment, and not without first making sure that another Team Member can help them.  But his morning I made an exception.  Besides, it was clear that she didn’t want a “meeting” per se.

It turns out Jameela, who is Dutch married to a Bahraini, has a website in Bahrain promoting recycling.  She wanted to ask some questions about the recycling bins we have at Zen-Do.  She also gave me some interesting facts about the benefits of recycling.

Check out her site at http://recyclepointsbh.webs.com.  The site has quite a bit of useful information, as well as links, forums etc.  We should all do our bit to help the environment, even if it means just recycling a few newspapers a week.