INDIANAPOLIS – While many may be wary of hypnosis, peak performance expert Wayne Lee told Transportation Director Summit participants on Saturday that it merely entails being open to suggestion, overcoming subconscious blocks, letting go of stress and fear, and therefore achieving more goals.
“When you’re hypnotized, you’re still aware. You just don’t care,” he quipped to laughter from the room full of tables of student transporters and vendor partners.
When attempting hypnosis, Lee said he has run into three types of people: analytical, resistive or imaginative. But he explained that we have been hypnotized since birth into our societal standings and put ourselves under trances every day through our mundane habits and rituals. His stated goal was for attendees to not only achieve a state of personally fulfilling transformation (or as he styles it, TRANCE-formation) but also overcome resistance in their work teams.
To begin, Lee led attendees through several real-life hypnotism exercises. He gave suggestions and narrated the experiences, complete with a steady stream of repeated words, emphatic tongue clicks and strategic music.
- Interlocking one’s fingers as if in prayer, except for the index fingers, and imagining magnets being drawn together gradually made the index fingers touch.
- Holding one arm out palm up and one arm out palm down, then imagining a bouquet of helium balloons tied to the first hand and a heavy brick in the second, made the arms move up and down, respectively.
- After telling participants to imagine their closed eyes or their clasped hands were superglued shut, several found they really couldn’t open or unclasp.
- A row of volunteers was put to “sleep” on command, played invisible instruments, went from an imaginary warm island to the North Pole, danced, and broke out in laughter at a specific word.
Despite Lee clearly explaining what he expected to happen at the end of his exercises, audience members were surprised his predictions came true. But it wasn’t all secrets – Lee explained that the sleep wasn’t even real sleep, but a state of profound relaxation as a result of keeping an open mind. He added that mind triggers he planted served to get participants moving on his command, demonstrating the significance of the mind.
Lee answered curious attendees’ questions about hypnotism. Different states of openness, preconceived expectations, and trying too hard can be barriers to achieving successful hypnosis, he said. While meditation is quieting your mind, he shared that hypnosis is quieting your mind and adding suggestion. If not using hypnosis, he encouraged attendees to find the little specific things that get them into a positive frame of mind to achieve their goals.
Photos by Vincent Rios Creative and Ruth Ashmore.
The Power of the Mind
The point isn’t that the participants in his exercises couldn’t control their arms or wake up, Lee said. It was to remove subconscious blocks, show the power of imagination, enter a state of deeper relaxation, feel more positive, have an open mind, and be more creative. He explained that these techniques can also help with business or personal challenges.
“A lot of it is the thoughts that we’re thinking, it’s not the situations or our circumstances,” he noted.
Lee explained that self-hypnosis is the first, powerful step to trance-formation. “When you feel good, you perform better,” he said. “A lot of people feel bad for no good reason. Why not feel good for no good reason?”
“Your imagination helps you see things before you achieve them,” Lee said. He encouraged attendees to visualize the achievement of their goals as the first step toward accomplishing them.
“How it works is you think a thought, which leads to a feeling, which then leads to stagnation or a breakthrough,” Lee explained. “Our subconscious minds have great potential to support you in whatever you think.”
Lee likened the subconscious to a personal GPS, or Great Programmable Subconscious. Negative feelings like tension and stress are the result of having a strong desire contrasted with a negative or limiting thought. Top performers, he explained, reprogram their mental GPS with positive thoughts to feel better. This takes them from a feeling state to a flow state, which removes mental barriers to goal achievement.
“The only thing that needs to be fixed to feel and perform better is your focus, and that’s controlled by your subconscious,” he stated.
Training sessions were interspersed with vendor networking meetings and golfing outside. Photos by Vincent Rios Creative.
Path to Success
“Let’s ACE your day!” Lee told attendees.
A – Activate your future vision
C – Clear your subconscious blocks
E – Elevate your state
He stressed that beliefs can be changed, and participating in hypnosis with an open state of mind allows changes in the brain, subconscious and beliefs. He encouraged attendees to define limiting vs. empowering beliefs, as well as to write down and visualize their goals.
Lee revealed that the words “picture, imagine, pretend” were effective for both his hypnosis experiences and goal achievement in real life. Conversely, the words “try, can’t, but” are barriers to success. Saying instead “there’s always a way” allows for creativity and brainstorming to find solutions to problems. Asking oneself questions focused on possibilities rather than questions focused on problems re-shifts the focus back to a positive mindset and the resulting opportunity to be powerful, positive and productive.
He next gave a “Fix Your Focus” framework:
- Notice how you’re feeling
- Ask WIN questions: “What if, now (insert a possibility question)?”
- Realize the MIND: Me, I Now Decide
- Find evidence of people doing what you thought couldn’t be done
Steven Whaley, eastern alternative fuels manager for bus manufacturer Blue Bird, said his table resonated with finding stories via the internet of student transporters who had done cool things with their bus fleets and can serve as inspiration. More examples of ways to elevate one’s state and generate energy given by attendees included physical movement, smiling more, vacations and breaks, sleep, deep breaths, gratitude, music, and celebrating successes.
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Lee closed with the MEGA (Mental End Game Activation) Method:
- Name it – Say or write down the “gold medal” thing or moment you want to achieve
- Claim it – visualize having achieved the goal and act as if you have
- Anchor it – Use a physical cue like a hand to the heart, fist pump, or picturing a color when thinking of your achieved goal
- Activate it – Go into a hypnosis state to tie it all together and believe it
He closed with a couple of magic tricks but stressed that it’s “not about magic – the magic is already within you.”
Cypress-Fairbanks (Texas) ISD’s Executive Director of Transportation Kayne Smith brought it home by summing up some takeaways. He noted that the mindset change starts with him and the other leaders in the room before they can take it back to their teams. He also advised being okay with failure along the way and seeking out successful transportation departments for tips.
Wayne Lee will deliver a keynote address at STN EXPO Indy on Monday, June 3.
