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You might call it “highway hypnosis” or “zoning out” or “spacing off” or “in the zone”. And, hypnosis is used on you everyday on radio and television. Even by your friends or family using guilt, blame, or joy to manipulate your decisions.

Hypnosis is NOT a secret power. It’s NOT a special Jedi mind state. It’s just the method your mind uses to access your emotions, memories, and learned behaviors. It generally feels relaxing, mellow and focused. But, can also feel distracting, angry, stressed, and depressed. That depends on your current mental state.

The word hypnosis applies to the ways you communicate when asking for a favor or when someone else tries to appeal to your emotions to manipulate a decision. Hypnosis is a word with odd interpretations that describes everyday situations.

Hypnosis is in use when your critical faculty is bypassed. Analytical reason is set aside, or completely bypassed, in favor of emotional behavior Emotional behaviors are quicker and more consistent from person to person. So, more likely to elicit a predictable response. Like when you’re driving and you hear a horn honk behind you. What is your immediate emotional behavior response? Guilt? Anger? Fear? The honking horn may not even be directed at you. The honking horn was honked with the intention of eliciting a rapid response, and it usually does. Sounds complicated until you start seeing how common it is.

The beer advertisement shows video that stimulates feelings of happiness, satisfaction, and companionship. People like those things and now those good feelings will tend to be associated with the image of that particular beer brand. If you think of a remote, relaxing, sunny beach in Mexico, blue water, white sand, the sound of small, soft waves, two lounge chairs and maybe a slice of lime, do you think of a particular brand of beer? That’s emotional association at work.

This is evident in all aspects of your life. Your mind began collecting these associations soon after you were born. It is the same for all of us. Of course, it is common sense, but we don’t always realize how powerfully it influences our behaviors and choices.

A habit, once formed with emotional association can become more deeply rooted with repetition. The more repetition, the stronger and more automatic the reaction is. Once deeply rooted, it becomes more difficult to change an emotionally based habit.

This basic premise applies to all kinds of behavior, from your posture, to your food preferences. A smoker is often aware of when they started and why. Knowing this they may be fairly aware of the emotional associations involved. But, this doesn’t mean all smokers can just stop. Some can and do. Some stop smoking and replace the smoking activity with another. Like food, gum or candy. The behavior is still there and active, and still has the potential to cause trouble.

Seeing this process in action and understanding the concept can give you a big step forward in changing your habits. Sometimes you can do it on your own. Sometimes it’s easier to use help. Find a professional hypnotist you can trust and use them. That’s their job.

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