The Liz Moody Podcast - Grace Smith — How To Use Hypnosis For Weight Loss, Anxiety, Insomnia, and More

Episode Date: July 18, 2018

Grace Smith (@gracesmithtv) is a celebrity hypnotherapist and the author of the just-released sure-to-be bestseller, Close Your Eyes, Get Free. If you’re skeptical about hypnosis, trust me— was too. Then I worked with Grace on my fear of flying, and read into some of the science behind the very misunderstood practice, and now, well, I’m a believer. In this episode, we get into the nitty gritty of how hypnosis actually works, how it compares to meditation, some of Grace’s biggest client success stories, how she used hypnosis to quit smoking, and more. Grace also shares her very personal birth story, and how she thought that as a hypnosis guru her birth would be low key, relaxed and magical—but it was anything. She talks about what happened and how the trauma of this changed her approach to hypnosis forever. Stay tuned for the end, where Grace does a hypnosis session for stress relief. For more from Grace, check out her website, gshypnosis.com. Enjoy! This episode is brought to you by CW Hemp. I’m extremely picky about the supplements that I choose to use and CW Hemp’s full-spectrum hemp extract is one of just a handful that I take daily. By interacting with our cannabinoid receptors (which are all over our body—it’s crazy, and definitely worth a Google!), I find it super helpful in relieving stress and helping me sleep better and longer at night. I typically go for the middle strength mint chocolate, but the unflavored is also great for recipes, like this Lavender Hot Chocolate (which would also be great iced in the summer time!). If you’d lke to try CW Hemp for yourself, you can get 10% off your order using the code “healthiertogether.” Visit cwhemp.com/healthiertogether for more details, and if you have any questions (I LOVE talking about this stuff), don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram! Healthier Together cover art by Zack. Healthier Together music by Alex Ruimy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi friends and welcome back to the healthier together podcast. The healthier together podcast is all about coming together and sharing our knowledge so that we can live happier and healthier lives. I'm Liz Moody. It's nice to meet you if we have not met yet. And I am a healthy cookbook author. My new cookbook is also called Healthier Together. And that comes out next April. And I am so, so excited to share that with all of you. I'm also a recipe developer slash wellness human person over on Instagram. So come be friends with me. over at Liz Moody. And I am the food director at Mind Buddy Green, which is an amazing wellness website. If you have not checked it out yet, you definitely should. Today's episode is with a woman named Grace Smith. Grace is a hypnotist who works with CEOs, celebrities, athletes, and more. And if you heard hypnotist and you are immediately skeptical, I hear you. I was super, super skeptical, too, to be honest.

But hear me out. So I reached out to Grace last summer about my fear of flying, which I've had. had for as long as I can remember. I love traveling. It's my number one love, but I actually set up a lifestyle where I could go, say, backpacking around South America for seven months at a time, instead of doing these normal two-week trips because I was so afraid of flying and I needed that gap between the time of my two flights to actually enjoy my time in a place. It came from my childhood. I'm pretty sure my parents were divorced. One of them lived in California and the other one lived in Arizona, so I used to fly back and forth between them by myself.

And airports and airplanes were always places where I said goodbye and where I cried and I was by myself. So I knew where it came from, but I did not know how to deal with it. And I was at the end of my rope. I had a trip to Europe coming up. And so I called on Grace. I was really, like I said, I was really skeptical when I first reached out. I was kind of like, prove to me that what you do works.

but Grace has such an immediate presence and she also presents such a compelling science-based argument for the power of hypnosis, which I am all about. Like, show me the studies. And she also has these really powerful anecdotes about her own client success stories. So we did eight sessions together and I flew to Europe shortly thereafter. And I'm not going to like lie to you and say that I was 100% cured. I wasn't like waltzing on the plane or changing my career. career path to want to be a pilot or a flight attendant. But difference was honestly so dramatic.

Flying went from being something that would keep me up for nights before the flight to being something that like it made my chest tighten up and I didn't feel great about it, but I didn't stress out about it for weeks or days beforehand. And I certainly didn't structure my life around having the least amount of flights possible. And having that change made me feel so free. and so amazing. And then I really started to get excited about the possibilities of hypnosis. So in this episode, I really, really grill grace on hypnosis. I make her answer every single one of my super, super skeptical questions. So I hope I answer all of your questions as well. We dive into what hypnosis is good for, what is not good for, who it works for, why it's gotten such a bad rap over

the years. We also, I have her tell you guys, some of her biggest success stories. I always love hearing like how things worked for different people. So there's a woman who used hypnosis for weight loss and lost 120 pounds. There's another one who actually found the love of her life doing hypnosis, but it's in this really sort of roundabout interesting way. So we'll get into that. It's really fascinating. And then we also get personal. I love Grace. I've talked to her a ton over time and we were able to kind of dive into stuff that's affected more of her life personally. She recently had the most adorable and perfect baby who, if you follow her on Instagram, you will see him. He is so cute and so amazing.

And she went into the birth as this hypnosis guru, someone who is really, you know, skilled in hypnobirthing, who had taught other people hypnobirthing and all of those things. And so she thought that she would be super calm and cool and collected about the birth. And needless to say, it was anything. but the birth was actually really traumatic. And we get into the trauma of that whole experience and what she learned from it and her postpartum and all of that and how all of those things sort of affected her worldview

and what she thought the meaning of hypnosis was and the place of hypnosis in people's lives and how she came out on the other side even stronger and better off. Finally, stay tuned until the very end of this episode because Grace leads us in a little guided hypnosis session for stress. Her voice is truly like butter. It will make you melt.

You will feel so calm and so delicious and tingling and amazing. So that's a little treat for you at the end. Or you can just skip ahead and listen to that. Honestly, if anything will make you believe in the power of hypnosis, it's actually having a little dose of how good and magical it can feel in your own body. Grace's book, Close Your Eyes, Get Free, Just Came Out, This, This, week. So if you're intrigued by what you hear today, definitely go to check that out. You can also find Grace on social at Grace Smith TV or on the wonderful worldwide internet, gshypnosis.com.

All right. What do you guys think about all that? Are you skeptical? Are you into it? Either way, I want to talk about it. So after you guys listen to this episode, come hang out with me on Instagram at Liz Moody and let's talk about hypnosis and if it's a crazy, alternative therapy or if it's poised to be sort of the next meditation, which if you remember, a lot of people were skeptical about and then a ton of amazing science came out and everybody's like, oh yeah, meditation. Like now we're all really on board. So I'm curious if hypnosis is that. And yeah, give this episode a listen and you can decide for yourself. Let's get into it. All right. Grace, thank you for being here with me today. Thank you for having you.

little East Village Airbnb. Yes. I love it. Why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do? Sure. So I'm a hypnotherapist and specifically I'm on a mission to make hypnosis mainstream. I think a lot of people when they start off with a hypnotherapy business or any sort of life coach, help or healer business, they're really focused on building, you know, a network of

clientele. Whereas from day one, my goal was always to overcome the misunderstandings about hypnosis and bring it into the mainstream. Because I felt like there's so much needless suffering going on in the world. And if people only knew the truth about this tool, that suffering would go away. So from day one, I've seen this really as sort of a human rights initiative more so than just building a business. And that's what I do all day long is just educate people about this. So I'm super excited to be here and talk to all your people. So how did you first come to hypnosis?

Sure. So I typically give the short version of the story, but I'm going to give it a little bit longer if that's okay. So when I was 24 years old, I was working in New York City in fundraising and in sales. And it was a very difficult time economically. Everybody was losing their jobs, losing their pensions. And I had to go out there and put my hand out and meet my quotas. So I was experiencing tremendous anxiety. And I didn't have any coping mechanisms that were healthy.

It was a totally different world for me back then. I had nothing that I have now. And I turned to drugs and alcohol. And it got out of control really, really fast, which I'm so grateful for. Because at 24 years old, I was lucky enough to get sober. And six months into my sobriety, I was chain smoking cigarettes, like a banshee, living in the Lower East Side. So it's nice to be back in the old.

Yeah, you were able to get sober from alcohol, but you were just like, no, cigarettes. Yeah, it was so funny. So I found myself, the night that I got sober, found myself at a meeting. And I was hysterically. Was it like a rock bottom thing? Yeah. So actually, you know, we'll back it up. I really never tell this part, but you're going to appreciate this, I think.

So I was having just a really quiet night at home with my boyfriend at the time. And we were watching a movie. It was just the two of us. and I was rummaging in the fridge for something to drink. And there was nothing but a Mike's hard lemonade. And I was like, this is disgusting. And then cracked it open and started drinking it. And he looked at me.

And this guy was not a saint at all. I mean, he had issues. And he looked at me and said, I think you've got a problem here. It's just the two of us. And you hate that, but you're drinking it because it's alcohol. And other people had said things like that to me along the way, but for some reason that night it hit. So he left and I started getting a panic attack thinking, oh my God, I actually think I have an issue.

And this runs in my family too. So it really landed for me that day. And so I went into my room and I grabbed, I had a little statue of a Buddha and my mom had given me in the hopes to try to get me to be more spiritual because I still wasn't. I had a crystal from a weirdo new age friend, which I'm putting in quotes, because now there's like crystals in my Airbnb I travel with them. And also, I had been really involved in Habitat for Humanity and had a cross made out of the floorboards of a house I'd rebuilt. So I grabbed all the iconoclasm I could find, got on my bed, looked up at the ceiling and said, God, if you're out there, please help me or kill me. Because I don't want to go through this anymore. I mean, it wasn't, you know, that night when he said, I think you have a problem.

Leading up to that, my life was chaos. I was almost losing my jobs. I would black out for hours every night and wake up. wondering, oh, God, who did I text? Who did I call? What did I say? What did I do? I had broken my arm. So even though it was a quiet night that was the impetus for this, it had been chaos for a while. So I said, please help me or kill me. And it was very specific. I said, please give me a brain aneurysm because I don't want to have to do anything that would upset my parents. And then I passed out and fell asleep. It was really dramatic and really upsetting. And I woke up and I said,

thank God, nobody ever saw that or was around because it was so embarrassing. I can't believe I did that. So I wake up and I said, all right, you know what, I'm not going out to the bar. I'm just going to watch the West Wing. I was watching it from beginning to end because I'm obsessed with it. Yeah. And it was my first time through. I put in the DVD and it started with an AA meeting. And up until that point in the show, it had only been mentioned once about Leo's problem, but it never actually showed a meeting. And I just, it shocked me because I was like, there's the vice president. There are these very successful people, not the type of people. you would think are alcoholics in this meeting.

So I got goosebumps all over and I was like, that's weird. I don't believe in signs, but that's weird. So I'm turning it off. And I said, okay, I'm going to just go get some water from the fridge. I'm not going to drink anything else, just water. And I walk over to the fridge and I had a bottle opener on my key chain forever. And I heard something break under my foot. And my metal bottle opener was in three pieces.

So I got all chills again, got myself in a cab. and you can fall into a meeting in New York, found myself there, was crying hysterically in the back, three women came up to me and said, is it your first time here? Like, oh, is it that obvious? And I said, I just quit drugs and alcohol

and smoking cigarettes tonight. And they said, no, you didn't, sister. They walked me across the street, bought me two backs of cigarettes, handed them to me and said, come back tomorrow at noon. Because it was too much. It's too much.

And it's the lesser of the evils for sure. So I went back the next day, and I've been sober ever since, so I was 24. Wow. But that day, those two coincidences, the West Wing, thanks Aaron Swarkin, and the broken bottle opener, were the first of what has now become a lifetime

of synchronicities, coincidences, signs, messages. And one of the biggest signs I got within a few weeks of my sobriety were people starting to say, have you tried hypnosis to quit smoking? Have you tried hypnosis to quit smoking? Because I wanted to stop. And I said,

if I could quit drinking and drugging, why can't I stop smoking? This is so bizarre. I've tried everything. The patch, the gum, the cold turkey, the book that everybody reads about quitting smoking. And none of it works. And so I went to a session and I quit in one. And what do people get wrong about in those? It's changed so much just in the past few years, which is so encouraging to me. but I'll let you know what it was like when I first started in case it resonates with anybody's listening. There was a lot of people who thought hypnosis was mind control, which actually it's the exact opposite. You've never been more in control of your mind than you are in hypnosis because we're conditioned to be the way we are when we're young children. But when you access the theta brainwave state and you go into hypnosis, you are now at the control panel and you can choose if you're,

confident if you're happy, if you have this habit, if you want to delete this fear. So rather than someone else being in control of your mind, you're more in control of your mind than ever. And a simple way that I always illustrate this is if hypnosis for mind control, all hypnotists would be billionaires. And I have yet to find one who is a billionaire. I'm going to stop using that soon because our company is doing really well. And I definitely don't want to get in the way of there. Exactly. I don't want to block my manifesting, but it does illustrate it very quickly and clearly. So, It's not mind control, at least not from the perspective of the hypnotist.

So when you go to like, I went to, for my 21st birthday, I went to Vegas and I went to the show on the Vegas strip. And, you know, he had everybody get up on stage and simulate oral sex to a chair. What was, and my friend said later, she was one of the people chosen. I was kicked off stage because they said I wasn't suggestible enough. But, you know, my friend said she didn't remember anything. and she definitely gave pretty good-looking hats to the chair. So what was happening there? So hopefully your friend won't take offense to this.

But no, basically in those shows, nobody is dragged onto this stage against their will. Everybody volunteers. So for the first thing is there's consent. And the person volunteered. Second thing is, just as you just said, anybody who's not going along with it, they take off the stage. Yeah. So by the end of the show, the only people are the ones who not only volunteered, but have been going along with it the whole way. So if a mom came to me and said, I'm smoking, I'm so embarrassed, I don't want my kids to see me, I'm afraid I'm ruining their lives, I want to quit so bad.

I hate the smell. It's so expensive. I need to quit now. But I don't believe in hypnosis. She'd quit in one or two sessions. Her motivation is so hot. She dragged her 16-year-old son in and said, make him quit smoking. And I say, do you want to quit smoking?

and he says, no, is not worth my time, their money. He's not going to quit. He doesn't want to. So your friend wanted to give the chair head because she did. She wanted the show to work. She wanted the show to work. And so a lot of times people who either are funny or just really extroverted like doing those things or it's people who don't want to let others down and don't want the hypnotist

to feel bad, that it's not working. For some reason, the people who are up there at every. by the end of the show, want to be, and they're going along with it by choice. And at the end, the hypnotist gives the suggestion, if you'd like to forget what you did here, you will. Because hypnosis does not have natural amnesia, as you know from our sessions. You remember it like you remember a conversation. You remember overarching themes, but not every single word of an hour-long conversation.

There's only amnesia if hypnotist suggests amnesia and you want to accept the amnesia. And when you've just made a fool of yourself in front of a whole bunch of people, of course you would want to accept the amnesia. So how does you've said like a lot of things about like theta wave, brain states and blah, like how, on a very basic level, how does hypnosis work? When you feel relaxed and safe, you become open to suggestions that you want. That's it. So I'll break it down from there. But just to recap again, when you feel relaxed and safe, you become open to suggestion. not just any suggestions, but the ones that you want to hear.

So most people are operating from a place of stress all the time. Anxiety, cortisol pumping, fight, flight, freeze. We've all heard that to the point where it's gotten really like, that's not shocking to hear. Yeah, fight, flight, freeze, whatever. But what that means is your body is not going to allow new information in because it's surviving. If the body's in survival mode, it's not going to say, let me absorb a new habit, trait, way of thinking, way of being. It's just saying, all systems are on lockdown, nothing new is getting in. So that means if someone's a smoker, just an easy example, the brain doesn't say, what would be better for me?

Let me choose what's better. It just says, I'm in survival mode, which means nothing new gets in. We've been smoking for a while. We're still alive. We're going to keep everything the same. When you go into hypnosis, you become so deeply relaxed and you feel so safe that all of those guards come down and you can actually absorb new information. And that's literally it.

I describe it in the book as like a club with a bouncer in the front. The bouncer is your conscious mind that says nothing you can get in. And then hypnosis is like slipping them $100. And you can just get in the side door by getting super relaxed. So how are you able to get them be so much more deeply relaxed than they could get themselves via meditation or any of the other sort of relaxing things we do? So as much as I love meditation and I do, I think they're totally different even though they feel the same.

Like I call hypnosis meditation with a goal. In my mind, now there's different types of meditation, of course, but in my mind the main purpose of meditation and the way I use it is to let go. Yeah. Hypnosis is about putting in. It's conditioning. It's putting in information. I could never meditate before I did hypnosis, ever. I mean, I was just squirming around on my seat, thinking thoughts, thinking I was doing it wrong and hating every second of it, never getting deep. Hypnosis, because your hypnotherapist, hopefully, has been trained really well and it's done hundreds of hours of work and practice and isn't somebody who got a certification over the weekend. So make sure you ask, because it's still not a very regulated field, they're trained to help you get into the Theta brainwave state, which is the same place you go in deep meditation. It's deeper than daydreaming, but it's still above sleep. So it's this beautiful, deep, relaxing place where you have no inhibitions and where all of your resources are available to you in terms of problem solving. So Thomas Edison would put himself in hypnosis in order to

create inventions because the conscious mind would say, no, that won't work. Oh, that guy tried it. That's never going to happen. We've already tried it 10,000 times. When you're in hypnosis, anything becomes possible. And so a hypnototherapist can guide you there because they were trained to guide you there to help you relax deeply and because a hypnotherapist knows how to speak to the subconscious. So what are some ways that you're actually doing that? Is it your tone of voice? Is it the words that you're saying. Yep. So there's like a perfect storm and you start to get really intuitive about what's going

to work with different people. But I'll tell you the individual mechanisms that are popular. But for those of you who are listening, just so you know, your personality plays a big role. And that's why your hypnotherapist needs to be really skilled because the same thing is not going to work for everybody. So, for example, progressive relaxation. Anybody who's taking a yoga class is probably at some point in.

in shavasana relaxed from the top of their head down to their toes. When we do this in hypnosis, it's guided in such a way that you're given the space and the time, but only the exact space and time to do those things. So if I say, relax the top of your head, I relax the top of my head. As soon as it's relaxed, I'll say, relax your forehead, smoothing out any creases. So we give directives that are very clear. So it's like, okay, I don't know how to relax my forehead. Oh, I just smooth that.

the creases. And then I do that personally. By the time I've done it, the client has done it. Relax the tiny muscles next to your eyes. So the directives aren't just relax the muscles in your face. I might do that with someone after they've been working with me for a while because they've been trained to know how to do it now. But you're holding the client's hand to relax their body. So progressive relaxation is one. Another one is counting down. There's this phenomenal thing that happens when you imagine yourself, for example, walking down a staircase. And you say with each and every single decreasing number that I say, you take a step down and double your relaxation. This imagery, paired with the directive, allows people to go into a theta brainwave state who've never been able to meditate before.

But do we know why? Like, have there been MRI tests on this or anything? It's the same thing behind visualization, except for it's deeper because you're so relaxed. So I'm sure you've heard of the studies of Olympic athletes who, if they imagine doing their sport, right, all the same brainwaves are firing. The mapping of the brain is exactly the same. The heart rate gets to the same place. They're visualizing. They're using hypnosis.

And so because I'm saying you're taking a step down on a staircase and with every step down, you double your relaxation and you're visualizing this happening and you want it to happen because you want. the end result, you do. It's the same thing. It's the same reason why if you're five years old and your parents tell you you're stupid, you're never going to amount to anything, that that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Someone that you trust as an authority is telling you something. You imagine it in your mind and it becomes true. So if someone comes to me, it's because they believe I can help them and they want the result so much that you're not. they're going to absorb the directive. So why I wanted my result to be not afraid of flying like really, really badly.

Yeah. But it didn't happen in like one session. It took a while. Yeah. Was it eight? And I would say I'm like 70 to 80 percent better. You know, I'm not like excited, but I will get on a plane and it's great. But why wouldn't I wanted it so badly.

So why did it take that long? So there was a study done a long, long time ago. but it's been coming up a lot recently, where 600 sessions of psychoanalysis result in 33% improvement for the client. And that's pretty normal, which nobody says like, oh, I went to therapy for a week

and now I'm all better. I went to therapy and I'm not biting my nails. Like, everybody just assumes you go to therapy for 10 years or more, and you're still kind of a mess. And I'm not putting down therapy. And this is specifically psychoanalysis, not like CBT or... Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

Cognitive behavioral therapy, it's 22 sessions for 70s. 7% improvement. So it's way better. Hypnotherapy is six sessions for 93% improvement. So I'll say the numbers again. And this is not to put down there because if therapy is working for you, keep working it. Whatever works for you, keep working it. But this is what the study found.

And when you think about it in your own life and who you know and who is using what, it really matches up. And you're like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. That's exactly how long they've been doing that. 600 sessions of psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, for 33% improvement. Cognitive behavioral therapy was 22 sessions for 77% improvement. And hypnosis was six sessions for 93% improvement. The reason being hypnosis focuses on healing the subconscious, where everything is stored.

So when you say, why did it taste so long? It was eight sessions. Six sessions is the average for 93% improvement. And this is a big misnomer because of, the movies and the stage shows and even some hypnotists market themselves as like one session whatever now when i quit smoking quitting smoking is one of the easiest things you can do with hypnosis you think it wouldn't be but if it's a physical addiction i would think it'd be stronger than fear of flying which is all mental yeah it's the exact opposite so when you're done smoking

you don't walk around with an unlit cigarette in your lips saying am i going to light it am i going to light it you get rid of the ashtray you get rid of the lighters you throw out of the the cigarettes. You don't want them anymore. You replace it with sipping water. You're cool. As long as you wanted to quit, most people quit smoking in two, three, four sessions, like max. Whereas, like, with weight loss, for example, you got to keep eating every day, three times a day. Right. So it's a little bit different. Yeah. And with something like flying, you're not flying every day. So you don't get the experience to implement it. Like, it was so great when you and I were working together because you had two flights. Yeah.

You had the mini flight to Austin. Is it Austin or Nashville? It was Knoxville. No, Knoxville. So none of those places. But it was a mini flight leading up to Europe, the big flight. So we got to work together first. Then when your flights in Knoxville was a significant improvement, but still not where you

wanted to be, we were able to anchor that experience, like parlay the success you had into more success. So it just took a little long. because you had a few flights, like public speaking, you still have to go out and speak in order to be able to say like, oh, yeah, it was 25% better. Now that I was 25% better, let's get to 50. Which is a huge part of CBT, too, is confronting the thing that you're afraid of and realizing it's not catastrophic.

And I guess for you, it's like about creating new visualizations for those moments. Well, that's part of it. but it's also understanding where the belief came from. It's not just reassigning understanding with new visualizations. That's part of it, but that's actually probably the least powerful. So if you remember the session that clicked in the last. Yeah. We had to go back and say, oh, you know what?

This wasn't the actual fear. It was tied to this. And that can take a minute. So I think when people are going into hypnotherapy and they say, oh, I had a session, it didn't work for me. That's the fault of the marketers. That's the fault of the hypnototherapist for not saying up front, hey, look, six sessions is the average. That's the average. It means it could be more, it could be less.

But this is per topic. So I never work with someone now for less than 12 sessions because I'm like, I don't care if you quit here, like if you leave here quitting smoking. But whatever caused you to begin smoking in the first place, when you didn't want, you. want to, whether it was a lack of confidence, peer pressure, too much stress, whatever it was. That still exists in you. That's how people have gastro bypass surgery, 88% of the time, end up with another addiction. Right. Is that true?

Yeah. That's a crazy stat. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's really sad. Yeah, it's very, very, very common to become a sex addict, alcoholic, so not food-related things, but the addiction's there. The problem's there.

So I never want to work with anybody until I know we're going to get to the root. And I know that 12 sessions is the bare minimum for that, which is still nothing. Yeah, yeah. That's nothing. So how do you know that you've found, obviously you're a great hypnotherapist, but not everybody can work with you. And a lot of people can't, in fact, because you're quite in demand. Yeah.

And I know you train people too. But in general, I think you know you have a good psychologist because you can be like, oh, they went to this school. They have their PhD. And that doesn't exist all. hypnotherapy, right? It's, no, it doesn't exist in that way. But for example, like my hypnotherapy certification school is 250 hours, which is significantly higher than the minimum, which is only 100. And most schools don't even actually reach that. So what I would do,

if you want to look for a great hypnotherapist, is do look at their credentials and then Google the credentials. So if they say, I graduated from this hypnotherapy school, because they do all have to do that. Look up the school. You know, see where is it based? What's their ethos? What do they care about? Are they meeting that most high rigorous standards of what exists in the field thus far? Ask for testimonials. You know, you don't have to be shy. This is your subconscious, right? You don't want anybody in there poking around with you unless you really trust them and like them and believe that they're going to be able to help you. And it's not, again, that they can give you suggestions that won't work, it's because if you see them as an authority, you'll have better results.

Right. So what we created is something where when people go to our school and they graduate at the top of their class, all of their exams are the highest, their reviews from their practice sessions are the highest. We hire them. And all of our sessions are offered over the phone and over Skype. So you can live anywhere in the world and work with a gray space hypnotist. And they're just phenomenal. They're absolutely amazing and their pricing is less than the average national cost. So we really make ourselves competitive that way. Well, they don't have to pay for office space and all of that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's nice. Do you think hypnotherapy is just as effective on Skype and the phone as it is in real life? Yeah, more so. So I used to have an office in Union Square.

And again, what I said earlier about hypnosis works because you're feeling safe and relaxed. People, you know, the subways are a disaster. So everybody's showing. up late. Everybody's pissed at their boss. Everybody just bumped into an angry person on the street. There's so much energy coming at you. If you're an empath, you're soaking it all up. So people get to the session, totally freaked out, have the session, and then go right back out into the chaos. And what I found is that even though that was effective, because they got a reprieve and we went deep and everything was great, when I started working with executives a lot who travel all the time, they'd say, hey, can I just, you know, I don't want to miss the

sessions, but I'm going to be gone for three weeks. Like, can we just do it over the phone? And I'll never forget this first woman I was working with who every week she showed up, I thought she was going to cry because she was always late. And I was starting to get a little bit like, you can't, you know, it makes the next person late and the next person late. She called me and she was so chill. We did her session. She's like, okay, now I'm going to go take a bubble bath. And the following week when I asked her, what's your feedback, how are things? The impact of the session was at least 20% higher than it happened every other time.

And I realize when the length of the theta brainwave state is extended, the results go even deeper. So at the end of a phone session, as you know, I actually count the client deeper. So if you don't have anything to do for five, 10, 20 minutes, you can stay in that meditative state for as long as you'd like. And when you're ready, open your eyes, come out, cook dinner, go to bed. For a while, I was only doing sessions at 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock at night because I would just work with insomniax and put them to sleep. And then they'd sleep and then their insomnia is gone. So it's beautiful. And once I realized that, I said, well, forget this rent cost.

It's not even helping people to have it here. And we went totally digital. Everything's been online since. And it's phenomenal. Which I'll put the link for all of that in the show note so you guys can find her site. What does hypnosis not work for? The only people who shouldn't use hypnosis are those who've been diagnosed with, multiple personality disorder or even a diagnosis of schizophrenia as well.

So the reason being when you are in the subconscious mind, let's say, for example, I say go to your safe place and your safe place is the beach, but when we're having the phone call, you're in your apartment in New York City. You realize you are simultaneously in both places. You're in the beach in your mind, but it feels very real, but you're also physically in New York City. Yeah, If anything were to happen in your apartment, you would get it and it's fine. Yeah, yeah. If the fire alarm went off, you'd open your eyes and you'd walk out the door. But for somebody who struggles with understanding what reality is, that can exacerbate the issue.

But can it solve? I think people are wary of hypnosis because it sounds like if we all did hypnosis, we would all just be like perfect, happy, successful people. Right. So there's nothing else that I would say that it doesn't work for. but you have to understand as your life evolves, like, I'm going through this right now. I used hypnotherapy to solve all of the major issues in my life when I was an alcoholic in a job I hated in relationships that were toxic with friends who were not good friends and me too.

And then I came into this beautiful life with this amazing partner, this incredible baby, I'm living in this great place that I love. I love my business. And then all of a sudden the next level comes where now I have employees. and now I'm getting to be more well-known. And now it's like I got a TV show here and then my book thing here and I've got the thing here. And so I'm having to learn to exist in a whole new plane, an elevated plane. It's almost like I'm having my next life now on Earth.

And I have to use hypnosis to now get used to something I have no basis of experience for. So it's, you know, human beings are very adaptable. And as soon as we get something, we're so used to. to it so quickly that it's on to the next. And that's why it's not like everything just becomes sunshine and roses and everything's perfect, because you're still going to sit in traffic on the way to an important interview or something sad and terrible happens and you have to learn how to cope with grief all of a sudden. Or, you know, life still occurs, but this tool can help us get through life with less suffering. That's the whole thing. What are some things do you think

of notices is like the most helpful for? The reason why I love to, doing it so much for insomnia. So I'm really excited we can work on that together is because I think the way I describe it is it's like the tide that lifts all ships. Because when you're not sleeping, everything sucks. Right. Digestion is impacted. Creativity is impacted. Just being able to be nice to be able to be able to impacted. Confidence is impacted. Metabolism is impacted everything. So I love using hypnosis for insomnia because typically the results are very, very fast. but it's all fast comparatively

and then once someone is sleeping everything gets better and by a lot significantly so so I love that what are some of the other ones where you see results super fast any stress or anxiety because

by going into the theta brainwave state you're going in the exact opposite place of stress and anxiety so you're starting to create neurological associations in your brain that aren't solely stress-based. Most people in Western society, every single new connection they make in their brain comes from a place of stress. So when you spend a lot of time in the opposite space, whether it's meditation, hypnosis, you're starting to create experiences from a new state.

And so it helps as a baseline. So does it need to be like a specific anxiety? So I feel like I've identified as a person with anxiety. basically my entire life. And my anxiety is really interesting because it jumps around. So I'll stop being anxious about one random thing and then I'll start being anxious about another thing. And it's to the point where sometimes I'll be really anxious about something and I'll just literally be able to tell myself like, you won't be anxious about this in like three weeks. It'll be fine and it does. It moves on. But would you have to treat every single one of those

things or would you be able to treat like anxiety? Yeah, I would definitely, just from hearing you said, my path that I would want to follow to start with would be to ask that part and say, the part of anxiety that jumps around, let's talk to it. And let's ask it, why are you jumping around? How do you choose what to jump to? I mean, it definitely must be that for some reason what it's jumping to has a greater importance in your life at that moment. And it's becoming like a higher stakes for you at some point for some reason. And then when it's not as high stakes, it moves on. because really what it's trying to do is bring all of your focus to it and saying, this is important, this is important, this is important, don't neglect this, don't neglect this,

which isn't helping you, but it thinks that it is. So we would talk to that part and say, hey, why are you jumping around? What are you doing? Why is this important? Can we do something else instead? Something that actually helps Liz because this is hurting her. And it's so interesting that almost all hypnosis comes down to this conversation with these different parts that think they're keeping you alive, they think they're keeping you safe,

and that they're hurting us. So I want to talk a little bit about your birth experience. Okay. So I know that when we were doing our sessions, you were very pregnant. Yes, very, very pregnant forever. You were very pregnant. And you were talking about having this, like, wonderful birth and that you've been practicing. I think you were thinking of like a colored turquoise or something like that.

And you were like, I'm ready to have this really, you were looking forward to it a lot. and you're like ready to have this magical experience. And then it sounds like it didn't quite go as you plan. So I'd love to hear about that. And I'd also love to hear about how that affected your vision of what hypnosis could or couldn't accomplish. Yeah. I'm so glad you asked this. So when it comes to hypnosis for birth and a very popular technique is hypno birthing,

that's what I was trained in to teach. And also my doula is the head person. hypno birthing these days. So I was like, I'm going to give birth in 10 minutes in the water surrounded by salt lamps and crystals and essential oils and it's going to be the most like beautiful, easy thing. I had no fear. The whole concept behind hypno birthing is basically that there's this fear pain cycle where when you're afraid of something, you tighten up. And because you're tight, then the baby can't move down the birth canal. And then there's more pain because it's tight. And because it's painful, now you're more afraid. And so you're,

tighten up versus if you're just relaxed and you're opening, opening, opening, then it comes that easy. So since I had no fear and was a total pro in teaching all this, I really thought I was going to have 10 minute birth. I mean, I'm not joking. I thought that. And that I was going to be able to tell the whole world about it and it's going to be so great. So on exactly 42 weeks, like the last day that it could have been before they would induce me, I went into labor. and it was the day before the eclipse, the one that comes every 300 years. So I went into labor on August 20th.

And I was like, great, we're doing this. I'm not getting induced. My greatest fear was being induced, by the way. It was going to a hospital. That was my fear. That was like, this is not happening. I'm not going to the hospital. I had so demonized this in my mind.

Just wanted a homebirth in the water. And 12 hours into labor, my midwife comes over, checks me, and I'm like half a centimeter. violated. And she said that my cervix was, like the baby's head was behind the surface system. So basically she pulled my cervix forward. Was that comfortable? I screamed. So Bernardo thought like I died. He was downstairs and didn't know what happened. From that point on, every surge, every contraction became so excruciating. I couldn't see. And were you afraid at

that point? Were you like what is happening to my body? I, just believed that yeah i mean i was definitely like i don't understand i don't understand i'm not supposed to feel anything like i did all the hypnosis that anybody could ever do it's not like were you able access any of those tools in that moment i no not at all and i 12 more hours later but i did i kept telling myself the baby's coming the baby's going to come any minute i just kept telling myself that embracing myself embracing myself and 12 more hours later so now it's like midnight that or I don't know what time this was around midnight. The midwife checks me again and I'm one centimeter.

So I just said, fuck this. Were you getting relief? Like, was it like contraction and it was terrible and then relief in between? Or was it just always excruciating? I was, no, it wasn't always excruciating. I was getting relief in between them, but I was so already depressed. Because it just like wasn't how you thought it was the opposite. Yeah.

It was the opposite. So she finally, and then my, the doula who I was supposed to have, was not available. my backup dula was not available. So I ended up, this is how confident I was, I ended up with a dula who speaks Portuguese because I thought my husband would need more support than I did.

I was like, this would be great for my Brazilian husband because he'll be freaked out and I'll be so fine. So they're like off talking a language that I'm not fluent and while I'm going through it. I felt totally alone. So then, even though I wasn't,

my husband's awesome, but that's how I felt. So finally my wind wife, when I was like, we're going the hospital, let's go. That dula, who I didn't know very well, looked so disappointed. like I was letting her down. Come on.

My midwife looks at her and says she's going to have PTSD if we don't get her to the hospital immediately. Do you look at her eyes? If she's making this choice, she's making this choice. We're going. So we get to the hospital. They hook me up for everything. I finally sleep because they think once they give you the epidural

that because you were afraid, that's why you didn't have the baby. So typically the hospital thinks for all the home birth moms that as soon as they give you the epidural, you're going to have the baby in like two, three hours. Because once you relax, you'll have the baby. 12 more hours later. Oh, my God.

It's been 36 hours. I finally just said, guys, what are we doing? What are we doing? Like, my birth plans out the window. Is this good for him? You know, it's been 36 hours. I have absolutely no attachment to anything anymore. I just want my baby safe.

I don't want him out, you know? And so they said, okay, let's give it a little more. more time, again, another time, and I was like, okay, okay, you're a more time. And then as soon as the Potocin started not being tolerable, meaning the baby's heartbeat started to go down with each contraction, they started to set me up for C-section after 40 hours. So after 40 hours, he was born on the day of the eclipse, August 21st, via C-section. And when we did the C-section, they didn't wait long enough for the anesthesia. So I, yeah, it was the most traumatic thing ever. And then, of course, I'd postpartum depression after that because I thought I failed.

I thought I failed. I thought I failed. I thought my, because I believed. Wait, I said you, could you feel the C-section? Yeah. I mean, not 100%, but it was not. They were like, you won't feel anything. You'll be totally numb.

You'll just feel some pushing and tugging. I was so hysterically crying that when they hold the baby up and you're like, you're supposed to take a picture with the hair net and everybody looks great because they have makeup on and they planned this. I, like you, I held up my hands so you can see me. Oh my God. Yeah. You're listening to the Healthier Together podcast.

I want to take a quick break so I can tell you a little bit about one of my favorite supplements right now, Charlotte's Web. If you're not living under a rock, you've likely heard of CBD. It's the wellness supplement du jour. It's the non-psychoactive component of the hemp or marijuana plant, meaning it won't get you high at all, and it interacts with a huge number of parts of your body to help bring them back into balance. Charlotte's Webb takes this one step further. Rather than isolated CBD, it's a full-spectrum hemp extract, which I love because I prefer plants in the whole food form, generally. I just assumed that nature knows far more than us at this point about everything

working synergistically. The company is also vertically integrated, which means they produce everything in the bottle from seed to shelf. With hemp extract or CBD, this is a huge deal, since it can often be contaminated. And if you're taking a contaminated supplement, it kind of beats the point, doesn't it? Charlotte's Web is also legal in all 50 states. So this is how I use it. I usually take two full dropperfuls of the mint chocolate plus, which is the middle strength one out of the three strengths. And I put that under my tongue at night. I let it sit there for about 20 seconds since it absorbs better by sitting under your tongue rather than going through the stomach or digestive system. And then I swallow. I really find that it helps promote a healthy

sleep cycle for me. I also keep a bottle at work and I'll take one dropper full just to deal with stress throughout the day. Again, it does not make you feel high at all. I personally find that I just feel way calmer, especially when I'm taking it regularly. I also love to make healthy recipes with it. I have a lavender chocolate truffle recipe coming out in my new healthier together cookbook. And I also have a lavender hot chocolate recipe on my Instagram feed. So clearly I like lavender and chocolate together. I use the unflavored version for recipes, although the mint chocolate one would be super

delicious and some chocolate energy balls, which I would love to just like have a stash of in my fridge whenever I'm feeling that burst of stress around three in the afternoon. I feel like you know what I'm talking about there. It would also be really good in ice cream, I think. So I'll have to try that. If you want to try the CW hemp extracts, they have been kind enough to offer 10% off for all healthier together listeners. Just go to cw hemp.com backslash healthier together,

CWHEMP.com, backslash, healthier together, like the name of the podcast, and use the code healthier together when you check out to get 10% off. Again, that's code healthier together, CWHemp.com backslash healthier together. And then hit me up on Instagram. I'm at Liz Moody with any questions. I've studied this stuff a ton and I love talking about it. I truly believe in it and has made a massive difference in my life. All right. Let's get back to the interview. So I was sharing this so candidly because I still, I know for certain,

how hypnoborthing worked for some moms because I taught them it and then they told me afterwards. I had a two-hour birth. It was magical. They were born in the thing. I felt no pain. So I know it exists. So how did I reconcile this? What does that mean? Does it mean? Obviously, hypnosis works for me. I changed my whole life with it. Obviously, it works for everybody else because I see them change their lives all the time. Why was my birth so traumatic when other moms had these gorgeous things? So then I have a astrology session. The baby's about four months old. I couldn't even talk about it for months. Really? Yeah. with my friend Jennifer Rastiobe, who's an awesome astrologer.

She didn't know too much about my birth because I hadn't been talking about it. And she goes, was your birth really difficult? And I was like, yeah, why? It was horrible. And she said, because your son is Capricorne rising, which means he has, he can get through the hard times. He has grit. He has tenacity.

If something comes up in his life, he will be able to excel and rise to the top. And he'll be able to overcome any challenge. And this is such an amazing thing. and he's Capricorn rising by three minutes. Wow. If he had been born, even four minutes earlier, he would have had whatever he would have had, and he would have had a really difficult way.

That's really. So is he a Leo sometime? Yes. Me too. Awesome. That's so awesome. I can't feed me to him. So what clicked in my brain from that second was,

when we do hypnosis for ourselves, it's up to us. When you give birth, it's up to them. a hundred million percent wait so he sacrificed you to have a really great life so when you asked earlier right like why do souls choose what they choose yeah my conscious human brain wanted a 10-minute birth and prepped for it but my soul i believe i'm sure of it knew what patrick needed in order for him to come be here i'm going to get like all teary i would do it again i would do it a hundred million times. I would do it a thousand times knowing that my son is going to have the life he's

supposed to because of that. And so I'm so passionate about hypnosis for birth, but I've changed it completely. I don't teach it the way I used to. So what I teach now is visualizing happy outcomes no matter what occurs because it's not up to you. So sure, if you want a home birth in the water and whatever, we give some preference to that. but we also visualize a happy transfer of the hospital. We visualize a happy C-section. We visualize a happy transfer to the NICU because all of these things are possible. And as long as you have a happy, healthy baby in the long run,

like we can be happy, healthy moms too. You can get over it. And I, I mean, every mom from the beginning of time has, you know, and like I can't wait to have another baby. But for those first four months, I didn't. I mean, my postpartum depression was bad. So when she said that, did it eliminate your postpartum depression? It was, I mean, I would think it was already getting better because a lot of it's just hormonal sleep deprivation in time.

So it was already coming out of it enough to have the call because I didn't want to hear anything bad, you know. But from the moment she said that, I was like, oh, holy shit, that's why. Because if I want to be a public speaker, I can use hypnosis to make myself a confident, awesome public speaker. But when you're giving birth, you're a vessel. You are a conduit. And they have an experience that's going to shape them. And this is the one he needed. And now I get it.

Like, our job is to prepare the best we can. And there is no going wrong. It always goes right. And that's how I carry my mom is now. So if you want to look into timidaburthing, totally awesome. I think it's great. Go to the class. And I would highly recommend doing some more because that's only one.

outcome and not every baby wants that. Yeah. So we're getting on in time, but I would love it. I could talk to you for like seven hours, but could you tell me one really cool hypnosis success story, like one of your favorite ones? Sure. I have so many. Let me think.

Well, I do love this one. Maybe I'll tell you two quick ones. So this one's really short. I love this one because it's one that I shared with you in our work together because after seven sessions, when you still were on. where you wanted to be. It's really discouraging, right? You're like, is this never going to work for me? It's never going to work for me. And then all of a sudden the breakthrough comes. So I was working with a woman who was so terrified of flying that she would take trains to

summits in L.A. I did that once. Yeah, from Chicago to San Francisco. Yeah. Yeah. It's not fun. It's not fun. It's super expensive. It takes forever and trains a lot of times don't run. And you meet some really weird people. So she was very high up in this company. unbelievable genius of a woman and the next step in her role would require nonstop international travel. And similar to you, when she got there, she loved traveling. She loved culture. She loved meeting new people. She loved all the things.

But she just hated getting there. And she came to me so broken and upset. She was like, my career is over. I'm not going to be able to take it to the next step. I can't believe I put in all this time, all this effort. I don't know what my life is going to look like. 12 sessions. I mean, by the 11th session, can you imagine how she felt?

I mean, I know the average is 6. So, like, 11, you're still cool, you know? Are you feeling discouraged out 11? No, because along the way we were healing things. So it was like we'd go back to an instance when she was 6. We'd go back to an instance when she was 12. It wasn't always about flying, but it was about fears in general that led to the fear of flying. And so I knew in my heart that even if she never overcome.

comes her fear flying, which I know she will as long as she continues to stick with it, her life will be better because she healed a lot of trauma. So I'm always encouraged. Luckily, she had the resources and the basically like my career is over if I don't get this to keep going. So that's why I only, she's why I started only offering 12 session. She was the reason. From her on, I've never offered less than 12 because we had to, we had to cover so much ground for her. Anyway, in the 12th one, she broke through. She ended up being able to go to a summit in Hong Kong. That's a long fight.

Yeah, it's a long fight from New York and killed it. Like, killed it. And the board of directors, she got the promotion within a few weeks, and she's still global director there. She brings them to speak all the time. It's really cool. So I love that. She's still flying all over?

All over the world. And is she flying 100% without fear? I think it's the same as me with public speaking, that there's always a person. bit of trepidation prior. And then it's like, the flight's fine. And as soon as you're done, it's like, wait, can't wait to go to the next place? And I think that that's normal and healthy because it's manageable.

It's totally manageable. It's not puking before. It's not running. It's not canceling. And to assume that we would be 100% like skipping down to find our seats, I don't know why that doesn't seem to happen. Like, I love public speaking now, but I still feel. trepidation before it. And I think that she would say she loves traveling, even if she feels a bit

of trepidation as she's walking to find her seat. And that that just seems normal, natural, and human, whereas something so completely different from a lifetime of experience one way would be a little bit robotic. So I'd love to hear the second story, but just quickly. How do you know, because fear is meant to serve a purpose. Yeah. And, you know, I could have made an argument in my, you know, irrational self that flying isn't that safer. Like, how do you differentiate between the things? Like, I have a fear of getting Lyme disease because it's gnarly and I hear all about it. I'm going to agree and all the people's lives have been destroyed.

And if I came to you and I was like, I don't want to go hiking in May in the Northeast because I don't want to get Lyme disease, would you help me overcome that fear? Would you be like, how do you differentiate if it's like a rational or irrational fear and if the fear should be had for a reason? Yeah. So whether it's irrational or rational doesn't matter as much as if you really want to go hiking for some reason. You know, because it's true. Lyme disease is horrible.

They're in the tall grass. There's outbreaks all of the time. They're on our dogs and they bring it back home. So all that's true. And there'd be no point in trying to lie to your subconscious and say that isn't true. It's just true. Same thing with flying. We know what happens if planes don't make it.

I mean, and we also know the stats about car crashes versus plane crashes. all that. So it's not so much about irrational, rational. It's about like if you, for some reason, really, really, really want to hike, but your fear is keeping you from going out and hiking. And as a result, you're losing quality of life. It's messing up something important in your life. And so you want to be able to put on your high socks, wear your d, put on your hat, wear all white, and get a buddy to check your body as soon as your home. But you want to do that hike, God damn it? Hypnosis can help you say, hey, listen, that. The fear's rational, but guess what?

Your life is up to you. It's your design, unless you're having a baby and then it's their design. Let's get out there and hike. You know, I mean, yeah, like skydiving, what happens? It's a fair. It doesn't open. There's no tell on the subconscious. That's not true.

It's just true. But if that's something you really want, you deserve to do it despite the fear. Interesting. Okay, second story. I think my second favorite might be a long-standing client who's been working with me for years. And when I say for years, it's not because it didn't work. It's because they always want to work on more things and life happens. And then it's like, I have this new thing to work on. So she came to me because basically she wanted to find the love of her life. And that seems like

such, how could you do that with hypnosis? Because we can't control anybody else. But she was repelling men through fear of getting older and not being able to have kids. Which I think is really common. I have like five girlfriends that would fall into that. Yeah, it's really common. So yeah, because you're doing the math. You know, you're like, I want to have the two babies by this year and then this year and then this year and then I have to meet them, then I have to date them, and then I have to be engaged. And all of a sudden, like, oh, fuck, I'm four years already too late or whatever it is. So she was freaking out and every date she went and she was just repelling, repelling, repelling. So we did all this work around self-worth and then I came up with this

technique that's tricky. And it's meant to sort of trick the subconscious into saying, if you never get married and you never have kids, you can have a happy life that you love and you just love spending time with yourself and you just love your girlfriend and you love your career you don't need that marriage you don't need those kids you are so happy and into yourself and into your life that none of that matters and for anybody who's listening to this and they're like I'm in that point of my life I do not want that I do want the kids I do with them but you have to think to the subconscious it's like oh I don't need that anyway I'm just going to love myself do you know how sexy that woman looks a woman who loves spending time with herself who loves her hobbies who

loves her career who feels so empowered that it's like, yeah, if I find the right person, that would be nice. But I could be happy until I'm 95 on my own. And that works even though they don't want that because they want something that that leads to? Exactly. Exactly. So we know why we're doing it. We know we're doing this conditioning because ultimately they want the family, we want the kids. But the obsession with that, the men sniff it out on the first day and they run for the hills. So when you show up chill, confident, I've got all the time in the world. I mean, so lo and behold, like six months ago, she got married and they're moving into baby town soon.

And she's so happy and he's perfect. And the first thing he said when he saw her walk into the room, because also she became a CEO during our work together because she became so damn confident. He walked into the room. He turned to his friend and he said, that is the most confident, self-assured woman I've ever seen I'm going to marry her. Wow. And she was the most freaked out insecure person just a few months prior.

Wow. So I love that so much because it's such a clear, like, I was freaked out, I was scared, I was single to, like, we're about to have our dream family. And it is her soulmate. Have you had any failures? Like, people where it's just, like, not, you know? I, again, when my pricing was introductory, I would get people who didn't. want the result. They just thought they did or someone in their family wanted it for them. So they would come and be like, I should lose weight. And I'd say, do you want to? Do you want to change

your eating habits? Will you do whatever it takes? Like on a scale zero to 10, how badly do you want this? Well, my husband wants it at a 10. What do you want it? I don't want to change. I love food. I love cooking. I love baking. I don't want to change anything. I'm a two. And so then you're not going to have the results. But I've never had anyone. especially not in the past bunch of years because to work with me, you've got to really want it. Yeah. I mean, it's an investment of time and money. I've never had anybody have anything but flying callers.

And it really comes down to making sure you have the amount of sessions you need. Like, imagine if we had stopped after three sessions. So you really got to commit and just say, I will have the results so long as I have the sessions I need and so long as I really want it. But you think people can do this to and for themselves, right? Like that's part of your book, which is called Close Your Eyes Get Free. I blurted it. I love it. But that's part of it is that you don't need to like shell out thousands and thousands of dollars, right, for these sessions.

Yeah. So working with an individual hypnotherapist means you're going to get individual unique attention by an expert. So you're going to see results faster and you're going to be able to cover more area faster, more ground. because the hypnotherapist will be able to see existing themes. Well, I thought you were like, I thought the most interesting thing for me was that you were like a psychologist. Like you, you asked me questions and guided our sessions in a way that I would expect a psychologist to do, which was very tailored. And that surprised me because I thought we were just going to like go under and do like a guided relaxation.

And that made me wonder how it ever work on a wider spread basis. Totally. So when it comes to the book, when it comes to. our recordings on gray space, you have to realize it's not tailored and you're not being guided by an expert there holding your hand. So all it comes down to then is repetition and conditioning. So while I think that anybody in the world who either doesn't have the budget or the access to hypnotherapist can change their life with hypnosis, it would be ridiculous for me to say it's the same. So through what I teach in the book, the self-hypnosis, I would say, like let's say you've got

stress and anxiety. That through what you can learn in the book, I would say you can improve like 50% in the moment. But by working with somebody on the root cause from childhood over the course of the series of sessions, you might get to the point

where the stress doesn't arise in the first place so you don't need to then use the self-hypnosis to get rid of it. So I think self-hypnosis and listening to recordings are like insanely powerful band-aids with a little bit of like cortisol in there to get the infection out, whereas hypnotherapy is like surgery, you know, we're just building something new.

Interesting. Okay. I have a few questions that I like to ask everybody, and then you said that you'll do a little stress-relief diagnosis for everybody so they can try it out. So I think that would be fun. If you're feeling stressed, you should listen. If you're not, you can go somewhere else because I hate you.

So what do you like to eat for breakfast? Smoothies. What's your smoothie? I love avocado smoothies with kale and lemon and apple. And that's pretty much it. I love the combo of lemon, kale, apple, and avocado. Yeah, the lemon is nice for the kale because it cuts the bitterness a little bit. What's the purchase you've made that's made your life healthier or happier?

Oh, boy. So many. Let me think if I can think of like a thing right now. Purchase that made it healthier or happier. Oh, should be honest. My son's stroller, which is also a car seat, it makes me so much happier that it's one thing. It folds up, it's so easy, and we go on super long walks with it.

It's called the Duna. We bought a normal stroller that was like an SUV. It was the most heinous horrible thing, and we travel all the time. but this thing just literally pops up as a stroller and then you fold it down and it says car seat. We can get into any Uber. We can do anything. And I'm really happy. And we walk tons because it's so cool.

That's lovely. Have you ever been to a place in the world where you're like these people really got it right in terms of living their best lives? Yeah, Burma. Burma. Why Burma? What are they doing there? When I was 19, I went on a semester at sea. And that was a study abroad program that circumnavigated the globe in 100 days.

And I've never been the same and all my best friends are still from the ship. Really? Yeah. That's crazy. All my bridesmaids were from the ship. Oh, my God. Yeah, it changed my life forever. Wow.

Because when you're 19 years old and you're in the Mekong Delta and you see how people live there and then you come home and everyone was still playing beer pong, you don't relate to them at all anymore. So these people who are on the ship with you for 100 days become seared in your mind as the only people who get you. And it stays that way forever, which is funny because at the time, You're like, I'll never see these people again. I'm going to act totally crazy. And also, like, they got you then, but you've, as we've talked about, changed so much from then, which is interesting that they're still your best friends.

It is. Yeah, it's amazing that those were the ones who stood by me through the transformation because they knew the deeper me, the me that would go to Burma at 19. And the me that wasn't sick. And so the friends that I had who partied with me all the time, they dropped like flies two days into my sobriety. And I've never seen that since. So yeah, what are they doing in Burma?

In Burma at the time, I'm sure things have changed, but a military coup was happening. And so it was really dangerous, and it was actually very controversial that we went in the first place because port fees are very high when big cruise ship stock and all the money was going to basically

this horrific government. And so a lot of United Nations, human rights people were pleading for us not to go. Oh, wow. And they didn't go after. But I'm so thankful. that we got to go. What I found in Burma was a place that was so detached from Western culture that it felt like I went back in time by a thousand years. I mean, we took carts with donkeys

pulling us everywhere and not for the novelty of it because that was the option. And they weren't like comfy carts. You know, these are just the way people live. And that's just one sort of silly example. But I remember we were hiking up a hill and we came upon a village. And the people there, or at least the children, had never seen a person with blue. eyes. And I gathered this because they kept pointing at my eyes. And I was the only one with blue eyes who went on the, we just went hiking. And I was, I've been vegetarian since I was 18, so I'd already been vegetarian for a year, but they had a pig, one pig in this crate, nothing else, no chickens and nothing. And they didn't know us and they couldn't speak English. And they, they didn't have shoes,

the children, like the four-year-olds were holding the babies, the eight-year-olds were watching the four-year-olds, parents were working in the fields and building stuff. And they killed the pig for us. Just four kids from America, like, landed in this place in Burma and just went for a walk. And we sat around a fire and they made all this food. And it's the only time I've eaten meat since I became vegetarian because I wasn't about to be like, I'm sorry, I have a dietary preference with this amazing prized pig that you just sacrificed for these people you've never met. And I just saw, so much happiness. I just saw smiling eyes.

I couldn't talk to them so I don't know. But I saw the most amount of like rural poverty that I've ever experienced and so much joy. And so giving, giving, giving. I mean, the amount of money that we kids had to be able to do that semester at sea could have probably bought a thousand pigs and they gave us theirs. So I just being in Burma, felt like going to another planet. It felt like going to a place where humanity was entirely different. It was so simple and yet seemed really happy, community-based. It was about giving. It was about welcoming.

It was about sharing. And it was really hard to come back to such a commercial place after that. So do you think modernization has made us progressively less happy? I think comparison is what did it. So I did a lot of digging into that and wondering why that was the case that everyone seemed so happy. And in Burma, you weren't allowed to email out. So I remember we went to one internet cafe and a guy with a machine gun stood behind us. I don't know that he could even read English, but he was standing over his shoulders watching what we wrote. And it was the only internet cafe where we were in the Capitol. all. So there was no Instagram to see what's happening with the people in town versus this little

village I live in on the hill. And I remember speaking to my Nana, who's turning 101 years old this month. Happy birthday Nana. She came over from Ireland when she was seven years old. She was born in 1917. Oh, this is the red hair, like totally real. Oh, God, I wish. Do you know how hard it is to keep this up? No, not at all. But it definitely runs in the family. So, but it definitely runs in the family, so that's why my skin tone can pull it off. So Nana told me about how, you know, when she was growing up as little girl, whoever you went to school with, that was the world you knew. Like, she didn't know the rich kids. So she didn't know what she didn't have. There were no magazines telling her what she was supposed to look like. So there was no comparison. She just,

everybody had the same amount of money. Everybody had the same stuff. Everybody lived in the same town. And so she genuinely thinks that one of the reasons why she had such a happy childhood is because she didn't know what she didn't have. So what do we do about that now? I mean, do you think about that as mother with your kid? All the time. Yeah. I think what we have to do is take Patrick to Brazil a lot. Just to compare the other way, essentially. It's the idea that if you can't escape from comparison, you should make sure you're not always comparing that. Is that the antidote? I think it's more that you need to realize how good you have it. And I am all about living your best life.

I fully intend to grow the hypnotherapy industry to a billion dollar industry. I love flying first class. I love renting billows in Tuscany. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. And something when I worked in fundraising, my boss said to me that I thought was really interesting. It sounds a little crass because that's the culture, that those dudes were from, but he basically said there's never been a broke person's name on the

side of a hospital wing. When you fulfill your potential in terms of earning as well, you can make a massive impact on the planet. And I have every intention of doing that. So I don't think money is dirty. I don't think success is dirty. I don't think luxury is dirty. I think it's all great. Go for it. We incarnated for a reason, make the most of life. And part of the reason why I'm so excited to build resources in this way is to be able to help people who don't have the programming and conditioning to allow them to ever get there. And I think that if we say to Patrick, you can do anything, you can be anyone, taking control of your subconscious mind, design the life exactly the way you want it, and let's go see these people who will never have that opportunity and help them because we can,

that it puts things in perspective in a way that if you just stay in your one community around your one people, looking at your one phone, if your one thing, you never have the perspective. to people to say, like, I am happy. I don't need her stuff to be happy. I can look at it and be happy for her that she has it or aspire to get it just because I want it, but not because it makes me more whole. Do you get jealous? I get like a momentary red flag of jealousies on the way, and then I immediately have to switch it. But before, and part of the reason why I switch that is self-serving. It's because I know if I'm jealous, I'm going to block it from a manifesting perspective. So it's so self-serving. Do you think jealousy makes it impossible? Like you don't,

it makes it impossible to manifest? Yeah. You're just focusing on what you don't have. 100%. And manifesting is focusing on what you want. It's living in the feeling of having the thing before it arrives in physical reality. So I used to be super jealous. And it wasn't like a mean girl saying it was like, oh, I'm so shitty. I would always put other people on a pedestal. Yeah, like her life is so great. Like, I'll never have that life. Yeah. And also as a hymnotherapist, all I do is work with people whose lives look

amazing and then we pull back the curtain and they have a million problems and they're looking for help. That's like a very nice tool to have access to. Yeah. I know everybody's got things. Everybody, everybody's got things. And so what I do now is when I see their jealousy red flag, I say, okay, what's something I love about this person?

What inspires me about that? I want to send them more of that. I want to send them more beauty, more love, more Instagram followers, more New York Times bestsellers. Like, whatever the thing is, I want to send them more of it. And then you become a magnet for it as well. I love that. That's such a good technique because it's actually actionable. It's not just like stop.

Exactly. Yeah. What is a big mistake you've made? Oh, man, so many. I mean, when I was drinking, all I did was make mistakes. so that was bad. But recently, it's a mistake I made. When I don't listen to my intuition about a person,

it always gets me in trouble. Like, for example, let's say there's somebody who says, I don't want to make it too specific. Like, I'm not getting a good vibe. I know their intentions aren't great. And I work with them anyway. or I promote them anyway or I allow them to be an affiliate anyway because I think it might end up being mutually beneficial

even though the energy is totally off. All it does is cost me time, sometimes money, and energy thinking about it and obsessing about it and being like, why did I do that? Why did I do that? And so I think for me to not make that mistake, what I have to say is there's a reason my spidey senses are going off. It doesn't mean somebody's a bad person. It doesn't mean whatever.

It just means I am not supposed to work with them. and that's okay, no matter what their size following is, no matter what. And I'm really glad that I've learned this lesson now as we're on the up and up because it's very enticing to say, oh, that person has a huge following, like we should probably cross-promote. You get an intuitive feeling for a reason, you know? And so I would say a mistake that I've made recently is to partner up with people where the vibe was off for the wrong reasons and I won't do it again.

And what's something you've done really right? I married my husband. I met him in meditation class at the Art of Living. And I always say to my girlfriends like, there's a difference between the guy you meet at the bar and the guy you meet a meditation class. That's right. I tell my girlfriends they should do volunteer work because I feel like the men you would meet there are awesome.

That's genius. Awesome. Actually, that's how my brother met his wife. volunteering. There you go. Think about where the good guys go and then go there. Genius. I love that. And then, you know, if they don't show up, you're still volunteering. You're going to feel great. Yeah. I love that so much. Yeah. So Bernardo is the best thing in my whole life. And he helped me create the, you know, next best thing. He's now tied, our son.

And Bernardo is everything that I'm not. I was born a mess and have been working to get better. and as a result, I think people can relate to that in me as they get better. Bernardo was just born great. He's just born like a Buddha. Oh, I thought you're going to say he was like born great and it's like been slowly Oh, no. Oh, no. He's still great.

He definitely has more responsibilities. So he's not as like super zen every second. But he's just amazing. He's just the embodiment of love and support. And it's the best part of my whole life. I love that. All right. Well, do you want to lead us in a little meditation or hypnosis for a stress relief?

Yes, totally. And is there anything that anybody should do to, like, prepare for that at home? Yeah. If you're driving, don't follow along. Please just hit pause because we are going to go deeply relaxed. That's the whole point of hypnosis. So if you're driving, just come back to this and then do it when you get home. You'll love it.

And for anybody else at home, get comfy. You can be seated or lying down. If you're super sleepy, I would remain upright and seated just because the likelihood then that you will stay awake is higher. Hypnosis is not sleep, but if you're really sleep deprived by relaxing that much, you can fall asleep. Should I do this? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

I'll follow along. I think it'll be good. Pull up my turn again. So what we'll do is we'll keep it nice and short, but I want you to all notice your starting stress level. So, for example, I'm really relaxed right now. I'm having a grand all time. I was running around earlier today, so I'm at a four to start. So zero is zero stress, no stress at all. The most relaxed a person can possibly be. And 10 is a full-blown panic attack. The most stressed a person can possibly be.

So no one listening to this is a 10 right now because if you were having a panic attack, you wouldn't be taking the time to listen to this podcast. But you might be pretty high. You could be an eight, nine for sure. So Liz, where are you starting? Okay. So everybody just noticed your starting number and then close your eyes all the way down. Already beginning to relax both mind and body. Relax the top of your head. Relax your forehead. Smoothing out any creases.

Relax the tiny muscles next to your eyes. Relax your jaw, letting it hang loose and slack. Relax your shoulder. Relax your arms all the way through to the fingertips. Relax your torso, breathing easily. Really releasing your stomach. A lot of us have been trained to suck in and hold in our stomachs. For now, just breathe deeply, fully relax, fully release.

And relax your legs all the way out through the bottoms of the feet. Now go ahead and begin to imagine that a color you love is forming at the top of your head. When you're ready, you can think that color or say it out loud. And now imagine that color flowing in through the top of your head all the way through your body, out the bottoms of your feet, down into the center of the earth. That color relaxing you, that color releasing you, that color taking you all the way. down. You realize now your eyelids are wonderfully deeply relaxed. Your eyelids are so wonderfully deeply relaxed that they just want to stay closed. No matter how hard you

try to open them, they just want to stay closed and it's okay. Give it a good try. And when you're absolutely certain your eyes just won't open, say or think that color you love again. Imagine that color flowing in through the top of your head all the way through your body out the bottoms of your feet down into the center of the earth. That color relaxing you, releasing you, taking you all the way down. And now repeat silently in your mind after me. I am safe, I am calm. I choose to be here. Once again, imagining that color you love. This time like a waterfall washing away any stress, any sadness, any anger, any guilt, any anxiety, anything that no longer serves you in this moment.

Flush it out of your body with that color as it flows in through the top of your head, all the way through your body, out the bottoms of your feet, down into the center of the earth. And now with each and every single decreasing number, you'll eat. easily and effortlessly double your relaxation as you repeat in your mind after me. Five, I'm going deeper and deeper. Four, I'm going deeper and deeper. Three, I'm going deeper and deeper. Two, I'm going deeper and deeper.

I'm going deeper and deeper. I am safe. I am calm. I choose to be here. I am safe. I am calm. I choose to be here. One last time that color you love

in through the top of your head. All the way through your body, out the bottoms of your feet, down into the center of the earth. And now notice your new number on the scale. And I went from a four to a one. How about you, Liz? I'm a two.

A six to a two. And when everyone's ready, put a smile on your lips. Open your eyes. There you go. So in just a few minutes, imagine what it would be like before walking through the front door to see your kids after a crazy day or going from a 6-2-2-2, right? Or before walking into a staff meeting or you have to exhibit the energy you want everyone else to going from a 4-2-1. and if you were to do this back to back, the second time you go even deeper. It's a phenomenon called fractionation. So when you go into hypnosis, come out and go in again, you go twice as deep. So if anybody went from like an eight to a six and they're like, that's great, but I still want to go deeper.

Repeat it. Rewind. This time you'll go at least to your four, probably more like it too. I just find it fascinating how quickly you lose, like I didn't feel like I was in this room. then it's to the point where you open your eyes and you're like, oh, yes, I'm in this room. It's just crazy how fast that happens. Yep. That's the theta brainwave state. It's amazing.

Yeah. All right. Well, thank you, Grace. Grace's book is called Close Your Eyes, Get Free. And I will, again, put that in the show notes. And then do you want to say, like, your social handles and stuff like that? Yeah, perfect. And I'd love to mention, too, if you love this and you want to do more of it, if you pre-order

the book, I'm doing a free workshop. in New York City. So it would be cool to have people come. And if you're not based in New York City, you get it online. And it's called How to Train Your Subconscious. Awesome. So that might be a fun thing to do. So social is the same everywhere.

It's at Grace Smith TV. I'm mostly on Instagram and Facebook at this point, but you can find me everywhere. And then your website is GSIPnosis.com. It's in Gracebase Hypnosis.com. Yep. Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being here with Thanks for having me. I really love this. And thanks for asking such fabulous questions that I never get the opportunity to answer. I hope everybody loved it.

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