I’ve been working with numerous healers to regain my health, strength and stamina. And my obliterated Sense of Self. That happens when one is sick for a long time.

One of these healers is a hypnotherapist who specializes in rewiring our brains to help us overcome chronic conditions. Despite not knowing each other and working in separate ‘modalities’ a thousand miles apart, Dr. Hypno and Therapist Goodword are invariably on the same page in their work with me.

One theme that grounds all their work is leading their clients to shamelessly consider the possibility of ‘being one’s best self’. That sounds trite in today’s ‘oma oma’ culture, but if not to figure out how to be what and how you desperately want, what’s the point?

So, I dutifully make lists, write and rewrite positive affirmations on sticky notes, and exchange my expertise in self-shaming and derision for meditations on what would be included and eliminated in living “The Best Expression of Me.”

Now the trick to this practice is to be specific. For example: as my blog readers know, I need to shed some of my crap. So I write “have less stuff”. But that’s too vague a statement (and sentence, for that matter). It is passive. To rewrite my neural mural of wants, I need to introduce new visuals, new imaginings, use action words and meaningful measurements. In short, getting rid of one used coffee filter would qualify as ‘having less stuff’. Not what I’m after.

So I invoke self-hypnotic trance to imagine one of the developing rooms in my Little House, Big Build. Instead of mentally squeezing all my old furnishings and belongings into it (which I spent anxious weeks doing), I imagine the space void of all but what puts me at peace. And an entire new brain-scape takes form: I see a comfy sofa that fits me, an ottoman ‘coffee table’, end table and lamp, a basket for a throw and the TV remote, a television armoire, a sideboard and a swivel chair.

This vision excludes almost all the belongings, hand-me-down and heirloom furnishings, décor and paraphernalia that I’ve been resistant to part with. It’s eye-opening work. So now I reframe “have less stuff” as “Furnish my new house with only those things that serve my new sense of peace and physical comfort.”

“New” is critical. It is free of “old” ideas (and old stuff). It’s active: each qualifying piece moves into and ‘furnishes’ the new space. During the Best Expression of Me ‘Have Less Stuff’ visualization trance, my subconscious mind knows what my conscious mind would refute. Most of what I cannot bring myself to let go of does not support my honest ‘sense of peace and physical comfort’. Who knew?

It is an epiphany, that empirical moment of Truth that settles all mortal doubts. I’m immediately lighter. I fit into my body and mind. The chaos of years of revisited thought slips away. There’s stillness. I’m relieved. Mentally stepping 1,2,3,4 and 5 from the trance, I am graced with an entirely new perspective, and imbued with personal power.

I will ‘have less stuff’. Because I’m furnishing my new house with only those things that serve my sense of peace and physical comfort.