Downward Facing Blog

For years, like a lot of teachers, taught that yoga classes have a kind of physical focus, a theme of practice targeting a certain area of the body.  After my study of NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and hypnosis I became extra aware of the power of language to affect states in others. That’s a long subject worth exploring in detail of course.

The idea that I’m working with is using dialog in a class in a way that works towards a physical aim but also leaves a psychological net-effect. The idea here is called “hypnotic metaphor” something at least developed in large part by a famous hypnotist named Milton Erikson.

With his “patients” he would largely tell stories which had a number of common elements with the patient’s personal life.  This way, instead of saying something directly, he could tell a story that the unconscious mind would link to, creating change spontaneously.

One of my favorite stories is him working with a boy who wet the bed at night. And simply by telling him a story about baseball, and how a catcher has to open and close his mitt at precisely the right times, the boy went home and never wet the bed again.  He never had to mention bed wetting, but inside of rapport, he could talk about something that had value for that person, and then they themselves would make the change.

For weight loss, he tells one woman a story about the amazing roses that always knew how much sun and water to take in to maintain it’s beautiful shape. She goes home and successfully stays slim.

I find this fascinating. I think to the mythology inside of hinduism and buddhism and how it’s loaded with hypnotic metaphor. If told inside a class setting properly, perhaps it’s possible to create an overall psychological AND physical tone. The trick is writing it and knowing what to say. I’m gonna sit and write out the dialog for an entire class using this model, something I haven’t done since my first OM yoga teacher training in 1999!