It’s a fact of modern life: there will always be external crises ready to overtake you. The trick to happy, healthy living is to learn how to thrive despite the calamities. As this new year dawns, you do have a choice: You can focus on fear, division, and polarization, or you can choose to make 2022 your best year yet. I’m not talking about New Year’s resolutions; I’m talking about making lasting change.

“Never challenging yourself may seem like the easier path, but the true price is
often steep.”
Roger Moore, Hypnotherapist

Could you still be making life choices born in self-limiting decisions you made long ago?

Did you believe a teacher or parent who discouraged your self-expression? Did someone convince you that you weren’t smart enough to pursue a particular career? Did you give up on a dream without a good reason? Still want to learn the bassoon? You might be surprised to know these early decisions could still be causing you to suffer—physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Sure, many aspects of your life are probably in good shape. But think about it for a moment:

Where in your life do old emotions (anger, hurt, fear, sadness) and limiting beliefs still hold you back?
What did it mean to have failed at one or more jobs? Or perhaps it has been relationships that were difficult. How about your health—have you had setbacks from which you haven’t bounced back?
How do you talk to yourself as a result? Do you hear: That was a dumb thing to do. Why do I always screw things up? Why am I such a bad spouse? Every year I feel worse, and aging is downhill all the way.
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How has negative self-talk run your life? You might be surprised how few people analyze their internal thoughts, and how they allow them to run their lives on autopilot. (And with a faulty owner’s manual.)

Try making a list of problems you’ve had for more than two years. What pain and suffering have you experienced as a result of the meaning you gave these events? The older the issue, the deeper the origins lurk.

How are these messages holding you back from being your best self? What if you were to give these events new meanings? What if you could believe your old scripts are no longer valid? How would it feel to say: I can still write a novel; I can still run a 5K; I can still improve my marriage. Feels better, right?

One of the most common negative scripts is: I’m not good enough at—fill in your own blank. How long have you felt that? Are you willing to consider it’s not true, and in fact, was never true? Have there been payoffs for remaining in that negativity? Daring to go after real goals can disrupt your safe coping patterns —but why wouldn’t you want to live your best life? Never challenging yourself may seem like the easier path, but the true price is often steep.

Most of us have aspects of our selves we’d like to improve. That’s why I often talk about what I call the Greatest Expression of You. It guides you through eight steps for creating your future to be greater than your past. It’s about unlearning patterns and behaviors that have probably never served you. It’s about learning new, powerful ways of being and making the changes permanent.

I’ve been teaching this process to clients for years. They report life-altering relief in many areas: a 73-year-old woman released a lifetime of sadness and the extra forty pounds that weighed her down all her life. She just finished her first 5K run; a man about to turn 80 had given up hope of ending his chronic pain. When he discovered how family traumas still impact him decades later, he used this process to decrease his pain and is on his way to becoming his greatest expression.

While following the entire eight-step Greatest Expression process is most beneficial, here are a few points to help you start your journey:

Where does joy reside in you? There have been times in your life when joy was more abundant, and by repeatedly reliving those times you can anchor those positive experiences as a neural pathway for even better ones. Go ahead—recall some great times and really wallow in them!

Start your day mentally rehearsing joyfully being your “best self.” Give thanks in the morning for being your best self throughout the day so that your subconscious mind sets you up to spend the day being your best self. Then allow joy to appear, sometimes where you least expect it—even at the dentist or in a long checkout line.

Make new decisions about what you believe. You can only act on your authentic beliefs, so make sure they’re serving you well. There is never a reason to cling to negative beliefs about your life.

The New Year presents the perfect opportunity to write a whole new script for your life so that you can create a future that is greater than your past. It’s your choice. You can change.

Roger Moore is a certified counselor and medical hypnotherapist with Palm Desert Hypnosis and can be reached at [email protected] or (760) 219.8079. All sessions are online telehealth. Becoming the Greatest Expression of You is now available on Amazon.com. For more information, visit www.hypnosishealthinfo.com/medical-hypnosis.