The life-changing power of words: Kristin Rivas at TEDxRainier

Could your

life

change forever in an instant through the impact of one sentence with just one idea? Isn't that why you're here to blow your mind for at least one idea worth spreading? Reminds me of a quote from one of my favorites. movies is a story about a man named Cobb, this character played by Leonardo DiCaprio is a skilled dream invader who is paid to extract people's secrets while they sleep. Cobb is offered the chance to reclaim the

life

he once lived as payment for a task deemed impossible starting and planting an idea in someone's mind Cobb tells what is the toughest parasite on earth bacteria virus an intestinal worm a highly contagious resistant idea once an idea has taken over the brain it is almost impossible to eradicate an idea that is fully formed I understood that it stays there somewhere.

A single idea from the human mind can build cities, transform the world and rewrite all the rules. Speaking professionally as a hypnotist, I am intimately familiar with the skill, the science, the arts, about the conception of ideas, I use

power

. of

words

as suggestions to help your mind adopt an idea or belief, what you imagine or picture as I speak and how you react to the

words

I use can give you the transformations you personally desire, speaking as someone who has been the subject of I' I am intimately familiar with the desperate search for transformation. I would like to tell you about a phrase that changed my life.

Two sentences. In fact, the first sentence changed my life for the worse. In fact, the impact of just those four words haunted me so severely. Re fixing made me drop out of college, attempt suicide and wear a helmet, have to use a wheelchair to get around because I was disabled, the second sentence changed my life for the better, the second sentence is the reason I can stay here. Speaking in front of you today as a sane, professional, healthy and happy person, as you listen to my story you can understand the entirety of what I mean and believe me when I say that your life can radically change in an instant through the

power

of words When I was 18 years old, I was a freshman in college and I was visiting home one weekend.

My dad woke me up from my sleep to give me the news of that terrible sentence that changed my life. My older sister, Bethany, had been in a car accident when she was only 15 months old. The driver had been drinking. The next four words my father spoke to me struck my conscience with such a sudden shock that I was shattered by the resulting devastation. Bethany couldn't make the impact of that accident and those words on my life, on my psyche, not just immediately ongoing. I didn't consciously realize it at the time, but the idea that began to take over my mind upon learning of my sister's death was that what happened to my sister was not right, nothing could fix it.

I could never be okay with that. therefore it could never be okay, you may be able to imagine or relate in some way to how I felt. A few years later, it's my last year of college and I'm a newlywed. I'm folding laundry when suddenly everything looks blurry, I start having double vision, I hear ringing in my ears, my tongue feels swollen and numb. A mental fog takes over me. I pass out later that night. I find myself in an emergency room. The doctors do a series of tests on me, but the results. They are normal, what I experienced is not normal, so how do you explain what just happened to me?

Well ma'am, it could be due to stress like a panic attack. I take it that means they have no idea what just happened to me, so I go. Home that night and to school the next day hoping it had all been just a bad dream but the same thing happens again the next day and then twice more that week after two weeks my ability to focus and remember rapidly declines as that more mental fog appears. with difficulty speaking and fainting that become a daily occurrence vertigo attacks panic and involuntary movements mainly towards my left side occur without warning the movement varies from slight periodic twitches like someone with Tourette syndrome to strong shaking it seems as if I were being shot invisible strap around the neck a complete loss of muscle tone tingling and numbness invades my extremities with such force that I experience sudden falls that leave me lying on the floor repeated trips to different doctors emergency rooms neurologists will not help you or give you explanations I They refer me to the Mayo Clinic and I wait for my case to be considered for my husband and I have no idea what to do in the meantime.

I'm getting tired of banging my head while trying to go about my day in peace. We go to Walgreens and buy a seizure helmet and a four-pronged cane the next day getting ready for my classes. I carefully choose a stylish outfit, hopefully distracting me from my new helmet and staff. I quickly realized that there is no way I or anyone else could achieve this look, especially when my husband adds the finishing touch: an envelope pin on my chest with my emergency contact information and instructions on what to do if someone He finds me. I look in the mirror and remember my first day. from kindergarten when my dad put a pin on my shirt with a note to give to my teacher, I burst into tears I tell my husband that I am going to drop out of school, unfortunately I can't do this anymore, the more time I spend trying to take it easy and follow doctor's advice the worse my symptoms are the seizures start to appear at any time they are not just any type of seizures but rather violent seizures that I can experience while I am wide awake or deeply asleep the seizures are resistant to medications or become stronger when administered to me I find that my spells occur every time I back up, I see images of anything approaching or moving away, we are from a first person perspective and every time I enter an area with any type of fluorescent lighting, imagine how it would feel to lose control over your body. your life any sense of freedom health or security people you know assume you are unintelligent because of your appearance, because at this point I have to pay taxes up to nine times a day and I have to use a wheelchair to get around for my own safety , so if people don't ignore me, they've been down, talk louder and slower, do you need help young lady?

I already have the door. Thank you, don't go to the stores, too many lights, don't read or study, memory, concentration is very poor, don't watch television or movies. a lot of movement driving or riding in cars in the summer of 2008. I was finally accepted as a patient at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Month after month, tedious diagnostic tests are performed with no answers or successful treatment. I need constant attention. My husband and I can't pay the bills, so we moved in with his parents. My appointments become more specialized. The time between them moves further and further away and my spirit fades.

My symptoms intensified. In May 2009, the Mayo Clinic officially diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and conversion disorder. The main symptom is pseudoseizures. My doctors will let me grieve because my body has been converting stress into psychosomatic symptoms. They recommend adding different medications to my medication regimen and into intensive psychiatric care due to the frequency, duration, and severity of my symptoms and the fact that I have seen six different mental health professionals over the course of my illness but have not gotten better. I have a 20% chance of ever recovering. Fortunately, there remains an alternative option to consider.

The Mayo Clinic recommends that you try hypnotherapy. They say hypnosis with a qualified professional can help with this kind of thing, so my dad recommends dr. John Connelly, founder of Rapid Trauma Resolution Therapy, Advanced Clinical Hypnosis, a call as they try to arrange a time to see you between their busy schedule of training mental health professionals across the country. I heard my dad tell dr. Connelly who will carry me on his back if necessary two months later on June 20, 2009. I have a session with this white-haired magician that lasts approximately two hours and is the most life-

changing

conversation I have ever had. .

If Kristan says there is nothing wrong with you, your brain is very complex, something that complex is prone to occasional errors, basically there have been problems with reaction and synchronization from one part of your brain to another and we as humans sometimes We develop beliefs that don't work very well for us and we can change all those things that your mind has been reacting to things that you've been remembering or imagining like someone jumping to the scary part of a movie, except most of the time it's movie has been out of your consciousness. We'll do a simple exercise to help your body stay calm and present and then try a different way to look at what happened to your sister and see how you feel afterwards.

This is called stopping your pants. exercise huh do you remember where you put your pants on this morning Kristen yeah well now tell me this where are you putting your pants on this morning right now where is that hmm I think about my room in my mind in my head in my memory in the past no I know he says if any of those answers have come up there is a part of you that believes them but you here now this morning is over and your butt is too big to put on pants inside your skull there is not you putting on pants and a zone of penumbra called the past the past is just a term for things that are no longer happening and do not exist your mind has been confusing the data we call memory with reality but the event is not like the record of the event much like a DVD it is different from the actors filming the best answer to where are you putting your pants on this morning right now is it doesn't exist hmm I think it says every time you think about what happened to your sister, your body has been reacting by sending stress signals trying to get something happens or not.

This traumatic grief has been your mind's way of trying to process what happened and it wasn't right, that's what grief is. our reaction to a change we don't like, I bet you've felt a sense of loss over your sister's death, well Kristen, I'd like you to test the idea that we can't lose the future and that none of us are guaranteed . or has the right to it. I would like to invite you to exchange those feelings of loss around your sister with an article about her transformation that we call her death and we continue from the love that you both have for each other, so here is a way to look at it. you and your sister can be of help he offered me who you are cannot be defined by your body I know you have a foot but you are not a foot if something happened to your foot the next time I saw you I would not say hello Kristen , I'm glad most of you were able to be here today.

Our bodies, our beliefs, our behaviors, our relationships with others, everything changes. It makes no sense to define ourselves in these things. I bet if you really think about it, I know what it's like when you're just being yourself, those moments when you're seeing something beautiful or you're with a loved one or doing something you love and you say oh, I feel like I can be myself when we think that those things do not make us who we are, but rather resonate with their own way of being, the essence of who we are Kristen. I don't know all the answers about what happens after you die, but I do know that science says we all are. made of energy an energy cannot be created or destroyed I know that our five senses are sometimes fuller and we have to take things on faith like a child asking his parents where the sun went on a cloudy and rainy day and here it is the second sentence that changed my life and that brought all this home to me Kristin the accident her pain doesn't exist Bethany it's okay you're okay it's okay to be okay now I'm overwhelmed I feel like this AHA is happening on my part I've been having nightmares reliving the death of my sister night after night trying to stop it from happening the part that always asks me where she is every time I think of her all my shock my anger the pains of traumatic grief seem to fade away and I opened my eyes and I feel lighter and I realize immediately that I can see and think more clearly in some ways.

I know I'm fine, dr. Connelly opens the door to the waiting room and I look into my dad's eyes, who starts to cry somehow, he knows I'm okay too. I run around Dr. Connelly's office backwards and I'm sitting down. On Tuesday I went to train with dr. Connelly, another world renowned leader, moved across the country building my own practice paying my Ford healing hypnotizing hundreds of men, women and children for better health and well-being to this day. I am not here to suggest that hypnosis is the answer foreveryone for everything or you can expect my kind of results with anyone who calls themselves a hypnotist and luckily I found such a highly qualified professional who helped me in just one session.

I am a very receptive subject for many people with conversion. disorder appears to be a randomized controlled clinical trial conducted in 2003 by the Psychiatric Center and in the Netherlands found that properly performed hypnotherapy for patients with conversion disorder results in sustained improvement over a significant time. You will find more research suggesting that effective hypnotherapy is administered by qualified professionals. experienced professionals, especially in addition to other treatments for many problems, what I would like to suggest is that we don't need more research to tell us if life-

changing

aha moments are real, we know that now experiences can leave traumatic effects, but what about with the words of friends families teachers scriptures or song lyrics that sound perfect those moments when the light bulb inside our mind just clicks and everything seems to fall into place easily when ideas are born and lessons are easily learned sing in a bathtub your ring cup a apple falling on our head waha gravity these are the possibilitiesWe still have to explore brain plasticity and the mysteries of the unconscious mind in all its processing power.

I think we need more research to tell us when and why these aha moments occur in people like me, then we can better understand the science and skill. art about the onset of positive epiphanies, what the world would be like if we all knew that we could make these instant, radical, life-changing transformations happen simply through the power of ideas presented to our minds through the natural use of words in our bodies. if one idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules that impact both our history and our future. I have a dream, never give up, know the change you want, see what idea could transform your life, why couldn't that happen if you knew that change?

It didn't have to be slow, long, difficult or painful, it could be easy, fun and soon, what would you take care of and who could you find to help you do it? What idea could transform your world? Thank you