By: Shlomo Vaknin, C.Ht

Welcome to our fifth lesson of the Free Advanced Hypnosis Course.

Before I even tell you what this lesson is all about, I want you to read the following few paragraphs slowly. They will seem a bit weird and unrelated, but ignore that and keep reading. I’ll explain it all right after it…

When you think to yourself, “who am I, really? What do I really want? Is it really possible for me to really get it?”, like we all thought at least once (or one hundred times) in our lives - what really happens in your mind?

Some people make up stories of great discoveries, as if they were Columbus or Einstein in their couple of minutes before their great discoveries and lifetime contributions to humanity.

Some people get depressed. This is the situation with almost 60% of the population. Trying to find out their true self gets people to become depressed! They actually think they’re not worthy enough to take up space in this world and use the “global” oxygen. Yes, I know, it sounds weird, but some people are like that. They don’t have to make a suicide attempt to be considered depressive compulsive. It’s enough they come to the conclusion they’re not really offering any or enough value to their community or family.

And some people go for fun. They go for grabbing anything they can out of life, sometimes even on the expense of others. It is unbelievable to notice how far people will be willing to go in order to get what they want. Some of them are careless and some seem like they are just ego-maniacs. However, they are no better than…

Those people who sacrifice themselves to serve others. Hey, I didn’t say it’s not worthy to contribute, donate and invest from yourself to the benefit of others without asking for a materialistic return! I do that myself quite a lot. However, there’s a huge difference between investing and sacrificing. Giving from yourself to others offer a huge return to you. It makes you feel better being you, almost instantly.

It makes you feel gratitude for the natural gifts you earned (breathing, walking, seeing, etc.) and you might even feel a greater sense of self esteem because your small actions help other people to improve their lives. In some cases, you might even saved life by simply thinking about another human being.

It doesn’t matter if you invested your time, your money, your energy or your knowledge for the benefit of humanity - it only matters that you saw the results of it and got inspired to continue. Some people do get inspired to throw away their whole lives just for helping others. That’s not the smartest move…

So every person acts differently in his search for meaning, a search for finding the reason, the big reason, of being alive. Some go for the extreme, either positive or negative, either as criminals or as Mother Theresa, but most go for the mild approach. They lead a life of quiet desperation, as a famous philosopher once said. Quiet desperation… knowing that you’re not leading the life you really want, but facing reality - it’s the best you think you can really get.