I’ve lost count of how many marathons I’ve run. It’s under 18 and more than 12.
Along the way I’ve run thousands of miles in an effort to get in shape enough to run them well and ultimately qualify for Boston. The thing is, I can’t really do that anymore. I mean, never say never, but it would appear my calf muscles have other ideas. Every time I get competitive and try to race or do too much, they cramp or tear or do something dreadfully painful.

So, what to do?

I am endeavoring to embrace my limitations… to thoroughly enjoy what I CAN do.

The other day I was out running ( I still call it running although I believe many people can walk at a faster clip) along this beautiful rail trail in upstate New York. And with every step I took I attempted to just be in the moment and savor the full sensory experience along the way. It was like what Stephen Wolinsky calls a “no-trance trance.” In other words, not trancing out by age regression or imagining the future, but being simply in the here and now - which is for most people an altered state.

Hence a “no-trance trance.”

It’s a lovely practice… listening to the breathing, feeling the feet on the changing surface of the trail, appreciating all the different colors of the leaves and the dirt and the stones, smelling the variety of fragrances as I pass streams and farm land and cut grass.

Dave Dobson used to call himself a “De-Hypnotist.” He said that people were in trance most of the time and it was his job to wake them up. Not to “hypnotize” them but to pop them out of their old, habitual trances and get them to adopt new, more productive trances.

I think Steve Wolinsky would agree. In his book, “Trances People Live,” he draws a parallel between what meditators call Samadhi and Erickson called a “Therapeutic Trance.” Saying they were in fact the same state - what Wolinsky termed the “No-Trance trance.”

Maybe this is what my calf muscles have been trying to get me to do.

Sly devils.

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Ericksonian Hypnotic Language Patterns
Early in my NLP/Hypnosis training I was in Santa Cruz, California, attending a workshop. After class one day I walked along the beach with a more advanced student who knew a lot about language patterns. When I asked her how to begin gaining facility with them she turned to me and said, “you’ll find that the pattern called ‘Quotes’ is one of the easiest, yet most effective, patterns of all.”

She went on to explain, “When you quote somebody else, your listener doesn’t realize that you’re indirectly giving him or her a direct command. It goes right in!”

Now, I wasn’t sure if I believed her or not so I put it to the test. I’d be at a restaurant and say to the waiter, “my father always told me, ‘just make sure the food’s served hot and everyone will be happy.’” I’d ask a cop for directions and say, “My travel agent told me ‘Always ask a cop, because you’re really nice to tourists.’”

When you start to learn about “Quotes” you’ll notice them everywhere.

Storytellers will put them in the middle of a story or metaphor, where one character addresses another. “…and the cobbler said to the boy, ‘Remember, you’re only as happy as you make up your mind to be.‘”

They will have the quote appear as the thought or sudden realization of the main character. “…and Alice suddenly realized that it’s not how hard you work, it’s how you work hard.“

Quotes can be attributed to famous people. (It is likely even better when they actually said it.) “Benjamin Franklin always said, ‘The more you practice, the luckier you’ll be.’“

Referring to a previous client is useful in a variety of ways. Milton Erickson would often talk about an earlier patient and use the quotes pattern to give suggestions. “And as my client listened to me talk, she realized how true the old saying is that, ‘when you are in trance, you learn rapidly and effectively.‘”

Please note that in the above examples, the part of the quote that is the suggestion is put in the second person, present tense. In other words, because you want to tell your listener to do something, make sure the suggestion is in the form of “you do this,” or “you learn that.” NOT “she did this,” or “he learned that.”

So, now, I wonder what would happen if you were to write your own examples. Aristotle once said, “The best way to learn is by doing.”
So maybe you’ll want to write them out.
Maybe you’ll Say them aloud to a human being with the proper tonal shift. (See the earlier post about tonality if you need more clarity on that)
I’d write at least ten. You might want to write more. Or not.
Be careful when you use them with your spouse, but playfully use them with your pet (they’ll like it).
Most certainly use them with your clients.
Because as Milton Erickson once said that Mark Twain once wrote, “Don’t put off til tomorrow that you can just as easily do the day after that.”

Ericksonian Language Patterns —
Embedded Commands are commands that are placed within the framework of a larger sentence structure, thereby sneaking by the conscious mind. e.g., “Very often, people find that they discover many useful inner resources while in trance.” Some suggested sentence openings: “Maybe you’ll… I don’t know if… A person may not know if… Maybe you haven’t…,yet.” (More about that yet soon, but not yet.)

Notice that the command part itself starts with a verb. You are telling the person to DO something. Here and now. So that verb tense is the present tense. “Do something.” Not “doing something” or “did something.”

If you were to tell someone directly to go to the store, you’d say

“Go to the store.”

To embed that command within a longer sentence and thus hide it a bit it might be more like,

“If anyone here wanted to be a dear, they could go to the store for me now.”

Here are some more examples:

“Maybe you’ll discover new resources you didn’t even know you had.”

“I don’t know if you’ll feel wonderful about it.”

“A person may not know if you’re drifting into trance.” (includes a pattern called switching the referential index.)

“Maybe you haven’t begun to enjoy that delightful feeling of trance, yet.”

A. Adding their Name
These commands can be made more powerful if you insert their name into the sentence structure just before the embedded command.

“One can, Elizabeth, feel comfortable in new situations.”

“A person could, Phillip, notice a growing sense of distance from that problem.”

“People don’t have to, Bob, listen intently to everything that I say.”

B. “Now”
“Now” is not a magic word. Sometimes beginning NLP students over use ‘now.’ Used effectively, it can enhance an embedded command, but it alone does not an embedded command make. Often the most effective way to use it is to… pause… before you use it and then use your best trance tonality when you say it. (If you run it into the sentence without this pause it can make the sentence sound too imperative and the person feel rushed.)

“You might want to learn to enjoy that meaningful pause . . . now.“

(Remember that without shifts in tonality, etc., there is no command at all. You must shift your tonality in a way that is noticeable and analogous to a command, right at the verb of the sentence. You are telling them to DO something.
Additionally, it is most useful to pause just a beat before the command. This further sets it apart in a very subtle, yet effective, way)

So, now, here’s an idea: Write your own examples. The best way to learn is by doing. Write them down and then practice saying them out loud with the proper tonal shift. Practice delivering them to a human being. Write at least ten. Twenty is better. Perhaps you’ll find that you utilize the eight sentence openings offered on this page and then go from there.

Use them on waitresses: “You might find you want to bring me a cup of coffee.”
on bus drivers: “People can… let me out at the corner.”

Be Respectful AND Have Fun.