Experiment Interruptus

My experiment with using hypnosis as a memory aid was temporarily brought to a screeching halt earlier this week when my mother decided to put a sticky note on the door reminding me to take my pills. “You’re ruining my experiment,” I told her. “Well, try this instead,” was all she said. Ugh. So frustrating. I want to know if hypnosis is actually helping me to remember my medication, but that’s going to be awfully hard to do if I’m also being confronted with a glaring sign every time I leave the house. “I’m just going to get used to the post-it and ignore it,” I told her.

For two whole days, the sign worked. It caught my eye as I was leaving the house, and I turned around and retrieved the pesky pills. I thought that was the end of my noble experiment. However, on the third day, I made it out of the house and into the garage without giving a second glance to the note on the door, It was only when I opened my car door and placed my stuff in the passenger seat that I realised I had ignored the post-it and forgotten to grab my medication. Thankfully, the mantra I had run through my head for the past three days (“purse, bag, lunch, pills”) had triggered as I loaded the car, and I went back into the house to grab them. Take that, silly post-it! Hypnosis > signs!

Speaking of memory aids, I had been doing pretty well at putting my belongings in their place when I’m done with them since I had hypnotised myself about the sunglasses. However, last night, I managed to mislay one of my $3 scrunchies for thick hair. Annoyed once again at my carelessness (that’s the second one I’ve lost in a month), I hypnotised myself to be extremely aware of my hair ties when I take them out and put them away instead of laying them anywhere I feel like it. Don’t know how this will work out, but I have high hopes as I only had to make the sunglasses suggestion once.

I find it fascinating that the sunglasses suggestion seemed to be working with my hair ties up until this week. All of a sudden, my subconscious decided to find away around it and go back to my previous behaviour. Old habits truly do die hard, but with the help of hypnosis, I am slowly reprogramming myself to be more careful with my possessions. I’m excited just thinking about the money I’ll save if I stop losing things all the time!