Last night, I flew into Las Vegas as a presenter at The Performing Hypnosis Summit. Since being diagnosed with Hashimoto's, I have had to cook all of my meals to avoid eating foods that could trigger my inflammation. Currently, foods that trigger my inflammation are gluten, dairy, soy, nightshades (peppers), and refined sugar. Eating on the road is a nightmare because 99% of the restaurants serve pre-packaged foods containing one or more ingredients that could negatively impact my health. As a result, I've had to completely re-think how I travel. Hopefully, some of these tips will help those in a similar situation.

I had to put down our glo betta fish, Macauley, Monday night. Doug and I found him in an abandoned house two years ago, floating around in a dirty little aquarium. Doug was listing the house and was so busy taking pictures that he didn't even notice the aquarium sitting on the kitchen counter. I did, looked in, and saw the sweet little neon yellow guy with big black eyes staring back up at me. I don't know how long he'd been there.

If you've ever heard me say "Make sure you make a deposit in your happiness account," I got this from my friend and mentor Dr. Kenneth L. Rigsby, LCSW, MSW, MEd, EdD. I had about 2 years of wear and tear on my soul between taking care of my mother and my divorce, and this one statement gave me some peace of mind when I needed it most.

I hate when I....

I'm so bad at...

I'm too skinny/too fat...

These are some of the language patterns I hear daily from my clients. They are telling me the words they've repeated to themselves for much of their lives. And they wonder why they're not happy! The problem is that they are only aware of how they talk to themselves once I point it out. In most cases, my clients have grown up in a toxic environment, with those words being repeated over and over. Then those words eventually became a reality!  

2024 is looking amazing! I was selected to teach my Comedy Writing for Stage Hypnotists at the Performing Hypnosis Summit in February. In July, I'll teach my first 3-Day Certification of The Hilarity And Hypnosis Approach (HAHA!). This class is truly the culmination of my life's work as a comedian and a hypnotist.

When I went to hypnotherapy school, I began studying regression. You read about how regression works, and then you start watching video after video of people crying, screaming, and punching pillows, often while cussing out their family and friends. I came to hypnotherapy through a swinger cruise, and my first instructor (Renegade Hypnotist Mark Cunningham) used hypnosis to enhance pleasure. I had spent 15+ years using comedy and hypnosis to make people laugh. I had just given this hypnotherapy school thousands of dollars, and I just signed up for a side hustle that involves watching people punch pillows and scream and cry 40 hours a week.