After several disappointing events, Doug and I found ourselves in limbo.  Our condo wasn't large enough, and the 2nd floor became increasingly difficult for us both to navigate.  We bought some vacant land and hoped to build a home, but the price of materials made building the home nearly double the cost of the most expensive home in the neighborhood.

Trigger warning: this blog post deals with suicide

My husband and I faced one of the most stressful weeks we've ever had in our marriage. We got through Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton with easily repaired damages. We have three condos undergoing some renovation or repair.

Last year, I attended a workshop on The Laws of Attraction. I was thrilled to share my Rate-A-Date worksheet with the attendees. However, there was another gentleman there who was a professional pickup artist, or, as we like to say in the world of hypnosis, a member of the seduction community. He was a big dude, well over 6', bald, wearing glasses and overalls. He shared how he systematically picked up women on dating websites, step by step, and at one time, was dating 30+ different women.

While I feel honored to have helped so many on their healing journey, first as a comedian and now as a hypnotist, I sometimes forget that I must pay attention to my healing journey. I started experiencing a series of health issues that I hadn't experienced in several months.

I'll spare you the details...but my character was attacked this past week. It was a verbal assault, and it caught me entirely off guard. Whether these attacks come from someone you know or a stranger, online or in person, they are never easy to handle. Learn how to cope with personal attacks more effectively.

Doug and I have sponsored the Paradise Lakes Golf Cart Parades for 2 years. We get the fun job of picking themes for the parades. For Halloween this year, I chose The Rocky Horror Picture Show…in honor of my parents, who grounded me for 2 months when I went to see this movie as a senior in high school. I have to laugh about the whole thing now. Let me paint the picture: I graduated 17th out of 433 students.

When I was a comedian, I worked at a club called The Funny Stop in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. I don't remember how many years I performed there, but I'm sure it's more than 10. I did at least 6 shows every time I was there, so I became friends with the owners, their staff, and many local comedians. I performed at The Funny Stop thanks to my comedy friend, The Disgruntled Clown. He opened the door for me to perform there in 2007 or 2008. 2 years later, the owner, Pete, gave me a chance to headline there.

A few months ago, I attended a hypnosis workshop on Attraction. One of the guest speakers was a pick-up artist who shared with the audience his technique. He got so good at picking up women that he was juggling 38 girlfriends at one point. This guy was different from the smooth-talking, gold chain-wearing type you'd expect. He was an average-looking guy, balding and a bit overweight. But it wasn't his system on how he wooed women that struck me; it was what he looked for in a woman. He looked for three things: a love of children, animals, and a healthy relationship with her father. The first two showed she was nurturing. The third demonstrated that she was used to being treated with respect and would likely treat him similarly.

Last year, I blogged about my mother being "my first hypnotist." I shared this concept with a friend of mine who is the mother of a three-year-old. A light bulb went off in her head. She said, "Holy sh*t, do you mean I am my son's first hypnotist?"

That's correct! If you're a mother or a caregiver, everything you do, don't do, say, and don't say has the power to go right through the "critical faculty." The "critical faculty" is part of the brain that evaluates all the information presented and decides what gets through to the unconscious mind and what gets kicked out.

A year ago, I was in bad shape. To make it worse, I had symptoms that seemed to have no connection to each other. I was having trouble walking up and down steps due to severe joint pain. My arms hurt when I drank whiskey. My nose got all stuffed up whenever I ate sweets. I was experiencing severe reflux. My hair was dry and brittle, and at times enough of my hair would fall out that I had enough to make a donation to “Locks of Love.” I put on 30 or 40 lbs very quickly. I had brain fog, was easily confused, and my attention span was short. In the few lucid moments I had, I knew something was wrong, but couldn’t figure it out. All of my blood work was normal.

We continue with our April blog theme of Fools and Forgiveness. Last week I wrote about forgiving yourself…and this week will be on forgiving others.

One of the hardest parts of my job is encouraging my clients to “forgive” the other person for the horrible things they caused in the lives of my clients. I’ve heard many awful, horrific, painful things that my clients have suffered through. They often opt not to tell me what those things are…but I can see the tears stream down their face as they begin to process or re-process the memories in order to let go of the crap memories that hold them back. One step on the road to healing within is to “forgive” the other person(s) for what they’ve done.

It is April…and my theme for this month is “Foolishness and Forgiveness.” This week’s topic is “Forgiving Yourself,” because if there’s a common theme I see in all of my clients, it’s the inability to forgive ourselves for past mistakes, those stupid and horrible things we did to others, those stupid and horrible things we did to ourselves. Sometimes our past mistakes include not standing up for ourselves when we needed to, or not standing up for someone else when we should have. Often times these incidents will re-occur and the feelings of guilt, shame, embarrassment, or anger will resurface, magnified and intensified, because they were never properly processed to begin with. People who haven’t fully processed their issues, often find themselves sick. The unprocessed feelings that go with these mistakes is energy, and that energy can become stuck in the body and wreak all kinds of havoc. Many of my clients have heard me read from Yvette Rose’s book, Metaphysical Anatomy. I learn about their symptoms, find the corresponding chapter, and we both discover they have unprocessed emotions which may have contributed to what they’re experiencing medically.