ABOUT FORCE OF HABIT

Force Of Habit was developed by David Kohlhagen. It is the term I use to talk about the way the mind works, and as a model for describing the way Tranceformation makes deep level personal change possible.

Force of Habit: Get Well and Stay Well by Clearing up Your Negative Habits of Mind, Body and Spirit is also the working title of the book that I am in the process of having published. It was written in order to make tranceformation understandable and accessible to as many people as possible. In it I fully explain how we acquire our automatic-or habitual-behavior, I discuss how unwanted habits can be successfully and permanently eliminated and I give examples and exercises that make it possible for you to experience deep level habit shifts. Excerpts of Force of Habit are available on this website.

If you are a publisher, editor or literary agent, please read the Publishers Query Letter I have begun sending to select publishers. Feel free to contact me if you are interested in being part of the process of publishing Force of Habit.

FORCE OF HABIT GET WELL AND STAY WELL BY CLEARING UP YOUR NEGATIVE HABITS OF MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT By DAVID KOHLHAGEN, LPC, NBCCH *** Advance praise for Force of Habit:

"Force of Habit is incredible. It lays out in practical and simple terms how to stop fighting the subconscious mind while employing its power to improve your health and your life."

--Christiane Northrup, MD, OB/GYN physician and author of the New York Times bestsellers: Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause."

"We may act in ways that mystify even ourselves, ways that are illogical and contrary to our best interests and that we would not choose if we had a choice. Since we don't have a choice these behaviors are habits."

"Most attempts to change habits are unsuccessful."

"We are more apt to accidentally cause an undesirable change in the subconscious mind than we are to cause a desirable change on purpose."

Habit Behavior is Automatic

Most of what we do all day, every day, we do habitually. That means that we do most of what we do automatically, without having to think about it or direct it by any act of conscious will and intention. Our mind is directing all of this activity below the level of our conscious awareness. It is as true of the way our mind directs our heart beat, our breathing, the healing of our physical wounds, the digestion of our food, and the repair and replacement of every cell in our body as it is true of the way we walk, talk, remember, feel about most things, and behave in most situations. Behavior that is habitual is not behavior that we do, it is behavior that does itself. This is the defining characteristic of habits and it distinguishes them from behavior that is conscious and intentional.

If we could start and stop our habits at will they wouldn't be habits, they would just be intentional behaviors. Therefore, the Force of Habit definition of habit also describes the way in which we have all of our personal problems, "issues," disorders, and acquired illnesses and medical conditions. These include interpersonal and emotional problems and conflicts, mental and emotional issues left behind after an experience of grief, loss and psychological trauma, and the full spectrum of acquired physical, medical and health issues. They are all created and nurtured by our habits of mind.

Trauma, Distress, Fear and Habits

Many traumatic and stressful experiences occur while we are young-often during the "preverbal" years of which we have no conscious memory. They can leave in their wake deep emotional, psychological and behavioral patterns that are very hard to change. These patterns are automatic reactions, responses, reflexes, conditions and behavior-they are habits. The mind forms negative, undesirable or painful emotional, behavioral and health habits ("bad habits") because stressful experiences have become connected in our mind with feelings of fear.

Once these original experiences have become connected in our mind with feelings of fear, the resulting habits cause us to feel and behave in ways that are distressing, uncomfortable, embarrassing, repetitive and confusing and that are completely involuntary. We may act in ways that mystify even ourselves, ways that are illogical and contrary to our best interests and that we would not choose if we had a choice. Since we don't have a choice these behaviors are habits.

Non-Holistic Practitioners Suppress Symptoms

We seek out professional assistance to get rid of the distressing feelings and behaviors. Frequently getting rid of such habits is a difficult struggle; often it takes a very long time-often it is unsuccessful altogether.

For medical and health problems many people seek out non-holistic medical practitioners. Non-holistic medicine is an attempt to suppress symptoms by using invasive procedures-including pharmaceutical psychotropic medication-without clearing up the root cause of the symptoms. Even when the symptoms are relieved the results of medications and surgery can include serious side-effects (all prescribed medications have side-effects), the need for periodic medication changes, additions and adjustments (no medication improves symptoms indefinitely), and either the eventual recurrence of the original symptom or the onset of new symptoms.

Habit Change and Subconscious Mind

Most attempts to change habits are unsuccessful.

Why do most attempts to change our habits fail? It is because the source of all habits lies deep within us, in the subconscious mind (1) (2) (3) (4). They are not under voluntary control. They are not under the control of the conscious mind. They are not easily changed because they are intertwined with our mind's ways of taking care of us. They are wired into our internal security and survival systems.

Even when you know that the subconscious mind directs our habits they are still difficult for you to change because the subconscious mind receives and communicates information in its own distinctive and specialized language. We are more apt to accidentally cause an undesirable change in the subconscious mind than we are to cause a desirable change on purpose. The conscious mind thinks in one way, and the subconscious mind in another.

The uphill-and more often than not losing-battle for habit change begins when we try to change a habit that is valuable to the subconscious mind using the usual language of "waking" consciousness. The language of waking, self-conscious, focused, intentional awareness is inadequate for convincing the subconscious mind to relinquish habits. However, the subconscious responds very readily to communication; it is responding even while you are reading this. To get the subconscious mind to let go of a bad habit you must know how to communicate with it effectively, accurately and purposefully.

Tranceformation Clears Habits

Tranceformation utilizes precise language, tools, and healing processes specifically designed to get the most beneficial response from the subconscious mind in removing bad habits of mind and body. Undesirable habits can be gently and completely cleared up. When bad habits are cleared up, beneficial and healthy feelings and behavior naturally and automatically take their place. That is because your natural underlying state of being is whole and healthy.

Without any "reliving" of disturbing or painful memories, or any need to analyze the causes of problems, the distressing effects of memories and experiences are cleared away. The debilitating habitual responses, feelings, and behavior are removed at their source. Once cleared, habits cannot return because you cannot go back and relive your life. The symptoms are gone because the cause of the symptoms is gone. You are free.

THINK RESPONSIBLY!