Shauna Cummins, hypnotherapist extraordinaire, talks intuition
She has a voice like liquid Klonopin and the cadences of an angel
Shauna Cummins is a hypnotherapist and the author of WishCraft: A Guide to Manifesting a Positive Future. She will put your ass to sleep and you will be all the better for it!!! One way to understand intuition is as messages bubbling up from the subconscious (a word I can never spell on the first try) into the fore of our consciousness. So, getting into that mystery layer via hypnosis is one way to enhance intuition.
I could write all day long about how Shauna’s voice possesses healing, somnambulant properties, but you must experience it for itself. I have a 15ish minute recording of a Cummins “mind massage” that I have listened to no fewer than a zillion times and I am often out like trout by minute three. I interviewed Shauna for Everyday Intuition and she said something (many things) that struck me, paraphrasing here:
As someone who has suffered from anxiety and constantly envisioning worst case scenarios (hi, me!), she went uses hypnosis to harness the mind’s natural faculty for storytelling, but in a positive way— WHUT?! It’s true, and this power is yours, all yours. Shauna answered some questions about intuition, hypnosis, and how they inform one another.
What is intuition to you?
Intuition is an inner voice, an intimate, familiar whisper guiding our way.
How does it show up for you?
It shows up in visions, glimmers, dreams and gentle nudges. I often get a vision of something I desire to happen and feel excited and hopeful but not too attached, I receive energy to take positive action and see what happens or a visiting thought that just drops into my awareness, feels like a bird chirping at my window or a sunlight dancing on the top of a wave. I often get a thought of someone's name or memory of someone and then they will text me or I will reach out and they will say they were just thinking of me. [Ed note: don’t you love when this happens?]
You are (an amazing) hypnotherapist. How does hypnosis work, exactly?
Well thank you, I appreciate that :) Hypnosis works by accessing the very human ability/desire to go into trance (i.e. watching a movie, scrolling media) and understanding that we are all more suggestible in that state. During hypnosis we consciously harness it to impress positive change and influence into our thoughts, beliefs and behaviors
How can getting into our subconscious help us tap into our intuition?
The more of a supportive and intimate relationship we have with our subconscious mind allows us to better discern the difference between fear, intuition and projection. I have learned to recognize when my nervous system is dysregulated and I have looping thoughts, or negativity that may present as anxiety or fear and I can see that it is not intuition. Intuition usually feels light and cosmic, not personal.
What's the most common misconception about your work?
That as a client of hypnosis you don't have control or will do something you don't want to do or will be asleep and not remember. It's much more similar to a guided meditation or day dream than anything you see of hypnosis in the movies.
What's your top tip for developing intuition?
Meditating, doing yoga (suppose any exercise, I've had very profound hits of intuition on the elliptical machine ha ha) and practicing hypnosis all help clarify your intuition and develop a more supportive relationship with your mind, thoughts and nervous system.
Thanks, Shauna!!!
Whenever you choose to surface from your trance state (though why would you???) might I recommend:
The Clock is back at MOMA and I’m trying to see it at every possible hour. When I saw it for the first time more than a decade ago, I thought, How did he do it? Now I think, How do WE do it?
Amy Schumer’s very silly Kinda Pregnant is excellent couch sleeping material.
Previous Letters of Intuition subject Nelly Reznik is performing on Sunday 2/23. I will be there!
Ok, Gen X babes, take your victory lap. But is the subtext that divorce is necessary?!
I went to Salt’s Cure with the most discerning person I know. He liked the griddle cakes well enough but I discerned that it’s actually all about the egg sandwich.
And don’t forget! My inbox is open for all your vexing “Is it anxiety or intuition” quandaries! The doctor is in! Send me your troubles and I will respond with my professional opinion.
And preorder Everyday Intuition while you’re at it!