Rewriting Your Inner Code: How Hypnotherapy Helps You Create a Life You Love

Tron’s Ares moves away from his initial “code” towards a greater understanding of his own existence and eventually realizes that he has the freedom to define his own path.

In my last blog post, I started to explore ‘Tron: Ares’ as a metaphor between our programming and our purpose and how it relates to hypnotherapy. If you haven’t read that post yet, check it out here.  

When we think about our past experiences, good, bad, traumatic or enlightening, we often think we have to be defined by these experiences. But what if we can learn to be selective and intentional in how we react? I think that we have been taught that we need to cling to our past to learn from it, that there must be something in our past that is holding us back from achieving our goals … but what if this is all a construct? By believing in this “code,” we may be holding ourselves back. It might just be an ancient mechanism of our mind’s structure that evolved to keep us safe.  

Think about it this way. A terrible event, such as a violent crime or natural disaster, might impact one person in a way that keeps them stuck in fear and trauma. Another person might experience something similar and never think of it again or even use it as a motivation to do good in the world.

Why is this?

It could be our initial “code”, or it could be our choice. If it is our choice, then how do we go from the fearful person to the motivated person? I am going to suggest that we do this by evaluating our old “code”, letting go of that initial programming, and rewriting our new code by rewiring our brain through positivity.

What if we could move away from our initial “code”, like Ares, to gain a better understanding of our own existence? What if letting go of this past “code” gives us the freedom to move forward in a way that we want?

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."

~Max Planck, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist

When I tell my clients that they are the creators of their own experience, there is an initial AHA moment of joy and insight … and then the “yeah, but…” mind-talk kicks in.

I can see it in their faces. It makes me smile because I too have a “Yeah, but…” mind. That “Yeah, but…” story is there to keep us safe. A lot of that self-talk is there to keep us safe.

Think about it this way. Our minds haven’t really evolved that much over the years, and our most ancient “code” is the programming designed to keep us safe from lions and tigers. We are no longer chased by hungry killer beasts (unless we are in a horror film) … but our mind doesn’t know that. Our past has created stories for our mind to use to keep us safe, just like the ancient story of surviving lion attacks. I know I wasn’t alive in paleolithic times, but I know my DNA goes all the way back, which means my mind does too. Its initial “code” was to be safe, be very safe, to survive long enough to reproduce. Well… my life isn’t the life of the paleolithic person anymore, but my mind doesn’t really know that.

Now, as modern beings, the trick is determining which “code” is keeping us safe, and which “code” is holding us back from achieving our goals.

“You can't change what's going on around you until you start changing what's going on within you.”
— Zig Ziglar

In the film, Ares is learning that his original directive to attack invaders isn’t the only code out there. He learns that he can have a different code – a different way of being in the world. We can learn to transform our lives in the same way Ares does, by choosing different “code.”

From Mahatma Gandhi's teachings, we learn that "our beliefs become our thoughts, our thoughts become our words, our words become our actions, our actions become our habits, our habits become our values, our values becomes our destiny."

Powerful stuff. Let’s learn from this!

This is where hypnotherapy can help.

As a self-care practice that helps you leverage your inner mental and emotional resources, hypnotherapy is a technique to help you look at your old “code” and decide what to do with it. It can also help you lower the negative emotional impact of past experiences and old programming so that you can move closer to a life you love. Hypnosis, when practiced regularly, and when directed by a trained certified professional, can help you realize your own path forward. It will take longer than the length of ‘Tron: Ares’, but like Ares, I think you will find it well worth the effort.

Sometimes we don’t realize that we have old “code” holding us back and running in the background. We feel unsatisfied with our careers or lives in a certain way, and we know we want to achieve certain goals, but our old unhelpful habits are getting in the way of our success.

This might look like exam anxiety, burnout from stress at work, not reaching our financial goals at work, not stepping up to speak at meetings or to give presentations … so many old “codes” holding us back. We get stuck in a loop, like a computer does when restart doesn’t work and you need to do a “hard reboot.”

So, here’s the question: is it time for you to look at your initial “code” and start the reboot process to break free and reclaim your path?  

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."

~ George Bernard Shaw

Mel Sharpe

Hypnotherapist & Coach

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