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My Side of the Story
"Pretty isn't beauty. Pretty is how you look; Beauty is who you are. Pretty is in the face and body; Beauty is in the heart, mind and soul. Pretty fades; Beauty grows." —Michael Josephson
Heart first. That was my motto at a young age although perhaps not in words, not yet at age 5—more like by age 16. Heart-filled actions would be something I'd live by naturally at a very young age. It's how I am still. I like creating more joy. Give me lemons, and I'll make lemonade. And that's how I approach my practice—with transformation.
Now, I had a pretty happy childhood. I'd say that I was teased a healthy amount when I was in elementary. And by "healthy amount" I mean it raised my ability to tolerate higher levels of stress but not so much that my hair would fall out. It normalized my world of imperfectly perfect people.
You might be able to identify. Calling out a person's clothes pattern can be a pretty commonly stupid occurrence, and it was especially for me. However, I stopped seeing it as normal behavior by the time I became a senior in high school. And in my later years, I stopped seeing it as normal for adults to be doing that to celebrities.
Around the age of 17 or 18 I became more emotionally mature than my teenage peers, but I was behind in some ways, too. Very far behind. I didn't understand jealousy. No, I didn't understand people, rather. And not understanding the world around me ultimately became a traumatizing experience for me. I couldn't see myself. You can't either, not even in pictures. People had their fun messing with me, I'm sure. Just like I'm sure their messing with me bounced right back to messing with them. And if I wasn't exposed to teasing starting at an early age, I don't think I would have understood anything that was going on. It did a lot of damage, but I had at least some reality to ground myself onto.
You see, when you experience trauma, you start to avoid people. They trigger a stress response, and the basic story you tell yourself is that there is something wrong with them. And yes, there is. There is something wrong with everyone. So when did you stop seeing imperfectly perfect people? When did isolation become a solution? This isn't giving anyone permission to cross boundaries, or to pretend that you're somebody to walk all over for whatever messed up reason they're telling themselves. It's about finding your space to be an imperfectly perfect human and defending that space, whether that space is in isolation or not. It's about finding yourself and raising yourself up from wherever you are.
The courses I built are a mimic of my own journey in life. I've had experiences of growth and setbacks, but ultimately I wish I had these courses when I was younger. And whether or not you can relate to my story, I started and founded Life Hypnotherapy in the hopes to help others Live. Life. Better.
Bethany Johnson, Hypnotherapist
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