Programming versus Purpose: What does ‘Tron: Ares’ have to do with hypnotherapy?
In the film ‘Tron: Ares’ the titular AI Ares explores the philosophical distinction between their original programming and their true purpose. What a great way to explain how hypnotherapy can help us transform our lives. If you haven’t seen the film and you like fantasy stories, I highly recommend this one...Nine Inch Nails did the soundtrack, and it fits the Tron world perfectly.
Enough of the movie review …
Let’s dive deeper into this metaphor to learn more about how our minds work.
Towards the end of the film there is a line of dialog that stood out to me as a wonderful example of how we can overcome our original programming to find our true purpose. We have our personal history of past experiences, beliefs and directives that may or may not be serving us … these are our old programming. Sometimes there is old programming that helps us and sometimes there is old programming that is holding us back. Hypnotherapy is a tool that can help us evaluate the programming already running in our minds and then change the programming in a way that helps us.
Our programming doesn’t have to define our purpose.
Society and other people in our life (family, friends, bosses, coworkers, politicians …) try to imprint new directives all the time… what most of us don’t realize is that we have a choice as to accept or reject these directives and the programming that has been “written” into our minds.
How do we make this choice? Awareness is the first step.
Sometimes it becomes imperative that we re-evaluate our values and update old ones or get in touch with our own true core values for the first time and explore what that means for our sense of purpose. Since we aren’t literal computer programs coded to achieve a specific goal, we can do the inner work needed to re-program our own minds, so we start to feel better about our lives.
When we get results, we don’t want, it is because of thoughts (e.g. programming) that no longer serve us. Thoughts that lead to lead to feeling states that in turn lead to action or inaction. Once we become aware of this cycle, we can start to change the original thought(s). That’s where hypnotherapy comes in. It’s a tool that can help you become aware of the “programming” that is causing you to have “negative” feelings and “negative” experiences …
Programming is Not Purpose
Programming – the thoughts in our mind – don’t have to dictate our purpose. In fact, I would argue you’re your “programming” should have very little to do with finding your purpose. WTF? But hypnotherapy is all about changing our thoughts, right? Well, yeah… but what I am getting at here is that finding your purpose is bigger than your programming. Finding your path forward is not about programming, but values.
When you can “peer around” your programming to see your core values (aka “true self”), you can get in touch with your inherent purpose. When I say that hypnotherapy is a tool that can help you work with “programming,” I mean that in the sense that it can help clear the way to seeing your purpose and values by changing unproductive patterns of thought. In other words, hypnotherapy clears away the programming that gets in the way of understanding purpose – and then lets you experiment with defining the purpose that fits you best.
Fundamentally, hypnotherapy is DEEP RELAXATION.
When we take ourselves into the relaxed natural mental state of hypnosis, we can look beyond the old programs. The more we practice this, the more we get in touch with our true selves we become. Then our values start to come out. This is why I say, “Relaxation is Rebellion.”
As beautiful human beings, not AI, we have free will. It is time to align that free will with your core values and lead a life you love, not one dictated by your programming or society’s expectations of you.
The more we practice this rebellious relaxation, the more we align with our core values, and the more we take action from a place of love and kindness… just like Ares (mini-spoiler alert there, sorry!)
To learn more about my philosophy, check out my philosophy page that goes deeper into how I can help professionals, entrepreneurs and business owners find a life they love through hypnosis and deep relaxation.
“Other people will call me a rebel, but I just feel like I'm living my life and doing what I want to do. Sometimes people call that rebellion, especially when you're a woman.”
~ Joan Jett
Mel Sharpe
Hypnotherapist & Coach
