This is Day 5 of 30 for the Hypnotherapy Project, which I'm collaborating on with Los Angeles-based ~~hypnotist~~ hypnotherapist Greg Beckett. You can read more about this experiment, what motivated it and what we hope to accomplish here.

One may accuse me of many things (and be right), but letting moss grow under my ass is not one of them.

The first stretch of hypno mirrors the way I live my life: on "10," followed by a crash and some rest. Only I'd found with the hypno, rest was becoming difficult, since I suddenly had all these new things to think about. And I'm not a muller, so much; I'm all about getting a thought and immediately moving on it.

So naturally, coming in yesterday after all that mental activity, I was a little worn out. I was game for whatever, because that's the attitude Greg and I went into this with, but I'd be lying if I said I was looking forward to meeting four more needy or neglected personalities. Plus I'm under a couple of insane deadlines this week, and while I love spending time on the hypno exploration, there are only so many hours in a day. (Plus-plus, I'm still in the grip of The Cold That May Never Leave.)

There's a way things work, though, and when they do, it's a beautiful thing. I walked in and almost immediately Greg said he was thinking of just making me a recording that day. So he did: a lovely, relaxing recording I could use to reinforce this (very) new idea that I really, truly need rest, just like normal human beings. The file is too big to upload, but imagine soft music, a hammock and some dulcet tones giving me permission to make like a rag doll and collapse and you pretty much have it.

One interesting observation: while we were making the recording, I heard, and tried mightily not to obsess on, every pop, hiss and crackle. This recording will never make me relax, thought I, IT IS TOO FULL OF POPS, HISSES AND CRACKLES.

I loaded the file onto my nano last night and listened before bed, and you know what? I had to struggle to hear the errata.

Which I quickly dispensed with. Silly, waking me...

xxx c Image by Film Colourist via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.