Turning Pain Into Fuel For Growth

0:00Welcome everyone. You are about to embark on a journey through the universe as you indulge in this extraordinary essence of enlightened empowered evolved. Let the show begin in five, four, three, two, one. Just in time, greetings everyone. I'm Luke Bryan Smith and welcome to Enlightened Empowered Evolved where we educate, motivate and liberate you through enlightening dialogues, empowering music and evolving content. I'm excited yet again because my next extraordinary guest is a certified hypnotherapist and life coach who's healing journey began after leukemia, a leukemia diagnosis and 2003. Wow. This turning point led him to explore the powerful connection between mind, body and spirit. He's also the creator of the popular YouTube channel, blue sky hypnosis with over a hundred years of experience. With over a hundred and thirty thousand subscribers and 17 million views, where he shares tools for emotional healing and personal breakthrough. And there's a whole lot more, but without further ado, allow me to introduce to you, Peter McLaughlin. How are you doing today, Peter?

1:16I'm doing great, Luke. Thank you so much for having me on your program. Absolutely, and I'm thankful. I just want to say this. I believe that time is one of our most precious assets. And for you to decide to spend even a moment of your time here in the history of your timeline, I just want to say extend my sincerest gratitude to you. Thank you for being here this present moment on the Enlightened Empowered Power Evolved podcast. Well, you're welcome and allow me to thank you, too, because you're spending your time and your viewers as well. You know, I'm super appreciative of you and your viewers. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. You're welcome. And thank you. Let's just get right into it, Peter. You're certified. You know, I want, I want to tap into this first. I want to go back a little bit. A former volunteer firefighter in EMT. Can you give us a little clarity up on that? I like to hear people's journeys. You know, give us a little clarity on that. How that began with that entailed. How your experiences. Yeah.

2:22Absolutely. It was actually volunteering to be a firefighter. And they had an extensive physical that they wanted us to take. That's where Lyme disease and leukemia was revealed to me. So where I thought that I was volunteering to rescue other people in some strange way. I was rescued by learning that I had all of this underlying condition. Because I don't think I would have gone to the doctor right away. Right. You know, and this alerted me that something really significant was going on. And the other thing, too, is that when I was diagnosed with the leukemia part, I said, how long do I have? And they said maybe 10 years. So I was really seriously freaked out. I was in a state of fear. There was grief. My kids were little at the time. There was so much anxiety and so much worry and so much fear. And I do think that being a firefighter and an EMT and dealing with life in the way that first responders deal with life and deal with death. It actually helped me in some ways move through all of this because I wasn't able to focus exclusively on myself. I had to be present for other people who were going through their own kinds of traumas.

3:37Including people who died. And I think that that in a very unique way helped me navigate this. But at first was a really difficult and torturous path, especially emotionally and mentally. I can imagine so. Yes. Yes. I would further say that the people I work with now, I'm meeting them usually at a time of significant trauma and upset where resolving traumas from their past. So whereas a firefighter, I help people in physical trauma in the moment. I'm now helping people with the psychological, emotional, spiritual struggles that they're dealing with often almost always as a result of trauma in their past. Right. Yes. Thank you for adding that clarity to that. That sure. That's amazing. And I always find it intriguing how adversities traumas can propel us into transformation and into our purpose. It project us into it. It's just amazing. And I never get tired of hearing that.

4:45How people are so strong. We're so resilient. And I'm thankful that this podcast can be an example by the people that I attract on hearing that I'm fortunate enough to engage in dialogues with because you're a shining example of of that very thing. You know, and I just want to thank you for just being you. Thank you. Yes. Yes. No, no, I really do. I really think I really am. I think that's very empowering to just show real life examples as to how we can allow things to either make us or break us. And, you know, and that is just amazing. And I think I believe that that's what we all need encouragement because we all go through our different, you know, battles and have different paths and journeys and just to know that there's someone out there that possibly went through the same or worse than what we've been through and still they're going and elevating.

5:53Just to me, that's inspiring. Yes. Yeah. And, and you know, our fellow humans all around us, the people that have come before us, the people that are here now, there's so many examples of people being able to overcome against really tremendous odds. And it shows you how much is really in the mind and how much is in the heart, how much is in the spirit. We tend in a physical oriented culture to focus on the physical, but they're really that what separates people often almost perhaps maybe always is not the physical attributes. It's what's behind that. You know, and that comes out most importantly as you're stating during adversity. Right. It's clear that we've learned way more from pain. We learn way more from adversity than we do when everything's going perfectly. Wow. That is wow. I love that. Say that again for our listeners. That we learn more. We know we learn more through pain and adversity and we do when everything is going exactly the way that we want it to go.

7:01Exactly. You know, because they say that necessity is the mother of invention. And when you're struggling when you're going through adversity, there's necessity there. Like for me, it was the necessity to live to be a father to my little children. Right. Right. And so it forced me to in some ways reinvent myself. Right. Right. Just to search for things that I wouldn't have searched for to walk down paths. I wouldn't have walked and I can tell you unequivocally that by doing that, I know that I became a better father. I know that I became a better husband, not by any stretch of the imagination perfect, but certainly much better than I would have been if I had just kept going down the path I was on. I agree. Right. I had a person explain to me once what happened and I just love her explanation said you got hit upside the head with a spiritual two by four. Wow.

8:05I needed that apparently to get my attention to change the path that I was on. And I can see in hindsight how the path that I was on was not going to take me to a great place. And the change that this initiated actually did yield a much better life for all of us. And so it's weird. And I wouldn't wish it on anybody else, but I can't imagine now taking all of that away and just keep on keeping on where I was when I was 41 years old when I was diagnosed 23 years ago. You know what? Allow me to double down on that, if you will. That's why I'm here right now doing this right now is because of tremendous adversities and things that I went through in life that I thought was going to kill me, especially mentally. And it propelled me to start looking within and you know going down this this path that I wouldn't have otherwise went on this journey this journey of self discovery and I wouldn't have did that without that tremendous pain that I encountered.

9:22And not saying that I don't go through still pain, but there was a I mark this certain thing on the physical calendar and know exactly the year when my eyes started to open up in a and I became aware of things in a whole new light and it just projected me and when I look at myself. If I were to look at myself then and be able to project the future, I wouldn't a thought that I would be here, speaking, having these enlightening dialogues with people from around the world. And it's just amazing. Like you said, and I'm just reaffirming what you already explained. It's just amazing. I wouldn't wish it on anyone else. I'm reciting your words, but I couldn't imagine taking it away because I wouldn't be here doing what I'm doing now, being the person that I am now. So yes, I agree with you, Peter.

10:24It's remarkable to say it. It's remarkable to live it. Right. It's probably difficult for some people to hear it, but know anybody out there. If you're struggling right now that the Chinese character for crisis is the exact same character for opportunity. And what we're talking about here is the opportunity that is presented to all of us amidst the crisis and that someday you may look back at whatever it is you're going through right now and say the same thing that you're saying, which is that that was the catalyst for me. That's what opened my eyes. That's what caused me to go in a different direction. And thank God it did. Right. Right. Wow. Amazing. This is wonderful. So let's deep, let's dive a little bit deeper into you being a certified hypnotherapist. I know you kind of touched up on that, but certified hypnotherapist and life coach.

11:25Give us a little insight on that on the the genesis of that and just what it did what it in terms of that came that came directly out of that twin diagnosis on the same day when I was volunteering to be a firefighter of Lyme disease leukemia. The more I research this because the hematologist on college just said to me, we don't know what causes this. We don't know how to cure it. And I thought to myself, well, what am I doing here? And I'm not giving anyone else advice. I'm just saying what happened for me, the thought process I went through. And so I started to throw myself into trying to learn as much as I could about this diagnosis. And the more I studied the more I found myself being drawn from the purely physical cause and effect up into the emotional and the mental psychological, the power in other words, the mind has over the body. And after a certain period of time and with some random incidents that occurred that weren't really random, they were all tied together when I looked back on it. I decided that I needed to become a hypnotherapist so I could really understand how to control my subconscious mind because the subconscious mind is the part of you that controls your body.

12:42And that's that's really what led me along this path. It took a couple of years. I was diagnosed in a three and I studied hypnotherapy in06 to get to that point where I wanted to become an expert in that so I could learn to control my own mind to control my own body. Wow, amazing. And just with that being said, it just sparked me to share this. I would say one of my favorite, if not the favorite book that I've ever read is the power of the subconscious mind by Joseph Murphy. I get it on my books, I get it on my bedside table right now. Love that book. Just when I look at it, I'm serious when I look at the book, I have a hard copy of it. When I look at that book, it just sparks something in me because I know how powerful the contents are, you know, love it. So just that is amazing for people that out there that don't understand your subconscious mind is the mind in there that you are not aware of, but it's, it's okay.

13:53You breathe in your sleep. Your subconscious is doing that. Your heart's beating. You don't consciously do that. Your blood's flowing. You don't consciously do that. So yes, and patterns in your life, you know, without you knowing, you know, yeah. The good, the bad and the ugly, it's all happening right there. Right. If you find yourself in a negative pattern where, where let's say in relationships, for example, some people will say, you know, they've been in three marriages and they all ended with tremendous pain. And it felt like it was the same thing all three times. That's being driven by patterns within your subconscious mind. You're unconsciously choosing your partner out of a big sea of opportunities. And it's not criticism. It's just a recognition of a subconscious pattern that's occurring. And then the patterns within the relationship, some people will describe patterns that are very similar with, you know, these three different people.

14:55That's all coming from, I'm going to say wounds in that person's life. But things probably that happen to them, let's say as a child that set up something that felt really comfortable, even though it ultimately turned into something destructive. Wow. Wow. And thank you for pointing that out. Thank you for everything that you've, you've shared so far. But thank you for pointing that out that we have patterns that we're not consciously aware of that keep reciprocating the same thing over and over. Often times from my perspective, I've went, when you consciously, when someone consciously points that out, we're oftentimes in denial, like, no, I'm not choosing the same person or I'm not. But if you really quiet yourself and get it, get out of your own way, you'll see that you indeed are, you have these patterns and the thing about the subconscious mind.

16:00I'm sure you can attest to this. You can, you can, you can program it. You can, you can tap into it, you know, and, and, and eradicate those, those, those programs that no longer serve you. So it can be difficult. Yes. The favorite quote is from the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, very famous. Yes. Yes. And he said, he said, until you make the unconscious conscious, it will rule your life. And you will call it fate. Wow. That's very powerful. Yes. I think so too. That's one of my favorite quotes of all time. I absolutely adore that. And I'm also reminded as you speak of, and I'm sure you've seen it, the first Matrix movie, the Matrix. Oh, yes. Oh, they came out of 1999 or something. Yeah, I've seen them all. Because in the movie, they download programs. That's the word that they use, download programs into Neo, who's the protagonist, to learn how to fly a helicopter, and to fight in these different martial arts styles,

17:08and to be an expert marksman with firearms and all these other programs, because we're all running programs. That's the word that we use. Right. And when you learn something, you're essentially creating a program. So if you are born in this country and you learn to speak English, that's a program. Right. And later in life, you learn to speak French. That's a program. Right. You have a program that you've developed to drive a car. You have a program that you've developed, maybe to shoot a bow and arrow, whatever it is. Right. When we learn something and it becomes an unconscious competence, it has become a program. Right. And that's amazing when you point that out because you have to be programmed because you can't just pick up, like you just mentioned, shooting a bow and arrow, and be as good as somebody who's really got into the programming of it. You're not going to, you're not going to, even though all it is is holding it and pulling it back and shooting it, your arrow is not going to go like that guy. That's a program to do it. Yeah.

18:09So that's absolutely amazing. Let's, let's touch on your popular YouTube channel, Blue Sky Hypnosis. Now, where, where did that name come from? You just, it just came to you. First of all, and yeah, just give us a little insight on your channel. I'll tell you exactly where the name came from. So when I was going through this, I called it an Odyssey, and like Homer wrote the Odyssey, Odysseus goes out into the world and has all these crazy experience with monsters and with sirens and these women that are like mermaids and he has his men tie him to the, to the master of the ship so they won't dive in because that's what happens to people when they're in the presence of these, of the sirens. And I found my way to a school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And part of what brought me there is the guy that's founded it, it turned out was a former paramedic.

19:14And I mean, heavily identified with being a first responder. And the focus of the school was the application of hypnotherapy to medical conditions, to medical issues. And it was like, this is perfect for me. It all came to me with somebody walked into a store that I owned to ship a package. And it said, I know therapy Academy of America, Santa Fe, New Mexico. And I had this hour long conversation with her and then thought nothing about it. And then it popped up again later. Well, we had these intense days, 10 hours in class. And then after class, I would drive up to the mountains and go for a hike in the, it was called the Camisa Trail. And it was about an hour long hike and I would do it every day. And I was just so blown away by the beauty, the physical beauty of Santa Fe. In particular, as I was hiking up this trail, I would be looking at the sky the whole time. And the sky was this impossible blue. It was just so clear. And I could see the green of these, of these trees and then this kind of rust color of the path.

20:16And I just felt so alive. I felt so hopeful. I felt like everything was possible. And we do have that phrase of a blue sky, which kind of means happiness. It means that anything is possible because you have this huge canvas on which to paint. So that's when I decided that I wanted to call the practice blue sky of Moses. Wow. That's amazing how that came to you that way. And that you were observant, you know, enough to really put that together. But yeah, so your podcast. Give us a little bit more insight on that on the channel. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So the channel is is really fueled. I mean, there's 259 videos, I think, is what's on there. And most of them are videos that are designed for people who are struggling with something. It's almost like a virtual session, but it has to be made in a generic sense. It can't be customized obviously to any individual person because there's it's for a broad audience.

21:21And the topic that has become the most popular are weight loss videos. So there's there's three weight loss videos on that channel that all have in excess of one million views. So one of them has one million. And it's like two and a half million on the one that's three and a half million. And then there's other videos that are also weight loss or half a million or 750,000 or whatever. And what's really astonishing is that a number of those videos are called subliminal. Also known as sub audible videos. So what I do is I lay I write out a script. I record that script and then I tune it fairly low in terms of volume. And then I put something over it so I mask it. It could be with the sound of rain or the sound of ocean waves or music. So when a person listens to it, they don't really hear my voice clearly consciously. They basically hear the masking sounds.

22:23But the way a subliminal or sub audible works is that the subconscious mind, it's about one million times more powerful than the conscious mind. The subconscious mind can absorb all of this material. So a person can listen to it while they're working on their computer or while they're sleeping at night or while they're watching TV. And they just tune it. It's just at a low level. And you can read thousands and thousands and thousands of comments of people saying, oh my god, you know, I dropped 40 pounds over the last 12 months or something. And then the other weird thing is my husband lost 12 pounds and he didn't even know what I was doing. He just thought I was listening to rain sounds. And it just got him nowhere. He lost weight. So it's really cool reading what people, what their experiences like because the universe of people that listen to it is so large. It's great having one on one in my office or remotely. But to get the feedback from thousands or tens of thousands of people is incredible. You know, that is absolutely amazing.

23:25I want to touch on a couple of things here. Number one, those of us that have YouTube channels that are into, you know, social media. We know how difficult it is to not only find the niche or niche, if you will, to get people even interested. And so I just want to congratulate you on providing something of service to people, providing valuable content, valuable content, wellness content that people want to tap into. And it clearly shows, you know, what those numbers. And I just want to congratulate you on that. That's amazing. And also I wanted to touch on the subconscious mind part.

24:25What I have come to realize is that the way that you described how you tune that and record and have it down low your voice and what you're saying. And the other sounds because what I've learned is that week, if say like you recorded it, your voice loud, I mean, we could accept that too. But oftentimes we're resistant to, and we'll consciously block that out. But if you can get past that conscious mind is which you're showing me that you're doing with that. Yeah, it's, it's a very powerful technique for doing that. And for whatever reason, some people resonate more with the subliminal, other people resonate more with the audible. So I have, I have both. Right. Right. And it also kind of shows us what shows me what's possible. Like when every year listening to anything, it doesn't matter if it's on your television, your local news station, a political speech, whatever it is, a movie in a theater, there can be subliminal programming there.

25:29Absolutely. I don't know. Absolutely. It's, it's just something to be aware of that, you know, we're all being programmed all the time. And sometimes it's by unconscious or well-meaning people like our parents when we were growing up or our caregivers or teachers in a school. And other times it's literally being done on purpose to us as a population to get us to buy things. Now it would be in a commercial sense to get us to buy products and services. Maybe that we didn't even think we needed. Right. Oftentimes I feel that's true. And in a political sense, wars are sold. You know, before, before countries go to war, you know, if it's, if it's a large committed engagement, they usually prepare their population. They usually start selling the idea that we need to do this. Absolutely. Wow. So everything, everything is sold. And this is a tool. And it's remarkable how powerful it is that we don't always have awareness if it's being deployed.

26:34Right. Right. What that being said, I would like to add that is why that is one of the reasons, main reasons why that I am more aware and more use more discretion in regard to the words that I speak. The conversations that I engage in the what I listen to what I expose myself to because of that very fact. And there's people that I've shared this with that is still not convinced. I'm like, Oh, no, I'm still I can listen to this. And I'm not criticizing. They just are not ready. You know, but whether they believe that or not, they're being programmed in all what you're taking in visually, audibly is programming you. So that's just that's scientific. You can go against that all you want. You know, so one of the things that that I hear from some of my clients.

27:40And maybe some of your listeners do this is they go to sleep with the television on. And when you are sleeping, you are completely and utterly suggestible. It is if you are in a deep hypnotic trance when you are asleep. And so if you have the television on what's playing on there, you know, commercials for sure I would imagine or playing on there. Maybe there are newscasters talking about, you know, horrible things that are happening around the world. And maybe this will cause your autonomic nervous system to move into a sympathetic or fight or flight response while you're sleeping. Maybe you'll grind your teeth. Maybe, you know, you won't sleep as deeply. Maybe you'll wake up in the morning and you'll be tired. Maybe you'll feel like, you know, you have to go buy something that maybe you don't really, who knows? I don't know. But just know that when you're asleep, you are totally susceptible, wide open to programming.

28:41And that's why a lot of the tracks that I create are actually called sleep hypnosis. They're designed to be listened to while you're asleep. Because you don't have to carve out any time from your busy life. You're going to sleep. And if you have this thing on in the background and all you consciously hear as a sound of waves on the ocean or you hear the sound of rain, you could be programming yourself to eat healthier food, to have a portion size which is two thirds of what it used to be. To let go of the old emotional weight you've been carrying around because physical and emotional weight are connected to each other. Before we conclude this, we're down to about five minutes. How can people find you? I'm going to incorporate the links that you sent me and to the description of this. But yeah, while we're here, how can how can people find you? The easiest way would be through blue sky hypnosis. So that would be a website blue sky hypnosis.com. And as you mentioned, my YouTube channel blue sky hypnosis, that would be the simplest way.

29:47I have another website that's focused more on relationships, people who are struggling in their relationships. And that is my name, Peter McLaughlin.com. So those would be the best ways to get in touch with me. Yes, and also if I'm not I'm not certain, but I don't think you sent me the link to your YouTube channel. So I'd like to have that. Well, I can incorporate that in the description. No, I believe, yeah, I want to promote and make people aware of, you know, of all my guests endeavors. Sure, happy to do it. I'm amazing. So before we conclude, is there any last ideas, words or anything I didn't highlight that you want to leave us with? I guess it would be that no human being is truly broken, no matter what's going on in your life, no matter how, you know, what difficulty you may be going through.

30:52It's not hopeless. As long as you have breath, you have the ability to overcome, to circumvent whatever it is you're struggling with. That you have an inner magnificence inside of you, and that the only thing that is suppressing that are our beliefs. So belief is an emotion and an idea that get married to each other and the belief part of it, excuse me, the idea part of it doesn't have to be correct. It can be incorrect. It probably is. And I just want people to know that I just want them to know that whatever they're going through, it's not at all hopeless. You are not broken. There is a light inside of you. Your job is to find that light, to let it shine and let that guide you through whatever darkness you're struggling with. Wow. Thank you. That was beautifully orchestrated. What I like to call beautifully orchestrated, articulated. Thank you, Peter. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. Yes. Yes. I appreciate you very much. And thank you, everyone, for watching and or listening. Be sure to hit that like button, that subscribe button.

31:57Be sure to share this content, not only to help the platform grow, but help to get this amazing life-affirming information out there to people. Appreciate you. See you soon. And if you think that you would be a good fit to be on this podcast, just simply shoot me an email. 3333, empower at gmail.com. Love and appreciation to everyone. See you soon. Enlightened Empowered Evolved.