The art of hypnosis, especially that of conversational hypnosis has become much less mysterious and much more widely accepted as the scientific community has started to accept the benefits of hypnosis techniques. For those of you who wish to learn how to hypnotize you will be pleased to hear that you don’t need any specific skills or talents – everything can be learned and taught.

Below you will find five easy-to-follow and effective steps that will teach you how to hypnotize almost anybody.

1. The person you wish to hypnotize must be relaxed and seated in a comfortable position. The surroundings that you and the “subject” are in should be quiet and reasonably dark – especially make sure that it is free of unnatural light. Ensure that you will not be disturbed by anything.

2. The next step to learning how to hypnotize is to instruct the subject to focus with all of their concentration on an object located on the opposite side of the room. Any object will do, provided it is not below the subject’s line of sight. Next, tell the subject how relaxed they are feeling and how heavy their eyelids are. The secret to this step is to use soft, relaxing and soothing tone of voice.

3. It is important to encourage the subject to breathe in a relaxed but deep manner. Instruct them to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth. Each breath should be held for between five to ten seconds. Whilst this is occurring, constantly remind them how relaxed they are feeling.

4. Ask the subject to imagine his/herself walking down a flight of stairs in an expensive hotel or maybe even a palace. Stress the fact that these are no ordinary stairs, but are in fact beautiful, richly carpeted stairs that help whoever walks on them to relax. Tell them that with every step they descend down, they need to count down from ten to one. Constantly remind them that they are feeling more and more relaxed with every step they take.

5. Finally, talk positively to the subject about whatever was agreed on before they were hypnotized. This could be something like gaining the willpower to stop smoking or being more confident in business. The key here is to reassure the subject that they will succeed in whatever they are concerned with. After this step is complete, tell the subject that as you count backwards from five to one they will progressively wake up from their state of relaxation.

Congratulations, you now know how to hypnotize someone!

However, this form of more traditional hypnosis isn’t the most powerful as the subject is actually aware of the fact that they are being hypnotized. Instead, the techniques of conversational hypnosis are far more powerful. These involve hypnotizing people during normal conversation without them being at all aware of it. Although the steps I have shown you today that have taught you how to hypnotize are powerful, you would be advised to learn conversational hypnosis if you wish to master the art of hypnosis completely.

And you thought butter was bad for you? Silly people!

One of the most healthy whole foods you can include in your diet is butter. “What?!” I can hear many of you saying, “Isn’t butter bad for you? I thought margarine and spreads were better because they’re low in saturated fat and cholesterol?” Be not deceived folks! Butter is truly better than margarine or other vegetable spreads. Despite unjustified warnings about saturated fat from well-meaning, but misinformed, nutritionists, the list of butter’s benefits is impressive indeed:

Vitamins
Butter is a rich source of easily absorbed vitamin A, needed for a wide range of functions in the body, from maintaining good vision, to keeping the endocrine system in top shape. Butter also contains all the other fat-soluble vitamins (E, K, and D).

Minerals
Butter is rich in trace minerals, especially selenium, a powerful antioxidant. Ounce for ounce, butter has more selenium per gram than either whole wheat or garlic. Butter also supplies iodine, needed by the thyroid gland (as well as vitamin A, also needed by the thyroid gland).

Fatty Acids
Butter has appreciable amounts of butyric acid, used by the colon as an energy source. This fatty acid is also a known anti-carcinogen. Lauric acid, a medium chain fatty acid, is a potent antimicrobial and antifungal substance. Butter also contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) which gives excellent protection against cancer. Range-fed cows produce especially high levels of CLA as opposed to “stall fed” cattle. It pays, then, to get your butter from a cow that has been fed properly. Butter also has small, but equal, amounts of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, the so-called essential fatty acids.

Glycospingolipids
These are a special category of fatty acids that protect against gastrointestinal infections, especially in the very young and the elderly. Children, therefore, should not drink skim or low fat milk. Those that do have higher rates of diarrhea than those that drink whole milk.

Cholesterol
Despite all of the misinformation you may have heard, cholesterol is needed to maintain intestinal health, but is also needed for brain and nervous system development in the young. Again, this emphasizes the need for cholesterol-rich foods for children. Human breast milk is extremely high in saturated fat and cholesterol.

Standing in direct opposition to all of these healthful qualities stands margarine and assorted “vegetable oil spreads.” While these may be cheaper, you’d never eat them again if you knew how they were made. All margarines are made from assorted vegetable oils that have been heated to extremely high temperatures. This insures that the oils will become rancid. After that, a nickel catalyst is added, along with hydrogen atoms, to solidify it. Nickel is a toxic heavy metal and amounts always remain in the finished product. Finally, deodorants and colorings are added to remove margarine’s horrible smell (from the rancid oils) and unappetizing grey color.

And if that is not enough, in the solidification process, harmful trans-fatty acids are created which are carcinogenic and mutagenic. What would you rather have: a real food with an abundance of healthful qualities or a stick of carcinogenic, bleached, and deodorized slop? Some of you might be watching your weight and be rather hesitant to add butter into your diet. Have no fear. About 15% of the fatty acids in butter are of the short and medium chain variety which are NOT stored as fat in the body, but are used by the vital organs for energy. (Fats you should watch, though, are all vegetable oils and olive oil.)

When looking for good quality butter, raw and cultured is best. This might be hard to find, however. Organic butter is your next best thing, with store-bought butter being at the bottom. Remember what we’ve said about commercially-raised cows; its worth a few extra cents to get high quality butter for you and your family. A brand of butter available in many markets is Anchor, imported from New Zealand. In this country, all cattle are grass-fed, thus insuring a high nutrient content of their milk, butter, and meat.

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Small-caps

For the first time in more than two years, the investing news appears to be unqualifiedly good. The markets closed at a two-and-a-half-year high on Friday. The unrest in Egypt resolved peacefully. Mergers and acquisitions are picking up again. Even so, a small cadre of doomsayers say there is still plenty that could go wrong – and missteps that smart investors can avoid.

No, they’re not talking about bonds or gold, which many investors think are due for a pullback. They’re talking about small-cap stocks, which are just 6% off their all-time high. Anything vulnerable to inflation could also be a trouble spot, and food prices are at their highest in 20 years. And cash, which has been unspectacular for a while, could get riskier: If inflation picks up and interest rates don’t keep pace, your balance may grow, but your purchasing power will erode.

Why all the gloom and doom? After all, it’s not a popular position: In January, investors put $17.8 billion into equity mutual funds, the best month for stock funds since May, 2009. But the recent market highs are making some investors nervous, the threat of tumult in the Middle East remains, and we’ve yet to see if the economy will collapse without government help, notes Richard Madigan, chief investment officer of Global Access Portfolios at J.P. Morgan Private Bank. Meanwhile, interest rates have nowhere to go but up, and recently, the bond market signaled it’s expecting inflation. “Don’t fall in love with the ‘it’s all better, it’s all over,'” says Madigan. “The macro environment is still significantly challenged.”

So where should investors steer clear? Three areas, experts say:

When the Federal Reserve announced it was buying back Treasurys, investors looked for better returns from riskier investments—like small company stocks, says James Dailey, chief investment officer of TEAM Financial and portfolio manager of the TEAM Asset Strategy Fund ( TEAMX ) . The result: the Russell 2000 Index has risen nearly 140% from its low in March 2009. That means there may be little left to gain in the long term, says Dailey: “We would now call them dangerous.”

The stocks aren’t cheap, either. The average price-to-earnings ratio for small-cap stocks is currently 23, close to levels last seen at the height of the market in 2007, and high enough to push investors to look for better buys elsewhere. And investors should keep in mind that small-caps tend to fall faster than their larger peers should we see a market correction, adds Madigan.

Cash

In spite of the above pitfalls, the markets may still be a better place for your money than the proverbial mattress. Money-market funds are yielding a measly .03% and 1-year certificates of deposit pay an average 0.50%. “It’s not doing anything for you,” says Elizabeth Fell, a fixed-income strategist at Barclays Wealth, the wealth management division of Barclays. In fact, if inflation rises, a cash stash will, effectively, yield a negative real return, because your purchasing power won’t keep pace with prices. For investors who still need cash for living expenses, Marilyn Plum, director of portfolio management at Ballou Plum Wealth Advisors, says she’s trying to limit her clients’ cash to 3% to 5% of their portfolios.

If you’re single, I’m sure you’ve asked yourself more than once: “Why me?” As for the answer, chances are your friends and family may have been more than, ahem, generous in offering their opinions, and I’ll bet that little voice in your head has had a say, too. But before you find fault in what you’re doing on the dating scene, take a look at what you’re thinking. You may simply be suffering from a slight spell of dating pessimism.

I look at dating this way: sometimes it’s not about what actually happens on dates; rather, it’s your explanation of what happened that makes all the difference in your attitude about love, your dating style, and the energy you’re radiating in the presence of your matches. It’s a theory that Martin Seligman, Ph.D., the father of positive psychology and author of Authentic Happiness calls your “explanatory style.” He says that pessimists explain their problems as pervasive (“No one likes me”), permanent (“I’ll be alone forever”) and personal (“I’m not gorgeous enough”). But you’re far more likely to land in a great relationship if you’re an optimist, which means it’s time to start looking at your negative dating experiences as “atypical,” “temporary” and “not about me.”

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