You might call it "highway hypnosis" or "zoning out" or "spacing off" or "in the zone". And, hypnosis is used on you everyday on radio and television. Even by your friends or family using guilt, blame, or joy to manipulate your decisions.

Please forget what you may have seen about hypnosis being used to manipulate people's decisions. If that were true, company's would pay millions of dollars to do exactly that during a Super Bowl halftime show. Oh, wait, they do. Well, at least they attempt to, and it obviously works enough of the time to make it a good business decision. But, you know it doesn't work every time or even most of the time.

Hypnosis is used on most of us very effectively by politicians, and advertising executives. And used poorly by most "pre-owned" car salesman. And yes, it's used on you by friends and family. And yes, you use it on them too.

When you first meet someone you like and smile at them, that is you attempting to manipulate a smile from them. Maybe your response to the previous sentence is "I smile because I'm happy". You smile because you're happy and want others to respond by being happy. And if someone doesn't smile back, aren't you slightly offended or put-off? Probably. A smile helps increase the odds that the other person will remember you with good emotions attached to the memory. Sounds complicated until you start seeing how common it is.

If you're driving home from work and someone cuts you off in traffic, you might be irritated. The fourth person to cut you off on that same trip home? The fourth guy didn't do anything different than the first guy. Unless you're the nicest person in the world, odds are you're MUCH more irritated. That's emotional association controlling your reaction.

This is evident in all aspects of your life. Your mind began collecting these associations soon after you were born. It is the same for all of us. Of course, it is common sense, but we don't always realize how powerfully it influences our behaviors and choices.

The stronger the emotion is, the stronger the association. The stronger the association is, the more vivid the memory. The more vivid the memory, the more real it is to your mind and more influence it has on your behavior. Your mind does not have a real concept of time passing. What it sees in your imagination, or memory, it believes. At least, most of the time.

This basic premise applies to all kinds of behavior, from your posture, to your food preferences. A smoker is often aware of when they started and why. Knowing this they may be fairly aware of the emotional associations involved. But, this doesn't mean all smokers can just stop. Some can and do. Some stop smoking and replace the smoking activity with another. Like food, gum or candy. The behavior is still there and active, and still has the potential to cause trouble.

Understanding this concept gives you the power to intentionally change your associations. Some you can do on your own. If you need help, find a professional you can trust and make it happen.