It starts out so small. “Just a little tinkering,” your hypnotist reassures you.

Just a little variation here and there. Mixing things up a bit. Nothing major.

Giving you suggestions to notice how good your spine feels when you maintain proper posture.

A small swell of pride when you wear a piece of clothing you know they like on you.

A tiny tingle of pleasure when you walk a half step behind them.

Just tiny things. Edits. Tweaks.

Six months later, your hairdresser asks you what kind of hairstyle you’d like. You trip over your words, stuttering and stammering incomprehensibly, until you find yourself requesting exactly the style your hypnotist likes best in a smooth, clear voice. You feel a flush of excitement at how happy they’ll be.

Tinkering. Variation. 

A year after the tinkering starts, you quit your job. You just need a small change, after all. You’ve felt it coming on, a little bit at a time, for months now.

You tell your hypnotist all about it over the dinner you’d carefully prepared. You never used to like mushrooms very much, but these days you can’t get enough of them. It’s normal for people’s tastes to change just a little as they get older, right? You pause, your mouth closing and hands automatically moving to your lap until your hypnotist starts eating. They become moveable again so that you may eat as well.

A few days later, you have the idea to donate your work clothes, now that you don’t need them anymore. 

You realize that the rest of your wardrobe could use some variation, too.

Little by little, you pack up all of your clothes for donation. Just small changes to your wardrobe, of course.

Somehow, it never occurs to you to replace them. 

You hear your hypnotist’s car outside and scurry over to the door, taking up the kneeling position that you thought you’d try out greeting them with. You feel so light and free now that all of your clothes have been given away and you no longer need to spend precious energy deciding what to wear.

Variety really is the spice of life!