The US
Being someone who works in hypnotherapy, I naturally pay attention to language — psychologically, philosophically, even politically.
So, let’s talk about you and me – us. And of course, that “US” can also be a name of a country in its abbreviation. The country!
I always wondered why most of the world uses the word “province” to describe the sub-units of a country, while The United States chose the word “state.”
It is an interesting choice of language that one cannot ignore.
Happiness is a state of being.
Anger is a state of being.
Joy is a state of being.
Sadness is a state of being.
Fear, certainty, grief, hope, shame, desire, inspiration… all states.
Human beings move through states constantly. Sometimes slowly over years, sometimes within minutes. A conversation can change a state. A song can change a state. A memory can change a state. A therapy session can change a state. Even weather can.
Maybe that’s why people in the US seem to move states more frequently in their lifetime than other countries?
Most people think their emotions happen to them. But often, beneath awareness, they are participating in those states, reinforcing them, rehearsing them, even identifying with them.
In that sense, perhaps all states are ultimately states of mind.
So then, what does it mean to “unite states”?
The phrase suddenly sounds more psychological to me than geographical.
Can fearful states unite with hopeful states?
Can angry states unite with peaceful states?
Can divided internal states within one human being unite with each other?
Sometimes a person sits in front of a hypnotherapist believing they are trapped inside depression, anxiety, heartbreak, rage, addiction, paralysis, confusion. But hypnosis itself is also simply a state. A shift in attention. A shift in perception. A shift in identification.
Many people imagine hypnotherapists “doing something” to clients. But often, what actually happens is far quieter than that.
In that quietness, a person begins seeing differently. Yes, language, insights, feeling safe, and being deeply seen all help; nevertheless, the shift only happens when the individual, consciously or unconsciously, chooses another state to inhabit.
No therapist can permanently install peace into someone committed to chaos. No hypnotist can force freedom onto someone deeply invested in suffering. At some level, the person themselves must participate in the transition.
That is why even though many people believe change can take years, it still happens in an instant, no matter how many years it may appear to take. States are more fluid than we pretend they are. One morning, a person wakes up heavy and cynical. By evening, after one unexpected conversation, something inside has softened. The world did not fundamentally change within those few hours. But their state did. And because their state changed, the world itself appeared different.
Perhaps nations are not entirely different.
According to the 2025 World Happiness Report, the United States ranked 24th in global happiness — its lowest ranking since the report began. The country itself appears to have shifted states repeatedly — polarized states, fearful states, reactive states, defiant states. As if it’s not enough, in recent years, the idea of absorbing Canada as a 51st state has been spoken about casually.
Canada, although also quietly declining and ranked 18th in the 2025 World Happiness Report, cannot become “one more state.” Not geographically. Not politically. Not psychologically.
There is something deeply sovereign in the Canadian identity — imperfect, fragmented, sometimes overly polite perhaps — but still resistant to becoming emotionally absorbed into another nation’s momentum or emotional climate.
And maybe that is true for human beings as well. A healthy person is not someone who never changes states. That would be impossible. Human life moves constantly. We all cycle through grief, beauty, contraction, openness, exhaustion, joy.
Perhaps maturity is simply becoming less unconsciously ruled by whichever state temporarily passes through us. For example, we can feel anger without becoming anger. We can feel sadness without building a home there. And we can experience fear without organizing an entire identity around it.
States change. That, like life itself, is both the danger and the hope.
The person who suffers today may not suffer next year. The person who feels lost may one day feel clear. The person convinced they are broken may discover they were only inhabiting a temporary state they mistook for themselves.
And maybe the deepest question is not how to permanently achieve one perfect state. It is:
Which states are we willing to keep rehearsing?
