Blog

What is Self-Hypnosis Anyway?

Posted on 8:39pm Wednesday 23rd Mar 2016

What is Self-hypnosis Anyway?

Self-hypnosis is a much misunderstood phrase. Some of that is because 'hypnosis' is very much misunderstood too.

Let's see what this hypnosis thing is all about

If you imagine a spectrum stretching from you being fast asleep and gone to the world to the other extreme where you are bouncing around full of life, anywhere along that spectrum is a possibility for you. More than that, every point on the line is something that you pass through every day unless you have some restrictions that stop you like ill health or physical restrictions.

Hypnosis does not take you away from that line and in fact the point at which hypnosis occurs is part of your everyday life.
Just before you go to sleep and just after you wake up you pass through a hypnotic state. For some it is a mere nano-second and for others it can be a few minutes. Have you ever been drifting off to sleep and heard someone or something that you are aware of but that sounds far away and/or you feel just too tired to respond? That's hypnosis. Similarly upon waking do you ever experience a lack of coordination and orientation for a brief second or even longer? This is especially true if you are not in your normal surroundings. That's hypnosis.
reclining chair

So if we do it every day and that's all it is how come we have to learn to do it?

Ah well you see this is the magic about hypnosis. It's not how to do it, better to say how to use it for your benefit. It is not the actual hypnosis that you are using but tools that you can include in your experience in order to make that self-hypnosis impact-full for you.

A self hypnosis course will teach you how to access that hypnotic state at will. So that if you feel a 'power nap' would be beneficial you could use hypnosis to give you that restful period. And when you are in that very relaxed state in a controlled way i.e. choosing to go there then it is far more refreshing than an actual 15 min nap.

Wish fulfillment

Self hypnosis is also useful when you want to plan ahead and aim for the things you want to achieve. Unfortunately most people either wish for something without putting enough thought into it and taking the bigger picture into account or they wish for what they don't want. i.e. I don't want to eat cream cakes. which is focusing on the negative rather than the actual aims.

So a big part of a self-hypnosis course would be to understand what you want, check it out and explore the consequences of this wish coming true. If it is all okay then it is about learning how to embed that wish into your 'self'-hypnosis session.

It is truly amazing that so many people use self-hypnosis wrongly and are reinforcing the things they want to leave behind or hoping for something without preparing the road effectively.

Self hypnosis when carried out acturately can help you to:

Relax and be calm
Enjoy better quality sleep
Improve your confidence & self-esteem
Be a better public speaker
Improve your memory
Enhance your performance at work and sports
Become healthier and fitter
Promote rapid healing and recovery
Control or reduce pain without drugs
Learn faster and pass exams
Enjoy pregnancy and wonderfully natural childbirth (women only of course!)

All that's left now then is to find a course and register.

A Quick Word about Hypnosis Recordings

You can of course buy or download a recording that gives you a guided visualisation or a gradual muscle relax. Often they are themed. This can sometimes be a problem as one size never fits all. However, the biggest problem with these recordings is the skill of the people who made them. If you are buying a recording you need to buy it from someone who has a reputation like Paul McKenna for instance and not someone who has just run a few recording off. Paul McKenna, love him or loathe him will not risk his reputation by making mistakes in his dialogue.

If you choose this option and play it regularly you will probably find that as you start to get used to the story you seems to drift off into your own world at a certain point and it is almost like you have drifted off to sleep but you have not as you awaken immediately the recording ends. That is quite normal and you could imagine it as you mind getting fed up of hearing the same story and wandering to explore elsewhere. This is not a problem as the recording is still registering in the correct place.

My clients have told me about and brought to me several recordings by qualified therapists where they have given ill-though-out suggestions, The client often eventually spots the mistake themselves and stops listening to it. Sometimes it has caused a set back for the client that might take some time to reverse.