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What is the first thing that crosses your mind when you hear the word ‘Hypnosis?’
Do you think of someone getting into your brain forcing you to bark like a dog or as the movies show, a process that forces dark secrets out of us?
Well, hypnosis has a lot more than what the movies have been telling you.
And no, you don’t always need the help of a therapist or a hypnotist for hypnosis. The other thing you might not know is that you can actually hypnotize yourself.
But how? And why would you want to hypnotize yourself?
Unknown to many, hypnosis is one of the most powerful processes that allows you access to your unconscious and in the process tapping into your creative side, sharpening your problem-solving skills, and even mastering your mindset.
Hypnosis changes your brain’s electrical patterns or brain waves as seen in EEGs.
Research shows that during hypnosis, your brain shows theta brain waves, which are also seen in a deep meditative state, light sleep, or daydreaming.
It’s also been shown that during hypnosis, activity in your brain’s left side is reduced while activity goes up on the right side of the brain.
Through self-hypnosis (or mesmerism), you can reach deep into the brain and attain a deeper, relaxed state.
Tapping into your unconscious is a powerful tool that allows you to find all the information and the power you need to grow, learn, and become the best version of yourself.
Hypnosis improves your overall state. By state, we mean that hypnosis will improve your behavior, mindset, as well as feelings.
What all this means is that self-hypnosis is not the frightening mind-control process shown on TV, and it definitely isn’t a mystical or an unexplained phenomenon that can make your life unbearable.
Self-hypnosis and hypnosis, in general, represents the processes that helps in dealing with emotional, psychological, as well as physical problems.
Note, hypnosis has nothing to do with and is not:
- Sleep
- Mind control
- Brain-washing
- unconsciousness
- A peculiar/ mystical state.
Successful hypnosis puts you in a highly-focused state, along with a heightened state of suggestibility and relaxation.
Note: Hypnosis is derived from the Greek word Hypnos, meaning sleep. Hypnosis is an abbreviation of neuro-hypnotism meaning nervous system’s sleep.
Unfortunately, even with all the benefits that hypnosis promise, it’s not a simple thing to do. And hypnotizing yourself is even harder.
Among many other reasons, the primary reason why hypnosis is difficult boils down to you. Your mindset determines the success or the failure of hypnosis.
Confused? Here’s an explanation…
The Conscious and Unconscious Mind
Most people wishing to self-hypnotize pay too much attention to the process and the methods, which means that if the process fails the first time, they give up.
So, if you want actually to hypnotize yourself, you might want to shift your mindset.
You need to master and get in touch with yourself. You must be self-aware. You must have a positive intention.
For a moment, think about your mood and how it affects your day.
Your energy levels dip when you’re in a bad mood, and everything feels light and good, even easy when you’re in a good mood.
Therefore, if you’re trying to hypnotize yourself, you might want to make sure that you’re in the right state of mind.
Keep in mind that access to your unconscious is one of the toughest things you could do, and you might not get to the hypnotic state the first time you try.
Being the part of you that records all your experiences, especially the ones you’re unaware of, your unconscious is hardly accessible. But this doesn’t mean that you should give up attempts to access it.
Despite the blocks to its accessibility, your unconscious is the part of you that orchestrates your wakefulness. It’s an important part of you, and though you might not know this, your unconscious boasts its own intelligence and the best part is that this part of you keeps you safe.
The other thing you should know about your awareness is that your unconscious and conscious minds are in constant communication with each other.
Understanding this relationship is important since it prepares your mental state for hypnosis, making it easier for you to access your unconscious mind.
Preparing for Self-Hypnosis
The first step to self-hypnosis is learning how to get out of the way, learning to unblock yourself, and learning how to stop yourself from entering a state of trance.
In simple terms, you prepare by teaching yourself how to let go of the baggage.
I know what you’re thinking, it’s easier said than done, no?
Well, that isn’t far from the truth. In fact, learning to let go is the toughest thing any person could do, which is why we recommend a number of exercises for you to try.
These exercises will enhance the power of your conscious awareness. These exercises are essential because we tend to suppress a lot of energy, emotions, and problems which could make it harder for you to access your unconscious mind.
And through hypnosis, you not only become aware of your feelings and energy but also find it easy to reach the deeper levels of your conscious and unconscious mind.
All these exercises are geared towards boosting your level of awareness.
Note that you attain a higher level of awareness when you increase your neural connections.
And one of the best and the most powerful ways of increasing your neural connections and awareness is through the use of emotions. And not just any kind of emotions, but positive emotions.
Besides keeping a positive mindset, you can also boost your awareness and access deeper levels of your consciousness (as well as the unconscious mind) by engaging in exercises to boost your mindfulness.
Positive emotions and mindfulness boost brain connections and awareness, and the best bit are that they allow you to let go.
Now that you know how to set your mind on the right path, to let go, and to enhance your awareness, how do you prepare for a hypnosis session?
1. Get rid of distractions:
Your only real hope of success in self-hypnosis is getting rid of distractions and disturbances. So, no email or social media alerts, beeps, or pings.
And if you need to stay on top of things and to be aware of time, you should consider setting the alarm. Alternatively, listen to guided audios and music for self-hypnosis.
Also, make sure that you don’t need to go to the bathroom.
2. Find the right time:
if you’re like the rest of us and you find yourself with packed days, you might want to find the right time of day and week for self-hypnosis.
Finding free time with few distractions will make it easier for you to relax. Morning, evening, or day, take your pick!
3. Practice self-awareness:
Before you begin self-hypnosis, you must be aware of your feelings, as well as what you intend to achieve through self-hypnosis. Are you tired, stressed, worried, relaxed, or focused?
Your awareness of your feelings will allow you to acknowledge your potential roadblocks while allowing you to set clear intentions for hypnosis.
- Dim the lights
- Keep the room temperature comfortable
- Sit or lie down in a comfortable position,
- Tips for Self-Hypnosis
Self-hypnosis doesn’t have to be harder than you think, and the interesting thing is that once you get the hang of things, you will access your unconscious a lot easier.
Here are some of the other hypnotic induction techniques
Hypnotic induction techniques you might want to try:
1. Magnetic Hands
Magnetic hands is one of the best exercises for self-hypnosis since its intention lies in directing energy/ attention to the areas between your hands, away from your thoughts. To do this,
First, rub your hands together to generate heat, and once you feel the heat pull apart your hands until your hands are 4 inches apart.
Next, move your hands in and out slightly. When you do this, you should be able to feel a natural magnetic pull, just the way a magnet feels. Keep focusing on the magnetic sensations as they grow stronger.
Keep playing with that energy to the point that you feel your hands coming together the close your eyes and deepen your trance.
Note that it doesn’t matter whether your hands touch each other or if they are 10 inches apart, as long as you can feel the strength of the magnetic pull.
So, if you’re hands are not touching yet, divert your attention to space between your hands for an intensified experienced.
By playing around with the energy between your hands, you keep your conscious mind distracted and your unconscious mind active.
According to Grace Smith, a hypnotist and the author of Close Your Eyes, you can hypnotize yourself following these simple steps: First, notice your stress levels.On a scale of 0-10, how stressed are you? Note that 10 is the highest level of stress you reach. Next, close your eyes, and they take five deep and slow breaths. As you try to relax, imagine your favorite color and then say the color to yourself and imagine that color flowing through the body from the head to the toe. Now, slowly repeat after yourself, “I am going deeper and deeper” three times. Next up, you should slowly repeat these affirmations “I am safe, I choose to relax, and calm.” Keep imagining the color you love, say that color out loud, and then imagine the color flowing through the body. In this state, imagine experiencing your desired state. For example, imagine feeling confident if you’re scared or springing to action if you ever find yourself procrastinating. Imagine the desired state for about 60 seconds. And one last time, imagine your best color again then say the color out loud to yourself and the imagine that color flooding your body. Finally, take note of your stress levels on a scale of 0-10. Like the Magnetic Hands method, Arm Levitation is an important self-hypnosis strategy that ensures the direction of your attention towards sensations and movements of your body, and away from your thoughts. For this technique, first, lift your right arm upwards and downwards until you’re used to the movement and the physical sensations created. Then, pay attention to your muscles’ micro-movements. After a few repetitions, repeat some affirmations asking your unconscious mind to lift your right arm. If you’re serious about the process, you’d be surprised to see how fast and easily your mind responds. Keep in mind that this strategy works whether your arm lifts or if it twitches. Keep doing this and allow your arm to move up to your face. Keep paying attention to your arms’ micro-movements. Alternatively, focus on your wrist, fingers, or your muscles. The visualization techniques, also called mentalization techniques, are important and also the most effective self-hypnosis techniques. First, close your eyes and then visualize a familiar room, taking in as many details of the room as possible. As you visualize the room, think about and visualize the unique features in the room like doorways, pictures, and furniture, among others. Next, repeat these steps, but this time, only visualize another room, one you’re less familiar with. Take note of the difference between the two visualized rooms. Your visualization of the unfamiliar room will definitely have few details and more stable, than the familiar room that’ll feel more insecure. Stable visualization is essential for the achievement of self-hypnosis as it builds and induces a calm state. An alternative to room visualization is the Describe the room visualization exercise. In Describing the Room, you need to visualize your familiar room, while describing the features of the familiar room to another person, and in very great detail. This exercise is intended to enhance your awareness, as well as its stability through the engagement of other mind functions, in this case, verbalization. You could also learn a lot about the process by reading the Power of Conversational Hypnosis. This mentalization exercise is different from the other exercises above. For its mentalization, you need a pantomime to describe the familiar room. What this means is that during the visualization of a room, you tell yourself different things about the room. For example, to describe the size of a room, say its size, you need to spread your arms out wide and note down the locations of your window or the hallway. You could even tell yourself that you want to go through the door. Pantomime intends to strengthen all your mentalization through the incorporation of physical movements and speech. All you need to make this work is to repeat the exercises and the movements. Your awareness gets sharper as you add more mental functions. The pyramid breathing is an exercise that enhances mindfulness. It allows your mind to enter a mindful state in which you can do anything, especially where you’d experience some resistance. This kind of breathing allows you to have a mindful moment/ movement. Through the mindful movements and pyramid breathing, you get to experience sensations of the resistance in the body. The exercise: For this exercise, you need to count your breathes while keeping your eyes closed. Keep counting your breath and stop as soon as another thought besides counting comes to mind. In the beginning, you’ll be able only to count not more than three breaths, and it is fine. Don’t give up. Repeat the exercise until you feel calm and focused, then sit back and free your mind. Free from anything and everything. Next, sit in with what’s happening within your mind, refrain from making efforts and enjoy your current sensations and feelings without any judgment or need for change. Open your eyes once you feel satisfied. As you repeat the breathing exercises, take notice of the total number of breaths you can take without being distracted. The higher the number of breaths you count, then it means that your brain’s changing and your ability to focus even higher. In the breathing count and pyramid breathing, your focus is on the length of your focus but in Detailed Breathing, your focus shifts to the strengthening of awareness and the perception of details. In this exercise, you need to focus on specific sensations on different body parts like the tip of the nose or even just your right nose. For the success of this exercise, try to focus your attention on a single detail. If the small details fail, you should focus on a larger area, for example, the expansion and contraction of the ribs. You can also hypnotize yourself through a process called the Body Scan. This exercise helps you attain a heightened awareness state, and you don’t have to touch any part of your body. To start off, first place your hands on one part of the body, for example, the forehead. And while focusing on the first sensation you feel, touch a different part of your body then focus on sensations on that part of the body. Repeat these steps and feel the different sensations in different parts of the body. You’ll get better at it, and with time, you won’t have to touch different parts of your body because the exercises will give you a higher sense of self-awareness. This is a transformational self-hypnosis technique for self-hypnosis. Teleportation involves finding an animate or an inanimate object which can you merge with. For example, if you’re visualizing a horse in mind, you’d imagine being a horse. For the exercise to work, you need to imagine how and what it feels or thinks. So, merge yourself with the animal in mind, and after experiencing yourself as the horse, you must go back to yourself then visualize another image, then repeat. Move from one image to another, merging with each. Mastery of self-hypnosis is a difficult thing to do, especially when you don’t have any help. But you could make things a lot easier if you find the right tracks to help you concentrate, without interfering with your mind’s ability to let go. Fortunately, you can find numerous tools for self-hypnosis. There are numerous paid and free self-hypnosis app and audio files. Just make sure that the audio files you use are created by an accredited and well-trained professional hypnotist. As a process that induces a high state of relaxation while increasing your susceptibility to suggestibility, here are some of the benefits of self-hypnosis: Research shows that research hypnosis could be effective in the management of anxiety, stress, and other psychological disorders. Through hypnosis, you can overcome your fear of public speaking and other forms of situational anxiety. It could also reduce the symptoms of panic attacks and anxiety disorders, not to mention chronic illnesses lie fibromyalgia, high blood pressure, asthma, migraine, bruxism, or irritable bowel disorders, among other illnesses. Although hypnosis is not one of those tools that you pull out of your back pocket, it’s a process that could generally improve the value of your life. Hypnosis helps with weight loss, better sleep, and you could also use it if you are trying to quit smoking. You might also like to know that hypnosis could enhance your productivity, confidence, self-esteem, concentration, and overall peak performance. It’s reported that Winston Churchill, Amadeus Mozart, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and Tiger Woods all used (use) hypnosis to enhance their performance and reach their peak performance. Today, it’s believed that hypnosis could be the gateway to a healthier, happier, and even more successful life. 2. Stress Reduction Process
3. Arm Levitation Methods
Visualization Techniques
1. Room Visualization
2. Pantomimed Mentalization
Mindfulness
1. Pyramid Breathing
2. The Breathing Count
3. Detailed Breathing
4. The Body Scan
5. Teleportation
Self-Hypnosis Tips
Choose the right track
Benefits of Self-Hypnosis
1. Stress and Anxiety Relief
2. It makes you better, overall