Self hypnosis is merely the western term for the eastern practice of transcendental meditation. This is a method of reaching and influencing the unconscious mind, which can affect and manage deep seated behaviour patterns such as smoking and over-eating. Practising self hypnosis is not difficult, but it does require repeated application because what you are effectively doing is subjecting yourself to subliminal advertising. The positive is that what you are selling yourself is better health or self-esteem.
The first step in this process is to open the path to communicating with the subconscious, or achieving the trance state. To achieve this
Sit on an armchair or lie on a bed.
Ensure that you are as comfortable as possible.
Control your breathing to reach a regular pattern.
Close your eyes.
Begin the relaxation process from the toes upwards. This means repeating to yourself My toes are becoming relaxed, more and more relaxed, and with ever breath I take they are becoming more and more relaxed. And as they become more and more relaxed, so I am falling into a deeper and deeper sleep. Not a normal sleep, but a hypnotic sleep.’
Repeat this process, moving up your body, step by step, from your ankles, to your calves, to your thighs and so on.
You will inevitably find this very boring, but do not resist it and continue with the process. Reaching the trance state requires repetition to fool the conscious mind to allow access to the unconscious. This becomes easier over time as your mind learns what is expected of it. Eventually you should be able to achieve the trance state merely by lying back and closing your eyes. The trance state is not alien or strange, but a normal stage that we pass through as we head from being awake to being asleep. What we are attempting to do is to reach that stage and hold the mind there without falling totally asleep. During this process you will remain totally alert and in charge of proceedings, but if you fall into a natural sleep, don’t worry, that’s normal too!
As you reach the end of your travel up your body at your head, emphasise to yourself that you are in a deep hypnotic sleep. Now, pause and take a few deep breaths.
What can you achieve in the trance state? A great deal, but don’t expect to become a superman. But you can influence yourself and affect behaviours such as smoking, over-eating, lack of confidence, phobias and such like. Any bad behaviours that have been learned can be unlearned, and good behaviours such as concentration for study purposes can be learned.
How is this done? Again, the answer is repetition. Just as advertisers do not expect sales from one showing of a TV ad, so you must expose your mind to repeated, confident and positive, statements to achieve a result.
In the case of smoking, you are already aware that smoking cigarettes adversely affects your health and your finances. But think also of your clothes smelling, the senses of taste and smell that have been blunted. The effects of your smoking on your friends and family. All the negatives.
This presupposes that you really want to stop smoking. If you don’t, you’re wasting your time with self hypnosis.
Before entering the trance state you should write a short script detailing the negatives of smoking. You do not need to memorise this precisely but should recall the basics. Now, while in the trance state, repeat this script to yourself several times. Use phrases such as I don’t like smoking because it makes me cough and I’m going to stop smoking’ or Smoking is costing me too much money and I’m going to stop’.
Repetition is the key here, not only must you repeat your script several times throughout your self hypnosis session, you must also repeat the session several times before you can expect any effects.
To come out of the trance stage is an easier process. Merely say the following
I am now going to count down from ten to one, and with every number I count I will become more and more awake. Ten, becoming more awake; nine, more awake; eight, even more awake; seven, more awake, and when I awake I will feel totally refreshed; six, growing more and more awake; five, more awake and totally refreshed; four, more and more awake; three, more awake and totally refreshed; two, more and more awake and totally refreshed; one, totally awake and totally refreshed.
Now open your eyes, and that ends your self hypnosis session.
This is not magic and it does work if you stick with it. It can help you function more effectively in many ways and the best part is, it costs you nothing to try.
