It has long been believed by many healers that body, thoughts and emotions can influence one another. Therefore it is possible to influence a physical sickness by working on and realizing particular emotions and by changing thoughts and behavioural patterns.

The Romans said ‘MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO’, healthy mind in healthy body.

This saying seems to confirm that for many centuries it has been believed that physical and emotional well-being have an effect on one another. To put this in perspective, only has to consider how our health declines after periods of stress or as a consequence of radical events.

The division between body and mind in medicine is something that only took place around 1750, with the scientific developments from Newton. Since then the mind and spirit have been considered to be under the jurisdiction of the church and the body under the jurisdiction of science. This is also the reason why all other kinds of medicine see the human being as a whole consisting of body, mind and soul.

Traumatic experiences are not only stored on an emotional level but also on the physical level. The emotional charge of the different traumas can influence our immune system and health conditions.

Through processing old traumas and the emotional charges that are connected to a certain sickness it is possible to find resources inside of us that could help us start the healing process.

Modern hypnosis began with Anton Mesmer (1734 – 1815) in the 18th Century. Mesmer was a medical graduate from the famed medical school of Vienna and after studying as a Jesuit priest, he became interested in magnetism. Mesmer became Europe’s foremost expert at magnetic healing, where magnets where passed over the body to effect a healing. His results where fabulous and so he became very famous. Mesmer believed all living things contained a kind of magnetic ‘fluid’ and if a person had enough of this fluid, they would be healthy. This is where the term ‘Animal Magnetism’ comes from.

Mesmer forgot his magnets one day and so just made passes over the patient with his hands and was surprised to find that they got better. From there on, he thought he had sufficient magnetic fluid in himself top effect the cures.

James Braid (1795-1860) coined the terms ‘hypnotism’ and ‘hypnosis, in 1843. He was a Scottish surgeon working in Manchester. He found that some people could go into a trance if there eyes where fixated on a bright object like a pocket watch for instance. He believed that a neurological process was involved and that the process could be very useful when no organic origin could be found for a persons disorder.

James Esdaile (1808-1859) another Scottish surgeon working in India would use ey fixation to prepare a patient for surgery and slow sweeping motions, putting them into a deep hypnotic sleep, causing full amnesia throughout the body.

James Braid and James Esdaile where among the first who could be called ‘scientific’ in their research and use of hypnosis. These pioneers removed hypnosis from the realms of ‘mysticism’, and started experimenting with what could really be done with it to help people with their disorders. Other scientific pioneers include, Liebeault, Bernheim, Brewer and Freud. Unfortunately the great man himself, Freud, was responsible for hypnotherapy being shelved by many for some time when he abandoned it’s use.

Amongst those individuals who have been fundamental to the current view of hypnosis are: Milton Erikson, Ormond McGill, Charles Tebbetts and Dave Elman.

Ormond McGill was, it is true a stage hypnotist, but he preserved the public interest in hypnosis, but then the great Charles Tebbetts was involved in stage hypnosis in the early part of his career, but these where different times to those we live in today and the stage hypnosis would prove to engender a desire to know more about this curious art and therefore bring many of the people who moved the therapeutic use of hypnotherapy forward through the last (20th) century.

Dave Elman brought some measure of acceptance to hypnosis from the medical profession in the USA when the Council on Medical health of the American Medical Association accepted the use of hypnotherapy in 1958.

Probably the most important contributor to the acceptance of hypnotherapy as both an art and a science, was the grandfather of hypnotherapy – Dr Milton Erikson. Dr Erikson was a psychiatrist and hypnotherapist with outstanding professional credentials and because of his solid medical background he had credibility within the medical profession.  Other people worthy of note for their contribution to the advancement of hypnotherapy as a healing art and as a science in the 20th century are: Rosen, Abramson, Menninger, Shenek, Magonet, Wolberg, LeCron, Bordeaux, Wetzenhoffer, Erwin and Simonton, who continues to do amazing things with cancer patients using mental imagery and focusing on beliefs and belief systems amongst other things.

What is Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy is the application of therapy during hypnosis, to change or modify behaviour patterns that we wish to change, such as the compulsion to smoke, gamble, drink etc. It can help in the cure of phobias such as the fear of spiders/insects, fear of flying, fear of thunder and lightning, fear of injections etc. It can help with motivation, confidence building, reducing stress and can be very effective in pain control.

Hypnotherapy deals with Psychosomatic problems – that is, problems of the mind that are rooted in and controlled by the subconscious mind. We always do what our subconscious mind tells us even if it goes against reason and logic. Hypnotherapy therefore, bypasses the conscious mind to allow the positive life-affirming suggestions for change, of our own choosing, to be fed to our subconscious mind directly, for us to act upon.

Hypnotherapy, and more precisely, hypnotic suggestions, have a cumulative effect, so over time there is a build up of suggestions being reinforced in the subconscious mind that it will act upon, and will do so more rapidly than if you were feeding the suggestions to your conscious mind.

For problems where a causal event or events may exist in the past, hypnoanalysis is used initially in order to find the sensitising event or events and release the emotion and motor actions associated with them, thus freeing the individual from the grasp of an outdated and obsolete (possibly never really needed at all) thought pattern and/or conditioning. Following this, healing suggestions and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) are used to build on the individuals desire for change to strengthen and support forward movement into a positive future.

Hypnotherapists do not control your mind!

Hypnotherapy empowers you to take control of your mental resources to bring about the changes you want. You are always in control during hypnosis and hypnotherapy, and the therapist cannot make you do anything against your will, or that is not within you as an individual to do. With a little work a good therapist and a good client who wishes to make changes and is motivated to, will be able to achieve success in about 95% of cases.

Who can be hypnotised? I would say that virtually everyone can be hypnotised if they have a good therapist and wish to cooperate with them in order to work on the problem with which they are presenting.

What does hypnosis feel like? I know how it feels to me, but it feels different to some people than to others. I would explain it as a relaxed easy feeling and a heightened state of awareness.

Sometimes you may be prone to drift away for a while just like day-dreaming, and you might just as easily be concentrating on your therapist’s voice. Your good therapist will ensure you get the very best from your hypnotherapy session and will guide you in everything you need to know.

Hypnotherapy can help to address many problems including:

Fear of FlyingFear of Crowds
Lack of ConfidenceStress Issues
Low Self EsteemFear of Heights
Panic AttacksExam Nerves
Driving Test NervesSmoking
Weight LossNail Biting
Relationship & SexualTinnitus
Stop Smoking IBS
Stress Anxiety

Hypnotherapy is not magic but it sometimes seems magical!

You want to lose your weight, you have used the best weight loss techniques on the internet, and offline without results; you want to have the best diet, how? You want to lose your smoking habit. You want increase your self esteem. You want to tackle your life, your anxieties, and your problems. What is the best solution for all this? I would say, self-hypnosis. How? Read on.

A Hypnosis Primer:

You have seen people getting hypnotized; you have seen it in Dracula, when Mina Harker was put into trance, when she was starting to acquire the obnoxious count, by the great Professor Van Helsing and gave the directions as to where the count Dracula was heading; you have seen it in real life, as treatment to a million psychological disorders including the dissociative identity, schizophrenia etc; you have seen it as valuable tool to gather evidence in famed criminal cases. It is, in fact, one great invention that mankind holds, with practically far reaching ramifications.

Hypnosis is a state of consciousness of the brain, in which the conscious and subconscious regions of the brain are interactive at the same time, keeping the subject in a state of trance, and open to positive suggestions. Positive suggestions in the sense, you could make the subject throw away a harmful habit (s)he has. You can instill good character and mindset to the people; and you can generate affection, hatred or a neutral feeling toward anything. In essence, this versatile psychological tool can work out miracles for you.

The requirements and the process:

First, you have to have a calm and serene atmosphere, where you are not going to be disturbed for another hour. Now, please also try to have a comfortable position, and away from any kind of movements. Also, it is desirable if there is no noise.

Have some background music played (without lyrics, just music). The music has to be very low and serene. And hip hop, rock, and rap are not preferred. It has to be absolutely low, and monotonous.

Now, have a point on the ceiling or anywhere you can look without much effort, and stare at the point, fix your eye and make no movement whatsoever. Have nothing come to your mind, and take five to ten deep breaths. Now, optionally you can count on each breath. That would put your brain out of a state of thought. While doing the counting, you have to relax your body, from the head to the toes. Try to feel that your eyelids are drooping and heavy.

Once you are fully relaxed, and feeling like floating, you can tell yourself this phrase: “I can become more self-reliant each time I do this process.” Chant this phrase or any other positive phrase. You are giving your brain, suggestions. You can write your own phrases, and ask the Subconscious to do it. You can tell your brain to stop the bad habit you are having, or anything similar. Chant this phrase a few times, and then you can come back to conscious state.

Please repeat these steps everyday. At first it would be a tedious process, or it would look like one. But as the time goes by, you will automatically go to the trance easily, and in less time.

This is just an introduction to the process of self hypnosis, and you can have a better understanding of the process from the following links, which can give you resources from the internet on this deep subject.

Firstly write down a statement outling your intent and alter it so that it becomes an affirmation or set of affirmations. Make it present tense and very positive in nature. “I am increasing my confidence everyday”, “I am self assured and self confident in every situation” and “I can feel my self-esteem increasing everyday” are a few good examples.

Ensure that you do not include the negative aspect your goal or what you do not want such as “I am no longer lacking in confidence” or “My low self-esteem is getting better”. These statements focus on the situation as it is not how you want it to be. So remember keep the statement positive and only include what you do want! While still in a waking state imagine how you would look and feel if these statements were true. Make a quick mental movie of how the new you would walk, talk and interact with people. Create a mental movie that shows you being confident in situations that would normally leave you feeling a lack of confidence. You will use this mental movie during your self-hypnotic trance session.

Begin by breathing deeply. In through your nose to the count of five and out through your mouth to the count of five. This will relax your body.

Focus your gaze softly on a spot in front of you. Look for somewhere that is slightly above eye-level while you keep your head straight.

Relax each muscle group of your body beginning with your feet and moving up to your head. While doing this allow your eyes to close when they begin to feel heavy.

Now take a deep breath and on the exhale mentally repeat your affirmation. Do this for several cycles until you feel that the affirmation is beginning to feel like the truth.

Continue to breathe deeply and imagine that you are at a movie theatre. Directly in front of you hangs a huge wide projection screen. Up on the massive widescreen begin to project the mental movie you made earlier and let it run several times. Hear the audience cheer as the movie runs. Clap and cheer yourself as you watch that ‘other’ you acting how you want to act and exhibiting the type of confident behaviour you want to have.

Continue your deep slow breathing as it will keep you relaxed.

Now imagine that you are floating up towards the screen. The audience is going wild as they know what is about to happen. They are cheering you on! Imagine that you float into the screen and become part of the movie. You stop behind the “other confident you” and find yourself facing the back of his/her head.

At this time take a step and walk into that ‘new’ you just as you would step into a projection or as though you wear trying on some new clothes. The new you is a perfect fit! Watch as the colours around get brighter, the sounds get louder and the scene gets bigger. As you enter the new you, feel how it feels to be that person. See what that person sees. Hear what that person hears.

In the distance on the other side of the screen you can hear the audience going wild with delight as you perform and act as that ‘other’ you would act. Feel how good that feels.

Now repeat your affirmations as you imagine the ‘other’ confident you would say them. Believe the truth behind these statements and feel that they are true. Say them with conviction.

Now once you feel all those great feelings of confidence, self assurance and self esteem just allow the scene to begin to fade. Mentally begin to count down from five to one as you allow your eyes to slowly open. Become fully aware of your surroundings as you bring yourself back to physical reality but bring with you all those good feelings.

Firstly write down a statement outling your intent and alter it so that it becomes an affirmation or set of affirmations. Make it present tense and very positive in nature. “I am increasing my confidence everyday”, “I am self assured and self confident in every situation” and “I can feel my self-esteem increasing everyday” are a few good examples.

Ensure that you do not include the negative aspect your goal or what you do not want such as “I am no longer lacking in confidence” or “My low self-esteem is getting better”. These statements focus on the situation as it is not how you want it to be. So remember keep the statement positive and only include what you do want! While still in a waking state imagine how you would look and feel if these statements were true. take some time now and create a mental movie of how you think the ‘new’ confident you would walk and hear their self assured talk and see how they interact with people. Imagine what kind of emotions this person would be feeling. Construct a movie in your mind that shows you as the confident person you wish to be. See yourself being that confident in circumstances that usually make you feel insecure, fearful or self-conscious. You will use this mental movie during your self-hypnotic trance session.

Begin by breathing deeply. In through your nose to the count of 5 allowing your lungs to expand and then out gently through your mouth to the count of 5 emptying your lungs. This will relax your body.

Focus your gaze softly on a spot in front of you. Look for somewhere that is slightly above eye-level while you keep your head straight.

Relax each muscle group of your body beginning with your feet and moving up to your head. While doing this allow your eyes to close when they begin to feel heavy.

Now take a deep breath and on the exhale mentally repeat your affirmation. Do this for several cycles until you feel that the affirmation is beginning to feel like the truth.

Continue to breathe deeply and imagine that you are at a movie theatre. Directly in front of you hangs a huge wide projection screen. Up on the massive widescreen begin to project the mental movie you made earlier and let it run several times. Imagine you can actually hear the movie audience cheer and clap as the movie starts to run. Clap and cheer yourself as you watch that ‘other’ you acting how you want to act and exhibiting the type of confident behaviour you want to have.

In order to stay completely relaxed and in control of your self hypnosis session continue to breathe deeply and slowly.

Now imagine that you are floating up towards the screen. The audience is going wild as they know what is about to happen. They are cheering you on! Imagine that you float into the screen and become part of the movie. You land just behind that ‘other you’ facing the back of their head.

At this time take a step and walk into that ‘new’ you just as you would step into a projection or as though you wear trying on some new clothes. The new you is a perfect fit! Watch as the colours around get brighter, the sounds get louder and the scene gets bigger. As you enter the new you, feel how it feels to be that person. See what that person sees. Hear what that person hears.

In the distance on the other side of the screen you can hear the audience going wild with delight as you perform and act as that ‘other’ you would act. Feel how good that feels.

Now repeat your affirmations as you imagine the ‘other’ confident you would say them. Feel and believe that these statements are true. Say them with conviction.

Now once you feel all those great feelings of confidence, self assurance and self esteem just allow the scene to begin to fade. Count back from 5 to 1 and allow your eyes to open. Become fully aware of your surroundings as you bring yourself back to physical reality but bring with you all those good feelings.

Are you hypnotizable? Is there a possibility that YOU could enter into the deepest states of hypnotic trance? If you are an average person you will most likely think that you can’t be hypnotized. This is normal. The majority of people feel that if it were possible for them to be hypnotized then this, in some way, indicates that they lack any real will-power are naive or of below average intelligence. This could not be further from the truth.

The best hypnotic subjects are actually very intelligent, have a great deal of concentration and have a highly developed ability to focus. You should also be aware that the hypnotic state is different for each person who enters it. It is a state that can vary from individual to individual. Some people can enter extremely deep states of trance where their awareness completely changes and their memory of the event is hidden when they awaken, while others find themselves in a state that is equal to complete relaxation. Most of us fall somewhere in the middle. Wherever you find yourself on the hypnotic trance scale one thing is for certain  everyone can be hypnotized to some degree.

In fact you go into trance states constantly throughout the day. Have you ever been “going through the motions”, just performing a task without any conscious effort and been thinking of something completely different? If you travel on the bus or train have you found yourself day-dreaming or remembering past events and been so engrossed in your mental image that you lost track of time or your surroundings? Have you watched a great movie and totally identified with the characters or got so lost in the plot that it was all you were focused on? If you can answer yes any of the aforemention questions, and everyone can, then you have already experienced the state of trance.

Although just entering a hypnotic trance can be very therapeutic, as your body and mind relax and ease tension throughout your whole system, the real power comes from the suggestions and images that are used in this state. Such suggestions can easily, quickly and permanently alter your behaviour and your dominant thinking about any subject you choose. Through suggestion a hypnotist will, mostly, guide you into a mental rehearsal of the new behaviours. New feelings are also anchored to old memories or a visualized future event in order to retrain your mind and body to respond to certain situations differently.

So are YOU hypnotizable?

Well, research shows that the best hypnotic subjects are those people who can easily immerse themselves in any imagined event. This is, in and of itself, a skill that many people in the self improvement field strive very hard to acquire. Hypnotic subjects who can easily enter the deepest, conscious altering, states of trance are those than can easily become absorbed in a fantasy while blocking out their external surroundings.

This basically means the better your imaginative abilities the more profoundly you will experience the hypnotic state.

However, as I have already stated, everyone can be hypnotized and you are no exception! Under the correct conditions you most definitely can and will enter a state of trance. With the right stimuli you can then use this state as catalyst for change in your life. It is possible to remove unwanted behaviours, instil new ones and even program yourself with characteristics and personality traits that you desire.

You can use hypnosis for making changes in just about every area of your life utilizing it to heal your body, mind, and spirit. Hypnotists are now finding that its uses are almost endless! I remember watching a television program featuring the UK hypnotist Paul McKenna, called “I Can Change Your Life”, where he hypnotized a man diagnosed with a form of hysterical blindness. The man’s doctors believed a psychological trauma had caused the man’s blindness and that his eyesight should be working perfectly. After a few sessions with Mr McKenna the man’s sight began to return and he was able to function more productively than before. However, and this is the fascinating bit, before the program had finished shooting the man was sent to an eyesight specialist who discovered that he had been wrongly diagnosed and in fact there had been substantial damage done to his visual equipment! As far as medical science was concerned this man should not be able to see anything, yet through hypnosis his sight was dramatically improved. Why? Because both the hypnotist and the subject believed that it was possible!

Here’s a small example of what hypnosis can be used for. This list could fill a book but I have included these to give you some indication of how you could use it to benefit your life.  What do you think hypnosis can do for YOU?

Aid In relaxation
Weight Loss
Smoking Cessation
Improve Sleep
Pain Management
Eliminate Fears & Phobias
Alleviate Depression
Reduce Anxiety & Stress
Awaken Your Creativity
Create More Success
Improve Your Self Confidence
Past Life Regression
Improve Your Memory
Improve Your Sports Performance
Better Study Habits
Release Issues From The Past
Healing Of Skin Conditions
Elimination Of Warts
Lucid Dreaming
Remove Addictions
Change Habits

It would appear that the only limitations of hypnosis are those you place on it! Try it you might just like it.

In order to develop this skill you must first realize what an emotion is. Emotions are not monsters or masters of your state. They are merely feelings that you create from your own perceptions. You evoke emotions based on internal and external circumstances that themselves are usually based on your past experiences!

When you experience a feeling, it is only an emotion, that has been triggered by your thoughts and these thoughts, in turn, have been triggered by your memories. These memories can be either pleasant or painful depending on how you processed the situation when it initially occurred. When confronted with a similar situation or event in the present your brain replays these memories at a conscious, or usually, unconscious level and feeds back to you the emotion associated with it.

We give our emotions and feelings many different names like joy, pleasure, happiness, fear, pain, frustration, anger but there are really only two emotions. One feels good and the other feels bad!

I’m sure you know the effects of feeling good and bad. You know that when you undertake a task and feel good about it is much more likely to succeed than if you feel bad about it. In fact if your feelings are very bad you will probably not even attempt the undertaking at all! Fear takes over!

What if you could feel good in situations where before you felt bad? What do you think that would mean for you?

Your emotional responses reside in your subconscious mind. It controls them and it is responsible for feeding the feelings to you at a conscious level. This is why it can be so hard or almost impossible for you to create emotions consciously. You can’t just tell yourself to be happy and suddenly you are filled with joy. In fact the opposite usually occurs as your subconscious mind reinforces the initial emotion and thoughts with more of the same!

So how do YOU combat this?

Well since your emotional responses reside in your subconscious mind, it stands to reason that if you want to change them you need to gain access to your subconscious and reprogram it – just like a computer!

So how do YOU do this?

Well thankfully there is a way and its much easier than you think. It is, of course, called HYPNOSIS. Through the use of hypnosis or self hypnosis you can easily and quickly gain access to the subconscious mind.

“Ok that all sounds great” you may say, “but what do I do then Sherlock?”

Well a skilful hypnotist, whether in person or on a recording, can very quickly ‘anchor’ new feelings to old memories. He can take a memory that has some very bad emotional responses connected to it and neutralize those emotions. Then he will re-connect your old memory with new positive emotions.

This involves the use of some very advanced forms of NLP (which can also be used very effectively without hypnosis). The positive affects of these techniques leaves you free from old memories that block you from moving forward in your life and also reprogram your mind to feel optimistic and hopeful when confronted with similar situations in the present and future.

This is also how phobias are dealt with and explaining this process should give you some idea of the power and benefits of using it on other emotional issues. Let’s say you have a real fear of spiders. Now everyone knows that a fear of spiders is irrational in most cases and has no foundation in truth. A house spider can do you absolutely no harm! So you get a hypnosis recording to deal with your arachnophobia. So what happens?

First the hypnotist will relax your mind and body and then get you to think of a happy scene filled with lovely beautiful creatures that you like. Say for instance you love little fluffy kittens. He will immerse you in the image and guide you to the beauty of the animal and evoke kindly, loving emotions. Then he will ask you to think of a spider. He may get you to put roller-skates on it and watch it trying to walk or get you to imagine it has a funny face or kindly demeanour. In this way he will neutralize the negative feelings you currently hold about the arachnid. Then he will connect the previous image of the kittens, and thus the positive emotions associated with it, to the image of the funny spider. You will also be guided to see the beauty of this little creature and its usefulness in nature. Thus, sometimes in one session, you can completely reverse a phobia!

Likewise the emotional response to any situation, circumstance, person or event can be reversed to whatever positive emotional response you want. Such is the power of hypnosis and the creativity of your mind. You will merely learn to react in a different, more positive, way and through modern mental techniques you can learn to do it in any way you desire.

So, there is really no excuse to suffer at the hands of your negative emotions any more. You can reprogram your mind to feel any way you want. Check it out, you may just like it!

It is fairly easy to learn self hypnosis and, as with everything else in life, “practise makes perfect!”  The key is to take it easy. Approach the subject with a playfulness. Do not try too hard to enter into trance for this defeats the whole purpose of hypnosis. You are going to learn how to bring yourself into a profoundly relaxed state and trying to force it to happen only makes you tense and has the reverse effect.

A major part in the art of self hypnosis is learning to let the hypnotic state take over by itself. Try not to analyze what is happening. When you keep the conscious mind engaged in analyzing you will find it hard to go from the beta brainwave state (conscious waking decision making) to the alpha brainwave state (the deeply relaxed state of light trance where most hypnosis subjects stay). Just allow yourself to relax. It is your body’s natural state to relax when you perform certain mental and physical actions (which I will teach you shortly), so don’t fight it by trying to figure out how or why it is happening.

Do not get discouraged or think nothing is happening if you don’t feel much change at first or if progress appears to be slow. After some practise you will find entering a state of self-induced trance become easy and natural as you teach your body and mind to relax.

Don’t expect to be an expert right off the bat! Expecting yourself to be as good as Paul McKenna or Dick Sutphen on your first attempt is setting yourself up for frustration. It takes time to learn hypnosis and unless you are truly fortunate it will take time to teach your body and mind to let go and enter this state effortlessly – but it will happen.

Remember that there are various ways to experience hypnosis and no two people will experience trance in exactly the same way. So expect your experience to be the same as someone else’s!

It is a good idea to set aside a regular time to practice your new skills. Give yourself the gift of 15 to 30 minutes everyday or every other day to practise self hypnosis. Make sure you will not be disturbed and that your environment is quiet. You may be surprised that you do not actually get sleepy or fall asleep during hypnosis, although the body does enter into that type of relaxed posture.

You may find that initially you tend to fall asleep while practising self hypnosis. If this happens just practise at an earlier time when you are less fatigued until you perfect the technique. If falling asleep is still a problem then practise it while sitting in an upright chair.

Before you begin set an intention for the session. Do you want more confidence, higher self-esteem, the perfect relationship or an improvement in your finances? You will now use one of two techniques which will be used as post hypnotic suggestions. Create some positive affirmations that state you are already they you wish to be or you are already in possession of your desire and memorize them. If this seems like too much work then just imagine you already have your desire and make a mental movie of it. See yourself experiencing it as if it were happening now. You will use one of these techniques when you enter trance to reprogram your subconscious mind!

Begin by sitting or lying comfortably. Keep your head straight, pointing forward, but look up at a spot on the wall – do not bend your neck. Your eyes should be looking slightly up. Breath in to the count of five and out to the count of five. This will cause your body to let go of tensions and stresses. Now curl your toes on both feet and tense them while you inhale to the count of five. Now relax on your exhale to the count of five. Move up to your legs. Tense them and relax. Keep breathing in to the count of five and out to the count of five. Now tense your whole pelvic and buttock region. And relax. All the time breathing deeply. Move up to your stomach, then your chest, neck, face and head, repeating the tensing and relaxing procedure while breathing deeply. Allow your eyes to close naturally at any time during this relaxation exercise. You will find that within a very short period of time it takes more and more effort to keep them open.

Once your eyes are shut and you have relaxed your entire body, imagine that you are at the top of a winding dark staircase with ten steps. Keep breathing deeply to the count of five. Move down to the first step, noticing that you can only see a few steps ahead of you as the rest are shrouded in a calm still darkness. Mentally say the word 10. Now move to the next step and mentally say 9. Then the next saying 8. Move progressively down the steps until you reach the bottom. During this exercise you can allow your breathing to return to normal or keep the deep breathing up if you prefer.

Once you have reached the bottom imagine there is a large wooden door in front of you walk towards it and open it. On the other side you find a moving escalator going down. Move onto it and feel it bringing you down, down, down. Deeper, deeper, down.

When you reach the bottom imagine you can walk slightly forward until you find yourself in a quiet relaxing setting. Just let it appear. It may be a garden, a beach, a forest or a favourite place from childhood. It could  be anywhere. Just allow your subconscious mind to show you where you are. Relax in whatever way seems appropriate to you in that special place.

At this stage you can mentally give yourself post hypnotic suggestions in the form of “I am….”, or “I allow____ to enter my life with ease” etc. If you prefer not to have to remember mentally spoken instructions then recall your visualization and place yourself inside it! This is important see the scene through YOUR eyes as though it were a memory. Do not visualize yourself in the scene the way you would see another person. Experience it from your perspective. Do this for as long as it is enjoyable.

Once you have finished and are ready to return to normal waking consciousness, simply count back from 10 to 1 and mentally say “wide awake, wide awake”. Stretch, give yourself a few seconds to re-adjust to your surroundings and then go about your daily activities.

You will find this short exercise in self hypnosis most beneficial, rejuvenating and life-altering!

Originally, self hypnosis was thought of as sleep, then as an “altered state of consciousness”. Only after using instruments to monitor brain activity did researchers learn that there was negligible difference between someone in a trance or hypnosis, and someone not. Peoples experiences with self hypnosis vary widely depending on their own expectations, but there are some commonalities. For instance, most people experience a reduced awareness of events going on around them including noises and conversations. Although people are not unconscious when under self hypnosis, many experience extreme relaxation and seem to have reduced awareness of their own body including their arms and legs.

Nearly everyone can learn effective techniques for self hypnosis.  Whether your goal is weight loss or to stop smoking, self hypnosis can be a very useful treatment option for many different health and emotional problems.

Let’s look at the reasons why self hypnosis can be such an appealing option:

1.  It is not a drug, so therefore there are no side effects.

2.  It is non-invasive which means there is no surgery and nothing gets inserted into the body.

3.  Self hypnosis is also relatively inexpensive when compared to other forms of treatment, and can usually show results within one or two treatments.

Self hypnosis is the original mind/body medicine. It helps you regulate your behavior, alter your thoughts, and use your mind to control your body. To be effective, you must get into a meditative state to change your thought process in order to change your behavior. However, this does not mean you have to be in a relaxed state so to speak.  Although this is helpful, self hypnosis can be effective even when you’re tense, upset, or unhappy.

As you begin to learn about self hypnosis, you will discover a method that works best for you.  Doing this without any guidance from anyone can be difficult. The first step in achieving your goals with self hypnosis is to research and learn as much as you can on the subject so you know what to expect.

Self hypnosis is a very powerful tool you can use to change just about any aspect of yourself, but it is not a magic cure and is usually only effective if you truly want to make a change.

Research shows that 75% to 80% of all adults will experience lower back pain at some time in their lives. Approximately 40 million Americans suffer from arthritis pain and as many as 45 million suffer from chronic, recurring headaches. There are thousands of people every year who suffer the agony of surgical interventions and thousands more who endure the pain of debilitating or terminal illnesses.

All of this pain falls into two basic categories: (1) acute pain, which is of short duration and (2) chronic pain, which continues for weeks, months or years.

Most people respond to pain – whether acute or chronic – by taking drugs of some kind. But drugs are often a temporary solution.

What few people realize is that the ancient art of hypnosis offers a safe, effective alternative for reducing sensitivity to pain.

Hypnosis has been shown effective in the management of various types of pain. Besides providing an effective solution for maladies such as headaches and acute injuries, hypnosis offers a unique solution for those suffering from chronic conditions like back pain and arthritis as well as intermediate and advanced stages of cancer. Studies show that patients with chronic diseases require fewer painkillers to achieve pain relief when they practice hypnosis. These same patients exhibit fewer signs of anxiety and experience greater comfort during medical procedures.

Hypnosis also has been shown to be effective in reducing nausea and vomiting in chemotherapy patients.

The most effective approach for acute pain appears to be the use of hypnotic suggestions focusing on anxiety reduction and minimizing the importance of the pain. For chronic pain, it is more effective to confront the pain directly under hypnosis, dealing with both the pain’s physical and psychological effects.

Another area where hypnosis offers significant positive results is in dealing with pre- and post-operative patients. Using hypnosis in preparation for surgery has been shown to reduce the experience of pain during surgery, resulting in the need for less anesthetics. Hypnosis as a pain management tool with surgical patients also has been shown to reduce nausea and greatly increase the recovery rate in most patients, thereby truncating the length of time spent in the hospital. (That creates another rarely mentioned positive result: reduced medical costs!)

But efficacy and lower medical expenses are not the only positives related to the use of hypnosis for pain management. This modality has no dangerous side effects. Unlike medications, hypnosis does not become less effective with use and does not require stronger and stronger doses to cope with pain. While patients may have to ingest costly medications several times a day for years, they have the potential for reducing or eliminating their pain in just a few hypnotic sessions for significantly less cost.

Does hypnosis always work? In the area of pain control, everyone can be helped to SOME degree. There are essentially five categories into which subjects fall:

1. Those who find total and permanent relief.
2. Those that have a decrease in the severity of pain.
3. Those who experience pain relief initially, but who need occasional reinforcement.
4. Those that experience intermittent relief.
5. Those that still have pain, but feel 10-30% less pain than before.

What accounts for these differences in relief? The answer appears to be the patient’s susceptibility to hypnosis – the level of relaxation reached during the hypnotic sessions. The deeper the relaxation, the more effective the pain reduction.

Certainly, no treatment for pain – whether chemical, physical or psychological – is effective all the time. However, hypnosis has shown over and over again that it can help people reduce or eliminate both acute and chronic pain. Best of all, it works its magic without any side effects.

As a safe, effective alternative for reducing sensitivity to pain, hypnosis is second to none.