Self hypnosis does exactly what it says on the tin! Some would even argue that hypnosis itself is no more than assisted self-hypnosis.
In other words, if you understand how hypnosis works - you’ll automatically understand self-hypnosis.
Hypnosis vs Self-Hypnosis.
In the classic hypnosis session, the hypnotist will induce a state of what is best termed as ‘focused awareness’ in the subject by means of distracting the conscious and accessing the subconscious.
Once that state is achieved, the hypnotist is then able to give the subject ideas and suggestions.
The difference with self hypnosis compared to a hypnosis session is that it is you who takes on both the role of hypnotist and the hypntoee.
For instance whereas a hypnotist will tell you that you are gradually relaxing or your eyelids are feeling heavy, you can do this yourself by thinking it rather than speaking it.
In fact, you can drive yourself into quite a deep trance through the medium of self-hypnosis.
With practice you will be able to move yourself in and out of various levels of consciousness and at the same time be using your conscious mind as your guide.
For instance, when you are telling yourself that your limbs are heavy, you are telling yourself with your conscious and gradually it will be your subconscious that comes to the fore.
What Can You Achieve with Self-Hypnosis.
As a self hypnotist you are in fact placing yourself in a situation where you are giving yourself ‘suggestions’.
You can decide at the outset, before you attempt to put yourself into some form of hypnotic trance, what those suggestions are to be.
For the moment you will be retaining them in your conscious but your starting point is always to induce powerful images of not where you are now but where you would like to be.
The vast majority of self hypnosis is to do with some form of self-improvement, healing or change.
You will obviously know that your day-to-day life and the way you feel is not constant. It varies on a day-to-day basis.
What is Self-Hypnosis.
One day you may be feeling happy and the other for some inexplicable reason you may be feeling really down and believe it or not even your mood is a form of mild hypnodial state, because something which you have experienced in your conscious life has triggered a mood which belongs in your subconscious.
You will pleased to know that you can achieve those ‘mood swings’ through self hypnosis.
When you swing from one set of thoughts to another and, for the sake of argument let’s call one good and one bad, it is your relationship with your environment which has changed but not physically - although a physical trigger would have affected your thought processes and therefore your mood. Never has there been a truer saying than ‘It’s all in your head’.
Self- hypnosis is no more than exercising some sort of control on the various inputs that your mind experiences.
How Self-Hypnosis Works.
Now that we know what self hypnosis is, this may be a good point at which to think about what exactly it can help the individual with.
How to Use Self-Hypnosis and What it Can Help You With?
The fact is that it can help with everything from losing weight, managing pain, achieving goals, help with addictions, phobias... then theres self hypnosis for attaining confidence, self hypnosis for sleep, etc etc.
Anything that hypnosis can do, you can do yourself with self hypnosis. It’s all a question of accessing your subconscious.
How to do Self-Hypnosis.
Here are the things you need to start a proper self hypnosis session - it's a short how to self-hypnosis.
A relaxing atmosphere, no distractions and relative comfort. That means somewhere nice and soft to sit and loose comfortable clothes. You feel better already.
You’re not going to be able to reach any sort of relaxed state if you do not first get rid of all your stresses.
- Relaxing yourself is the first job and in some cases it might take quite a bit of work but if you close your eyes and focus on a particular item in your room you can begin the jobl of removing all the stress and tension.
- If you’re having difficulty releasing tension then consciously start with the feet and relax each part of your body in turn, working your way up to your face and head.
- Oxygen is very important to any process such as this so breathe slowly and deeply.
- Assuming that you have reached a decent level of relaxation, you can start imagining and visualising. As you do this try and immerse yourself in detail.
- Now you can start feeding your subconscious with all the positive stuff that is the purpose of the self hypnosis.
- Stay with it for as long as you can. You will find absolutely no great difficulty in the reverse process of gradually coming back to consciousness.
Self-hypnosis is such a powerful process that even if you are not very successful first time, it it really is well worth persevering.
When self-hypnosis was first attempted, there were no ‘aids’ which people could use to help them to achieve any sort of relaxation. Nowadays there is an entire industry which has grown around self hypnosis and various other mind and self-improvement subjects.
Browse through audio MP3s and CDs that will help you with all sorts of lifes challenges. Download any of our "self" hypnosis MP3 and CD audio downloads here - and you can even listen to a self-hypnosis mp3 for free, here.
There is a vast array of DVDs, CDs and MP3s which you can use to help you relax and achieve a state which will allow you to tinker with your subconscious and genuinely create changes within yourself.