Health and Fitness: Self Hypnosis

 Can You Really Hypnotise Yourself?

Imagine someone with a problem. Let's say they have a bad habit such as smoking. This problem comes from their unconscious thinking. Maybe it's something they picked up as a child. If it were conscious thinking, they could choose to change it. For changing unconscious thinking, hypnosis is the answer.

A hypnotic trance brings unconscious material into conscious awareness. It also loosens up your thinking, allowing you to view a problem from more angles. These allow you to change your patterns of thought that are usually invisible to you.

This is why I adore hypnosis. All of your problems - everything from phobias to business failures - have their roots in your unconscious. All of your greatest resources are there, too. If you've ever surprised yourself by being extra talented, charismatic or creative, this is how.

Hypnotic trances are wonderful. If the only way to experience one is by seeing a hypnotist, though, then that's a shame.

But is that the case?

Or can you hypnotise yourself?

The answer is that you certainly can. This surprises some people, who view a hypnotic trance as like being asleep. That isn't the case. If anything, hypnosis makes you hyperaware of what's happening. The idea that you'll forget everything is a myth.

A hypnotic trance is a way of engaging your unconscious mind. The conscious mind has its uses - it's great at planning and predicting, for example. But it's slow and likes simple models. If you need speed and complexity, then you'll enter a hypnotic trance.

Have you ever zoned out while driving, only to arrive at your destination safely? Have you ever driven your usual route, such as from home to work, even though you meant to set off elsewhere? The reason is that driving needs the rapid processing of a lot of information. Your conscious mind can't handle it.

It's only possible to drive while in a self-hypnotic trance.

The best way to think about trance is that it's a specific state of mind. Your states shape the way you think, act and see the world. For example, a happy state makes you open, trusting and eager to explore the world. A fear state makes you want to hide somewhere familiar.

A trance state emerges when you need to think in new ways. Can you simply choose to be in a trance? Well, yes and no. You can't choose to be happy, but you can do things to increase your chances of happiness. Seeing pictures of puppies and thinking of fun memories will do the trick for most of us.

You can encourage a trance state in a similar way. How? By creating conditions that welcome new thoughts. You don't need to think when there's a tiger in front of you - action is the better choice. In other words, new thoughts are only useful when you're safe and relaxed... but facing a problem.

Set the scene by getting comfortable and focusing your mind. More often than not, you'll begin to think in different ways. Welcome to the trance state.

If you're after specific techniques to hypnotise yourself, it varies from person to person. The answer that's right for you is in my guide to self-hypnosis, which you can read all about here:

Meditation Failures Are Self-Hypnosis Successes

Many people want to meditate. They hear about the incredible benefits it brings - sharper focus, emotional balance, greater relaxation - and they decide that, yeah, they want some of that. But it's hard work. The techniques are difficult to use at first, especially the way that most people teach them.

If you want to enjoy a richer mental experience, you might wonder if there's an alternative to meditation.

I can assure you that there is.

Self-hypnosis generates the same mental states that meditation does. It does it in a very different way, though. The techniques and principles are easy to learn and just as effective. In many cases, they are easier and more powerful than meditation.

It even overcomes the main obstacle with meditation. What's seen as failure is actually raw fuel for self-hypnosis.

Some people say that meditation and self-hypnosis are the same thing. Others believe that they are completely different. I wouldn't disagree with either perspective. The way I see it, there is a lot of overlap between the two. I practice both and I use them in unique ways.

Does that make them the same or different? I choose to separate them. That's a choice though, a belief and perspective. You can take it or leave it.

If meditation is hard for you, then I encourage you to embrace this idea. Self-hypnosis is different enough to be exactly what you need.

Meditation involves clearing your mind and emptying your thoughts. This is tricky to do (at first). It's hard to know whether you're succeeding. Realising that it's working is a thought, which sets you back.

If that's a pain for you - if this is what you've always disliked about meditation - then I have great news:

Self-hypnosis uses your thinking.

You don't have to clear your mind. If you do, great. If not, also great. You can be in the present moment, fully aware, or not. You can have a quiet mind, or not. It's all good with self-hypnosis.

The reason is because it uses a different style of thinking. It's easier to think something new than to think nothing.

Both practices bring you into a trance state. Both require practice and discipline to master. But only one encourages you to do something unnatural. Self-hypnosis is cool with you doing what you need to.

And once you're in trance, it's so useful to be able to think. Sometimes you need to imagine, visualise or consciously process something. That's great, go ahead because that will only enrich the experience.

Struggling with meditation means that you can still experience trance. All you need is a different approach.

Speaking of, it helps to have different approaches to entering the self-hypnotic state. You can start with whichever is easiest for you, or not. There are a buffet of inductions just waiting for you to experiment with and practice. If you're eager to learn them all, head on over to instantly download them:

Self-Improvement Is Self-Hypnosis

Hypnosis in general has many misconceptions surrounding it. Self-hypnosis has even more. If people understood it, though, it would be one of the most widely celebrated tools out there.

Have you ever struggled to change? Have you known what the right thing is to do, but done the wrong thing anyway? It's hard to battle yourself but, thankfully, that's not the only way to grow.

Hypnosis is incredibly effective. Do you have problems you want to finally be free from? Hypnotherapy is famous for busting unsolvable problems. If you've tried to quit smoking, eat better, overcome your fears and exercise, it may be what you need.

Hypnosis has a habit of working where other strategies fail.

Then again, maybe you don't have any problems. Maybe you're happy with your life. If so, great! But is there anything that could be better? Maybe you want to find your life's purpose, pursue your dreams, earn more money and live a better life.

Hypnosis can help here, too.

And if hypnosis can help, then self-hypnosis can transform your life.

To hypnotise someone is to put them in a relaxed state of mind. In this particular state of mind, they are more resourceful, imaginative and open to new ideas. A skilled hypnotist will shape the trance experience to help you win at life.

Self-hypnosis is the same. The only difference is that you are both the hypnotist and subject.

This gives you an enormous advantage. You know how your mind works and you know the shape of your problems. If you understand your problems then, with the right perspective, you can find the solution.

You can imagine someone working with you on something important. They are a wise expert who knows they can help you. The first thing they need to figure out is exactly what's in your way. Once they know that, everything becomes easy.

When working with yourself, you're already peaking behind the veil.

The disadvantage with self-hypnosis is that you have to learn how to do it. Now, this is worth learning for its own sake. Hypnotic trances are usually pleasant, relaxing and rewarding. You enter them all the time throughout your day - with practice, you can learn to control it.

Your brain likes to change. That's how you grow and become stronger. But your brain has built-in defences. Not all change is an improvement, so it needs some way of blocking change when it isn't.

The trance state deactivates these defences. If you try to change but can't, you're probably clashing with your own security system. Work with your mind and change becomes easy.

Every time you've changed in the past, it's been through the trance state. All self-improvement is self-hypnosis.

Do you know how to enter a hypnotic trance? Let me show you. My eBook contains everything you need to know about entering trance states and using them to improve your life. The only thing missing is you:

How To Make Hypnotherapy Work Faster

A lot of people have some very unhelpful misconceptions about how hypnotherapy works. For example, being in a trance does not mean that you are completely out of control. If anything, quite the opposite.

Doing hypnosis is all about getting the usual racing thoughts to slow down long enough to become more receptive to new suggestions. Put it this way: Have you ever been in a conversation with someone, and it's clear as day that they're just not 'taking it in'. They're stuck in their own head so to speak, and rather than spending energy thinking about what you are asking them to consider, instead all they are thinking about is the next thing they are going to say. It becomes a pointless exercise because the person is not taking anything new in at all, but simply defending a belief they have been holding onto.

So now consider that the entire purpose of any kind of psychotherapy (especially hypnotherapy) is to let go of unhelpful beliefs and to change your way of thinking. The catch is, most of those unhelpful beliefs are unconscious. Meaning - you don't even necessarily realise that you've been holding onto them.

It's a common fault in human thinking for us to assume that we would know reality from a belief that we have been holding onto to serve an emotional cause. Let me give you a classic example to demonstrate.

In a recent psychological study, researchers recruited people who were either climate skeptics (people who do not believe in global warming) or climate believers (people who do believe in global warming). Each person was introduced to a panel of scientists (who were actually actors). They were told one of two things.

They were either told: "All the world's leading experts on climate change have put together all the evidence and have reached the conclusion that climate change actually isn't real". Alternatively they were told that "All the worlds leading experts on climate change have put together all the evidence and have reached the conclusion that climate change is actually not only real but worse than first thought."

So this is what happened.

When the climate skeptic were told that the evidence showed climate change to be worse than first thought, it didn't change their beliefs. But when they were told that the evidence showed it to not be real, it strengthened the beliefs they already had.

But when climate believers were told that the evidence showed global warming not to be real, it didn't change their beliefs. Yet when they were told the evidence showed it to be worse than first thought, it strengthened the beliefs they already had.

So here's the lesson.

Humans will naturally seek out evidence to reinforce existing beliefs whilst resisting evidence to the contrary. That's fine when their beliefs are serving them, but what about when it's not?

So if you go to see a therapist of any kind - especially a hypnotherapist. Remember - no matter how contrary their suggestions sound, stop and consider it. The more you stop and consider it, the more your brain activity starts to slow, and the faster their suggestions for change will start to sink in deeper, and deeper.