Before we go any further, it's important to understand just how hypnosis works, and what it is exactly. You see hypnosis involves an individual entering into a unique psychological state known as a trance. When someone is in what's called 'a state of trance', then they're highly vulnerable to what's called 'suggestion'. Suggestion is our ability for our subconsciousness to accept incoming suggestions without our conscious mind analyzing said suggestions.
This may seem a little complex, but it's important you stay with me, as this post is going to be a long one and it will require a fair bit of explaining on my part, so pay attention if you can. When someone is in this subconscious state, known as trance (which by the way can occur either as a result of self hypnosis or hetero hypnosis), then their subconscious is more likely to act upon any words that is said to the person. For example let's say that you told someone to start singing like a bird. Odds would be that their consciousness would normally reject such a suggestion, since the suggestion wouldn't hold much sense for the person. Now imagine if we could bypass the critical thinking of the conscious mind, if we could go straight into the subconscious and plant the suggestion there.
This is where hypnosis comes into play through the use of hypnotic suggestions. When someone is placed in a state of trance through hypnosis, they enter into this deep phase where their subconscious is highly vulnerable to suggestion. It is when in this phase that any suggestions given to the person go directly into the person's subconscious without the conscious having time to contemplate those suggestions.
So if we gave someone the suggestion to sing like a bird, when they were in this deep state of trance, then they'd be more likely to act upon the suggestion. This essentially, is what hypnosis is.
Now that state of trance where you become highly susceptible to suggestion is the state that you want to enter into when you're attempting self hypnosis. It may sound difficult to enter into this state, however I can assure you it is not. With a little practice, you'll be easily able to fall into this state again and again. Right now I shall explain to you the exact theory behind entering into this state.
To begin with, what you want to do is find a nice quiet spot that you can relax without worrying about any disturbances. If you have any anything that may cause an intrusion, make sure to get rid of it. You want to be able to practice self hypnosis with as little intrusion as possible.
Now when you're comfortable and relaxed, all self hypnosis involves is simply telling your mind to feel every part of your body slowly becoming warm and relaxed. You want to extend this feeling down from your feet, up through your legs and throughout all parts of your body. Eventually you want to make the relaxation consume every essence of your body so that you don't have a care in the world, so that every external thing in existence just doesn't concern you at all.
When you've entered into this state, you then want to tell yourself gentle and subtle suggestions that you can use to immediately influence the way you behave. This is precisely how hypnosis works you see, by telling your subconscious certain suggestions that it can then act upon. The way we then plant these suggestions comes down to one of the fundamental concepts of self hypnosis. What we want to do is tell our subconscious that it can, and that it will accept these suggestions and take them on board in the way that it acts.
An example of a suggestion that our subconscious may absorb was given above. This is the most basic form of hypnosis and is what allows hypnotists to plant seemingly innocent suggestions into other people. Now when our mind is in a relaxed and care free state, some suggestions are not necessarily acted upon immediately. We can suggest to ourselves things such as 'In future, I will be more confident'. Suggesting something such as this to oneself is what will allow hypnosis to have more longer term benefits on us, and mastering it is the art of learning self hypnosis.
Now some people may be a little hesitant to try a lot of these techniques, but the thing to understand is that hypnosis requires action on your part. If you're not willing to do the action, then there is little point in trying to establish yourself as a practitioner of self hypnosis in the first place. Another important aspect of self hypnosis is that known as the theory of mind. The theory of mind can be quite complex and here I shall attempt to explain it, though I fear a number of future posts will be needed to cover it fully. It's not a required thing to know in order to learn self hypnosis, however it is interesting to understand, and it does help to some degree if you ever plan on hypnotizing other people.
Basically the way we perceive things is often different to the way other people may perceive them. All too often we think that the way that we view the world is the correct way and that the way any other person could possibly view it is obviously incorrect. In actual fact this is just us being a little critical of those around us, because of course everyone has their own unique interpretation of the world and no one interpretation is unique or better than any other. Understanding this is one of the first steps to understanding the theory of mind, especially in terms of hypnosis. You see in hypnosis we must shape our suggestions in such a way that other people will be susceptible to them as opposed to just ourselves.
It may be all well and good to say 'you will get very sleepy when you see my dangling watch sway from left to right' and that of course may work for some people. But the sad thing is that it won't work for every person that exists. That is why you need to have that impartial understanding of other people that is associated with theory of mind. So let's say that someone says something to you that goes against the way you would normally think or behave, something that you don't really think quite adds up within the scheme of things. Perhaps they possess a certain philosophy of life that you don't concur with, or perhaps their views on some political thing are not quite up to speed. Whatever it is, people have different experiences to us throughout their lives, and these experiences are what determines the way that person thinks and behave in the future. So whilst it may seem possible that you can predict the way someone is thinking just based upon your own thoughts, hypnosis is about understanding how other people think, tapping into their thought processes, and then of course planting suggestions that would work for them.
So how does all this relate to self hypnosis you may ask? It relates quite a lot actually. You see with self hypnosis we're much more likely to understand our subconscious if we're able to understand others. The reason for this is because the unconscious part of our mind contains thoughts and experiences that the conscious part of our minds doesn't necessarily agree with. For this reason there many be experiences anchored or associated in your subconscious with events that you don't really want them to be. You can't quite simply just tell your subconscious to forget about these events, because it can't, what's in your subconscious is there to stay for good, unless of course you use some form of desensitization or memory eradication technique, the latter of which is most difficult, if not impossible for most circumstances.
If we can understand the way our inner mind works, then that is what allows us to be able to shape the appropriate suggestions when we're practicing self hypnosis by ourselves. Now one of the many challenges that self hypnosis gives us is the ability to plant suggestions when we're in that deep state of hypnotic trance. Oh sure, you think it's just a simple process of saying to yourself 'I want this to happen, and when I click my fingers it will', but in actual fact that won't happen at all if it's not a part of your conscious thinking. That's why it's so important to experiment with other people in order to try and get an understanding for their thought processes. When you understand another persons thinking patterns, you're more likely to replicate them for your own when you practice self hypnosis.
So one of those difficult tricks, as it may seem, is telling people that self hypnosis is the key to overcoming their ailments. Whilst this is true, it is important the person understanding how hypnosis will allow them to achieve that. If we want to truly learn self hypnosis then we're going to need to be dedicated and practice hypnosis on a frequent basis whenever we feel it is needed. Now in saying this it isn't of course necessary to always undergo hypnotic trance whenever the sun rises. You may wish to only go into hypnosis on the odd occasion as opposed to frequent occasions. In actual fact, going into hypnosis frequently and constantly isn't going to do you a world of favours as you may end up becoming desensitized to it, which is something that you don't want. Now when I say this I'm not saying that it won't work on you, because of course it will, but when you undergo hypnosis yourself on such frequent occasions that it's not really needed then you may really just be overdoing it slightly. In saying that, entering hypnosis consistently and frequently can be a good thing too, especially if you have some particular problems you want to overcome, but just remember to moderate it, like you would all things in life. But do realise however that hypnosis isn't harmful, hypnosis itself is simply a way to communicate with your subconscious and plant suggestions within it, and self hypnosis allows us to do this quite easily.
Now an important thing to know is that hypnosis isn't that different to the ancient Indian mantras and other associated spiritual techniques. Sure, it hasn't got any spiritual connotation with it, but it doesn't mean that similar sort of practices haven't been going on for many thousands of years in distant countries, for they have been. It's quite interesting to look into the history of the world a little and see that these sorts of things aren't new to the west, well they are to the west, but not new in the sense that this field has only recently been discovered, the field of hypnosis itself, whilst Anton Mesmer may have been one of the initial instigators of developing further research into the field, doesn't necessarily mean that the field was new at the time. Hypnosis has many different names in different societies and religions, and can be interpreted as many different things.
So then the thing to understand with hypnosis is that it can help you, and if you use it correctly, it can be a world of wonders. Knowing the history about it isn't so important, as of course there are many things throughout the ages that we don't know and that we don't necessarily need to learn in order to substantiate any form of practical application for these various fields.
So do you need to go out and get a whole range of books and other tapes on the subject in order to understand how it works? Of course not. Do you need to get a specific program that guides you into states of trance without you being able to do it yourself? Once again, that's not the case at all. You can enter into this state quite easily and freely without the need of any external assistance, it's simply by choice that a lot of people choose to seek the services of a hypnotherapist or use some audio tape in order to be guided into a path of deep hypnotic relaxation. This of course however, isn't a necessity, and is entirely a voluntary act. A lot of these courses can help a lot, but don't fret about them too much as they're more there as a guide. People that use them find that it helps them enter into a deep state of hypnosis, but you can, by all means, achieve this state entirely by your own free will.
Like with all things in life, self hypnosis will require you to invest some time on your part if you wish to learn it properly. It is a learned skill of sorts, but not a skill that is exceptionally difficult, just a skill that will take some time and effort on your part in order to master. If you want to learn self hypnosis then the best thing you can to do get started is practice.
The Art To Learn Self Hypnosis
This may be considered quite an art form by some, but of course isn't as difficult as many may think. All that is required, as was explained above, is dedication on your part and the willingness and desire to practice the techniques and use them to your advantage. By all means, use hypnosis when you think it will suit you best. It's not something you have to do, or you must do and if you don't things won't work out, not at all. Believe it or not we naturally enter into hypnosis every day of our lives. When we go to some place and meet familiar people, or go to work, or drive, or walk down the street, we're effectively in a hypnotic state, and we, believe it or not, forget a lot of the journey that we had.
This it not uncommon, for you see when we're in a state of hypnosis we're much more likely to experience amnesia, a form of memory loss from the hypnotic state. This isn't anything to be concerned about as it's quite a natural sort of process. It just simply means that our mind and body is in a relaxed state where our conscious mind doesn't really have to focus on anything too much. This is what allows us to take on board the suggestions that are given to us when we learn self hypnosis.
Now all these suggestions may of course, in time, not only benefit you, but may also cause you to do things that you normally wouldn't expect. The important thing to understand however is that we can't be given suggestions that we don't wish to acknowledge or accept. This is one of the great things with hypnosis, in that it doesn't allow us to bypass our ironclad moral and ethical codes and morals. So by all means, the next time you plan on practicing self hypnosis, know that you can give yourself positive suggestions that will go towards helping you, and know that these suggestions may change your life for the better. Self hypnosis is indeed a way that many people overcome a variety of their problems and should be used for your benefit if you want to.
Now for some parting words. If you want to get started on your journey to learn self hypnosis, then may I just say that it's not as difficult as you may think. The first step like with anything starts with you, and it's up to you to make the changes necessary in your life now if you want to reap the rewards. Hypnosis is often a new field for many people, and some of them are a little critical of it. Indeed many people claim that it doesn't work, or that it is somehow an odd form of art that they'd rather not learn about. The truth is however that hypnosis is an entirely natural process, and is a process that we enter into each and every day of our lives. By simply replicating this state, we allow ourselves to enter into the hypnotic state of awareness voluntarily, and use trance as a means of planting suggestions within our subconscious that will help us in the longer term.
There are no real dangers associated with hypnosis, and many misconceptions. Whilst self hypnosis might not change every aspect of your life, it may change many aspects of it if you let it. So why not give hypnosis a go and see what it can do for you? You may be quite pleasantly surprised when you see what it has to offer. Now one last thing that you should take note of is that practice is essential in order to understand how it works. After you've entered into trance once, then entering into it again and again won't be as difficult. With practice entering into this state will seem quite easy and won't require too much effort on your part. You'll eventually be able to associate what are called various anchors into your mind so that when the anchors are triggered, you'll be able to enter into this self hypnotic state again quite easily and freely.
So don't worry if things seem a little awkward at first, in time you will get them under way, and you will be happy that you made that leap in your life to learn self hypnosis to begin with.
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