How to Use Self-Hypnosis
For Fun & Health
"How to use Self-Hypnosis for Fun & Health" is a guest article
from Steve Bauer, founder of the brilliant
How To Master NLP.com.
So you want to learn how to use self-hypnosis for fun and health?
Excellent idea!
First, let me tell you what it is...
Then what you stand to gain by learning and practicing hypnosis...
And then I’ll show exactly what you need to do to gain it right now.
Self-Hypnosis - What is it?
First of all, you have to keep in mind that most people view hypnosis as some sort of booga-booga, freakshow experience.
It isn’t.
Hypnosis is just a different state of awareness. Perhaps a better term for it is “trance”. It’s certainly one I prefer to use.You and I spin in and out of trances all day long, shifting our state of awareness and attention depending on the activities we’re carrying out.
Easy to prove… Have you ever driven your car, or ridden your bike, while listening to music or an audio book? And then, at some point, you realized that you weren’t paying attention at all to the road? That some part of you was doing the driving or the riding while your brain was out to lunch?
That, my friend, is a trance.
What about the "Self" in "Self-Hypnosis"?
Actually, the “self” thing doesn’t really hold. There’s no such thing as self-hypnosis, because hypnosis is just a state.
The “self” thing is actually has to do with “self-induction”, the process by which you take yourself into trance.
Let me tell you something very few students of hypnosis or NLP understand…
1. An induction (the way you get into the state)
2. A state (that we’ve already talked about)
There might be a third optional component:
3. Suggestions (commands or instructions geared towards a specific goal the subject wants)
When a hypnotist works with a client, (s)he first induces the state and then proceeds to give suggestions geared at assisting that client achieve specific goals.
In the case of “self-hypnosis”, you’ll be carrying out the induction and giving of suggestions yourself.
Benefits of Self-Hypnosis
You can leverage the power of hypnosis (and, consequently, self-hypnosis) to get a few benefits:
1. Change the way you behave. Hypnosis can effectively assist you in eliminate disempowering behaviors or in generating new, empowering behavior.
2. Change disempowering beliefs. You can use hypnosis to neutralize limiting beliefs about yourself or the world. You can also leverage its power to install empowering beliefs that will propel you towards your goals.
3. Relieve pain. Hypnosis can help you control your nervous system, which comes in handy in situations where you need to deal with physical pain.
4. Relieve stress. Stress generally holds by two levers: the body and your beliefs. Using the appropriate induction, you can relax your body tremendously in a very short period of time. You can then change your beliefs to change the stressful meaning you’re giving to your life’s circumstances.
5. Improve sports performance. All the top athletes today practice their mental game as much as their physical game, using self-hypnosis.
6. Overall health: Certain experiments using hypnosis have shown to decrease the action of free radicals that can cause premature deterioration of tissue and individual cells. Other health benefits include significant cardiovascular improvements (heart rate, blood pressure, coagulation, breathing, etc.).
7. Emotional stability: Little occurrences that used to nag you won’t have that effect anymore. You’ll feel less irritated, mellower, and experience fewer mood swings.
These are just a few of the advantages you get from learning and practicing self-hypnosis.
Now, let’s get on to doing it!
How to do Self-Hypnosis
As I mentioned above, there are two skills you have to develop to do self-trancework:
1. Induction
2. Auto-suggestion
Let’s talk about induction first.
There are so many ways to induce trance you wouldn’t believe it. You can get into trance by driving your car, running, gazing at the moon, staring at a candle, and so forth and so on. You could fill a whole book just with the different induction possibilities.
Remember, getting into trance simply means shifting into a different state of awareness.
But there’s a simple leverage point that makes the shift happen in almost all cases: breathing.
That’s right.
Breathing is the prime leverage point to shift your state and go into trance.
1. Breathe in as much as you can, without straining.
2. Hold your breath as long as you can, without straining.
3. Breathe out all the air, as slowly as you can, without straining.
Repeat this process at least 15 times, going slower and slower with every cycle.
*** ATTENTION: If at any point during this process you feel discomfort, stop altogether and breathe normally. ***
After 15 cycles, you will definitely have experienced a state change. You’ll be in a different zone.
It’s called TRANCE.
Now, let’s move on to step 2. Autosuggestion.
There are also a myriad ways for you to give yourself suggestions. I’ll give you two I use all the time and that are really effective.
The first one consists in playing back a tape of your own voice speaking the suggestions. Of course, you’ll have to record this beforehand. Download Audacity software, some new age music from creative commons, record some affirmations, mix them together and you’re good to go. Put on some headphones and press play once you’re good to go.
The second option consists in repeating out loud the suggestions you are implanting in your subconscious mind. The more you repeat them, the faster it will go. As you do this, intensify different words in the suggestion.
1. I feel God’s wealth circulating in my life.
2. I FEEL God’s wealth circulating in my life.
3. I feel GOD’S wealth circulating in my life.
4. I feel God’s WEALTH circulating in my life.
5. I feel God’s wealth CIRCULATING in my life.
6. I feel God’s wealth circulating IN my life.
7. I feel God’s wealth circulating in MY life.
8. I feel God’s wealth circulating in my LIFE.
Over and over and over and over. Repeat it at least 80 times.
Recapping Self-Hypnosis
So you now know how to make self-trancework happen!
You understand the components of trance:
1. Induction
2. State of trance/hypnosis
3. Suggestions
You know you stand to gain in your health, emotions, relationships and wealth by practicing self-trance regularly.
And you know how to do it. So.....Go and practice!!! (And come back to let us know what you’ve discovered!)
About the Author: Steve Bauer is a rogue NLP trainer who has been studying and practicing Neurolinguistic Programming for 10 years.
He can get a complete NLP beginner up and operating in a matter of hours. To know more, follow him on Twitter at stevebauernlp or at his brilliant blog,
How To Master NLP.com.
PS - If you like the weird and wonderful world of hypnosis, NLP and overall brain optimisation, subscribe now to Personal Development Planet's wonderfully free newsletter below...
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