Since its discovery and adaptation into modern hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis has proven effective in helping people overcome several physical and psychological conditions, by enhancing the power of the mind. Just as its name suggests, while undergoing self-hypnosis, the physical presence of an expert will not be required. Thus, you would be the one to walk yourself from the ground to the pinnacle. This means that you would be putting in a good amount of work, focus, and patience to ensure you achieve your ultimate aim.
However, while you wouldn’t be sitting inches away from a hypnotherapist, you do NOT necessarily have to be doing it completely alone and without guidance. Directions can be administered remotely through text, audio, video, etc., and when combined with
guided meditation, the sky becomes the limit. Before you embark on this journey, there are a few things you would need to know to ensure you’re getting down to business, fully prepared.
The Benefits of Self-Hypnosis
The benefits of self-hypnosis cannot be overestimated. It stretches across several areas, encompassing all the angles of life and work. Here are just a few.
- It helps you break your addiction
- Speeds up your weight loss program
- Diminishes anxiety and depression
- Improves your self-esteem
- Helps with stress management
- Improves your control over the small details of your life, including your finances
If you look a little bit more closely, you would see the subtle connections between all these benefits. When you are addicted, you find your finances dipping. You find yourself being more anxious and depressed, and everything keeps spinning out of control. By learning and practising self-hypnosis, you will be on your way to seeing a different side of life—a side that’s painted with the colours of freedom. A side you’d definitely enjoy.
While self-hypnosis is effective in solving life problems, it does not only have to be used for problems. Indeed, by adopting the practice of self-hypnosis, you can improve the overall quality of your life.
Preparing for the Big Move
To get the most out of self-hypnosis, you must be adequately prepared, both physically, and mentally. Here are five important points to note.
The Right Place
Ideally, if you want your self-hypnosis session to go as fluid as possible, you would have to set up a place suitable for it. Such a place should be clean, filled with fresh air, and most importantly, quiet. It could be anywhere ranging from your bedroom to your backyard, or even a serene corner of your workplace. You can put a DO NOT DISTURB sign if you feel you should. Also, get yourself a comfortable chair or mat.
Avoid Alcohol, Caffeine, & Any Stimulants
These substances have a way of distorting your brain’s function on a normal day, so it is advisable to stay off them when it is time for self-hypnosis. If you must, a little coffee may be allowed but to make things as smooth as possible, you could just keep it aside for just a couple of hours. If there is one thing you cannot compromise on, however, it’s being sober.
Dealing with Interruptions
Interruptions are what you wouldn’t enjoy when undergoing self-hypnosis. They dismantle everything you’ve spent minutes building, under a second. Switch off your cell phones or put them on flight mode. Also, ensure your computer is in silent mode in case a Skype call or email comes in.
Your Physical Readiness
You need to ensure you’re all set to go down. This means that your clothing should be comfortable. You should probably use the bathroom to ensure you wouldn’t be needing to do so while the process is in full swing. Your breathing should be relaxed and calm. You can also stretch a little to warm yourself up.
Meditation
Meditation helps to pave the way for self-hypnosis to deliver its full impact. You do not need to have any experience to be able to do this. You can simply listen to
a guided meditation audio track and follow the instructions.
Believe in Yourself
A lot of people see it as a difficult thing to do: maintaining that level of discipline, to keep your mind focused on specific mental pictures in a world buzzing with distractions. But it is only difficult if you feel it is. Some visualizations may even seem hard to grasp, but you have to take them as they come and deal with them. If you do not believe in yourself, then you need to take a break and get some motivation.
Relaxation Techniques for Self-Hypnosis
Relaxation is a crucial part of self-hypnosis. You need to be fully relaxed to be able to move forward with self-hypnosis. Here are some self-hypnosis relaxation techniques you can adopt to help you get down to business as soon as possible.
Breathing Technique
You can relax your body by performing a series of controlled breathing exercises.
Here’s how you do it in simple steps.
Ensure you’re seated comfortably, put one hand on your stomach and another on your chest then inhale through your nose. The hand on your stomach should move up with your rising stomach while the one on your chest should retain its position.
Slowly exhale through your mouth. Try to push as much air as possible, paying attention to the hands.
Repeat this process, counting slowly each time.
Doing this will eventually relax your nerves and muscles. It does help if you can visualize the stress leaving as you exhale.
Progressive Muscle Relaxation
Progressive muscle relaxation allows you to achieve relaxation by applying a degree of tension to different muscle groups all over your body. Mastery of this technique will allow you to be aware of any small changes in your body and help you relax more effectively. Here’s how to do it.
- Do a few seconds of breathing exercise.
- Focus on your right foot. Pay attention to the way it feels, then slowly squeeze the muscles of the foot as hard as you can and hold for ten seconds.
- Relax the muscles, paying attention as the tension slowly leaves the muscles you just squeezed.
- After a few seconds of rest, shift your focus to the left foot and repeat the same thing.
- Move gradually up your body, repeating the same thing with other muscle groups as you progress.
It may feel a little complicated in the beginning but once you master it, it will all flow naturally. Muscle groups you can work on include your feet, calves, thighs, hips and buttocks, stomach, chest, back, arms, neck and shoulders, and face.
Other techniques you can use include:
- Body scan
- Self-massage
- Yoga and Tai Chi
- Music Therapy
Also, to create an enabling atmosphere for relaxation and efficient self-hypnosis, you can make use of items such as scented candles, calm music, etc.
Is It OK To Fall Asleep Listening To Self-Hypnosis Audios?
Sleeping while meditating or practising self-hypnosis is fairly common. Sometimes when you’re ‘too relaxed,’ you tend to take it a notch further and just doze off. Sleeping while listening to self-hypnosis audios can be due to a number of reasons, among which workday stress is included, however, it is important to address this.
Firstly, falling asleep while self-hypnosis is going on is NOT dangerous. You won’t be hypnotized into a robot or a zombie. However, when you fall asleep, there is a chance that you might not be able to benefit completely from the self-hypnosis session. This is actually a point of contention within the field of clinical hypnosis and hypnotherapy. On the one hand, there is evidence to suggest that falling asleep while listening to self-hypnosis downloads is perfectly acceptable, however, other studies have shown that it can be detrimental.
We have
delved into this subject in the past and concluded that falling asleep during a session is ultimately OK. Even evidence against falling asleep during hypnosis suggests that the effects are diminished, rather than totally nullified, so there is still benefit either way. If you find yourself drifting off, though, do not feel that you have failed. Several patients have reported positive changes even though they frequently doze off while listening to self-hypnosis audios!
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