Self-Hypnosis
FREE Course
Self-hypnosis is covered with so much mysticism. It also comes under different names. For example, affirmations and visualizations while in a deeply relaxed position are, in fact, represent self-hypnosis.
The most important thing to learn here is how to create the state of deep relaxation.
Who needs to learn the self-hypnosis?
The answer is simple – everybody. If you need to improve your health, lose weight, quit smoking, improve your public speaking skills, money-making abilities, eliminate the irrational fears or any other habit that stands on your way to success then self-hypnosis is for you.
Shortly, this is a powerful tool that can help you in all the areas of your life.
And most importantly unlike harmful drugs, this process is safe. However if you are on any prescription medication DO NOT stop taking it while doing self-hypnosis. Use self-hypnosis as complementary therapy.
Try not to rush through the course quickly. Each step is important. Make sure you master it before going to the next step.
Here is the list of most important things you need to learn to be successful:
- How to relax deeply to enter into receptive state and how to finish the session;
- How to create your own powerful affirmations or hypnotic self-suggestions;
- How to use self-suggestions while in a deeply relaxed hypnotic state.
Step 1. Decide What You Want to Work on First
Prior to learning how to enter a relaxed hypnotic state, decide why you want to do self-hypnosis. You need to work on one problem at a time so your task is to decide which one has the highest priority.
The best approach is to write down several problems you need to work on or habits you need to eliminate or positive traits you want to create; prioritize that list and then work on them one after another.
Or maybe you have some goals you need to reach and you don’t know how to start or something is holding you back. Write down your goals; try to identify what’s holding you back. Hint: identify your internal problems and not things you don’t have control over. This will help you to create a list for your self-hypnosis sessions.
Step 2. Your Commitment and Initial Settings
In order to be successful you need to commit yourself to everyday practicing as it is described here.
You need to practice for about one week to learn the ropes. It might take a little bit more or less depending on your experience with relaxation.
The ideal time to practice daily is 15-20 minutes twice a day. It is important that you schedule this time in advance as soon as you finished the step 1.
When you are just starting make sure you are in a SAFE place. It should be a comfortable environment where you won’t be disturbed by people or phone calls. Later on, when you learn the basics, you’ll be able to do it in any environment as long as it is safe to stay in a deeply relaxed position for 15-20 minutes.
Step 3. Learn to Relax Deeply
This is huge. The progress in this step will determine your success or failure.
This is the most important part of the entire process. While many courses just tell – “you need to relax deeply”, if you don’t learn how to do it properly you will fail to bring positive changes into your life. That’s why we will go into more details here. The important thing is to practice regularly over the 7-days period.
You need to wear loose, comfortable clothes, remove any jewelry you have, remove your watch, glasses, contact lenses if you have them. You can sit or lie down but if you are new to deeply relaxed states, it is more likely you fall asleep in a lying position so it is better if you just sit comfortably. Make sure you are in a place where you can relax safely and won’t be disturbed by phone calls or other people.
Your legs and hands should be uncrossed. If you decide to lie down, the ideal position is the yogic Savasana.
Savasana: lie flat on your back; stretch your arms along the body, legs apart and eyes closed. Make sure arms are not touching the body and about at 45 degrees to the body. Shake out your legs and shoulders, tense your body, lift your head, legs, make a fist with your hands and drop back to the mat. Slowly roll the head from side to side. Bring your head back to the center and focus the mind on the breath. Inhale on the count of four, exhale on the count of six. Do it 3-4 times. Adjust your body if necessary.
If you are sitting make sure your head is supported by the back of your chair or armchair. Keep your arms and hands on the arms of the chair. Keep your feet on the floor.
Your eyes should be closed.
Read the relaxation instructions before you start. You can also record the instructions and play back while sitting or lying in a relaxation position.
First try to relax your arms. For this purpose you need to create a feeling of heaviness and warmth in your arms.
Repeat to yourself slowly (or listen to your recording): “My arms and hands are heavy and warm”. Repeat it slowly several times and pay attention to sensations in your arms and hands. You should really feel the heaviness and warmth.
It is better to do one arm at a time. “My right arm is heavy and warm” – repeat several times till you actually feel it and then switch to the left arm. To deepen this feeling you can say “My arms are very heavy”. At this point you shouldn’t be able to move your arms since they are “very heavy”.
Now, stay in this state for 1-2 minutes, try to deepen the experience if you can and then start slowly moving your fingers, make a fist with your hands, stretch your arms, repeat to yourself “All is back to normal” and open your eyes. Then get up, stretch, move a little. Now go back to your relaxed position and repeat the exercise 3-4 more times.
Make sure you are not forcing yourself into any position. You have to let go of tension instead of forcing yourself into something.
Remember the sensation of heaviness and warmth – this will help you to go into the relaxed position quicker the next time.
Don’t forget to repeat the exercise second time during the day.
Now when you KNOW how it feels, repeat to yourself “My both arms are heavy and warm” – you should immediately feel the heaviness and warmth in both hands. If you are able to do that – it means you successfully created the “conditioned state” in your mind. Don’t forget to repeat “All is back to normal” afterwards.
Now you are ready to continue the relaxation process with your legs. The key phrase is “My legs are heavy and warm”. Start with the right leg, repeat the phrase several time and them change it to “very” heavy. You can also record yourself and play back the instructions.
Now repeat the same process for your left leg and then repeat the key phrase.
Stay in this state for 1-2 minutes, try to deepen the experience if you can and then start slowly moving your toes, stretch your legs, repeat to yourself “All is back to normal” and open your eyes. Then get up, stretch, move a little. Now go back to your relaxed position and repeat the exercise 3-4 more times.
Don’t forget to do the whole session one more time later during the day.
Now, just by saying “My legs are heavy and warm” you should be able to feel the deep relaxation in your legs. Repeat “All is back to normal” to snap out of this relaxed state.
Start with your eyelids. Go into your relaxation position (whatever you chose).
Close your eyes and repeat to yourself “My eyelids and heavy and warm” and imagine that your upper and lower eyelids are pulled together by magnets. Repeat the phrase several times and then add “very” to heavy and warm and repeat the enhanced phrase several time till you actually feel the sensations of heaviness and warmth.
Now repeat “My eyes are locked down shut tight” several times. Stay in this deeply relaxed state for 1-2 minutes, then repeat to yourself “All is back to normal” and slowly open your eyes. Get up, stretch, walk for couple of minutes and then repeat the exercise 3-4 times.
Do the whole exercise one more time during the day.
Now repeat to yourself “My eyelids are heavy and warm”. When you say this you should actually feel the sensations and have a need to close your eyes.
Now try to relax all the facial muscles. Repeat to yourself several times “I relax my forehead, my eyebrows and my eyes” – do not move forward till you actually feel the relaxation in those areas then continue “I relax my nose, my cheeks, my lips, my tongue” – again try to feel it before you continue. Now repeat to yourself several times “I relax my jaws” till you feel it.
Next phrase is “My facial muscles are completely relaxed”.
Step 4. Complete Relaxation
Now you are ready for the complete relaxation.
Mentally go through your body, relaxing every single muscle.
Repeat to yourself: I relax my toes, my feet and my ankles; my toes, my feet and my ankles are relaxed. I relax my calves, knees and thighs; my calves, knees and thighs relaxed.
Repeat several times till you feel the heaviness and warmth in your legs.
I relax my shoulders, arms, hands and fingers. My shoulders, arms, hands and fingers are relaxed. Repeat several times till you feel the sensation of heaviness and warmth in those areas.
Now relax your body:
“I relax my buttocks, my lower, middle and upper back. My entire back is relaxed. I relax my abdomen and all my internal organs; my abdomen and my internal organs are relaxed.” Repeat till you feel heaviness and warmth in the body.
Now repeat:
“My eyelids are heavy and warm” – repeat till you create the sensation of heaviness and warmth.
Then continue with:
“I relax my neck and all my facial muscles: my scalp, my ears, my forehead, my eyebrows, my eyes, my nose, my cheeks, my lips, my tongue, my jaws and my chin.”
“All my facial muscles are relaxed. My body and mind are still.”
Feel how your body becomes heavy and warm.
Now mentally scan your body from the tips of your toes to the top of your head to spot any tense areas and relax them.
Stay in this relaxed state for couple of minutes. With every exhale relax even deeper, feel your body becoming even heavier.
Then count till 10, start moving your toes and fingers; make fists with your hands and stretch, move your entire body. Say to yourself “All is back to normal” and open your eyes. Get up, stretch and walk for a short period of time to let go of this deep relaxed state.
Repeat this process of going into deep relaxation one more time later during the day.
Now when you just scan your body and give simple relaxation commands for each part, you should be able to go into this deeply relaxed state.
This is a skill that you need to develop. If you still feel tension in the body, go slowly. Devote one day to relaxing just one part of the body and then move forward. Do not rush though the process. If you can’t relax deeply your self-suggestions will not benefit you and you will just waste your time.
While you are in a deeply relaxed state, try to pay attention to sensations in your body. You can feel tingling sensation in different parts of your body, for example. This is normal – when you concentrate on a body part, it increases the blood circulation causing the tingling sensation.
You may also feel the extreme lightness in the body after feeling very heavy. This is also a result of being in a deeply relaxed state.
To greatly facilitate and accelerate this process you can consider special CDs designed to put you into desired states of consciousness within minutes. Every CD is for a specific purpose depending on what you want. You can choose Prosperity Audio to enhance your money-making ability or Weight Loss Audio if your purpose is to lose weight. Visit Hypnosis for Everything for more details.
Step 5. Testing
You can test if you are indeed in a state of hypnosis, deep suggestibility. Before you count to ten and start moving, try the swallow test:
Say to yourself slowly trying to feel the sensations in your body “As I count to 7 I will have an urge to swallow one time. One, I feel dryness in my throat… two, my lips are dry…, three mouth is dry…, four, my mouth is very dry…, five, I start having an urge to swallow…, six, the urge to swallow grows stronger and stronger, I must swallow…, seven, I’ve actually swallowed. I feel comfortable again. Now I am ready to self-suggestions”.
Do not give yourself the direct instruction to swallow. It should come naturally between the counts of 6 and 7. At that point you know that you are in a hypnotic state. It is important to say “I am comfortable again” to eliminate any feeling of discomfort related to dryness in the mouth.
Now you should be able to go into this deeply relaxed state by simply scanning your body and giving it simple commands like this:
I relax my toes, my feet and my ankles; my toes, my feet and my ankles are relaxed. I relax my calves, knees and thighs; my calves, knees and thighs relaxed. I relax my buttocks, my lower, middle and upper back. My entire back is relaxed. I relax my abdomen and all my internal organs; my abdomen and my internal organs are relaxed. I relax my shoulders, arms, hands and fingers. My shoulders, arms, hands and fingers are relaxed. I relax my neck and all my facial muscles: my scalp, my ears, my forehead, my eyebrows, my eyes, my nose, my cheeks, my lips, my tongue, my jaws and my chin. All my facial muscles are relaxed. My body and mind are still. My body is heavy and warm.
Step 6. Going Deeper
Go into the deeply relaxed state and visualize taking an elevator that slowly goes down. Imagine it is going down 10 floors. Feel the sensation of going down in the elevator. Imagine each time you go one floor down, the word “deeper” appears in front of you.
You can also see yourself going down the stairs. See yourself going down 10 steps. Imagine the stairs covered with warm thick carpet and every step you take down relaxes you even more; you start feeling drowsy but do not fall asleep.
When you finished your descent, imagine yourself in a beautiful deeply relaxing environment. This can be different for different people.
You can image a beautiful garden with fountains or a small river with deeply relaxing sound of flowing water. This is up to you. The important thing is that you feel safe, comfortable and really enjoyed your surroundings.
Experience the feeling of peace. Try to see everything in details; hear the water flowing and smell the freshness of the air; feel the different sensations in your body, the hardness of the rock, the coldness of water, etc.
See yourself as a part of the scene and not an observer. Make sure there are no unpleasant distractions or anything that makes you feel unsafe – this is your “secret” location and you can make it the way you like it.
Remember this place in great details. Next time when you say to yourself “I am in my secret location” you will find yourself in this beautiful place.
Before going into hypnosis it is better to think of this place beforehand and imagine everything in as many details as possible. You can also write down all the details. Include all the sensations.
Step 7. Accelerating the Process
Now practice going into initial relaxed state on the count of 20. With each count just scan different parts of your body starting with your feet and relax them, then on the count of 10 take your elevator or stair down to a deeper state. Then just state “I am in my secret location” and find yourself in the peaceful, and relaxing scene you created for yourself. Stay here and relax deeply.
Spend 15-20 minutes on the entire exercise. Repeat it one more time during the day.
Now you learned how to go into a deeply relaxed state. Practicing this twice a day will help you reduce the level of stress and generally increase your feeling of well-being.
Whenever you feel tired and stressed you can go to your “secret” location for a deep relaxation. You feel energized and completely refreshed.
Listening to special binaural audios can help you to go deep into hypnotic state that will greatly improve the results. Visit Hypnosis for Everything for more details.
Step 8. Self-Suggestions
Now you are ready for self-suggestions!
Self-hypnosis is in fact positive affirmations that you repeat in your mind while in a deeply relaxed state.
You need to prepare the list of affirmations before you enter into hypnotic state.
You should already have a prioritized list of everything you want to work on – goals, changing negative habits, etc (see Step 1).
It might be very tempting to work on the whole list at once however if you want to achieve success make sure you work on one thing at a time.
The principles for self-suggestions are the same as for positive affirmations. They must be simple, positive and in present tense. In fact, you are affirming something that already exists. It should also be something that is highly desirable to you.
For example, the correct self-suggestion would be “I have courage” instead of “I don’t have fear anymore”.
Subconscious mind doesn’t identify negatives. If you affirm “I don’t have fear anymore” subconscious mind will use your affirmation to amplify your fear. That’s why the constant fear of gaining more weight brings just that – more weight.
Another example: say “I eat smaller portions at each meal that satisfy me fully” instead of “I don’t overeat anymore”.
If you have big goals, break them down into smaller sub-goals that are easier achievable and work on them. This way they will be more believable and self-suggestions will work better.
For example, instead of affirming “I weight 120 pounds now” which is 100 pounds less than what you weigh right now, say “I consistently lose 2 pounds weekly”. You will eventually get to the point where you weigh 120 pounds but the second affirmation is more believable and hence will be more effective.
Visualizations will enhance your affirmations. If you followed the course you should already have this experience with visualizing your “secret location” with all your senses. Try to accompany your affirmations with all the feelings, sensations associated with it.
If you need to lose weight you might want to visit Creative Affirmations and Visualizations for details on weight loss affirmations.
Quick recap:
1. Prepare the list of the problems/goals you want to work on. Prioritize the list to choose the first one you will work on.
2. Do the preparatory relaxation exercises. Record yourself if you need to and play back while in a relaxation position.
3. Write down all the details of your secret location, imagine all the sensations associated with it. Then do the full relaxation exercise to enter the hypnotic state and see your “secret location” as you already visualized it; experience it with all your senses.
4. Write self-suggestions/positive affirmations for the goal/problem you chose in the point 1. Follow affirmations writing the guidelines.
5. Now you can record the whole session with affirmations and play back while in a relaxing position or just give yourself mental commands, enter the hypnotic state and repeat the affirmations to yourself.
6. When you finish stay for as long as it is comfortable for you. Then count till 10, start moving your toes and fingers, arms and legs, stretch. Say to yourself “All is back to normal” and slowly open your eyes. Get up, stretch and try to move for couple of seconds.
Now you are ready to sculpt your life!
This was just the tip of the iceberg. Do you want to use the powerful NLP techniques along with hypnosis and self-hypnosis? Then you need to go deeper. Click here for details.
Additional Reading:
Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss
Comprehensive Hypnosis Program
Creative affirmations and visualizations
Self-Hypnosis for Weight Loss
Hypnosis and NLP
Hypnosis for Everything
