Part I
Identifying Your Needs and Preparing the Way
In this part . . .
The first Part of this book gives you the basics for understanding and practising self-hypnosis. In it, we define what self-hypnosis is, and briefly look at what it isnât. We then examine how you can get started on overcoming your problems by getting your mind and body working together.
We also take a look at how to help you achieve what you want to achieve, whilst at the same time discussing how you can overcome your own resistance to change and avoid relapses.
Chapter 1
What Is Self-Hypnosis?
In This Chapter
Understanding what self-hypnosis is all about
Discovering how self-hypnosis works
Feeling safe about self-hypnosis
Whether you realise you are or not, youâre doing self-hypnosis continually, every hour of the day. In this book we guide this natural tendency to help you get what you want using the raw skills you already possess. In this book we will help you to understand how hypnosis works and how you can hypnotise yourself using different techniques â old and new.
We also help you to develop powerful self-hypnosis skills across a range of topics, including:
How to clarify your goals.
How to train your mind for a range of different self-hypnosis approaches.
How to improve your outlook.
How to achieve more with less effort.
How to apply self-hypnosis to specific problems.
You may be pleasantly surprised, as hypnotherapists frequently like to say, at your new-found abilities after applying the ideas and practical suggestions in this book.
Understanding Self-Hypnosis
As you read this book, youâre in a slight trance state. Youâre hearing the words on the page in your mind; theyâre stimulating you to think in a certain way. In a literal sense, youâre simply looking at dried ink on paper. Yet the letters are forming words that give you a certain meaning that they donât to someone who canât read or comprehend what youâre able to understand easily.
Self-hypnosis is like that: simply by focusing, you can go into a relaxed state of mind, sometimes called âtranceâ. In this trance state you can allow your mind to create new meanings and discoveries in your life that can help you spontaneously create new behaviours and form helpful beliefs.
Creating a trance stateâs the first part of doing self-hypnosis. The second partâs giving yourself a hypnotic suggestion for change. This is called the hypnotic suggestion. The italicised words in the previous paragraph â spontaneously create new behaviours and form helpful beliefs â are direct examples of two hypnotic suggestions. Already your unconscious mind understands that effective self-hypnosis changes your unhelpful behaviours and beliefs. When these changes occur, youâre doing effective self-hypnosis.
In this book we take you through a range of topics that help you develop skills of self-hypnosis.
The ins and outs of self-hypnosis
The first time one of us (Mike) was hypnotised, it was by someone informally many years ago. I was speaking to a well-known hypnotherapist and enquired what being hypnotised felt like. This person was keen to stay within his professional boundaries, but I was persistent. The hypnotherapist simply asked me two or three questions and I was in an altered state. The questions he asked me that sent me into a light trance state were:
Do you know what a trance state is?
What do you think it feels like to go into a trance?
How may you use hypnosis if you were to go into a trance?
This happened during the middle of a conversation in a noisy room full of people who were unaware what was happening. Without realising the power of these three sentences, I noticed a shift in my state of mind â I was only slightly more relaxed, but in a dramatically different state.
The hypnotherapist then explained how the unconscious can perceive questions as hypnotic commands. Look again at the italicised words in his three questions and this may begin to make sense to you.
Some people donât like the phrase âtrance stateâ. Specifically, disagreement occurs over the existence of the concept of a hypnotic trance state. Some people argue that trance, as first proposed by Scottish surgeon and hypnotherapy pioneer James Braid (1795â1860), doesnât exist. Instead, they propose a non-state theory of hypnosis and believe that a hypnotised person is simply role playing because this is what others expect and that no altered state of consciousness exists. We disagree with this view, but include the debate for your information. Finding out how to induce hypnosis
No limits exist to the methods that enable you to go into trance. But one thingâs clear: you can forget about any impressions of trance inductions that you may have s...
