Self Hypnosis Does it Work and How to Do It?

Self Hypnosis is a wonderful way for you to make changes in your life. As I have said in other posts, all Hypnosis is self-hypnosis, anyway. Self hypnosis will never take the place of visiting a qualified hypnotherapist, although it is will definitely help you in between sessions; A good Hypnotherapist should teach you self-hypnosis. On its own, it certainly won’t do any harm to practise.

Self-Hypnosis works when you get into the trance state required for you to communicate with your own subconscious mind. Depending on your reason for wanting to perform self hypnosis, there are many therapies you can perform on your own, without the need for a Hypnotherapist to be present. That said, you should always do your research about which therapy to use. One other proviso is that you should not induce self-hypnosis if you are feeling low or depressed.

Inducing Self Hypnosis

Here is a simple method to induce self-hypnosis. Feel free to print this process so that you can practise whenever you want. You may need to read it through a few times, so that you can get the gist of it.

The process

First, make sure you are not going to be interrupted and there are no distractions. Get yourself relaxed. Lying down or sitting up is fine as long as you’re comfortable.
Next, you count up from one to 10. You can do this aloud or in your head. Breathe in as you say the number and as you breathe out say relax:
Breathe in “One”, breathe out “relax” etc.
On each number, you will get more and more relaxed.
When you are ready, close your eyes.

In your mind, remember a special place. This might be somewhere real that you have been to, where you were happy. Or it could be somewhere fictional, from a book or a film. Either way, as long as it is somewhere where you are happy. Remember this is a safe place to go and you can take yourself there any time you want.

You can test out your subconscious mind, whilst you are in hypnosis. You might not realise that we have an inbuilt clock, that’s why you can sometimes wake up at a specific time without needing an alarm. In the same way, you can time yourself in hypnosis. Before you start, make a note of the time and then say to yourself you will ‘wake up’ in five minutes.
You then trust that your subconscious will give you an urge to come round after the five minutes is up. The more you practise this the better you will get.

Using Self hypnosis for stress

We all have stresses in our lives and at different times, we may have more stress than it seems we can cope with. This is distress as opposed to eustress (the good stress, when something challenges us but we are engaged in it and in the flow.)

Whenever you have too much stress, it is usually other people who notice first, in your moods. You might even have bursts of anger. If the stress persists, you will start to get physical symptoms and illness.
If you find yourself in a situation where it seems that it is all coming on top of you. Stop. Give yourself a time out and go to your special place in self-hypnosis. Here you can gain perspective and bring yourself to the here and now.

You will instantly feel more relaxed and able to cope, with your immediate situation. From here, you should then take an inventory of your life to see where your stresses come from. Then you can start the process of eliminating the stresses by, working towards an ideal life.
I will talk more about anxiety and stress later on.

The Five Second Reframe

Here is a quick and easy self-hypnosis tool, I call the five minute reframe. Do you have an unwanted behaviour? A feeling that you want to change? It could be a behaviour that is automatic; a behaviour that you do without thinking. This should be something not too large, but something that is a minor irritation in your life. This is a quick method you can use to reframe the behaviour into something else.

Step one

Relate the unwanted behaviour to the following: “Underlying all behaviour is a positive intent”.
For instance it could be that your unwanted behaviour is nail biting. Therefore, think of the positive intents behind nail biting. It might be that you feel you can concentrate better when you are thinking. You might feel relaxed by biting your nails.

Step two

As this is an exercise for your subconscious mind, you will to go into self-hypnosis. See above. Then mentally ask your subconscious mind to create ten alternative safe, natural and positive behaviours. These may or may not be conscious behaviours. For instance, instead of nail biting, you could take 10 deep breathes.

Step three

Again, whilst still in self hypnosis, ask your subconscious mind to evaluate the ten new behaviours. Are they feasible? Are they ecological? This means are there any effects on other people. Are there any other facets of your life that these new behaviours could affect?

Step four

Choose three of the ten behaviours.

Step four

Let your subconscious mull over these three new behaviours. In your mind, choose one of the three remaining behaviours to do.

Step five

Whilst still in self hypnosis, visualise yourself in the same situation where the unwanted behaviour persists. Now imagine yourself performing the new behaviour instead. Use visualisation to rehearse the new behaviour so you are confident you will perform the new behaviour.
You might want to repeat the mental rehearsal each day until your new behaviour becomes automatic.

You can read more about your subconscious mind and how to make changes in my book Subconscious Change