What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a very pleasant state of physical and mental relaxation during which positive suggestions may be given to create desirable changes and results in our lives. Providing that we are willing to accept the suggestions given, hypnotherapy can be a very powerful way to help us with our problems.
Are People under hypnosis asleep?
Actually, people under hypnosis are awake and aware. At times in a session, hypnosis can be experienced as a kind of pre-sleep state, a lot like that time just before you fall asleep at night when dream images come into your mind and that time when you might get that little twitchy sensation as you are falling asleep. Hypnotised people quite often experience similar sensations. Therefore, hypnosis is a completely natural state and it is something that we all go through every day of our lives.
We know we can all be hypnotised because if we have gone to sleep at night we have passed through the hypnotic state to get there.
Other Examples of Natural Hypnosis-Like States
We actually all go through several natural hypnosis-like states on a daily basis. When you become absorbed in a movie or a book you enter this natural state. Time may seem to stand still as you become completely engrossed.
Another common example is when we are on a bus or a train, or even whilst driving a car. Most of us, when driving, will occasionally get to our destination and think, “How did I get here”? Or we are at least aware that for part of our journey we were off in a world of our own and not aware of part of the trip. At some point the driving became so relaxed or easy that we started to daydream about what happened yesterday or maybe what’s coming up tomorrow and so on. The daydream becomes so involved that we drift into automatic-pilot. If you have experienced this or any of the above examples, you can be hypnotised.
So Why Get Into This Natural State of Hypnosis?
This natural state allows access to the subconscious part of our minds; the part that has very likely been uncooperative in allowing us to make the changes we wish to make. The trained therapist’s suggestions are aimed at the subconscious part of your mind – the part of your mind where habit patterns (both good and bad) have formed. When we enter hypnosis we become more receptive to life-changing, positive suggestions.
Just as examples, a person may have spent years consciously wanting to quit smoking or lose weight. Each day they may say to themselves, “today, I will stop smoking” or “today I’ll stick to my diet”. They can honestly say they want to and that they plan to. They may even get off to a good start using willpower. But after a while, they feel overcome by emotion and struggle, eventually giving in to the old habit. The problem lies in their subconscious conditioning and habit patterns. By getting into hypnosis the subconscious can be accessed and the messages, which we already desire consciously, can get to the deeper level of your mind and the change can start to take place.
You can’t be made to accept suggestions against your will or that you don’t really want.
We have to want to make the change for it to take place. You are not actually under the control of the therapist. The relationship between therapist and client involves co-operation. The therapist simply guides you into a state of relaxation and gives you the appropriate suggestions, based on the session’s mutually acceptable requirements.
If you allow yourself to relax and go along with those suggestions you’ll find you get great benefit from them.
For many years, I have had a strong interest in meditation as well as hypnosis. I view hypnosis as falling within the broader category of meditation, of which there seem to be an infinite variety of great methods. To me, hypnotherapy is a powerful and unique variety of meditation practice where a skilled therapist works co-operatively with you and your subconscious mind once you are in that state. Hypnosis is generally easier than other forms of meditation.
The therapist firstly assists you into that meditative (hypnotic) state which makes it easier to get there. This mutually induced state of deep relaxation allows the hypnotherapist to communicate with the subconscious mind. The skilled therapist offers positive suggestions and therapy (based on therapist and client agreement) to the subconscious mind to bring about the desired changes.
Self-Hypnosis
A major component of any hypnotherapy program is to teach some very simple yet extremely effective stress-control and self-hypnosis techniques. These techniques could also be classed as meditation techniques. In the long term self-hypnosis should be the goal. With self-hypnosis, we begin to gain self-control over our internal lives and thus our external experience of life. We can give ourselves suggestions (autosuggestion) and and meditate to develop the skill of being more relaxed in even very stressful situations. While we cannot possibly eliminate all potentially stressful events from our lives, we can make a huge difference in the way we experience those situations.
Tags: Hypnosis, hypnotherapy