How does hypnosis work?

Our thinking has a profound effect on how we feel, our health, and  our success in our business and personal lives.  Often we have conflicting desires and goals. Long-term we want to be fit, healthy, and a healthy weight. In the short-term, that double fudge Sunday is calling your name. Mere willpower often falls short—especially when you are tired, stressed, or depressed.

During most of our activities our brains are at a beta level of high alertness. Beta is best for responding quickly, multitasking, and getting things done. Stress and anxiety can keep us stuck in beta. Hypnosis slows us down to a relaxed, receptive beta state, which is best for conceptual thinking, creative thinking, tapping your unconscious mind, relaxing, and renewing your energy.

It also is the ideal state for sports such as golf and tennis and performing or listening to music. At the alpha level, your conscious mind takes a rest and lets your unconscious mind use its talents. You could meditate to achieve an alpha state. Most Westerners  acknowledge that meditating is a good thing—but don’t do it.

Hypnotherapy helps us reinterpret what things mean. In the Jimmie Stewart movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey is ready to take his own life until a conversation with a bumbling angel. That conversation prompts him to redefine himself from failure to a person who touches many lives and makes the world a better place. Nothing had changed and yet everything had changed.

Hypnotherapy uses images and metaphors to help you recast your thinking and beliefs and develop a compelling image of the outcomes you want. And hypnotherapy does this without pills or lengthy, expensive psychotherapy. It is the most relaxing, enjoyable self improvement method of all. Some hypnotists use several sessions to reinforce suggestions. Some record a session so you can listen to the CD or tape daily until you achieve the results you want. 

Hypnosis evolved from a medical model in which an all-powerful doctor was in charge and gave commands. If you believed the doctor was all-powerful, even irresistible, there was a good chance you would believe your mind had been changed. These days, most people no longer see a doctor or hypnotist as all-powerful. People decide for themselves what they want to accept. Consumers want to be in control and want hypnosis to be self hypnosis.

How to choose from among several types of hypnosis?

There are several ways to use hypnosis--each has its advantages:

• Individual sessions with a hypnotist
  • Advantage--maximum individual attention and customization
  • Disadvantage--the most expensive, requires travel
• An individual session that is recorded so you can listen the the suggestions again and again
  • Advantage--individual attention and customization
  • Disadvantage--less individual attention, may require travel
• Group hypnosis sessions
  • Advantage--group synergy, cost efficient
  • Disadvantage--requires travel (unless done where you work)
• A generic CD or tape
  • Advantage--inexpensive, good for relaxing, production quality may be especially high
  • Disadvantage--only relaxation suggestions unless you add your own
• A CD or tape addressing a specific issue, e.g., weight loss, smoking cessation, anti-aging
  • Advantage--well thought out suggestions, inexpensive
  • Disadvantage--suggestions are not customized to your unique motivations

Other Considerations

All self hypnosis CDs and tapes help with relaxation. The ideal hypnosis CD or tape is one in which a skilled hypnotist with strong clinical skills, e.g., a psychologist or psychiatrist, takes a comprehensive history to learn your unique motivations and how you make changes. The hypnotist then records suggestions tailored to your individual needs and style. You can play the CD again and again to reinforce the ideas until you experience the change you are seeking.

While more expensive than an off the shelf tape, it is less expensive than psychotherapy or a series of hypnotherapy sessions. You can play the CD again and again until you achieve the results you want. You can also play it once a month as a “booster shot” to make sure your life stays on track and to inspire you to continue your personal growth journey.

Our unconscious minds have difficulty with negatives. If I say, don't think of a pink elephant, your mind creates the image or thought of that cute pink elephant and then tries to erase it. Not good. All suggestions should be stated in positive terms. For example, a suggestion that you will not want a cigarette actually stimulates the desire or a cigarette. If you are hearing negative suggestions, look elsewhere.

With self hypnosis, you find you become more and more skillful at achieving a trance and can eventually achieve the trance without the CD or tape. You can even find that a step or two of the induction can be a shortcut to achieving the trance.

Am I going to squawk like a chicken or take off my clothes?

It is highly unlikely that any generic or tailor made tape is going to ask you to do anything unethical or stupid. Professional hypnotists who are licensed professionals (e.g., psychologists, psychiatrists) have a strict code of ethics. Stage hypnotists typically scout their audiences for people who want to be the center of attention and didn’t make the cut for the Jerry Springer’s show.

Easy and inexpensive

Hypnosis tapes and CDs are easy to find, relatively inexpensive, and can serve double duty of helping you relax or drift off to sleep  while you simultaneously absorb suggestions to improve your life. Self hypnosis tapes are like having a superb hypnosis session and being able to repeat it again and again, anytime you want, at your convenience. The Reverse Aging: Hypnotic Journeys to Ageless Lifestyles CDs have the additional advantage of helping you develop Attitudes, Beliefs, and Coping Skills that foster living longer, healthier, and happier.

 Ageless Lifestyles Institute
 865 College Ave., Columbus, OH 43209
 DrBrickey@DrBrickey.com                                                                                                                                                           

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