Self Hypnosis

It may be, of course, that you have already experienced hypnosis in the past, in which case you already know what it feels like to you, and you will already be aware of the great truth, that there is no specific feeling associated with it. In fact, many people are certain that they didn’t ‘go under’ because nothing much seemed to happen.

SENSATIONS Here are some of the sensations that a person in hypnosis might experience, though few notice ALL of these:

• Extremely relaxed
• Either heavy or light, maybe ‘floaty’
• Extremely aware, with heightened senses
• There is sometimes a tingling sensation in the hands/features
• Totally free from any stress
• Other physical sensations – hands feeling large is very common

It is actually extremely likely that you will have experienced all or some of those sensations at some time (while drifting off to sleep, for example) - there is nothing there that is specifically related to hypnosis.

Later in this lesson, you will learn a simple preparation routine to practice so that when you get to the actual hypnosis part of this course, you will do it more easily and effectively. It may be that even with just this preparation routine, you experience one or two of the sensations mentioned above.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION
First, though, some important and perhaps surprising information... You actually go into hypnosis automatically many times during the day, starting with that period between sleep and wake, those few moments when you are aware that you are awake but just not doing anything about it yet. You may go into hypnosis on the journey to work, suddenly realising that you can’t remember passing a particular landmark – and this can often happen when you’re driving. But don’t worry; you’re perfectly safe because your subconscious is constantly checking to make sure that everything is safe and that you’re ok. As soon as your conscious attention is needed, then you are ‘there’ instantly.

TOTALLY FOCUSSED
You might read a magazine and realise that you haven’t taken in a single word on one particular page; or be watching TV or a film and become aware that you don’t actually know what’s going on because you’ve been daydreaming about something else. Or talking to somebody and realise that you haven’t heard a word they’ve said… The truth is that you were totally focussed all the time, just on something other than the main activity of the moment. These are all forms of hypnosis and they happen many times in the course of a day… and the last ‘session’ is between wake and sleep and you again go through a state of mind that is almost identical to hypnosis, with the accompanying relaxation.

PREPARATION ROUTINE
Now here is the preparation routine I mentioned earlier. Later, when you learn how to hypnotise yourself fully – and the first method for that will be in lesson 4 – you will find that having practiced this routine a few times first will really pay dividends. It’s best to practice it the first few times with your eyes open, so that you can read the sequence. It’s easy enough to remember after a couple of times, though:

First, make sure you are sitting quite comfortably and that you won’t be disturbed for ten minutes, at least. Some people actually find a straight-backed chair to be better than an armchair. Have both your feet flat on the floor and let your hands lie loose in your lap. Close your eyes, and imagine every single muscle in your body to be completely relaxed, or if you have difficulty in relaxing, just imagine just how it would feel if you were relaxed. Now start to steady your breathing, gradually slowing it until you are breathing so slowly and so gently, so steadily and evenly, that you almost would not disturb even a single strand of a feather placed in front of your nostrils. Don’t rush… you cannot hurry relaxation. After a little while, you will feel yourself becoming stiller and quieter and it may be that your senses seem to become more alert. You could find your mind becoming as calm as your body, or you might feel as if it is more alert than ever before. Either way, yo! u are ready.

EXITING THE ROUTINE
There are three ways you can finish the routine:

• Simply open your eyes when you feel ready
• Set a small timer/alarm for whatever length of time you wish
• Tell yourself you will open your eyes after whatever length of time you wish

Now, as I indicated earlier, some very adept people actually go into hypnosis with that simple routine, observing one or two of those sensations I mentioned earlier – and if that’s you, then you will achieve great things for yourself with this skill later on!

On your next lesson, we are going to have a look at VISUALISATION – one of the most important self-development tools you could ever develop.

Until then – keep practicing!

Session 1

soon you will be able to hypnotise yourself at will!

First, though, we’re going to consider visualisation, which is one of the most important personal development skills you could ever choose to develop. In fact, it is nearly impossible to get into hypnosis without visualisation and even more difficult to do anything worthwhile with the state if you *do* achieve it. It is actually the tool that we use, once in the state of hypnosis, to do the work that will lead to the achievement of our goals and aims.

You may have practiced visualisation in the past, or been guided through it, when you will have noticed how vivid the imagery was. It’s easier when somebody else is taking you through the process, because your imagination is more easily triggered that way. It’s the same with hypnosis – it will always be easier and more effective if somebody is guiding you through the process than if you are having to rely solely on your *own* imagination.

PICTURES IN THE MIND
Many people feel that they cannot actually visualise anything – they can’t ‘see pictures in the mind’s eye’ like other people can. Most of the time, this is not actually the case but merely a misunderstanding of what those others are actually doing – which is not seeing something like a photograph in front of them but merely being aware of a fleeting glimpse of whatever they are seeking to ‘see’.

No matter. Try this… just remember, for a moment, a journey that you made today – even if it was only from the bedroom to the kitchen. Imagine how it started and where it finishes in your mind…

Now, whatever you were doing, even it felt like just remembering, that’s what visualisation is for you.

MORE SENSES
It is important to recognise that effective visualisation can and should use more senses than just visual imagery. These other senses are all still part of our instinctive mind and the ability to imagine them at work is resident within everybody. That ability can be easily enhanced with practice. Just imagine the following:

  SMELLS           SOUNDS           TOUCH SENSATIONS
     Coffee           Dog Barking        Animal Fur/Hair
     Garlic           Breaking Glass     Sandpaper
     Bad Eggs           Car Crash          Oil/Grease
     Roses               Aeroplane          Cloth
     Petrol           Laughter           Newspaper
     Newly Cut Grass     Pop Music          String

You may not be able to ‘get’ all of these, but you should be able to imagine most of them. Once you have learned the knack you will soon be able to imagine any smell you have ever experienced, any sound you have ever heard, any texture you have ever felt. If you have truly neglected your imaginative senses, it may be necessary for you to ‘tune’ them by physical practice, that is, smell things, feel things and listen to things – and think about them.

ENHANCING ABILITY
Now here is another useful practice routine that will allow you to get the best out of your new skill, which you will discover in the next lesson – and it will be a lost easier if you have enhanced your creative imagination

To begin the work, find yourself a comfortable place to sit, where you can be undisturbed for the duration. Twenty minutes or so is sufficient for most people, though some like to take longer, especially at the beginning. During this time, lay to one side any non-urgent problems that you know have to be dealt with later in the day. This is easy, if you recognise a few points.

1.     The problem is transient, as all problems are.
2.     You could not change it any way even if you did keep it in your mind during this short time.
3.     You will be able to deal with it more easily and efficiently afterwards as a result of the mental imagery work that you are about to do.

Many people find it an easy matter to visualise a box in which they place all their mental and emotional ‘rubbish’ to keep it safe for a short while so that they can use all their energies in the most efficient manner possible.

Now go through the preparation routine given in the last lesson and when you are ready, just allow yourself to recall some ordinary event that has happened during the last day or two. Now do this:

* Remember how it FELT
* Remember how it LOOKED
* Remember how it SOUNDED
* Remember how it SMELT

When you get it right, you will be aware that the memory becomes more detailed and more vivid…in fact we often we refer to a ‘VMI’ – Vivid Mental Image. The VMI, especially when used with hypnosis, provides a vital edge when it comes to creating personal success.

Session 2

So here we are at the lesson where you learn to actually hypnotise yourself properly!

You should by now have had a fair bit of success with the preparation routine and the practice at visualisation; if you’ve not done very much with them yet, it’d be a good idea to delay working with the material in this lesson until you’re confident and comfortable with those first two processes.

THREE ROUTINES
I’m going to show you three excellent and simple ways to get into the state of hypnosis – although you need to remember two very important things:

* It doesn’t have any specific feeling associated with it, though you might notice one or two of the ‘signs’ that I mentioned in a previous email.
* If you keep on testing it, it tends to not work! Just trust that you will go as far into hypnosis as you are able to at this time.

Begin each method by preparing yourself as you have already learnt.

METHOD ONE
This is probably the easiest. Just remember a great holiday that you have had at some time in the past – or maybe just a day that was special for some reason. Notice exactly how the memory starts; create that Vivid Mental Image (VMI) and store that memory/thought somewhere in your mind – we will use it later for the third method – the ‘trigger’ method. Now bring the four senses to bear as you did in the visualisation practice – What you can SEE, what you can FEEL, what you can HEAR and what you can SMELL. You can also use TASTE if it is relevant.

Make everything vivid in your mind and keep focussed until it is almost as you can actually experience one or more of those four senses – this will often be the visual sense and it can seems as if you’re looking out through your closed eyelids. Don’t worry if you can’t get quite that far with it yet; like all skills, it takes practice to get the best out of it and it is important that you *allow* it to happen rather than seek to *make* it happen.

METHOD TWO
With your eyes closed, imagine, really imagine that you are breathing in through your hands... that your fingers are like hollow tubes and you can actually FEEL the air moving up through your arms and into your shoulders, down through your body and into your legs, and out through your feet.

Concentrate for a moment or two on that sensation in the fingers and, if you can, create an image of how they would look if they *were* hollow tubes – they can be brass, wood, paper, silver… any material that seems to work for you. You’ll be using this image later, in the third method.

Tell yourself that as the air moves in one single direction through your body, you are breathing calmness in to each and every cell, each and every fibre of your entire being... that with each breath out, you are breathing all traces of tension away from you. Let each muscle go limp. As you breathe out each time, say to yourself slowly: “R-e-l-a-a-x n-o-w.” Keep each breath long, slow and steady, and after six or so imagine that you can feel yourself floating further and further down into the chair with each breath you breathe, that you are steadily becoming more relaxed than you can ever remember. Concentrate on this breathing pattern, breathing in through your hands and out through your feet, until you can actually FEEL yourself floating downwards (although some people experience an upward floating sensation – every bit as good ‘quality’ of hypnosis); when you experience this, you are in hypnosis, even though the floating sensation can sometimes be almost immediately repl!
aced with a feeling of extreme lightness.

METHOD THREE
Now you can learn about the ‘trigger’ method of getting into hypnosis, though it really only works after you have achieved some success with either of the two above methods first. The advantage of this method is that it is very quick and allows you more time to some actual work on yourself during the session – we’ll cover that on Lesson 5.

To use the trigger method is extremely simple; you will already have one or both of the ‘VMI’ images from the first two methods. Always perform the preparation routine (which gets easier and faster as you practice more and more) then, once you’re settled, just bring the VMI into you mind and hold it there as you ALLOW yourself to drift into hypnosis. Some people feel that they ‘drop’ into hypnosis. It really is that easy!

Finish the session by counting up from 1 - 5 when you are ready to do so, telling yourself that you will be wide awake, alert and feeling GOOD on 5, when you can open your eyes. It works!