Why Are These Benefits Of Self Hypnosis Neglected?

By Anthony F Machado  

The benefits of self hypnosis are virtually endless. Each individual is unique and responds differently under hypnosis. Therefore, the benefits of self hypnosis reaped by an individual may vary. It also depends upon what results you want to achieve from hypnosis and how far do you want to go.

Over the years I have made use of self hypnosis to enhance my memory, lose weight, achieve goals and build self confidence.

I would like to point out that self hypnosis is not a magic pill. The changes you are expecting won't happen overnight. But, it surely does make change easy and enjoyable. It is like a supporting tool to help you make desired changes in your life.

In sports, a coach helps you to improve your game. But, if you don't put in the effort and practice, even the best coach in the world can't help you. At the end, you have to make it a point to work at your game to be a better athlete. You have to form certain habits and develop certain attitudes in order to become a better sportsperson.

In the same manner, all self hypnosis does is it guides you to form certain beliefs, attitudes, habits and behaviors that will cause effective changes at a subconscious level. Which further will lead to the desired results you want to achieve.

Development and formation of supportive beliefs and behaviors that will lead to desired changes are the most fundamental benefits of self hypnosis.

Let's then look at the core benefits of self hypnosis:

Relaxation and Stress Management

Whether you believe self hypnosis works or doesn't work for you. You will surely enjoy being relaxed when you are under trance. If there is any tangible benefit you can derive from hypnosis, it is relaxation. When you are under hypnosis, your mind and body are completely relaxed. Relaxation in itself is very beneficial to prevent stress related illnesses we face in today's world.

When you are relaxed under hypnosis

- your heart begins to rest and slows down to its natural rhythm.

- blood pressure decreases.

- there is sufficient supply of blood to all you muscles and organs.

- breathing slows down reducing your need for oxygen.

All of the above later leads to effective stress and anxiety management, improved creativity, a sense of calm and better focus. The brain also causes a release of endorphins in your body which leads to a sense of well being and happiness.

Depression

In most cases, depression is a learnt behaviour. There are only a minority of people whose genetic make up might make them an easy prey of depression. You can catch cold and flu but you don't catch depression. It takes effort on your part to get depressed. You must think depressive thoughts consistently to feel depressed. People suffering from depression talk depressed, act depressed and behave in ways which will support their depression.

Research has concluded that constant depressive thoughts and behaviours leads to certain changes in the nervous system of the brain. This, later, leads to physical symptoms like headaches, body aches and ulcers. In extreme cases of chronic depression, it may even lead to suicidal tendencies and mental disorders.

One of the benefits of self hypnosis is that it helps you to unlearn thought patterns and habits that lead to depression and keep it off. It helps you to change your outlook in life from feeling depressive to feeling impressive.

Habits Formation

Habits are learnt behaviours. You as a human being are a creature of habit. Majority of your life is run by the habits you have formed. Habits let you carry on with your life with the least amount of conscious effort on your brain's part.

Just imagine if you had no habits and everything you did was new to you. You would end up exhausting a lot of your mental and physical energy consciously performing everyday tasks. This would be time consuming and exhausting.

For eg. Driving to work. How would you negotiate traffic if everyday was like the first day when you started to learn driving?

Habit formation is a very crucial benefit of self hypnosis. With the use of self hypnosis you can learn good habits and unlearn bad ones.

Smoking, nail biting, bed wetting, eating disorders are among the common bad habits that can be overcome with self hypnosis.

Phobias and Fears

The brain cannot distinguish between real events or imagined ones. A phobia or a fear is an irrational imagined threat to oneself. All fears are embedded inside the amygdala in the brain. As infants you are born with only two types of fear. Namely, they are fear of heights and fear of loud noise. All other types of fears are learnt as you grow older. They are nothing but your brain's response to protect you. Behind all fears there is a positive intent of your brain to protect and safeguard you.

Eradicating irrational fears and learning to effectively deal with phobias are one of the most sought after benefits of self hypnosis.

Overcoming Addictions

Another benefit of self hypnosis is overcoming addictions. Although, self hypnosis in itself isn't enough to overcome addictions. In conjunction with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), addictions are said to have been overcome with ease and kept off permanently.

Addictions are dependence on external stimuli, substance or a practice which cannot be stopped with one's choice. This is also the difference between habits and addictions. Unlike habits you cannot control addictions unless you take proper professional help.

Common forms of addictions include alcoholism, drugs, gambling, sex, smoking etc.

Performance Enhancement

Your success or failure mostly depends upon the beliefs you form in your mind. To improve your chances of success in whatever field you choose, you must have strong supporting beliefs.

Whether you want to improve your game, be a better salesperson, better athlete, better speaker, lose or gain weight or anything that you want to improve on. You have to first start off with a belief that it is possible and you can achieve it. But, most of the time, it is not as easy as it sounds. Due to past conditioning, disappointments, unfavourable environment and unpleasant experiences in life we set limitations around what we are capable of and what we are not. Mostly, these limitations are set by our inner critic or conscious mind. In self hypnosis, you straight away bypass the conscious mind and deal with that part of your subconscious mind which is capable of making our goals come true.

With self hypnosis you can overcome these psychological limitations or self sabotages and go full out and achieve those goals.

The above six are the core benefits of self hypnosis. There are many more benefits of self hypnosis but they are more or less connected to the above benefits. If I have to sum up all of the six benefits into one I would say that the main purpose of all hypnosis is self improvement. Time spent on self improvement leads to a greater sense of well being and happiness.

Anthony likes to explore and learn new ways of harnessing the boundless potentials of the mind. He likes to share about the importance and benefits of self hypnosis in our lives. For more information on self hypnosis visit his website www.empower-with-self-hypnosis.com [http://www.empower-with-self-hypnosis.com/].

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Anthony_F_Machado/403643

Real Self-Hypnosis Explained By A Hypnotherapist And How It Differs From Self-Hypnosis Downloads

By Joanna Malinowska

Real self-hypnosis is when you enter the hypnotic state by yourself and you use it to achieve your own goals. Real self-hypnosis is when you are your own therapist, it is when you are deep in a trance and you use it the way you want to use it. It is completely different from the passive listening to a self-hypnosis CD, when you let someone else's voice lead you.

Real, active self-hypnosis may be compared to surfing a wave - you catch the wave and you ride it, and you steer your own board. You use the wave and its power, and you are on top of it. First you learn how to catch a wave, and then you can learn how to ride it better and better. In this same way you can learn to enter the hypnotic state first, and then learn the techniques to use your mind to its fullness and enjoy its power.

What is a hypnotic state? What is hypnosis itself?

Hypnosis is a natural state of mind. I am sure that you have been in hypnosis many times without knowing it. This is when you are focused on something so strongly that nothing else exists. For example, most people go into a trance when they dance: the focus is on the music and on the dance itself and it all flows. Try to dance when you are in a normal state, conscious of your body and your steps - it feels awkward, you miss the steps and your body is stiff.

The essence of hypnosis is the intense concentration on the chosen subject and the exclusion of everything else. It is like a beam of light which allows you to access the resources of your mind that are normally hidden in the dark. All that you need to learn is to catch this beam of light and use it to activate the part of your mind that you want to activate. When you learn how to do it yourself, you've learned real self-hypnosis.

How can you learn real self-hypnosis?

There are many ways to learn self-hypnosis, and there are many schools and many books written. With some approaches, especially when learned from books or by meditation, it can take years to master.

The best way to learn self-hypnosis is from within the hypnotic state. The experienced hypnotherapist can teach you the basic self-hypnosis technique in just one session. When you are in a deep hypnotic state, you are given suggestions how to do it yourself. Then you do it under the guidance of the hypnotherapist, to make sure you understand every step.

Once you learn how to enter the hypnotic state and stay there by yourself, you can learn more advanced techniques: first how to give yourself suggestions, then more advanced techniques like pain control, self-healing, techniques for studying, awareness-raising techniques and much more. Self-hypnosis is one of the best coaching tools as it allows you to train and rehearse in the hypnotic state, mastering the skills to perfection.

What are the limitations of self-hypnosis?

Sometimes a problem may be too complex to be solved in the self mode. If the problem affects you on a high level and causes strong personal distress, it is better to seek professional help. When you are deeply depressed, in trauma, in crisis, or in the power of a destructive habit, you need outside professional help which combines counselling with personalised therapy.

You need to also be cautious when healing the medical condition or removing pain and any physical symptoms. It is important that you do it under medical supervision and you tell your doctor if you have removed the symptoms.

How real hypnosis differs from listening to self-hypnosis audio?

There are many self-hypnosis CDs, some of them just teaching how to relax, and some claiming help and instant fixes in many areas, including lifelong phobias and past life regression. The relaxing, general wellbeing hypnosis CDs may be very beneficial, and if you enjoy them, keep enjoying. However, if listening to them becomes a chore and is boring, perhaps you should listen to some nice music because you will relax more when you enjoy what you hear.

When you listen to a self-hypnosis CD, you simply relax and let someone else's voice lead you. In most cases you just listen to someone's suggestions, and, yes, you learn to relax, and sometimes it even helps you deal with the particular issue it promises to help. There are many sophisticated self-hypnosis recordings that can put you deep into a trance - you can experience a great ride on the top of the wave - but it is not self-hypnosis, you are riding in somebody else's boat, you are given somebody else's solutions.

Sometimes, listening to a hypnotic CD may be dangerous. You need to know the limitations of self-hypnosis before you start listening to the self-hypnosis CD, especially the more sophisticated ones which may put you in a deep trance. If you are in a trauma, if you are experiencing strong depression or anxiety, and especially if you have any form of psychosis, a deep trance may be dangerous and can create strong distress.

The essential difference between real self-hypnosis and listening to a hypnosis CD is the active role which you take in real self-hypnosis. You enter the hypnotic state by yourself; you use it your own way, accessing your own unique resources the way it best works for you. The experience is very empowering itself, boosts self-confidence and enlightens. Real self-hypnosis simply works and it is very powerful because you know yourself best, you can create the powerful suggestions, you will use your own words which work for you, or you can even skip the words and just use your imagination - you can feel the suggestions instead of saying them.

Real, active self-hypnosis is the most empowering self-help method available. Every self-help method is based on self-hypnosis; every self-help method teaches how to use the power of the mind or uses suggestion to achieve goals; every self-healing method is based on self-hypnosis. When using real self-hypnosis, you can learn to access every aspect of your mind, you can use your mind to connect with your body and to heal it, you can access the troubling emotions and fears and clear them, and you can access the spiritual parts of your mind and expand your awareness.

Joanna Malinowska is a professional hypnotherapist and a self-hypnosis teacher. Joanna teaches self-hypnosis in private sessions and small self-hypnosis workshops. Joanna teaches an instant self-hypnosis method and advanced self-hypnosis techniques for relaxation, confidence, public speaking, study & exams, business & sport, healing and more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Joanna_Malinowska/729123

Why I Love Hypnosis

By Roseanna Leaton  

Hypnosis is the most fantastic facilitator to the human mind and hence to human potential. The key to success is in your own mind and hypnosis is the state which will unlock it. This is why I love hypnosis.

To not use hypnosis is like having a beautiful airplane, complete with pilot and staff at your disposal, unlimited money for fuel, permission to land anywhere in the world, but to not have the ability to pass on your instructions to these people. I was going to use the analogy of having a train with no engine, but this would be wrong. The engine is there, in full working order; it's just a lack of communication, or confused communication which prevents the train from steaming off along the tracks or the plane charging down the runway and soaring into the air.

How you think is critical to success or failure in life. How you think is critical to how happy you are. How you think is even reflected in your physical health and well being. Your reality is only real because you perceive it as such. It is your own perceptions, and your own interpretation of these perceptions, which create your reality.

You and I, at this moment in time, are living different realities. Even if we were in the same room, watching the exact same television program, sitting on the same sofa, we would be experiencing different realities. You could be having a great time, feeling comfortable on the sofa, laughing at what is playing on the television. I, on the other hand, might be experiencing discomfort; I might be finding the sofa to be lumpy, my back sore, my teeth hurting and the program anything but hilarious! I could even not be paying attention to what is going on now and instead be "lost in thought", perhaps day-dreaming. I could be mulling over something which happened 20 years ago or projecting into the future and imagining something.

But whether your thoughts are focused in the present, the past or the future, each thought creates a feeling, a sensation, a good or a bad feeling, and these feelings are real. Your thoughts create your reality. We all know this to be true, so why do so few of us take the time to choose our thoughts more carefully? I fear that the answer to this is that most people do not know HOW to change their thoughts. And so I am on a mission to enlighten people to the empowering and facilitating effect of hypnosis.

Hypnosis is a normal and natural state of mind. It is the state between wake and sleep. As you drift off to sleep your brain waves change from the beta waves of normal waking consciousness to the alpha-theta waves of relaxation and sleep. The same shift in brain wave activity is seen in hypnosis. When you dream each night, in the REM state, your brain carries out the task of conflict resolution. This happens each and every night and is vital to our health and well being. Hypnosis facilitates conflict resolution - conflict between what you think you should do and what you want to do, or between what you want to do but do not believe you could do, and so on.

Hypnosis allows access to your subconscious mind, to your underlying beliefs and expectations. Thus the state of hypnosis facilitates change within your inner mind. With hypnosis you can change limiting beliefs, and you can also install new and empowering beliefs. You can get the right and left sides of your brain communicating smoothly, you can get your will power and your imagination aligned. With hypnosis you can set your mind to achieve anything you want. You can unlock your talent and creativity and allow yourself to be open to inspiration, happiness and success.

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy are regularly associated with hypnosis weight loss, stop smoking hypnosis or stop nail biting. But these are just three applications of the empowering ability of hypnosis. You will see from the myriad titles of hypnosis downloads on my website the wide-spread application of hypnosis in your life. What I really love about hypnosis is its unlimited potential; it's power to change the world, to change YOUR world, YOUR reality, YOUR health and well-being. It really is amazing what listening to hypnosis downloads can lead to. Why not get your plane off the ground with the help of hypnosis downloads?

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis downloads for success, health and well-being.

With a degree in psychology and qualifications in hypnotherapy, NLP and sports psychology, Roseanna Leaton is one of the leading practitioners of self-improvement. You can get a free hypnosis download from http://www.RoseannaLeaton.com and peruse her extensive library of hypnosis downloads for motivation, self improvement and success.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Roseanna_Leaton/230864