Self hypnosis is simple. You’ve already done it many, many times.

Here’s a story I heard recently of a woman who self hypnotized herself into being anxious. I’ll call her Melissa. While your anxiety may not be the same as Melissa’s, perhaps you’ll see some of yourself in her.

The college Melissa attended held a “best dressed” competition. Melissa won when she was a freshman and was now in competition with the sophomores, juniors and senior girls. She had to pose on stage and answer a few questions. As she was leaving the stage, she tripped and fell. Everyone in the audience stood up to see if she was hurt. Melissa was humiliated and ever since then has been afraid of being in front of an audience.

Now think about this for just a moment. What actually happened in reality is that Melissa fell down the stairs and the audience stood up to see if she was hurt. That’s all that happened.

However, that’s not what Melissa self hypnotized herself into believing. What she hypnotized herself into believing is that, because she was “humiliated,” she would never again allow that to happen in front of an audience. She put herself into a hypnotic trance by repeating this vow over and over.

But “humiliation” never happened in reality. That’s just the “post hypnotic suggestion” Melissa used to keep herself fearful of giving a speech. Every time she gets up to speak, she replays this experience in her head, puts herself back in that trance and becomes anxious.

Perhaps you don’t remember an incident from your past that triggers your anxiety. It doesn’t matter. The important thing to know is that something happened and you made it mean “I’m not good enough” or “I’ll never get it right” or “This is hard.”

So self-hypnosis is simple. Here are the steps to take to overcome your anxiety:

1. Close your eyes and, as you breath in and out, say the word “relax” to yourself.”

2. Imagine a situation in which you’re anxious like taking a test or giving a speech. See yourself doing that activity. Be descriptive without adding any emotion or interpretation. For example, if you see yourself about to give a speech, simply see yourself standing in front of people. Visualize yourself, the room and the people in the audience.

3. Now say to yourself something like, ” I’m powerful and dynamic.” “Public speaking is easy and effortless.” “I’m joyful when I speak to an audience.” Keep repeating that phrase over and over. Do this for at least 5 minutes.

4. Open your eyes slowly and gently and return to wakefulness.

The key is to repeat that word or phrase over and over. That’s how you self hypnotized yourself into being anxious in the first place. You’ve hypnotized yourself so thoroughly that you no longer even notice that you’re hypnotized. In a sense, you’ve hypnotized yourself through practice, practice and more practice.

So it will take repeated practice of replacing your negative self talk with positive talk. In a sense, you’ll be hypnotizing yourself from one hypnotic trance that produces anxiety to another hypnotic trance that serves you.

But you must keep practicing. In so doing, you’re creating new connections in your brain that will produce new thoughts and feelings.

I’ve been a hypnotherapist since 1997.

My fascination with hypnosis began when I attended a 3-hour lecture on a Sunday evening at a YMCA. There were about 100 people in attendance. The speaker did a relaxation exercise and concluded with the suggestion that “You will be amazed by how well this week goes for you.” I forgot the suggestion until Wednesday of that week when I caught myself marveling at how well the week had gone. Projects that I had been struggling to complete were finished easily. People who had been difficult had suddenly turned cooperative. I was hooked.

I have used hypnotherapy to help people stop smoking, lose weight and relax. As a training and development consultant, I also use it in my training classes to help participants overcome obstacles to effective performance.

Learn more at http://www.selfhypnosissecrets.org