To begin with, you will need to make sure that you will not be disturbed for at least half and hour, preferably an hour. Turn off phones, and tell family and friends not to bother you for a while. Find a comfortable place. Somewhere that is neat and tidy, and of a comfortable temperature. Subdue the lighting if this helps you. If you wish, you could light some candles and burn some incense. You can be seated, or lie down – whichever is most comfortable for you. Importantly make sure that your legs are not crossed, as you could end up going numb after half an hour!

• Close your eyes and take 10 slow deep breaths – in through the nose, and out through the mouth. Say to yourself the word ‘Relax’ on each out breath.

• Now imagine yourself at the top of 10 steps, with a door at the bottom. With every slow step you take down, feel yourself becoming deeper and deeper relaxed.

• When you get to the bottom open the door to your ideal place of relaxation. It could be a beach, a garden, anywhere. It could be somewhere real, or imagined.

• Try to use as many senses as you can. Take a good look around. Pause and listen to any sounds. Perhaps you can hear the call of a bird, or the breeze gently blowing. Perhaps you can smell the sweet scent of flowers, or the salt in the sea? Touch objects, and make it as real as you possibly can.

• Explore your relaxing haven, and enjoy it for as long as you wish.

This is a great technique to help relaxation, and your ability to relax will improve the more you do this. Most of us do not relax anywhere near enough, and it damages our health in many ways. Stress weakens our immune systems, causes irritability, anxiety, and unhappiness. Even if you just do relaxation work, you will massively improve your overall health in almost every area. If you are struggling with this technique, then persevere. Getting into a hypnotic state is a skill that will improve over time. Don’t expect too much, you will probably still be aware of what is going on around you. It may be worthwhile visiting a clinical hypnotherapist, or buying a recording at least once, in order to experience the feeling of a trance. When you have experienced a trance a few times, you will be more informed as to what state of mind you are seeking.

You can also take this self hypnosis a little further if you wish. You can learn to give yourself specific therapy the more you practice. Here are a few techniques you can use after you have reached number 5.

What the mind imagines, it believes has really happened. If you imagine something bad happening to you, you will feel the emotions as if it is really happening. Success breeds success, so if you visualise yourself achieving something, then it will help you to do just that. You may wish to visualise yourself slimmer, healthier or wealthier for example. Or you may wish to visualise yourself having achieved something, such as a promotion or a new job. Make the image as real as you can, use all of your senses, and do this as often as you can.

You are only limited by your imagination. In fact you should notice that your creative powers increase the more that you use self hypnosis, as your mind becomes more accustomed to utilizing its creative powers. Stick with it. What I sometimes find is that people will stop using hypnosis once they have made the necessary improvements that they wished to make. However this may enetually deny the overall benefits of the increased relaxation, as things may slowly slip back to where they started. Set a specific time to do it, even if it is only once a week. If you have specific issues that you wish to deal with, then increase this accordingly, perhaps every day for a few weeks.

I hope me sharing this technique with you will help some of you to improve your mental and physical wellbeing, and realise what a useful tool for change hypnosis is. I genuinely want to help as many people as possible to live long, healthy and happy lives. I hope this contributes in some way. Please feel free to contact me to share your success stories, or for further advice.

Author Bio

Jon Rhodes is one of the UK’s leading clinical hypnotherapists. Please click here for more information on his online hypnosis sessions, and here for a mega store of hypnosis downloads.

If you have thought about “trying” a hypnosis session to change a habit or behavior, now is the time. You can’t get hurt, it doesn’t cost anything and there are no medications to take. There are several things that you will need to get started. Scripts for hypnosis are a necessity and should be considered before the first session.

If you are going to have a session offered by a qualified hypnotherapist or you are going to practice self hypnosis, you still need words or key phrases to help guide you through the session and towards your goal. The scripts can be generalized for the particular habit or issue but they should always be personalized for the subject/you.

This natural process, hypnosis, is something that many of us do more often than we might think. Hypnosis takes place in a certain state of relaxation; it is sometimes called a state that is somewhere between when you are awake and when you are asleep. Actually, you are quite awake it is just that during a hypnosis session, you are so focused on the scripts that you do not realize what is occurring around you.

When one is in a hypnotic state, they are still conscious and can, if necessary, be alert and ready to deal with any situation if necessary. When being hypnotized by a hypnotherapist, the hypnotherapist is stating the scripts and if there is a problem, they will assist you with that issue. When using the processes of self-hypnosis, you are able to “pull” yourself from the relaxation state at any given moment.

The scripts for hypnosis that should be used should always be in the present tense. For self-hypnosis purposes, the scripts should always include “I” because you are stating what you want to accomplish. If you decide to record your scripts and listen to them at a later time, then when recording rather than using “I”, you should use the word “you” because now you are listening rather than verbalizing the scripts.

Unique prerecorded scripts can be used or, as noted earlier, you can create your own. You must be careful in the scripts for hypnosis that you write. The scripts must be descriptive and powerful. The wording should not reflect into the past but the present and the future. The phrases should be able to invoke images that communicate to the subconscious what is needed to be done and what will happen once the required steps have been taken.

Without scripts for hypnosis, there is no hypnosis session. Yes, you can be very relaxed and have very calming music or relaxing sounds playing in the background but the words are the director and your mind is the actor. Spoken smoothly and somewhat slowly allows the mind to listen and comprehend what it is being told. The images that are created by the scripts allow the mind to understand more clearly and is more willing to follow the suggestions.

Clear and concise, powerful and directive should be your scripts for hypnosis. Once your mind is willing and you can be in a relaxed state to truly listen, and only listen, to the words that are spoken your hypnosis session will be positive and successful.

Author Bio

Chad J. Livingstone provides expert self-hypnosis information. For more information on Scripts for Hypnosis, visit http://www.thebestselfhypnosis.com.

In today’s hectic, metric oriented world it is becoming increasingly difficult to disengage from the daily demands on modern life to find and take the time to look within and find and develop our true potential. Our lives seem to be run by schedules. We must rise in time to get ready for work, get the kids off to school, commute to work, spend eight or more hours on the job, return home, help with chores, homework, dinner, maybe relax and watch TV and then go to bed and hopefully sleep well. Then the next day is the same and the pattern just continues to the point that we lose the connection with our inner self. In essence, we only use ten percent of our mind’s potential on a daily basis. The rest is used by our subconscious mind to tend to our autonomic needs. However, if we can tap into our subconscious mind we can actually unlock hidden potential in our inner self. Self hypnosis is the key to unlocking that potential that we can use it to improve various facets of our lives. The results could change our outlook on life in general and approach to events and factors in our daily lives such as habits, relationships, phobias, self confidence, stress, quality of sleep, etc.

So here you are in this endless cycle, much like a hamster in a cage running on its wheel. In order to start to work on discovering your potential, you must get off the wheel and make time for oneself on a daily basis to relax and break out of the daily chaos for a period of time where you can be peaceful, calm and relaxed, so achieving a self hypnotic state is possible. For most people this will be a huge challenge. It is easier said than done. If you want some quiet and mental peace of mind in your life you must create the time and find a place. As I have told many a friend and client, “You need to learn to take care of #1 first before you can help anyone else.”

To learn self hypnosis, there are many fine books, tapes and MP3’s available. You could also contact a local hypnotherapist to help train you. Personally, I used all four sources at one point in time or another. My current technique is a blend of a method on an old LP record I recorded to MP3 and the method taught by a hypnotherapist. The technique you finally choose is a deeply personal choice. No one has a monopoly on the “best” technique. Keep in mind that self hypnosis is an altered state of mind that you experience naturally everyday of your life, when you day dream, before and after entering the sleep stage and even when you drive. The benefits that can be gained from a disciplined program of self hypnosis cover a wide range. I must point out that self hypnosis, in and of itself, will not automatically achieve these benefits. You must truly want to succeed and accept the hypnotic suggestions. I have listed out some of the more common uses of self hypnosis.

1. Relaxation and Stress Relief. You can reduce or totally eliminate your stress level with self hypnosis. Relaxation is a natural by-product of self hypnosis. This is the easiest advantage or benefit to achieve from a self hypnosis program.
2. Build Confidence. With self hypnosis you can use the imaginative power of your mind to visualize in situations where you currently lack confidence and seeing yourself being successful in those situations, such as public speaking or making a presentation. Having a positive experience subconsciously will help bolster your confidence in real life situations.
3. Altering or Removing Behaviors. Many people have certain behaviors that they would like to change or eliminate. Since many of these behaviors are spontaneous or automatic in nature, Self hypnosis is an excellent tool to make suggestions directly to the subconscious mind to alter or eliminate the behavior.
4. Weight Loss. This is another very common use for self hypnosis and is very popular on commercial tapes and MP3 recordings. Being overweight is reaching epidemic proportions and self hypnosis can leverage the power of the subconscious mind to help one loss weight.
5. Quit Smoking. I quit smoking 30 years ago using self hypnosis without any weight gain. I have not smoked since. There are many self hypnosis recordings on the market to help anyone who is serious about quitting smoking.
6. Removing Negativity. Besides stress, negativity, in my opinion, is the most serious flaw in our self image and our subconscious mind’s belief system about things in the world in general. If you think you can’t do something, you will not succeed. How easy is it to agree with the negative opinions of others? How do your negative attitudes, thoughts and feelings impact your relationships with family, friends and co-workers? This negatively does damage your quality of life. The first step is to recognize your negativities and then use self hypnosis to reprogram your subconscious mind to eliminate the negative beliefs and replace them with positive ones.
7. General Life Improvement. Self hypnosis is a great tool to use for self improvement and a healthier life in many areas such as memory enhancement, increased energy, better sleep, pain relief, decreased blood pressure and a better outlook on life just to name a few.

In summation, self hypnosis is a very powerful tool that is not difficult to learn and to use. The benefits are definitely worth the time and effort to learn and practice the self hypnotic technique that works best for you. You just need to make the commitment to yourself and set aside some time during your busy day for #1. Self hypnosis can help you reach your full potential. In addition, self hypnosis is relatively inexpensive compared to traditional treatments. Please visit UsingSelfHypnosis.com for more information on using self hypnosis.

Chris Hurley
UsingSelfHypnosis.com.