The Benefits of a Self Hypnosis Program

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.

What Is Gastric Band Hypnotherapy?

Over the course of the last decade or so the gastric band (also known as a lap band) has become an increasingly popular surgical procedure for those who wish to lose weight. A band is fitted around the stomach and inflated so that the stomach capacity is greatly reduced. This means the patient eats less food which results in weight loss that is both quick and lasting.

However gastric band surgery is not without risks. There is always the inherent risk with any surgery of something going wrong, but there are also some issues that the gastric band can specifically cause. This includes a slipped band (which can result in the stomach capacity either decreasing too much or not enough), acid reflux, nausea, sickness, diarrhea, regurgitation, blockages as well as other problems. So while the results are undoubtedly impressive there are definitely hidden dangers. But wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to replicate the success of the gastric band without any of the risks?

Well, in fact there is a way. Recently hypnotherapists have had great success replicating the gastric band procedure purely with hypnotic suggestions. No scalpels, anesthetic or scars - just pure power of the mind. Due to its safe and effect nature gastric band hypnotherapy has become the latest craze in weight loss. A simple Google search reveals hundreds of satisfied patients who’ve undergone gastric band hypnotherapy and lost much of their excess weight. How exactly does it work though?

To understand how gastric band hypnotherapy works we first must look at hypnosis and the effect on the mind. While human knowledge of the mind is far from complete, the most accepting theory is that the mind is made of two major components - the conscious and the subconscious. You will be most familiar with the concept of the conscious mind as that is where your regular thought pattern originates from. Whenever you think to yourself “I’m thirsty, I should go get a drink” or something similar that is your conscious mind at work. Your subconscious mind is much deeper and, in a way, powerful. It controls all those instinctive actions and reactions that you don’t even think about, your habits, your desires and your phobias. It is your subconscious mind that hypnosis works on. Hypnosis primes the subconscious and readies it to accept suggestions.

Now we understand how hypnosis works it becomes a little clearer how gastric band hypnotherapy works. A hypnotherapist will induce a hypnotic state in their client and then talk them through the gastric band procedure as if it is actually happening. There is no pain or anything physically at all really happening but the subconscious mind finds it very difficult to differentiate between fantasy and reality. That is why may sometimes have very powerful dreams that seem all too real.

Once the subconscious mind believes that its body has a gastric band fitted it will act as if you really do have one fitted. This means you will feel full more easily, eat more slowly, and eat smaller meals. This obviously results in very effective weight loss.

As well as being safer than surgery, gastric band hypnotherapy is also much more affordable - generally ten times less expensive that surgery. There are even audio packs recorded by clinical hypnotherapists that have the exact same session on CD or MP3 that are less expensive still since the hypnotherapist only needs to record the session once for many clients. These can cost less than $100.

So if you’re thinking about having gastric band surgery then the natural method of hypnotherapy may very well be worth your consideration.

Author Bio

Jake works for leading hypnosis website HypnoBusters. If you would like to find out more about this particular topic please visit Gastric Band Hypnotherapy.

Integrative Hypnotherapy

Many people ask me how I work as an Integrative Hypnotherapist and although this is a simple question it is not an easy one to answer. The reason being is, as an Integrative Hypnotherapist, I seek to understand various approaches and work with these in a way which resonates and fits in with the client's way of being. My way of working is unique with each client and fits in with my experience and training.

Integrative Hypnotherapy is a form of therapy which encompasses many different therapy modules and approaches, such as person centred, working with the mind and body, personal coaching, gestalt, transpersonal, NLP, humanistic etc.

An Integrative Hypnotherapist aims to take all these varying modules into account and works in a multi-dimensional that is created and unique for each client during sessions and hypnosis.

A way to consider this to think about your life, as you follow your own path, meet new people, you may come across different obstacles - some easier than others, at times you may be depressed, anxious or stressed, or you may be coming to terms with a loss. Your life is multi-dimensional, many different events, or situations occurring on different emotional levels so it makes sense that at different times in your life, and indeed during hypnotherapy, that different approaches are required.

There are so many different types of Hypnotherapist working today such as Clinical Hypnotherapist, Cognitive Hypnotherapist, Behavioural Cognitive Hypnotherapist, Curative Hypnotherapy, Pure hypno-analysis etc.

There is nothing wrong if a hypnotherapist decides to specialise in one form of hypnotherapy as at times these can be effective. Although, at times, problems may occur and treatment can be limited as the Hypnotherapist is only equipped and trained with only one way of working, so therefore expects the client to enter the hypnotherapist world of being and way of working.

Hypnotherapy should not be a one size fits all as we are all unique, and at times complex, multi-dimensional human beings with our own personal life story and at times clients need different things during their life and across therapy.

An Integrative Hypnotherapist has the skills, flexibility, understanding, therapy modules and experience to be with the client, to walk with them, to enter their world and to provide what they need at that particular time in life whether it's anxiety, phobia, medical conditions, confidence or stress management.

Author Bio

Linda Connors is an experienced London based Integrative Hypnotherapist specialising in Anxiety, stress, confidence and medical conditions.

The Hypnotic Nail Biting Cure

Nail biting is perhaps the most common bad habit that people share. While it isn’t as dangerous as smoking or overeating there are a number of drawbacks to biting your nails. First off it is seen as being impolite socially to bite your nails in front of someone. Secondly it can lead to a number of health problems such as bacterial and viral illnesses, as well as infections. Thirdly it can also cause damage to your teeth and gums.

So what is the solution to this problem?

Well, recent scientific studies have concluded that the most effective form of treatment for nail biters is hypnosis. At first glance that may seems a little strange, isn’t hypnosis just for people looking to quit smoking or lose weight?

While hypnosis is most commonly used for those goals there are a number of other issues hypnosis can be used to treat including IBS, anxiety, panic attacks, lack of confidence, phobias, intimacy problems, poor sleep patterns and, as we now know, nail biting. The list of what hypnosis can treat is in fact longer than this, but for the sake of brevity I have just used this shortened version.

Right now you may be asking yourself “how does hypnosis cure nail biting?”. To answer that question we must first look at how hypnosis works in general. A recent study partaken at Hull University in England showed that people who had been put under hypnosis had decreased activity in the parts of the brain linked with daydreaming. Psychologist Dr. Michael Heap said that this points towards hypnosis opening up the mind to accepting suggestions.

Taking that in mind, it stands to reason that hypnosis can be used to make suggestions to someone that they no longer wish to bite their nails, much in the same way as it may be suggested that they no longer want to smoke or overeat.

There are three hypnotic techniques in particular that are used in helping someone who is looking for a nail biting cure. The first of which is association. This is a simple hypnotic technique that makes the client associate the act of nail biting with something vile. For example a hypnotherapist may mention the fact (and this is true) that there is fecal bacteria under your nails, so whenever you put your nails in your mouth you are putting all that nasty bacteria in your mouth. This is particularly effective for the more squeamish.

The second hypnotic technique is substitution. Substitution is used to change one action into another. For example when you feel the urge to bite your nails a hypnotherapist may anchor this desire to giving your chin a quick scratch. This is a much healthier behavioral pattern that works best with people who consciously decide to bite their nails.

The third hypnotic technique that is used as a nail biting cure is anchoring. Anchoring is, in a way, like a combination of association and substitution. It is used to anchor a physical action with a psychological reaction. So when a person sees their fingers going towards their mouth to bite their nails they receive a nasty taste in their mouth (such as their least favorite food) which snaps them out of completing the action of nail biting.

I hope this article has helped you to understand how hypnosis works and why it is such as effective cure for nail biting.

Author Bio

HypnoBusters is the leading hypnosis site on the internet. One of their most popular products is their Nail Biting Hypnosis MP3.

Freud And His Role In Hypnotherapy

The works of Freud influence hypnotherapy by providing it with a concept and theoretical base. They deliver an insight into dynamics of human mind and provide with understanding of mechanisms that take place there.

Psychoanalysis directs hypnotherapy into early stage indicating the importance of dreams, slips of tongue, fantasies and introducing 'talking cure' as method of a therapy. Most of all it acknowledges the existence of the unconscious - that part of psyche that hypnosis is working with in a trance state. Following psychoanalytical concepts influence psychotherapy: regression, sublimation, ambivalence, defence mechanism, compensation, denial, displacement, projection, rationalisation, repression, resistance - to name a few. Elements of psychoanalysis are present during pre-hypnosis stage of hypnotherapy when a case history is taken and rapport is established. The real motivation needs to be discovered, misconceptions cleared and conclusions taken by analysing the way patient address the problem, language he is using, concepts he is particularly keen on. Techniques used during psychoanalysis are also used during in a trance: automatic writing, sublimation of symptoms and compensating. Elements of psychoanalysis are utilized in following hypnotherapeutic techniques:

Healing the inner child - the script is based on conviction that unprocessed memories, emotions, traumatic events can result in neurosis later in life. Those elements need to be processed and integrated in a healthy way to unable healing process. Psychoanalysis is concentrated on those psychic events of a childhood trying to bring them on the conscious level to trigger a catharsis that is beneficial for the patient's well - being. Hypnotherapy utilises the concept of the wounded child and work with that in a trance state.

Regression - as above works on the basis that returning to the earlier stage of development or behaviour can help avoiding anxiety associated with present stage (psychoanalytical theory of stages of development). Symptoms can be manipulated by regressing patient to the stage when the problem occurred changing his response to the problem when out of trance.

Rebirthing (there is discussion if rebirthing can be called hypnotherapeutic method in spite of inducing trance like state) - based on assumption of importance the earliest events of life - especially blocked emotions and painful memories. Technique aims to acknowledge and reintegrate those feelings using a breathing method that cause a shock and release of traumatic elements. It is used especially to deal with trauma of birth that can leave a tension in a body and be a primal cause of emotional problems. Releasing of emotions helps to develop positive attitude towards life and gain a healthy way of responding to environment.

Psychoanalytical approach provides hypnotherapy with concept of sublimation, defence mechanisms, repression, resistance etc. It indicates the importance of unconscious and early stage of life with its complexes and traumas. Especially important is acknowledging of role of unconscious as a driving force of all human behaviour. So the most efficient way of changing the behaviour is to influence subconscious level of psyche. Hypnosis has an access to that part of the mind and can enhance all psychodynamic techniques it uses.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Adam_Gallamore

Why Do We Have Goals?

The following article is taken with permission from http://www.stevepavlina.com/

If you need help achieving your goals then visit HypnoBusters, the home of hypnosis on the internet.

---

What gives rise to your goals? What determines whether you even set goals at all?

I believe the answer is your context. Your context is your collection of beliefs about reality. It’s the soil in which your thoughts grow.

For example, if you have very materialistic goals and have become skilled at achieving them, then you probably have a very materialistic context. Your beliefs about reality are rooted in materialism.

This is just common sense, right? You will tend to take actions that seem reasonable to you. And the question of reasonableness is answered by your context. What is reasonable to you depends on how you happen to view reality.

You don’t actually make any decisions based on reality itself, do you? You make decisions based on your interpretation of reality. Your sensory input, your memories, and your thoughts and beliefs comprise your map of reality. You ultimately base your decisions on this map.

So where does context come from?

For the most part, we inherit it. We learn our contexts by absorbing the contexts of other people. We’re conditioned by our upbringing, education, family, community, government, media, the Internet, etc. The people we meet, the books we read, the things we see on TV — these all contribute to our context. They help us determine how to interpret reality. Even this web site is making a small contribution towards shaping your context.

For example, what is marriage? Is it a legal arrangement? A religious sacrament? A connection between soulmates? Dependent on the couple? How you answer this question will depend on your context. Ask different people and you’ll get different answers.

After reaching adulthood most people don’t change their context much. It’s possible that you may set and achieve many goals but barely question your context at all. It’s like being a farmer who grows crops year after year in essentially the same soil, the same plot of land. It seems very natural and normal to do this. It’s simply a matter of doing what you’ve always been doing.

You can achieve some interesting results in life just by living within your current context. But if you learn how to manipulate your context as well, you can gain access to an even greater field of experiences.

Every context is a lens through which you view reality, and each lens will enhance some parts of your life and weaken others. The problem is that most people have grown so used to their current context that they forget they have one. Thus, they mistake their context for reality itself rather than seeing it for the lens it is. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to help you to better understand your own context and to give you the tools to make changes at that level.

Sometimes external events can jolt you into a new context. After 9/11 many Americans experienced a context shift. Others were largely unaffected. Have you ever intentionally undertaken a context switch, however? Have you ever intentionally changed your interpretation of reality just for the experience? For example, do you ever say to yourself, “I’m going to try a different religion this year?”

Switching contexts in this manner is something I’ve been doing for more than a decade, and later this week I’ll share some things I’ve learned along the way. I think you’ll find it interesting.

NLP Re-Imprinting Technique Tips

Note: These are transcripts of Q&A sessions. They have been edited for clarity.

How do you help a client tolerate their fear when they are experiencing past pain? In this discussion, Carl describes useful re-imprinting techniques upon being asked about "baseline states" by a Masters student who had just participated in a class on that topic.

Question:
My question is about baseline states, which we were talking about today. In some of the practice that I've done it's kind of difficult for some people to maintain those baseline states because they're so charged. How do you use your techniques to get somebody to stabilize sufficiently, even though these states are so hard to be in? How do you get someone to stabilize long enough to allow for things like 're-imprinting' and so on?

Carl:
OK. Thank you. To respond to the first part of that: We don't usually seek to put someone into a baseline state experience, except for practice and learning purposes if they're students.

To respond to the second part of that: How do you make it possible for someone to be present with the past pain...to be present now, with the negative feelings that go with past pain? Those negative feelings are being generated and experienced right now, although the pain is in the past, right? The events are in the past; the pain is now.

One generally does this [help a client stay present to that pain] through the magic of rapport, rapport, rapport, and by using language that constantly makes the distinction between the person now, and the person who's having the experience then. So the simplest and most useful technique is to always speak to the person (who is the client) as "you", and speak about the previous self as "she" or "he." "So, what is 'he' experiencing?" "What is 'she' experiencing?" "If you step in there for a moment and come on back out (just a quick little recognizance), what's it like? What is he or she experiencing? What is he or she deciding? What's it like? Come on back."

And so, through the direction of association and dissociation, the use of the correct kinds of pronouns, and waving your hand around (pointing to the past and pointing to the present, and sometimes, even using your hand or your body as a barrier between the past and the present), you can actually kind of push that past pain back up on a past timeline - an imaginary past line of time - and it becomes fairly straightforward for the person to be able to stay there with you.

It's also a question of the client being willing to participate with you in this revision of a really important meaning in their world. They're usually really enthusiastic to do it. They're experiencing the edge of a lot of fear, but where they are - on the edge - is quite bearable (if it's properly done) and there's general enthusiasm for the mission, because they have a sense of the good things that will come out of it.

Practice, practice, practice. Rapport, rapport, rapport... and proper waving.

Best, Carl

Carl Buchheit, MA has been involved in NLP for over 25 years. He is certainly one of the most cutting edge practitioners of NLP in the world, and quite possibly the busiest. At the beginning of his career Carl trained with Leslie Cameron-Bandler, the co-developer of NLP who was acknowledged for having added heart to the newly evolving technology of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. Carl's main early influence was the mentoring of Jonathan Rice, PhD, a clinical psychologist who was the first to include the methods, techniques, and tools of NLP within a larger professional perspective. More recently Carl has included the incredible family soul work originated by German Psychologist Bert Hellinger to his practice. Carl continues to learn, and integrate what he learns, from everyone he encounters. His ongoing, intense private practice with clients keeps what he presents fresh and alive.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carl_Buchheit

Hypnosis and Nail Biting

As I sit typing this article we are only a few days removed from the dawn of 2011. At the beginning of every year people tend to look at their lives and decide what needs to be changed and improved. These are either written down or noted mentally as New Year's Resolutions. Whilst the most common resolutions tend to be losing weight and giving up smoking there is another nasty little habit that many people have, and it can be just as difficult to quit as smoking. I'm talking about nail biting.

Nail biting is a habit that millions of people around the world share. It typically starts in childhood during anxious or nervous periods. Many psychologists believe that nail biting starts as a replacement for the pacifier since it satisfies the need to have something in your mouth. In later life this can also take the form of smoking and overeating.

Whilst at first glance it seems to be a pretty harmless habit there are a few problems that biting your nails can cause. It is considered to be impolite socially and from a health perspective it can lead to infections and quite severe pain if the nails are bitten to an extremely low point.

Like most bad habits nail biting can be very tough to quit. It is an anxious compulsive habit which means that you may have no conscious intention to bite your nails, but without even realizing it you find yourself with your finger in your mouth, biting down on the nail. That is why it is tricky to stop without some form of treatment.

In scientific studies the treatment that has the best success rate is hypnosis. Many people don't fully understand hypnosis and think of it as a mere parlor trick suited more to stage shows than a treatment room. However time after time scientific tests have shown hypnosis to have very real, and very positive, effects. In one recent study at Hull University in the UK scientists were actually able to see the difference in brainwave patterns between people who had been hypnotized and those who had not. Hypnosis is no placebo and people are starting to realize it. Now you can find online hypnosis stores selling MP3s and CDs recorded by hypnotherapists that help to cure or relieve any number of issues, including nail biting.

Hypnosis attacks the nail biting habit in two ways. Firstly it relaxes the patient very deeply. They aren't asleep as it is often portrayed on TV or in movies, but they are very calm and relaxed. This in itself helps to reduce anxiety levels which inevitably lead to bitten nails. Most important though is the way that hypnotic suggestions seep into the mind. They are taken in by the subconscious level of the mind which is where all your deepest thoughts, feelings and ingrained habits reside. These suggestions work to "reprogram" your mind in much the same way you might change the settings on your GPS or on a videogame so it is customized to the way you want it. In this case your subconscious mind will be guided on an experience that will help it conclude that you no longer desire to bite your nails.

So if you want to finally quit biting your nails then hypnosis may just be the answer you've been looking for.

Author Bio

Sick of biting your nails? Then try this great Nail Biting Hypnosis MP3, it's both effective and affordable.

If you would like to learn more about hypnosis and its many applications then visit the Self Hypnosis Guide.

Changing Behavior Patterns With Hypnosis

Whenever you mention the word 'Attitude,' people's minds tend to go, unfairly, I think, to badly behaved teenagers. "That boy has a terrible attitude." But certainly in the world of hypnosis, attitude is another word for focus. When this focus is narrowed, you start to enter a hypnotic trance.

You see, this is where people generally become so confused about hypnosis. To so many, it may only be performed in some sort of temple, with incense wafting in the air, and some chap in a black cape chanting something completely unintelligible.

If only people would come to realize that hypnosis is as natural as breathing. It's a natural function. If more people realized this, then there'd be a lot more hypnosis success stories going round.

When your focus is strong, then it's always hypnotic. However, what is so vitally important is the content of that focus.

If you're a person who always expects the worst, a pessimist, then you have a negative focus and you really can't expect to experience roaring success with such an attitude. On the other hand, if you expect your efforts to be worthwhile and productive, then your attitude is positive. In short, you expect success.

Hypnosis is about creating expectations, so if your attitude is positive and success is your expectation, then hypnosis has to be invaluable to you.

Now, these expectations have nothing whatever to do with positive thinking or merely hoping for the best. They take a step further than that and become part of you. In other words, your instincts.

Your instincts work automatically for you, so that if you have positive instincts, you're freed from the shackles of always trying to be positive, which can be an awful trial. Especially on a Monday morning and it's tipping down with rain!

Hypnosis helps you change patterns of thinking that aren't helpful to you into instincts that are positive and productive. It's easy to understand that when this happens, the advantages are tremendous. Setbacks, too, may be seen in positive ways.

All this is fine, but from where do you receive these attitudes? You learn them in 2 ways.

Other people condition them into you, or you condition them into yourself. Whenever you learn something new and you develop this knowledge until it becomes automatic, you've been hypnotized.

Don't forget that hypnotism can last just a few moments - with your eyes wide open!

Whenever we consider strong negative experiences such as anger, addiction, depression, anxiety, we're talking about them being hypnotic trance states. Why? Because they're all so restricted, their focus so narrow that, coupled with the (mis)use of imagination, they're automatically hypnotic.

Author Bio

Mike Bond, explaining how success may be achieved through Hypnosis. A visit to his Website gives a great deal more information on the subject. There are also 2 excellent FREE downloads that you may grab by clicking on The Hypnosis Attraction