Hypnosis: Facts & Fiction
Recently, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about hypnosis (hypnotherapy).
In the past, I wrote and posted three blog posts about this subject: How does hypnosis work? How hypnosis works: part 2 and how does hypnosis work: part 3. You’ll find lots of helpful information about hypnosis, often quite a misunderstood subject and practice.
I’m not talking about ‘show’ hypnosis where the person has you quack like a duck, cluck like a chicken or play out a part of your life, though this can be entertaining.
The truth is that therapeutic hypnosis can be quite pleasant, fun and relaxing and has the added dimensions and benefits of learning, self-awareness, growth and change.
In this post, I’m going to combine some of the information given in my 3 previous blog posts about Hypnosis……and will add some more…….
We have these ideas of what hypnosis is and isn’t and we’ll discuss them. We’ll utilize our conscious minds here. In the process of hypnosis, though, much of what is done so that you experience the ‘trance’ state, is to bypass the conscious mind, so that your creative, intuitive and expressive unconscious mind, can show itself, in a beautiful, aware and pleasant way. Hypnosis helps you to access the beauty, creativity and talents you have inside…..and it often ‘kickstarts’ healing, learning and growth.
Below (different font) is some of the information from my previous posts about hypnosis.
How does HYPNOSIS work?
These are questions I’m often asked: “How does hypnosis work?” “What can it help me with?” “I’m not the type to lose control; can I still be hypnotized?” Yes, is the answer to this last question.
It’s time to respond to these inquiries. Before that, let’s talk about what hypnosis isn’t and clear up some of the common myths about it.
Common MYTHS and MISCONCEPTIONS about HYPNOSIS :
1)You’re asleep. NO; you’re not asleep. You’re just in a light or medium trance (theta brain wave state), which is a different brain wave than your waking state (beta). In this theta brain wave state, your subconscious mind is more receptive to post-hypnotic suggestions, made by the hypnotist (or guide) during a session.
2)You’re unconscious. NO. You’re just in a (lovely and relaxing) trance.
3)The hypnotist (hypnotherapist) can ‘control’ your mind. NOPE. You won’t do anything you morally or ethically don’t want to do. There’s no mind control involved. So………..you won’t be quacking like a duck anytime soon…….unless you want to.
4)You can’t get out of a trance yourself. Another NO. If you just move and shake your body a bit, you will come out of the trance. The truth is that most people really enjoy being in a trance; it’s sooooooooooooooo relaxing.
What is HYPNOSIS?:
The best way to describe hypnosis is: a relaxed state of inner absorption, focused attention and concentration. You focus on one particular goal, while the rest of you relaxes. If you want lasting change, you must connect your conscious awareness to your stronger and deeper subconscious mind.
The Subconscious mind stores your beliefs, experiences and often, negative thought patterns, often given or ‘handed down’ to you by your parents, society and surroundings (from 0-7 years). They include ‘automatic’, internalized responses and patterns.
The conscious mind is where we store our daily thoughts, ideas and goal setting.
The subconscious mind, with its ‘automatic,’ conditioned beliefs and thought patterns, is what really controls our lives and most of the time, we’re not aware of it. To make long-term changes, it’s not enough to just use your conscious everyday mind. We all know that willpower (the conscious mind alone) can work in the short-term but usually not longer-term.
What HYPNOSIS helps you with:
-enhancement of confidence, self-esteem and focus.
-decreasing stress, anxiety and panic attacks.
-overcoming fears and phobias (ie: dentistry, flying, smoking, etc.) and bad habits that limit or challenge you.
-weight loss/maintenance.
-smoking cessation/health habits and
-reframing your negative thought patterns, bad habits and behaviors.
Let’s delve a bit deeper…………..into how hypnosis works.
HYPNOSIS can be used for:
-Fears and Phobias: Ie: dental, flying, driving, heights, spiders, etc.
-Habit Change: Ie: Weight loss/maintenance, smoking cessation, fingernail biting, etc.
-Mindset Habit Change: Ie: to increase confidence, self-esteem; decrease stress, anxiety, panic attacks, etc.
-Medical/Dental: Ie: Pain control, Bruxism (clenching), controlling blood flow, stress reduction, etc.
It’s challenging to define what hypnosis is and it’s also important to add what it’s not. It is:
-a concentrated, focused state of inner absorption
-a deeply relaxed state of inner focus
-it is NOT unconsciousness, meditation or sleep!
-Meditation is NOT the same as being in a trance state
-Meditation: you focus on yourself with no particular goal and enter an altered state (of mind)
-Trance state: you focus on something outside yourself; you do have a goal and you enter this altered state and receive positive suggestions (post-hypnotic suggestions).
To understand HYPNOSIS or MINDSET COACHING, for that matter, you must know a bit about the conscious and subconscious minds:
CONSCIOUS MIND:
-communication center
-creates your short and long-term goals
-your everyday thoughts and ideas are here
It is a very BUSY place!
SUBCONSCIOUS MIND:
-your mind’s ‘storage center’
-stores: life experiences, belief system, values
-‘gut’ or intuition; creativity
I often hear this question: Is Everybody Hypnotizable?
The short answer is YES. You can be in a light, moderate or deep trance. A light or moderate trance is quite enough for most hypnosis.
We spend much of our lives in ‘trances.’ Here’s an example: you’re driving home from work, a route you’ve traveled hundreds of times before. You know the route, so you start to ‘daydream’ or drive on ‘automatic pilot.’ You, literally, get out of your conscious mind’s brain wave state and go into the subconscious mind’s brainwave state (theta). Then, there’s a traffic light or a stop sign, and your conscious mind comes right back into action.
Your subconscious mind is deeper and stronger than your conscious mind. This is why willpower alone rarely works, for the long haul. Your subconscious mind, holding the beliefs and thought patterns you absorbed (0-7 years) from your family, community and society, tends to rule your life, until you can connect it to your conscious awareness. This is part of the healing work that most of us have to do.
A little more about TRANCE:
-it’s relaxing and empowering
-it teaches you about yourself
-it can change certain habits and ideas
-you get a diminution of the GR0 (general reality orientation), where your external world becomes less important and your inner world comes into sharper focus
-you’re mentally alert
-You can’t always tell when/if you’ve been in a trance. It may only be a change in your perceived environment or an increase to receptivity of suggestions.
If you work with a hypnotherapist, they are your guide. The positive suggestions (post-hypnotic) they make to you while you’re in trance, are more readily absorbed into your unconscious mind. To get you into your trance state, they make change their voice (deeper, slower), use metaphors and stories (to bypass your conscious mind) and help you to enter a more relaxed state, of body and mind.
While in a trance, your brain enters into a different and more relaxed brain wave state (theta). There is no need for a deep trance; most practitioners use light or medium trance states. As mentioned above, we spend some of our lives in a ‘trance’ state. This allows us to get out of our highly overactive conscious minds and to go deeper into the creative, intuitive, true core of who we are………..how wonderful!
There is so much to learn about hypnosis and so much to learn and gain from the process.
Please contact me with questions, comments, stories, experiences, that you may have had or would like to have with hypnosis! @www.gigiarnaud.com or at the social media links below.
With smiles and love,
Dr Gigi
PS: I love this subject! If you’d like me to speak at an event, conference, meeting, group………about hypnosis, please message me!
Change your Thoughts, Change your Mind, Change your World