Step-by-step self-hypnosis: do we reprogram the mind?

activate your healing abilityregulation and confidence, resolving internal conflicts and improving your well-being, or getting creative solutions to day-to-day things is feasible if you access your subconscious through the autohypnosisto your own natural ability to hypnotize yourself through the great power of suggestion.

As early as 1955 the British Medical Association recommended the use of hypnosis to treat psychological problems and psychosomatic diseases because it facilitates therapeutic learning by reinforcing self-esteem and motivation.

Likewise, studies in universities and publications in high-impact scientific journals such as Science either The Lancet collect good results from hypnosis in the treatment of different types of painsuch as fibromyalgia, dental pain or irritable colon, and even in childbirth.

This hypnoanalgesia it is recognized by the 2009 Cochrane (evidence-based medicine) assessment reviews, and is also verified by neuroimaging tests.

Self-hypnosis, better to start with a therapist

most of us are hypnotizable or self-hypnotizable, although you have to trust and want; if not, it doesn’t work. But if you believe, believe.

Regardless of your external reality, you can reprogram your emotions and goals in your subconscious, which 95% of the time automatically executes everything we have learned, for better or for worse, which is difficult to consciously change.

About 20 minutes a day will make you dexterous. However, you should have a previous experience with a therapistbecause the more the hypnotic experience is adapted to your personality and circumstances, the better it will be.

A good therapist can not only guide you through your first hypnosis sessions or teach you techniques to enter this state yourself, but can also program yourself a shortcut so that you can quickly enter self-hypnosis.

in a state of hypnosis He can tell you, for example: “Whereever you are, when you put your thumb and index finger together, you will always enter self-hypnosis.”

After 3-5 one hour sessions, you will be ready to connect with your subconscious and introduce improvements through suggestions; that is, instructions that you will give yourself.

Calm but without losing control

Will you fall round? No. The hypnotic state in clinical and therapeutic application is achieved lowering the frequency of brain wavesdaily in beta (14-40 Hz), when there is more stress, to enter alpha (7.5-14 Hz) or theta (4-7.5 Hz), close to the stillness, calm and lethargy in which we we unwrap when we are concentrated or sleepy.

At these frequencies, the subconscious becomes docilereceptive and obedient to our orders without losing control of the acts, maintaining awareness.

How are self-hypnosis sessions

Learn to enter a hypnotic statepersonalizing your suggestions, visualizing them and anchoring them to take them to your real world is the synthesis of the whole process.

Do not jump into the pool without taking into account that, although it improves many psychological and physiological aspects, and even oncological processes -increases immunity and acts as an adjunct to other medical treatments-, some habits and problems such as phobias or low self-esteem must be treated befores.

1. Enter a hypnotic state

Horacio Ruiz, president of the Spanish Association of Classical and Ericksonian Hypnosis, suggests imagining the number 100 and mentally discounting by twos to 0, because counting backwards is associated with relaxing, descend in your brain state.

To activate the main relaxing nerve of the body, the vagus nerveinhale and hold the air for periods of 5 seconds, making longer exhalations (10 seconds).

Josep Mañogil, director of the Barcelona School of Clinical Hypnosis, recommends following different counting phases: from 20 to 1, then from 10 to 1, from 5 to 1 and from 3 to 1.

At each count, Raise your arms and lower them as you say, “I am now entering a deep hypnotic state.” After the last count, you will tell yourself: “I have total control over myself. What I think now is influencing my thoughts, emotions and my organs”, in this way you will create a conditioned reflex to program subsequent suggestions.

2. Formulate suggestions well

Little by little, start suggesting what you want to achieve. You have to keep a schedule and personalize the message. For this, it is useful to write a script in advance and record it with your voice to listen to it during the session.

To exercise, better listen to it in the ultradian cyclesthose phases of lethargy, low performance or lower energy that occur every two hours and last 20 minutes.

if you just want internalize the state of calm reached in deep hypnosis, you can reinforce it by introducing thoughts like this: “I want to maintain this state of tranquility every day and also tomorrow.”

3. The power of creative visualization

In addition to the suggestions, it is necessary to seebe seen in context concrete using all five senses. Always evoke personal and pleasant experiences, with a high emotional charge, because the brain will recognize them better by having them recorded.

The brain works by association: if visualization does not arise, use a metaphor. For example, if we ask the brain to start an exhaustive cleaning of the body to eliminate toxins, we can construct a metaphor like passing a water hose through a muddy floor to clean it little by little.

4. Choose the anchors to fix the suggestion

“Always there has to be an anchorbecause if not, the brain takes it more as an order than as an internal experience”, recommends Agustí Camino, director of the Milton Erickson Institute in Barcelona.

The anchors can bewords, gestures, images or objects. The most effective is the most personal, comfortable or emotional, and that motivates you to fight a habit or achieve a goal. A pendant, a ring, a photo, a memory, joining two fingers… can be used to fix the suggestion that you want to attach to your visualization.