The image many people call to mind when hypnosis is discussed is that of a hypnotist waving a pocket watch or crystal on a chain back and forth, telling a volunteer that they are getting sleepy. Before you know it, the volunteer is dancing around like a fool, to the great amusement of the audience. The volunteer will “snap” out of the hypnotic trance and remember nothing. This is stage hypnotism, and many people become convinced that hypnotism is a form of mind control. In actual fact, during hypnosis, you are completely aware of what is going on around you and what you are doing. You will not do anything you would not normally do.
Hypnotherapy, either done on your self or done to you by another person, involves bypassing the conscious mind and speaking directly to your subconscious mind. This may seem to be a trance like state, but you are still fully aware of your surroundings. Hypnotherapy has a wide variety of uses in counseling and therapy.
Ever hear the expression, “Your mind can play tricks on you”? Well, you can use hypnosis to play tricks on your mind. Many times, throughout our lives, we hear or see things that we don’t always realize with our conscious mind, but our subconscious is busy recording it and worrying about it. This is why we have weird dreams about the things we fear. With self hypnosis, you can speak directly to your subconscious mind, and this will allow you some control over the ideas that are planted there and some ability to change those ideas. The basis of this is that the subconscious mind is more receptive to suggestions than the conscious mind.
Self-hypnotism involves inducing yourself into a hypnotic state and reciting ideas to yourself that you hope will help you to achieve your goals more easily. It allows you to override those of your conscious mind’s programming and habits which make it difficult for you to accomplish your goals.
With self-hypnotism, you present your subconscious mind with ideas and words meant to counter preconceived notions of things in your world. You change the way your mind looks at a task or a goal in order to give yourself a better chance of success.
This idea is quite common in sports, where athletes are encouraged to visualize themselves successfully completing a difficult move, and in dieting, where would be dieters are encouraged to visualize themselves as healthier, happier individuals. Hypnotism is the power of positive thinking extended further into your brain.
Our subconscious mind records everything which happens to us, and does no critical thinking about who is saying things. You may have negative attitudes about tasks or yourself just because of words you have heard in association, because the subconscious mind might record a negative thought without attaching a disclaimer to it, so even joking around can eventually have an effect on how you think about something. Hypnosis can be used in therapy or as self hypnosis to remove these negative thoughts and attitudes, or simply to create positive thoughts and attitudes.