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!

1. Close your eyes and take 10 slow deep breaths in through the nose, and out through the mouth. Say to yourself the word Relaxon each out breath.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.Jon Rhodes