INTRODUCTION
Most people’s ideas and assumptions about hypnosis are erroneously based on fiction novels like George du Maurier’s 1895 novel Trilby where the main protagonist, Svengali is a man who seduces, dominates and exploits Trilby, a young English girl, and makes her a famous singer through the use of unscrupulous hypnosis. Also, horror movies like Dracula whose hypnotic stare paralyzes his victim so he can bite their necks, or from theatrical stage hypnotists who make audience volunteers do foolish, humiliating, and outlandish things for the audience entertainment.
These larger than life myths and falsehoods about an all-powerful hypnotist who has absolute control over his subject or victim has created unnecessary fear in the public’s mind and done harm to the true value and benefits of hypnosis. Scientific research has proven that a person under hypnosis can not be forced to do something that is against their will, including something that is against their morals.
It is fundamental that you understand that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. Self-hypnosis is a naturally occurring state of mind which can be defined as a heightened state of focused concentration. The competent hypnotist only serves as a guide to your accessing and developing your innate self-hypnotic abilities. The more you practice and utilize these abilities the more efficient, effective, and powerful they will become.
The scope of this Three Part Self-hypnosis series is limited to learning how to reduce stress, build self-confidence, and boost performance. I will be offering you some simple self-hypnotic techniques that will build on each other to help you deal with stress, improve concentration and focus, build self-confidence, and enhance your performance. The main purpose is to help you focus on a specific goal and use your concentration, imagination, visualization, guided imagery, and autosuggestion to attain the desired result. Your motivation is key here and it is critical that you suspend all expectations and judgement about what you think you should experience, otherwise you will defeat yourself. It is important to have a clear objective and goal in mind when applying self-hypnosis.
PART ONE: Self-hypnosis to Enhance Relaxation and Reduce Stress
Sit comfortably in a quiet place. Close your eyes and take a slow natural breath. With each breath imagine breathing in relaxation and exhaling tension. Repeat until you begin to feel a sensation of relaxation. Now count back from ten to one and with each count feel yourself relaxing more deeply. You may feel your body tingling or feeling lighter or heavier. When you reach the count of one take another slow relaxing breath and let your mind drift to someplace peaceful. A place in your imagination or someplace you have actually been (for example, floating on a cloud without a care in the world or relaxing on a favorite beach). Continue to breathe naturally and enjoy this moment as long as you wish. Then suggest to yourself that, in the future, whenever you take three slow deep breaths and think about this special calm and peaceful place it will trigger a deep sense of relaxation. Then repeat three times, “I am calm, I am in control, I am relaxed.” Take a few comfortable breaths and slowly count from one to ten and with each count feel yourself awakening with a deep feeling of peace and comfort, and when you open your eyes feel wide awake and refreshed.
The secret to self-hypnosis success is let things happen without trying to force it. Your creative mind may surprise you with an experience or symbol of relaxation that you would never have imagined. Mastery of this simple process will lay the ground work for future optimal results. For those interested and motivated to master this basic technique and skill, I recommend two months of practice before learning PART TWO or PART THREE. Now, when you are ready you can apply this basic hypnotic skill to improve your life.
PART TWO: Utilizing Self-Hypnosis to attain Academic Success
Here are two simple self-hypnotic techniques that will build on the self-hypnotic technique in Lesson One, which you can easily apply in your academic pursuits to improve your academic performance and success.
Learn how to study diligently and efficiently
Study systematically and review the material that will be on a test. This will give you confidence and lower your stress level. Practice a regular pretest routine that works for you. Consult your school counselor or the internet for test strategies if you have any difficulties.
Utilize your Simple Self-Hypnotic Technique To Succeed
Prior to any exam use your self-hypnotic state of relaxation and while relaxed give yourself an autosuggestion that will help you relax and perform optimally on the test. For example, “When I sit in the test chair I will feel confident, my mind will be focused and clear, I will easily remember the test material and answer the test questions with ease and confidence.” When you first try this, I suggest you do it daily at least three days in advance of your exam. Some will only need to do it the night before or morning of the exam. In time you will figure out what works best for you. Also avoid negative thinking and self-doubts. Use your self-hypnosis to visualize a positive image of success to abolish these self-defeating thoughts. For example visualize yourself smiling and happy staring at your excellent test results. The more you practice visualization and autosuggestion the stronger they will become to neutralize self-doubt and enhance your performance.
Personalize your Autosuggestions and Visualization
Your self-hypnotic techniques will be more powerful and effective if their created from your personal circumstances and needs. You may need to change your autosuggestion and visualization depending on the type of test e.g., math, history, biology, physics etc. Be creative. Here is an example. A friend of mine had failed his electricians licensing test two times. He always feared and obsessed about the presence of the Electrician’s Board Tester always seeing him as a threatening authority figure that caused my friend’s anxiety to skyrocket. Also he had difficulty comprehending the written exam questions which caused him to make mistakes in answering them. Currently, he was in a panic that he would fail the test a third time. I gave him a post-hypnotic suggestion which in reality is an autosuggestion that when he took the exam he would be struck by the fact the Board Tester was so friendly and was always smiling at him. That was how he would visualize him. I then gave him the autosuggestion that when he read the test questions he would see himself actually doing the work on the job and the answers he needed would come from his work experience as a journeyman electrician and his electrician studies. Needless to say he passed the Electrician’s Board with flying colors and proudly received his electrician’s license. Moral of the story never give up and believe in yourself and you will succeed.
PART THREE: Utilizing Sports Hypnosis to improve Athletic Performance
In this final Self-hypnosis lesson you will utilize the self-hypnotic skills you learned in part one and two to help you surpass your present athletic abilities and performance. How exciting it is to have the opportunity to learn what professional and great athletes have known for decades and used to beat their competition, win games, and gold medals.
If you have done your homework, in part one and two, you are ready to add some standard and simple sports hypnotic techniques to take you to the next level in your Game of choice. You can utilize relaxation to calm and focus your mind on a winning performance without pregame jitters. Autosuggestion, imagination, imagery, and visualization will help you perfect your athletic technique and skills for optimal performance.
SPORTS HYPNOSIS
Sports hypnosis can help you overcome issues of performance anxiety and self-doubt which may block your optimal performance. Hypnosis can help you utilize your unconscious mind to enhance your athletic skills, perfect athletic techniques, and boost your self-confidence to exceed what you have thought possible. Hypnosis can help you acquire the deep concentration and focus necessary to beat your previous athletic performances. Hypnosis can enhance your performance regardless of what sport you love to compete in.
FOUR POWERFUL SPORTS HYPNOSIS TECHNIQUES
Positive Visualization and Mental Rehearsal Athletic Zone Imagination Autosuggestion
Exercise One: Positive visualization and mental rehearsal are key elements to sports improvement. Take three slow deep breaths and think about your special place of calm to trigger your relaxation response. Now focus your mind on your best performance as if watching a movie. Then run the movie again and carefully analyze your performance to gain insight into what you can improve. Rerun the movie in slow motion to gain further insight into enhancing your performance. Now play the corrected version with you in the movie feeling what is like to play at your very best. When finished slowly open your eyes and pat your heart with your fist three times. Then before your next game or performance tap your heart three times to trigger your best performance and positive expectation.
Exercise Two: The Athletic ZONE is where you perform to the best of your ability, in a state of relaxed yet focused, high-level performance, which feels effortless. Here you’re conscious thoughts, conscious activity, and efforts no longer influence or guide your performance. Your conscious mind’s concerns, worries, and control are suspended. Everything you do and experience becomes effortless, automatic and unconsciously orchestrated. Great athletes depend on the zone for their best performance.
Now close your eyes and take three slow deep breaths. When you are in your calm place remember a time when you felt in the zone and merged with the game or your performance, or other personal events where you felt one with the experience and everything seemed to flow effortlessly. Now, vividly remember that moment and the experience you felt totally immersed in. Let the feeling and experience flow through you until your inner mind’s eye sees it clearly. Repeat this exercise until you are satisfied with the feeling of being in the zone then slowly open your eyes and pat your heart three times. In the future, when you need to access the zone tap your heart three times.
Exercise Three: Imagination Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” In the world of hypnosis imagination is unlimited in creating what your stated goal is. Specifically, imagination can make you what you want to be. In your relaxed state of mind picture your favorite athlete who you want to model yourself after. Repeatedly, review, in your mind’s eye, their best performance to gain understanding and insight into their patterns of performance and their specific athletic skills and techniques. Once you have memorized their athletic excellence then enter your calm place and visualize them in action. When you can vividly see their top performance step into their body and experience what it would feel like to be them. When you’re satisfied with the experience of being your favorite athlete ask yourself, “What did I learn?” B Slowly open your eyes bringing back with you anything you learned and how it felt to be them. Pat your heart three times. Just before your next performance or game pat your heart three times to trigger that feeling.
Exercise Four: Ideally, your autosuggestion should be coached in the form that your top performance has already happened, for example, I broke the record time in the mile, or I won the P.G.A. Championship, or I won the gold medal in wrestling. Giving your unconscious mind your resolute command, in your calm and focused mind, is a powerful gateway to ultimate success. Give yourself this forceful suggestion just prior to your performance or game.
CONCLUSION
Experiment with these basic hypnotic techniques to find out what is most effective for you and have fun exploring. Furthermore, when you think about it self-hypnosis has practical applications in many areas in life where greater self-confidence and improved performance is desirable.