How to Maximize Your Mind Power (Part 1 of 3)
Hypnotherapy is beneficial for a wide range of issues encountered in general medicine, ophthalmology, dermatology, pediatrics, anesthesiology, obstetrics and gynecology, dentistry, psychology and psychiatry. The American Psychology Association (APA) website has stated that most clinicians now agree hypnotherapy can be a powerful and effective therapeutic technique for a wide variety of conditions.
Some of the areas of application are insomnia, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis, anorexia nervosa, frigidity, epilepsy, allergy, drug abuse, tics, headaches and migraines, asthma, a variety of skin maladies (skin is a mirror of emotions), weight reduction, sports, stress, anxiety, pain control, psychosomatic illnesses and hundreds of other areas.
For the balance of this manuscript, the term unconscious and subconscious will have the same meaning. The subconscious/unconscious mind is responsible for up to 90 to 95 percent of our thoughts and actions. Hypnosis is a heightened focus of attention allowing access to the unconscious mind with increased suggestibility.
Hypnosis can provide lasting change by replacing negative thoughts with positive empowering thoughts. Hypnosis is a natural occurring state where the unconscious mind can readily accept and act on new instructions for change, health, self-improvement and success.
In a comparison survey of psychotherapy literature on the recovery rates of different therapeutic interventions (as published in American Health Magazine), it was noted that psychoanalysis had a 38% recovery after 600 sessions; behavior therapy had a recovery rate of 72% after 22 sessions, while hypnotherapy showed a 93% recovery rate after just 6 sessions. This indicates some psychological issues benefit more from hypnotherapy than psychoanalysis or behavior therapy. A German university meta-analysis of 444 studies supported this claim.
For a better understanding of how hypnosis works, read my testimonials page on my website where 100 people write about their experience and benefits using my seminars and/or hypnosis recordings. Today, hypnotherapy is rapidly advancing world-wide as a respected form of therapy in an unlimited number of areas. Whatever you do, you will do it better with hypnosis. The more you learn about hypnosis, the better you will use it.
When you see a hypnotist and he introduces experiences to you such as sticking your hands together, “gluing” your eyelids together, to imagine a balloon pulling your arm up, that your arm is stiff and cannot bend, etc., this is to test for your openness in using your imagination, to focus on his voice and to participate with your mind and his mind working together. It tests your ability to follow instructions, to cooperate, to imagine and to concentrate.
You can also do these types of experiences when practicing self-hypnosis. Success with the experiences increases your confidence that you are using hypnosis effectively, so you stop analyzing and self-questioning: “Is it working, I hope it’s working, it has to work.” Such experiences also help you to enhance your imagination, increase your ability in the retrieval of sensory memories, and improve your concentration abilities. All these skills are useful to maximize your benefits from hypnosis, whether self-hypnosis or hetero-hypnosis (hypnotized by another).
You can also deepen your hypnosis. For example, “as my arm rises, my body relaxes more…I feel more calm”; “As my arm rises, I feel satisfied, full, with small portions of food”; “As my arm rises, I feel more comfort (not I have less pain)”. Instruct yourself what you do want, not what you do not want. For example, when an arm rises in the air as you vividly imagine (what you see, hear, smell, taste, feel in detail) the balloon pulling it, it feels like there is another self or another mind pulling the balloon automatically. That other mind is your unconscious mind. The more details you imagine, the better. For example, if someone imagines the balloon a certain color, it is more real, and the arm will lift faster, automatically. You want to get lost in your imaginary dream.
With hypnosis, you can learn how to control your body and mind more than you ever thought possible. You can improve your daily life and feel more relaxed. This is good because most of life’s problems are caused by stress.
If you vividly imagine holding ice (and remember the sensory feelings of ice, the numbness) in one hand, your hand getting very cold and imagine the other hand is in hot water, you can make the one hand smaller, and the other slightly larger. Blood vessels shrink in the one hand and dilate in the other. If you vividly imagine walking up a steep hill, you can raise your pulse rate. If you imagine running up the hill, you can increase your pulse rate 20 points.