If you are beginning to practice self hypnosis you might find this useful. Trust yourself and it gets easier. Have confidence that you will go deep. And if you don’t just assume that is for good reason and that you will give it a go next time.

I’ve been doing self-hypnosis for sometime as a way to relax, obtain improved focus and achieve a meditative and spiritual lift.  I both listen to guided visualizations that I have recorded and ones that I have purchased.  But mostly, I prefer to now just put myself in a trance with out an audio guide. I have my own induction technique that involves imagining wires from my forehead to all parts of body. In the my forehead is a big switch.

I leave my eyes open and tell myself “you will go into a deep meditative trance for X minutes and will achieve (insert what ever goal I have for the trance here). I then count down from 5 to 1. BY the time I get to 3 or so it becomes very hard for me to keep my eyes open. When I hit 1 I imagine the switch flipping and wham, I can feel my body relax in one big drop.

The cool thing is, just before I talk to myself, I look at a clock and decide when I want to wake up.  This morning I put myself under at 5:38 for 20 minutes. I woke up at 5:57.  During the trance, sometimes it feels like I’m really deep and sometimes not so deep. But in most cases I wake up within 1 minute of the stated time or right one time.  Every once in a while, while under, I’ll ask myself if it is time? But when it is really time it just comes to me with another count 5, 4, 3, waking up, 2, normalize, 1 and I’m awake.

Even when it doesn’t seem deep, the time goes by really fast. So I know I’ve gone right brain or alpha.

Let me know how your meditation works for you.  BTW - I also meditate most mornings for 15 to 20 minutes. And some evenings in bed. In bed I usually use a guided meditation and fall asleep. But just as the voice start the count down to waking up, wham, I’m awake.  So because I wake up at the right time I know that I’m hearing the guided meditation.  I then roll over and get a great night’s sleep.

You can view all of my posts on meditation/self-hypnosis here!

I’ve tried for years to meditate effectively. Once in a while I’m effective at quieting down my brain, but usually the self speak goes crazy as soon as I try to get quiet.

Now the strange thing is I’ve been using self-hypnosis for 3+ years to achieve focus, reduce stress and achieve some of my personal goals. I was lucky enough to be trained by a certified hypnotherapist when I tried to use hypnosis for weight loss. Well the pounds did not shed, but I learned that, other than with weight issues, I was easily hypnotized. In fact the therapist said, you’d be great at self-hypnosis, let me teach you how. So with a little instruction and on the recommendation of the following book of self-hypnosis scripts I got started:

---

Self Hypnosis for a Better Life

---

Using the scripts in the book as guides and knowing what I wanted each session to accomplish, I set out to write my own scripts. Then I recorded them using audacity, a free audio recorder. No music, just my own voice. I put these on my iPod and had instant hypnotherapy wherever I went. Over time I improved the scripts and made them shorter.

I also practice self-hypnosis without the aid of audio. I now use my iPod versions only when I’m unable to get to a completely safe and quiet location. Otherwise I can go deep without the aid of my trusty and beloved iPod. As long as I’m not completely stressed out or hopped up on too much coffee (rare these days) I can play these scripts in my head and go deep fast. Usually an 8 to 12 minute session has me refreshed and able to focus again on life’s challenges.

Now to the meditation! Last Tuesday I started taking a meditation class at the University of Richmond, taught by Mark. The first thing he said was meditation and self hypnosis are one and the same thing. They both get you to the Alpha and occasionally Theta brain wave states . I thought wow that is weird, why didn’t I connect the dots before and understand this? So now after two classes with 4 guided sessions and some practice I can meditate really well using self-hypnosis. I get to the trance state and tell myself I will be there for a certain time limit and then suggest to myself that my conscious brain just needs to be patient and wait and not interrupt. After a few repeats of the suggestions my brain is quiet and relaxed. In fact I got in a 30 minute mediation early this morning using this technique. I’m so thrilled to be able to get this quiet. If you are having trouble meditating you might want to try using self-hypnosis to get you there!

After writing and posting this article I found a post on litemind.com on creating a mental sanctuary. That is in fact the technique that I used this past week to get to a meditative state. My sanctuary is a beach and is not a building divided into rooms. Since I love the beach I think for now I will achieve the same affect as the rooms with different mindful imagery.