I often hear people tell me “I don’t think I can be hypnotized” or ask “will I lose control of my actions?” What I tell them is that they may experience hypnotic phenomena everyday. Have you ever been driving your usual route home from work, only to arrive at home and realize you don’t remember anything about the drive? Or perhaps have gotten lost in a book’s story line to the point that an hour has passed by in what feels like five minutes? These may be examples of experiencing a hypnotic state.

Our mind is comprised of a conscious and unconscious. Our unconscious stores all of our past experiences, memories, beliefs, habits, patterns, values and accounts for around 95% of our mind power. On the other hand our conscious mind (our critical/analytical mind) only accounts for 5%. Our conscious mind is the goal setter and the unconscious mind is the goal getter. It is our driving force behind everything that we do. This mean that if you have limiting beliefs about yourself, are living your life from someone else’s value system, or have negative habits that are keeping you restricted, the work you may want to focus on is this unconscious shifting.

The great thing is that through the use of self-hypnosis we may create better communication between the conscious and unconscious mind so we may achieve more of what we set out for ourselves. In this way the conscious and unconscious mind are in alignment.

We naturally go into and out of trance like states through out our day but the most effective times to use self hypnosis are the moments right before falling asleep and the moments after waking. During these moments our brain waves are naturally in a theta state, which is what we want to achieve when using hypnosis.

Why might you want to use self-hypnosis in the first place? Perhaps you have set a goal for yourself and for whatever reason are not able to achieve it. Maybe you have been dealing with uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, or behaviour patterns. Consciously, you know you want to change but your unconscious mind may be running the show. You may be experiencing limiting beliefs about your capabilities.

Here is a very simple and effective form of self-hypnosis that I encourage you to use before bed each night and first thing in the morning:

Find a comfortable position, whether seated or lying down. Relax your body completely from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, even scanning through the body and relaxing each muscle. Begin to slow down your breath, breathing in for 3 counts and out for 6 counts. Focus on the breath and imagine the breath as a wave of relaxing energy that washes over you each time you inhale and exhale. Once feeling a greater sense of relaxation begin to countdown from 10 to 1 with each exhale. Say the words “I am going deeper” with each number you count. So for example, on your first exhale count 10 and say; “I am going deeper” and repeat this until you reach the number one. Once you reach one begin repeating a mantra or phrase of affirmation with each breath you take. For example on your inhale breath state quietly to yourself “I am” and on the exhale use a phrase that resonates with you and want you want in the present tense such as “successful”. Repeat this breath and mantra practice for up to 21 rounds. From there begin to visualize yourself doing what it is you want to be doing, feeling the way you want to be feeling, acting as you want to be acting, interacting with others as you want to be. Visualize this as if it were happening in the present tense as you were looking out of your own eyes. Make this as vivid and life like as possible. Take your time here in this place getting a real felt sense of it.

The thing about our unconscious mind is it does not know the difference between something real or imagined, it just accepts things as facts. This is where you create that communication between the conscious and the unconscious and you learn that you have the capability to create any reality you wish for yourself.