Out of all the mental health techniques, naturopath therapies and alternative treatments, the tenets of hypnosis still appear to be shrouded in secrecy or at least perceived that way. Just think... clinical hypnosis has been around for more than 200 years. Hypnosis itself has probably been around since the beginning of time, at least in terms of self-hypnosis!
What is hypnosis?
All hypnosis to a degree is self-hypnosis! Whatever you focus your mind on and intensely concentrate on while filtering everything else out is considered hypnosis.
Deep concentration is a form of hypnosis - self-hypnosis!
In order to truly understand how hypnosis works, it's important to first understand it's a variety of concepts.
Hypnosis is an altered state of mind. In this state, there is a shift in brain wave activity which leads the individual toward a shift in awareness.
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This awareness leads to a heightened state. Individuals are able to shift their focus to specific qualities of an experience and hold them there.
This heightened state of awareness produces tunnel vision. Through tunnel vision, individuals are able to isolate, intensify and ingrate their focus on one key perception or experience and hold their concentration there. Everything surrounding the experience gets blocked out and this experience allows the individual to tap into their unconscious mind.
How does hypnosis work?
Through an intense state of heightened awareness and tunnel vision, the individual is able to shift thoughts and insights to and from their unconscious mind.
The unconscious mind is the warehouse of thoughts, memories and experiences which collect over the years from the experiences an individual.
These experiences get collated and filed away. They can be pulled out at any time.
They usually appear through the conscious mind in a variety of ways, mostly in habits, mannerisms and the memories which get repressed, and usually come out in the form of dreams and nightmares.
Any experience an individual has, no matter what it is, how big or small or whether it's relevant or irrelevant, gets filed away. The bad news is that's a lot of stuff to carry around in the mind, especially when most of it is junk.
But the great news is since this process is so simple and always readily available, new thoughts and ideas can get deposited into the unconscious at will. And using hypnosis new positive habits can replace habits working against you quickly.
Why is hypnosis so effective as a therapy?
There is the expression "out with the old and in with the new". Well, this is clinical hypnosis in a nutshell. The hypnotherapist acts as a journey guide who taps into the unconscious mind and removes junk which cause bad habits and negative thoughts.
This junk is usually embedded in neural pathways on the brain (mind). The hypnotist then helps ingrain new idea/thought patterns in order for more positive and productive neural pathways to be produced.
It's these new pathways which lead to better habit forming and more effective decision-making.
While under hypnosis, the therapist gives the patient post-hypnotic suggestions which will help them readily identify their more, effective thought processes. As a matter of fact, when old, bad habits start to seep into the conscious thought process, they might sometimes be used as the "alert" sign to shift to the new thought/behavior process.
Hypnosis works best when the patient has effective triggers they can relate to and act upon.
The overall goal of hypnosis is to create or re-create a whole new line of conditioned thoughts - good, positive thoughts which will lead the individual toward the healthy behavior they most want!
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