Why are growing numbers of insurance companies, including Medicare now paying for hypnosis therapy for pain or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? Because it works! When many people think of hypnosis, they get a vision of sitting or laying down, with a mad scientist in front of them, dangling a watch and repeating "you are re getting very sleepy...veerry sleepy... Well maybe I'm exaggerating about the mad scientist thing; using a watch is an old school procedure, but nonetheless, focusing on the watch does keep your mind from wandering, and keeps you concentrating, which is the key to being hypnotized. Hypnotism is actually just a state of concentration and focused attention. The focus is on a mental image, which in the past has been mainly used to help people get rid of bad habits, such as smoking, drinking, low self-esteem, depression, etc. A trained therapist should do hypnotism at first, but with training and practice, you can easily learn self-hypnosis to train your mind and body to make the changes you seek. In the beginning, the therapist will speak slowly and softly, in an attempt to help you concentrate, and actually bore you into a relaxed state. Once relaxed, access into the subconscious is possible. When the subconscious is available, suggestions, or thoughts, are made that can help solve problems, reduce anxiety and control pain. By using the subconscious power, the mind is more intensely focused and the post-hypnotic suggestions have powerful impact. Contrary to popular belief, when you wake up, you are aware of what happened, and you will remember the subconscious suggestion. After while, as you learn to put yourself into a relaxed state, you can hypnotize yourself to reinforce the suggestions. There is a variety of hypnosis tapes on the market today that will help you get better at self-hypnosis. I like to use a tape, because sometimes when I try it by myself, I fall asleep, or find that I am unable to get relaxed enough to get into my subconscious because my mind drifts off to work that needs to be done, chores, etc. When you fall asleep, you can get into your subconscious through your dreams, but using dreams is more effective if you give yourself a suggestion or question first; with hypnosis, the suggestion is given after you are in the relaxed state. Today, the benefits of hypnotism cannot be ignored. Even though no one knows exactly how it works, when you learn to use the mind to gain control over the body, you can block out pain, relieve stress, conquer digestive problems, and for some people, even relieve panic attacks. Get yourself a self-help hypnosis tape and see what happens. It's definitely worth a try! |
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