[img]560|left|Nicholas D. Pollak|remove link|no_popup[/img]My brother-in-law and his wife recently came from the East Coast to visit my wife and me.
In the 15 years I have known them, we never had talked about hypnotherapy as my profession. I took this as an opportunity to ask what questions they may have regarding hypnosis. They had not thought about it.
Stage hypnotists were scary, they said.
My sister-in-law has a heart arrhythmia, which acts up from time to time.
She felt hypnosis might help when she has an attack. I agreed. It would put her in a place where she could relax quickly, minimizing panic.
Those who are able to self-hypnotize know you can go from fully awake to a deep hypnotic state almost instantly. This takes practice. It is useful when faced with stressful situations from internal or external sources.
Although heart arrhythmia is a physical condition that strikes when it wants, an attack is significantly greater when a person is under stress. My sister-in-law was asking for tools to eliminate stress and reduce chances of a recurrence.
Unexpected Answer
I was surprised, though when she said she did not want to try hypnosis. “I have never been hypnotized,” she said, “and I don’t want to give you control of my mind.”
Hypnosis is not mind control. Hypnosis cannot even take place unless the client is willing to be hypnotized. Fictional books and movies, claim that hypnosis is used to mind control heroes, villains or the innocents.
Not true.
Although a hypnotized person appears to be asleep, he is alert to everything going on. In the mid 1800s a test was conducted to find out more about hypnosis, appearing to be asleep vs. actually sleeping.
Here Is the Proof
One individual was hypnotized and another was given a bed and asked to go to sleep. A third person read a paragraph from a book to the other two. The results were surprising at the time. The sleeping person had no clue anyone had entered the room. The hypnotized person, although unable to repeat the paragraph verbatim, he had a good understanding of the contents.
This proved to scientists that there was something to this hypnosis thing. This added further proof to the discoveries that Dr. James Braid had made a century earlier, performing major surgeries using hypnosis as an anesthetic. No anesthetic was available until ether and chloroform were discovered late in the 19th and early in the 20th centuries.
I showed my sister-in-law techniques to reduce stress without hypnosis.
By the way, hypnosis can be created by anyone at any time. Pick a quiet spot, sit in a chair upright, feet flat on the floor, hands resting on your thighs. Take a deep breath, telling yourself you are inhaling relaxation and exhaling tension.
After a couple times, allow yourself to breathe normally. Stare at a fixed point. When you notice your eyelids becoming heavy, let them to close. Focus attention on your toes and on each part of your body for relaxation.
I relax my toes, the soles of my feet, then the ankles, calves, knees, all the way to the tips of my fingers and the top of my head, to my chin and jaw.
Following this method, notice you are not unconscious, but relaxed as you ever have been. You also are aware of everything around you.
Use this time to visualize yourself in a relaxed mode.
Or visualize changes that you want to create in your life. This powerful tool achieves changes that have been hard to make. If you want to quit smoking, visualize yourself doing things without a cigarette. If you want to lose weight, see yourself at your target weight, doing what you must to lose weight.
Always see yourself not the way you are with your current problems but free of those issues.
You have the potential to accomplish anything provided you program yourself to accomplish them.
Try this.
Enjoy the relaxed sensation hypnosis offers. If you are having trouble relaxing, visit a hypnotherapist to learn self-hypnosis.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me by telephone, 310.204.3321, or by email at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net. See my website at www.hypnotherapy4you.net