Self-Hypnosis: What is it and why it works.

One of the most powerful tools to enhance your outcomes when working with a certified hypnotherapist is practicing self-hypnosis in-between one-on-one sessions. Just like anything, repetition and practice allow you to get better and better.

The more you practice hypnosis the deeper you go each time. While some issues can be resolved in a session or several (the true breaking point is often seen at around 12 private sessions), it is the work we do daily where we really see growth on an ongoing basis.

Like meditation or yoga, the practice of hypnosis is something that can be done daily to help you realign, focus, and get present. Self-hypnosis is the tool that helps you make change, reconnect, and/or enhance your work with your hypnotherapist. So whether you’re working with me or just want to try hypnosis out for yourself, give self-hypnosis a try.

According to Grace Smith Hypnotherapy, self-hypnosis is defined as utilizing relaxation techniques without a hypnotherapist — typically including deep relaxation, positive affirmations, and imagining desired outcomes. Uses include managing public speaking anxiety, relieving anxiety symptoms, reconditioning the subconscious with positive framing, and deepening work with a personal hypnotherapist.

How it works

Per Mind Body Green, “hypnosis works by putting us into a suggestible state in which what we imagine feels real to the unconscious mind.” This enables breaking negative patterns by allowing the unconscious to release them — difficult in normal waking states. Self-hypnosis principles apply to addiction recovery, confidence-building, healthier lifestyles, stress reduction, and becoming unstuck generally.

Getting started: a 10-step process

1. Write your intention/affirmation/suggestion: Keep these short, memorable, positive, and present-tense. Examples include:

• Eating foods that contribute to my health and well-being is within my power.
• Every day in every way I am more and more committed to my goal.
• I am unconditionally friendly to myself and others.
• Every day in every way I am becoming more and more at peace with my life.
• Thoughts flow through me with ease.
• My thoughts are positive. I embrace happiness.

2. Get set up: Turn off your phone and distractions, find a quiet place where you’ll be undisturbed. Sit in a comfortable chair with feet flat on the floor or lie down. (If you struggle with insomnia or feel yourself falling asleep when lying down, try a seated position.)

3. Memorize your intention/affirmation/suggestion: Do this by having your affirmation written on a piece of paper and looking at it at an angle where the wall and the ceiling meet. (This is just to tire your eyes out while you are memorizing your affirmation.)

4. Breathe and check in: Become aware of your current level of stress on a scale of one to ten — ten being a full-scale panic attack and zero being zero stress at all. Then close your eyes all the way down.

5. Become aware of your body in the space: Do a full body scan and relax your muscles from head to toe. Use the imagery of a color you love relaxing you from the top of your head down, or a waterfall of energy or light washing through your body, relaxing and releasing. Release any part of your body where stress lives and breathe into those tight spaces.

6. Notice how heavy your eyelids feel — try and open your eyes, but notice how heavy they are and that they just want to stay closed no matter how hard you try. Wash the color, light, or energy through your body again from head to toe.

7. Count yourself down from ten to one. Imagine you’re walking down a staircase, a path, or an elevator taking you down from ten to one, feeling deeper and deeper relaxed with each number.

8. Repeat your affirmation in your mind or out loud anywhere from 3–21 times (depending on how much time you have).

9. See, feel, and experience the results: This is the most important step. Really imagine in your mind’s eye how you would feel and experience life with the results you’re aiming to create. How does your body feel? What are your thoughts, emotions, and relationships like when you achieve this goal? This is part of what’s known as future pacing — where we are achieving our goals through first imagining them and getting there by knowing what it really feels like to have accomplished this goal. Feel it in your body, see it in your mind, really fully experience the results of what you’re creating. Imagine the situation as you wish it to be. Engage all your senses — see it, feel it, hear it, even taste it.

Per Mind Body Green: “Imagine you can run through the scenario that you wish to shift. Imagine it as it is. So, if you’re stressed or procrastinating, imagine you can observe yourself experiencing this like a mind movie, through a compassionate lens as if you were your own best friend. This can be more visual, or more emotional, depending how your mind works.”

10. Close the session: Wash that color, energy, or light through your body once more. Check in on your new lower stress level and notice how much better you already feel!

“Gently bring yourself out by breathing in relaxation and breathing out release a few more times. Hold your hand to where you feel the positive resources and feelings in your body. Thank yourself for giving yourself this moment of relaxation and intentional journeying into your mind.”

Repeat daily or whenever you need to reconnect, calm down, and relax. It only takes around 3–5 minutes and can be done almost anywhere you are able to close your eyes. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis — your mind is always doing the work. A hypnotherapist is there to help and guide you, but ultimately you are the one that controls your success and outcomes. Self-hypnosis is the tool to help you get to where you’d like to go. Another beautiful tool in your self-care toolbag!

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Ready to deepen your practice with one-on-one guidance? Book your first session — $100, online, or try the free sessions on YouTube.