I’ve been discussing ways to develop new habits in a previous blog post. To help you further, I wanted to share how self-hypnosis can be a brilliant way to help you mentally rehearse how to create a new habit*.
As is well known, many successful athletes use visualisation techniques – and the ones they use are all virtually identical.
Having used self-hypnosis for many years, I believe that it is one of the best and easiest techniques for anyone who wants to change. It can take less than five minutes to get right. And it’s a great technique to help you acquire new habits and focus on them.
Self-hypnosis helps relax your body and mind. And by focusing on your goal, it helps you achieve calm and positivity through mental rehearsal.
I go much deeper into this when helping people with anxiety, self-confidence or whatever else is holding them back during a guided hypnotherapy session.
But there are certainly elements that you can make use of at home.
How to self-hypnotise at home in 6 easy steps
1/ First ask: what do you want? Look at the tips in goal setting in yesterday’s blog. Then summarise your goal into one simple line, such as: “I want to achieve xyz by xyz date.”
2/ Next, imagine that you have two kinds of wires that go into every nerve and fibre of your body.
One kind controls all of the automatic functions of your body, like your blood pressure and heart rate.
The other connects to every single voluntary part of your body that YOU can control – leg movements, muscle tension, your speed of thought and so on. So, if you were to massively reduce power in that second bundle, your limbs, breathing and mind would instantly relax.
Now lift up the index finger of your left hand, and imagine under that index finger is a switch that will turn on or off that entire bundle of voluntary muscles and mental speed. Right now, that light switch is in the ON position.
Close your eyes, take a very deep breath and hold your breath for five seconds. To relax into self-hypnosis, simply turn off that light switch by slowly dropping your finger.
3/ As you do, slow your breathing, relax all your muscles and limbs, and allow yourself to relax completely, as if all of the power had just been turned down.
4/ With the power down, focus on your goal. See yourself being successful. Hear all the sounds that are important. And really feel and multiply the positive feelings you will have when you achieve the goal or new habit.
5/ For maximum effect, repeat the above in different scenarios and situations and notice how you are different in the future to how you are now.
6/ Do this for up to 20 minutes daily.
