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The hypnotic state reduces stress, anxiety, and self-limiting thoughts.  Consequently, you experience physical relaxation, emotional relaxation, and a silencing of your inner critic, all while opening your subconscious to limitless possibilities.  When hypnosis is coupled with counseling and guided imagery, they work together as powerful tools to harness the mind’s ability to create positive transformative change.

Research has shown that hypnosis can effectively calm parts of the brain responsible for heart rate, blood flow, and breathing, thereby facilitating a state of deep relaxation.  This relaxation opens the subconscious mind to release the old way of doing things while welcoming new possibilities through cognitive and emotional processing.

Hypnotherapy empowers individuals to take control of their behaviors and thought patterns.  Different from traditional counseling, hypnotherapy first involves deep physical and emotional relaxation as a precursor to behavioral changes being seeded below the surface, within the individual’s subconscious.

By reframing negative thoughts and beliefs, hypnosis can help individuals move toward more positive, empowering, and life-changing behaviors.  This can be particularly beneficial for those struggling with stress related issues. A comprehensive list of self-improvement and behavioral areas commonly addressed through hypnotherapy can be found at: https://www.hypnosismotivation.com/about/issues-frequently-addressed-through-hypnotherapy/

Through deep relaxation techniques, hypnosis can effectively alleviate stress and tension, promoting overall well-being and mental clarity.  Moreover, by instilling motivation and confidence, hypnotherapy empowers individuals to pursue their goals and aspirations with renewed vigor and determination.

The hypnotic state and its resulting physical and emotional relaxation has been shown to support a natural healing process within the body.  At a subconscious level, through stress reduction, hypnosis can potentially impact the body’s immune system, promoting better health and vitality.  This holistic approach to improved health emphasizes the interconnectedness of mind and body, paving the way for comprehensive physical and emotional well-being.

Following are quotes from well respected sources to further support the efficacy of engaging hypnosis to achieve physical and emotional wellbeing:

“In hypnosis, you can attain significant psycho-physiologic changes.” ~ Dr. Daniel Handel, National Institute of Health

 “…hypnosis is not mind control.  It’s a naturally occurring state of concentration; it’s actually a means of enhancing your control over both your mind and your body.” ~ Dr. David Spiegel, Assoc. Chair of Psychiatry, Stanford University School of Medicine

“The technique has been accepted by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Psychological Association” ~ Martin Orne, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pennsylvania

“The purpose of hypnosis as a therapeutic technique is to help you understand and gain more control over your behavior, emotions, or physical well-being.” ~ The Mayo Clinic

“Hypnosis is employed today to combat phobias, control bad habits, and enhance performance.” ~ Smithsonian Magazine

“…hypnosis is effective in alleviating chronic pain associated with various cancers.  Hypnosis can also be a part of the treatment program for irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory conditions of the mouth, TMJ disorders, and tension headaches, the panel concluded.” ~ National Institutes of Health

Why does it work?  “Because the patients are in an altered state, solely focused on the message, soaking it up, rather than in a psychological mode in which they can trivialize or ignore it.” ~ Dr. David Spiegel, Psychiatry Professor and Medical Director, Complementary Medicine Clinic at Stanford University

Your subconscious mind is an incredibly powerful part of your mental makeup.  It influences your thoughts, behaviors, emotions, and even your physical well-being.  It operates beneath the level of conscious awareness, processing and storing vast amounts of information while shaping your reality based on past experiences, beliefs, and conditioning.

Your subconscious mind also stores your habits, skills, and learned behaviors, such as riding a bike, driving a car, etc.  Once something becomes habitual, your subconscious takes over, freeing up the conscious mind to focus on other tasks.  At the same time, deep-seated emotions, fears, and beliefs are rooted in your subconscious.  If you’ve been conditioned to fear public speaking, your subconscious may well trigger anxiety whenever you face an audience to deliver talking points.

While people believe they make conscious decisions, studies suggest that subconscious processing plays a huge role.  Gut feelings, intuition, past experiences, and first impressions stored within your subconscious mind process information, as you respond to current circumstances.

The Reticular Activating System is the network in your brain that filters information.  If you strongly believe in something, your subconscious will seek evidence to reinforce that belief, shaping your perception of reality.  For example, if you believe you are unlucky, you’ll tend to notice every bad thing that happen.  If you believe you are lucky, you will first notice the positives taking place around you.

Many self-help teachings, like the Law of Attraction, emphasize programming the subconscious with positive thoughts and visualizations to attract desired outcomes.  The same is true when it comes to the use of a ‘vision board’ and similar tools.

The subconscious plays a role in psychosomatic illnesses and healing.  The placebo effect is a prime example of how belief and subconscious expectation can physically alter health.

Many breakthroughs, artistic inspirations, and problem-solving insights come from the subconscious during dreams or moments of relaxation.

The following are tools that can be used to re-program negative beliefs while re-wiring subconscious patterns:

1. Hypnosis– Helps access and rewire subconscious patterns.
2. Affirmations & Positive Self-Talk– Repeated positive statements help reprogram negative beliefs.
3. Visualization– Mentally picturing success enhances motivation and belief.
4. Gratitude & Journaling– Reinforces positive thought patterns.
5. Mindfulness– Becoming aware of subconscious triggers allows conscious change.

Through hypnotherapy and by learning the skills necessary to work with your subconscious, you can transform habits, overcome fears, rewrite undesirable behaviors, and create a more fulfilling life.

Reinforcing affirmations, positive self-talk, visualization, thoughts of gratitude, or mindfulness during hypnotherapy and through self-hypnosis significantly enhances each of these applications.

Your subconscious mind is an incredibly powerful part of your mental makeup.  It influences your thoughts, behaviors, emotions, and even your physical well-being.  It operates beneath the level of conscious awareness, processing and storing vast amounts of information while shaping your reality based on past experiences, beliefs, and conditioning.

Your subconscious mind also stores your habits, skills, and learned behaviors, such as riding a bike, driving a car, etc.  Once something becomes habitual, your subconscious takes over, freeing up the conscious mind to focus on other tasks.  At the same time, deep-seated emotions, fears, and beliefs are rooted in your subconscious.  If you’ve been conditioned to fear public speaking, your subconscious may well trigger anxiety whenever you face an audience to deliver talking points.

While people believe they make conscious decisions, studies suggest that subconscious processing plays a huge role.  Gut feelings, intuition, past experiences, and first impressions stored within your subconscious mind process information, as you respond to current circumstances.

The Reticular Activating System is the network in your brain that filters information.  If you strongly believe in something, your subconscious will seek evidence to reinforce that belief, shaping your perception of reality.  For example, if you believe you are unlucky, you’ll tend to notice every bad thing that happen.  If you believe you are lucky, you will first notice the positives taking place around you.

Many self-help teachings, like the Law of Attraction, emphasize programming the subconscious with positive thoughts and visualizations to attract desired outcomes.  The same is true when it comes to the use of a ‘vision board’ and similar tools.

The subconscious plays a role in psychosomatic illnesses and healing.  The placebo effect is a prime example of how belief and subconscious expectation can physically alter health.

Many breakthroughs, artistic inspirations, and problem-solving insights come from the subconscious during dreams or moments of relaxation.

The following are tools that can be used to re-program negative beliefs while re-wiring subconscious patterns:

1. Hypnosis – Helps access and rewire subconscious patterns.
2. Affirmations & Positive Self-Talk – Repeated positive statements help reprogram negative beliefs.
3. Visualization – Mentally picturing success enhances motivation and belief.
4. Gratitude & Journaling – Reinforces positive thought patterns.
5. Mindfulness – Becoming aware of subconscious triggers allows conscious change.

Through hypnotherapy and by learning the skills necessary to work with your subconscious, you can transform habits, overcome fears, rewrite undesirable behaviors, and create a more fulfilling life.

Reinforcing affirmations, positive self-talk, visualization, thoughts of gratitude, or mindfulness during hypnotherapy and through self-hypnosis significantly enhances each of these applications.

Over the years, I have observed the power of suggestion.  Stop for a moment to consider the power of words as one method of conveying suggestions.  Using words, a politician conveys an agenda.  Using words, a salesperson sells goods.  Using words, a teacher teaches.  Using words thoughts are imparted from one person to another or from one generation to another.  There are words that make us laugh and words that make us cry; words that bless, and words that condemn; and words that wound; and words that heal.

Some people respond better to direct (literal) suggestions, while others respond best to indirect (inferred) suggestions.  Most of us can respond to both direct and indirect suggestions but generally we have an underlying (subconscious) preference for one or the other.

Being aware of a person’s suggestibility and sculpting your communication to be congruent with their communication uptake profile is essential to achieving the best results in all manners of communication.

Our suggestibility typically comes for our primary care giver.  Most often, this is our mother.  If the child experiences his or her mother saying what she means and meaning what she says, he or she will usually be more responsive to direct suggestions.  If the verbal or non-verbal aspects of her communication do not reflect consistency, the child begins to search for the real meaning.  He or she begins to look for the implied meaning, rather than what was actually said.

An interesting aspect of our suggestibility is that there is a tendency for a person who hears literally (directly) to speak indirectly (inferentially) and for the person who hears indirectly to speak directly (literally).  I have observed this through communication with my wife, who likes the room temperature warmer than I do.  She may ask, “Does it seem warm to you?”  For many years, I would say, “No.”  In a short time, she would seem, without explanation, to be a bit feisty towards me.  I would ask, “What’s the matter?”  She would respond, “Nothing!”  I would say, “You seem to be upset about something.  What is the matter?”  She would respond, “You know.”  I would say, “No, I do not know.”  After we went through that ‘dance’ for a while, she would say, “I asked you to turn the air conditioner cooler, and you didn’t do it.”

I finally came to understand that my wife’s questions were really requests.  Now when she asks, “Does it seem warm to you?”  I respond, “No, but if you would like the air conditioner temperature to be cooler, I will be glad to adjust it.”

All one needs to do is to look at how suggestibility is used in advertising, where the objective is to catch the attention of everyone.  In all forms of advertising, you will find both literal and inferential messages about the benefits of purchasing a product all in the same advertisement.

In terms of communication between couples, the words “I love you” will resonate louder with a person who takes information in better when communicated literally.  Whereas a gift of flowers and a box of candy will resonate louder with another who takes information in better when communicated inferentially, this because the flowers and box of candy say to that person the words “I love you,” though in a different way.

In summary, it is important if not essential, in all forms of communication, to focus on and understand how the person with whom you are communicating is processing that which you are intending to communicate.  Failing to do so will cloud casual communication; communication between friends; communication between spouses and partners; and even communication between therapists and their clients or patients.

Failing to understand what the listener hears, in terms of how they process what they hear, is what causes an individual who is trying to get a point across to walk away in frustration thinking “What doesn’t he or she understand?  It’s like everything I’m saying is going in one ear and out the other!”

In conclusion, effective verbal communication relies on your being aware of how you are saying what you are saying, to best engage the suggestibility profile of the person with whom you are communicating.

Ending Thought:

Literal Communication and Inferred Communication represent two different ways people convey and interpret messages.  Literal communication is direct and explicit in meaning.  Whereas, inferred communication is indirect and implied in meaning.  Understanding the differences between the two is essential if one’s goal is to meaningfully communicate effectively with the broadest swath of individuals.

NOTE: To accomplish this objective, I administer a questionnaire to my clients.  Their scores help me to understand their information uptake profile.  Thereafter, I alter my communication output to mirror their information uptake profile.  This allows the gears of communication to turn smoothly, as is the case with the gears of a precession timepiece. Because hypnosis involves post hypnotic suggestions, I view their scores, as a reflection of their suggestibility.