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Self-Hypnosis |
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Those of you new to relaxation may wonder at the title Self-Hypnosis. You have heard of Hypnosis, but always though of it as something someone performed on another person, not themselves. Certainly there is a whole set of healthcare practitioners who hypnotize other people for many purposes such as habit change (smoking cessation,etc.), pain reduction, and even childbirth or other medical procedures. In these cases, the clinician leads a person into hypnosis, an altered state of deep relaxation, and concentrated focus, which is goal oriented to achieve some purpose.
Self-Hypnosis applies similar techniques of deep relaxation, concentrated focus, and purposeful orientation, the only difference being that it is directed by the individual. As with any relaxation technique, early learning is enhanced and quickened through the use of an audiotape to lead you through the exercise until you know it well enough to do it on your own. You can purchase one of these pre-recorded relaxation tapes, or you can record your own.
In the basic exercise we will do first, you are going to use Self-Hypnosis to alter sensations in your arms and legs. You are basically going to use a combination of words and images to do this. You are basically going to practice consciously giving commands to your brain to carry out the changes in sensation in your arms and legs. Communicating with the brain is a big part of any relaxation technique, and it helps to understand some basics about how to talk to and give commands to the brain.
For our purposes we will make some generalizations about the brain. The brain, as you probably know, is divided into the left brain and the right brain, and these two hemispheres have some very different functions, and communicate in different ways. The left brain is the seat of language, and communicates in words and symbols. The right brain is the seat of emotion and patterns, and communicates in images. So we are going to use words to communicate with the left brain, and images to speak to the right brain. In this way we will enlist both halves of the brain in reaching a state of deep relaxation and alteration of sensation in our limbs.
To start, you should follow the steps 1-5 in Article #2 above. Once you have completed those steps, focus your attention on your arms and legs. This focus tells the brain where you want it to carry out the task of changing sensations. Next you pay attention to the sensations in the arms and legs as they are now- anything you can feel, from tension to coolness, etc.
Now you use the power of your left brain to begin altering the sensation in your left arm and hand, by repeating the following phrase three times to yourself silently, while focusing on your left arm: MY LEFT ARM IS HEAVY AND WARM
At the same time you engage the power of your right brain by imagining yourself in a place where you could totally let go and relax, a place where you would be pleasantly warm--a beach with sunshine overhead warming your skin, or in a hot tub of water, or a warm shower- wherever you personally would be able to be relaxed, calm, and warm. Add to this by focusing on your left arm and imagining it becoming pleasantly heavy and warm, the arm perhaps being pulled or pushed gently down by some weight, imagine the arm floating down into your chair, the skin warming, the blood vessels opening to warm the arm and hand, the skin.
Then switch your attention to the right arm and hand, and repeat the same procedure for them, and then the left leg and foot, the right leg and foot, and then both arms and both legs, and then both arms and legs, and finally you can focus on your whole body, from the shoulders down, and spread the heaviness and warmth throughout your whole body.
At each stage, you say the appropriate phrase silently to yourself, three times, while focusing on the part of the body you are relaxing, and continuing to imagine yourself in the warm, relaxing place.
The whole exercise at first will likely take you ten to fifteen minutes. As you get better at it you can relax yourself with this exercise in three to five minutes, and the advantage of that is that it becomes an exercise you can do while watching television (during the 3-5 minutes of commercial messages that come on the half hour and hour of most programs).
When you are using this as a primary form of relaxation, at first you can do it 2-3 times per day, later 5-6 times per day as it takes less time. Eventually you can use it maybe once a day after several weeks of practice and you notice that you are more relaxed in general. Once again, let me mention that any form of relaxation should be done with the full awareness and agreement of your health practitioner. For example, relaxation practiced regularly can lower your blood pressure. If you are hypertensive, and are taking antihypertensive medication, you need to let your physician you are relaxing regularly because he/she will need to gradually reduce the dosage of this medication so that you do not have a hypotensive crisis. So please keep your physician informed.
The above exercise in Self-Hypnosis can be very helpful in treating headaches, muscle tension and migraine types. We will share some of the research findings in this area in the near future. If you do apply this technique to reduction of your headaches- keeping your physician in the loop- please let us know how you do with that. We will share that with others, with your permission.
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