By Rena Greenberg
Hypnosis can help you to move from being stuck in a rut to a place where you can reach your full potential.
Napoleon once said, “Imagination rules the world.” Hypnosis is based on our unique ability to imagine and concentrate. When we develop and use this amazing power of our minds to imagine—and thereby create our own reality—so called “bad” habits can be broken and new “positive” habits can be formed.
Consciously and intellectually, we may believe we want to be a nonsmoker or we want to be thin. Yet, in order to change deep-seated patterns and beliefs about ourselves, such as having a need to reach for that cigarette, soda or bag of chips, it’s necessary to bypass the conscious mind and go directly to the root of all behavior—the subconscious mind.
The conscious mind is the logical, analytical, critical part of our mind—the part that rationalizes away all our good intentions. During hypnosis, the conscious mind is lulled into a passive state and the subconscious mind is free to accept, uncritically, the beneficial suggestions given to you by a practitioner—or even yourself—and then act on them to bring you the benefits you are seeking.
The subconscious mind controls functions and actions, and what many people don’t realize is that imagination is stronger than conscious willpower. If a person decides to lose weight, but at the same time is unwittingly imagining how deprived she is and how good that brownie would taste and feel, the imagination will always win. And then, of course, a sense of failure, self-hate and guilt takes over and starts the cycle of more failure.
However, by becoming deeply relaxed (essentially, hypnosis is a pleasant, wonderful state of deep relaxation), blocking out all external stimuli and concentrating on the suggestions, it is easy to alter negative patterns of behavior by imagining ourselves being, looking, feeling and sounding the way we want to be.
Hypnosis enhances personal power. It restores your control over your own life by implanting suggestions into the subconscious mind to help you do what you consciously and intellectually want to do. It can help you to move from being stuck in a rut to a place where you can reach your full potential.
Try This Exercise
You might be surprised at how strong your imagination really is. I’d like you to try a simple exercise. Sit comfortably, take a few deep breaths and exhale slowly and easily. Close your eyes. Imagine that you are sitting at a table with a plate in front of you. An orange is on the plate.
Look at the skin and the color of the orange. Pick it up and cut it into segments. Watch the juice flow from it. See the seeds, white membrane and pulp. Pick up a segment and bring it toward your nose. Smell it. Now slowly begin to eat the slice of orange. If you are like most people who try this exercise, you will begin to salivate even before you have “eaten” the orange.
Surprised? The power of hypnosis and the amazing capacity of your own mind may hold many more delightful surprises for you. Hypnosis is an amazing tool to make positive changes easily and effortlessly.
Every experience with hypnosis is unique depending on how comfortable you are in the situation, your motivation and your ability to relax and concentrate at that particular time. Why not try it? It can change your life! Today’s the day to increase your personal power!
Rena Greenberg, a Hay House author, can be reached at http://www.EasyWillpower.com. Her weight loss and gastric bypass hypnosis success has been featured in 150-plus news stories including USA Today, Woman’s World, The Doctor’s, CNN, Good Morning America and Nightline. PBS stations nationally aired Rena’s show, “Easy Willpower,” in August 2015. Her wellness program is sponsored in 75 hospitals and 100-plus corporations. She conducts hypnotherapy sessions with people all over the world on Skype.