Why should you try hypnotherapy? What will it do for you? Is it safe? How does it work? Is there any risk?
For a modality that is so powerful and effective, it’s unfortunate that so many people have so many misperceptions about hypnosis and hypnotherapy.
In this episode, Ted explains clearly and simply why hypnotherapy is something you should try. Whether you want to quit smoking, be more confident, let go of bad habits or just take a break from stress or manage anxiety, hypnotherapy can be effective and powerful. Check it out or share with someone you think might benefit.
Listen to this podcast episode now:
Greetings!
What do we seek? I would suggest that we all seek liberation or freedom.
In my work, we seek to liberate ourselves from lack, limitation and lethargy, so that we can intentionally pursue a powerful path of personal transformation.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what it’s all about: personal transformation, done intentionally. It’s important to understand that we will transform, from young to old, from more energetic to less. As we get older, we will change.
But the question is, are you going to change in the direction that you want to, or will you change by default? Without the intention of being better, then you might become more cynical, maybe more tired, more pessimistic, especially in the face of today’s national situation.
We seek freedom, freedom to be able to make the choice to do better, think better, be better. Hypnotherapy is an excellent tool to make that happen.
So here are the top 10 reasons why you should try hypnotherapy. Yes, a little shameless plug for what I do. Let’s get right into it.
- Number one reason why you should try hypnotherapy: You’re already in hypnosis daily. Why not make it work for you?
We have this thing called suggestibility. It’s how we learn. Hypnosis is the ultimate learning state. When we’re kids, up until about eight or nine years old, we are very suggestible. Our minds are open. People will tell us all kinds of stuff, about Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny, and we’ll believe it. That’s when we learn a lot. Because our minds are open, we’re very suggestible.
That changes at about eight or nine years old because we develop another part of our mind called the critical faculty. What does that do? It allows us to ask questions and block incoming information, so we don’t learn as quickly, because now we have to consider stuff, think about it, judge its merits, and see if it’s true. When you are in the state of hypnosis, your mind is once again open to the power of suggestion, and when you go in for a hypnotherapy session, you’re telling me, your Friendly Neighborhood Hypnotherapist, “I want this to happen. These are my goals. These are the suggestions that I need.”
So we put you into that hypnotic state, a state of suggestibility, so that your mind becomes open to the suggestions that I will give you based on what you’ve told me you want.
We go into hypnosis every single day of our lives. We’re in hypnosis when we first wake up. How many people, when they first wake up have negative thoughts of worry or anxiety? So here you are in a suggestible state, giving yourself negative suggestions. That doesn’t work very well if you want to have a good day, and that’s why anxiety and fear and worry have a tendency to become self-reinforcing.
Another example of common everyday hypnosis is when you’re driving your car and you’re not paying attention and you miss your off ramp or miss your turn. You’re in a trance state, although it’s a fairly benign trance state.(Most of the time.)
Another example would be when you close your eyes, you put in your ear buds, and you listen to your favorite music. You get carried away by that wonderful feeling of the words and the sounds, a wonderful example of trance.
But there are examples that aren’t so wonderful. For example, you’re overwhelmed. You’re stressed. Things aren’t going your way. This overwhelm can put you into what we might call environmental hypnosis, which is a walking hypnotic state where, again, your mind is thinking all kinds of terrible things, like, ah, this sucks. I wish this didn’t happen. What’s wrong with me? Why did I make that mistake? Blah, blah, blah. And here we are in that suggestible state, again, giving ourselves negative suggestions.
So if hypnosis is a natural state, and if hypnosis is the ultimate learning state, why not put it to work for you? So that’s reason number one.
- Reason number two, hypnotherapy is safe and noninvasive when administered by a professional hypnotherapist, such as yours truly. There really aren’t any negative side effects from a hypnotherapy session. Remember, when you’re in hypnosis, you are awake, aware and fully in control.
Now that being said, sometimes when people come out of their first hypnotherapy session, they may feel a little headache. That is not common, but it does happen. Or sometimes people feel kind of a little bit out of it because they were in hypnosis. Typically, right after the first hypnosis session, and just for a few minutes.
Now, for people with severe mental issues, hypnotherapy is not appropriate or recommended.
We want to be really careful working with people with severe trauma using hypnotherapy. When working with somebody that has trauma, you need a hypnotherapist that knows about how to work with people in trauma.
In addition, many people will come to me and say, hey, help me remember this thing that I think happened to me when I was a kid. That’s not something I do, because what can happen is what’s called confabulation. In other words, memories may come up that may or may not be true. So as a rule, myself, as a hypnotherapist, I usually don’t help people to access memories that they think they might have had, because there’s no way of knowing whether these memories are true or not.
So with the exception of these rare examples, hypnotherapy is safe. It’s noninvasive, it’s natural, and it taps into a natural part of your own ability to learn. That was number two.
- Number three reason why you should try hypnotherapy: It’s not like what you see in TVs and movies. Those television shows and movies that portray hypnosis as scary are just not good for business.
Hey, look, I thought the movie Get Out was awesome, but it’s not an accurate representation of how hypnosis works. When you’re in hypnosis, you are not under somebody’s control. Remember, you’re awake, you’re aware, you’re fully in control, and you’re hearing everything the hypnotherapist is telling you. Many people, when they’re in their first hypnotherapy session, are thinking to themselves, “Hmm, I wonder if I’m really in hypnosis?” If you have that thought, it usually means you are.
Hypnotherapy uses the tool of hypnosis to create that state of suggestibility. When you’re in hypnosis, you’re hearing everything that’s being said. Almost everyone, when they come out of hypnosis, feel refreshed, feel good and feel very, very relaxed.
Hypnosis is very, very relaxing when done in a hypnotherapeutic situation. So forget everything you’ve seen on TVs and movies where “You are under my control!” It’s just well…TVs and movies. Okay, so that was number three.
- Number four, we are accessing the subconscious mind when we do hypnotherapy. You have two parts of your mind, you have your conscious mind, let’s say that’s 12% of your total mind power. Now, there’s different theories about this. Some say, some people say 10% conscious, 90% subconscious. We’re just going to say 12% conscious mind, 88% subconscious mind. It’s the 12% of your mind that has goals, dreams, desires, and things you want to accomplish. But it could be that you have in the 88% of your mind things such as associations or beliefs that are contrary to what you want to accomplish.
So for example, let’s say 12% of your mind wants to increase your income and make more money. But if at the subconscious level, you have beliefs, or you been told that the pursuit of money is sinful, or having lots of money is evil, then that 88% will keep you from achieving your goals, dreams and desires.
Using hypnotherapy, we can begin to change those things in that 88% subconscious mind that are not supporting your conscious goals, dreams and desires.
I’m reminded of a very interesting story that I heard when I was in my training at the hypnotherapy college, HMI. It was about a young woman who went for hypnotherapy sessions because every time she got into a relationship and was very close to making it permanent, such as marriage, she would sabotage it. This had happened two or three times, so she went to seek hypnotherapy. It turns out that she was involved in the movie industry, a producer or kind of behind the camera, but she liked to date and go out with actors. Through investigation and through conversation, she remembered that her mother, who had been married to an actor, would tell her when she was very young, whatever you do, don’t marry an actor, whatever you do, don’t marry an actor.
She had forgotten about that, yet these suggestions were still at play in her subconscious mind, causing her to sabotage any relationship she had with somebody who was acting in front of the camera.
That’s a perfect example of somebody that needed the power of suggestion to go in there and change that up so she could have healthier, longer lasting, maybe even more permanent, relationship.
That was number four, we can access the subconscious mind using the tool of hypnosis in hypnotherapy.
- Number five, hypnotherapy can help you sleep better. This is something that I’m very interested in and have a lot of experience working with. You can see the video on YouTube, go to com/insomnia. It’s a YouTube video of me working with a flight attendant who was really struggling with insomnia.
There’s a current article in The Atlantic Magazine. It’s an extensive article about the epidemic of sleep problems in our society today, truly, a health epidemic.
Why does hypnotherapy help you sleep better? The reason is because hypnosis is what is known as a venting state. When you’re in hypnosis, in a hypnotherapeutic situation, your mind and your body has an opportunity to vent out or let go of stress, tension, pressure and negativity. These are the things that build up in the body that keep people from sleeping. If you try to go to sleep and you’re all wound up and tight and anxious, it’s going to be very difficult to sleep.
Many people, the minute they put their head on the pillow, have the bad habit of trying to solve the problems in their life. That will keep you from sleeping as well, because that’s not a good time to try to solve all your problems. Not only that, but at that time, again, you are very suggestible. Your mind is open right before you fall asleep, so that is not a good time to worry or try to figure out how you’re going to solve this big problem.
Hypnotherapy allows a person to sleep better, even if that’s not what they’re coming for. What I mean by that is, I work with a lot of people that are not coming to me necessarily for insomnia, but they’ll come into the second or third session and say, “One thing I noticed is I’m sleeping a lot better”.
That’s because if they’re listening to the recording I make for them, then they’re having the opportunity to vent out tensions, stresses, anxieties and fears that could keep a person from sleeping well and in a refreshing manner throughout the night.
So that was number five, increase sleep quality.
- Number six, to decrease stress and overwhelm.
Think about a boiling pot of water like a teapot, right? Typically, a teapot has a little cap, and the little cap has a hole in it, and when the water starts boiling, the pressure of the steam goes through that little hole, and it makes a noise like a whistling teapot. Because pressure is building up inside, and that allows the pressure to be released. So there’s a certain capacity, and there needs to be a release of what is going on inside.
The human mind is the same way: we can only take so much stress, we can only take so much tension, have so many worries about what we have to do before things start getting messy. Like a cup that is already filled, you cannot put more into that cup until you empty out what is already in there.
What hypnotherapy allows a person to do is to vent out and let go of everything that’s built up, maybe through the day or from the week or even from the month. This build up can turn into overwhelm: when there’s too many things to think about, too many things to do, too many things to worry about. And I think we can both agree that our life today is extremely overwhelming. There are so many things we need to be concerned about and think about and worry about, especially if you’re watching the news or involved in following politics.
When we’re overwhelmed, the fight, flight response gets triggered, and that’s when we start feeling anxiety. We go into what is known as a hyper- suggestible state: again, a state of hypnosis where we are totally and completely open to not only our negativity, but the negativity of the world around us.
Hypnotherapy allows a person, in 20 minutes, a chance to vent out and release everything that’s been building up; a release of worries, a release of fears, a release of anxiety. This can happen very powerfully in a very short period of time, and the only other time your body has an opportunity to do that is when you’re asleep, assuming that you’re getting good sleep.
So that would be number six reason to try hypnotherapy is to decrease stress and overwhelm.
- Number seven is to change bad habits. I’m sure you’re familiar with people going to a hypnotherapist to quit smoking or lose weight. These are, in fact, the top two reasons why people go to a hypnotherapist: to free themselves from nicotine addiction, either smoking or vaping and to lose or manage weight.
Also, help with quitting or managing marijuana and alcohol use. In addition, bad habits such as nail biting.
But bad habits could also be poor habits of thinking, such as catastrophizing, negative thinking, and pessimism. These are all habits of the mind. Habits are considered automatic, subconscious or unconscious behaviors. Hypnotherapy allows a person to examine these unconscious behaviors, begin to work on changing them and get the added benefit of new ideas, new behaviors and new compelling outcomes at the level of the subconscious mind.
It’s important at this point to mention the fact that our minds like and are attracted to the known and the familiar. The known and the familiar is safe. Our subconscious minds like what we know, what we can expect and what we’re used to because that represents safety. Our minds don’t like to change. Change represents something new, something different, something unknown, and our minds will go through a lot to keep us from what is unknown. Again, our minds do not want to change.
So when you’re in hypnosis, in a hypnotherapeutic situation, you can visualize, you can imagine and you can pretend what it would be like to achieve your goal, to achieve your outcome. This creates more familiarity in your mind with your outcome or goal, and through the process of repetition and maybe using affirmations and the power of suggestion and visualization, you can get your mind to become much more comfortable and much more familiar with the things that you want and the outcomes you want to see.
When that happens, your mind starts moving you in that direction because you’re your desire is known, familiar and comfortable to your mind. And since that’s more compelling than what’s going on for you right now, you begin to notice that you’re thinking in a way that could be called a success mindset, as well as doing the behaviors and taking actions that move you towards greater success, health and happiness.
When we talk about a bad habit, it’s something that’s familiar and comfortable even if you don’t like it. Hypnotherapy can help you change that.
- Number eight: increasing confidence and self esteem.
Where do we learn self-esteem? Where do we learn self-value? For most of us, we learn it as children. It is given to us by our caretakers, in the way they relate to us, the attention they give us, the things that they tell us. Unfortunately for many of us, we didn’t have the attention that we needed as children. We didn’t have the support or encouragement or maybe even more damaging, we were criticized or told we weren’t going to amount to anything, or told, maybe tragically, we’re no good.
This is very, very detrimental to our ability to succeed. It’s very damaging to our ability to go out there and make our way in the world, because the fundamental belief is “I’m not going to be able to do anything because I’m a loser”, or “I’m no good at this”, or “I’m not smart enough”, or whatever the programming is in the subconscious mind. It can be very powerful if it was repeated for many, many years. We begin to believe it ourselves, even though consciously we may know it’s not true. The subconscious mind is where many of these fundamental beliefs are held, and those will dictate and drive and influence our behavior.
Through the power of suggestion, we can increase our self-confidence and cultivate the belief that we have the ability, the capability, the intellect, and the resourcefulness to figure stuff out.
I know some people, they would say something like, “Oh, I’m going to go backpacking in Europe. And I’d be like, “Oh, where are you going to stay?” And they’re like, “I don’t know. I’ll figure it out.”
Or I’ll ask: “Are you going to with a lot of money.” And they’ll say “No, I’m going to go with a little bit of money, but I’ll get a job there.”
“Well, how are you going to get a job?“ They’ll say something like “Oh, I’ll figure it out.”
That’s never something I would do: just go backpacking in Europe without a plan, like a detailed plan. But there are a lot of people that believe that they can figure it out. That’s the kind of confidence we’re looking for. So maybe we don’t want to backpack in Europe, but when we try something new, or take a risk, or even encounter everyday challenges, we want to have that belief in our mind: “You know what? I can figure this out. I have the resources, the intellect and I’m worth putting time and effort into!”
That can be accomplished using the tool of hypnosis in hypnotherapy.
- Number nine, we can increase health and well being. It’s almost a cliché that the number one unhealthy thing that we have in our lives is stress and hyper tension.
From the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed at night, it’s:
“I have to, I have to, I need to, I need to, I’ve got to, I’ve got to, I’ve got to be on schedule. I’ve got to be there on time…”
This creates stress and tension in the body, and if you don’t have time to take a vacation, or you’re not in the habit of taking down time, like I’ve talked about in many previous podcasts, then that tension, that stress, will build up in your body and create a whole host of negative physiological manifestations such as back aches, headaches, stomach problems, hypertension, narrowing of arteries, and it may lead to eating habits where you seek to soothe yourself, or drinking habits where you’re seeking to medicate yourself from the tension and stress of the day.
Hypnotherapy allows us to deal with the challenges of life much more easily, much more calmly. The power of suggestion can help us believe that no problem is insurmountable and that we should and need to take good care of ourselves.
Many, many people come to me asking me, please, help me take better care of me. Help me get better sleep. Help me eat better. Help me take more time to spend with my loved ones.
Increased health and wellbeing is one of the biggest reasons, if not the biggest reason, people come to me seeking hypnotherapy.
- Finally, the number ten reason why you should try hypnotherapy is because many, many people that are successful and well known have used it for great success, health and happiness.
If you do a quick search on the internet, there is a long list of famous people that have used hypnosis. Now, I can’t vouch for every name that’s out there, but I did do a search on people that have admitted or acknowledged that hypnotherapy has been helpful to them. Some of the names that came up were Adele, the singer, for stage fright and anxiety, Matt Damon for quitting smoking, Tiger Woods for focus and self-belief, and Aaron Eckhart for quitting smoking and drinking.
Again, this was on the internet. I can’t vouch that it’s true, and I really don’t want to take the time to try find the person on video or the actual quote saying that they said this. But there’s a whole long list of people.
Supposedly, Einstein was a big fan of hypnosis. Thomas Edison as well, so you can go and you can read about the many people that have used hypnotherapy and hypnosis for success, health and greater abundance.
I would suggest to you that anybody that has closed their eyes and imagined what they wanted and who they wanted to be, has used hypnosis. Mental rehearsal, before you go out and perform, or before you go out and involve yourself in an athletic competition, that is a form of hypnosis as well.
You close your eyes, you imagine hitting the ball, kicking the ball, catching the ball. Guided imagery, mental rehearsal, positive visualization, all just hypnosis by other names, and some people have figured out how to tap into the power of their mind. Most super successful people have figured out a way to tap into their subconscious mind so they can program their own minds for success and abundance. And of course, one of the great ways to do that is learning self-hypnosis, which I highly recommend. I may do something in the future such as teaching some classes online about self-hypnosis. If that sounds like something you want to see, please get in touch with me and let me know. If I get a bunch of people saying, Yes, I want to learn self-hypnosis, that would be a huge inducement to me to see if I can make that happen.
There you go. The top 10 reasons to at least try hypnotherapy. Now, if you’re listening to this and you already know that, and you’re already a client of mine, or if you’ve already experienced hypnotherapy, great, good for you. Pass this along to somebody you know that can use this information.
That’s what I have for you today. I hope you found this helpful. Thank you so much for tuning into my podcast.
I went online and I looked at some analytics, and I discovered that in my particular genre, health and wellness, my podcast, Ted in Your Head, is in the top 5% of podcasts in this particular genre. Who would have known?
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If you want to get in touch with me, I offer a complimentary half hour phone consultation, We get to talk about what’s going on with you, talk about your goals, dreams and desires, and how we can make that happen using the tool of hypnotherapy. If that sounds interesting to you, go to tedmoreno.com/contact, send me a little email. I’ll get back to you within a couple of days, more likely, 24 hours to schedule that consultation, and if you’re ready, we’ll schedule your first hypnotherapy session. I do sessions in person and over zoom, and I work with people all over the world.
Thanks so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. Take good care of yourself, and if you can, take good care of someone else as well.
Ted
Hello and welcome to Ted in Your Head, where we untangle the stuff going on inside your mind… help you let go of what you don’t need and expand the good stuff so you can enjoy your life and stay on the path to personal transformation.
Scary witches, goblins, ghosts and ghouls! It’s Halloween time!
Life transitions when we are young are fun! We are hopeful, optimistic and energetic.
Ted reads another chapter from his book The Ultimate Guide to Letting Go of Negative and Fear and Loving Life. (available on Amazon.com)
