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How to Increase Self Confidence Easily

Confidence is Key. Without confidence life is a struggle. Without confidence easy things become difficult or impossible. Without confidence life seems to pass you by while you sit on the sidelines and watch. If that was all, life would at least be tolerable and you could get by. The real problem comes when others make demands of you.

Bosses are very good at this. “I need you to do a presentation.” You can’t get out of it because your livelihood depends on it. But the very idea terrifies you, and so life becomes a waking nightmare until you have finally crashed and burned and it is not only in the past but you hope you made such a terrible job of it that you will never be asked again.

I had a patient who had a two-year old daughter and such was his terror of public speaking that he came to see me for help about the fear he was experiencing at the thought that in 18, or 20, or 30 years’ time he would have to stand up and give a speech at her wedding.

Another was the boss of his own company who dreaded management meetings because he found it difficult to stand up to the stronger wills of his subordinates. So this problem affects people at all levels on the success ladder.

Lack of confidence is not just about public speaking though. Other forms of public performance – like being watched while performing a task, interviews, tests and the like, all cause problems for you if your confidence is low.

But where this lack of belief in Self hurts the most is in your social interactions. Always the listener. Always the quiet one – at least until you get to know people and feel that you are safe with them. This sense of personal safety is important, because those who experience any sense of inadequacy are frequently sensitive souls who feel slights and digs much more deeply than those around them. They are usually much better at tuning in to the feelings of others and pick up very quickly, almost telepathically, on the genuineness, or otherwise, of those they encounter in their journey through life.

But at the heart of all this is the idea, the belief, that you are unworthy, or undeserving, or not good enough – and everyone else knows it, and talks about it. This is not a truth – it just feels like one. So at the heart of the problem is an idea about Self. This an idea that has been imposed, or learned simply from the way you have been treated in your younger years. Our school system is very good at making sure that everyone knows that only the most academically capable are worth anything. It is also very good at instilling a sense of failure in our hearts. What it fails, most spectacularly, to do is to teach us that we are wonderful, warm, deserving people who need to believe in, and follow, our dreams until our dreams change or we achieve our desires.

All of us are worthy. There are none who are better, or worse. Yes, of course, intelligence and ability have not been handed out equally, and some tasks are undoubtedly easier for some than they are for you. But skill and talent are not measures of worthiness. Understand this and you go a long way to undoing the subconscious programming that is holding you back behind the prison of your fears. A great way to begin to undo this subconscious programming is to use hypnosis.

I have created two tools to help you with this. The first is my book Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis. This devotes more space than this article to helping you understand the reasons for lack of self confidence and how to help change that. The other is my latest hypnosis recording Self Confidence that is available for immediate download either directly from my website or from Amazon. So grab your copy now – it even comes with a 30 day money-back guarantee if for any reason you aren’t happy with it. So there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain. It could change your life, so take action now.

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Beat Chronic Stress and Live Longer

Stress is a killer. There is no question about that. But stress is like a cigarette. The damage it does is slow and cumulative. You probably don’t realise the harm it’s doing until there is a health crisis and you find yourself asking “Why me?”

Don’t live with regret about the things you could have changed.

Stress, and the body’s response to it, is a natural and helpful process. It is a survival strategy. The problem is that it only evolved to deal with short-term stress, like escaping from a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, our bodies respond to our imaginary worlds as if they were real and so you can create a stress response just by thinking about something that scares you.

Most of us are incredibly skilled at imagining the worst outcomes for things that haven’t happened yet. We are also incredibly good at creating a whole host of troubling scenarios as we try to control a future problem. We have this crazy idea that if we worry about something enough then that will enable us to cope. It’s not true. We cope better when our reaction is spontaneous.

Because the body was never designed to deal with long-term stress, and because the body’s stress response was only ever for dealing with real, rather than imagined, threats, the body has no way of dealing with chronic stress.

Chronic stress creates negative health consequences. It has a negative impact on your immune system, it can indirectly affect your cardiovascular health, and there is now direct evidence that stress can shorten your life by around 8 years.

Stress & Immune System Responses

Stress wears away at your immune system. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD, and Ronald Glaser, PhD, noticed that the immunity of medical students was lowered during their three day exam period each year. They had fewer natural killer cells, and produced less gamma-interferon – which boosts immunity. So if you suffer from frequent minor illnesses – like colds – then that’s a good sign that you are not dealing effectively with the stresses in your life.

Another study by Richard Davidson (University of Wisconsin) clearly linked negative thoughts to lowered antibody levels and positive thoughts to increased immune system activity. This is clear evidence that your mind, and what you think, has a direct impact on your health.

Stress & Heart Health

There is no direct link between stress and hypertension, or stress and heart health generally, but there is an indirect link. When we are stressed, we tend to overeat; we fail to exercise sufficiently – simply because there’s so much to do and so little time to do it; and we can find ourselves drinking more alcohol than we know is sensible. All of these things do push blood pressure up and they also have a negative impact on heart health.

If heart disease is already present, then sudden severe stress can trigger a heart attack. The associated sudden rise in blood pressure can also cause a stroke.

Stress & DNA

Another study by Janice Kiecolt-Glaser et al looked at the impact of stress on the ends of DNA strands. Chromosome ends are protected by telomeres. As we get older these protective covers wear and get shorter. The length of an individual’s telomeres are linked to how long they live. In this study it was discovered that chronic stress causes wear and tear on the telomeres – thus shortening life. Those who participated in the study were caregivers for parents with Alzheimer’s. An earlier study reported a similar life-shortening impact on mothers of chronically ill children.

It seems that chronic stress will knock 4-8 years off your life.

How to live longer

Stress is really about your mind and what you do with it. It might seem, at times, that it’s all about the pressures of earning a living and paying bills; or about the pressure that other people – like managers and family members – place on you. It might even seem to be about you never being quite good enough and spending your life trying to prove that you are. So you push yourself constantly to do better, all the while repeating that mantra It’s not good enough – a mantra that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The solution is simple, just not easy. But then nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Without at least a little challenge we tend to undervalue the results. When we put a little effort in to learn a new skill we feel good about ourselves and value our accomplishment.

What you have to do is learn how to take control of your mind and learn to let go of those things that do not serve you.

If you are willing to put the effort in to learn that new, life-enhancing, skill, then first of all download my free book Freedom by filling in your details on the right – just underneath the book cover. If you like my style, then invest in a copy of Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis. This is available in Kindle or paperback from Amazon, or from iBooks if you like to read on your iDevice.

Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis is filled with tips, strategies and techniques to deal with the stresses in your life. It takes you, step by step, through the process of retraining your thought patterns and how to use your mind to ease the stresses in your life that are caused by anything from a relationship that isn’t working to dealing with challenges in the work place.

If you prefer to listen than to read then check out the guided visualisations on my download page. The chakra meditation is highly recommended.

 

If you have any questions about dealing with stress then leave a comment below.

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hypnosis Personal Development self-help

Jennifer Saunders Uses Hypnosis To Help With Procrastination and Win £100,000

 

According to the New Zealand Herald Jennifer Saunders is experiencing a common problem – procrastination. You know, that thing where every trivial task is more important than the most important job you have to finish. It seems that Jennifer Saunders is working on a script for the screen version of Absolutely Fabulous and finding it difficult to complete – even though there is a £100,000 bet to win from her friend Dawn French if she completes before the end of the year.

Jennifer is getting help from her hypnotherapist.

So how exactly might hypnosis help you to do what you don’t really want to do?

Well, in my experience, the problem is never about doing the thing that is causing the procrastination. The problem is about things like fear of success, ‘what will I do when I’ve finished that?’, expecting to fail, fear of what will happen after the task is completed…

Obviously I have no idea what the problem is that Jennifer Saunders is experiencing and I have no intention of speculating. What I like is the idea that she is using hypnotherapy to help her to write a successful script that will turn into a film that I will almost certainly enjoy.

There are several routes that you can take with hypnosis to solve this particular type of problem. You can journey into the past to find out where the problem may have originated; you can move forward in time and see what problems and difficulties show up that you might be subconsciously avoiding; or you could treat it symbolically.

My first choice would be the symbolic one – because when it works it is very quick and very simple.

You can even do it yourself if you know how to use self-hypnosis.

All you have to do is to take yourself into trance, and when you are deeply relaxed, allow an image to form of a barrier that blocks your route to the successful completion of the task. You can imagine the barrier as anything you like: a shark-infested moat, a big stone wall; a minefield; razor wire; or maybe even a pride of lions. Use your imagination, the sillier the better.

Then you have to use your imagination to find a way to get over, through, or destroy the barrier. Because it is your imagination you can create anything you want to help you.

This imagery activates right-brain symbolic processing and, after you do this, you may find yourself effortlessly completing what you were putting off.

Obviously it can be a lot more complicated than this, but all the solution really requires is a willingness to explore your own resistance to completion and allow your subconscious mind to reveal its secrets.

If you want to try this out and need some help with the self-hypnosis part then check out my book Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis where I go into this technique, and others, in much more detail.

Inspired by:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/news/article.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=11212882

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Self Hypnosis Book Availability

I’ve been busy over the last few months making my book Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis available through more outlets than just Amazon’s Kindle. It is now available for download for Nook’s from Barnes & Noble, for Sony e-Readers, for Kobo, and is also available in Apple’s iBooks for use on just about any iDevice. You can download it directly from the appropriate retailer’s website, or you can get it in any electronic format directly from Smashwords. The beauty of buying it from Smashwords is that once you have paid for one copy, you can download as many times and in as many formats as you wish. So if you ever change your electronic reading machine you can still get another copy without any additional expense.

But the best news is that the book will very shortly be available in paperback. I’ve just approved the proof copy so it will be available on Amazon in this format probably by the end of the week.

Comments from the back cover:

“If you have tried other hypnosis books that have you responding critically to the suggestions, give this book a try. It contains numerous techniques that really bypassed my inner skeptic. One simple and powerful technique that I used helped me to reduce my “white coat hypertension” allowing me to drop my systolic number by approximately 10 and diastolic by 3. This significant drop occurred in just a couple of days. I have never had such pronounced and easy success with any other hypnosis tools.”

Lawrence Bandini

  “This book is amazing! Michael not only writes a powerful book, but he walks you through everything. I was able to slowly put my past behind me, and start working on the now and the future. I have learned to relax and renew myself everyday, which is something I have needed for years but could never quite get the hang of it with previous books and cd’s I had purchased in the past. You can’t go wrong by reading this book, it is powerful work in a simple and helpful way. Very easy to comprehend.”

 Patricia Springer

 “Michael,

I very much enjoyed your book, Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis.

Your book taught me things I had never realized before, and highlighted some things I knew. I very much enjoyed the visualizations and techniques you use.

I am using some of the different techniques, and would rate this book 5 stars.

Thanks for a wonderful new experience.”

Bob Thomason

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Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis now more widely available.

Change Your life with Self Hypnosis has been available on Kindle since February earlier this year. After four weeks of zero sales, I organised a five-day promotion when it could be downloaded for free. This resulted in almost 1800 copies being downloaded.

From that point onwards it has been selling steadily. It currently occupies position 2 on the UK Amazon site when you do a Kindle search for ‘self hypnosis’, and position 8 for the same search on Amazon.com. At one point it reached No 1 in the Kindle category for Hypnosis.

All this is very rewarding for an unknown author – but do you know what the best bit is?

The best bit is the wonderful emails I receive from readers telling me about how much they enjoyed my book and how valuable it has been for them – quite life-changing in some cases.

So I thought it was time to make it available to more than just Kindle owners.

I’m aiming now for Apple’s iBookstore, Nooks (Barnes & Noble), Kobos & the Sony Reader, as well as any PC or Mac. So I spent a couple of days of totally re-formatting the text. What this actually means is pretty much removing most of the text formatting. Electronic reading devices require free-flowing text, so things like pages no longer apply. The Kindle at least allows me to have page breaks for new chapters, these other readers don’t.

So after a bit of trouble with the table I had in the appendix, I finally got my book past the first stage in the process and it is now awaiting review before being submitted to Apple et al. It is however available from the distributor’s website in pretty much any electronic format you desire.

If you ‘d like a copy I’ve got a Coupon Code LM68U that you can use at checkout to get yourself a 50% discount. So If you want to grab a half price copy go to
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/340161
and download your copy now.

What’s next is to start work on the print version. This again requires a total re-formatting, but at least I will have total control over the appearance of the finished product and I really like it when I have control.
Oh! The half price offer is only until 24th August, 2013 so get your copy now – before you forget and miss out on a great deal.

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Magic or Self Hypnosis?

When life is getting on top of us; when nothing seems to be working; when we look around and see others with everything we want; that is when we start to look around, maybe even pray, for a little magic. As adults we don’t believe in magic, we’re much too grown up for that – but we still want it. So anything that smacks a little of that childhood fantasy world, where a thought creates a kingdom, will grab our interest like nothing else.

Just imagine how wonderful it would be to be able to think your Wonderful World into existence. How amazing would it be to daydream about your perfect partner and then bump into them the next day? How incredible would it be to lie amidst the bubbles in the bath fantasising about the work you would love to do? Maybe you were dreaming of visiting exotic holiday destinations followed by a film crew as you tell the world about these amazing hidden places. Maybe you are inventing the next gadget to take the world by storm. Maybe you see yourself in charge of a multi-million dollar corporation with a life-style to match. Maybe your dreams are of a simpler life closer to nature and free of all the anxiety and stress of the rat race. Then, maybe a week, or a month, later, a chance meeting or an interesting conversation leads you to take the first step on that path to your heart’s desire.

Strange things begin to happen, and after a few months of this, you notice a pattern beginning to emerge. Your happy thoughts, your peaceful daydreams, and your fun fantasies are creating your world. You realise that the pleasurable thoughts you have in those moments when you are at peace, and free from anxiety, worry, and stress, are actually manifesting themselves in your reality.

Then, with this realisation, you understand that you truly are creating your own reality – just like it says in all of those books on Law of Attraction.

Unfortunately, in real life, the consistency of daydream to reality never quite seems to take off. Yes, we notice odd thoughts and ideas that drift through our minds and then seem to take on a life of their own; but reality still sucks most of the time.

If only there was a way to improve the success rate.

If only there was a way to make even a small shift towards a life of more positive experiences.

If only there was a way to reconnect with the magic of childhood.

Well, there is. But I’m sure the title gave the game away a long time ago.

If you are prepared to put in the work to learn some new techniques; if you are prepared to practise daily; then you can begin to create the magical life you desire. But it starts with small steps and small expectations until you build up your confidence and realise that you do Create Your Own Reality, and that all of the Law of Attraction stuff really does work if you approach it this way.

So if this interests you. If you want to learn how to use your mind to create the world you want rather than the world you have – then check out my new Self Hypnosis book that tells you exactly how to begin this process of bringing the magic back into your life.

You deserve happiness.

You deserve fulfilment.

You deserve freedom.

All you have to do is to take it.

So take it NOW.

Michael

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Stress Adversely Affects Unborn Children

It’s a real shame that pregnancy affects so many people because it’s tough being in the womb when your Mum is finding that life is not as easy as she hoped it would be. Mum-to-be can’t smoke to ease her frazzled nerves. And almost anything she consumes has the potential to end up in you, so drinking and drug taking (prescribed or otherwise) have to be monitored carefully or, preferably, stopped altogether.

Now, according to a recent Dutch study by Eva Loomans, a psychologist at Tilburg University, you can’t even get stressed or depressed without your unborn child suffering. The problem is that stress and/or depression appear to cause low birth weights. There was also a small, though statistically significant, connection with babies born pre-term. Being born early has the potential to cause health problems throughout your life.

Now, you and I both know that stress is a part of modern life. We cannot escape from it, but these pregnancy problems arise when the stress interferes with normal functioning. When the worry causes you to change behaviours; to avoid situations, or just people; or it stops you from living normally; that is when it becomes a health issue. This state of affairs applied to around 25% of 7,700 women who took part in the study.

A lot of people suffer from stress, anxiety, worry or depression. But if they happen to be pregnant it affects their unborn child too. Of course, if you are pregnant or thinking of starting a family, all this knowledge is going to do is to add to your worries because now you not only have all your current worries, you also have to worry about your worry damaging your baby’s health too.

What you need is a solution.

The doctors may give you medications, but there is always a danger that they will probably affect your child as well. It’s a bit of a Catch-22 situation. The worry is making you worry more and the medication to solve that problem is going to do as much or more harm than the worrying is already accomplishing.

A good idea is to learn a different approach to life and living – an approach that reduces the amount of worrying you do and frees you up to spend that worry time doing something much more interesting instead.

There are a lot of tools you can use to help you start with this. I’m in the process of creating products and writing books that will guide you through many of these so I’ll just introduce you to a few here.

Meditation

Learn how to meditate. Meditation is one of the best tools I know to reduce stress and anxiety. You can learn to meditate on your own or listen to a guided meditation.

So far I’ve produced two Guided Meditations. Chakra Meditation, and Spirit Guide Meditation. They are both beautifully relaxing meditations available in CD format from Amazon.com and as an MP3 download from my website.

Self-Hypnosis

Self hypnosis is a great way to reduce stress and improve your life. I’ve created a self hypnosis MP3 Download that helps you to learn how to do this quickly and easily so that you can begin to take control of your life and discover that those external pressures do not have to impact you so strongly. As you work with self-hypnosis regularly you will find that your life begins to change and you feel lighter, more energised, and able to see solutions where previously you only saw problems.

Freedom

I have written a book that looks at a lot of stress causing problems, and it’s yours for free. It’s called Freedom and you can get your free copy at the top right of this page.

Hypnosis

If you feel that you need some help and don’t have the strength of mind to take control of your own destiny at this point, then find a good hypnotherapist and sign up for a course of treatment. It will help you to find your way out and back into the world again.

Books

Get down to your local bookshop, or library, find the Self-help section and take home whatever grabs your attention. I’ve organised a selection of titles that I’ve found amazingly helpful during the darker times of my life so check out my self help books page.

Release from Worry

The first step is to realise you have a problem. The second is to recognise, that with some help and guidance, you are the best person to solve it. No matter how difficult life is for you right now, if you are pregnant or thinking of having a baby, then you owe it to your future family to take action now to resolve the anxieties and concerns in your life. Even if you suffer from severe depression, these steps will help to begin the process of lifting you up and back to life in the light.

Understanding that you can change your mind, and then discovering exactly how to do that is your key to freedom and release from your suffering.

Michael

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Tapping into Your Hidden Power with Self Hypnosis

Self hypnosis, is it easy – or difficult? Self hypnosis sounds a little too much like magic. But we all like the idea of something magical to take away the pain. Will self hypnosis do the trick though? Will it really be the solution, or just another distraction? The trouble is that so many times you’ve been promised a cure, but is this really the genie that you’ve been seeking?

Something isn’t working in your life. You know now that there isn’t a pill to fix it. But you see other people doing what you want to do and you want it too. But it seems either impossible or just needs more than you’ve got to give. How can it be so easy for them, when it’s so difficult for you?

You may have spent time seeking out the why. Maybe deciding it was your upbringing (it usually is), what was done or not done, or your school, or maybe something faulty with your genetic make-up. Some people even decide that they must have been ‘bad’ in a past life and are being punished. I know that thought has certainly crossed my mind on more than one occasion.

But the truth is – none of that is relevant.

All that matters is that you want things to be different and you are prepared to take whatever steps you can to bring that about. Notice that I say ‘whatever steps you can’ rather than ‘whatever it takes’. This is because ‘whatever it takes’ generally brings you face to face with your biggest fears and your biggest fears are the only reason you haven’t got what you want in the first place. If you weren’t afraid of doing what others do to get what you want you would already have it.

So, in a way, all we have to do is to remove the fear and what you want will flow right to you. The trouble with that is, of course, that right now the fear is with you. Thinking about doing what you fear, to get what you want, creates a huge amount of resistance. Resistance to taking any step that will lead you in the direction of the promised land. You don’t mind pretending to do something about it, but if you are going to end up doing what you don’t want to do, then maybe it would be better if you didn’t have what you want.

This is where self hypnosis comes into the picture. Self hypnosis is very like not doing anything. At the same time you can convince yourself that it won’t bring you into confrontation with your fears, but is actually solving the problem. What more could you want?

Self hypnosis is a way of staying totally safe, feeling like you are at least making the effort to change, and working towards getting what you want.

So is self hypnosis a way to kid yourself you are taking action when you aren’t? On the contrary, self hypnosis is a brilliant and wonderful tool for those very reasons. The biggest reason of all is that it is totally safe. When you use self hypnosis you do not have to confront anything you don’t want to, and even if you do choose to confront it, you only do so in your imagination and all of that is totally under your control.

The wonderful thing about using self hypnosis for bringing about desired change and attracting what you want into your life is that it is actually an enjoyable experience. You discover how to become wonderfully relaxed all under your own control. You discover how to use your amazing mind to release fear and bring about the changes that you want for you. You discover that you can have what you want if you use this wonderful tool correctly.

Once you’ve discovered how easy it is to take yourself into a trance, and make changes that you thought were impossible, doors will begin to open for you. Then you will realise the power that you hold within you, not only to control and shape your universe but also to attract into it anything you desire.

Michael

By the way, if you’d like to find out more visit the self hypnosis page on my website for details of how easy it is for you to learn this skill and get in touch with your own Power.

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hypnosis Personal Development self-help

Self-Hypnosis vs One-to-One Treatment

If you can do it yourself, why pay for expensive therapy? After all, with DIY jobs around the house you often end up with a better quality job than when you pay a so-called professional to do it for you.

Self-hypnosis is great for those times when you want to just re-program your automatic thinking and behavioural processes. The very act of spending time every day with you, caring for you, in a state of deep relaxation, is hugely beneficial. Using your imagination, in this state of deep relaxation, to set up an intention for your future and to plant messages in your subconscious mind without conscious interference is an excellent way to manufacture beneficial change in your life.

When you visit a skilled hypnotherapist you are with someone who is listening to you and caring for you. To have someone listen to your story, without judgement, is of itself hugely therapeutic. You are also with someone who notices details – what you talk about, what you don’t talk about; what your mood state is; and most importantly – a skilled therapist will notice and seek to address the real causes of problems.

Let me give you an example: say you have a problem with confidence.

The self-hypnosis route would perhaps have you repeating a mantra along the lines of “I am filled with confidence in all situations” or “I feel confident and find myself expressing my thoughts and ideas fearlessly in meetings and conversations”. Accompanied, maybe by a visualisation of you, in a situation where you have lacked confidence, behaving in a confident manner and feeling feelings of success and achievement.

A hypnotherapist would probably have you engaging in that sort of visualisation during your therapy anyway, so why bother paying all that money when you can get it for free if you DIY.

Well, for me at least, lack of confidence is not as simple as that. Lack of confidence is about fundamental belief in self, and it is this belief in self, or rather lack of belief in self that I would seek to correct using hypnotherapy. Lack of belief in self is the result of early programming by those adults who had the greatest impact on our development as a young mind. So the problem is quite deep rooted and consequently needs gentle, loving guidance to discover how this lack of belief in self came to be present. In other words it is important to teach, and experience, the huge difference between something you believe about you and something that is true about you. This doesn’t happen with self-hypnosis. So if your lack of confidence is the result of one highly critical parent always finding fault, then therapy would seek to correct this; if it is the result of over protective parents who were excessively fearful of you taking risks – like climbing trees, or going out alone – then therapy has a different problem to solve. There are other reasons why an individual might lack confidence – early classroom experiences with a teacher who doesn’t love children or the job, or a highly sensitive physiology… The problem with self-therapy is the lack of experience at understanding self, and correcting the real problem.

Another area where an experienced therapist is beneficial is in the area of challenge. We are constantly making up ideas about our world that simply aren’t true. More than one person in my consulting room has considered themselves a total failure. They’ve never succeeded at anything and they never will. If you believe that you believe it and because you believe it you will not seek to change it because no one seeks to change what they see as a truth. But if you believe that you always fail at everything you do, doing self-hypnosis to achieve success isn’t addressing the fundamental belief that is in error. It’s like using self-hypnosis to win the lottery and never bothering to buy a ticket.

However, as soon as anyone tells me they are a total failure, or they never succeed at anything, I have to challenge it. And my challenge is always successful and I can always point out several occasions in anyone’s life when they have been successful. They just never see it because their erroneous belief about themselves blinds them to their successes. What I also do is challenge the meaning of success to them. Usually it’s lots of money, promotions, material possessions, good relationships, and so on. They fail to see small successes, like still being alive after x number of years, like having raised beautiful children, like passing a driving test, like honouring others by being punctual, like gifts to charity, like small acts of kindness to strangers… there are successes in everyone’s life. The real problem with feelings of failure in life is an inability to see, to honour, and to appreciate the small successes. Just allowing someone to look at themselves and their life from a different perspective is like lifting a huge burden off their back, and that’s even before the hypnosis starts and is used then to reinforce these new learnings.

So your friendly neighbourhood hypnotherapist is actually providing you with something more than you can do for yourself. The best course of action is to have a consultation or two with a hypnotherapist in order to establish what the real problem is and to receive guidance and training in how to use self-hypnosis most effectively. That way you get the best of both worlds.

Self-hypnosis is highly beneficial and I would encourage you to try it out, just recognise that it has limitations.

Michael J Hadfield D.Hyp., MBSCH