Self Hypnosis Cds - More About Their Effectiveness

I am often asked the question, "How exactly does hypnosis help someone to change?". I hope the following will bring a better understanding of hypnosis and the use of self hypnosis cds to bring about positive change.

The Power Of Suggestion in Self Hypnosis Cds
When you hear a suggestion from someone or from listening to a self hypnosis cd, what your mind does very quickly is analyse what that suggestion means and how you perceive that suggestion in relation to your understanding of yourself and the world.

Let me explain a bit further with some examples.

If someone says "The sky is green" you are highly likely to do one of two things :-

1) Reject the suggestion immediately

2) Take a look at the sky because you doubt the correctness of the suggestion and when you have confirmed that the sky is not green, reject the suggestion.

Yes, I know there is another choice of accepting the suggestion on face value but because a green sky would be highly improbable, this is highly unlikely.

If on the other hand someone says "You know, you really are good at cooking" you are likely to do one of three things :-

1) Reject the suggestion immediately

2) Accept the suggestion immediately

3) Analyse the suggestion a period of time, try it on for size by checking the suggestion against:-

    (a) your view of yourself

    (b) your view of your cooking skills

    (c) your view of the person making the suggestion and based on your perception of all that accept or reject it

Now there are many aspects of how a person views themselves. In other words how a person perceives themselves. Often big influences on a person’s self perception are historical experiences from school, home, work and play. The main people who influence our view of ourselves are parents, siblings, teachers, friends and colleagues.

For instance if someone has low self esteem, has little belief in their own ability and therefore lacks confidence then they have probably had repetitive experiences of their value being undermined. Examples are :-

1) Another sibling being favoured over them

2) Always being labelled as useless, no good, untrustworthy, etc

3) Their opinion is undermined or belittled

4) They have been bullied, psychologically and/or physically

5) They have felt unloved, unwanted or rejected at crucial times in their life

6) And many more experiences of not being accepted

If someone had had repeated episodes of the above, then for many people their self esteem would be low. This would occur because all the external evidence they have being given about themselves by people of influence has been negative.

If a child at school has been labelled as 'useless' and if that label is constantly used about them, then there is a good possibility that that child will consider themselves as 'useless'. Once that label has been accepted, that child's future actions and behaviour will be based on how they now view themselves. It becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

So the suggestion of being 'useless', if it is repeated often enough, will become
accepted as 'who they are'.

Do you see the power of suggestion?

Now just like many dual options in this world, on and off, up and down, in and out, negative and positive, if someone can accept negative suggestions and suffer low self esteem, so the opposite must be true too must it not?

In a similar way that repetition of a negative label has altered the self perception of someone, so it must be true that the repetition of positive suggestion must help a person to view themselves in a more positive light.

When using a self hypnosis cd, because the listener experiences trance and relaxation, they are more likely to accept positive suggestions made on that recording. These positive suggestions are repeated in differing ways and through that repetition a change in self-perception results.

Now even if a small change occurs, the person experiencing that change, will behave slightly differently. They may have a more optimistic outlook or positive attitude and with a change of behaviour, no matter how small, they will experience differences in their life.

These differences in behaviour might be :-

1) Feeling more relaxed in stressful situations

2) Introducing a something new in their life like joining a gym or going to an evening class

3) Their relationships change and improve

4) They say ‘yes’ to opportunities more often rather than ‘no’

In experiencing these changes they will notice that their world is becoming brighter and this in turn feeds back in a more positive view of themselves. It in effect becomes a positive feedback loop.

With the self hypnosis cd’s suggestions leading to changes in perceptions and behaviour, which lead into more positive changes in self perception leading to more changes in behaviour.

The suggestions on a s self hypnosis cd can be viewed a bit like an acorn. First the acorn seems small but once it is planted in soil it germinates. It then soon becomes a seedling. The seedling grows into a small sapling and before long becomes a giant oak tree. Strong and sturdy.