Meditation-Mind Blog

 

Serendipity, or, discovering something valuable by accident, is one of my favorite experiences. When considering some words for the title of something I was writing recently, I looked for some synonyms for words having to do with abundance and well-being and soon found myself feeling very positive and very peaceful.

It dawned on me that what I had been doing, without realizing it, was a sort of mindfulness meditation or self-hypnosis. As I considered each word, I was trying it on and seeing how it felt, getting an inner sense of the word. Just by reading through a list of words in this way, I was putting myself in a positive mental state.

To give you a better sense of what I’m talking about, here are some of the words and their synonyms:

Abundant - richly or plentifully supplied, ample, more than enough, to abound, to overflow, to be fully supplied.

Flourish - to grow well or luxuriantly, to succeed, to fare well, to prosper

Prosper - to be successful, to flourish, to thrive

Well-being - quiet pleasure, contentment, ease, comfort, coziness, great satisfaction, euphoria, good health, fitness, rosiness, wholesomeness, robust health, glowing health, picture of health, in fine fettle, mint condition, heartiness, bursting with health, full of life and vigor, vital, blooming, feeling one’s oats, to feel happy, sing, purr, smile, laugh, beam

Wow - apparently it works when you write them too.

If you’d like to try this for yourself, just follow the instructions below.

Of course, the first thing you’ll need is access to a thesaurus, so here are some links to some  - one free online thesaurus so you can try this right now and one which links to Roget’s International Thesaurus, the book, on Amazon, if you don’t yet own one but would like to.

When I did this meditation initially, I used a book and could see all the entries for a word on the page, which might have some advantages. But either way should work just fine. You might also like to have a pen and some paper nearby for any notes you’d like to make.

The Thesaurus Meditation

Sit down with your thesaurus. Begin by choosing some words that are soothing to you, representing peace, a favorite color, perhaps, or the way you’d like to be feeling, or just some words that you happen to like.

If you’re having trouble thinking of some, you might try the words, kindness, happiness, and gratitude.

Let yourself get comfortable and take three slow, deep breaths.

Now, as you look up your chosen words in the thesaurus, spend a little while reading the synonyms, following where they lead. When you notice some words that you like, look those up and let yourself be led from pleasing word to pleasing word. Continue for as long as you like.

Notice how you’re feeling as you go. You might even want to write some of your favorites down when you’re finished, so you can easily return to this positive state whenever you read them.

Have fun with this. I wish you great peace and a happy experience of serendipity.

*********************************************

Serendipity -  a chance discovery, finding, spotting, recognizing, bringing to light, finding treasure

Peace - quietness, stillness, restfulness, comfortableness, harmony, concordance, heart’s ease,  feeling at home, sheltered, calm, tranquil, soothed, composed, being relaxed, experiencing serenity, nirvana

**********************************************

If you try this and would like to share your experience, just click on the word “comments” below this post.

Comment - to observe, note, mention, remark, muse, reflect, give one’s two cents’ worth, express, affirm, exclaim :-)

 

Even though I broke a tooth last week, it doesn’t hurt. It just seems fragile, so I’ve been very careful to do all my chewing on the other side of my mouth until my dentist can do his magic.

So I decided this would be the perfect time to practice mindful eating.

Mindful eating, some say, can be used as one tool in a weight loss program. Instead of mindlessly consuming your dinner in front of the TV, barely noticing what you’ve eaten and never feeling really satisfied, you slow everything way down and observe each individual action, which, together with many other individual actions, makes up the activity of eating.

Eating this way has opened up a whole new world. I’ve been paying careful attention as I select one blueberry from my plate, lift it to my lips, place it in my mouth, taste its sweet blueberriness on my tongue followed by a burst of tartness as I bite into it and feel my mouth begin to water. The practice continues with careful chewing and swallowing and even paying attention to the sensation in my belly after it arrives there.

Everything I have eaten over this last week has been eaten in this same way - some tiny chunks of watermelon, some spoonfuls of rice and hummus and steamed spinach with melted rice cheese, a little yogurt. Each one eaten very slowly, very mindfully.

I have to say that I’m finding it very satisfying to really pay attention to each bite. And, interestingly enough, I actually have lost a few pounds this week. Fascinating.

I first learned about mindful eating a few years ago in a workshop given by a fellow hypnotherapist teaching us about the weight loss program she offers her clients. For this experience, she asks them to practice eating grapes mindfully.

If you’d like to try it, any bite-sized food that you enjoy will be suitable. Fruit works well. Some people eat just one piece of their favorite chocolate mindfully. You may discover why some consider mindful eating one path to enlightenment.

The following script leads you through the process of eating one bite of food mindfully. If you choose to eat a whole meal this way, just repeat the process with each bite, allowing your stomach to tell you when it’s satisfied.

***************************************
Mindful Eating Script

Begin by selecting a bite-sized food that gives you a feeling of well-being, and sit down in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.

Breathe in slowly as you count to yourself, 1–2–3–4 and then breathe out slowly 4–3–2–1.

Take several more slow, deep breaths as you allow yourself this quiet time.

Let a welcome feeling of relaxation spread over your scalp and neck and shoulders, down over your cheeks and jaw and tongue and down into your belly. Just let your belly feel soft and relaxed.

Now take a moment to appreciate this food you have chosen, as you notice its shape …, its color…, its texture….

Describe it simply to yourself. If it’s a grape, for example, you might say something like - it’s rounded and green and smooth.

Think of this food being nourished by the sun and the rain and the earth, before it came to you.

Pay attention to how you are feeling about this food.

As you look at it, you can even say a little thank you, if you wish.

Notice the part of you that decides to begin eating.  As you move your hand slowly toward the food, observe your hand and describe your actions to yourself - reaching, reaching, reaching, and then observe your hand lifting, lifting, lifting, as you raise the food to your lips.

Before putting it in your mouth, take a moment to smell the food.

Notice whether you desire this food and where in your body you feel that.

Take a bite of the food and close your eyes, noticing how the food feels in your mouth.

Slowly chew.

What tastes do you notice? Sweetness? Sourness? Saltiness? Bitterness? Mildness? Spiciness?

Appreciate the taste and describe it simply to yourself.

Swallow when you’re ready.

Now, with eyes still closed, be aware of any sensations in your stomach.

Think of the energy of the sun and the earth entering your body, bringing health and nourishment to every cell.

Stay with that feeling of well-being for a while.

When you’re ready, bring your attention back to the quiet place you have chosen and open your eyes, still feeling very good.

****************************************

 

 

 

 

 

Every so often I run into my notes for the Five Finger Exercise, one of my favorite self-hypnosis breaks. This version is adapted from a wonderful book called The Relaxation & Stress Reduction Workbook by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman and Matthew McKay

I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

You can use this exercise whenever you need to relax for a few minutes.

If you read it through a few times, you’ll find that you remember the steps quite easily.You just give yourself cues by touching your thumb to each of your fingers in turn. But it’s OK to peek at your notes until you get the hang of it. Enjoy the calm.

Five Finger Exercise

After finding a place where you won’t be disturbed for a few minutes and getting comfortable:

1. Begin by touching your thumb to your index finger.  As you bring your thumb and index finger together, think back to a time when your body felt ready for a rest, right after you had been for a walk or jog or swim or some other pleasant, physical exercise. It felt good and healthy to exercise and now it feels good and healthy to rest. Take a deep breath, and then another, and then one more, and give your body time to slow down.

2. When you’re ready to go on, touch your thumb to your middle finger.  As you bring your thumb and middle finger together, think back to a time when you felt very loving toward someone.  It can be anytime that comes to mind. Just remember having a warm loving feeling and let yourself feel it again. Stay with the feeling until you’re ready to move on.

3. Next touch your thumb to your ring finger.  As you bring your thumb and ring finger together, recall a time when you received a nice compliment. Let yourself hear the kind and appreciative words again and take them in. Accept them. And then, if you wish, extend a mental thank you to the person who said them. 

4. And now touch your thumb to your little finger.  As you bring your thumb and little finger together, think back to a beautiful place you have been. Maybe someplace you found awe-inspiring. Take in its beauty once again. The light, the colors, the sounds, the scents, the feeling in the air. Let yourself experience it for a while.

Let yourself be filled with these sweet feelings of peace and love and calm, and after a while, when you’re ready, come back to your resting place, still feeling very peaceful, very loving, very calm and very good.

*************************************************************

I hope you enjoyed this self-hypnosis break. If you’d like to share your experience, you’re welcome to leave a comment. Just click on the word “comments” below and an easy-to-use form will appear.

 

Did you happen to see Patricia Leigh Brown’s article in the New York Times about kids learning mindfulness meditation techniques? Entitled, In the Classroom, a New Focus on Quieting the Mind, it described some programs in schools in California and Pennsylvania which helped kids learn some simple stress management techniques.

A couple of times a week,  they were led through 15 minutes of such mindfulness techniques as focusing on their breathing and imagining loving kindness toward people in their lives.

The article mentioned some of the ways kids seemed to be using the techniques they had learned. One young boy had learned to “take a moment” to calm himself when he had started feeling like hitting someone on the playground.  I especially loved the story about the 4 year old girl who called out “Mommy, Mommy, you have to sing the breathing song!” as her distressed mom was dealing with road rage.

Just follow the link above if you’d like to read the article.

Reading about these programs left me wanting to know more, so I went looking for some specifics. If someone with an interest in calming techniques wanted to share them with some of their favorite children or had an interest in putting a program together what might be some good resources for doing that?

MP3’s

I was delighted to discover a collection of meditations from the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at UCLA,  one of the places mentioned in the NY Times article. Written and recorded by Diana Winston, their Director for Mindfulness Education, they are excellent examples of the kinds of experiences that could be offered. These MP3’s are absolutely free and left me feeling wonderful. I loved the loving kindness meditation I listened to. You can check out their whole collection of mindfulness meditation MP3’s and see what you think.

Books

The article also mentioned that the programs had been influenced by the works of Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Two books of his that you might want to check out on Amazon are Full Catastrophe Living and Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

Online Training

Susan Kaiser Greenland at the InnerKids Foundation offers online training programs through a site called eMindful for people wanting to teach mindfulness. I haven’t tried them, but with titles like The New ABC’s: Teaching Children About Mindfulness, they look promising. You can find out more about these online meditation courses by looking at the eMindful site.

CD

Maybe someone reading this knows the breathing song that the 4 year old girl encouraged her mom to sing. If we can’t track that one down, as it happens, some hypnotherapists whose opinions I trust, recently recommended a recording by Marcel Klasen, a hypnotherapist and musician. 

It’s a CD called HAPPY SONGS, that is intended for ages 9-12, with a combination of music and positive suggestions, along with instructions for breathwork, a story about healing, a song about world peace and even a rap song. You can contact Marcel at marcelklasen@yahoo.com for ordering information.

**************** 

Care to Add One?

That could be enough to get you started. If you have any additional or alternative resources you’d like to recommend for learning and teaching mindfulness meditation or its close cousin, self-hypnosis, whether for children or adults, I invite your suggestions. Just click on “comment” at the end of this post and share your thoughts.

 

1. Take a Deep Breath. Then do it again. Now once again. One of the simplest ways to relieve stress in a matter of moments is to change your breathing.

Have you ever noticed that when you’re feeling stressed you typically breathe very shallowly, often rapidly, or sometimes even hold your breath? That can’t be good.

We can relieve stress by intentionally slowing and deepening our breathing, which mimics the way we naturally breathe when we are most relaxed. Practicing the Inner Smile Meditation you’ll find here on the blog is one of many ways to slow and deepen your breathing and relieve any stress you may be feeling.

***
2. Laugh. Most of us just know intuitively that laughter is good for us. A merry heart doeth good like a medicine, as I’m sure you’ve heard.

Laughter has become a real focus of study, especially because of the many ways it benefits our health: protecting our heart, easing pain, reducing blood pressure, aiding digestion and respiration, to mention just a few. For an in-depth article on the benefits of laughter, you might find this article on How Stuff Works interesting.

And to experience the benefits of laughter right now, you might enjoy reading some of these observations from the amazing mind of comedian Steven Wright. I love the way his humor just sneaks up on you until before you know it, you’re giggling.

****
3. Call a Friend. Sometimes a different perspective is all we need in stressful situations. There’s nothing like talking and laughing with a friend to help us see things differently. If the friend you’d most like to talk with is an old friend you’ve lost track of, you can look them up in the white pages at AnyWho.

***
4. Listen to Soothing Music. Music can transform our mood very quickly and ease feelings of stress. Hypnotherapists, meditation instructors, massage therapists, and Reiki masters all know how soothing the right music can be for their clients and all have their favorites.

Two of my favorites are on CD’s you can find at Amazon. Since I promised that these were 7 ways you could relieve stress right now, here are two links where you can listen to free samples of relaxing music.

The first is a beautiful version of Pachelbel Canon done by Gordon Jeffries“ and the second is Mike Rowland’s And So To Dream Highly recommended anytime you need to unwind.

***
5. Get Inspired. Sometimes just reading some wise, thought-provoking, inspiring or just plain funny thoughts from those who have been here before can help us shift our perspective in the middle of stressful times. Here are a few to start you off:

“There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so” - William Shakespeare

****************************************

“I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me.” - A Course in Miracles

****************************************

“I could see peace instead of this.” - A Course in Miracles

****************************************

“In the depths of winter I finally learned there is in me an invincible summer.” - Albert Camus

****************************************

Check out a few more inspirational quotes.

***
6. Relax Completely. Taking yourself through a relaxation process that helps you to let go of the tension you’re holding in muscles all over your body is a very powerful way to relieve stress. Doing it on a regular basis helps you to keep your stress levels low.

You can use this script for a progressive relaxation in a number of ways.

You can just read it through to yourself to get the idea and then settle into a comfortable position as you follow the process. Sometimes people find it helpful to find a partner who will read it to them or some prefer to read it into a tape recorder and play it back for themselves.

No matter which way you choose to do it, whenever you follow the process, you will feel much more relaxed when you’re done.

Here’s the script for a progressive relaxation.

***
7. Experience Guided Meditation. Try one of the free beautiful audio samples on Belleruth Naparstek’s Health Journeys site.

Here’s one by Belleruth designed to soothe anxiety and stress. If she had an affiliate program, I’d sign up. Her stuff is wonderful!

 

 

Our daily lives are full of times when something unexpected pops up and we need to improvise. When we learn to use the power of our minds to stay in a calm and resourceful state, these times are much easier to handle.

Here are 10 situations you may have encountered when a calming technique would come in handy:

1.  When you can’t fall asleep and you’re telling yourself how tired you’re going to be tomorrow if you don’t fall asleep right now.

2.  When you’re running late for an appointment.

3.  When you’re running late for an appointment and then you get caught in traffic.

4.  When you’re getting married in 15 minutes and no one has the ring.

5.  When you’ve returned to where you parked your car and you can’t find your car keys.

6.  When the power goes out. Anytime the power goes out.

7.  When you have to give a speech.

8.  When you’re waiting for the results of a pregnancy test.

9.  When you’re off doing some shopping for your  sweetheart’s birthday and your list blows away.

10. When it’s up to you to soothe a crying baby.

Have you ever noticed how some people seem to just take these kinds of things in stride, while others tend to panic? Same situation, very different reactions.

Somewhere along the way we have all learned a way to handle problems. If you tend to panic and you’re not happy about that, you can learn another approach. Instead of looking at problems as disasters, you can choose to see them as bumps in the road.

As soon as you notice those familiar, panicky feelings you can interrupt any this-is-a-disaster kind of self-talk by yelling STOP in your head, halting the negative monologue that was about to immobilize you. You can practice this by picturing a STOP sign in your mind at the same time that you yell STOP and emphasize it further by making a STOP gesture with your hand. Interrupting disaster thinking opens the way to a calmer, more resourceful state.

More often than not, it’s possible to see some humor in your situation. When you think of it, this is the stuff of comedy. Number 10 on the list, for example, being thrust into the role of babysoother, was the premise of the movie, Three Men and a Baby. Audiences laughed as they watched each of the three men soothing the baby in his own unique, amusing and endearing way. 

Your situation might be like something you’d see in a movie too.  If it’s possible for you to laugh about it, you’ll find that much of your stress is relieved and that you’ve already moved into that more resourceful state.

But sometimes we’re not quite ready to laugh. If that’s the case, you could begin by taking some slow, deep breaths and saying the word “calm” to yourself with each out breath.

Continue for at least 3 full breaths and more if you need it. If you’ve already been practicing meditation or self-hypnosis, you’ll find this step is very familiar and becomes easier each time you do it.

As you feel yourself calming down, start repeating to yourself,

“I can handle this. This is easy for me.”

“I can handle this. This is easy for me.”

“I can handle this. This is easy for me.”

Say this over and over until you begin to recognize that it’s true.

You can handle this and this is easy for you.

And that’s what you call a more resourceful state.

From there, resolving any problem will seem easy.

 

Sometimes the trickiest thing about stress is recognizing its signals in ourselves. In his book, Instant Calm: Over 100 Easy-to-Use Techniques for Relaxing Mind and Body by Paul Wilson, Paul Wilson details many of the ways we experience stress including such things as butterflies in the stomach, tense shoulders or jaw, heart palpitations, headaches, indigestion, difficulty sleeping and extreme irritability. The list is a long one.

After taking a good look at how stress works and its many signals, Wilson takes us through his collection of over 100 techniques for calming and soothing ourselves.You’ll find ways to calm yourself using acupressure, aromatherapy, breathing, massage, meditation, music, relaxation, physical exercise, stretching, self-hypnosis, visualization, foods, herbs and teas. And those are just the larger categories.

This is one of those books that makes you feel better just looking through it. You could probably use it like a cookbook and just open to any page and read through the instructions for inspiration. It won’t take long to find several techniques that can be combined into your own personal calming routine.

There are so many techniques that I had trouble choosing a favorite, so I decided to try the pick-any-page method myself to offer you an example. I just tried one called Comb Therapy. To be truthful, since I’m sitting at my computer and don’t have a comb within reach, I tried using a little 6-inch plastic ruler that I have in the mug where I keep my pens. That seems to work too.

Comb Therapy goes like this: Take an ordinary comb (or ruler) and, beginning at the fingertips, lightly stroke the comb over the tops of your fingers and the top of your hand and then continue over your wrist and arm all the way to your shoulder. Then repeat this action on your other arm. Continue this as many times as you like. When you feel done, sit quietly for a few minutes taking some slow, deep breaths. Very simple. Very pleasant. I just tried it three times on one hand and arm while breathing deeply and then moved to the other hand and arm. That was calming too.

You could follow this simple massage and breathing technique with one called Calm Affirmation. Sit quietly for about 5 minutes and read these affirmations adapted from Instant Calm over and over to yourself either out loud or silently:

 ”More and more, I am relaxing into a state of great peace and calm.
 I feel at ease with the world.
 I radiate this peace and calm to all around me.”

I played with this a little and found it was very effective to repeat each affirmation 3 times or more before moving on to the next one. For example:

 ”More and more, I am relaxing into a state of great peace and calm.”

 ”More and more, I am relaxing into a state of great peace and calm.”

 ”More and more, I am relaxing into a state of great peace and calm.”

Then, if you’re ready, start repeating:

 ”I am at ease with the world.”

And so on, from there.

If you want to close your eyes and make it even simpler, try just repeating the words “peaceful, calm and relaxed” over and over silently to yourself as you take slow, deep breaths. For example, think “peaceful” as you breathe in and “calm and relaxed” as you slowly breathe out.

It’s OK to experiment with this to see what is most relaxing for you.

In an early chapter of Instant Calm, Paul Wilson promises that you’ll feel better after reading this book. I’d say he’s right. If you want to check it out on Amazon, try any of the links in this post, including this one. Instant Calm: Over 100 Easy-to-Use Techniques for Relaxing Mind and Body by Paul Wilson 
 

 

January 4, 2007 was the third annual World Hypnotism Day, a day when hypnotists from all over the world celebrated by offering people the chance to experience the benefits of hypnosis for free or at very low cost.

Participating hypnotists spent the day conducting free workshops to help people stop smoking, melt off some pounds, relieve stress, reduce clutter, learn to relax and a wide variety of other things. Some offered free CD’s or ebooks or MP3 downloads, as well. A good time was had by all.

To continue the celebration, and give those of you who missed it this year another chance, I want to let you know about a free download for a book by experienced hypnotist and writer, Henry Leo Bolduc.

Self-Hypnosis: Creating Your Own Destiny is a previously published book that Leo very generously put in the public domain in the year 2000.

It’s a great primer by a very skilled hypnotist which details some of the history and uses of hypnosis as well as teaching about the power of the mind and effective use of suggestions and visualizations.

Leo also gives detailed instructions for making your own self-hypnosis tapes, including scripts for 31 different programs. The following are just a few of the script titles: Building Self-Confidence, Memory and Concentration, Attracting Abundance, Enhancing Creativity, Self-Health, Stress Management, Overcoming Insomnia, Developing Psychic Ability and Chakra Attunement. And there are 22 more to choose from.

To give you a sense of what the scripts are like, here’s an excerpt from one for entering self-hypnosis:

“Breathe deeply and smoothly for a few minutes. (Pause) You can keep your eyes open for a minute, and you can look either forward or upward. You don’t have to look at anything specific, but just look either forward or upward.

I am going to count down from ten to one, and with every descending number just slowly blink your eyes. Slowly close and then open your eyes, as in slow motion, with every number.

Ten….nine….eight….seven….six….five….four….three….two….and one.

Now you can just close your eyes and you can keep them closed…..”

Whenever you open your eyes again, I hope you’ll enjoy checking out Self-Hypnosis:Creating Your Own Destiny  It’s a free gift from H. Leo Bolduc to all of us.

Happy Belated World Hypnotism Day! Watch for it again next year.
 

 

Before you’ve tried self-hypnosis, it can be hard to picture how you might use it. Kind of like the initial reaction some people had to the telephone and the personal computer, it sometimes takes us a while to understand its amazing potential.

One powerful use for self-hypnosis is to help people prepare for surgery. Probably the most well-known research has been done by Dr.Mehmet Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City who has found that his heart patients feel calmer, more in control and more comfortable physically after their procedures when they have used hypnosis and self-hypnosis.

What I find particularly appealing is the emotional comfort it offers.  Most people are at least a little nervous at the prospect of their own or a loved one’s surgery and may not want to talk about it. Listening to a guided meditation and learning some self-hypnosis techniques can be tremendous helps in calming any fears that come up.

If you’re expecting to have surgery or want to offer some support to someone else who will be, one of the best tools I’ve found is Belleruth Naparstek’s audio recording, Health Journeys: A Meditation to Promote Successful Surgery“ available from Amazon.

In her soothing voice, Belleruth helps you to remember your own strength at a time you may be feeling vulnerable and offers reassuring images of a team of helpers supporting you when you may be feeling scared.

Feedback has been very positive from the people I have shared this with. They thought it helped them to feel much calmer about their procedure and to establish a positive attitude for their healing process.

As a companion, an impressively thorough book with many helpful suggestions for those scheduled for surgery is The Surgery Coach: Mind-Body Preparation For Faster, Better Recovery by Joseph Casey

Joe Casey’s book could be called a holistic “travel guide” for surgery, as he helps you know what to expect, soothes fears, teaches breathing and self-hypnosis skills and gives many practical suggestions,  including a chapter on questions to ask your doctor, along with lists of resources to help you prepare, body, mind and spirit, for successful surgery and an easier recovery.

It may be interesting to note that Joe puts Belleruth’s Meditation to Promote Successful Surgery recording number one on his list of recommended tapes and CD’s too.

And a special note to my fellow hypnotists, even if you don’t need to prepare for surgery, this book is a hidden treasure. I’ve found myself referring over and over to Joe’s chapters on breathing and relaxation, the power of words, as well as self-hypnosis techniques and scripts of various lengths. It’s clear that Joe knows his stuff and is skilled at communicating it in a way that feels healing.

 

Would it surprise you to know that you’ve been in a trance before? Not just once, but many times.

Here are just 10 examples of commonly occurring trance experiences:

1. That relaxed state we experience in between waking and sleeping, just before falling asleep and just before we fully awaken is one.

2.  Daydreaming, a natural occurrence healthy people experience many times a day, is an altered state, as well.

3.  Gazing out a window

4.  Or gazing into a campfire can induce one.

5.  Getting absorbed in a really good book can do it too.

6.  Being so intensely focused on a football game on TV that people can talk to you without getting your full attention

7.  Or seeing a thriller at the movies that keeps you on the edge of your seat can both provide you with a trance experience.

8.  Anyone who has arrived home without fully remembering driving there has experienced it.

9.  Watching and listening to something rhythmic and repetitive like windshield wipers moving back and forth in the rain

10. Or watching the scenery passing by to the steady click-clack of your train can induce it too.

All of these are everyday examples of times when you may have experienced an altered state of consciousness. I mention this to pull back the curtain on some of the mystique surrounding the trance state. It’s not really as woo-woo or weird as it’s sometimes made out to be. Instead it’s something rather familiar and commonplace and not at all threatening.

What happens in self-hypnosis or when listening to a guided meditation, is that we can learn to enter that familiar, very focused state intentionally whenever we choose to do so. So instead of it being a random event which happens without our recognizing it, we learn to recognize it and choose when we wish to enter it. In fact, it’s sometimes described as “deliberate daydreaming.”

By relaxing our bodies, focusing our minds and giving ourselves suggestions in that very focused state, we can accomplish some very beneficial things. As I mentioned in a previous post, the short list includes: relaxation and stress management, support for weight loss and quitting smoking, handling the fear of public speaking, controlling pain, enhancing performance in sports, music, on stage and on the job, easing childbirth, improving memory, sleeping better, preparing for surgery, accelerating healing, enhancing learning, improving self-confidence and calming a fear of flying. All that from a little “deliberate daydreaming.”

All in all, it may help you to know that when you practice self-hypnosis you will just be intentionally doing something you have done countless times before.