The Changing Face of Hypnosis

I’ve always been interested in the mind and its abilities. I’m analytical and inquisitive by nature and don’t take things at face value so have a need to dig deep to comprehend. To me exploring the mind and its capabilities is a fascinating and lifelong journey.

It can be the road to empowerment and enlightenment or one of dark energy-sucking secrets. The fact is for most of us we get to choose the road we travel along, and by most I do mean YOU.

Unless you’re living under the threat of daily physical violence or emotional abuse by circumstances you were born into, then where you are today is because of decisions you’ve made and your mind has dictated those decisions.

None of this is news to you I’m sure. You’ve likely read many self-help books and maybe even followed a few gurus on the topic.

They all tout the same thing even if they dress it up differently. They have their system which if you follow you’ll be just like them and successful – or that is the inference regardless of the mandatory FTC “no guarantee” statements.

For just “$800 per month” (put your own cost in here) for the next twelve months you can be free and rich and happy! Just give me your money and you’ll be a new person.

The only guarantee at the end though is that your bank balance will be $9,600 lighter.

Being a new person is entirely up to YOU or more to the point YOUR MIND. It has little to do with a guru or self-help book. Make no mistake study materials or powerful role models can be the conduit to change, but at the end of the day it is the mind that accepts or rejects the thoughts and teachings of the latest self-help messiah.

What has all this to do with hypnosis and the changes happening in this branch of therapy for the future and YOU?

A lot if you sit-up and pay attention now and want to change where you are today.

In the past hypnosis has been predominately used to change and eradicate habits such as smoking cessation, and provide support for helping people lose weight. It does it by changing your relationship with a habit or food choices through your subconscious mind.

Trained hypnotists can help you access your mind resources that change your habits so you make different choices. The same concepts that help you overcome smoking or emotional eating or sugar addiction can be leveraged to help you get what you want in life.

But it is not a “silver bullet” to eradicate habits by “cleaning your mind.”

Hypnosis is not a passive method done on you without your active participation. The hypnotist is there as a guide and together you both work on the issue.

The use of hypnosis to help people overcome challenges has grown in recent years. The growth is due to the growing acceptance by health practitioners that the mind can be a powerful ally to getting and staying healthy. As people realize a pill and its side-effects can be damaging they are turning to alternatives.

Now don’t get me wrong here. If you’re facing a life-threatening disease or situation you should follow the treatment and advice of your physician or specialist. A hernia needs surgery and cancer needs highly-skilled and aggressive treatment – okay?

Hypnosis is now being used to help people with: pain control, stress and anxiety management, phobias, and more recently self-improvement. That’s right we’ve come full circle on the self-help trail. It stands to reason that if you’ve arrived at where you are in life through the choices and decisions you’ve made, and you’re not thrilled with where you’ve ended-up, then hypnosis can help you get to different results.

Hypnosis helps you remove the barriers in your subconscious that keeps sabotaging all those learnings of the self-help gurus you try to implement but somehow never get you the same results. You may not even be aware your subconscious is working against you, and if you are then you need to know it is doing this to protect you and preserve the status quo.

The future of hypnosis is bright. As we learn more about the workings of the mind we can see how hypnosis can provide help too many challenges we face today in making our life richer and more rewarding.

Let me know what you feel about this topic by leaving a comment below.

Erika Slater, CH
Director
Smoke Free At Last