How Does Hypnosis Work and What Can it Help With?
Hypnosis has been used to help people with many different types of challenges, because it works with the subconscious mind. Our subconscious is taking in data from the moment we are born until we die. The subconscious identifies this data, creates associations with it, and uses it to build our “life script,” or, in other words, the way we perceive reality. This is essential to our functioning in our everyday lives. The mind must create this “summary” so we can interact and function with the world and people around us. Because everyone has different experiences and associations, no one views reality the same way. But how we view our own reality is malleable, and this flexibility is how we can use the subconscious to position us for more positive thoughts, habits, actions, and lives.
How does hypnosis work?
Hypnosis is a state of hyper-suggestibility. Being suggestible means the mind is able to learn something (or re-learn something). In a hyper-suggestible state, the conscious mind (where logic and reason are held) is bypassed so new information can be absorbed directly into the subconscious. You can read more about this here. Once someone is out of hypnosis, the conscious mind (which is also where willpower and decision-making are located), is better able to take actions that are in alignment with the suggestions given to the subconscious. For example, if someone wants to establish healthy eating habits, a hypnotherapist can make suggestions to the subconscious mind that will support the client’s efforts in making healthier decisions. Prior to hypnosis, the subconscious mind already held associations to food that may have been influencing poor nutrition decisions. The suggestions given while in hypnosis create new associations in the subconscious around healthy food decisions, so when the client is no longer in hypnosis and is using their conscious mind/willpower to make healthier decisions, there is less resistance from the subconscious.
What can hypnosis help with?
The presenting issues that hypnosis can help with are practically endless. Our subconscious makes up roughly 88% of the mind’s power, so if we can harness the power of the subconscious, we can affect nearly all aspects of our life. Common issues that people pursue hypnotherapy for include weight loss, quitting smoking, and getting over fears and phobias. But hypnosis can be used for so much more. Hypnosis can help with stress relief, creating healthier relationships, working through professional, personal, and creative blockages, resolving imposter syndrome, building positive self-esteem, creating healthy body image, assisting in test preparation, and more. Hypnosis is also a great complementary therapy for injury recovery, anxiety and depression, fertility and embryo transfer, ADHD, grief, and more. If there is something you’d like to change, heal, or improve in your life, your mind, or your body, chances are, hypnotherapy can be a great tool to accomplish this.