Meditation is not a mysterious other worldly experience only achieved by Tibetan monks, but rather a simple technique enabling us to visit the same peaceful state of mind we all naturally slide in and out of every day.
Think of meditation as a daydream-on-demand.
A daydream moment is when the subconscious stretches its legs, becoming a bit more active. Common everyday examples would be when we become engrossed in a good movie or zoning out during a long drive.
Meditation reduces stress, improves sleep quality and overall health, slows aging process, balances emotions, enhances our mood and makes us happier. My clients learn that hypnosis is goal-oriented meditation. Once guided into meditation they receive suggestions supporting positive change.
5 Steps to meditation:
- Sit comfortably in a quiet location
- Eyes closed take 6 deep breaths and focus on chest expanding and relaxing
- Then breathe normally and imagine inhaling relaxation for 6 more breaths
- For the next 6 breaths imagine the inhaled relaxation starts to accumulate
- Now with 6 exhaled breaths imagine releasing all stress, worry or concern
Once you have established this peaceful moment you can calmly plan out your day, work out challenging situations or simply enjoy the moment. People who routinely meditate are consistently more relaxed, grounded and less affected by the pace of day-to-day life.
By: Paul Gustafson RN CH
In a research study done with 60 college student volunteers (Spring of 2004 at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona), using hypnosis with ego-enhancement suggestions showed “significantly dramatic effects” in brain-wave patterns, subjective sense of self-confidence, and test scores.
In an ongoing pilot study being done by University of Florida counseling psychologist Paul Schauble, preliminary results show hypnotized patients with hypertension are more easily able to make lifestyle improvements that can lower blood pressure.
Faymonville ME. Mambourg PH. Joris J. Vrijens B. Fissette J. Albert A. Lamy M. Psychological approaches during conscious sedation. Hypnosis versus stress reducing strategies. 1997; 73(3): 361-7. This study suggests that hypnosis provides better perioperative pain and anxiety relief, allows for significant reductions in alfentanil and midazolam requirements, and improves patient satisfaction and surgical conditions as compared with conventional stress reducing strategies support in patients receiving conscious sedation for plastic surgery.
Stanton HE Overcoming fear of public speaking with the diagnostic trance Australian Journal of Clinical & Experimental Hypnosis 1991 May; 19(1): 41-7. Subjects in both the experimental group of the 1st stage and the control group of the 2nd stage were able to reduce their fear of public speaking level significantly through use of the diagnostic trance procedure. Three months later, this improvement had been maintained.
Stanton HE Self-hypnosis: one path to reduced test anxiety Contemporary Hypnosis 1994; 11(1): 14-8. Results indicate a significant reduction of TASC scores in the experimental group, maintained over a 6-mo period, which was not matched by the control group.
Hammarstrand G. Berggren U. Hakeberg M. Psychophysiological therapy vs. hypnotherapy in the treatment of patients with dental phobia. European Journal of Oral Sciences 1995; 103(6): 399-404. The PP group reported a statistically significant decrease in dental fear as well as a rise in mood during dental situations, as opposed to the HT group. Treatments, became less fearful of dental care and were able to manage conventional dental care, including changing dentist.
Taylor DN. Effects of a behavioral stress-management program on anxiety, mood, self-esteem, and T-cell count in HIV positive men. Analysis showed that compared with the no-treatment group, the treatment group showed significant improvement on all the dependent measures, which was maintained at a 1-mo. follow-up. Since stress is known to compromise the immune system, these results suggest that stress management to reduce arousal of the nervous system and anxiety would be an appropriate component of a treatment regimen for HIV infection. Psychological Reports. 1995; 76(2): 451-7.
90.6% Success Rate Using Hypnosis Of 43 consecutive patients undergoing this treatment protocol, 39 reported remaining abstinent at follow-up (6 months to 3 years post-treatment). This represents a 90.6% success rate using hypnosis. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2001 Jul;49(3):257-66. Barber J.
95% Success Rate Using Hypnosis with NLP A comparison of hypnosis to quit smoking and hypnosis combined with NLP reported a 95% success rate using hypnosis combined with NLP and 51% using hypnosis alone. Smoke Free International http://www.smokefreeinternational.com/report.php
90% Success Rate with Hypnosis Authors report a success rate in smoking abstinence of over 90% with hypnosis. MMW Fortschr Med. 2004 May 13;146(20):16.
87% Reported Abstinence Using Hypnosis A field study of 93 male and 93 female CMHC outpatients examined the facilitation of smoking cessation by using hypnosis. At 3-mo. follow-up, 86% of men and 87% of women reported continued abstinence using hypnosis. Psychol Rep. 1994 Oct;75(2):851-7. PMID: 7862796
81% Reported They Had Stopped Smoking Thirty smokers enrolled in an HMO were referred by their primary physician for treatment. Twenty-one patients returned after an initial consultation and received hypnosis for smoking cessation. At the end of treatment, 81% of those patients reported that they had stopped smoking, and 48% reported abstinence at 12 months post-treatment. Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 2004 Jan;52(1):73-81.
Hypnosis Patients Twice As Likely To Quit Study of 71 smokers showed that after a two-year follow up, patients that quit with hypnosis were twice as likely to still be smoke-free than those who quit on their own. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 2005; 37:3, pages 245-250.
Sophie Dahl (model): Sophie was a “plus sized” model from England. After a change of heart she dropped a huge amount of weight with help from hypnosis for weight loss. Now she leads a healthy lifestyle, is a beautiful pin-up model, and managed to keep the weight off as 10 years later she is still a size 8 dress size!
Orlando Bloom (actor): Orlando used hypnosis as a child. His mother took him to see a hypnotist to help him to overcome his addiction to chocolate and also to help him to lose weight and get into shape.
Albert Einstein (physicist): The legendary physicist regularly used it to help him to develop his ideas. Some claim that the theory of relativity came to him during one of his sessions.
Tiger Woods (golf pro): Has famously used hypnosis ever since he was a child. He used a mixture of hypnosis, neurolinguistic programming (NLP), and visualization to help him to focus and improve his concentration and “get into the zone”.. as one of the highest paid sports stars and most successful golfers ever, I think it worked for him!
David Beckham (soccer pro): Visited a hypnotist privately to help him to confront some of his personal issues – the rest, we don’t know.
Steve Hooker (athlete): Won a Gold Medal at the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth Games in the Pole Vault. He puts his success down to not only his dedicated training routines and high ambitions, but also thanks hypnosis for helping him to visualize his success time and time again so that he felt completely comfortable, and “at home” on the day.
Lily Allen (singer): Another celeb (Lily is a singer from the UK) who used weight loss hypnosis successfully – she lost so much weight she dropped 3 dress sizes.
Aaron Eckhart (actor): Listened to hypnotherapy tapes to help him to beat smoking and alcohol addictions – later stating in an interview that it changed his life forever.
Geri Halliwell (singer): The ex-spice girl again adds to the numbers of Celebs who used hypnotherapy to lose weight and get fit.
Winston Churchill (prime minister): The famous war-time British prime minister used to often work, plan, and strategize all night, and so he would listen to hypnotic tapes during the day to help him to stay fresh.
Ashton Kutcher (actor): Aston is a big fan of hypnosis, using it for various issues that we know of. Firstly he used it when he first got into acting to help him to focus, and to visualize his own success and stardom.. I guess it worked! More recently he used a stop smoking hypnosis cd, and yes, he did successfully quit.
Jimmy Connors (tennis pro): Uses hypnosis regularly to help his tennis game, and to help him keep his focus during important tournaments.
Matt Damon (actor): Matt proclaimed his love for hypnosis live on TV, stating that it was Ithe greatest decision I ever made in my life. This was to Jay Leno, and he was referring to using hypnosis to stop smoking.
Kevin McBride (boxer): Listens to his hypnosis sessions before every (boxing) fight. He claims this gets him into a positive and focused state of mind and focuses him on winning.
Jack Nicklaus (professional golfer): He LOVES hypnosis! Jack isn’t shy about his passion for hypnosis and enhancing his mind. He uses it to improve his concentration during golf games.
Jackie Kennedy: Took private sessions with a hypnotherapist to help her get over the tragic death of her husband.
Lord Tennyson Alfred (poet): Lord Tennyson was a famous poet in his time and it is said he wrote entire poems while under the influence of hypnosis – again tapping into his creative side.
Ellen DeGeneres (celebrity): Ellen underwent hypnosis live on her tv chat show, and used it’s power to successfully stop smoking.
Ben Affleck: Ben was quoted as saying: I I feel a huge difference in my health now that I don’t smoke. I feel like I’m in better shape than I was five years ago another fan of mind enhancement, and especially hypnotherapy and it’s ability to re-wire human behavior.
Kevin Costner (actor): Had his own private hypnotist flown out to Hawaii (while he was filming Waterworld) to cure him of his sea-sickness which was plaguing his filming schedule – from then onwards Kevin was fine in the water.
By: NaturalHypnosis.com
• Gastrointestinal disorders: ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, colitis, crohn’s disease
• Dermatologic disorders: eczema, herpes, neurodermatitis, pruritus, psoriasis and warts
• Surgery/anesthesiology: when hypnosis is the sole anesthetic and when patient needs to be able to respond to questions from surgeon
• Acute and chronic pain: back, dental and cancer pain, headaches or arthritis
• Burns: when hypnotic anesthesia and feelings of coolness can reduce inflammation and promote healing.
• Nausea/vomiting: chemotherapy and pregnancy
• Childbirth: eliminates risks that medications can pose to both the mother and child
• Hemophilia: control vascular flow and keep from requiring a blood transfusion
• Allergies/asthma
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Raynaud’s disease
(Courtesy of www.asch.net)
