Healing Your Body Through Self-Hypnosis
 


By E. Gene Rooney

Your body is a “healing system.”  You were designed for wellness and good health is a “normal state.”  However, it is inevitable that you will be subjected to sickness, disease, viruses, stress and all matters of health compromising factors through every day living. 

It is possible however, to heal yourself just by programming your thoughts, and calibrating your mind to take control over your body.  This is called “self hypnosis” or “entering trance state.  Here you simply let your body think what your mind wants it to do. Sometimes we send our bodies mixed messages.  We say we want it to be healthy but we do unhealthy things.  We say we want to achieve an optimum weight, but we eat poorly.

The body does best if it know exactly what we want and we act accordingly.  Tell your body what you want it to do – through affirmation – verbal – or imagery (visualization) – give it good reasons for doing so – and then act in ways consistent with what you have told it.

The best form here is a “do this… so that formula.”    Then picture yourself as you will be after the change takes place.

Most of these healing forms discussed here are for of self-hypnosis.  All of us operate with self-hypnosis, either positively or negatively.  Some of us are so negative in our self-assessments  and self-image pictures that we actually push our bodies to go in the ways we self-criticize them for going.

The word “trance” literally means in internal mental state.  We go into and out of “trance” dozens of times a day.

Cultural teachings, expectations, assumptions, affirmations, models, examples, hopes, dreams, desires, beliefs all serve as a “trance state.”  In a sense, then, we are hypnotized by what we hold to be desirable and true.

To be “entranced” is to narrow the focus of attention to the place that all competing scenarios are pushed aside and the mind centers in one desire.  When that  one scenario is focused upon, it becomes the one our body accepts as real  and reacts accordingly.  The body then can “re-lax” into the “reality” produced by that one accepted reality.

Negatively, the same process can cause harm.  Ex:  If I “worry about a worse-scene-scenario I may not make that outcome happen in the external word, but I do make it happen internally.  My body begins to respond “as if” the feared outcome has happened already.  Once I settle into this feared response, it may indeed become more likely as an external reality.  Job 3:25-26  For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.  I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, for trouble comes."

Negative self talk becomes verbal, post-hypnotic suggestions.  If all my body hears is my negative “fear-talk” then it may quite likely act on it.  

We tend to take as accurate and true the opinions and assumptions of these we consider most authoritative… e.g.… doctor, politician, boss, expert, etc.  Their statements  to us may enter straight into our minds as truth without being subjected to the same tests and scrutiny to which we would put someone else’s opinion.  In reality we should shop around for a “second opinion” to be synonymous  with “the truth.”

The power of hypnosis is not some mysterious form of thought control by an outside agent, however.  Its power happens when our inner minds take someone’s  opinion  to be true.  Thus, “trance” is the power that authority, focus, thought-direction, imagination have to direct our attention and thoughts.

Therapeutic hypnosis is the use of the mind’s focusing capacities to harness it’s own powers to produce desired states of health  and healing.

All of the trappings of hypnosis such as darkened rooms, colored lights, quiet music, strange gestures, a commanding voice, etc.,   are not a part of hypnosis at all but are simply things that make it easier for you to quiet your mind and point it in a direction and focus it on the desired outcomes until the mind accepts them as reality.  Once the mind has accepted these desired outcomes as “fact,” the body can begin to produce the “state” in which these outcomes an happen.

What gets your “attention” gets you.

In other words, what ever you focus on as true then begins to elicit from your body those responses  that will assist them in being true. 

Hypnosis is no more than a state of profound relaxation for the body.   Trance is the state of relaxed open-mindedness that focuses on that which you want to do, be or have.

Hypnosis is not magic.  It cannot produce that which is not possible.  But it can harness all the powers you have to produce something that which, if possible, can then be made more likely to be trained.

One process for self hypnosis (self-directed focus) is as follows:

  1. Relax your body.  Breath slowly and deeply.
  2. Close your eyes.  Allow tensions to drain away.
  3. Focus your attention (seeing, hearing, feeling) on something.
  4. Continue relaxing your body even more
  5. Give your mind the “well formed outcomes” you desire in the form of visual images and verbal suggestions.
  6. Continue to focus on your life, your body, your realities going in the direction you have chosen.
  7. Allow yourself to suggest to your mind/body how you want the future to be played out (post-hypnotic suggestions).  These are really not post-hypnotic.  They are continuing the hypnosis or trance AFTER the relaxing state is over. They are programming your mind/body to operate within certain desired foci.

Now open your eyes and be totally aware of your surroundings.

Using the above process , you can perform some good therapeutic hypnosis in as little as a minute., though you can take as long as you want.  Read on for an elaboration of the various steps.

  1. Take the first step, just take a deep breath and relax your muscles as well as you can.  I recommend doing this sitting up, because if you lie down, you are likely to really go to sleep.
     

  2. For the second step, just close your eyes. Some hypno-therapists take as long as twenty minutes trying to get you to close your eyes involuntarily, which is a big waste of time.  Just go ahead and close them and be done with it.
     

  3. The third step has a lot of possible variations.  One of the most common is to count backward from ten or some larger number.  This is because it takes more attention to count backward than it does to count forward.  Some people like to imagine a blackboard and write numbers on it, and erase them.  Others like to imagine walking up or down stairs. Actually, the third step is where hypnosis and meditation meet, so anything you use in meditation to start focusing will work well here.  Examples  are the repeating of a word or phrase, imagining a candle flame or flower, and feeling the movement of your breathing. Or you can use a favorite memory  that gives you a good feeling. The most important thing happening in this step is that  your attention is drawn away from external distractions and into a narrow focus where anything that comes into your awareness will have greater importance.
     

  4. In this step you make a quick check of your body to notice any tension areas, then either hold the intent to relax or tell your body to do so.  You can also remember or imagine in detail, a peaceful, relaxing experience, such as lying on the sand at a beach, or walking along a forest trail in Spring time.
     

  5. Now you are ready for the main event.  It is best to decide before the session what kinds of suggestions you want to give yourself.  Give suggestions in the form of words that evoke images, either memories, detailed plans or fantasy symbols. For example, if you are helping your body to cope with cancer, you could tell it to remember all the things you could do and how good you felt before you had the disease.  You could visualize and verbalize your plans for treatment and tell your body to cooperate so you can do things and feel good later on.  As an alternative, you could fantasize your white blood cells as excavators and bulldozers taking the cancer apart and hauling it away, and yourself being applauded for your success at a victory celebration by friends and family.  The words help you to keep your focus and the imagery helps your body to incorporate the suggestions.

    The most powerful suggestions will be the ones that evoke the strongest positive emotional responses in you, so they should be personally tailored to your experience and desires.

    Be sure to have the suggestions include sensory benefits to motivate the body in the form of physical or emotional pleasure as a result of or as a reward for the healing. This could include a food treat (unless you are trying to lose weight) a special movie, a fun event, purchase of something that would give you pleasure or anything that you would consider a reward.

    Once I promised my body a trip to an amusement park. Although I was unable to arrange the actual trip, I discovered that my body was just as happy with a detailed imaginary experience of the rides and the cotton candy.

    If you are unsure about the form the suggestion should take, use the ideas given earlier.  They will have even more power as part of a self-hypnosis process.  Some people, including yourself, have had good results by incorporating suggestions into a relaxing scene from step 4.  For example, while lying on the beach, some dolphins could pop out of the water and give the suggestions, and they might also be written in the sand; or in forest, animals could give the suggestions and they might be written on trees and rocks.
     

  6. Post hypnotic suggestions are very useful as reminders to your mind to focus on what you want, and to your body to remember what you want. Relate the suggestions to something you’ll encounter infrequently enough that it will grab your attention, and not so frequently that you’ll quickly ignore it. For example, our birthday would be too infrequent, but your breathing would be too frequent.  You might try something like, “every time you smell a flower you’ll remember these suggestions,” or “Whenever you sit down to eat, you’ll remember these suggestions.”  You can also end the session with a suggestion to come back to full awareness quickly and easily.  This will be helpful for getting ready to open your eyes.
     

  7. When you open your eyes you may feel a little spacey because of the transition from deep focus and relaxation to normal distractions and activity.  I have found that the quickest way to get reoriented is to look at things around you as you move your hands and your feet.

Responding to hypnosis is a skill, just as meditation is a skill.  Some people learn to do it and gain the benefits very quickly, while others have to practice a lot.  You’ll know how skillful you are when you start to get results.  It took me a good while to learn it well, and it has become one of the most valuable skills I have.  Sometimes the results are instant, sometimes rapid or fast, and sometimes – when there is a lot of emotional clutter to deal with – it takes a lot of time and persistence.  Never the less, it is definitely worth developing.

E Gene Roooney
Jefferson City, MO


©1997-2006 E. Gene Rooney and Bobby G. Bodenhamer - All rights reserved.