People are goal oriented. They have career goals, fitness goals, personal goals, family goals, and more. All those goals wrap up into a pretty busy life, and somewhere in the mix of things people find love and add “relationship goals” to their already hefty list of goals. But all the other things going on in life can make finding love one of the more difficult tasks, and all too often the “love life” factor gets thrown on the backburner.

There comes a time in most people’s life when they realize they have neglected their love life for too long, and now they really crave the satisfaction and closeness of a partner. For others, they may realize that they have grown away from their long-term partner, and often find their relationship lacking excitement or that initial “spark.” This is a natural feeling that most people will experience throughout their life, though maybe not until after many other goals have been accomplished.

After putting everything else first for so long, however, it can be hard to get back into the dating game, much less fall in love with one of those potential candidates, and equally as difficult to maintain love for someone over time. Sometimes, bad or undesirable habits are accumulated along the way, especially after living the “single life” and having nobody to hold you accountable for your actions, which can make it difficult for others to fall in love with you as well.

This is why there are so many options today that guarantee to help you find love, like online dating sites, compatibility tests, speed dating, and matchmakers. Another idea that surfaces time and time again, however, is finding love through hypnosis. Lots of psychological healing is done through hypnosis, so this idea isn’t all that far out. Is it possible to hypnotize yourself (and others) into love? You may just have to try it to find out.

Why Is It So Difficult To Find Love?

Finding love can often prove to be a difficult task. In today’s fast paced society, people are not so fond of wasting their time, meaning they are often quick to judge somebody’s negative characteristics. There are also tons of areas to be considered when determining compatibility between you and a potential partner. People generally look for a partner that is in the same social class as them, as well as someone who is on their same intelligence level and has like morals and goals.

Then, there is still the factors of sex life and physical attraction, both which need to be fulfilled in order to maintain a healthy long-term relationship. Additionally, there needs to be emotional chemistry or likeness in personality. These qualities all wrap up into a partner that they can grow and live life with, enjoy conversation and have a laugh with, and who also satisfies their physical desires and needs.

Another reason it is often so difficult to find love is because each person is so different in all of these aspects, meaning there is no “cookie cutter” characteristics you can adapt to make yourself the “perfect” partner. It’s all just a toss-up based on each person’s personal preferences.

On top of all these difficulties, the fact of the matter is that most people are not actively seeking love all the time. So not only do you need to catch the attention of someone you’re organically compatible with, but that person might not even be paying attention to begin with.

This doesn’t mean you can’t make yourself easier to fall in love with though. Erasing negative qualities and working to be a more balanced, well-rounded person will generally work out in your favor, and if not, it definitely can do no harm.

The Effects Of Hypnosis On Emotions

Emotions, like happiness, anger, grief, and even love, reside in the subconscious portion of your brain. Generally, it can be difficult to “speak” to your subconscious because it isn’t always so great at understanding reason. This means that emotions can sometimes be particularly hard to tap into, and often are even harder to fully understand.

Understanding how hypnosis can affect your emotions and your love life first requires an understanding of what hypnosis is. Hypnosis, a term first defined by physician and surgeon James Braid in the early 1800’s, refers to a state of consciousness where one is relaxed and experiences heightened focus, allowing them and their subconscious to be susceptible to the power of suggestion.

Hypnosis is often a procedure done in a quiet environment that involves putting the patient in a relaxed state, allowing their conscious mind to easily access their subconscious. Self-hypnosis is a similar idea, except the patient is yourself. Emile Coue expanded the idea of self-hypnosis by implementing the idea of “conscious autosuggestion,” commonly known today as the practice of using affirmations. Coue believed that one could use these “auto suggestions” to change themselves, including their emotions, thought patterns, and physical habits.

In this case, it’s not so hard to believe that hypnosis (including self-hypnosis) can affect your emotions, including your feelings pertaining to love, as well as help you alter characteristics or qualities to make yourself more desirable.

Why It Works: How Hypnosis Affects The Brain

Hypnosis has three main effects on the brain that make it so effective on our decision-making process and our emotions. These three effects look like this:

• Hypnosis begins by decreasing the activity in the “dorsal anterior cingulate” which is the section of your brain that compiles and sorts all our sensory information in order to decide which is the most important. The decrease in attention to this activity center helps one focus inwardly instead of on worldly things.
• Alternatively, connection is increased between the prefrontal cortex and the “insula,” which heightens the mind’s attention to bodily functions and inward processes.
• Then, connections between the dorsolateral prefrontal, the medial prefrontal, and the posterior cingulate cortex are decreased, which temporarily disconnects a person from their actions or from being aware of their actions. This means that during hypnosis you may be entirely unaware of your physical body and your physical actions, which also helps you focus inwardly.

Losing awareness of physical actions and environmental factors helps place the focus strictly on mental functions and thought patterns, which allows them to be understood and altered more easily. This helps the person subject to hypnosis to be more easily swayed by the power of suggestion, meaning that particular traits, characteristics, or patterns of the subconscious can be directly targeted and changed.

Repeating hypnotherapy tactics help you to maintain the affects long term as well as see greater results over time. In fact, “hypnotic repetition” may be a phrase that your hypnotherapist uses frequently, because repetition is such an important part to the therapy process. Because the changes can be subtle, sometimes it can take frequent and consistent repetition or hypnosis sessions or affirmations to ensure the desired results as well as maintain any personality changes you have gained. After all, negative characteristics can reform just like they were erased, and because these are changes to the subconscious mind, you may not even notice it happening.

Making Yourself Easy To Love

Maybe you have a few bad qualities, or maybe you’re a total spaz. Maybe you have extreme fear of rejection that keeps you from speaking to that someone you’ve had your eye on. Maybe you have a few too many when you have a drink. Perhaps something as simple as a nervous stutter ruins your confidence for each encounter. No matter how simple or in-depth the issue, if you can pinpoint the things that may be making it difficult for you to attract a partner, then you can definitely use hypnotherapy to try and rid your life of these negative qualities.

Once you have made a list of the qualities you would like to change, you have a couple of options. One method is to see a licensed hypnotherapist and explain your personal goals. Maybe you have a tendency to drink a little too much, or you just can’t seem to stop smacking loudly when you eat. Maybe you have incredibly low self-confidence and have trouble presenting yourself to others in a positive manner.

Your hypnotherapist will take all of these qualities into account and design a hypnosis session to help you overcome and erase these qualities and build confidence.

A second method is to use self-hypnosis. You can easily find videos online or order specific hypnosis tapes tailored to the qualities you’d like to change. Once you understand how to achieve the desired relaxed state, you can use hypnosis to break and build characteristics to your liking. Often, self-hypnosis includes the use of affirmations. These may sound something like:

“Every day I become more confident, powerful, and assertive.”

“I always stay positive in intimidating social situations.”

“I am becoming more comfortable in my own skin by the day.”

If the overall goal is to alter your personal characteristics to make yourself more attractive, then hypnosis may be exactly what you need to help you find love.

Making Others Fall In Love With You

It may seem like a totally insane idea, but you can hypnotize others as well, making it easier to attract a partner of your choosing. Just like during self-hypnosis, others around you can easily fall subject to the power of suggestion as well. This means that with the right techniques you may be able to change the way that others view you as well as their preferences and attraction for you. Will you be able to turn someone around completely and make them a totally different person? Probably not, so it’s best to choose your subject wisely from the start.

You should start by being observant. Take time to understand your target person and get to know their likes, dislikes, and preferences. It is easier to do this when somebody is in a social setting, particularly surrounded by their friends because they are more likely to let their guard down, which will give you more insight into their personality.

When you encounter your target person, it is also important to gain their trust. Typically, you can increase your chances of gaining trust by looking them directly in the eyes. This will also help you gain more suggestive power over them.

Every time you are around this person, they will subconsciously make decisions about you and their opinion of you based on your actions, meaning you should be consciously aware of what signals you put out in order to sway them one way or the other. Be sure that you are honest, though. Lying about who you are or your interests is not the same as hypnosis, and may instead be considered a form of “manipulation.” Instead, focus on your newly built “good” characteristics that you’ve learned through self-hypnosis, such as confidence, respect, or honesty.

You should always expect, on the forefront, that hypnotizing someone to fall in love with you is likely to take time. Just like falling in love organically, it often doesn’t happen overnight. Expect to put in consistent effort, sometimes for months or years in order to see results. If you’re considering a long-term relationship with this person, then there should be no rush. However, be sure to remain observant. If there are not at least subtle advances in the right direction, especially after multiple efforts, you may need to change your approach to the situation. Constantly observing the person’s reactions will help you judge what works, what doesn’t, and when it may be time to move on.

The First Encounter

As stated earlier, most people are not actively seeking love every day. Therefore, catching someone’s attention can be difficult, even more so if you are busy as well. However, there are multiple ways to increase the chances that you will gain the attention of a person you’re compatible with.

After you have used hypnosis intrinsically to make yourself more confident or rid your life of negative patterns, you need to present the “new you” to the world. However, don’t forget what brought you to this point. You may need to repeat your affirmations daily if you plan to let your romantic encounters happen organically. If you have someone in mind you are planning to approach, it may be helpful to repeat your affirmations before your very first planned encounter. Then, create a tentative plan for how you are going to handle the encounter.

If you have issues with rejection, create a plan for how you will deal with the rejection if it occurs. If you are shy and fearful of social interactions, it may help to practice a few conversations in your head ahead of time. Whatever the case, having a plan will help you understand and execute the encounter more efficiently.

Most importantly, take care to relax yourself before you initially meet with the person, and make sure to have a plan to remain relaxed throughout the encounter. Nervousness may make it difficult to execute your plan properly. Remember that the plan is tentative, and you want the encounter to be as real and organic as possible, so be fluid to changes, go with the flow, and be yourself. After all, you have worked hard to become the newer, better you, so take a breath and just let it happen.

Hypnosis And Sex Appeal

Whether we want to admit it or not (for fear of sounding shallow), sex appeal has a lot to do with choosing a partner. After all, a long-term relationship generally requires a healthy sex life, and being attracted to your partner initially is the first step. However, this isn’t quite as shallow of an idea as you may think. In fact, sex appeal may have very little to do with “looks” at all.

While it varies by preference, there a few components to presenting yourself with top-notch sex appeal to those around you. The most important part of being sexually appealing to others is walking, talking, and acting with confidence. While physicality may be important to some, often the way someone carries himself has much more influential power than looks. Presenting yourself respectfully and confidently is likely to help you attract others both mentally and physically.

Just like changing and magnifying other personal qualities, you can hypnotize yourself to increase your sex appeal. Other than increasing confidence, there are ways to playfully express your sexual energy to others. This is important, because there is a good balance between coming on too strong and being a stiff brick wall.

Aside from helping you find and sexually attract a partner, sexual hypnosis can be used in your relationship. Erotic hypnosis has been used for some time in order to help established couples deepen their physical connection or keep things alive in the long term.

Using Hypnosis To Stay In Love Or Save Your Relationship

Even as hard as it is to find love, often falling in love happens very quickly and with very little rational thought. This means that logical questions are asked later, often after you’ve become invested in your partner. This is one of the reason’s that people so frequently fall out of love with someone they thought they would spend forever with. If you find, after you have settled into a relationship, that you are starting to lose attraction or interest in your partner, hypnosis may be able to help you as well.

Just like using hypnosis to find love, it can be used to change thinking patterns to help you re-discover love for your partner or to help keep your relationship together. Hearing of couples using the power of hypnosis to save their relationships may be just as common as using hypnosis for other forms of therapy. Professional hypnotherapists often offer special hypnosis therapy sessions designed specifically for relationships. Other times, they will help get to the root of what is causing your sudden disinterest, which may lead to similar hypnosis sessions as described earlier. These sessions may be specific and focus on one or more of your partner’s “undesirable” characteristics in order to help you accept and become comfortable with them. Often, this can help couples maintain healthier long-term relationships.

So, Does Using Hypnosis For Love Really Work?

All things considered, there is no reason to think that hypnosis cannot help you find the love of your life. Hypnosis has long been regarded as a practical and effective method for all types of therapeutic healing, as well as for changing behaviors and outcomes. When practiced carefully and frequently, hypnosis can definitely help you apply confidence to your approach at love, help you attract others, and even help you maintain your relationship in the long term. Whether you opt to try to self-hypnotize or seek help from a professional hypnotherapist, hypnosis is a plausible option for those who struggle to find (or keep) love.

Despite how little you may have heard of the hypnosis technique in regard to love and relationships, it may be important to note just how common this form of hypnotherapy is. Hypnotherapy sessions to find and maintain love are popular among singles, young married couples, and time stamped partners alike. The hypnosis techniques are also popular among Hollywood stars and working professionals, often with positive results, so there is no reason they can’t benefit you, too!

Sincerely,

Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session, designed to help you become a love magnet. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced love magnet hypnosis mp3 does).

The thing about exercise is that while it’s very easy to say, “I’m going to start exercising tomorrow,” following through on that promise and sticking to it for more than a few weeks is a completely different matter.

It’s why the days after the New Year always see a spike in new gym memberships, only for the new members to stop showing up by February—sometimes as early as the middle of January!

Bottom line? Working out is never easy. If it were, it wouldn’t be called working out.

If there are days when you don’t feel like going for a run or pumping iron at your gym, don’t be too hard on yourself. It’s fine to skip a workout every now and then. In fact, spending more time recovering can actually be good for your performance and growth.

However, there’s a difference between skipping the occasional exercise session and constantly procrastinating. The latter is what many people struggle with, and it happens because of a lack of motivation or willpower to put the work into getting fit and healthy.

If your motivation, or lack thereof, seems to be sabotaging your efforts to exercise, try these strategies to motivate yourself.

1. Change Your Mentality About Exercise

If you are still thinking like a couch potato—that is, someone who spends most of their time at home—then working out or exercising will always feel like a chore to you. Unless you change your mindset or perspective about exercise, it will be hard to find any real motivation to be active and fit.

For example, if you always see exercise as being too difficult because of your very busy lifestyle, try to look at things under a new light. You could think of exercising as an investment in yourself, similar to how people buy life insurance and health insurance.

Try to see exercise as a way of improving your quality of life, making you not just look on the good on the outside, but actually feel good despite your hectic lifestyle. If you’re a parent, you can exercise as a way to set a better example for your kids.

2. Embrace Exercise as a Personal Escape

Different people have different ways of blowing off steam. For some people, it could be a weekly appointment at the spa. For others, it’s curling up on the couch to read a good book or playing an engaging video game.

You can use exercise as your personal time, a chance to put your mind on a mental vacation and get away from the stress of daily life. If you think of working out this way, it will seem like a treat instead of a chore. With this mindset, you can go to the gym or go for a run with the approach of working hard to feel better inside and out.

This little shift will help you focus on your workout instead of begging for it to be finally over.

3. Just Do It

Nike’s famous slogan couldn’t be more appropriate for anyone looking to get fit and healthy.

One of the best ways to motivate yourself to start exercising today is to stop thinking about and just do it instead. Take action instead of overthinking how and when you’re going to start exercising. The more time you have between thinking about it and doing it, the more likely you’re going to overthink your way out of exercising.

The same principle applies on those days when you don’t feel like going to the gym or going on a run. Just pack your clothes and go to the gym. Chances are, you’ll have a change of heart when you get there.

4. Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is?

Some people may not have the motivation to exercise, but they might be more motivated by other things.

For example, many people are motivated to do things out of a desire to save money. If this sounds like you, what might work wonders for your exercise motivation is to enroll in a gym or non-refundable workout class.

This works especially well when you’re struggling to get out of bed for an early morning workout. Because you’ve already paid for a gym membership or group class, you’ll feel compelled to get the most out of your hard-earned money.

5. Set Goals

Most people have the same set of reasons for wanting to exercise: to be healthier, lose weight, have a smaller waistline, and gain muscle being among the most common.

But try to go deeper or be more specific.

For example, if you’ve always wanted to run a full marathon, set your exercise goals on running your first 5K, 10K, 21K, and a full marathon within a specific timeframe. Better yet, sign up for a marathon early on so you can put yourself on a clock.

But whatever exercise and fitness goals you set, make sure they are realistic. Yes, eyeing a full marathon is a worthwhile goal. But aiming to do it in less than two months isn’t exactly realistic, even for seasoned runners who have taken a few months away from running.

6. Work Around a Regular Exercise Schedule

Whether you exercise before sunrise or a few hours before going to bed, what’s important is working out on a regular schedule. The trick is finding a realistic way to weave regular exercise into your daily routine of work, family time, and personal time.

Most people assume that getting real results in the gym means spending upwards of two hours running and lifting weights.

But the truth is that unless you’re a professional athlete or bodybuilder, there’s no reason you can’t get a full workout done in 45 to 60 minutes.

In other words, all you need is one hour dedicated to exercise each day. And when you make exercise a part of your regular schedule, it becomes easier to adjust activities and events around it, instead of the other way around, which is what happens with most people.

7. Have Fun and Mix Things Up Every Now and Then

Working out doesn’t have to be serious and repetitive. There are countless ways to exercise and break a sweat. So don’t be afraid to find the routine or program that gives you the most fun while working hard.

Whether it’s a spinning class, a Zumba group workout, or a weekly run out in the trails of your city, feel free to diversify your exercise strategies. Do what gives you the most fun so your motivation to do it stays high all year round.

For example, people who love to dance will always work harder and longer in a dance class than they would in a running class. That means having fun can make reaching your fitness goals much faster.

Mixing things up also ensures you are constantly challenging your body to adapt to new workout routines. If you’ve been lifting weights for the last six months and feel your performance has reached a plateau, join a yoga class to challenge your flexibility, which in turn, can improve your weight lifting performance.

8. Turn to a Friend or Group for Support

It’s much easier to stick to a workout program or exercise regimen when you have someone to motivate you and motivate in return.

Whether it’s a friend, your spouse, or even your entire family, support groups are a powerful way to sustain your motivation for exercise, or any other endeavor for that matter.

When you’re on your own, there will always be days when you just don’t feel like getting out of bed to go to the gym or local park for a run. So, you procrastinate and promise to do it tomorrow.

But having someone who can push you to go out and get the work done means you can stick to your goals and eliminate procrastination, even when your mind doesn’t want to.

Having a support group can be as simple as joining a Facebook group of fitness and nutrition experts, where you can share insights and tips on how to lose weight or prepare healthy meals.

You can also try joining group classes, which prevent you from getting bored with your exercise program.

9. Keep Your Exercise Gear in Sight

As the old adage goes, “Out of sight, out of mind.”

One way to maintain your motivation to exercise is to make sure your fitness gear is always visible or within reach. When you wake up and see your sneakers, dumbbells, yoga mat, or workout clothes by the dresser, you’ll never be able to get exercise out of your mind.

These little visual cues are a powerful way to sustain your motivation, reminding your brain just how much you need to exercise even when you don’t want to. If you have no one to remind you to exercise, let your gear do it for you.

If you don’t want your gear to mess your home décor, just pick one or two places where you spend a lot of time and can use your fitness equipment.

It can be a yoga matt near the television, resistance bands inside your closet or a pull-up bar hung behind your bedroom door.

10. Take Before and After Pictures of Yourself

When you work out for, say, a few months, it can be hard to see any noticeable results in your physique.

Relying on a weighing scale may seem enough, but your weight is just a number. If you exercise consistently, you may even end up gaining weight by putting on muscle but still have a smaller waistline. Muscle is much denser than fat, so it weighs more by volume.

The most reliable way to monitor your progress—aside from periodically taking measurements of your waist, arms, and thighs—is to take pictures of yourself every few weeks or so.

When you compare how you look now to how you looked when you first started out, the subtle changes in your body are a powerful motivator to keep pushing forward.

11. Trust the Process

Finally seeing results from working out can give you a powerful motivation boost, encouraging you to stick to your workout schedule and work harder than ever before. But what happens when progress becomes slower and you hit a dreaded plateau?

When you reach this point, don’t let it shake your confidence. Trust the process. Continue to work out, eat well, and get enough rest. At some point, your fitness progress will slow down to a crawl—but that doesn’t change the fact that its’s still progress.

Stick to your guns and focus on the results to fuel your motivation.

12. Make Commuting a Part of Your Exercise Routine

Let’s face it, there will always be days when work or other obligations get in the way of your exercise activities. If you have no choice but to skip your usual run or cardio workout, turn your regular commute into a fitness routine instead.

Biking, running, or walking to and from work is a great way to hit two birds with one stone. For one, your commute is a normal part of your day, so you won’t need to set aside any serious amount of time just to exercise.

Of course, the logistics of commuting on foot or on a bicycle can be tricky depending on your work situation or availability of public transportation. Assess your situation first to figure out how to safely run or bicycle to and from work.

You can try carpooling to the office and running back home, or investing in a bike if you can shower in the office.

13. Keep an Exercise Journal

There is something satisfying about keeping a log of your exercise efforts and looking back to see you how far you’ve come. The act of writing down your workouts or miles run can be enough to make you keep pushing yourself, motivating you not to break your streak of progress.

You can even share your journal or workout videos on social media, where your friends can cheer you on and fuel your motivation. With this approach, your online contacts can hold you accountable and push you to keep at it.

14. Invest in Workout Clothes

A study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology suggests that clothing can influence your attitude and behavior because of its symbolic meaning.

In the context of exercise, the clothes you wear can motivate you to work harder and longer. When you wear fun or flattering workout gear, you become more confident and feel good about yourself. This can be a powerful motivator when you’re in the gym.

If you occasionally treat yourself to new fitness clothes, you will likely find any excuse to wear them. In turn, this makes going to the gym an activity you actually look forward to instead of it being a chore.

And because quality exercise clothes not only look good but feel good, you’ll have a better time working out hard without feeling sticky or stuffy in your outfit.

Note that stylish exercise clothes need not be expensive. If you use them as occasional treats, your new fitness wardrobe won’t have to break your bank.

15. Turn to Motivational Therapies

Why do some people seem to never run out of motivation? How do they maintain the discipline to wake up before sunrise and go to the gym or for a run?

The answer lies in how they think, which is where therapies come in. Whether it’s behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy, or hypnotherapy, addressing the thoughts and feelings you associate with exercise can be an effective way to go to the source of your motivational challenges.

Hypnosis, in particular, offers a high potential of helping you develop your motivation and discipline naturally. According to a 2014 study published in the Complementary Therapies in Medicine, hypnosis was more effective than nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in helping smokers stop smoking and sustaining their smoking abstinence.

Similar results were found when applying hypnosis to help people lose weight. One study published in the US National Library of Medicine found that “Controlled trial on the use of hypnotherapy, as an adjunct to dietary advice in producing weight loss, has produced a statistically significant result in favor of hypnotherapy.”

By focusing on your subconscious, hypnotherapy changes the very way your mind sees exercise and food. Your hypnotherapist can help you view exercise as a treat for yourself instead of a chore, and food as fuel rather than a reward.

Final Thoughts

How you cultivate a positive attitude about exercise and fitness is entirely up to you. The trick lies in seeing exercise as a blessing rather than on obligation or sacrifice. Remember, there are no right or wrong methods here—people are motivated in a variety of ways. You try to combine these strategies to fuel your motivation and ensure you reach your fitness goals at your own pace.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for exercise motivation. It not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced “I love to Exercise” hypnosis mp3 does).

Background of Hypnotherapy Training Courses

Hypnosis is a widely known therapy option used in treating a variety of ailments and conditions. The practice involves guided therapy in which the patient reaches a state of relaxed consciousness which enables the them to be easily influenced by suggestion. While the practice is most often related to psychological practices treating trauma or other mental disorders, hypnotherapy trainings also commonly covers topics of pain management, aiding in ease of childbirth,  treating sleep conditions and relieving stress.  It is often taught to practitioners who will be using hypnosis in conjunction with  other forms of therapy.

The practice of hypnosis techniques dates as far back as prehistoric times, although the technique and study was revolutionized by James Braid in the early 1800’s. Braid was a renowned surgeon and is now regarded as history’s first “hypnotherapist.” Modern hypnotherapy was greatly influenced by Braid’s work. However, hypnosis techniques did not mainstream until over 20 years after Braid’s death in 1860. Since then, hypnosis techniques have become an increasingly popular form of therapy, offering treatments encompassing hundreds of conditions, and in some cases, replacing modern medication.

In most cases, individuals who seek Hypnosis Certification Training are licensed healthcare professionals with education extending beyond a four-year degree. However, courses are offered for applicants who have not completed this level of education as well. For most programs, applicants are required to at least be licensed healthcare specialists or hold a degree in psychology or other health-related field.

Courses are offered by multiple different institutions and each course varies, providing its own benefits and drawbacks. However, each program listed provides a Hypnosis Certification upon completion of the courses required. Specialty certifications are available from some institutions and are designed to help trained Hypnotist further their knowledge and expertise in specific areas of the hypnosis field.

While there are a variety of institutions offering hypnosis certification training, there are a few unique options. Some institutions offer immersive, hands-on courses while others offer training from well-known professionals with over 20 years of experience practicing hypnotism. Some programs offer an online option, while others offer weekend classes or self-paced classes in order to accommodate the busy lifestyle of interested professionals.

Accreditation is not required for courses offering Hypnotist Certification, and licensing requirements vary on a state-by-state basis.

Hypnotherapy Training Institute

The Hypnotherapy Training Institute offers a unique compact learning experience. They claim that their comprehensive classes provide the most learning material over a shorter amount of time than other institutions. The institution is also unique in that it holds three classes a week, as opposed to the typical five. Each certification program consists of four levels of courses, and each level consists of five days of class, totaling twenty days of class time. The institute also offers weekend classes to make the program more obtainable for students with a busy schedule.

The courses are approved for Certification by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners, which require 200 hours of class credit. However, the Hypnotherapy Training Institute offers an additional 100 course hours for those who wish to gain extra knowledge in the field.

The Hypnotherapy Certification Course is taught by Randal Churchill and Cheryl Canfield, who have more than a combined 60 years of experience in hypnotherapy. Churchill was the first President of the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners.

Pros: Short course periods (20 class days). Offers weekend courses to help suit the schedule of busy professionals.

Cons: Not accredited. No online option available. No mention of career support after certification is received.

The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis

The American Society of Clinical Hypnosis offers a variety of courses, including training workshops (Basic, Intermediate, and Advanced) and certification courses in hypnotherapy, as well as an option for further education to become an ASCH Approved Consultant in Clinical Hypnosis. Becoming an Approved Consultant allows you the ability to counsel and provide training to other professionals seeking hypnosis certification training. The ASCH is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education.

To qualify for the Hypnosis Certification Training course at the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, applicants are required to have at least a Master’s Degree in their chosen health-related field and a membership in a professional society related to their degree. They must also hold licensure in the state in which they which to practice. Obtaining certification requires a minimum of 60 hours of ASCH approved courses and training, as well as two years of practice in hypnosis. The certification must be renewed every three years and requires a minimum of 20 hours of ASCH courses for renewal.

At the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis, courses are offered at many various locations covering the United States, as well as online. Instructors vary by course location.

Pros: Accredited. Offers advanced course to become an “Approved Consultant” to teach hypnotherapy courses. Online Course offered.

Cons: Short renewal period of only 3 years. No mention of career support after certification is received.

Hypnosis Motivation Institute

The Hypnosis Motivation Institute (HMI) is nationally accredited by both the Accredited Council for Continuing Education and Training and the Distance Education Accrediting Commission. HMI was the first college specializing in clinical hypnosis training to be accredited in the United States.

HMI offers both online and in-person training. The in-person training at the HMI location in Southern California includes a one-year training program and internship, while the online course provides over 300 hours of coursework in the hypnosis field. HMI offers a free trial course to interested candidates that provides a unique 10 credit hour experience in which students will have access to video lessons, quizzes, and an online tutor for no starting cost before deciding to begin the program. These 10 hours count towards the certification requirements.

Students at the Hypnosis Motivation Institute are also offered access to a personal tutor. All tutors at HMI are graduates of the program who are available to students on a one-on-one basis. For online programs, tutors are available through video chat using Skype.

HMI also offers over 20 unique specialty certification courses, including hypnosis therapy dealing when dealing with ADD, transgender clients, trauma recovery, past-life regression, PTSD, childbirth, weight loss, pain management and more. There are also courses offered in handwriting analysis and therapeutic imagery, as well as an advanced course offering neuro-linguistic practitioner certification.

The Hypnosis Motivation Institute offers a varied team of Instructors who have experience in the hypnosis field. Many of these instructors have more than 10 years experience.

Pros: Accredited. Offers 10 free hours before enrolling. Multitude of specialty programs for furthering education. Offers personal tutor.

Cons: No mention of career support after gaining certification.

Milton H. Erickson Foundation

The Milton H. Erickson Foundation is an accredited organization that strives to honor the teachings and psychological advancements discovered by renowned psychologist, Milton H Erickson. Erickson specialized in clinical hypnosis and is well known for his creative approach to psychological therapy, which involved using the unconscious mind to produce logical solutions. He founded the American Psychological Association. The Milton H. Erickson Foundation offers both online training courses and on-scene training. Intensive training takes place in Phoenix, Arizona, but there are branches of the Milton H Erickson Institute in eleven different U.S. states and throughout 26 foreign countries.

One of the most popular programs offered is the Intensive Training Program. This program involves 30 credit hours of training and is available only to professionals who either hold at least a Master’s Degree in a health-related field or are currently enrolled in an accredited graduate program.

Another popular program is the Master Class Program, which takes on only 12 students per course period, in order to provide an intimate environment. The short, four-day program allows an interactive experience where each student assumes the role of patient, therapist, and supervisor. This is an opportunity both for personal growth and skill enhancement with like-minded individuals.

The Milton H. Erickson Foundation is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education and approved by the American Psychological Association, making it a top choice for continuing education for medical professionals and psychiatrists alike.

The Milton H. Erickson foundation employs a large number of instructional staff to teach Hypnotherapy Education at their varying locations.

Pros: Accredited. Unique hands-on learning opportunity in the Master Class Program. Multitude of locations all over the world.

Cons: Limited hypnosis certification training offered.

The American College of Hypnotherapy

The American College of Hypnotherapy at the American Institute of Healthcare professionals offers a rigorous 220-hour course to obtain a Hypnosis Certification. Admittance is decided on an individual basis, depending on the student’s area of study.

The American College of Hypnotherapy offers an option to continue education for applicants who already hold a degree. However, applicants for the continuing education program are not required to hold a Master’s Degree. Instead, practicing professionals from a health care field, social workers, ministers, licensed psychiatrists and psychologists, or applicants holding a bachelor’s degree in psychiatry, human services, or a health-related field qualify for the course.

The American College of Hypnotherapy offers classes both online and in-person. Classes are offered on an “open enrollment” basis and can be paid for and completed one at a time. This allows students to complete certification at a time and pace that is most convenient to them. Recertification is required every four years.

Pros: Online course offered. Does not require Master’s degree. Open enrollment and self-paced classes allow busy professionals to complete certification at convenient times.

Cons: Not Accredited.

Hypnotherapy Academy of America

The Hypnotherapy Academy of America offers an extensive arrangement of courses, both online and in-person, to help students become Certified Hypnotherapists. The certification requires 300 hours, but an extra 200 hours of special courses and workshops are available to those who wish to further their hypnosis education beyond just the certification. Completing 400 hours allows the title of “Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist.” Hypnotherapy training classes are available both on location in Albuquerque, New Mexico and online.

The Hypnotherapy Academy of America offers a unique opportunity in which it helps ready students to further their career after receiving their certification by teaching strategies that students can use to build, market, and promote their own practice. They also offer the unique experience of a confidence-building program for hypnotherapists.

Pros: Offers preparation for career building after certification. Clinical certification offered. Online classes available.

Cons: Not Accredited.

The Wellness Institute (Six Day Hypnotherapy Training and Certification)

The Wellness Institute offers a six-day certification course, which is only available at an on-site location in either Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Ft. Lauderdale, or Seattle. The course is not accredited but does offer 60 hours of continued education in Hypnosis. Class size is generally small, ranging from 10-30 students per session, and offers hands-on experience throughout 70% of the course.

The Wellness Institute is approved by the National Association of Social Workers as well as the National Board for Certified Counselors as a continuing education provider.

The Wellness Institute host a varied team of experienced Instructors, most of which have been in practice for at least 20 years.

Pros: Intimate class size. Short course session lasts only from Thursday to Tuesday to reduce the amount of missed work for professionals.

Cons: Not accredited. Not a very rigorous course, may offer less material that more rigorous courses. No online option.

The Institute for Hypnotherapy and Psycho-Spiritual Trainings

For a more spiritual approach to gaining Hypnotherapy Certification, the Institute for Hypnotherapy and Psycho-Spiritual Trainings offers a hypnotherapy training course consisting of four levels. Classes are held during the weekends over the course of two months. All four levels (equaling 200 hours) are required to earn Certification. Certification as a Clinical Hypnotherapist is available after the completion of 250 course hours.

They offer various additional training for furthering education in the field as well, such as an advanced course focused on Ericksonian Hypnotherapy, based on the teachings of Milton H. Erickson. The program is available to both licensed and unlicensed applicants. Courses are offered on-site in Lafayette, CA.

Pros: Offers weekend courses. Available to unlicensed students.

Cons: Not accredited. No online option.

Southwest Institute of Healing Arts

The Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, located in Tempe AZ, offers two programs specializing in hypnotherapy. The first course is a basic hypnotherapy course, consisting of three levels of foundation courses. This basic course requires 100 hours, but does not offer certification.

However, this course is required before enrolling in the more advanced course, which requires 350 hours (310 if completed online) and results in a Clinical Hypnotherapy Certification. The advanced course covers more specific areas, such as fears, phobias, addictions, past-life regression, and script writing. There is no middle option for basic certification.

The advanced course also offers a business development and entrepreneurial support course, which is required to complete certification and seeks to help students find success in furthering their careers after completing the course.

Pros: Online option. Offers career support after certification.

Cons: Not accredited. Must complete 350 hours for Clinical Certification program. No basic certification offered.

Banyan Hypnosis Center

The Banyan Hypnosis Center offers an option for Hypnotherapy Certification that required only 100 credit hours. Both the Banyan Center and Instructor Cal Banyan are professionally accredited. Classes are offered on location in Dallas, TX. There is also a distance learning Certification program available online.

The Banyan Hypnosis Center states that they offer daily hands-on training to build confidence throughout the program as well as career support after the Hypnosis Certification Training is completed. There is an option to have your practice listed online in the Banyan Hypnosis Center Hypnotists Directory and additional marketing support available.

The Banyan Hypnosis Center Hypnosis Certification program is offered to applicants who do not have any formal training in the hypnosis field.

Pros: Online option available. Professionally accredited. Short coursework for certification.  Career support after certification. Does not require a Master’s Degree.

Cons: The short course may not offer in-depth training.

Bastyr University

The Hypnotherapy Certification program at Bastyr University requires the completion of two 50-hour courses, totaling 100 credit hours, for Certification. The courses require a mix of on-location and at-home study. Bastyr University offers their Hypnotherapy Certification program at their location in Kenmore, Washington. The two courses offer education surrounding both “Awareness and Integration” as well as “Transformation and Healing.” One further optional course includes education in hypnotherapy techniques involving professional weight management.

Bastyr University is regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Bastyr University offers a free open house weekend to help applicants decide if the program is right for them.

Pros: Accredited. Short course requirements for gaining certification.

Cons: No online course offered. No mention of career support after certification is received. Short course may not provide in-depth education when compared to longer courses available.

American Alliance of Hypnotists Online Hypnosis Certification Course

The Hypnotist Certification Program offered by Dr. Steve G. Jones gives students 120 credit hours of hypnosis instruction including coverage on topics like hypnosis and ADD, amnesia, the use of hypnosis with the 12 step program, and handling client relations. The program is certified by the American Alliance of Hypnotists.

The course offers information on online marketing and promotion strategies as well as in-office tactics to help students further their careers after certification. Students who complete the course will have their practice listed in the directory section on the American Alliance of Hypnotist website as an “Approved Hypnotist.” The course is only offered online.

Classes are self-paced and may be completed anytime between 8 weeks and one year. Open enrollment is offered. There are no specific eligibility requirements to enroll in the Hypnotist Certification Program.

Instructor Dr. Steve G. Jones has over 20 years of experience as a Certified Clinical Hypnotist. He holds a Doctorate degree in education from Georgia Southern University and is a member of the American Board of Hypnotherapy and the National Guild of Hypnotists, as well as the president of the American Alliance of Hypnotists.

Pros: Open enrollment and self-paced courses are convenient for working professional. Career support following completion of certification course is offered, as well as practice listing in hypnotist directory. Available Online.

Cons: No in-person courses currently available.

Choosing the Best Hypnosis Certification Program For You

The practice of hypnosis is geared toward individuals with a passion for helping others, but it is important to remember that most hypnosis programs teach self-hypnosis in order to help individuals break unfavorable habits and increase awareness and focus. Individuals who are most often successful in the hypnosis field are personable with an aptitude for listening and understanding.

A hypnotist should be able to comprehend the client’s issues and apply practical knowledge during the course of the hypnosis techniques in order to help the client accomplish a level of challenge-solving. Hypnotist should be patient and eager to learn the vast quantity of knowledge required in order to achieve success in hypnosis. These are key qualities for a Certified Hypnotist.

When choosing a practice, consider your needs and educational background. You will need to find a course in which you meet the requirements. If you plan to open a practice or already own your own practice, an organization that offers career assistance will be beneficial to you.

In most cases, a small class size is favorable when learning hypnosis techniques due to the immersive, hands-on nature of the practice. Accreditation is not necessary, but in some cases, like when hoping to transfer credit hours to another applicable Institution, an accredited program is preferred. You should also consider your availability, as course length and schedule varies greatly by organization. In many cases, an online course may be preferable to on-site education.

Each course is different, offering an array of educational opportunities in the field of hypnosis. In the end, choosing the best hypnotherapy training program for you will depend on what you hope to gain from the program and other needs that are specific to you.

So much about hypnosis and hypnotherapy is misunderstood by the general public that even today, the classic movie and television portrayal of hypnosis being connected to magic and the mystical arts is still a deeply held belief among ordinary people.

From making a person do something against his will, to falling asleep at a hypnotist’s bidding, hypnosis is shrouded in so much mystery that it is hard to understand what it is and what exactly it can do to people. Unfortunately, the reality of hypnosis is much more mundane, so much so that it might be disappointing to the romantic type.

But there are also some truths, such as the potential of using hypnosis to forget bad memories. Movies like The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind revolve around the premise of using hypnosis (or at least how the film’s creators think hypnosis works) to erase unhappy memories—in the film’s case, a miserable couple turns to hypnosis to erase memories of each other.

But in the real world, can hypnosis erase memories?

Before answering that question, it is important to separate fact from fiction.

What is Hypnosis and How Does It Work?
If you were to ask any hypnotherapist what hypnosis is, the answer you get will probably involve something about accessing the subconscious part of your mind.

At its core, hypnotherapy is essentially a form of psychotherapy that uses a combination of deep relaxation techniques, positive suggestion, and mental conditioning to create a positive state of mind. Hypnosis comes from the Greek word “hypnos,” which means “sleep.” Its therapeutic form uses guided relaxation to promote a sense of calmness, but not at the expense of your focus and sense of awareness.

In other words, a hypnotherapy session does not involve falling asleep or losing consciousness in any way. In fact, hypnotherapy is designed to heighten your sense of mindfulness, making you more responsive to positive suggestion and encouragement.

By accessing your subconscious mind, hypnotherapy offers a powerful but gentle way to explore your suppressed and painful thoughts and emotions, which the conscious part of your mind often hides to protect itself from pain and trauma. A hypnotherapy session will allow you to confront these thoughts, memories, and feelings in a safe environment, allowing you to resolve whatever issues you might have.

It is often said that being under a state of deep hypnosis is no different from being in a meditative state. Both conditions allow you to “open” your mind to discussion and suggestion with your hypnotherapist, who can help treat a wide range of conditions and negative behaviors, such as:

• Sleep disorders
• Anxiety
• Phobias
• Depression
• Trauma
• Grief
• Smoking cessation
• Binge eating

With all that being said, is it possible to erase memories with hypnosis?

The Real Score Behind Memory-Erasing Hypnosis

Unfortunately, no kind of modern or alternative therapy can “erase” specific memories from your mind or brainwash you into forgetting someone. Questions like, “Can hypnosis erase bad memories?” or “Can hypnosis make you forget someone?” all but come from a misguided understanding of memory and hypnosis.

In other words, you cannot use hypnosis for forgetting someone—hypnotherapy just doesn’t work that way.

And despite the advances science has made in psychotherapy and psychological research, there is really no such thing as benign brainwashing, where a therapist comes in to take away specific parts of your memory and experiences as a human being.

But while you can’t erase bad memories with hypnosis, you can, however, do something that’s just as effective, if not even more.

With hypnotherapy, you can change the thoughts and emotions you associate with specific memories.

How to Forget a Memory 

First, it is important to understand that memory is not some fixed object in your mind. What is true, however, is that memory is changeable insofar as the emotions and thoughts we attach to them are concerned.

While memory is an area in the field of psychology that has drawn plenty of interest and investigation, there is little to no proof that brain washing, particularly the way it is portrayed in film and TV, is possible in real life. But psychologists also know that memories are malleable, so much so that the mind usually plays with them each time they are recalled.

We do so by adding narratives and meanings to memories in our mind. In turn, this can change certain details and beliefs around these memories. In fact, memories are not only susceptible to suggestion, they can be so flexible that they will believe in experiences that never happened at all.

In 1974, psychologists Loftus and Palmer set out to study memory by testing a group of people, asking them to watch footage of a car accident. After a week, the participants were asked questions about the footage they saw to test their memory. The researchers found that participants were more likely to describe seeing broken glass in the footage—even though it was never shown in the film—if they were led on with a question using the word “smash” instead of “hit” or “collision.”

This means that the language used by the researchers had a profound effect on how the participants remembered what they saw in the footage. And that’s without even using anything resembling hypnosis.

Whether by accident or design, details can be removed and added to memories. If anything, it proves that memories can be influenced by suggestion, sometimes without you even knowing it. And sometimes this process can happen by addressing the emotions and thoughts you associate with these memories.

This is where hypnotherapy can come in.

Can Hypnotherapy Remove Memories?

Hypnotherapy can only build on what happens naturally. For example, certain memories can be manipulated with the right nudge, but not to the extent that you can use hypnosis for forgetting someone. The challenge is that when a person wants to forget someone, their subconscious mind sees that person as important enough to warrant negative feelings, making it next to impossible for a hypnotherapist to change any memories associated with him or her.

Try as we might to forget, painful memories become harder to let go as long as we associate feelings like pain and frustration with them. And each time you remember a painful memory, you are only adding more weight importance to the people involved in said memory.

What a hypnotherapist does is help you not by making you forget that something happened, but rather, changing the way you feel about that memory. In turn, this changes the way your mind and body responds when recalling that memory.

In other words, hypnotherapy is not so much about the question, “Can hypnotherapy erase memories?” but rather about, “How can I change the way I feel and think about a particular memory?”

 What Happens During a Hypnotherapy Session?

A good hypnotherapist will focus on helping you feel comfortable and relaxed throughout the entire session. In fact, a good portion of the entire hypnotherapy experience will focus on falling into and maintaining a deep state of relaxation.

If you can manage to feel comfortable even when recalling memories that usually make you feel uncomfortable, sad, or frustrated then your hypnotherapy treatment is making progress. This means you are now associating the calm experience or sensation of being in the hypnotherapy chair or sofa to what was once a negative or painful memory.

If you have spent years recalling a memory or story and have only attached negative connotations to it, this new positive experience can be all it takes to change for the better. Of course, it will not create an entirely new memory or completely erase the negative emotions you associate with the memory, but it will help you create new associations with the memory until you can finally put it behind you.

Think of it as having an old memory but feeling differently about it. And the more new associations you establish with old memories, the easier it will be to become a more positive person. You will learn to accept the fact that your negative experiences are part of the person you are now.

The Challenge of Using Hypnosis to Erase Memories

Of course, all this talk of changing memories and using hypnotherapy to forget someone also raises a number of ethics questions, such as whether or not it is right to even “tamper” with a person’s memories. After all, one could argue that some memories, no matter how painful, should stay that way for a reason.

• Painful memories could serve as important life lessons.
• Negative memories could be crucial to keep us morally upright
• Painful memories help us stay connected with our humanity

These factors are certainly important things to consider before a patient seeks hypnotherapy to deal with bad memories. And every therapist that uses any kind of psychological persuasion needs to weigh these issues before making any decisions involving a patient’s emotions and thoughts.

But in any case, patients dealing with memories of negative experiences can only get better by re-evaluating their past, which can also be interpreted as a way of “forgetting.” The goal of hypnotherapy, when applied to addressing painful memories, is to help you find a new perspective on life, the world around you, and yourself.

After all, even without hypnotherapy, you are constantly re-evaluating your past.

Areas Where Hypnotherapy Can Help You Let Go of the Past

With all that being said, where exactly can hypnotherapy do some good in terms of resolving painful memories and letting go of the past? We look at a few areas that hold potential for change. 

1. Bad Relationships

Not surprisingly, questions such as “Can you get hypnotized to forget someone?” or “Can hypnosis help you to forget someone?” usually come from people who desperately want to move on from bad relationships. And like a rotten apple, one bad relationship can easily “infect” all your future relationships as you continue to harbor unresolved emotions involving things like trust, loyalty, commitment, or fidelity.

By allowing past experiences to predetermine future relationships and outcomes, you are severely crippling your chances of finding happiness and inner peace. For example, memories of your parents’ bitter divorce can instill negative beliefs that love and happiness are unrealistic dreams, or that you are going to meet the same fate someday.

What you are doing is allowing your painful memories of being hurt or betrayed set the stage for all future events and outcomes.

Hypnotherapy can help you resolve and let go of these feelings and emotions. Through positive suggestion, your hypnotherapist can help you accept that while a memory (or memories) is painful, what happened before will not necessarily happen again.

Hypnotherapy is about teaching you to take control of what happens to you now. With continued sessions, you will realize that how you choose to behave and perceive life events is something you can control and that painful events in your past serve as powerful lessons to make you stronger and ready for what lies ahead.

In fact, you could think of these sessions as hypnosis to attract love or love magnet hypnosis, designed to make you better equipped to handle healthy relationships.

2. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Hypnotherapy has emerged as a viable and proven way to help sufferers of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a series of symptoms caused by a traumatic event in a person’s life, the memory of which can be debilitating enough to cause.

• Severe flashbacks of the violent experience
• Recurring nightmares
• Anxiety disorders
• Sudden fits of rage and aggression
• New and unexplained phobias
• Sleep disorders
• Chronic pain
• Chronic stress
• Memory loss
• Loss of concentration

PTSD episodes are typically caused by triggers, which are seemingly mundane stimuli that remind the person of the traumatic memory.

In the case of former servicemen, it could be something as simple as hearing a car backfire or hearing firecrackers, which can bring up memories of being in a combat situation. The sound of an ambulance can also bring back the memories of an accident for a person that survived a car crash or violent attack.

Hypnotherapy helps PTSD patients confront the cause of their symptoms by delving straight into the subconscious mind. Your hypnotherapist will help you identify and deal with the memory of the traumatic event, helping you come to terms with your emotions, whether it’s fear, anger, or loss.

3. Fear of Failure
   

Has your brush with failure kept you from reaching success? Are you now afraid to try new things out of a fear of disappointing others and yourself? Do you constantly feel that taking risks will only lead to something bad happening?

Sometimes, a fear of failure stems from a negative experience in your life, the memory of which can be powerful enough to hold you back from trying anything risky or new. What happens is a change in mindset, such that you’re already imagining a negative outcome in almost everything you do.

And when you tell yourself that things will turn out wrong instead of going well, things will usually go wrong because of your fears and anxieties.

Hypnotherapy comes in by addressing the memory of your failure, using positive suggestion to show you that one failure, or even a series of failures, have no bearing on your future efforts and their outcomes. If anything, each failure should only make you stronger, teaching you valuable lessons you can use to improve yourself.

With time and consistency, your hypnotherapist can help you mold a positive mindset, one that will think more rationally instead of letting emotions cloud your judgment. And as you learn to accept the memory of failure as being just a memory, you will eventually embrace trying new things and taking calculated risks once more.

In Summary  

Throughout life, different experiences, interactions, and relationships can leave a lasting impact on our lives. This is part of the process of developing the self. However, your memories should not hold you back from finding peace and happiness.

If you want to turn to hypnosis to change a bitter memory, the question you should be asking yourself is not “Can hypnotherapy erase memories?” but rather, “How can hypnotherapy change the way I feel about a memory?”

 Hypnotherapy can help you make positive changes at a subconscious level. However, you must first have the right expectations for what your hypnotherapist can do. The desire to forget a memory is just your mind telling you to run away from your fear and anxiety, which is not what hypnotherapy will do for you.

nstead, hypnotherapy lets you revisit painful and negative memories in a controlled and calm environment, allowing you to process each memory and see them for what they are—memories that form an important aspect of your personality.

Bottom line? Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool that can help you confront painful memories, accept them, and eventually, let them go. With time, your hypnotherapist will help you move on from your painful experiences and view your present and future life with greater positivity and optimism.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session, designed to help you forget painful relationship memories. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced overcome bad relationship memories hypnosis mp3 does).

Confidence. It’s a highly desirable character trait that seems to elude many people. And if you ask individuals who look or act with self-confidence, even they will tell you they don’t exactly feel confident at all times.

So where does confidence come from?

It’s no secret that our society admires self-confident people, who in turn, tend to inspire confidence in the people around them. And confidence plays such a crucial role in many events in our lives, whether it’s dating, a job interview, or the panic-inducing public speaking event.

What Makes Confident People Confident?

If anything, self-confident people seem to share one thing in common—they see their lives under a positive light. Even in the middle of a disaster, they tend to focus on the light at the end of the tunnel rather than dwell on the challenge at hand. They act instead of mope, knowing that doing something—anything—is better than doing nothing at all.

From the outside, confident people seem to have a never say die attitude that allows them to confront their fears, no matter what they may be. And even with what appears to be insurmountable obstacles in their way, confident people somehow manage to get past them.

It would be great if we could somehow take a pill to instantly boost our self-confidence any day of the week. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t make small changes to make yourself think positively, which in turn, makes you more confident in yourself and in your abilities.

Ultimately, it comes down to one thing: believing in yourself. That may sound like a platitude, but really, if you can’t believe in yourself, you can’t expect that other people will.

The key is to start small. Confidence and self-esteem don’t happen overnight. By adopting new habits, trying new things, and changing some parts of your mindset, you’ll begin to appear confident at first, and eventually, form the bedrock of real confidence.

Here’s how you can start.

1. Surround Yourself with Positive People

Ask yourself if your circle of friends and family are doing you more harm than good. While it’s obviously easier said than done, it may be time to consider spending less time with people who constantly pull you down or add negativity to your life.

While you may not be able to cut some people out of your life completely, even a temporary break from your negative brother, aunt, or cousin can be enough to make great strides towards boosting your confidence.

And even if you don’t feel particularly positive on some days, don’t be afraid to fake it. Try to be enthusiastic when interacting with other people and throw yourself at whatever project you’re working on. Everyone has challenges, but truly confident people focus on solutions, no matter how little they may seem.

2. Meditate or Visualize Your Confidence into Fruition

American self-help author Napoleon Hill once famously said, “What the mind can conceive and believe it can achieve.”

And true enough, visualization and meditation techniques are powerful ways to bring an image of yourself, one that you can be proud of, to life. This approach is exactly why therapies like hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy can be effective solutions to improve your confidence and self-esteem.

When you struggle with low confidence, it usually goes without saying that you have a poor perception of yourself, which oftentimes, is completely inaccurate. By conditioning your mind to believe in a confident mental image of yourself, you can push yourself to achieve your confidence goals.

3. Place Importance in Your Appearance

Your appearance matters a great deal when developing your confidence. This may seem like an obvious tip, but you’d be surprised how many people underestimate the value of trying to look good.

Beauty will always be subjective, but that doesn’t change the fact that anyone who is well groomed will always look better than someone who isn’t. And this goes beyond appearances. When you’ve showered and shaved, you know and feel that you’re clean and look presentable. This can be enough to give you confidence, or at the very least, improve your mood.

The same principles also apply to how you dress. If you make an effort to look nice—that is, you wear clothes that are clean and fit well, not necessarily expensive—you’ll feel good about yourself. Your mind thinks you look presentable, which in turn makes you better equipped to deal with situations that demand confidence.

4. Work on Your Posture

Again, appearances have a powerful effect on how you feel about yourself. This is especially true when it comes to posture. The simple act of standing tall and straight can be enough to boost your mood and give you an air of reliability in the eyes of other people. It also helps that people who stand tall look more attractive than those who slouch.

5. Know Thyself

Confidence comes from knowing who you are and what you’re capable of doing. Just as any general gathers intelligence when going into battle with the enemy, conquering your fears, anxieties, and negative self-perception is about knowing your foe: yourself.

Pay attention to your thought processes, especially when confronted with stressful situations like meeting someone for the first time or speaking in front of a group. Write down these thoughts and emotions in a journal if you can, and analyze how and why negative thoughts pop in your head.

Do this long enough, and you will see thought patterns that point towards your perceived weaknesses and limitations. You can then do the work of dismantling weaknesses that are simply in your mind. Keep at it, and you’ll eventually come out with greater confidence.

6. Exercise

What does physical activity have to do with confidence?

As it turns out, a lot. According to a study published in the Journal of the European Health Psychology Society, “exercisers had a more positive body image than non-exercisers” and “exercise was associated with improved body image.”

The explanation is simple. You already know the effects of exercise—better health and improved physique among several others. When you exercise, you know your body is reaping the rewards of physical activity, which puts you in a positive mindset.

The effect is amplified further when you see the actual results of regular exercise: fat and weight loss, smaller pants size, and improved physical performance among many others. The result? Real confidence after knowing you worked hard to build a better you.

7. Affirm Yourself and Your Qualities

How we view ourselves is directly correlated to how we behave. So, if you want to be more confident, it only makes sense to work on changing your self-image.

Although the science behind self-affirmations needs further study, they’ve been observed to have a powerful effect on our thought processes. Again, what the mind can conceive, it can achieve.

Affirmations are essentially positive statements we repeat to ourselves over and over again. They are especially powerful when said aloud so you can hear yourself saying the words. Just as the mind can heal the body with a placebo, the act of telling yourself that you are a certain way can make you believe that you are so.

For example, repeating the words “I am going to have a good day,” every morning when you wake up, can rewire your brain so it sees what happens throughout the day in a positive light. The same thing can happen when you face yourself in the mirror and say, “I am a funny and confident person.”

Affirmation is also at the heart of why hypnosis can be a viable approach to improving your confident. In fact, a 1971 study found that the application of hypnosis could improve self-esteem using a technique called ego-strengthening.

The idea was that a “psychologically impaired individual may benefit from positive suggestions of self-worth and personal effectiveness.”

8. Test Yourself Every Day

Most people with low self-confidence often think something is wrong with them, or that their insecurities are the reason their self-esteem is so low.

But the truth is that everyone has insecurities. It’s just that some people choose to ignore them and instead, rise above their fears.

And just as the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, the only way to overcome your fears is to face them head-on. That means testing yourself by doing something outside your comfort zone every day, which in turn, develops your confidence.

With each new and ‘scary’ experience you go through, you’ll believe in yourself more and realize there’s nothing particularly frightening about the unknown.

9. Arm Yourself with Information

The more knowledge you have about your weaknesses, fears, insecurities, and the different ways you can overcome all of them, the faster your journey towards real confidence becomes.

Simply knowing the solutions to your challenges can make a world of difference in how you handle yourself when confronted with stressful situations.

For example, if you have an upcoming job interview, you can prepare for it by:

• Doing your research about the company
• Improving your resume
• Rehearsing your elevator pitch
• Identifying your selling points

Doing your homework means having everything you need in your mind for the situation at hand. And that can be a potent confidence booster.

10. Re-evaluate Your Reaction to Rejection

Most people make mountains out of molehills when faced with rejection. Yet the fear of being rejected is often at the heart of why so many people struggle with low self-esteem, which is unfortunate because rejection is really just receiving a “no” when you want a “yes.”

So what’s the big deal?

On a cognitive level, the fear of rejection often comes from a fear of being unloved and unaccepted. But this wouldn’t be much of an issue if you were already secure with yourself. That is, you already learned to love and accept yourself for who you are.

If rejection is still something you struggle with, it’s a good idea to ask yourself why. Where is your fear coming from? It might be that you’re still traumatized by a childhood brush with rejection. In this case, you might need therapy to address the root cause of your confidence issues.

11. Set Yourself Up for Success

Building your confidence is a slow process, so it makes sense to take baby steps towards your goals. Whatever these goals may be, the key to building your abilities and confidence is to take baby steps. The more “little successes” you achieve, the more confident you feel about yourself. In other words, start small and work your way towards larger goals.

This strategy is often used by bodybuilders, who start out by lifting light weights, progressing to heavier weights in the smallest increments possible.

You can also keep a journal of your achievements and progress as a reminder of just how far you’ve come. Rather than focus on an intimidating list of “to-dos,” a progress journal will allow you to spend more time on accomplishments—a powerful confidence builder.

12. Stop Procrastinating 

If you have a habit of putting off to-dos until the very last minute, stop.

Again, set yourself up for success. Many people tend to procrastinate, even if it’s just on the little things. But if you make a habit of listing tasks down and doing them first as soon as possible, you’ll feel a great sense of accomplishment and get a boost in self-confidence.

13. Slow Down When You Speak

Most people who have an aversion to public speaking, or talking to new people in general, often end up talking too fast and mumbling their words.

The simplest solution? Make it a habit to speak slowly in these situations. Relax, collect your thoughts, and slow down. This simple adjustment shows confidence and sends the impression that you’re worth listening to.

In contrast, someone with low self-confidence feels embarrassed to have to speak in public, talking quickly to get things over with. This essentially means that person feels he’s not worth listening to.

Even if your confidence still needs work, making a point to speak slowly or with purpose can make a world of difference in how people respond to you, which in turn, helps boost your confidence.

14. Remind Yourself that You’re Just as Good as Everyone Else

People with low self-confidence often have a habit of comparing themselves to other people, thinking they’ll never be as good, as skilled, or as deserving to be successful as them.

But that’s just the part of your mind with low self-esteem issues talking. Rather than see yourself as being inferior, see yourself as being equal to everyone.

You, like anyone else, deserve all the success you work hard for. When you make the mental shift to see yourself as having the same potential as everyone, it becomes easier to build real confidence.

15. Redefine Failure

When you suffer from low self-confidence, your default mindset is to think of yourself as a complete failure. But anyone who has ever achieved success, big or small, is familiar with the bitterness of failure.

Failure is an integral part of any learning process. It’s important to remember that your failures don’t define who you are. Rather, how you rise above failure is a truer definition of your self-worth.

There are countless success stories of people meeting setback after setback, yet they pushed through despite the pain of failing. From scientists, CEOs, artists, to performers, and ordinary people, everyone experiences failure at some point. What’s more important is persevering in whatever way you can.

16. Don’t be Afraid to Say “No”

Part of having natural confidence is knowing what your personal boundaries are. And that means being assertive, learning how to say what is on your mind, and above all, knowing how to say “no.”

The more control you have over your personal boundaries, the easier it will be to build your confidence. It seems like such a simple thing, but knowing your boundaries is often the first step towards controlling the part of your mind that defines your self-worth.

17. Help Others

Everyone is guilty of sometimes being caught up in their own little world and forgetting just how fortunate they actually are. Helping someone else in need allows you step back and see life in another person’s perspective, making you feel grateful for what you have. More importantly, it genuinely feels good to make a positive difference for someone else.

Rather than dwell on your weakness and low self-confidence, try to go out and give back to your community. Volunteer for local mentorship programs, engage in community service, help your neighbors—these are all great ways to build your confidence from the ground up.

Strengthening your confidence will not be an easy task. But these simple habits can be powerful enough to jumpstart your personal process and guide you in the right direction. If you think none of these pointers will do anything to build your confidence, your best option is to consult a therapist for help. Remember, it’s never too late to boost your confidence and feel good about yourself.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for unlimited confidence. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced unlimited confidence hypnosis mp3 download does).

 

In a world of preservative-laden processed foods, unhealthy eating habits, and sedentary lifestyles brought about by of the rise of office desk jobs, it is no surprise that weight loss is one of the most pervasive talking points in modern society.

Concerns about weight, fitness, and looking good are also behind the constant surge and decline of fad diets, exercise programs, and weight loss “magic pills”—so-called one-size-fits-all solutions that magically make you lose X many pounds in X many days.

In any case, there is no denying the fact that trying to lose weight successfully can be a long and arduous process. If you have ever tried to go on a diet and sign up for a gym membership, only to give up a few months—or worse, a few weeks—into your personal weight loss journey, then you probably know just how frustrating things can be.

With factors like stress, body image, and boredom coming in, it’s easy to fall off track and give up on your weight loss mission.

By far the most common behavior people trying to lose weight fall victim to, is the ‘yo-yo diet,’ a damaging cycle that includes:

• Going on an aggressive diet
• Failing to meet the diet and binge eating
• Feeling guilty
• Attempting to diet once more

This unhealthy and demoralizing cycle is akin to going around in circles. But more importantly, the frustration of not losing any weight at all can damage your motivation and confidence, planting the idea in your mind that diets and exercise just do not work for you.

Motivation and Weight Loss

Regardless of what kind of diet or fitness program you are on, one thing is certain: it takes motivation and discipline to get things started, change your lifestyle, and see your weight loss goals to the end.

And this is where hypnotherapy comes in—to enter your mind and unlock your inner source of motivation and willpower.

Whereas diet and nutrition plans address your eating habits and nutrient intake, and exercise programs aim to solve your lack (or absence) of fitness, hypnotherapy designed for weight loss looks at your thoughts, feelings, and motivations about your diet and lifestyle.

Why Do Diets and Fitness Programs Fail?

The reason why going on a diet leads to failure for so many people is due to how they approach it with a “temporary” mindset. That is, going on a diet means making a temporary change in your eating habits, until such a time that you hit a weight loss goal or finally look good in front of the mirror.

But there’s a difference between going on a diet and changing your diet.

The latter is a long-term adjustment that redefines how you feel and think of your food for the rest of your life. Yes, it can be a terrifying commitment, but one that pays dividends for your health and fitness. In fact, you are better off making small incremental changes to your diet, hitting progressive calorie deficits instead of going all out with a low-carbohydrate crash diet.

The same thing applies to fitness programs and routines. Many people sign up for a one-month membership at their local gym or yoga studio, thinking that one month should be enough to gauge their interest in the exercise program. Again, this temporary approach ignores the fact that fitness should be a fixture of your life, not just a passing interest.

So, where and how does hypnotherapy come in? Let’s assume that you’ve decided to change your diet, which requires you to cut back your sugar and carbohydrate consumption. On your new diet, you know that eating a carrot is healthier than say, eating a sweet carrot cake, but you can’t help yourself and still crave for the latter.

With hypnotherapy, you can change the way you view that carrot, seeing it in a new light instead of giving in to your cravings. With hypnosis techniques, you can change the way you think and feel about food and exercise, allowing you to view your weight loss mission in a more positive light, instead of a restrictive one.

Does all this sound too good to be true? It may help to understand how hypnosis works to understand why hypnotherapy can be a powerful way to supplement your diet and fitness regimen.

What is Hypnosis and How Does it Work?

Contrary to popular belief and its portrayal by the media, there is nothing mystical about hypnosis. It is not some kind of magic trick or spell that puts a person to sleep and under the control of the hypnotizer, only to wake up with no recollection of what happened while they were “under hypnosis.”

Rather, it is as gentle and harmless as closing your eyes and meditating on positive visual imagery. In many ways, hypnotherapy uses the same techniques of traditional meditation, from deep relaxation and mindful breathing to letting the mind wander freely and being receptive to positive suggestion.

Hypnosis is a deep state of concentration and absorption. By falling into a relaxed, trance-like state, your hypnotherapist can better access the subconscious part of your mind through mental visualization and verbal repetition. Under this state, your attention is both relaxed yet focused, making you more responsive to positive changes, including ideas and reassurances that can help you achieve your weight loss goals.

By targeting the subconscious, the same part where habits and urges originate, your hypnotherapist can help you develop a positive view and relationship with healthy eating habits and exercise. If you find yourself constantly facing feelings of self-defeat and frustration over trying to lose weight, hypnotherapy can be a way to help you feel confident about your body image, and change your negative perceptions of nutrition foods—both of which can help you lose weight in a responsible and sustainable manner.

In other words, your change of diet and fitness habits has a higher chance of working because you know you are making a change for the better. When your mind and emotions are in harmony, the body can better perform what it is told to do.

But what exactly is it about hypnosis that can work wonders for your weight loss efforts? We look at 4 factors that your hypnotherapist will target in your hypnotherapy session.

1. Your Motivation and Willpower

At its core, hypnosis and weight loss are tied together by motivation and willpower.

Do not let the ‘mind over matter’ approach of hypnosis fool you. Hypnotherapy is powerful, and by conditioning your mind to push beyond its limits and change, you will find yourself taking a hyper-focused approach to your weight loss efforts.

In fact, this approach is something professional athletes have been doing for years. By visualizing winning games or matches, athletes can push themselves to bring out their A game.

You can learn these same principles through a hypnotherapy session, which will allow you to visualize changing your diet and exercise habits. If you are struggling to imagine seeing these things turn into reality, your challenge may be a lack of focus—an issue your hypnotherapist can also address through confidence-building messages

The science also backs the ability of hypnosis to improve your odds of losing weight successfully.

A 1998 study published in the International Journal of Obesity, sought to understand potential benefits of hypnotherapy for weight loss. The study saw the participation of 60 obese patients, who were into two groups:

• One receiving two types of hypnotherapy “directed at stress reduction or energy intake reduction”
• The other receiving “dietary advice alone”

The researchers found that, “Analysed over the whole time period the hypnotherapy group with stress reduction achieved significantly more weight loss than the other two treatment arms which were not significantly different from each other.”

The researchers thus concluded, “Controlled trial on the use of hypnotherapy, as an adjunct to dietary advice in producing weight loss, has produced a statistically significant result in favour of hypnotherapy.”

2. Cravings and Binge Eating Habits

If you ask any hypnotherapist, he or she will tell you that you have all the weapons at your disposal needed to lose weight safely. It really is a mind over matter challenge, especially since most, if not all, unhealthy eating habits ultimately stem from cravings and stress-coping mechanisms.

Many people tend to eat more than they should because their mind tells them to seek the dopamine rush triggered by tasty treats. So the next time you have a bad day and wonder why you seem to be craving for donuts or pizza, it’s your mind telling you to literally swallow your negative emotions with “good food.”

Again, this is all happening in your mind. “Good food” is a relative concept. For some people, this could come in the form of low-calorie and fiber-rich overnight oatmeal. For others, it could be a bowl of French fries.

What hypnotherapy does is help change your perception of food. With repeated sessions, you can ultimately condition your mind to see food for what it is: fuel for the body. Sure, there is no harm in wanting an ice cream cone or a burger every now and then, but with hypnosis, you can avoid challenges like binge eating and stress eating.

One study published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis found that the researchers’ test subject, a 16-year-old boy, was “able to reduce his anxiety by gaining an understanding that it originated as a result of fear of failure.” Besides binge eating, the boy also suffered from “anxiety, insomnia, migraine headaches, nausea, and stomachaches.”

3. Your Positive Mindset, or Lack Thereof

Fear-inducing messages such as “Fatty foods will kill you,” or “Sweets will lead to diabetes,” can certainly work in changing some people for the better, but what usually happens is these behaviors only last for a few weeks at most. This strategy is what governments around the world have taken in their effort to stop people from smoking, yet millions of people continue to light up, right?

In contrast, taking a more positive approach tends to have a more lasting effect, for the simple fact that people respond better to positive messages than they do negative ones. And this is exactly what hypnotherapy does.

In your therapy session, your hypnotherapist will use positive messages such as, “a healthy, balanced diet will make me genuinely feel and look better,” or “Eating healthy is not just about looking good, it’s also about feeling good,” are not just upbeat, they are also more sustainable goals to aspire to.

You will also find that this positive mindset will help carry you throughout the hard journey towards weight loss.

4. Your Views on Exercise

If you feel your challenge with exercise has to do with a lack of motivation to get out of bed to go to the gym or on a run, hypnotherapy could be the answer to your challenges.

Many people have turned to hypnotherapy as a way to overcome their fears and lack of motivation to start exercising. People like celebrity Olivia Munn swear by the restorative power of hypnosis, finding it to be the key to resolving deep-seated issues in their past and developing a new mindset when making healthier choices.

Hypnotherapy might also be the key to going over your perceived limits and pushing yourself out of your fitness comfort zone. According to a 1985 study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, “The hypnotic manipulation of effort sense during dynamic exercise can significantly alter patterns of brain activation and elicit cardiovascular changes.”

This essentially means that through hypnotherapy, your mind can be trained to go over mental hurdles and push the body to work harder and be stronger.

Is Hypnotherapy the Right Approach for My Weight Loss?

“Will it work for me?” is perhaps the most commonly asked question about hypnotherapy. Ultimately, the best way to know is to see and try it yourself. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach with hypnotherapy, not when different people respond differently to different hypnotherapy messages.

But either way, hypnotherapy can be a solid first step in the right direction, helping you open up and talk about the importance of developing good eating and exercise habits, and discarding habits that are only doing you harm.

It should also be said that hypnotherapy, on its own, is definitely not a substitute for a healthy and balanced diet, as well as improved fitness levels. However, hypnotherapy can be an excellent way to complement your new diet and exercise regimen.

If you are looking for advice on how to lose weight, or want to know if you even need to lose weight at all, be sure to ask your physician or healthcare provider first. With the combination of a better diet, a plan to exercise more, and hypnotherapy sessions, you should be able to set yourself up for success.

REMINDER: Seek the Professional Opinion of a Physician Before Trying to Lose Weight

Although hypnotherapy is a gentle and safe approach to supplementing your weight loss efforts, it is imperative that you first seek the opinion of a physician before anything else. Many people mistakenly believe that they are overweight, even if they are not.

There is a difference between having unhealthy body image issues and being actually overweight. When you consider the fact that so many people succumb to peer pressure and media influence over what kind of body looks good and does not, it is easy to see why weight loss is such a pervasive topic.

Your doctor will usually consider the following factors when determining if you are in a healthy weight range:

• You have a body mass index beyond 25 (not accurate at all times as people are built differently)
• For men, your waist circumference is over 37 inches
• For women, your waist circumference is over 32 inches
• You have a high body fat percentage relative to your age and sex
• You have joint pain caused by excess weight
• You suffer from pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, hypertension, or type 2 diabetes

Again, your healthcare provider will be the best authority to get an accurate measurement of your height, weight, body mass index, and body fat percentage.

What Can I Expect from Hypnotherapy?

While different people respond differently to hypnotherapy and have different reasons for wanting to lose weight, you can still expect some of the following in a hypnotherapy session.

• Visualizing your desired physique and level of fitness
• Imagining the feeling of looking good and being healthy
• Visualizing the process of achieving your weight loss goals
• Nurturing the patience to stick to your weight loss goals
• Appreciating the small incremental achievements you make
• Maintaining your motivation to stick to your weight loss plan
• Finding the motivation to resist the urge to eat anything unhealthy or eat even if you are not hungry

These methods and visualization techniques are just some of the many ways to help empower your mind and body, allowing you to finally take control of your lifestyle. With hypnotherapy for weight loss, you will learn to appreciate the value of eating healthy understand that feel-good sensations of eating fatty and sugary foods are just that—sensations. You should also realize that exercising is not just good for you—it actually feels good.

With consistent sessions, you should be able to enjoy what your body can do, instead of seeing it as just another source of anxiety. By building a solid foundation of healthy eating habits and a positive approach to exercise, your choices should also affect your other life decisions, changing you for the better in more ways than one.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

 

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for weight loss. It not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced weight loss hypnosis mp3 does).

The inability to control alcohol consumption is a far more common challenge than most people would like to admit. Although it would seem that something like binge drinking is a behavior that would be easy to control, these issues are much more complicated.

Whether it’s at raucous parties, drinking sessions with friends, or even at home with a bottle (or bottles) of wine, many people find themselves drinking excessively despite promising to have just “one or two” drinks. And no matter how you look at it, drinking to excess is never good for your health or personal life; even those who only drink excessively during weekends and stay completely sober throughout the work week are still harming themselves.

What Exactly Does Binge Drinking Mean?

So, is it a challenge of motivation, then? Your mindset just might have something to do with it. Binge drinking is often defined as drinking with the intention of getting intoxicated. In other words, the desire to drink and get drunk stems from a thought pattern that begins even before the first drink.

For many people, binge drinking may very well be a coping mechanism to deal with stress, anxiety, and depression. These mental factors are precisely why hypnotherapy can be a viable form of changing this alcoholic behavior.

For many years, hypnosis has been used in combination with other treatments for substance abuse. According to one study published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, “[hypnosis] has been used with 18 clients over the last 7 years and has shown a 77 percent success rate for at least a 1-year follow-up.”

So, how does this happen and how is it connected to treating binge drinking?

Hypnosis Delves into the Part of the Mind that Forms Habits

To change the harmful habit of excessive drinking, a hypnotherapist can reach into the part of the mind that forms and stores habits. A hypnotherapy session typically begins by entering a deep state of relaxation through the same set of techniques used in meditation: music, soothing dialog, and visualization among others.

By working with the unconscious part of your mind, your hypnotherapist can help you replace the negative thought patterns that compel you to drink to excess, stopping your unwanted behavior for good. Instead of working on your willpower, which is a finite resource, hypnosis goes straight to the source of your behavior and urges, and, through the power of positive suggestion, changes the perceived important you place on alcohol and the sensation of being drunk.

For example, if your urge to drink is fueled by anxiety and deep-seated confidence challenges, hypnotherapy can fix these issues first, which should then eliminate or at the very least reduce your desire to drink to excess.

It’s perfectly normal to want to have a good time, but it’s another story when your habits are harming your health and personal life. Binge drinkers who have successfully kicked their habit of drinking to excess often come out feeling free, at peace, and confident than ever before.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for bing drinking. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced stop binge drinking hypnosis mp3 does).

What does it mean to be charismatic? What does it take to have unlimited confidence? It is no secret that some people just seem have it. It’s a certain X factor, a social finesse if you will, that lets them excel at life, whether at work, when making new friends, or in everyday activities.

But what if there was a way to cultivate your own personal charisma, to raise your confidence and self-esteem in ways you never before thought possible? It seems like an absurd concept, but this is exactly what hypnotherapy allows you to do.

The idea is actually an old one. In 1971, one study found that the application of hypnosis could improve self-esteem using a technique called ego-strengthening. The idea was that a “psychologically impaired individual may benefit from positive suggestions of self-worth and personal effectiveness.”

Self-Esteem Shapes Charisma

Self-esteem and charisma are closely intertwined. You could even say that charisma, defined as “compelling attractiveness or charm that can inspire devotion in others,” is a characteristic of high self-esteem. But where does self-esteem come from?

The simple answer? The mind. Self-esteem is the sum of experiences, environment, and thoughts, all of which create an outlook of positivity and confidence. And because your thoughts are partially behind your worldview, hypnosis opens a way to transform your thought processes and biases.

To put it simply, hypnotherapy offers a way to reach a stage of increased awareness, making your mind malleable to positive suggestions. In fact, athletes use this same technique all the time before games and matches, only they call their version visualization.

How Does Hypnosis Work?

Hypnosis often gets a bad rap for its connection to the mystical and magical; the media often portrays it as falling into a trance where you forget everything that happens in this state when you “wake up.”

The reality, however, is much less exotic. Hypnosis induces a state of deep relaxation, very similar to what you could achieve with deep meditation. In this state, you’re both at peace and alert at the same time—your imagination runs free and you are more receptive to suggestions by your hypnotherapist.

Over the years, there have been several studies on the power of hypnosis to improve weight loss, help in smoking cessation, relieve stress, and even improve athletic performance.

The same principles behind these findings also apply to the development of personal charisma. Delving into the source of your charisma and confidence, your hypnotherapist can work on your emotional sensitivity, expressiveness, and control, helping you to see social interactions in a new light.

By using the power of positive suggestion, you can condition your mind to be confident and to nurture your latent self-esteem. Hypnotherapy gives you just the right push to bring out what you already have in the first place.

Considering all the benefits of hypnotherapy, its ability to develop your personal charisma only adds to a growing list of benefits just waiting for you to tap into.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

At some point in your life, you are going to want to apply for the perfect job, nail the perfect interview, or shoot for a raise. Perhaps you want to discover your passion in the hopes of finding a career you can feel proud and happy about or switch careers after being unhappy with your current path in life.

Whatever the case, we all want to have thriving careers that come from being good at our jobs. Unfortunately, your dreams and reality may not be consistent at all times. If you feel that you’re stuck or in a rut, or have ideas that never seem to be good enough, what you might need is a push in the right direction—a way to boost your confidence, which in turn, will help you find the motivation to keep going forward.

Hypnosis could be just what you need. Through hypnotherapy, you have an outlet to release your stress, all while improving your learning, motivation, attitude, and confidence. According to one study published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, Cognitive Behavioral Hypnosis (CBH) is “at least as effective as behavior therapy (BT) and cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) treatments that employ imagery and relaxation techniques for anxiety disorders.”

But how exactly does hypnotherapy impact your job performance and motivation?

Imagining Your Future

Do you struggle to imagine where you’ll be, career-wise, in two to five years? Perhaps you have big dreams, but there’s always a voice inside you, telling you you’ll never get there.

That’s your subconscious talking, and it’s where hypnosis takes the fight to make you a happier, more productive person.

In a hypnotherapy session, a hypnotherapist puts you in a state of deep relaxation and uses the power of positive suggestion to:

• Imagine your dream job and help you define your career trajectory
• Start thinking of your dreams as real and attainable goals
• Put together a step-by-step plan with clear milestones instead of just vague dreams

In subsequent sessions, your hypnotherapist will help you follow-up on this plan, ensuring that you’re actively striving to reach each milestone.

Building a Strong Foundation: Confidence

Although it may seem that some people are born confident, the truth is that these individuals have a great support system of family and friends around them, or they’ve been conditioned from an early age to see life in a positive light.

The good news is that confidence is something you can build. A hypnotherapist can plant positive thoughts into your subconscious mind, helping you fight anxieties and fears caused by job-related challenges such as public speaking, job interviews, and time management.

You have everything it takes to build a strong foundation of confidence. A hypnotherapist will give you all the tools to do it one step at a time.

Job performance and self-confidence have a symbiotic relationship. The better you at your job, the more confident you become; the more confident you are, the more capable you’ll be at handling work tasks and challenges. Hypnosis can be the key to planning and managing this aspect of your life in ways that you never thought you were capable of doing on your own.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Contrary to popular belief, anyone can be creative. Creativity is not limited to the world of writers, painters, sculptures, and musicians. All it takes is the right mindset.

Of course, we are all creative in different ways. You may be a skilled cook that somehow understands how ingredients come together without really thinking about it. Your friend may have a knack for coming up with great business ideas that can grow into full-fledged enterprises in just a few years. Another friend may have a talent for photography and capturing images on film and video.

Bottom line? There are countless ways to show unlimited creativity. If you think you have yet to discover your creative side, hypnotherapy may hold the key to unleashing it.

How Hypnotherapy Release Your Creativity

When done right, hypnosis can help unlock different aspects of your latent creativity. In fact, one study published in the International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis found that a group of hypnotizable female volunteers “…consistently achieved higher scores on the Torrance scoring categories, and their performance was statistically superior on a composite index of overall creativity.”

During a hypnotherapy session, your hypnotherapist will enter your subconscious mind by putting you in a state of deep relaxation. This allows you to free your mind from its typical thought patterns, helping you to adopt a new mindset—one with a focus on creativity.

Through techniques like creative visualization, your hypnotherapist can guide you towards a creative flow, which is often described as being in a trance-like or meditative state. In real life, it is the equivalent of being “in the zone”—where things seem to move in slow motion, your mind is calm yet focused, and your perception of time is slower.

True creativity and inspiration can only happen when the mind is in a state of clarity, which is what hypnosis tries to achieve. After a hypnotherapy session, you will feel more relaxed and more able to express your thoughts and ideas, whether through the written or spoken word, through music, visual art, or any other kind of medium.

Hypnotherapy Removes Obstacles

Creativity can be notoriously elusive. On some days, you may feel like you are on a great creative streak, while on other days it seems like you have hit a dead end. You may have experienced the latter in the form of a writer’s block. Hypnotherapy can help you get over these temporary obstacles and realign your mind with your inner creativity.

Sometimes the problem is not so much the absence of ideas, as it is the lack of motivation and focus. Hypnotherapy can also help in these matters, clearing your mind and using the power of positive suggestion to reignite your willpower and drive.

Creativity requires a certain freedom of the mind, allowing it to explore and wander for inspiration. Hypnos can be a powerful tool to put you in this state, giving you a small push in the right direction.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD)—sometimes referred to as ADD—is a common but little-understood disorder that seems to occur most in children. Symptoms of the disorder include challenges with concentration, short attention span, hyperactivity, and impulsivity.

Although the traditional method of treating ADHD involves a combination of psychotherapy and medication, it’s important to remember that people have varying responses to different forms of treatment, which is why there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all approach to treating the disorder. Likewise, the multiple medications designed for treating ADHD/ADD also produce different side effects, ranging from anxiety and insomnia to reduced appetite and irritability.

Research on alternative and gentler forms of treatment for ADHD show that therapies like hypnosis can help people improve the focus, concentration, and stress levels of ADHD patients. One study published in the Public Library of Science found that “hypnotic suggestions have an effect on reaction times in the sustained attention task both in adult ADHD patients and control subjects.”

But what specific benefits does hypnosis offer?

1. Hypnosis Plants Positive Ideas into Your Mind

By placing you in a state of deep relaxation, a hypnotherapist can produce a state of heightened focus, which in turn makes you highly receptive to positive suggestions. For example, if your ADHD keeps you up at night because you can’t get away from the computer, a hypnotherapist can help you relax at will and find the motivation to want to rest at night. In addition, this approach frees your mind from runaway thoughts that keep you distracted and restless.

2. It’s Gentle and Doesn’t Require any Medication

Hypnotherapy allows children and adults with ADHD to hone their focus, concentration, attentiveness, and control of their symptoms, all without having to use any kind of pharmaceuticals. Besides their adverse side effects, many drugs for ADHD don’t really address the disorder’s root cause, but rather only take care of the symptoms. This is precisely why therapy will always be the best way to rein in ADHD.

3. Hypnosis Goes Straight to the Source of the Challenge

The subconscious is a powerful part of the mind that rarely receives any real attention. With hypnotherapy, you can directly access your subconscious mind to not only plant ideas, but to condition the way you think about your symptoms and compulsions.

If you’re constantly afraid that you’ll never be able to develop your focus, you’ll never make any real changes. A hypnotherapist can help you develop your focus and concentration, starting with something as little as imagining an island paradise, thinking of it long enough so you can relax and quiet your mind. If you do this long enough, you’ll eventually reach a point where you’re genuinely happy, healthy, and confident in your ability to succeed. 

Whether it’s for a child or adult, hypnotherapy can be a viable way to gently address the root challenges of ADHD, going directly into where the disorder originates: the mind. Although not a substitute for conventional therapy, hypnosis can be a powerful way to supplement your treatment and get the best results. I highly suggest you consult with a medical doctor before using hypnosis.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

There’s no denying that humans are creatures of habit. From an early age, we pick up behaviors we find useful or satisfying, repeating them until they turn into full-fledged habits. And over time, the subconscious part of our mind, where behaviors transform into habits, begin to thrive. They become familiar ways of behaving, with expected consequences that serve our satisfaction and needs.

But what about bad habits like nail biting, binge eating, and snoring? While they still serve legitimate needs, they come with familiar but negative consequences that are damaging to your health, emotional well-being, career, relationships, and confidence among other things. It’s the virtue and effects of these habits that make them “bad.”

Why do People Have Bad Habits?

More often than not, people form bad habits as a way to deal with stress and anxiety. Whether it’s chain smoking, heavy drinking, drug abuse, or binge eating, these habits are usually a coping mechanism to escape stress and feel better.

On the other hand, habits like nail biting, fidgeting, and hair pulling among others usually stem from childhood and is the subconscious mind’s attempt to relieve stress and self-medicate. These habits also form as a response to guilt and shame.

Of course, you’re probably wondering if there’s any way to let go of these bad habits. More often than not, it simply boils down to having the right combination of mindset and willpower. But sometimes, it helps to have someone give you a push in the right direction.

This is exactly where hypnotherapy comes in. Because most habits originate in your mind’s subconscious, hypnosis can serve as a shortcut to changing your negative habits right from their very roots.

Below are some examples of bad habits that can be treated with hypnotherapy.

1. Nail Biting

One study published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis found sufficient evidence of hypnosis treating tongue thrust and nail biting simultaneously. The subject, a 14-year-old girl, was recommended by her orthodontist to get rid of her tongue-thrusting habit to complete her orthodontic treatment. She also had a habit of biting her nails, further contributing to her dental issues.

2. Binge Eating

Yet another study found that self-hypnosis techniques have the potential of curbing binge eating, with the test subject, a 16-year-old boy, “able to reduce his anxiety by gaining an understanding that it originated as a result of fear of failure.” Besides binge eating, the boy also suffered from “anxiety, insomnia, migraine headaches, nausea, and stomachaches.”

3. Snoring

Even a habit like snoring has the potential of being treated with hypnosis. A case study published in The British Society of Experimental and Clinical Hypnosis describes how a 53-year-old man who sought treatment for hypnosis was able to leverage direct suggestion to force himself to sleep on his side when snoring at night.

“It was shown that the snoring symptom lessened and his wife commented on this at a time when she was unaware that he was coming for treatment,” the study notes.

As promising as hypnotherapy is for beating bad habits, it only really works if the patient is serious about making positive changes and is open to applying unorthodox techniques on a consistent basis. In other words, hypnosis as a tool for beating bad habits is only effective when used to its full potential.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Does it feel like all you do is work and worry about your next paycheck? Do you feel useless whenever you’re not doing anything useful? Come to think of it, when was the last time you stopped to enjoy your day doing nothing at all?

You need to stop, take a deep breath, and live in the moment. Known also as mindfulness, living in the now means having a mindset that pays active and mindful attention to the present. When you live in the here and now, you are no longer a prisoner of your thoughts, simply observing each moment of your life as it passes without judging.

In other words, living in the moment means experiencing life directly. You’re aware of what’s happening around you and you take the time to appreciate the sights and sounds, but you do all of this without worrying about making any judgments.

While being able to focus on the present is a trait often associated with ‘enlightened’ people like yogis, Buddhists, and priests, it’s a mindset the ordinary person can develop. Similar to nurturing a positive attitude, you can train your mind to live in the present.

Hypnotherapy has long been used as a way for people to develop a positive mindset. In fact, one study found that a hypnotherapy session before a major surgery had a placebo effect. “The team reported that patients who received hypnosis reported less post-surgical pain, nausea, fatigue, and discomfort,” the researchers noted.

But how exactly does hypnosis help you achieve the ability to live in the present?

1. It Puts You in Touch With Your Inner Child

In many ways, living in the now is about letting your inner child take over. Your hypnotherapist can help you connect with your memories as a child, some of them buried and forgotten in your subconscious. We have all been little children at some point, lost in the wonder of the world around us, without any worry about problems.

2. It Lets You See the World in a New Light

Through the power of positive suggestion, your hypnotherapist can ‘teach’ you to see the world in a new light, allowing you to let go of your fears and anxieties, even if for a few minutes. Indeed, hypnosis can be a powerful tool to help you ease stress, allowing you to focus your thoughts on new positive ideas and behaviors.

3. Hypnosis Allows You to Relax

Your hypnotherapist will help you to relax deeply, putting you under a trancelike state that opens your mind to positive suggestions and ideas. It also allows you to return to the source of your inherent innocent vision of the world, letting go of the fears and responsibilities that weigh you down.

Giving value to the present allows you to change your priorities in life, helping you live a healthier and less stressful lifestyle. With hypnotherapy, you can appreciate the life that you have now, and realize that finding abundance and blessings need not be a stressful race. In other words, living in the now means appreciating your journey in life more, instead of focusing on the destination.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Are you very conscious of your skin that you avoid looking at mirrors, feeling unhappy whenever you do? Are you so fixated on your acne that you no longer see your other physical attributes? Are you painfully uncomfortable in social situations because of your skin?

For better or worse, society places a premium on healthy and beautiful skin. As the body’s largest organ, our skin has significant symbolic value. It’s the canvas through which we express our identity, and when it appears damaged, it also negatively affects our ability to express ourselves and be confident.

Unfortunately, acne and other skin issues don’t automatically disappear when you turn 21. Although almost every person goes through a phase of skin challenges, especially during their teenage years, acne breakouts can still happen well into your adulthood. Eczema, rosacea, allergy rashes, boils, warts, and stretch marks are just a few of the many skin issues that can affect people regardless of age. In any case, the impact of these skin challenges can affect your quality of life and body image in many ways.

You may have heard that stress is one of the primary causes of acne breakouts in adults. This suggests that much of what causes acne and other skin problems begins in the mind. In turn, this opens up the potential for hypnosis to be a viable therapy for improving the appearance of your skin.

Indeed, one study published in the Journal of Psychology Research and Behavior Management found that “Adding hypnosis to cognitive-behavioral therapy can facilitate aversive therapy and enhance desensitization and other cognitive-behavioral methods.”

But how exactly does hypnosis improve your skin’s appearance?

Hypnosis Can Help Regulate Circulation

By putting you in a hypnotized state, your mind triggers a relaxation response that supports normal circulation and releases hormones. In turn, these hormones regulate other bodily functions not under your conscious control, which include allergic and dermatologic reactions, and even pain control and healing. If anything, this shows just how much influence the mind can have over the body’s physiological processes.

Hypnosis Relieves Stress

Hypnosis can be especially helpful in relieving skin diseases with a psychosomatic aspect, such as acne, psoriasis, eczema, and allergy rashes. Moreover, stress leads to the secretion of stress hormones like cortisol, adrenaline, and DHEA, all of which can cause changes in the skin. For example, cortisol stimulates the production of sebum, too much of which results in acne breakouts.

Stress can also dehydrate your skin, making it susceptible to allergens, irritants, and other contaminants that can trigger skin problems like dermatitis and psoriasis.17

By teaching you relaxation techniques, hypnosis will help you develop your self-hypnosis abilities, allowing you to relax at will during stressful situations. Hypnotherapy trains your mind to think positively, using the power of suggestion to know how to handle stress effectively.

The benefits of hypnosis go beyond restoring your skin’s beautiful appearance. With the right approach, your hypnotherapist can also restore your radiant health.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Do you constantly struggle to maintain your concentration when working on important tasks or projects? Are you someone with a short attention span, prone to being easily distracted? Many people assume that focus is a trait you’re either born with or not, but the truth is that your ability to concentrate on a task ultimately boils down to your level of enjoyment while doing it.

For example, when you’re reading a book that you like, or watching a movie that you’ve been eagerly awaiting for months, concentration almost comes naturally—you’re not even aware you’re engrossed in what you’re doing. In contrast, when you’re assigned to read an essay for a class paper, concentration feels more like a chore.

The difference is in how you view both tasks. But the good news is that there are ways to apply the same kind of focus you get while reading a riveting book to other areas of your life.

Hypnosis is one such approach. One study published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis found that “students who scored highest on the CIS (Creative Imagination Scale, a measure of hypnotic responsiveness) had the lowest initial GPA, improved most during the course, and significantly increased their GPA in the quarter after.”

So how exactly does hypnosis improve your concentration?

1. Hypnotherapy Begins at the Root of Focus, the Subconscious

Your hypnotherapist’s goal is to enter your subconscious mind to change your belief systems and deeply held attitudes about focus. This allows you to tap into the state of mind you have whenever you’re concentrating on any activity that you enjoy, applying this same mindset to other tasks, whether it’s speed reading for an exam the next day, or leading a team of employees with sound decision making.

2. Hypnosis Allows You to Relax Your Mind and Slow Your Thought Process

The ability to concentrate comes from knowing how to slow your mind’s thought chain and focus on one process or one memory at a time. Your hypnotherapist can help you control your mind’s racing thoughts, making you less likely to be distracted as you acquire an improved ability to concentrate. If your short attention span has you constantly taking breaks from work to check your phone or Facebook, regular hypnotherapy just might help you.

3. Your Hypnotherapist Can Break Down the Concentration Process

Many times, we think that all it takes to concentrate on a task or project is to simply roll up our sleeves, settle down, and start working. But there’s more to effective concentration than that. You also need to prepare your mind for the task, which will steer you away from procrastinating and daydreaming. With repeated hypnosis sessions, you can train your mind to shift gears at will and enter a higher state of focus.

With time and repeated therapy sessions, the effects of hypnosis will continue to build, allowing you to enter a deeper and natural state of concentration at will. Hypnosis is gentle and harmless, and in many ways, is very similar to meditation.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session designed to improve your focus and concentration. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my concentration and focus hypnosis mp3 does).

Fear and anxiety can negatively affect your quality of life, preventing you from living it to the fullest and engaging in seemingly normal, day-to-day activities. For some people, anxiety is mildly distressing but very manageable; similar to how you would avoid certain foods that cause allergic reactions, all you have to do is avoid things that trigger your anxieties.

For others, however, fear and anxiety can be debilitating, to the point that stepping out of their own home feels impossible. Your severe fear of rejection, failure, commitment, and even a fear of success can prevent you from reaching your full potential.

As early as 1950, psychologists found that about 5 percent of the population suffered from some form of acute or chronic anxiety (Cohen and White, 1950). But where do these emotions and irrational thoughts come from? As you may have guessed, it’s all happening in your mind, which is why hypnosis holds significant potential for the treatment of these problems.

There’s been a great deal of research on the use of hypnosis for anxieties and phobias. One study published in the Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis found that “hypnosis may be employed effectively in conjunction with behavioral approaches, including cognitive restructuring and systematic desensitization, psychodynamic psychotherapy, and dental treatment.”

So, how exactly does hypnotherapy for your fears work?

1. Hypnosis Addresses the Underlying Cause of the Fear

Having a seemingly irrational fear, like a fear of commitment, doesn’t just happen overnight. Hypnotherapy attempts to discover the real cause of this fear, which is usually a traumatic event or experience that happened previously in a person’s life. It can also be a repressed memory—the mind’s defense mechanism to keep the trauma out of your immediate thoughts.

2. Hypnosis Puts You in a State of Deep Relaxation to Access Your Memories

To access your repressed memories, the hypnotherapist will need to put you in a state of deep relaxation. This technique allows you to block out everything in the outside world and focus on your subconscious thoughts. Addressing memories that are the root cause of your anxiety also allows you to understand your tumultuous emotions and see them in a way that’s no longer threatening, making it easier to break free and change.

3. Hypnotherapy Can Address Your Low Self-Esteem

Many times, low self-esteem is actually the cause behind many anxieties and fears. If you’ve always been shy, afraid of change, or afraid to try anything new, it’s probably your low self-esteem getting the best of you. And yet you struggle to change, because your fear of failure prevents you from breaking old habits.

A hypnotherapist can use ego-strengthening methods while you’re in a hypnotic state, using the power of suggestion to help you believe in yourself and find the willpower to be confident and welcome growth.

If you suffer from constant fear and anxiety, or simply want to have a more positive outlook in life, hypnosis can be a viable form of therapy. It’s safe, gentle, and offers a holistic approach to healing your mind.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD for short, is a mental disorder characterized by uncontrollable obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviors.

Many people often joke about their obsessive tendencies, such as being “neat freaks” or “germophobes,” and refer to them as OCD. But for those living with the real thing it’s hardly a laughing matter. At its worst, OCD can rob you of your happiness, peace of mind, and health, as you do everything that you can to control your obsessive and compulsive thoughts and behaviors with little to no effect.

Some OCD conditions can traced to genetics and heredity, while others can be explained by problems within the neural pathways. But for the most part, OCD conditions are caused by emotional and developmental issues, which is why cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has emerged as one of the most popular psychotherapy treatments for OCD.

CBT identifies issues with your cognitions and behavior, and changes these patterns so you can change the way you feel and act.

Interestingly enough, hypnotherapy for OCD works in a very similar fashion.

1. Hypnosis Relieves Your Anxiety

Anxiety is a known trigger of OCD, and the worse your anxiety becomes, the worse your OCD symptoms get. It’s a problematic cycle that can be hard to break, which is where hypnosis comes in. At the basic level, hypnosis is all about finding a deep calm and relaxed mind—the first step towards addressing your negative OCD thoughts and actions.

In fact, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis found that relaxation and positive suggestion, combined with behavioral therapy, produced “rapid improvement” in OCD patients.

In time, you can be so adept at self-hypnosis that you can teach yourself to relax whenever you feel your OCD tendencies kicking in.

2. Hypnotherapy Traces OCD Issues Within Your Mind

In a hypnotized state, your hypnotherapist can help you identify your OCD thoughts and urges without actually pointing them out in a direct manner. You need to recognize these compulsions and obsessions on your own, building the confidence to realize that your problem is happening all in your mind.

By doing so, you can then practice from avoiding or even stopping the associated compulsive behavior.

3. Hypnotherapy Helps to Strengthen Your Ego

A hypnotherapist will typically use techniques designed to boost your ego during therapy sessions. This can be a powerful approach to solving your woes because your ego is often bombarded by obsessive-compulsive thoughts and urges. By using positive messages and imagery, your hypnotherapist can help you fight these negative impulses, helping you focus on positive thoughts and emotions more effectively.

Conclusion

If you or a loved one is suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder, hypnotherapy can be a gentle and viable approach to improving your quality of life. I highly suggest you consult a medical doctor before using hypnosis for OCD.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for  OCD. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced OCD hypnosis session does).

When learning about hypnotherapy and hypnosis, you will often hear that it is all about leverage the power of positive thinking. But what exactly does this mean? What effect does having a positive attitude have on your health and wellness?

One study conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Carolina at Chapel Hill and University of Michigan found that meditation focused on positive thinking “produced increases over time in daily experiences of positive emotions, which, in turn, produced increases in a wide range of personal resources (e.g., increased mindfulness, purpose in life, social support, decreased illness symptoms). In turn, these increments in personal resources predicted increased life satisfaction and reduced depressive symptoms.”

More researchers continue to explore the benefits of a positive attitude and optimism, especially on one’s general health and wellness. Below is a brief list of what they’ve found so far.

1. A Positive Attitude Helps You Cope Better with Stress

When confronted with stressful situations, optimists usually fare better than pessimists do. And it’s not surprising why. Even when you encounter disappointment, whether it’s failing a test, not getting a job, or being rejected, having a positive mindset makes it easier to focus on what you can do to fix the problem. Rather than focus on their frustrations, optimists will create an action plan to achieve a sound life balance.

2. Increased Lifespan, Healthy Heart, and Lower Risk of Depression

Several studies have suggested a direct correlation between a positive attitude and increased resiliency against common health problems like hypertension (high blood pressure) and even depression. Psychologists believe this might have to do with the placebo effect, a psychological phenomenon that quite simply, means mind over matter. When your mind thinks it’s going to get better or stay healthy, the body follows—even without any external factors like medical treatment.

3. It Makes You Appear Beautiful, Inside and Out

As cliché as it sounds, positive thinking helps to bring out the best in you in a natural way. You start smiling more, you’re friendly, happy, and exude confidence. Your inner beauty, which is really just another term for self-esteem, becomes more visible to people around, which can go a long way to complementing your physical appearance.

Scientists are still trying to understand why positive think yields these health benefits. One theory suggests that being positive allows people to cope better with stress by engaging their immune system. Another school of thought is that optimistic people naturally gravitate toward healthier lifestyles—they get more exercise, follow a balanced diet, and avoid harmful habits like smoking and drinking excessive amounts of alcohol.

In any case, these benefits are but the tip of the iceberg of positive thinking. For the most part, a positive attitude is the sum of life’s experience, but it can also be acquired through practice. This is where hypnotherapy comes in, giving you a chance to adopt a positive mindset with the help of a hypnotherapist.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Contrary to popular belief and its portrayal by the media, hypnosis is not mystical in nature, and neither is it some kind of magic trick or illusion. In fact, it’s about as harmless as closing your eyes, relaxing, and imagining a positive image of yourself.

But hypnosis is powerful, even if it’s based on the power of mind over body. And it’s this same power that makes hypnosis perfect for boosting your weight loss efforts. According to a study published in the US National Library of Medicine, “Controlled trial on the use of hypnotherapy, as an adjunct to dietary advice in producing weight loss, has produced a statistically significant result in favor of hypnotherapy.”

But how exactly does hypnosis for weight loss work? The transformative power of a hypnotherapy session may seem hard to believe, so it helps to understand how this emphasis on mind over body helps you control your eating habits and lose weight.

1. It’s All in Your Mind

You have all the weapons they need to lose weight. Rather than treat food as fuel, many people turn to food to satisfy cravings or as a way to cope with their emotions. A hypnotherapist helps you realize that cravings, whether it’s sugar treats or crunchy chips, are all in your mind.

Likewise, your attempts to lose weight through diet and exercise ultimately boil down to commitment and motivation—all of which start with in your mind.

2. Hypnosis Helps You Stay Positive

Scary messages like, “Greasy foods will give you a heart attack” or “Too much sweets will cause diabetes” can certainly work, but more often than not, they only last for a limited time. In contrast, positive suggestion through hypnosis has a more lasting effect. Messages like, “A healthy body will make me happy” or “Eating healthy will make me feel and look good,” are definitely more upbeat, helping you stay positive on the arduous road to losing weight.

3. Hypnosis Helps You Visualize

Similar to how athletes visualize winning matches and games, imagining a day of eating healthy and exercising to lose pounds will help the task become easier. If you’re having problems imagining, your hypnotherapist can help you remember and focus on a time when you were at a comfortable and healthy weight.

4. It Helps You Beat Your Cravings

Many hypnotherapists like to use the power of symbolic images, encouraging patients to visualize their food cravings as real objects locked away in a box, or buried under the ground. It’ll seem like a simple thing, but images have a powerful effect in real life. Have you ever experienced feeling nostalgic when you see a McDonald’s sign, or feeling homesick when you see something that reminds you of home? That’s the power of imagery at work.

Bottom line? Hypnosis is a gentle yet powerful approach to supplementing your weight loss efforts, whether it’s an exercise regimen, a diet program, or both.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Having a New Year’s resolution is a common practice stemming from a desire to start anew, to change for the better, to reach important goals and to become the ‘new you.’ Unfortunately, many people often fail to stick to their resolutions, so much so that it’s become just as common to assume people won’t stick to their resolutions.

But it doesn’t have to be that way, not when the secret to fulfilling your resolutions is all in your mind. As Napoleon Hill once said, “What the mind can conceive, the body can achieve.”

You’ll often hear that the only way you can stay motivated enough to stick to your goals is to have the willpower to do it, which again, comes from your mind. But willpower means making a conscious decision to keep your resolution.

The better option is to make your resolution come from your subconscious. This part of your mind not only controls your thoughts and actions automatically, it also plays a huge role in undesirable habits, whether it’s smoking or procrastination.

It’s for this reason that hypnosis is a viable approach to help you stick to your New Year’s resolution. One study by Bonshtein, Shaar and Golan (2005) found that hypnosis helped people in maintaining their motivation to beat nicotine addiction. The researchers also found that hypnotherapy complemented other strategies, such as group therapy and medication.

Here’s a closer look at how hypnotherapy helps your ability to stick to your New Year’s resolutions.

1. Hypnosis Targets the Subconscious and Unconscious Parts of the Mind

The subconscious and unconscious parts of your mind are responsible for your body’s internal programming. It’s also where your deepest beliefs and motivations take root. A hypnotherapist targets these areas of the brain by putting you in a state of relaxation, which opens your minds to the power of positive suggestion. A hypnotherapy session allows you to ‘look’ into your mind, changing how you think of yourself.

If any changes are going to stick, it needs to start in these parts of the mind.

2. Hypnosis Uses Positive Reinforcement to Affect Change

Many people fail to keep their New Year’s resolutions because deep in their mind, they’re telling themselves they’re going to fail. A typical hypnosis session involves using the power of suggestion to plant seeds of positivity, conditioning your mind to believe that “Yes, I can reach my goal,” or “Yes, I can change for the better.”

3. Hypnotherapy Makes Your Goals Appear Clearer

Hypnotherapy sessions help your mind visualize the goals you want to achieve with the start of the New Year. If your goal is to lose weight, your hypnotherapist can help you focus on your desired results without any negative thoughts. This way, instead of thinking, “I’m going to have a hard time losing weight,” your thoughts will gravitate to something like, “I’m slowly reaching my desired healthy weight with each day that passes.”

Bottom line? Hypnosis is gentle, pain-free, and simply teaches you how to use your mind to fuel your motivation. If you want to maintain a positive mindset when approaching your New Year’s resolution, you can’t go wrong with hypnosis.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

If you’ve seen the movie, The King’s Speech, which tells the story of how King George VI of Great Britain worked with a speech and language therapist to treat his stutter, you would know that his therapy was not just physical, it was also psychological. His therapist, the Australian Lionel Logue, suspected that his stutter was caused by childhood trauma. His approach was to build the king’s confidence and improve his anxiety by addressing these issues under the guise of mechanical exercises.

Several studies suggest that aside from biological factors, environmental stressors such as family challenges, confidence issues, and anxiety can be contributing factors to stuttering. And it’s these same issues that make hypnotherapy a potentially viable form of treatment for people who suffer from this speech impediment.

Results of APA Study

One study published in the American Psychological Association describes the case of a 14-year old boy with severe stuttering who was treated with hypnosis to overcome his speech impediment. The boy eventually became 100 percent speech-fluent, and after 10 years, not only maintained this achievement, but also made many improvements to his personality as a whole.

But how does hypnotherapy for stuttering work?

1. Hypnotherapy Let’s You “Practice” Speaking Without a Stutter

Many patients with a stutter can often speak normally without any traces of their speech impediment. Because stuttering is suspected to be triggered by different environmental factors, consistent hypnotherapy sessions can allow you to shut these triggers out and practice speaking normally.

By putting you in a relaxed state, your hypnotherapist can help reduce the impact of your triggers and work on new reactions.

2. It Allows You to Build Your Confidence

Much of hypnotherapy is about using the power of suggestion to condition your mind to believe in something. And the more you think about changing a negative aspect about yourself into something positive, it eventually becomes a reality.

This is especially true when using hypnosis for building your confidence and self-esteem. With constant positive conditioning, you can adopt a mindset that allows you to stay confident under pressure and, in the case of stutterers, speak without any speech problems.

3. Hypnotherapy Addresses the Root Cause of Your Stuttering

Hypnosis can also be used to help patients address the root cause of their speech challenge by helping them remember when the stuttering first happened. Your hypnotherapist will help you analyze what triggered your stutter. Was it a traumatic event? Was it a family challenge? With consistent hypnotherapy sessions, you can confront these negative emotions in your subconscious and bring about positive change.

In Conclusion

If you’ve already tried different approaches to fixing your stutter and haven’t found anything effective, hypnotherapy might be what you need. Hypnosis is a gentle form of therapy that helps you look into your mind to resolve whatever mental and emotional issues may be contributing to your speech impediment. Hypnotherapy may be the key to conquering your stutter and living as normal a life as possible.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Have you been woken up with headaches or jaw pain?  Or maybe you received   news at your last dental appointment that you were at risk of needing costly and possibly painful procedures, due to a deterioration of your teeth? There’s a good chance that bruxism is the cause behind your concerns.  And while most people suffer from it occasionally, for about 8-10% of the population, it becomes a potentially debilitating chronic health issue.

Bruxism is a medical condition characterized by teeth grinding and clenching of the jaw, especially when sleeping, although it is observed in some people during wakefulness. Although many people with bruxism can get away with grinding their teeth to a certain degree without suffering any negative effects, persistent grinding and clenching can cause dental damage, jaw pain and may even lead to chronic headaches. It’s not a stretch to say that bruxism can impact your overall quality of life.

Why Does Bruxism Happen?

It’s not exactly clear why some people are prone to grinding their teeth while sleeping. It doesn’t help that sufferers are often unaware of the problem, learning about it only when they’re sleeping with a partner or seek medical help for the associated symptoms.

There are actually two different categories of bruxism, primary which occurs without any known underlying causes, and secondary which is the symptom of another medical or psychological condition. Secondary bruxism is believed to be the most common form due to the fact that studies have found that it is rare for a person to present with bruxism without any of the known or suspected causative factors.

Doctors and psychologists theorize that bruxism has a strong connection with stress and anxiety. For example, it’s believed that if you have a habit of clenching your jaw or gritting your teeth when under stress, which is a form of bruxism itself, that this may carry over into your sleeping habits. Another theory is that teeth grinding works much like thumb sucking, providing an almost soothing effect.

While we still may not yet understand all the possible root causes of bruxism, the medical community in general has settled upon a consensus that it’s caused from a combination of stress, psychological, lifestyle and possibly even genetic factors.

• • Stress and Anxiety:

    It is believed that the majority of cases of bruxism stem from stress and anxiety. In fact, according to some reports, anxiety and stress have been found to be connected to as many as 70% of cases of bruxism.

 

• • Tension:

    This ties in with stress and anxiety, but it’s an important enough factor that it deserves to be pointed out separately. Tension doesn’t magically disappear once you fall asleep, especially if you’re prone to tension headaches or a tight clenched jaw during the day.

 

• • Intense Focus:

    Think about the last time you studied for an exam or were really focusing on something serious or intense. It’s not uncommon for this degree of focus to result in subconscious teeth grinding or jaw clenching. This is why you might see someone chewing on the end of a pencil or chomping vigorously on a piece of gum when they’re intensely focused. While this is type of bruxism that occurs while awake, the residual effects can easily carry over into sleep habits as well.

 

• • Medications:

    It is believed that certain medications can cause bruxism, especial those that cause changes in the central nervous system which can induce jaw clenching and teeth grinding. For example, antidepressants like Zoloft and Paxil as well as some antipsychotic medications.

 

• • Lifestyle Factors:

    Lifestyle factors that can cause stress or interfere with sleep patterns are also known causes of bruxism. For example, excessive alcohol consumption, smoking, caffeine and drug use are thought to potentially cause bruxism or make it worse. Living a life that’s high stress or tension without taking adequate steps to decompress, recharge and refuel can lead to sleep disturbances and bruxism.

 

• Sleep Disorders:

  Bruxism appears to be found at a greater frequency in people who are already suffering from an existing sleep disorder, such as snoring, sleep apnea, sleep paralysis, semi-conscious sleep hallucinations and sleep walking, among others. It is thought that sleep conditions that induce a state of arousal are more likely to produce bruxism. For example, an episode of sleep apnea may end with jerking, snoring or tooth grinding.

 

Treatment for Bruxism

There is no known “cure” for bruxism. By that we mean that you’re not able to go to the doctor and be prescribed a remedy that will magically cause bruxism to disappear. There are however things that can be done to alleviate that root causes of bruxism and in some cases minimize the physical damages that the condition produces.

Many of the conventional treatments of bruxism center on lifestyle habits that reduce triggers. For example, taking steps to develop a more restful, regular pattern of sleep. This might include things like going to bed and waking a set times every day or participating in a relaxing routine before bed, as well developing a regular meditation or yoga practice to reduce stress and tension.

If you’re suffering from bruxism, it’s also important to try and identify and eliminate stimuli that might be contributing to the condition. For example, a cup of caffeinated coffee or an alcoholic drink after dinner in the evening. If you’re someone who frequently chews gum or hard, chewy foods you might want to try to eliminate those as well in an effort to train your jaw how to relax. Remember that what you do during the day follows you into your sleep.

With all of this in mind, what most experts can agree on is that bruxism is an unconscious habit. And it’s precisely for this reason that hypnotherapy has emerged as a viable form of therapy for bruxism.

Hypnosis for Bruxism

The Bruxism Association lists hypnosis under their clinically proven methods of treatment for bruxism. They mention one study that reviewed the long term effects of hypnosis for bruxism with positive results.

Other studies agree. In fact, a pilot study published in the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis found that of the eight patients exposed to hypnotherapy sessions, all “showed a significant decrease in EMG activity; they also experienced less facial pain and their partners reported less bruxing noise immediately following treatment and after 4 to 36 months.”

Yet another study published by the U.S. Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health mentions a case study for the treatment of nocturnal bruxism with hypnotherapy. In this case study, the client was seen for a total of seven sessions where hypnotherapy was used in conjunction with the exploration of underlying psychological triggers. The one year follow up revealed that not only had the bruxism subsided, but that it also had not reappeared in the one year period. This case study also revealed what was called a positive life ripple effect in response to the hypnotherapy.

We present these studies to you for a couple of reasons. First, it’s common to be a somewhat skeptical of hypnosis at first. Many people have a few misconceptions about what hypnosis is and how it works. These studies help to satisfy the scientific curiosity of the skeptics.

Secondly, this evidence has been provided because your health is important, and you should think carefully and research any treatment options that you pursue. For people who suffer only occasionally with bruxism, this might not seem like such a big deal. However, for chronic sufferers, bruxism is in fact very serious and can quickly spiral into cascade of other health conditions if not treated. Considering the multifaceted nature of bruxism, the best approach is a holistic one, like what can be found with hypnotherapy treatment.

Understanding Hypnosis

Before going into why hypnosis is so beneficial for bruxism it’s important to understand what hypnosis really is. If your bruxism is caused by stress, anxiety or tension, as is the case in so many instances, considering a treatment option that you know nothing about might only make matters worse.

First, hypnotherapy does not bring you to the point of being unconscious. This is a common fear and misconception that many people have. You are still awake, but very deeply relaxed. This state of relaxation allows you to tap into your subconscious mind and address the issues related to bruxism that reside there. Hypnosis involves no loss of personal control, nor will you be encouraged to do anything you don’t feel comfortable with.

Just imagine being so completely relaxed that you were able to separate yourself from your worries or anxieties. This is hypnosis.

We’ve discussed how stress and anxiety are the primary causes of bruxism but eliminating them and their effects isn’t always as easy as meditating for 10 minutes every morning. In many cases, stress and anxiety are deeply ingrained, lifestyle coping mechanisms. The solution to bruxism involves more than quitting your high stress job or getting more sleep. You might also need to go deep within yourself to treat and heal the reasons why your body and mind react with stress and anxiety in the first place.

To further explain the potential benefits of hypnosis, below are three factors that make hypnotherapy an ideal solution for relieving the symptoms of bruxism.

1. Hypnosis Targets the Unconscious

The human mind is complex, but we’re going to try and simplify it by dividing it up into two major components – the conscious and unconscious mind. We use our conscious minds constantly. Every act that we purposely perform, every word that we say, basically every thought or action that you’re aware of is the result of your conscious mind. But, have you ever stopped and wondered what makes your conscious mind think and act that way that it does?

Let me introduce you to your unconscious mind. Just like the conscious part of your mind, you’re accessing your unconscious mind every single day, the difference is that you’re not realizing it. The unconscious mind can be defined as everything that’s not part of your conscious awareness. Much like the concept of infinity, the concept of the unconscious mind can be a difficult one to grasp.

This is because we like tangibility. We like proof, and this is something that’s difficult to obtain from the unconscious mind in our normal state. But, let’s take the mystery out of it for a second and look at some day to day applications of the unconscious mind in your life. Take for example a learned task, like driving.

When you first learned to drive, every action was purposeful. You had to actually think to turn on the turn signal and feel out how far to turn the wheel when making the turn. Fast forward a couple decades from the first time you were behind the wheel and it’s likely to be an entirely different experience.

You probably perform many of the functions required to safely drive a vehicle without thinking about it, in fact you might be cruising along and suddenly realize you don’t even remember the last 5 or 10 minutes. The various small tasks of driving have become automatic to the point that you can do them without even really being aware that you are. Driving itself is conscious act, but at some points, your unconscious mind also comes into play.

More commonly, we associate the unconscious minds to more natural automatic behaviors. Teeth grinding is a perfect example of this type of an unconscious automatic behavior, similar to blushing and sweating when you’re nervous. It happens unconsciously, which means it happens all by itself. But it’s not something that can’t be controlled either.

It’s near impossible to consciously will yourself to change an unconscious behavior. Have you ever been able to stop yourself from blushing at the wrong moment? Probably not. Likewise, you aren’t able to will yourself to stop grinding your teeth or clenching your jaw. Considering that bruxism is defined by unconscious behaviors that most frequently occur while you’re asleep and not in control of your actions, treatment for bruxism should be approached through the unconscious mind.

Considering that the unconscious mind is very much like a stubborn know- it-all that is completely uninterested in thought or reason, it’s necessary to bypass the conscious cognitive command centers and communicate with it directly. This can only be done in a deeply relaxed state where conscious thought is unable to interfere. Hypnosis can be used to approach unconscious automatic behaviors at the unconscious level, the part of the mind where stress and other bruxism related behaviors often plant themselves.

2. Hypnosis Tackles the Root Cause of Bruxism

In a hypnotherapy session, the hypnotherapist enters your subconscious mind by putting you in a state of deep relaxation. This makes your mind highly receptive to the power of suggestion—a strategy used in meditation therapy and sports visualization.

A hypnotherapist can teach you relaxation techniques to help you manage your stress more calmly and develop a positive mindset. In effect, this approach treats the real cause of bruxism, and not just its symptoms.

This means that it’s important to first understand the root cause of bruxism so that it can be treated. For example, you might contribute bruxism as being a side effect of your medication. This type of physiological response might be difficult to overcome through hypnotherapy since there are other outside stimulating factors at play. What can be achieved through hypnotherapy in this case is working towards healing the reasons you need the medication in the first place.

If you’re on anxiety medication that might be contributing to bruxism, hypnotherapy can address the behaviors of the unconscious mind that have made anxiety such an influential element in your life.

Sometimes, it is the case where an individual has no idea what’s behind their bruxism. Maybe there’s no medication being taken or extraordinary stress that they’re aware of. Just because a person isn’t aware of it doesn’t mean that something’s not going on at an unconscious level that’s contributing to bruxism behaviors.

Hypnosis can help you discover the unconscious root cause or painful bruxism and address it at its source.

3. Hypnotherapy Helps You Live a Healthy Lifestyle

Several lifestyle factors also contribute to the frequency of bruxing. Aside from stress, it’s theorized that factors like smoking and alcohol consumption can also contribute to bruxism. Hypnotherapy uses the power of suggestion and positive thinking to help you change your bad habits and build healthy ones instead. For example, a hypnotherapist can condition your mind to help you overcome unhealthy food cravings and even addiction to nicotine.

But, let’s take a step back and define what we’re really talking about here, and that’s coping mechanisms. Many of the not so healthy lifestyle choices that we make are in essence coping mechanisms for an underlying issue that often resides in the unconscious mind.

This doesn’t mean that someone needs extensive hypnotherapy treatment if their job is causing them stress, but if their reaction to that stress is to have drinks with coworkers several nights a week or binge eat on unhealthy snacks right before bed to the point that it’s difficult to fall asleep, then there’s probably some work that can be done through hypnotherapy to address why they’re using those mechanisms to cope with workday stress.

As mentioned earlier, bruxism almost always occurs as symptom of something else, and often it’s a psychological factor rather than a physical condition. The daily lifestyle choices that we make are both influenced by the unconscious mind and help to further form and ingrain unconscious behaviors. Hypnotherapy can help change negative lifestyle habits and transform them into positive coping mechanisms that reduce or completely eliminate the occurrence of bruxism in your life.

Is Hypnotherapy the Only Answer for Bruxism?

While hypnosis can be a good form of therapy to relieve bruxism symptoms, patients should still seek the medical advice of their healthcare provider before seeking any form of treatment, including hypnotherapy.

Whether or not your healthcare provider agrees with hypnotherapy as a viable treatment option isn’t necessarily the point. Hypnotherapy has been proven to be effective for treating many medical conditions, and more doctors have begun including it in their range of care. This includes those in the dental profession who have witnesses first hand the damaging effects of bruxism.

That said, not every health care provider will be on board, and that’s ok. Hypnotherapy, when guided by a qualified professional either through an office visit or audio recording, is considered a safe and gentle form of therapy. Still, you should at least speak with your provider about your thoughts regarding hypnotherapy and have a discussion about the benefits that you hope to receive.

Additionally, a good health care provider will want to do an overall assessment to make sure there aren’t any underlying health issues that could be causing your bruxism. For example, while anxiety and tension might be causing your bruxism, those symptoms could be signs of something more serious like hypertension or heart disease. Everything in your body is interconnected, and the best approach to bruxism is one that treats the body along with the conscious and unconscious mind.

It’s Time to Stop Suffering from Bruxism

If you’ve been thinking that your nightly teeth grinding is just a bad habit that isn’t worth seeking treatment for, you’re wrong. Even occasional bouts of bruxism can have damaging effects. Bruxism can lead to debilitating jaw pain, chronic headaches, loss of teeth and can have devastating financial consequences.

While a dentist or other medical care provider can treat the physical effects of bruxism, they’re limited in what they can do to treat the real root cause. We’re not talking about masking the root cause when medications or preventing further damage with dental implements. We’re talking about addressing the reasons that bruxism is an issue in your life in the first place.

Hypnotherapy can help. The root causes of bruxism can be difficult to work through, especially on your own. Sit back, relax and let the therapeutic powers of hypnotherapy help you through the process.

Sincerely,

Dr. Steve

It’s no secret that mental imagery and visualization is a common strategy used in the world of athletics and professional sports. Athletes who are serious about improving their game are determined to use just about any legal strategy to give them an edge over the competition. It’s no surprise then why hypnotherapy has emerged as a viable solution for boosting their performance.

Although hypnosis often gets a bad rap for being erroneously associated with magic and mystical mind control (thanks in no part to its portrayal by the media), it is nevertheless gaining widespread acceptance in the medical community as a gentle and viable form of therapy.

In a feature report published by the American Psychological Association, hypnosis was noted to have the ability to “…create a highly relaxed state of inner concentration and focused attention for patients, and the technique can be tailored to different treatment methods, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy.”

So, what exactly do you get when from a hypnotherapy session for improving athletic performance? Below are a few benefits to consider.

1. Hypnosis Focuses on the Human Mind

The unconscious mind is the driving force behind our thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. In the context of sports and athletic performance, the unconscious mind is often what limits athletes from realizing their true athletic performance. The mind is where our fears, worries, and anxieties thrive and limit what the body can do. A hypnotherapist can help you understand your unconscious thoughts and tendencies, allowing you to conquer, or at the very least, manage your fears.

2. Hypnotherapy Helps Athletes Move to the Next Level 

Hypnosis is a technique than can help athletes overcome their self-doubt and move to the next level. Using the power of positive suggestion, a hypnotherapist can help an athlete visualize improvement of their skills and techniques, whether they want to increase muscle mass, speed and agility or work on another goal. Hypnosis can also help athletes find motivation when there is none.

3. Hypnosis Can Help Athletes Hone Their Concentration

The emphasis of hypnotherapy on reaching a relaxed and peaceful state of mind is no different from meditation technique. A hypnotic state not only calms the mind and body, it can also help athletes find the intense focus necessary to be at the top of their game. 

In addition, a hypnotherapist can help an athlete overcome their anxiety before games, matches, or exhibitions, which can be all the difference between an outstanding performance and falling short of winning.

4. It’s an Ideal Component of a Holistic Approach

Hypnotherapy isn’t some kind of magical solution that will instantly improve an athlete’s skills and performance. In other words, hypnosis does not make up for a lack of training. What it can do, however, is expand on the mental conditioning athletes need to improve and grow. Hypnosis deals with focus and healing—aspects of athletic conditioning that involve the mind.

In Summary

You don’t have to be a professional athlete or an Olympian in training to reap the physical benefits of hypnosis. Hypnosis is for everyone, and with regular sessions, it can help you reach higher levels of performance regardless of what sport you play, whether it’s on a professional level or a purely recreational one.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Although eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are characterized by abnormal eating habits, these conditions can ultimately be traced to a number of psychological problems.

Because anorexia and bulimia often involve body image and low confidence, it’s no surprise why hypnosis has emerged as a viable and gentle form of therapy. Through the power of positive suggestion, hypnotherapy allows you to address the root cause, or causes, of your eating disorder, which in many cases, lies in the subconscious mind.

Perhaps best of all, hypnosis has little to no side effects.

How Does Hypnotherapy Work?

Oftentimes, a holistic approach is a good way to address eating disorders. In other words, it often requires using several therapies, which can include hypnosis. I suggest you speak with your medical doctor before using hypnosis.

The goal of hypnotherapy for eating disorders is to use the power of suggestion to change your thoughts and habits concerning how you view yourself. First, the hypnotherapist puts you in a trance-like state; contrary to popular belief, you are awake and completely aware of what’s happening around you.

In the case of anorexia nervosa, a hypnotherapist can implant positive thoughts to change the negative way you view your body. This process of using positive thoughts is best done when your mind and body are in a relaxed state and receptive to suggestions. With bulimia, hypnotherapy can help you to detach yourself from the damaging impulses motivating you to eat and regret it afterwards.

Essentially, hypnosis allows you to make a change in your thinking when it comes to eating and self-image. Rather than just forcing you to stop thinking a certain way about food and eating, hypnosis allows you to address why you think that way.

Your hypnotherapist can help you trace it back to an event, a comment, or a situation that you may have buried in your subconscious because of the pain and negativity you associate with it.

Can Hypnotherapy Work as a Treatment for Eating Disorders?

The Mayo Clinic recognizes the potential health benefits of hypnotherapy, noting that “Hypnosis can be used to help you gain control over undesired behaviors or to help you cope better with anxiety or pain.” Although anorexia and bulimia are perfect examples of undesirable cognitive behaviors, further study needs to be done on the benefits of treating these conditions with hypnotherapy.

As noted by one study published in the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, “Research on the efficacy of hypnosis in the treatment of eating disorders has produced mixed findings. This is due in part to the interplay between the characteristics of people with eating disorders and the phenomena of hypnosis.”

Still, it is only a matter of time for hypnotherapy to be recognized as a viable form of therapy for eating disorders. Perhaps the best reason to give it a try is that it helps you love yourself, which goes a long way to putting you on the road to recovery.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

One particular area where hypnosis has been shown to be extremely effective is before and after surgery. Hypnosis can help to relieve the intense anxiety that often strikes before undergoing a surgical procedure as well as help control pain and speed recovery after surgery.

When used before surgery, the benefits of hypnosis go beyond just allowing a patient to remain calm and reducing stress. That nervous, anxious feeling that accompanies most people into the operating room has been linked to patients experiencing more pain, a greater need for painkillers, and longer stays in the hospital after surgery. It has been proven that preoperative anxiety can have big effects on postoperative recovery.

Hypnosis for pain relief is one of the most studied areas of hypnotherapy. Various studies have shown that patients who undergo hypnosis therapy before a medical procedure experience less anxiety leading up to the procedure, require less anesthesia during the procedure, and recover faster compared to other patients.

In one study, conducted in 2007 and published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 200 randomly selected patients who were about to undergo breast cancer surgery were given brief hypnosis sessions prior to their procedures. The results showed that those who underwent hypnotherapy prior to their surgery required less anesthetic and reported less pain, nausea and fatigue after their procedures. In addition, the study also found that the cost of surgery on hypnotized patients was actually lower because of the reduced amount of medication needed, with an average savings of $772.71 for each patient.

In a report published by ABC News, Guy Montgomery, director of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Integrative Behavioral Medicine Program and lead author of the study said, “The vast majority of patients can have some benefit from doing this. To me it’s a no-brainer: It helps patients and it saves money.”

Hypnosis allows a patient to naturally enter a state similar to that produced by the anesthetic and sedative drugs that are given to patient before most surgeries. It is not a replacement for such drugs, but a compliment to them. Dr. Michael Schmitz, director of pediatric pain medicine at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock, Arkansas explained that hypnosis helps patients enter a relaxed, calm state which makes discomfort more tolerable and helps patients to forget it sooner. “Hypnosis is used to assist with the other parts of anesthesia not covered by the local anesthetic,” he says.

If you have any type of surgical procedure in your future, hypnosis can help to relieve the anxiety and stress leading up to the procedure, which, in turn, will reduce the risk of complications and prepare your body for a speedier recovery with less pain, and less need for drugs. After your surgery, hypnosis will allow you to maintain a calm and relaxed state of mind that is conducive to faster and more complete healing. The well documented benefits of undergoing hypnosis before and after surgery can make a tremendous difference. I encourage you to check with your medical doctor before using hypnosis.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Despite the well-known health risks associated with smoking, about 17% of adults in the U.S. are still smokers. That translates to about 40 million people in the U.S. who regularly smoke cigarettes.

Smoking is considered to be the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 16 million Americans currently live with a smoking related disease, and the habit is linked to more than 480,000 deaths annually, one out of every five in the country.

The health challenges caused by smoking are no secret. Most smokers will readily admit that they know their smoking habit is killing them and would quit if they could. Many will even go on to explain that they’ve tried to stop smoking, even multiple times, without success. Most often, the motivation to quit is there, but the confidence and willpower needed to completely break the addiction fall short.

Tobacco creates a powerful addiction that is both physical and psychological. Although the physical addiction can be broken within just a few days, the psychological addiction — the force of habit — is what most smokers find the most difficult to break.

Hypnosis has been shown to be a fast and effective tool when it comes to changing or eliminating habits, including the deadly habit of smoking. In fact, in a randomized study conducted with more than 280 smokers, results showed that study participants who used hypnotherapy as part of their smoking cessation program were significantly more likely to remain smoke free at periods of six and twelve months after quitting than participants who underwent conventional treatment.

By relaxing and quieting the mind, making your subconscious more open to suggestions, hypnosis can help to remove the mental blocks that cause anxiety, calm the impulses that form unconscious habits, and allow you to change your own behavior. You will feel more confident and able to follow through with your own healthy decisions, rather than feeling like a slave to anxiety and doubt.

If you are serious about quitting smoking, even if you’ve tried before and failed, hypnosis can give you an edge that you haven’t had before. Hypnotherapy will help you to unlock the willpower you need in order to stop smoking once and for all. It will allow you to focus on the amazing benefits to your health that will move you forward, instead of the anxiety and impulsiveness that has held you back. You’ll be able to change your habits, and your life, for good.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session smoking cessation (quitting smoking)s. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced stop smoking hypnosis mp3 download  does).

Who doesn’t want to do better in their career? It’s a common desire for most people. Everyone wants to do at least a little bit better. Who wouldn’t feel better about a nice promotion, a healthy raise, or maybe even running the show as a business owner?

The reasons people fail to move ahead in their jobs and careers are numerous. Some get nervous and have trouble with job interviews. Others lack the confidence to go after what they really want. Common problems like a lack of motivation or fear of public speaking affect plenty of people, holding them back from achieving their career goals. Even with a true passion for what you are doing, it can be difficult to keep moving forward when you’re facing barriers like these.

Hypnotherapy can produce amazing effects when it comes to breaking through these internal mental barriers. Some of the most successful and famous people in the world credit hypnosis as one of the tools that helped them to break through and achieve things that most people only dream about. Albert Einstein was known to undergo hypnosis sessions almost every afternoon. He’s even stated that his famous theory of relativity came to him during one of them. Thomas Edison used self hypnosis on a regular basis to help focus his mind and develop his ideas. Sir Winston Churchill took advantage of hypnosis to maintain his focus, drive and confidence in order to carry out his duty as Prime Minister during World War II.

One of the most problematic emotions for many people on the job is anxiety. From feeling afraid to speak in front of large groups or even at small business meetings, to feeling too shy to strike up a conversation with a colleague or supervisor, anxiety can limit job success and performance in many ways. It destroys confidence, smothers passion, and can turn a once cherished career into a hated daily ordeal.

Hypnosis has been proven to be effective at reducing anxiety in many different types of patients. Once the anxiety is gone, self-control and confidence return, allowing you to finally move forward. There are numerous studies that have proven this fact, such as this report from the International Anesthesia Research Society which documents that hypnosis reduced anxiety by more than 50% in adult patients who were about to undergo surgery.

Whether you are feeling held back by your own barriers, or just looking for a way to increase your normal performance, hypnosis can help you to reach your goals. You’ll be able to break through walls that once seemed impenetrable, restore your confidence and motivation, and re-awaken your passion, allowing yourself to easily move to the next level and beyond.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for enhancing your public speaking confidence. It not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced overcome fear of public speaking hypnosis mp3 does).

For many people, what starts out as just having a few drinks and having a good time can turn into a challenge. There is certainly a difference between having a drink or two to loosen up and feeling like you don’t have the self-control to stop when you know you’ve already had too much. A report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism shows that nearly 25% of people over the age of 18 admit to engaging in binge drinking in a given month.

There is no doubt that too much alcohol is unhealthy, in more ways than one. Alcohol is a leading cause in the premature deaths of tens of thousands of people every year in the United States. 2014 estimates linked alcohol to approximately 88,000 deaths, making it the fourth leading cause of preventable deaths in the U.S. Alcohol consumption was responsible for nearly 10,000 automobile related fatalities, making up 31% of the overall driving fatalities.

Psychological analysis and research has shown that controlling excessive drinking, or even an alcohol addiction, is difficult because somewhere in the mindset of a person with an alcohol problem is the sense of a lack of self-control that is extremely difficult to overcome. The problem is much more mental than it is physical. A person trying to deal with an alcohol problem needs to overcome their own sense of not having control, as well as break out of bad habits that have been established.

Hypnosis has been shown to be an extremely helpful part of an overall treatment for alcohol abuse and addiction. It should not be thought of as a passive cure that will suddenly stop alcohol cravings, but as an effective tool to help someone with an alcohol problem get past their own mental blocks and change unhealthy habits. A study conducted in 2004 showed that by using hypnosis along with more traditional forms of treatment for alcohol abuse, patients who underwent hypnosis showed significantly higher success rates, feeling more able to control their urge to drink and having a higher confidence that they would be able to refuse alcohol when tempted.

By incorporating hypnotherapy into an overall alcohol treatment plan, patients can learn to take control of their impulses, rebuild their confidence, and most importantly, replace bad habits with healthier choices that will allow them to change their lives and take control once again. If the will to change is there, hypnosis can have profound effects on maintaining the necessary motivation to complete treatment as well as instilling the self-confidence needed to reach success.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for controlling alcohol consumption. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced control alcohol hypnosis mp3 does).

College students today are under a tremendous amount of pressure. There is a constant drive to improve their academic performance from parents, professors, friends, and even themselves. So much of their future lives and careers depend on the grades they achieve in the classroom.

Most students, when asked, will tell you that if they are struggling with maintaining peak performance and high grades it’s not because they have challenges understanding the material they are studying, it’s because of the relentless stress they feel as they strive to succeed. Unfortunately, the key to studying effectively is to be in exactly the opposite state of mind. To get the most out of their studies, students need to be relaxed and focused.

Hypnosis is a remarkable tool for helping stressed and often overworked students to relax and let go of stress, resulting in heightened concentration and improved creativity. In fact, many teachers and other school staff already use techniques that are considered to be a form of hypnosis in their everyday work. Most teachers will attempt to create a calm and quiet environment to help students relax before big tests. This improves concentration. Sports coaches will engage in energetic “pep talks” before a big game, repeating positive phrases and suggestions over and over to build confidence in players. All of these types of things are techniques of hypnosis.

In an Australian study conducted in 1991, researchers investigated the effects of cognitive-behavioral hypnosis on improving academic performance and reducing anxiety associated with test taking. One group received four hypnosis sessions while the control group received none. The results showed that the group, which had received hypnosis, showed significantly lower levels of anxiety and also improved their performance during test taking sessions. The positive effects were still evident six weeks later when follow-up examinations were conducted.

If you, or someone you know, are struggling to keep stress low and academic performance high, hypnosis can help to achieve both goals. Hypnosis can help you to reduce your stress and anxiety, maintain your confidence, and improve your concentration. These are all things that will greatly benefit students at any stage of their education.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

It seems like every year there is a new study released somewhere saying that the average weight of the average American has gone up — again — by a few pounds. You can find a fast food restaurant on just about every corner; sometimes more than one. It seems like everything you walk past in the supermarket is processed with things you can’t even pronounce and has more calories in one serving than you need for an entire day.

On the flip side of that coin, there are also tons of, shall we say, “get thin quick” weight loss schemes available. Americans are overweight and they know it. They seem to want to lose at least some of that weight, but they aren’t doing what they really need to do in order to make that weight loss happen. They buy the latest trend in pseudo exercise devices. They swallow pills to boost metabolism or reduce appetite. They cut carbs and starve themselves on fad diets that leave their bodies weak and their minds depressed.

Everything begins in the mind. The simple truth is that in order to change your body, you have to change your mind. If you have a habit that is causing a problem for you, there is no solution other than removing or changing that habit. There is no getting around that fundamental truth. If you continue to do something that brings you bad results, you will continue to get bad results.

Hypnosis has been found to be an effective tool for helping to change the bad habits that lead to being overweight. Don’t get carried away though, it’s not a magic bullet that is going to suddenly change eating habits and melt off extra pounds with just a single session, even if you might have seen it portrayed that way in a movie or two.

Hypnosis works by helping to change underlying feelings, habitual patterns and subconscious motivations that often lead to an unhealthy diet. A healthy diet is easier to stick with if you feel like eating healthy, rather than thinking of it as something you should do. Hypnosis can help you to make the right choices naturally, rather than arguing with yourself about what’s right or wrong. To put it simply, hypnosis will help you eliminate your bad eating habits and create new, healthy habits. You’ll feel like you are eating what you naturally want to eat rather than torturing yourself with some diet plan.

Hypnotherapy has been shown to not only make it easier for people to lose weight, but to maintain that weight loss, which is often the hardest part. A study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology showed that people who underwent hypnotherapy lost nearly twice as much weight on average as those who didn’t, 11 lbs and 6 lbs respectively in the short term. In addition, as time passed, the results went up to 14.8lbs for those who used hypnosis while the control group remained at 6 lbs.

If you are trying to lose weight, hypnosis can be an incredibly beneficial tool to help you achieve your goal, and more importantly, maintain your target weight once you get there. And best of all, you won’t be doing any extra damage to your body by neglecting necessary nutrients or adding dangerous chemicals.

Additionally, if you are trying to lose weight, you should seek qualified medical advice.

Once the terms of your plan are set in place, ask your doctor about incorporating hypnosis into that plan.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

There are many people in the world who suffer from diabetes. It is a common ailment, but despite the seriousness of the issue, there still isn’t a cure for it. All anyone can hope to do is manage their symptoms and take care of themselves the best way they can. Hypnosis is a great tool to help people manage their diabetes because of the psychological aspects associated with the disease.

In a study conducted by Yuan Xu and Etzel Cardena in 2008, it was found that hypnosis works well as an adjunct to insulin treatment. The researchers found that hypnosis managed the psychological aspects of diabetes, which helped improved the overall quality of care for patients with diabetes. Some of the complications include depression, stress, and anxiety, and these complications often led to more physical complications.

Hypnosis used in conjunction with insulin treatments showed promising results, especially with stabilizing blood glucose and decreasing peripheral vascular complications. In addition, hypnosis also helped patients deal with their negative emotions in a healthier way.

A separate study, conducted by Pressman and Cohen in 2005 showed the link between emotions and physical health. Those who displayed negative emotions following their diagnosis of diabetes were prone to more physical ailments. However, patients who experienced positive emotions such as happiness and excitement resulted in direct physiological effects. The study found that the nervous system responded to positive emotions, cortisol decreased as a result of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activation, and an activation of the lymphoid tissues was also present.

What these studies mean for people with diabetes is that there is an option to help manage the negative emotions one feels when they are diagnosed with the disease, and this in turn helps manage the physical aspects of diabetes. It’s important to note that hypnosis is not a cure for diabetes, nor does it claim to be; however, using it together with an approved insulin plan – as prescribed by your doctor – can help you manage the symptoms and side effects of diabetes.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

There are many theories circling the globe on past life regression, and they often center on its very existence. Although scientific studies have not conclusively proven that reincarnation is real, there is some evidence to suggest that it could be real.

In research conducted by Dr. Ian Stevenson for his book, Reincarnation and Biology: A Contribution to the Aetiology of Birthmarks and Birth Defects, Stevenson found that children often recalled memories from their previous lives without the need for hypnosis, and that in the majority of cases, these same children had birthmarks in places where they had received a wound in their previous lives.

What does this have to do with hypnosis, you ask? Well, although children are sometimes able to recall details of their past lives without any prompting, adults are not as good at recalling similar details without help. Hypnosis allows an adult to go into a deep state of relaxation, which bypasses the conscious mind barriers.

There are many concerns in the scientific community about the validity of hypnosis for past life regression, which Stevenson covers in his book, but he does state that actual life memories may need a vehicle to make it to the conscious mind. Since our minds are designed to protect us, the conscious mind acts like the gatekeeper. It keeps information that is harmful to us buried deep in our subconscious, and you may have to work to bring it out in the open.

Stevenson does believe that a person’s natural recall of past life details is more accurate than those who use hypnosis to retrieve them. However, as a therapeutic option, there is some evidence that past life regression can help a person heal in much the same way as a patient who is helped to remember a traumatic event can neutralize the disabling influence over their lives of the original trauma.

If you believe in past lives and feel that you could benefit from learning about any blocks or negative patterns you’re repeating, past life regression may be right for you. It is important to find a legitimate therapist to walk you through this process, or use a self-hypnosis option that is careful with the suggestive language. One of Stevenson’s concerns regarding hypnotherapy in the use of past life regression was that patients surrendered control to the therapist, and it was easy to unintentionally guide people to see things that didn’t actually happen.

Whether you choose a therapist or self-hypnosis, make sure the source is reputable. Also, consider the emotions attached to the memories you explore. Many people who have experienced a past life regression report feeling intense emotions to situations, emotions that would be difficult to produce on their own with made up stories. That will be a clue that you’re actually remembering a past life versus making up something in your mind.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

High blood pressure can lead to all sorts of medical issues, such as damage to your arteries, your heart, and your brain. Hypertension can slowly and silently damage your body for years before symptoms ever appear. That’s why regular check-ups with your doctor are important, and if you have been diagnosed with hypertension, your doctor will also recommend some new lifestyle changes to make.

One of the options you can incorporate with your doctor’s advice is hypnosis. John Gruzelier, a research psychologist at Imperial College in London, explains that hypnosis works because it significantly affects the part of our brains that controls the higher level executive functions. It changes how our brains work, making it easier to adjust daily behaviors to accomplish our goals.

There is an ongoing pilot study at the University of Florida, conducted by counseling psychologist, Paul Schauble, which has so far reported results of patients being able to make lifestyle improvements that have lowered their blood pressure. Some significant changes in this process include losing weight, smoking cessation, and learning to eat a healthier diet.

Hypertension isn’t just related to weight, smoking, and diet, though. Some people experience high blood pressure because of stress. In this case, hypnosis works a relaxation technique. Part of the process is to relax the body and prepare it for suggestion. This is done through deep breathing and guided imagery, which can help lower blood pressure in that one sitting, and become a practice to manage one’s blood pressure in the future.

If you have high blood pressure, hypnosis may be an option to help you lower the risk of serious damage to your body. As with any medical condition, you should always talk to your doctor first. Hypnosis is not intended to be a cure, but rather a therapy used in conjunction with your doctor’s prescribed plan. High blood pressure can lead to serious injuries, so be sure to consult your doctor first.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Learning you need surgery can cause you some anxiety, which is perfectly normal. Some people may worry about the procedure itself while others are concerned with the pain that may come after the surgery. However, worrying about these fears can cause you to lose sleep, feel sick before the surgery, and in some cases, prolong the pain after surgery. It’s better for you to minimize the anxiety you feel before surgery.

The first step is to figure out what about the surgery bothers you. If you’re worried about the actual surgery itself, perhaps you need more education. Talk with your doctor about the necessity of surgery, and make sure you understand both the need and the benefits of completing the surgery.

The next step is to talk about your concerns with your family and close friends. Sometimes our fears can be overcome simply by talking about the issue and feeling heard by those we love. This tactic may not rid us of our anxiety completely, but it does help. They may be able to offer insight and tips from personal experience, so don’t discount the benefits of talking.

After learning more about the surgery, and speaking with family and friends, the next thing you can do is seek alternative methods to assist with reducing anxiety before surgery. There are several options available, but studies show hypnosis as one of the most effective options you can use.

Guy H. Montgomery, PhD, a psychologist and director of the Integrative Behavioral Medicine Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, conducts extensive research on hypnosis and pain management. During one of his studies, Montgomery and colleagues tested the effectiveness of a 15-minute pre-surgery hypnosis session to an empathic listening session in a clinical trial with 200 breast cancer patients.

The results of that trial were posted in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and found that patients who received hypnosis reported less post-surgical pain, nausea, fatigue, and discomfort. From this research study, Montgomery concluded that hypnosis helps patients reduce their stress and develop positive expectations about the outcomes of surgery.

If you can’t seem to overcome the majority of your pre-surgery anxiety, then hypnosis may be able to help. As always, be sure to consult your doctor first. Hypnosis is not a cure-all, but it does provide many positive benefits when used in conjunction with your prescribed medical plan.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Let’s be honest, erectile dysfunction (ED) is a sensitive topic for many men and couples alike. It involves the inability of men to either attain or sustain an erection for sexual intercourse, and it can certainly be a problem in relationships. There are many reasons men may be impotent, but not all of them are physical reasons. For those men who do not have a physical condition behind their ED, hypnosis may be able to help.

 

According to a study published in the British Journal of Urology, hypnosis showed improvement in ED that was not linked to physical causes. The study was comprised of 79 men who were broken up into four groups. The first group received testosterone, the second received trazodone, the third underwent hypnosis, and the final group was the control group. The study revealed that all four groups showed improvement, but the hypnosis group showed an 80% success rate in treatment compared to 39% for the placebo group, 60% for the testosterone group, and 67% for the trazodone.

If you or a loved one suffer from ED, and it is not a diagnosed physical problem, hypnosis may be able to help you. By accessing your subconscious, hypnosis helps you get to the root of the problem so you can correct it. Anxiety is a common symptom of ED, and hypnosis works from a place of deep relaxation to help you overcome those feelings with positive suggestions. It allows you to provide your subconscious mind with different thought patterns that address the issues behind ED, and help you figure out how to overcome it altogether.

As I mentioned before, hypnosis only works in cases where the ED is not a physical problem. For those experiencing ED, it’s important to first seek guidance from a licensed medical professional to rule out any diseases or other physical ailments that may be the cause of the problem. Combining hypnosis with a doctor’s recommended treatment is a great way to improve the condition, and restore intimacy in a relationship.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

There is good news for those of you dealing with migraine relief and other chronic headaches. According to a National Institute of Health Technology Assessment Panel, hypnosis is an effective tool to help you find the relief you need. Not only is hypnosis effective, but the panel also stated that it does not cause any adverse reactions.

Additionally, the Wellness Institute reported that a study conducted in 2013 compared the costs of hypnosis with prescription medication, and the study found hypnosis could potentially save patients $500 a year over prescription medication. Several organizations plan to pursue further research into the benefits of hypnosis on migraines, but let’s switch gears for a moment and talk about how it works.

For those of you who may be skeptical, understanding the how is often beneficial. The body communicates with the brain through sensation. When you’re hungry, you’re stomach growls. When you’re hurt, you feel pain relief. When it comes to migraines, there is something your body is attempting to tell you. Unfortunately, the conscious mind doesn’t speak in sensations, so it becomes necessary to access the part of the brain that does: the unconscious mind.

I’ve talked at length about the unconscious mind and how powerful it is in our everyday lives. However, it’s difficult to access the unconscious mind without some assistance, which is where hypnosis comes into play. Hypnosis allows your body and mind to reach a state of deep relaxation. In a face-to-face session, a therapist will guide you through the process, asking you where you notice the sensation of the migraine. Is it at the temples, behind the eyes, and so on.

Once you’ve isolated where the sensation is, the therapist taps into why you’re experiencing it. The Wellness Institute reports that many patients often express emotional issues – working too hard, tired and not getting enough rest, family problems, relationship problems, etc. – as the cause of the sensation. That means your levels of stress relief and emotional upheaval could be the reason for your migraines.

This type of hypnosis can often be done at home with a guided audio recording. However, the first thing you should do is consult a medical professional. Hypnosis should be coupled with the prescribed treatment plan provided by your doctor, and it is not intended to be a cure. The purpose of hypnosis is to help you pinpoint the problem so you can resolve it, which will provide relief from the pain and other symptoms associated with migraines.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, more commonly referred to as ADHD, is a disorder that typically begins in childhood. It causes a limited attention span, and it comes with bouts of hyperactivity. Unfortunately, researchers have not determined the origin of the disorder, which means there is not an official cure, though certain types of medication help reduce the symptoms. That said, many parents express concern about giving their children mind-altering drugs, and they seek alternative options instead.

Hypnosis is one such alternative. According to L.I. Sugarman, a research professor and pediatrician at the Rochester Institute of Technology, hypnotherapy is most effective when combined with other treatment options, but it does show therapeutic efficacy with several ADHD associated symptoms. Children are much more open to suggestion than adults because their conscious mind has not yet developed strong barriers. This allows a hypnotherapist to deliver positive suggestions to help children overcome many of the negative side effects of ADHD.

If your child suffers from ADHD, you may already be familiar with the negative side effects: low self-esteem, sleep difficulties, outbursts and ticks, troubled relationships, and difficulties in school being the most common. Hypnosis allows children to gain a sense of control over their emotions, it helps them build their self-esteem and confidence, and it reduces stress. Building a child’s self-esteem and confidence is key in helping them overcome many of the challenges they face when they have ADHD. It allows them to face those challenges head on because they know they can overcome them. Hypnosis does this by bridging the gap between a child’s imagination and therapeutic change. Reducing stress helps children sleep better and leads to fewer outbursts.

By incorporating hypnosis into your child’s therapy for ADHD, you’ll help them find relief from several of the negative effects associated with the disorder. Please note that hypnosis should be included with other modalities of therapy, and it is important that you speak with your child’s primary care physician before beginning any new treatments.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

*Note: If you or your child has ADD/ADHD, you should seek help from a medical doctor. The information provided in this post is meant to offer support along with your doctor’s guidance.

If you want to make real changes in your life, the first place to start is your own attitude. It’s time to take a long, hard look at your situation, and come to terms with the fact that you decide how happy you are, not external forces. The single best way to improve your life and your circumstances is to change your attitude and focus on the positive.

The University of North Carolina conducted a scientific study that demonstrates the role a positive attitude plays in our lives. Barbara Frederickson is a positive psychology researcher at the University of North Carolina, and her work shows that a positive attitude is more than being happy or being in a good mood. According to Frederickson, positive thoughts can actually provide real value in your life by helping you build different skill sets and opening you to new thoughts, opportunities, and options.

Frederickson’s studies show that negative attitudes and thoughts close the brain off from seeing other options and choices surrounding a given situation. The brain perceives negativity as a threat, and it goes into survival mode. Imagine walking in the woods and running into a bear. In that scenario, your brain would tune out everything else and focus on the immediate need to get you away from the bear. Once the danger passed, then you would notice the woods, the ground around you, and other details you hadn’t noticed before. However, in everyday life, a constant flood of negativity keeps the mind stuck in this mode, which causes you to miss out on opportunities, relationships, and much more.

Conversely, the studies show that people who focus on positive thoughts are open to more possibilities in life. When people are open to possibilities, they engage in activities that help them develop skills they can use later in life. For example, a child who is happy and nurtured develops a specific set of skills. If the child plays outside with their friends, climbs trees, runs through fields, and engages in other regular play activities, he or she develops athletic and communication skills. These skills go far beyond just the emotions that helped develop them, but it’s important to note that a positive attitude is responsible. A negative attitude would not build the same skill sets because the mind remains focused on immediate threats and not long-term needs.

Now that you understand why and how a positive attitude impacts your ability to have a better life, let’s discuss how to have a positive attitude.

Your Focus is Your Reality

The first thing you have to understand is that what you focus on has power over you. I know it sounds cliché, and you’ve likely heard it before, but if you want to turn your mindset around, you have to understand and believe that you have the power to do so. Choose to focus on the positive of every situation, and understand that sometimes that takes practice.

Build a Solid Morning Routine

Your morning routine sets the tone for the entire day, so it’s important that you have a routine that is as relaxing as possible, and gives you time to set your intentions for the day ahead of you. This could include meditation, reading, exercise, or even sitting on the porch and watching the sun rise with a hot cup of coffee. Whatever makes you happy and keeps you in the moment is what you should include.

Watch Your Language

The words you use have an effect on how positive you are, as well. For example, if a coworker asks how you are and you answer with “fine,” you’re limiting your potential experiences for the day, and they probably won’t be good experiences, either. However, if you use positive language such as “great” or “fantastic,” then not only are you helping yourself feel better and be more positive, but you’re likely to surprise the other person and help lift their spirits, as well.

Use Hypnosis to Help Overcome Subconscious Blocks

In addition to the tips above, another option is to use hypnosis to help overcome subconscious blocks. Whether you realize it or not, your subconscious is running the show, which often makes it difficult to overcome negativity that’s been with you a long while. Hypnosis allows you to relax and let your guard down so that you can reach your subconscious and help it overcome negative blocks through the power of suggestion.

There are many other tips to help you overcome a negative attitude and focus on living a joyful life by being positive. However, these tips are the foundation for leading a positive life. Just remember that you control your thoughts, which means you have a say in how things turn out for yourself. Apply these tips, focus on gratitude, and accept that you’re going to have bad days. Don’t be hard on yourself for those days. Figure out the lesson, and turn it into something positive. Once you do that, you’ll be well on your way to obtaining and keeping a positive attitude.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session, designed to help you have a positive attitude. It does not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced positive attitude hypnosis mp3 does).

 

Yoga and hypnosis have a lot in common. They are both tools to help you relax, connect with your inner self, and focus on the present moment. Yoga accomplishes this through guided movements that ultimately come to a close with a quiet meditation while lying flat on your back. This pose, called Savasana (shah-VAHS-anna), allows you the space to turn inward and replenish your energy. As a practice, yoga is one of the best ways to connect your body with your breath and focus on your energy.

Hypnosis accomplishes the same things without the need for physical movement. However, hypnosis goes one step further by using various deepening techniques to help you reach a state of complete relaxation. When that happens, your subconscious mind takes over and a hypnotherapist can use positive suggestion to help you restore your energy.

The benefits of yoga can take time and practice for many people. They have to acclimate to different types of movements, different room temperatures, and learning to truly let go in the presence of others. The last one can be particularly challenging. However, using hypnosis fast tracks your progress and allows you to reach that restorative state sooner. You’ll feel energized, have clarity of mind, and enjoy an improved sense of well-being.

Some hypnotherapists have taken to offering a blend of hypnosis and yoga to help promote this increase in yoga energy. Typically, they start you off with basic breath and meditation. Once you’ve mastered the ability to control your breathing and let go of distracting thoughts, then you move on to advanced breath and meditation.

At that point, your therapist may walk you through several yoga poses, instructing you to focus on your breath. While you move through your yoga poses, the therapist may walk you through a typical hypnosis session, tying everything back to the yoga poses and your breath. This creates an intense focus on your breathing and your body, and when you reach Savasana, you will be completely relaxed. The focus on the present moment calms your mind and replenishes your energy, and the combination of both yoga and hypnosis makes it easier to reach this state much faster than yoga on its own.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Our society talks a lot about the importance of relaxation, especially in the work environment, but is it all just new age mumbo jumbo that wastes company dollars? I don’t think so, and there are studies to prove it, too. Today I’d like to talk about your need to slow down and take a break, and how that impacts you as an employee, but also how it impacts employers.

The Physiological Design

The human body isn’t designed to expend energy continuously, and those who try to do so often find themselves burnt out and less productive than their well-rested counterparts. In fact, the human body is meant to pulse between expending energy and resting. That means that relaxing is not only important to our mental well-being, but also to our physical well-being.

There have been a number of studies done since the 1950’s regarding our sleep cycles, and it was first discovered that we slept in 90-minute cycles, moving from light sleep to deep sleep and then back out again in the 1950’s. A decade later, researchers discovered that this 90-minute cycle also existed during waking hours, as well. During the day, our bodies move from a state of alertness into a state of physiological fatigue every 90 minutes. Our bodies let us know when we need to take a break, but we override these signals with caffeine, sugar, and stress.

Professor K. Anders Ericsson and his associates at Florida State University conducted a study with elite performers in different fields. In each field, Ericsson found that individuals performed best in practice sessions that lasted no longer than 90 minutes. That means that we are more productive in 90-minute sprints with relaxation breaks in between, and those who consistently work through lunch, stay late, and check emails at home reach burn-out much quicker, and they’re more likely to leave employers than those who make relaxation a priority.

The Natural Rhythm

Studies show that when we follow the natural rhythm of our bodies, we get more done in less time. The studies suggest you should work in 90-minute sprints, and then take a break to restore your energy. But it’s not enough to lounge, or play on your phone. This doesn’t really allow you to disconnect and recharge your batteries. To truly relax, you must quiet your mind. Meditation and self-hypnosis are a great way to quiet the mind, but you can also take a nap during this time to help improve memory and performance. Quieting your mind to focus on the present moment is the best way to connect with your inner self and restore your energy.

Employers benefit from employees who make relaxation a priority, as well. First, the amount of energy an employee brings to work is significantly more beneficial than the number of hours they put in. When employees are energetic, more work gets done in less time, which increases productivity and decreases controllable costs such as labor. Additionally, morale goes through the roof when employees are happy. That means they’re less likely to leave, which saves the company money in the long run. It’s important for everyone to take breaks that focus on total relaxation because it reinvests your energy and focus. Whether you think it sounds new age or not, taking breaks becomes vital to your health and happiness, so make time to relax during your work day.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

I spend a lot of time talking about the many benefits of hypnosis, so it should come as no surprise that hypnosis can help improve your sports performance. It has long been known that sports are about 90% mental, yet most athletes spend 99% of their time working on the physical. Those athletes who focus on visualizing their success do better than those athletes who simply practice their skills.

By using hypnosis techniques, athletes can boost their performance and achieve their goals faster. Since hypnosis creates a trance state, which can be guided to focus on one specific goal. This extreme focus allows the conscious mind to take a back seat, and the subconscious mind can then absorb the information and suggestions to help improve your skill.

Once you reach a trance state, a hypnotherapist guides you through mental imagery. It’s much like meditation, except hypnosis incorporates suggestion so your subconscious not only believes what it’s seeing in your mind’s eye, but it also develops a positive learned response. Essentially, you become more successful in sports because your subconscious mind expects nothing less.

A hypnotherapist uses anchoring techniques to help create a neuroassociation between your athletic equipment and your focus and concentration. For example, if you play golf, the therapist might create a link in your mind that generates a feeling of intense focus and concentration anytime you pick up one of your clubs. You instantly feel yourself succeeding at every game. This process can work with any piece of equipment or sport whether it’s tennis, bowling, or even karate.

Hypnosis for sports enhancement often gives athletes a form of tunnel vision. In this state, athletes tune out everything that is not related to helping them succeed. This includes negative self-talk, the negative opinions of others, distractions, or anything else that takes them from their focus. Hypnosis helps you dig deeper into the game by helping you see it in your mind. Your brain can’t tell the difference between visualization and reality, so visualization gives you an advantage that far too many athletes take for granted. Hypnosis allows you to achieve visualization with sharp focus and concentration, and then translates it to success in your sport.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

I’ve spoken with several clients who have a fear of driving. This is a common type of agoraphobia, but it’s not just open spaces that bother people with this particular phobia. They fear losing control, and they typically think the worst. What if they get stuck in a traffic jam when a panic attack hits? What if they pass out, lose control of the vehicle, and cause an accident? What if they have the sudden urge to throw up? What if they need to sneeze? There are a lot of “what if’s” for a person with driving anxiety.

There are many aspects of driving that can lead one to experience anxiety. The most common include driving on a freeway, driving on a bridge, driving next to a semi-truck, merging onto the freeway, and driving in the “fast lane.” These scenarios bring on a host of anxiety symptoms such as heart palpitations, perspiring and sweaty palms, confusion, dizziness, and shortness of breath.

Anxiety quickly turns into a phobia when you avoid something, but on the plus side, this is a learned behavior. If you’ve learned something, then you can unlearn it. This is where hypnosis comes in. By using deep relaxation techniques, you can overcome your fear of driving on freeways, or any other anxiety you experience. Once you are deeply relaxed and your subconscious mind is accessible, suggestions for your benefit can be implanted to help avoid anxiety. When your mind believes that driving is a positive experience, the anxiety will go away.

Whether you’re nervous about getting your driver’s license or working on overcoming your fear of driving on bridges, you can use hypnosis to help. Managing stress is a key part of reducing your anxiety, and hypnosis is a form of relaxation. This allows the conscious mind to take a back seat, and gives you the room to reprogram your subconscious mind’s thoughts. It can give you the freedom to enjoy driving again.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

I believe hypnosis is one of the best tools for a writer to have in their writing toolkit. Many writers suffer from anxiety, procrastination, fear of failure, fear of success, and perfectionism, just to name a few. This anxiety and fear build up to create a phenomenon known as writer’s block, and it has crippled more than one great writer a time or two in the past.

If you’re a writer suffering from any of these ailments, then you can use hypnosis to overcome writer’s block and access unlimited creativity. There are five distinct ways that hypnosis helps writers get the words out of their head and on the page in front of them.

1. Lowering anxiety

Anxiety is the number one reason for writer’s block, so it stands to reason that getting rid of anxiety should also get rid of the writer’s block. Hypnosis is a deep state of relaxation where the mind is guided to a quiet place of focus. In the case of a writer, the therapist will have the writer focus on an aspect of their story. This may be a character or a plot detail, but it is typically something specific. This focus helps block everything else out.

2. Stops negative self-talk

Many a writer can tell you that they all have periods of self-loathing and negative rhetoric going on in their heads. This is because they all have some degree of perfectionism in them. Hypnosis helps replace those negative thoughts with positive ones through the use of positive suggestion.

3. Provides motivation to stop procrastination

Writers often procrastinate because of fear. Sometimes they fear failure, sometimes they fear success, and sometimes they fear putting themselves out there for the world to reject them. Most writers go through all three at various times in their career. Hypnosis helps you overcome those fears through creative visualization. Once the therapist walks you through the breathing and deepening exercises, he or she may ask you to focus on your success – whatever that looks like to you – as you relax more deeply.

4. Building self-confidence

Hypnosis uses visualization and positive suggestion as techniques to help you relax and unlearn negative behaviors while replacing them with positive ones. Hypnosis is a great tool for anyone who needs to develop confidence in their lives.

5. Unleashing the creative power of the subconscious

We all know the subconscious mind is infinitely more powerful than the conscious mind, and your creativity comes from the full power of the subconscious. The trick to becoming successful with your creative endeavors is to tap into your subconscious. Hypnosis helps writers unlock that power through positive suggestions and affirmations.

If you’re a writer struggling to tell your story, consider hypnosis. Your anxiety and fear will melt away, and you will begin to feel that focused feeling you get once you’re in a story and everything comes together perfectly. It’s not uncommon for writers to go into a trance when they write, and hypnosis can make that happen every time you sit down in front of your computer.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

The holidays are a tough time of year for many people. Although they’d like to be joyful and spend time with friends and family, they may be dealing with the loss of a loved one. Terminal illness leads to grief, and sometimes the holidays are just too hard for some people.

If this describes your emotions right now, then you can benefit from easing your sadness and finding peace in your life. The best way to do that is to focus on the moment, and learn to let go of the sadness. Many experts agree that meditation is the best way to quiet the mind and focus on the present, but I submit that hypnosis is also an effective tool for this practice.

Through the use of positive suggestion, hypnosis helps you relax completely. Your conscious mind takes a back seat, and the constant self-talk in your head is blissfully silent. In those quiet moments, your mind is settled and you are in the present. You begin to feel peace, and slowly, the pain and sadness leave you.

Through suggestion, your subconscious mind can help you let go of these emotional upsets that cause you pain, and there are two primary benefits for doing so.

Health

One of the most important parts of striving for peace is your physical health. When you hold on to unresolved emotional pain, you eventually get sick. Worry and stress coupled with depression and sadness take a toll on your body. There are some who believe that the root of all illness is in emotional pain left to fester in the body. Regardless of what you believe, it has been scientifically proven that hanging on to emotional baggage can make you sick.

Mental

Along with physical health is your mental health. Hanging on to past losses can damage your mental state and lead to depression. This disease, aside from killing you from the inside out, is damaging to your relationships, your job, and your personal well-being. When dealing with loss, accept that it happened and express yourself emotionally, but don’t hold onto it.

There are many other reasons it’s a good idea to seek out peace in your life, especially when you’ve recently lost someone. Hypnosis is a valuable resource because it helps you relax and focus just on the moment. When we’re in the present, we feel peace because we’re not looking to the past, nor are we looking to the future. The present moment is always one of the quietest, most peaceful moments.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for easing sadnesss. It not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced ease sadness hypnosis mp3 does).

 

 

Phobias are one of the most common reasons people seek out hypnotherapy, and it’s an effective tool to help overcome those fears. Many phobias are caused by events that happened in childhood, but were repressed for some reason. The only way to overcome the phobia is to bypass the conscious mind and delve into the subconscious to reprogram it.

Now, let’s look at how we might approach overcoming these phobias. Although phobias are not uncommon, and they are very real for the person experiencing them, they are nothing more than a learned behavior in response to a certain set of circumstances. Learned behaviors can always be “unlearned,” so to speak. This is where we will delve into the subconscious and change your thought patterns around the phobia.

The first step is to find the experience that triggers the phobia. To do this, you must be in a completely relaxed state, which we call the hypnotic trance. Your therapist should use deepening techniques to make sure you’re in a full hypnotic trance, and once you’re there, they will guide you back to the place and time where the phobia was first experienced. This is called hypnotic regression. Once you’re there, the therapist can help you visualize facing the fear head on and conquering it. After facing the fear without anxiety, the hypnotherapist can help you create new thought patterns around the fear.

It may take a couple of sessions to break through the conscious mind and find the buried memory in the subconscious, but once you reach it, visualizing yourself facing that fear helps you overcome it. This can be used for any type of phobia you have.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

When it comes to giving birth, most women are both excited by the prospect of being a mother and terrified by the expected pain. But, what if I told you that you can walk into it expecting a safe, gentle, and even a comfortable labor? That might seem farfetched to some, but I promise you, it isn’t. Through prenatal hypnosis, mothers-to-be find a deep sense of relaxation, and they prepare both their body and their mind for the upcoming journey.

Prenatal hypnosis works much the same as other hypnotic programs, but its focus is quite different. When an expecting mother steps into a hypnotherapist’s office, the first step is to make her feel comfortable and to develop rapport with her. Because hypnosis is a deep state of mental and physical relaxation, it has often been used to help couples with fertility issues, as well. Sometimes taking a calm, relaxed approach is all that’s needed.

Once the expecting mother, or couple, is comfortable, the therapist begins the process of hypnotizing them. It’s important to note that this is a process for relaxation, and in no way would this harm the baby. In fact, this often nurtures and empowers an unborn child because when the mother is relaxed, so is the baby. As an expecting mother completes each session, she begins to feel easier about the childbirth experience.

In addition to the relaxation exercises, a hypnotherapist also helps expecting mothers change their vocabulary to describe labor. For example, instead of using the term contraction, a woman might refer to it as a surge, and dilation might be referred to as a blossoming. This helps keep an expecting mother’s mind on the positive, relaxing message implanted in her subconscious during hypnosis.

If you’re an expecting mother who is nervous about childbirth, I recommend you consider prenatal hypnosis. The deep relaxation will benefit you regardless, but learning to expect a safe, gentle birth is something most women would certainly appreciate.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Keeping organized can seem like a chore if you have let things pile up. The key to finally get organized is to spend a little time every single day creating order in your life. It is important to put things away right after you used them. You should designate a spot where everything should go, so that when you need access to it next, you know exactly where to find it. Getting organized can save you a lot of time in the long run, because you’re not left hunting for where you put an item. Another step that can help you get organized is by creating a ‘to-do’ list. Perhaps even create two ‘to-do’ lists where one lists items you want to accomplish today and the other list is more long-term. It can include organization projects that might take you more time, like organizing a closet or donating clothes.

If you are not familiar with feng shui, I highly encourage you to learn more about it. It is a Chinese system or organization that connects man and nature. You can organize your home based on feng shui. There are 8 parts of the bagua (energy map): fame, love and marriage, creativity, helpful people, career, spiritual growth, health and money. Feng shui is deep and complex, but highly rewarding!

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Dealing with chronic pain can be difficult for many people, and sometimes traditional methods are costly. There are less traditional methods of pain management, including hypnosis. Studies show that hypnotic suggestions not only help patients manage their pain, but it also reduced the need for analgesics or sedation, nausea or vomiting, and length of stay in hospitals.

Different Types of Pain

Hypnosis can help with different types of pain, including migraines, cancer pain, and low back or joint pain. Many cancer centers use hypnosis to help patients who’ve undergone radiation as a means to help them manage their pain. Some surgeons even rely on hypnosis to help patients prepare for surgery, which reduces the need for anesthetic.

Why it Works

It’s important to understand that pain isn’t only physical. Signals are sent from the nerves through the nervous system, up the spine, and then to the brain where they are interpreted as painful stimuli. Research shows that a person can experience more intense pain due to psychological factors such as stress, anxiety, and depression. A calm, positive, and focused mind can help close the pain gate so that signals are not registered by the brain, which reduces the intensity of pain felt by the patient.

The Effectiveness of Hypnosis

Hypnosis is not a treatment in and of itself, but rather, a facilitator of other treatments. However, people respond to hypnosis with varying degrees. It depends on one’s openness to hypnotic suggestions, but for those who are open to it, factors such as motivation and compliance with treatment may also impact the effectiveness of hypnotic suggestion. Studies show that even self-hypnosis can have an impact on the pain patients feel. With that in mind, pain is an indicator that something might be wrong, so it’s best to seek treatment from your doctor first, and then inquire about the possibility of hypnosis.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

You can achieve inner peace in several ways. The most talked about method is through meditation, which seeks to quiet the mind and relieve stress. You can also use hypnosis to promote peace in your life. Hypnosis uses suggestion to help the mind relax and connect with the present moment. In that stillness, you begin to feel peace. There are many benefits to seeking out peace in your life, but there are four specific benefits that are most important to us as individuals.

Physical Health

By reducing stress and anxiety and focusing on peace, you decrease your risk of getting sick. You become more aware of what your body needs to feel better.  For instance, you will know when you need to drink more water, eat healthier, or exercise more.

Focus and Discipline

Reaching that point of silence in your mind where you can find peace is not easy, no matter what method you choose to get there. The process of practicing peace can help you develop focus and discipline, which are skills that can help you in all areas of your life. As you keep practicing, little by little, it gets easier to stay focused on the silence, and you are less distracted by the outside world.

Mindfulness

This benefit is more important than most people give it credit for because it helps us loosen our fixation on the external world. By developing a stronger sense of mindfulness, you begin to see how thoughts, emotions, and desires naturally rise and fall away. You become less reactive to emotions, and better able to stay grounded in tense situations.

Deeper Sense of Life Purpose

As you develop this peaceful place within yourself, it becomes a restful place that is calm and centered. The more you return to it, the stronger your connection with your inner self and your gifts that are unique to the world. You will find your inner self reflected in the outer world, and your life’s purpose becomes more clear, and easier to achieve.

As you can see, relaxation and stress relief are an important part of your life. By finding inner peace, you can develop the tools necessary to be successful in all areas of your life.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

The great thing about hypnosis is that it can help you overcome any mental blocks you may have. If you want to improve your appearance, but you’re struggling with low self-esteem and confidence, then hypnosis may be just what you need.

The mind is a powerful tool, and when you use it for your highest benefit, it’s amazing what you can accomplish. Research shows that hypnosis can assist with hair regrowth, developing beautiful skin, improving exercise, overcoming low self-esteem, and building unlimited confidence.

Hair Regrowth and Beautiful Skin

When you realize that you are in control of your own hair regrowth and clear, beautiful skin, then you will realize how easy it is to improve your appearance. The process works much like other hypnotherapy sessions. You are guided to a state of deep relaxation, and the positive suggestion that you are in control of your appearance implants into your subconscious mind. From there it manifests into your reality.

Improving Exercise

In this sense, hypnosis can improve your performance or it can help you develop a positive relationship with exercise. When you view exercise as a chore, it becomes difficult to enjoy the process. Hypnosis helps you enjoy exercise so you get more out of it.

Overcoming Low Self-Esteem and Building Unlimited Confidence

Low self-esteem and lack of confidence slow us down the most when it comes to making positive changes. We sometimes attach our feelings of self-worth to external people and events, and it needs to come from within ourselves. Hypnosis can help you realize your own self-worth, something you know deep within yourself, and it can help you build the confidence you need to make changes.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Everyone has their days where they feel sad or defeated, but most people pick themselves up and keep moving forward. Sometimes it’s not that easy for other people. If you have experienced depression, post traumatic stress disorder, and other symptoms that affect your mental health, hypnosis may be an option for you.

Depression

If you want to end sadness related to your depression, hypnosis can help you do that. A trained hypnotist will guide you to a state of deep relaxation, and then provide you with positive suggestions of happiness and confidence. Depending on the severity of your feelings, you may need more than one session, but, in that case, you should notice a difference after the first couple of sessions.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

To overcome post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you first have to admit that you need help. Sometimes, those suffering from PTSD don’t want to admit that they feel bad, and it isn’t until it becomes unbearable that they do something about it. If you witnessed a tragedy, went through an emotional upheaval, or experienced a horrific accident, you might have PTSD. If feelings of sadness, helplessness, and uselessness plague your waking hours, you might have PTSD. Hypnosis can help by rewiring your subconscious to think of the positive aspects of your life.

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks occur when stress begins to overwhelm the body. Those who have experienced one say it’s like having a heart attack, which is scary. To find freedom from panic attacks, use hypnosis. The practice helps lower your stress levels, and opens your mind to the possibilities of good in your life.

Keep in mind that if you experience severe mental health issues, such as dissociative disorders, you should speak with your doctor about a recommended level of care. This may include certain forms of hypnosis, but in that case, an experienced, licensed hypnotist should perform the session. However, hypnotherapy is perfect for dealing with depression, PTSD, and panic attacks.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S.  Here is a free hypnosis session for PTSD. It not contain music or binaural tones. (my enhanced PTSD hypnosis mp3 does)

The salubrious benefits of spending time in nature are well documented. In children, playing outside can help with attention deficit disorder, asthma, and obesity. For adults, connecting with nature helps lower stress, increase happiness, promote community involvement and close relationships, and even promotes generosity with money. If you have lost touch with nature and its many benefits, take time out for yourself to reconnect with nature.

Discover the Peaceful Outdoors

Spending time in nature is therapeutic and good for your soul. Go outside and connect with the earth. Find a soft, green spot of grass and take your shoes off. Go to the beach and stand in the water. Take a walk through the forest. Sit next to a babbling brook and meditate. There are many ways you can discover the outdoors, and reconnect with nature.

Discover the Power of Water

Water has the ability to heal. Imagine lying on a beach surrounded by calm waters, dancing through puddles, soaking in a nice, hot bath, or even having a picnic next to a waterfall. Some of the scenarios may feel relaxing, and some may feel fun. The therapy of water evokes new thoughts, stirs your imagination and creativity, and it brings you peace and harmony. To receive these benefits, drink some water, dip your toes, or immerse your entire body in water.

Living on a Peaceful Green Planet

As you spend time connecting with nature, you will automatically become more aware of your surroundings, and how to become one with your planet. To live on a peaceful green planet, we must all pitch in and take care of what we have. This means learning to recycle, consuming less resources, and keeping our parks and other parts of nature clean.

Connecting with nature is important on many levels, especially when it comes to healing and growing your spiritual self. Connecting with the earth brings feelings of peace and joy, and it can soothe anxiety and emotional turmoil. Water has special healing properties, and the natural ebb and flow of water can pull out negative thoughts and emotions, which frees you to accept love, abundance, and happiness it its place.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Hypnosis works because it clears your mind of the daily “clutter” and allows your subconscious mind to store new habits and behaviors. It even helps with your health because of your mind-body connection. Although serious medical conditions still require medical treatment, research shows that the use of hypnotherapy in conjunction with medical treatment decreases the recovery time patients go through, and helps prevent new applications of the same issue.

Common Forms of Health-Related Hypnotherapy
There are several ways that hypnotherapy can improve your health, with everything from pain management to allergy relief. You can also improve joint health and give your immune system a boost. Some of these issues relate to other factors, which is why hypnotherapy works so well. For instance, joint issues are most often the result of being overweight. Hypnotherapy helps patients change their thought patterns and negative behaviors surrounding food, which helps them lose weight, which then helps their joints. This is just one example, but the point is that many health-related issues have triggers that hypnotherapy can target and help with.

Health and Relaxation
Most Americans don’t get enough sleep, they don’t meditate, and they’re constantly on the go. This fast-paced programming takes its toll on the body, and when you don’t rest, it can affect your health. If you want radiant health, you need to get 7-9 hours of sleep, meditate for at least 30 minutes a day, and slow down. Hypnosis can help you reach a state of deep relaxation, which allows your body to rejuvenate and repair.

When it comes to improving your health, hypnosis can be a rewarding and helpful tool. It helps you relax so you can heal, and it helps your subconscious store new thought patterns and behaviors. Some of your health issues can change with one hypnotherapy session, and some may take several sessions. Either way, the benefits of improving your health are worth the time it takes to heal.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

P.S. Here is a free hypnosis session for radiant health. It not contain music or binaural tones (my enhanced radiant health hypnosis mp3 does).

Serious athletes often look for anything that gives them an edge over the competition, and hypnosis and visualization have been that edge for many athletes. Although some people think hypnosis is new age and mystical, the truth is, it is natural. It’s also something you may do everyday and not even realize it. Have you ever daydreamed? Zoned out? Meditated? These are all forms of hypnosis.

The Competitive Edge
So, how does hypnosis help give athletes that competitive edge? The same way it helps with just about everything you might wish to change. Hypnosis gives your subconscious mind new information that it can easily accept and save as part of a new thought pattern. Athletes can increase speed and agility simply by believing they are faster and more agile. The body responds to the signals sent by the brain, which means most of our physical limitations outside of medical issues are merely related to how we see ourselves. Even some medical issues can improve with hypnosis, so it is an all-around beneficial tool.

Sports You Can Improve
You can improve any sport through hypnosis. If you want to increase your rate for winning at bowling or winning at golf, hypnosis can get your subconscious on the same page as your conscious mind. You can improve your bowling techniques or your swinging arm to help improve your game. If you’re a martial artist and want to improve your karate or kung fu, then hypnosis can help your mind realize that it can move with grace and power. Do you plan on running a marathon at some point in the future? Hypnosis can help you develop the discipline you need to make it happen.

If you’re an athlete looking for something to help you improve in your sport beyond the physical practice you already put in, try hypnosis. It’s about giving your body rest while your brain builds a new pathway for positive and encouraging thoughts that take your game to a whole new level.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

I spend a lot of time talking about the benefits of hypnosis, and controlling pain is another of those benefits. If you’re unfamiliar with the practice of hypnosis, it is a state of deep relaxation that enhances concentration and heightens one’s responsiveness to suggestion. A properly phrased positive suggestion can help relieve pain, and is sometimes referred to as hypno-analgesia. It is important to understand that you are not asleep during hypno-analgesia. You are conscious of the therapy, and you can come out of it at any time.

Psychologists have found that hypno-analgesia significantly helps with pain reduction, need for sedation, nausea and vomiting, and length of stay in hospitals. Patients who are highly receptive to hypnotic suggestion found the greatest lasting relief, but even those with moderate suggestibility found relief from their symptoms. The study further found that hypnosis for pain management worked better than other recognized treatments for pain.

Hypnosis works for patients suffering from migraines, those dealing with cancer pain, and it has even been shown effective at treating labor pains. Using functional magnetic imaging (fMRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning techniques, researchers discovered that hypnosis modulates activity in the anterior cingulate cortex of the brain. This links the limbic (the area responsible for emotions) and the sensory cortical parts of the brain, causing hypnotized patients to disengage from the negative emotions that intensify their pain.

Undergoing hypnosis to help manage pain has also been shown to save both patients and hospitals money in surgical procedures. Once the underlying pain is managed, some of the time, surgery isn’t necessary. If you’ve been experiencing intense pain from migraines, cancer, or other issues, check with your doctor about hypno-analgesia options. You may be able to save yourself time, money, and pain with hypnotherapy.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve

Some people believe the nonphysical world is a realm of pure energy that transcends time, space, and matter. Others believe it is a world of pure spirit, and that its residents can impact the lives of those in the physical world, even though we can’t detect them with our five physical senses. The best way to determine which of these options rings true for you is to explore the nonphysical worlds and gain a better understanding of them.

Astral Projection
Astral projection is an out-of-body experience where an individual’s spirit or astral body leaves their physical body and goes to the astral plane. The astral plane is a dimension of the nonphysical world, and quite often, the rules of the physical world do not apply. Those who astral project report feeling connected to something greater than themselves. This gave them an opportunity to explore their own spiritual identity.

Lucid Dreaming
During a lucid dream, you’re aware of the fact that you’re dreaming. Many people find it useful for adventure and fantasy fulfillment or rehearsal for events in the physical world, but it can also help you achieve transcendence. Lucid dreaming demonstrates that the physical world is really just a construct of our minds, and those who practice it begin to question reality. Once people reach a state of transcendence, they generally report feeling the highest peace they’ve ever felt, as well as a renewed sense of their role in life.

Past Life Regression
There are many uses of hypnotherapy, and past life regression is one of them. It uses hypnosis to explore an individual’s past lives. The benefits of this practice include learning more about your specific habits and quirks, healing physical and mental ailments linked to past lives, and revealing the roots of phobias and emotional blocks.

Exploring the different nonphysical worlds gives you a chance to heal and grow your spiritual awareness. You can improve your life, expand your consciousness, and find a new sense of purpose for your role in life. There are many methods that you can use to explore nonphysical worlds, but some of the most common are astral projection, lucid dreaming, and past life regression.

Sincerely,
Dr. Steve