Hypnotherapy – Science or Woo Woo?
Many people have a false idea about what hypnotherapy is. Despite the fact that many people see it as “magical,” hypnotherapy is actually more of a science, and less woo woo than you might think. The goal of hypnotherapy is to assist the client in getting into an alternate brainwave state. In this state they can access memories and subconscious programs that could be affecting their life in a negative way.
So the question is, if we have the programs that can affect our life in a negative way, and repeat undesirable patterns of behavior, then why can’t we also make the opposite true? Why can’t our programs enable us to have outstanding results in our lives, through which we can achieve our most elaborate dreams? The answer is….they CAN!
The Science of Hypnotherapy
An estimated 95% of our everyday actions, reactions and patterns are rule by programs in the subconscious. When we read a book we are fully conscious, using the other 5%. The book is not going to change our lives if the information cannot pass the barrier into the programming section of our mind. When we learn how to access those programs and beliefs, identify them, and change them – only then can we understand how very powerful we are!
Hypnotherapy helps to identify those beliefs that are hindering our success and happiness. Those beliefs were developed early in life, when our subconscious was forming the basis for our instinctual behavior. One good example to demonstrate is the child who touches a hot stove. It only takes once, then the child is fully aware of what a stove looks like and not to touch it. No longer does the child have to think about that in life. This learned reaction, and many others, are stored to make up the 95% of us we call our subconscious.
The Subconscious Computer
Our subconscious can handle much more information than our conscious mind can. This means that even though events around us are absorbed and observed, our subconscious must filter what goes into our thinking mind because it can’t handle as much information. This is the basis for intuition. Our subconscious mind has observed something that it wants us to know, but it has not entered the thinking mind. We might have a “gut feeling” or “just know” something that we are not sure how we know.
Given the appropriate altered state of mind, we can access the subconscious mind and reprogram it, a little like a computer. We can access the flawed program, or false belief, and rewire our brain to believe something more beneficial. This can be done through hypnosis, self hypnosis, meditation, extreme repetition, or through a number of other techniques such as NLP. These techniques are actually based in scientific study, and have been proven over the years to help people change their lives.
Here’s a little something for you to try on your own:
Try This Exercise:
Next time you are feeling a negative emotion, sit with that emotion. Close your eyes and take some deep breaths. Encourage and thank that emotion for showing up, for it is a key to unlock a door that can change your life. While sitting with that emotion you might feel a bit uncomfortable, and that is normal. Now, imagine that emotion as a cord. On one side of the cord is the root, the negative feeling you are experiencing. Follow that cord down and around in your imagination, feeling the emotion, a feeling you have felt before, a feeling that reminds of you something. Follow that cord until you get to the memory, until you see that memory before you in your mind’s eye, and ask yourself the truth about that memory. Is it valid in the world you live in today? What did that memory make you believe about yourself? Is that the truth?
Now look to your higher truth and tell yourself the higher truth about who you really are. Ask yourself if you have suffered enough with this belief, and whether you are ready to let it go. Replace the false belief about yourself with the truth about yourself – and know that you have accomplished something positive and lasting. For as you learn the truth about who you are, your body begins to recognize a new you, your cells react accordingly, and you have begun the process of healing and becoming whole. Congratulate yourself and celebrate by envisioning the future that is possible with this new truth!
Have a fantastic day!
By Tammie Mohn, MBA
Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist
