How to Use Self Hypnosis Part II On the Move

Make going places fun using self-hypnosis!

If you are on the move hypnosis is a really great way to optimise and amplify your experience, especially if you are about to do something important. The fact is a lot of the time before a big occasion, people automatically use hypnosis in a negative way. This includes negative visualisation and self talk, amplified sensory perceptions (before going on stage or doing a talk many may remember “jumping” when someone talked to them or disturbed them) going into a negative trance (maybe some people call this freezing) and other non constructive, purely mental reactions.

Imagine this situation, an event is coming up. It could be a performance, a sports event or an exam. Everything you recognise on the way becomes a negative indicator this experience is going to happen soon! Maybe you’re walking from a bathroom into a sports hall and each door you pass, you get more nervous as you get closer. This kind of thing is very understandable, but is purely psychological. In hypnosis, something that increases an experience is called a deepener. In this case, the indicators you are getting closer are deepening your anxiety. What if you could have the opposite effect?

The good news is this is more than possible. You simply need a change of perspective, and you have this ability already.

The only difference in using hypnosis to these natural processes is that they aren’t guided. If you design your own bedroom, why not design your own mind? Most people spend more time working on their Facebook page than they do on their brain. I know which one I think is more important!

So here are some really simple tips on how to use hypnosis whilst on the go.

An Array of Anchors

Pressure and stress makes people forget. So the first thing you need is an anchor that reduces your stress, this will help you remember things in a really delightful way. What you need to do is build a frame of reference that you can mentally go back to each time you are feeling stressed or pressured! You may actually have to build this frame of reference from your environment! For me, making a private space as nice as possible, lighting candles and being surrounded by a multi sensory experience was my solution. It is important this is a space you can use without worry it can be made negative by other experiences for at least a portion of time. It is also important it is not a space that has negative memories that distort the positive feel you are after.

Find some smells, tastes, sounds, objects and visual triggers that make you feel good. For example, I carry a pebble around with me, and every time I have a nice experience I’ll take the pebble out and just hold it. This has an effect where when I simply holding it, I feel quite good! It’s very much Pavlovian conditioning. Lavender and rosemary essential oils are another great way to help you relax and remember. In a relaxed state, before an upcoming event, expose yourself to these smells and enjoy them. Before the event is about to start, put them on your cuff or on your clavicle so the smell is there to calm you.

Before you are about to take part in the event, taste something you like (in moderation, especially if you’re about to do a sport) and then listen to some music that makes you feel happy. All of these things are anchors that tie you to a place in time. You need to make these things real enough in your memory to recall at will.

These anchors later will help drown out the previous negative triggers!

Harnessing Physical Processes

Harnessing things you will do day to day can really help you build a sense of confidence. Think of things you always do. For me I usually harness the following things. Walking, shaking hands, looking at people in the eye, smiling and breathing.

When you are walking, all you have to do is say to yourself “With every step I feel better and better, and I don’t even know why…” I am not saying these are magic words or will make your event go better. However, they do replace negative self talk such as “For fucks sake I am going to fail this exam! I hate it I hate it, I need this to be over! If I don’t pass I won’t get a job and I won’t have any money, and I’ll be homeless and begging on the streets!” Believe it or not, some people are saying this type of thing to themselves in the run up to some really important events! I think we can agree it doesn’t help. It’s not even true, but they make it so real, it becomes so.

When you shake someone’s hands (such as in an interview or presentation) tell yourself “I’m making a connection with a new person, and even if this doesn’t work out right now, who knows what opportunities could come in the future from this meeting.”

When you look at someone in the eyes, imagine a golden bridge between your heart and theirs. Allow this to be filled with good and warm emotions, and imagine them feeling great because they met you. I don’t believe this golden bridge is magical, though it is just as real as the negative self talk that makes people give up. 

Visualising this does make you come across as nicer and warmer for thinking it! Experiment with this with a friend and see if they can guess when you are feeling kinder towards them.

When you are walking on the way to your event, imagine you are “fishing” for smiles. Try and make a game of smiling at as many people as possible. You’re rehearsing and reliving all the times you smiled before! This will help you feel good and relaxed before the big moment.

As you breathe, say to yourself “I am breathing in happiness and breathing out worry.” It’s easy to look at something like this and say “That won’t work.” Try it first, it is a very different thing when you experience something to reading about it. It has a physiological effect, and for me it has even resulted in my bones popping from the relaxation. I didn’t even know I had been stressed!

The Big Drop

In hypnosis, often rapid trance inductions or deepeners take the form of lifting a hand of the subject up, and dropping it to show the subject is completely relaxed and offers no resistance.

You can do this yourself, in a parked car, in a private space or wherever suits you, raise your hand up high, and tell yourself “all my stress is going into my fist” and clench your fist. Then say “When I drop my hand, all my worries will disappear into the air.” Completely let go and allow your hand to flop relaxed and heavy. It’s often good if it lands on your thigh so you really appreciate how relaxed you are. The contact from your hand hitting your thigh is also another deepener showing you, not telling you, that you can be relaxed.

Travelling to the site of the event

Sharing Our Problems

Often we get into a position of learned helplessness when we come up to a big event. We get to the point where we feel strained and remember all the things we can’t do, but not the things no one said we couldn’t do! No one said we had to be miserable before an exam, but it seems to be the default state. Some queues to an exam look like a death row or a Roman slave auction. Why not have a laugh or feel a sense of mischief?

When walking or making your way to an event, if you hear a plane flying over, a car driving or a person walking past, imagine throwing your worries into the plane, the boot of the car or the back pocket of the person walking past you. When we walk around with our problems and stresses, it’s like having our hands full! Feel the sense of relaxation as for the first time in a while you walk around “empty handed” and unbridled.

Changing Perspective

When playing computer games you can often choose the vantage point you use to observe your character. Why not do this for yourself? Imagine seeing yourself from different angles. Perhaps from the car that passed, the plane that flew over or the person who walked past. Looking at yourself from these perspectives often detaches you from your negative emotions. Detached states aren’t always positive, but they do have their uses. Harness them for constructive purposes.

After you have done this, intensify your positive emotions. You want to really amplify everything that makes you feel good! Hearing, seeing and feeling. Allow yourself to see things as if for the first time, to get that curiosity of a child and feel liberated. There is nothing wrong with allowing yourself to enjoy the process up to an important event, and no one is about to give you the permission to. So do it for yourself!

Evan Burgess is a qualified hypnotherapist. Contact him to book an appointment to help you find your own solutions for issues affecting your life. Whether it be improving upon what is already working, coping with a tough situation, or making constructive changes to your habits. If Evan can’t help your particular issue, he will know another therapist who can! Get in touch on Evan@Cirencester-Scene.co.uk, or ring 07901 634 748.

For a list of things that hypnosis can help with, check out this link!