Article 3 - Dialing down the volume with hypnosis and meditation
Welcome to article three in my new series - Taming the Beast.
In the first two articles, we examined the drivers of stress, what makes the problem worse in your life. Then we examined different ways to reduce stress factors in your life. In this article, we examine ways in which we can use hypnosis and guided meditation to directly reduce your levels of stress. We will further examine ways we can replace that stress with relaxation.
Dialing down the alarm
So, one of the simplest ways to relieve stress is to
dial down the volume of the alarm bells. By reducing the volume, it allows your
mind to cope a little better. It gives you time to think, to work out the
solution without the accompanying fear.
Here is a little trick I have found useful to bring
down the alarm bells in the mind. At a time in which you feel stress, I invite
you to do the following:
- While in the stressful situation, picture some kind of a volume knob or dimmer switch.
- Turn the knob ever so slightly and picture your stress level changing. First turn it up, just a little bit. Then turn it down slightly. Each time, picture your stress level changing in response.
- Now dial down the volume a little more and imagine your stress level decreasing even more. Continue this as far as you wish and let the feelings decrease to a more comfortable level.
- Each time you use this little trick, as the feelings decrease, touch a finger to your thumb. This can serve as a reminder to your subconscious that it can reduce the volume of the alarms.
As you repeat this technique multiple times, your
subconscious mind may learn to associate stress relief with that
finger-to-the-thumb reminder, turning the stress response to a relaxation
response.
As with any learned technique, practice makes
perfect. The more you use it, the more effective it becomes until, at some
point, it might even become automatic, with cues in the world triggering you to
touch your finger to your thumb and dial down the volume on your own.
Turning Stress into Confidence
Another way to relieve
stress is to remember on cue, a moment of strength innate within you, and then to
replace stress with calm and confidence. Regardless of your present life
circumstances, you most likely had some moment in which you succeeded, achieved
a goal, felt confident and secure. Even if at the moment, those times might seem
few and far between, deep within your mind, you have the ability to recall
those positive feelings.
So here is another little trick I’ve learned over my
years as a hypnotist:
- Pretend that you are back at a positive moment.
- Take a moment to remember what it was like. Recall the emotions. How did it feel? What it was like to experience that successful time and place?
- Just like in the previous exercise, you can once again touch your finger to your thumb. This will associate your memory of that moment with the finger touch – again using our good friend, the anchor.
- Rub the finger against your thumb slightly and let the intensity of the feeling in your finger tip increase. Allow the feeling of calm and confidence to deepen similarly.
- Repeat this little trick as often as needed, training your subconscious mind to associate the two, the touch stimulus and the positive emotion.
- Now let’s imagine that we’re back in a stressful situation and put our subconscious anchors to use.
- Picture a moment of stress, perhaps when you had that all-important speech, or perhaps a confrontation with your boss. Or maybe a project deadline was approaching. Whatever the case may be, as you recall the moment you begin to feel the pressure. Stress builds up and you again feel that familiar sensation of concern rising within you.
- At the point in which you begin to feel the mounting stress, again touch your finger to your thumb, suddenly recalling the positive emotions you previously captured.
- Picture the less-confident emotions instantly turning into the positive ones. As if by magic, you can begin to recall the calm, secure, confident feelings you had at your moment(s) of success.
- Again rub the fingertip against your thumb and feel the sense of calm and confidence deepen.
Taming the beast
The techniques described
above are just two of many ways to bring relief from stress. There are many other
techniques within meditation and hypnotherapy by which we can tame the beast.
One such additional way is to find the programming,
the associations of the events in your life and the corresponding stress
responses you experience. The first step is to ask yourself, does this reaction
feel familiar? Have you felt this way before, perhaps sometime earlier in life?
Just as when, during a daydream, you might have lost
yourself within your memory. Using hypnosis we can recreate that daydream state
and return to the memory of an earlier time in which this association began. We
can then use the healing technique above, re-invoking the positive emotion anchor
we used earlier, to disconnect the negative associations. In effect, we can
turn off the programming.
By finding the right event in your memory, it may be
possible to greatly reduce the stress reaction you initially felt, perhaps even
stop it entirely. And when this happens, it is as if someone lifted a heavy
weight from your shoulders. Fear turns to freedom. Darkness turns to light.
Often, during my hypnotherapy sessions with clients,
when this deep subconscious healing happens, I see the client’s shoulders
square up. I see the person sit higher in the chair, taking a deep relaxed
breath – maybe for the first time in years. It is a joy to behold, and an even
greater joy to experience for yourself.When the client emerges from hypnosis, he/she feels
far happier, far more confident. At least for the moment, they have tamed the wild
stress beast within, set aside the burden and become free.
Summary and beyond
Summary and beyond
In this brief series,
we have looked the stress monster in the eye. We have discussed ways to help tame
the beast and hopefully, to bring peace and calm to your life. In the
references at the end are some materials I have found useful in managing
stress, both for myself and in helping others.
I invite you to try out
one or more of the techniques we examined in this booklet. Use them repeatedly
and allow yourself to notice the changes. Like any skill, your results will
improve with use, so you can feel better regardless of the level of success the
first time you use it. Practice makes perfect.
In addition, I have found hypnosis and hypnotherapy
to be a powerful tool for relief and healing. I invite you to look through the information
available with these references. If you wish, please feel free to contact
myself, another hypnotist/hypnotherapist or any physical/mental health professional.
Please also feel free to check out my own website, Explore
with Hypnosis,[iv] or
view my self-hypnosis CDs and downloads on-line at The
Hypnosis Store.[v]
Let me know how any of these work for you.
You can also contact me or call me at the address below:
You can also contact me or call me at the address below:
Craig R. Lang,
Certified Hypnotherapist
Minneapolis, MN
763-257-7334
I wish you the best of luck, smooth sailing and a safe journey down the path of life.
Credits and References
[i] Mayo Clinic
website on stress management: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-management/MY00435
[ii]
Stress Management Test: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/stress-assessment/SR00029
[iii] Resources for
stress management:
· The Secret Language of Feelings A Rational Approach to Emotional Mastery by Calvin D. Banyan (Dec 6, 2002)
· The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook (New Harbinger Self-Help Workbook) by Martha Davis, Elizabeth Robbins Eshelman and Matthew McKay (May 3, 2008)
· Stress Management for Dummies by Allen Elkin (Sep 29, 1999)
[iv] For information
on hypnosis in general, including articles on hypnotherapy and stress
management, I invite you to visit my website at www.explore-with-hypnosis.com.
[v]
I also invite you to visit The Hypnosis Store
at www.hypnosis-storefront.com for the latest
in self-hypnosis CDs and MP3 downloads to help you boost self-confidence,
reduce stress and improve your quality of life.