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I have just been putting some final touches to a new audio set we are going to release soon.

• advancing mood,
  
• developing a natural 'high',
  
• and feeling really good.

Nothing else. 

I draw upon a lot of great material that is usually used in helping mood elevation with depressed clients for example, though many of the strategies are used for other issues in my therapy rooms too. 

While researching for one of the processes, I was reading a great book by Assen Alladin entitled 'Cognitive Hypnotherapy,' and in it, he referred to using hypnosis to expand our awareness of and enhance affective experience.

What does that mean?

Well, it is really a way of us being aware of:

• how we actually feel,
  
• knowing more about how we feel,
  
• realising how our feelings influence our thoughts,
  
• being able to articulate how we feel,
  
• and being able to subsequently take more control over those feelings
  (in order to take control we require more awareness of it).

"Hypnosis has been used to induce specific emotions in normal subjects (Hodge & Wagner, 1964). In the clinical situation the hypnotherapist's task is not to suggest specific emotions to the patient but rather to bring the patients current emotional experience into full awareness."  

Brown & Fromm, cited in Hammond (1990). 

Continued...

The authors go on to suggest that many people are not actually aware of the full affect of the emotions they are experiencing and perhaps only really notice it in the heat of moments. They therefore recommend a particular technique for using hypnosis to enhance awareness of the affect of such emotions in certain situations in life, and once the affect is brought into awareness, show the client how they can recognise those affects in the future and ideally learn to cope with them effectively and eventually master them (the full affects of emotions) 

In the therapy rooms of therapists who use this sort of process, it is likely to be used for dealing with negative feelings. Prior to dealing with unwanted feelings, emotions and their affects, learning to heighten awareness of them and understand them can be a precursor to other therapeutic interventions.  I recommend that this application is done with a qualified professional therapist. 

However, it is also very useful when used to simply advance and enhance good feelings too - showing you how in control we all are of the affects of our emotions. 

So today, I offer you a self-hypnosis process for enhancing your affective experience, simply follow these steps: 

Now notice what you feel when you imagine being in this place. The more time you spend vividly imagining being in this place, the more you become aware of the main emotions you experience in this situation. 

Bring the feeling to the forefront of your awareness. Let the feeling become clearer and clearer. Don't reach for it, just be gently assured that you'll notice the main feeling to come to the fore in this enjoyable experience.  Take all the time necessary for you to spot and recognise the main feeling. 

When you are aware of it, move on to the next step. 

Now describe the feeling to yourself. Be as precise and exact as you possibly can. Act as a commentator describing that main feeling. Tell yourself what the feeling actually is and then move on to tell yourself (out loud or silently in your own head) how you experience this feeling - where is it in your body? What muscles do you hold when you have this feeling? What expression do you have on your face? What thoughts do you think when you feel this way? What images go through your mind? Do any other memories pop up? 

Really develop your understanding and awareness of the feeling. Then move on to the next step.

Joke Of The Week

Following on from last week's puns, I was sent on these couple of therapy related beauties:

I've just seen a client with an obsession with Samsonite luggage. I thought, wow this is going to be a tough case. 

I've got another client with an addiction to Windolene, but I can see clearly how to deal with that.

Hahaha, I love those. Thank you to Peter Hall for sending those in, very much appreciated.  Thank you to everybody who continues to contribute to the jokes in the Hub and those who email me jokes every week. I love getting them.

If you want to train to be a hypnotherapist, there has never been a better time, we are thriving in this economic climate! 

If you'd like to train, check out here for a course prospectus, dates and application form for this year's diploma, fully approved and accredited in several countries... 

The spaces are going at some pace right now though... 

My training school is one of a few in the UK to currently offer the externally verified HPD (Hypnotherapy Practitioner Diploma) which matches government occupational standards and is the equivalent of National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) level 4

If you are on Twitter, I publish some absolute gold material if you are interested in the fields of hypnosis, hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis, do come and follow me: http://twitter.com/adameason 

Do come and join us in the Platinum members area if you wish to learn more, I mean much more about the fields of hypnosis, hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis. There's over 150 hours of video footage, even more audio material, hundreds of articles to read, and lots of free eBooks too. You get massive savings on all my audio programmes in there too. Our Platinum Section is revamped and relaunched and now has many hours of CPD trainings, specialist workshops and tuition as well as all the video footage from my diploma course and my cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy course, go have a read about it.

Please remember to tell friends, family, colleagues and anyone else you know how they can receive Adam Up each week by registering at my homepage.

I'll be back next week, enjoy letting go of psychological barriers this week ... I thank you for reading...  Goodbye for now. 

Bulooo!

Adam.