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Starting tomorrow on my blog, I am going to be writing exclusively about how to use self-hypnosis and other mental strategies to help reduce weight, so do tune in here next week if you are hoping to get into shape now that the sunshine has arrived... Well it has arrived here on the south coast of England anyway. Next week, I shall be announcing the new dates in a host of venues around the UK for my one day seminars - we'll be taking our show on the road and offering my science of self-hypnosis and rapid induction seminars in Edinburgh, Manchester and a london and my cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy certification five day course is going to be taught on the doorstep of Heathrow airport, by popular demand. 

I'll also have news of a major new project involving my school and a number of very well-know and high profile hypnosis professionals, so next week's edition is going to be well worth reading. 

This week, I wrote a fairly academic article about the use of self-hypnosis and how it advances self-efficacy; something essential for hypnotherapists and self-hypnotists to know about. 

Additionally though, on the page, I included the full audio footage of an interview/live conversation I conducted with James Tripp recently covering the topics of cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy and self-efficacy. 

Do go and have a read of that article and listen to the audio here

Soooo, also this week, I wrote a Facebook status update and tweeted the following: 

Mantra for the day "my thoughts are not facts" - they are mental events that occur in your mind & are effected by mood. Have a great day.

I got such an amazing response - tweets, emails and messages praising the simplicity and usefulness of that and telling me how thoughts tend to become so directive of people's experiences in life. 

I received a couple of emails from people who said that they were often not even aware that they were having the negative thoughts until they had experienced a number of them and looked back upon their day, and asked how they could actually notice them in more detail. 

One way to begin practicing becoming more aware of your thoughts is to tune in to yourself at regular intervals throughout your day. For example, as far back as the early 1950s, the book Gestalt Therapy (1951), shared a number of "awareness experiments" designed to help build mindfulness and often used as a precursor to more advanced mindfulness techniques. 

The most basic of these Gestalt awareness experiments was entitled the "ABC" of Gestalt by Fritz Perls. 

It was as simple as this; 

"Try for a few minutes to make up sentences stating what you are at this moment aware of. Begin each sentence with the words "now" or "at this moment" or "here and now." (Perls, Hefferline, and Goodman, 1951 p.31)

It is incredibly simple, but encourages the individual to start tuning in and being aware of their ongoing experience. 

There are many, many techniques and strategies used by therapists of different backgrounds, designed to help individuals spot unwanted thoughts which they can then apply thought stopping and restructuring techniques to - the likes of which I wrote about here previously. 

Today then, I offer up a self-hypnosis process which draws upon a number of different therapeutic modalities and enables the individual to rehearse the awareness skills within a self-hypnosis session and then apply those skills in real-life 

Step One: 

Think about a typical situation of your life where in the past you may have had unwanted thoughts that you wish to be more aware of and deal with in a more thorough fashion.  Then keep it in mind ready to use later on in this self-hypnosis session. 

Ensure that you are in a comfortable positive, ideally sat, with your arms and legs uncrossed, feet flat on the floor in a place where you'll be undisturbed for the duration of this session. The proceed with these steps...

Step Two: 

Now imagine being in that target situation. Really imagine being there, seeing through your eyes, noticing the sights, colours, shades of light. Engage with the sounds, those that are near, those that are further away.  

Start to feel how you feel in that place, behave as you usually do and engage with this place just as you would any other time. When you really feel that you are fully immersed and you have engaged your imagination fully in this place, then move on to the next step. 

Step Three: 

Continue to imagine being in this place, and while you are really there in your mind, fully engaged and tuned in, use your cognitions (your internal dialogue) and tell yourself what it is that you feel, think and desire in this situation. Just state to yourself all the things that you are noticing and experiencing about yourself in this situation. 

Run a commentary to yourself of everything that is going on inside of you. All the stuff that anyone else would not be able to see from the outside, tell yourself and give yourself an accurate, detailed account of everything to yourself. 

For example: 

• "I am aware of the urge to bite my fingernails." 
  
  
• "I am aware of criticising myself"
  
  
• "I feel inferior to my colleague"
  
  
• "I want to shout at him" 

Start to notice all the things you say, do, feel and state it to yourself in your mind using your internal dialogue. Run through it methodically and in depth and detail, go through it all thoroughly step-by-step and state to yourself everything that is going on within you. 

Acknowledge and label all of these habitual experiences that usually go on beneath the surface. As I said previously, give yourself a running commentary on everything that goes on within you. 

As you give your commentary, start to imagine all the words drift away from you. Imagine they take a physical form and the words drift away, they are distanced and float away from you. 

Once you have done that in detail, move on to the next step. 

Step Four: 

Start to imagine that all those words that you told yourself, as they all floated away, all the feelings, old behaviours and associations that used to be attached to them have floated away too and imagine feeling lighter and better. Imagine smiling to yourself. 

Realise that by acknowledging and noticing all those things, as you noticed your ongoing experience in that situation,  while you commentated on it, you let the feelings all go. When you are sure they are all gone, then take a couple of nice deep breaths, as you exhale you may even wish to sigh. 

Remain in that situation, really continue to imagine being there, and then move on to the next step.  

Step Five: 

Having run through this, having let the feelings go, having tuned in to your thoughts, start to adopt an alternate perspective on the entire situation. 

As you look at the situation, explore it intelligently and as you look at facets of this situation, ask what else could that mean? How else would this be viewed by someone else?  

See if you can be as flexible as possible, and start to think of lots of different ways to interpret the environment and the situation your are in. 

When you have done that thoroughly and well, move on to the next step. 

Step Six: 

Now you are going to distinguish between your thoughts and facts. 

Tell yourself and repeat - my thoughts are not facts. Really convince yourself that all the previous thoughts, feelings and internal experiences you wused to have in this situation are not necessarily an accurate account of reality. Realise and repeat to yourself that those earlier thoughts, feelings are not facts. They were just an old way of you habitually communicating with yourself. 

When you think you have drummed that thought into your head properly and diligently (my thoughts are not facts) having reviewed those earlier thoughts, then move on to the final two steps. 

Step Seven: 

Still in that same situation, still engaging with that place, imagining being there... State some new thoughts, some better thoughts, and deliver to yourself some  positive cognitions. 

Encourage yourself, state something progressive and positive to yourself, give yourself some better thoughts that support you and nurture you. 

For example: 

• "I feel much better"
  
  
• "I am capable of change" 
  
  
• "I have taken control" 

Or use any words and statements that are good for you and make you feel better when you repeat them. When you have repeated them enough and you notice a better sense and feeling within yourself. 

Step Eight: 

Tell yourself that the more you practice this process, the easier it becomes to do this in real-life situations. 

Then exit hypnosis Take a couple of deep breaths, wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes. 

Practice this process as a self-hypnosis session every day for a week, then start placing yourself in those real-life situations and run through that well-rehearsed process. 

You'll be spotting unwanted thoughts and removing them before you even realise you are doing it! 

Having noticed your thoughts, and in keeping with my previous notion of "your thoughts are not facts", you may wish to stop certain thoughts in their tracks If you ever think the worst, catastrophise, create unnecessary drama, then today's blog entry is for you.

So on Monday, I wrote and confessed to partaking in some catastrophisation. When you teach socratic questioning techniques as I do each year, you do tend to find yourself able to fairly calmly dissipate any tendency to awfulise or catastrophise by asking some of the classic questions aimed at doing just that (dissipating and overcoming catastrophisation):

• What makes the situation so terrible, awful or horrible?
  
  
• Are you making a mountain out of a molehill?
  
  
• Are you exaggerating the importance of this problem?
  
  
• Do you have any reason to think you might be blowing things out of proportion here?

The rational consideration of these questions and looking at the truth of the situation by answering them, does tend to help us to get a grip.

However, if the feelings themselves have taken hold, then feeling a particular way can create a cycle within us that makes us continue to think the worst!

• "What if this terrible thing happens (start to imagine that thing happening and then start to feel bad... The bad feeling makes us feel worse)   >>
  
  
• Oh no, it is going to happen... (imagined scenario starts to be perceived more vividly, turning the bad feelings up)   >>
  
  
• If this terrible thing happens, then these other terrible things will happen as a result and (more imagery, more unwanted feelings) >>
  
  
• then something else will happen and my entire life will be ruined for ever and there'll be no way I can ever be well and happy again..."

This exaggerated and non-specific example is one way of illustrating what I mean by catastrophisation.

For some people, they imagine the worst thing happening, or think about what could go wrong immediately when presented with a scenario or a situation. This could be useful if you were on Royal Security duty, or if you were coming up with a strategic business plan. But if you have simply been invited out for a drink with friends, or are thinking about making a decision for your own life enhancement, then such thoughts of the worst thing happening - catastrophising - can prevent us from taking action and can also result in us feeling unhappy, uncomfortable and living in a darker, cynical or unsatisfactory place.

It can be useful to assess situations and make changes if we ever need to, but if we continue to catastrophise with no let up and heap pessimism on our thoughts on a continual basis, that habitual thought process can lead to it becoming second nature and in turn this could lead to worse things...

One of the other issues with constantly thinking the worst and awfulising, is that if we continue to think those kinds of thoughts, we may well even be increasing the chances of it happening. Such persistent thoughts can sometimes become self-fulfilling prophecies, can't they?

Step One: 

Induce hypnosis. 

You can do so by any means you desire or know of. You can use the process in my self-hypnosis book, use the free audio at this website to practice or have a look at the following articles as and when you need them; they are basic processes to help you simply open the door of your mind:

Heavy Arm Self-Hypnosis Induction Method

Using eye fixation for self-hypnosis

The Betty Erickson Self-Hypnosis Method video clip

Hand to face Self-Hypnosis Method

Using Magnetic Hands for Self-Hypnosis

Inducing hypnosis using a coin drop

Once you have induced hypnosis, move on to step three.

Step Two: 

Choose what you want to use this mantra for. Be specific about it's use and desired outcome. Do you want to go faster, feel stronger, feel lighter, use it to motivate, or combat negative thoughts, or be inspired during the final stages of a race? Etc. 

With that in mind. Design and create your mantra. Use the principles above in this article and get it written down or at least be very aware of it in your mind. Then you are ready to install it as a powerful force to use at will! 

Once you have induced hypnosis, move on to step two.

Step Three: 

As vividly as you can, imagine yourself in the kind of situation where you would typically experience negative thoughts.

Really imagine being there. See the sights of the place, the colours, the shades of light and details. Hear the sounds of the place, notice the distinctions of the sounds around you and just engage in this place

Allow being in this place to take you deeper inside your mind and when you are really engaged and tuned in to this place, move on to the next step

Step Four: 

Start to take the actions you usually take in that situation and then pay close attention to your thoughts and how you think in that situation.

Talk to yourself and describe to yourself what your thoughts are in that situation. Start to translate your feelings into words and describe to yourself the kinds of mental imagery that happens in your mind in this scenario.

Really explain to yourself all the thoughts, ideas, imagery and feelings that you have in this typical situation.  Run through the situation in its entirety.

When you have done that in detail, then move on to the next step.

Step Five: 

Here comes the fun...

Run through the previous step again in your mind, but this time as soon as the unwanted, negative thought and accompanying feelings starts to happen in the slightest, you imagine wild, loud sirens going off in your head and there right in front of your eyes pops up a bright and large STOP sign flashing noisily before you.

As soon as the old negative train of thought starts you create the most alarming noise in your mind, the most vivid, bright STOP sign that fills your entire imagination - fills it entirely. It dominates the mind.

Practice this step over and over, making things more vivid, more real and encourage yourself to make if more forceful each time you practice doing this. Take responsibility here too and be as creative as you like in making the stop imagery as alerting as possible to really interrupt the negative thought before it gets started.

When you feel that you have really got a hang of stopping the old thought as it starts, then move on to the next step.

Step Six: 

Following on from that rather frenetic step... Take a couple of minutes out now and engage in some progressive relaxation. Just imagine relaxation spreading through your body; you can do this with colour, you can simply imagine muscles relaxing, you can tell them to soften, you can imagine tensing muscles and letting them relax thereafter, you can just spread a relaxing sensation through your body using your intention and imagination. Spend some time to get your body really deeply and beautifully relaxed.

When you are feeling  really relaxed, move on to the next step.

Step Seven: 

Think of a progressive, positive, encouraging statement that you can say to yourself in that same situation in the future. Word it in the present tense, make it be something you want, not something you don't want and let it be supportive and using the words that appeal to you, get them set up in your mind.

Now run through the same situation that we began with, while you are wonderfully relaxed, run through that same scenario and repeat this new internal dialogue statement to yourself. Say it with meaning and say it in a way that is undeniably convincing to you, say it in a way that makes you feel that you believe it to be true.

Run through the scenario 3-5 times while relaxed, repeating your new positive thought, your positive statement to yourself in your mind. When you have repeated it all those times, move on to the next step.

Step Eight: 

Tell yourself that you plan to bring the benefits of this session with you into real-life situations from now on. Tell yourself that you are going to STOP negative thoughts, relax and replace them with positive stattements in your mind if they ever occur again in the future.

This is going to stop catastrophisation, for sure.

Take a deep energising breath, wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes.

Practice this process daily for a week in your mind using self-hypnosis. Then go and place yourself in those situations and start to practice using this skill and enjoy taking control and stopping awfulising in its tracks.

Enjoy using those skills this week. 

Joke Of The Week

An old man and an old woman were sitting together on their front porch.

"You used to sit closer to me," said the woman So the man moved closer.

"You used to put your arm around me." So the man put his arm around her.

"You used to nibble on my ear."

"Let me get my teeth."

Hahaha, I l enjoyed that one. 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.

Articles Of The Week

Here are a selection of topical articles that I enjoyed reading this week, often related to the fields of hypnosis, hypnotherapy, psychotherapy and other forms of personal development. Some may have just amused me or made me smile. My personal comments about them are in brackets and just because we feature an article here, it does not mean they represent my own views - most often, they do not! If you ever come across any related articles that you think may feature well, then get in touch with me and we can share them here:

- A wonderful story that has made headlines in varying media outlets in the past week. 

Hypnotically happy star who sang through surgery to save her voice

and

Video footage included here. Woman sings during throat surgery while under hypnosis

- Woman who was hypnotised into thinking she had undergone gastric band surgery loses three stone (and saves herself the £6000 it would have cost her under the knife)

- Hypnotherapy for Heartbreak, focusing on Cheryl Cole

- How Chicago is using psychotherapy to fight crime - and winning

More next time.

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

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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.

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I'll be back next week ... I thank you for reading...  Goodbye for now.

Bulooo!

Adam.