What if you could access a state of consciousness where you could mould your mind to be exactly as you want it to be?
How would you be different?
Would you break that lifelong bad habit? Would you be more positive? Confident? Productive? Loving?
What would you do if you could enter this mind-moulding state whenever you wanted?
And what if, whenever you wanted, you could plant the seeds of your choice into your subconscious mind and watch them flower into a whole new you?
Guess what?
You can.
All you have to do is set an intention and learn how to hypnotize yourself.
What Is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a unique tool that puts you in contact with the source of your subconscious programming (the thoughts, memories, beliefs, and emotions that shape you).
When you use transformational hypnotherapy with the right understanding, you are literally rewiring your brain. Even science has proven this fact.
— Marisa Peer
Here’s the catch — you don’t need a hypnotherapist to begin rewiring your brain.
Can You Hypnotize Yourself?
You sure can.
By learning how to hypnotize, you can do this process completely on your own — no therapist visits, no service bills, no outside influence.
That’s right, you’ll no longer have to seek out a hypnotherapist and call them every week begging, “Hypnotize me. I’m ready, right now.”
As you practice self-hypnosis, or autohypnosis, you can control when, where, and how you rewire your brain.
You can remove elements of your subconscious programming that don’t serve you. Just as well, you can freely create and reinforce positive patterns that enable you to thrive and become your best possible self.
The 3 Stages of Hypnosis
Learning how to self-hypnotize yourself can seem like a daunting, exhaustive practice, but it is actually quite straightforward. There are 3 basic stages of hypnosis: inducting, visualizing, and exiting.
1. Inducting
The amount of time it takes you to relax and clear your mind will determine the time it will take to induce hypnosis. The faster you can relax, the faster you’ll go into a state of hypnosis.
Entering hypnosis may seem intimidating or difficult at first. But just remember, you are already a professional with decades of experience — you have entered this state every single night of your entire life.
2. Visualizing
The visualization stage, when paired with intention and suggestion, is where the seeds of change are planted, watered, and grown. It is also where the weeds are pulled.
This stage requires your full imagination, intent, and focus to reinforce the changes you want to make — the deeper you are able to go, the more you can increase the quality and speed of your transformation.
3. Exiting
Once you’ve discovered how to hypnotize yourself and have accomplished your hypnosis goal, you can easily choose to exit the hypnotic state and return to full, waking consciousness.
Now that you know you can hypnotize yourself, you may be thinking, “how do I hypnotize myself?” Let’s dive into how to actually do it.
How to Hypnotize Yourself (Like a P.I.R.A.T.E.)
No, P.I.R.A.T.E. has nothing to do with Captain Jack Sparrow (although we don’t mind being hypnotized by Johnny Depp any day!).
Actually, P.I.R.A.T.E. is the 6-step process on how to hypnotize yourself. And it stands for:
- Privacy
- Intention
- Relaxation
- Actualization
- Transformation
- Exit
But before you master how to hypnotize yourself, it’s important to check out the following preconditions (these will help you totally nail self-hypnosis).
- Setting. Find a quiet and peaceful environment without distraction or interruption.
- Relaxation. Create a mindset of calmness before you begin, so you can more easily enter hypnosis. Take deep breaths or do some breathing exercises like box breathing.
- Mindfulness. Staying in hypnosis will require a lot of focus and concentration, so meditation can be a good way to prepare your mind for hypnosis.
- Energy. Hypnosis is more effective when you are energized. Maintain awareness for as long as you can and try to avoid dozing off.
- Motivation/Intention. Make your intention and motivation personal and define it with positive words and affirmations. Your intention will be used as the source of visualization.
Now, let’s get back to P.I.R.A.T.E., shall we?
1. Privacy
One of the most important components of learning how to hypnotize yourself is learning to create an ideal setting to enter hypnosis. And peace and quiet are the way to go.
Make yourself as mentally and physically comfortable as possible. Even small disturbances may make it difficult to enter (or stay in) hypnosis.
Here are some suggestions to make for an ideal environment:
- Clear your schedule of obligations
- Put your phone on silent
- Modify the room to fit your preferred temperature (if possible)
- Create an environment that feels feng shui to you
- Prepare a comfortable seat or lay on a bed (if you can resist sleep)
- Play relaxing music to set the mood
- Prepare some soothing aromatherapy, like lavender essential oil
- Wear comfortable clothing (or no clothing to create a heightened state of sense, or just for fun)
- Write anything that may be worrying your mind down (let the paper take care of it)
Preconditions set? Feeling soothed? Perfect.
Okay, time to begin.
2. Intention
Whether you are addressing an emotion, a habit, behavior, personality trait, or memory, define your intention clearly.
Not sure what intention to set or what area of your life to work on?
You can take this wonderful, 45-second quiz to help diagnose what area of your life could use some tender loving care.
At the end of the quiz, you will not only get your personalized results, but top hypnotherapist, Marisa Peer, will help to guide you on how to begin rewiring that area of your life.
She will provide you with insights and positive affirmations/mantras to use during your self-hypnosis.
It’s important to keep your intention direct (“I am…”), powerful (“….the creator of my reality…”), and radiating with positive emotion (“…and believe in my ability to change my behavior.”).
However, your mind doesn’t think in words; it thinks in images and feelings. So, make sure your intention provokes these two critical things.
Phrase your intention as if you have already accomplished it — you are confident.
Imagine yourself being confident, feel it. What does confidence look like on you? What does it feel like? How does it radiate outward?
Incorporate as many of your senses as you can. You don’t need to recall your intention word-for-word if the imagery and emotion are powerful.
You can write your intention down (or say it out loud) to get your mind brewing these powerful sensations.
Here’s an example for addressing social anxiety:
I am the master of my thoughts and emotions.
I can eneter a state of pure calm whenever I choose.
I choose to breathe calmness deeply from my being.
The source of my calmness is a golden light, located in my belly.
I shine with confidence as I effortlessly interact with all kinds of people.
3. Relaxation
Intention set? You are now ready to learn how to hypnotize yourself, let’s get into it!
Focus on your breath; breathe deeply.
Clear your mind as you deeply inhale. Hear and feel the air enter through your nostrils, filling your lungs, and expanding into your belly.
Exhale fully through your mouth, feeling yourself relaxing deeper.
Allow your breath to consume your senses and awareness — observe the rhythmic pattern, the movement of your abdomen filling and emptying, and any tingling sensations in your fingertips, toes, and nose.
With every breath, allow your mind to become clearer and your body to become more relaxed.
While you do this, roll your eyes upward into your head as if you are looking at your third eye. Create slight eye strain and relax your eyelids. If you feel your eyelids fluttering, you are doing it right.
This seemingly strange eye position helps to induce the hypnotic state.
4. Actualization
Once you’ve reached a relaxed state and have achieved a silent mind, it’s time to go deeper…
The actualization step deepens your level of hypnosis and primes your subconscious to visualize in the next step.
There are two popular methods of inducing this deeper state of relaxation.
The ‘staircase’ method
Close your eyes and imagine yourself walking down a staircase, counting down each step from 1 to 10 (or 10 to 1, your choice). Double your relaxation and lightness with every step.
With every step, turn awareness inward.
By step 10, you should be drifting into your subconscious — you should be in an extremely calm, relaxed state of mind.
The ‘creating a scene’ method
Close your eyes and keep your awareness on your breath. With each breath, become more relaxed.
Now, imagine a natural setting you find peaceful, perhaps an evergreen forest. Place yourself in the forest, and continue breathing with awareness and increasing relaxation.
Imagine aspects of this forest setting in and becoming more vivid and saturated— the aroma of the air, the moss between your toes, the color and texture of the trees…
Continue to construct this mental picture until it fills your sensations and you feel completely in this serene scene.
5. Transformation
You’ve made it.
You have successfully learned how to hypnotize yourself— your imagination is awakened (and focused) and your awareness is entirely internal (you’ve tuned out your physical reality).
Let’s begin with the fun part — the visualization. Visualization is the crux of transformation in self-hypnosis.
Your brain likes and responds to images that make a picture.
— Marisa Peer
Start by simply visualizing yourself. Use any imagery that you feel has a strong connection to your identity.
Perhaps you see yourself within the peaceful space you created (in the previous step). Or, perhaps you envision yourself as a bright light. Or, maybe you just imagine yourself as a floating point of awareness (that’s pretty rad, too).
Recalling your intention, begin to imagine the defining elements of your best self: positive, confident, loving…
Reaffirm your intention with positive “I am” statements:
- I am positive.
- I am confident.
- I am productive.
- I am loving.
Take your “I am” statements personally — they define your identity.
Now begin to visualize being your best self with these beautiful, radiating characteristics. If this is difficult to visualize, remember, you’ve always been who you’ve most imagined yourself to be.
Your mind thinks in pictures, so create positive images with emotional value. Really feel your best self.
Dive deeper into being your best self. What are you feeling? How are you thinking and behaving? What are you accomplishing? What are you attracting? How does it feel to be around you?
The more you reinforce a self-image, the deeper ingrained it becomes into your mind’s programming, and the faster it will manifest in your reality.
Imagine this stage as planting, watering, and nurturing the seeds that will flourish into your highest, most incredible self.
6. Exit
Once you feel efficient and wholesome in your hypnosis, it’s time to step back into the “real world.” Fortunately, there are several ways to exit hypnosis.
- Use a timed alarm. But just be sure you give yourself enough time to be thorough in your hypnosis. An alarm will help you keep track of how long you have been in hypnosis (time is a funny thing in the hypnotic state) and can pull you back into waking consciousness. It’s important to set your alarm tone to something soothing so that you aren’t startled.
- If you like the idea of choosing when to end your hypnosis, fret not — your conscious mind is still aware enough to exit hypnosis on your own. You will have full ability to choose when to leave. The benefit of leaving hypnosis by choice is that you can deeply explore your subconscious and spend as much time as you want to visualize.
- You can exit your self-induced hypnosis on command by using a pre-set wake-up phrase such as “I am ready to enter waking consciousness” or by slowly counting backward from five.
- Because you’re in deep relaxation during hypnosis, it’s possible to end up falling into a sleep state. In fact, this is another way to exit hypnosis. It can be a good method to dream and explore further depths of your subconscious mind. However, falling asleep can interfere with how well you consciously remember the details of your visualization.
