Tuesday, February 19, 2013


                                      Blog #12: Hypnosis and Your Health
     Hypnosis can improve your health in countless ways.  It can aid relaxation and sleep quality, help with weight loss, smoking cessation, and with the discipline of regular exercise.  Hypnosis can also help make one’s perspective more positive, increase self-confidence, reduce muscle tension and stress, lower blood pressure and pulse rate, lessen or eliminate pain, and more. 
     Scot Giles, one of my teachers many years ago, works in a program called ICan, which is designed specifically for cancer patients at La Grange Memorial Hospital.  These patients are given a therapy such as chemotherapy, radiation and/or surgery, given supportive counseling, and receive hypnotherapy sessions with instruction in self-hypnosis which they use daily.  The length of long-term survival for attendees is at least twice that of similar people who have not had hypnosis instruction. 
     Visualization of oneself as healthy while in a state of hypnosis can help the immune system function optimally.  To make suggestions even more powerful, vivid sensory input can be imagined, such as the taste of lemon or the texture of rough tree bark.  Another way to make hypnosis suggestions go deeper is to anchor them in the body.  Two examples of anchoring are counting backward from ten to one while blinking with each number, and touching thumb and index fingers together while imagining oneself in a peaceful or empowering setting. 
     Positive emotions such as joy, love, enthusiasm, trust, confidence, peace, respect, kindness, gentleness, and sincerity can also help deepen hypnosis when used in a session. Problematic emotions, such as grief, anger, fear, worry, jealousy, or hysteria can interfere with hypnosis; i.e. visualizing oneself as healthier while at the same instant worrying about recovery from an illness may undermine positive suggestions and result in even more worrying. 
     Biofeedback also can help deepen hypnosis.  A few inexpensive options are the Basic GSR2 Biofeedback Relaxation System by Thought Technology, Thought Stream USB by Mind Place, and Stress Thermometer
     Make sure to share this blog with others.  This month’s offer: pay for five hypnosis sessions at your first session and receive a sixth free of charge.  Hypnosis can be used by the same person or couple anytime within the next twelve months.