Hypnosis: Changing Beliefs

Hypnosis is often described as a state of deep relaxation and increased mental focus. Being in a relaxed state of mind is an advantage when you want to make changes in your beliefs. Changing beliefs might include your desire to quit smoking or for weight loss or maybe you have an annoying pattern of negative thoughts that keep appearing in your mind. Whatever changes that you want to make in yourself you first will have to change your beliefs regarding that behavior. Webster’s dictionary defines a belief as a state of habit of mind, in essence a pattern of thoughts. Those thoughts are stored below the surface of your mind in your subconscious. Altering your beliefs is accomplished by communicating the changes you desire with your subconscious mind. To effectively communicate with the subconscious you must first relax the conscious thinking mind. One of the primary functions of the conscious mind is to prevent unwanted or unplanned changes from occurring in the subconscious. It prevents those changes by screening incoming information. If the incoming information doesn’t match up with the existing belief structure then it is prevented from integrating with the existing beliefs. That is why it can be so frustrating when you want to make changes in your life and you keep falling back into the same old negative patterns over and over again. Hypnosis offers a safe, easy and effective method of relaxing the conscious mind, accessing the subconscious and making changes in your beliefs. Being in a relaxed hypnotic state allows you to bypass the critical aspects of your conscious mind. When you bypass the screen you can more readily access the depths of your subconscious. Within those depths is where your beliefs reside. Your conscious mind is in charge of protecting those belief patterns. If it didn’t protect them we have a jumbled mess as we constantly received new data and altered our beliefs. Hypnosis gives you access to the subconscious. The next challenge is effectively communicating the desired changes you want. There is a language barrier between the two parts of your mind. The conscious mind uses words and the subconscious uses images and symbols. A great example of this subconscious language is to think about your dreams. We are told that our dreams are the result of our subconscious trying to communicate with us and help us work out problems in our waking life. We may not fully understand our dreams but we can use them as a guide to help us speak the language of the subconscious mind. One means of bridging this gap and changing beliefs is by using imagery along with hypnosis. This is often referred to as guided imagery or mental imagery. Imagery speaks the language of the subconscious. Using images of what we want to accomplish tells the subconscious the changes we desire. Through patience and repetition you can make the changes known to the subconscious. Hypnosis provides access to the subconscious and imagery communicates the desired changes. One effective method is changing beliefs is with guided imagery hypnosis.