This week I have been tired.
Not just because I am in the throws of running five consecutive marathons, but also because I have had a slight bug and not been sleeping great, and am incredibly busy with work and all kinds of other things...
I am clearly demonstrating Virginia Satir's 'Poor Me' personality category today...
The point I want to make is that I could do with a waft of smelling salts under my nose every now and then to get my senses tuned on and up.
Self-hypnosis to the rescue for enhancing alertness! So many people associate hypnosis with "you are feeling sleeeeeepy" and think we always need to be zombie out or in a state resembling a coma when hypnotised.
There are lots of people that I encounter who still believe that hypnosis is like being unconscious and that they are blissfully unaware of anything going on within them or around them while they sit having a sort of nap, believing that the hypnotist's words are going in regardless and they'll wake up and hallelujah! Changes will be made.
If only it were like that.
Just recently, on a self-hypnosis seminar that I was at in London, I had to do my usual job of asking people to pay attention during the group hypnosis sessions and not just wander off...
I spend some time educating about hypnosis and the way to get the most from it, which I think is probably better than me just walking around the room kicking people in the shins if they drift off too far! If you spend a day being hypnotised on and off and learning a lot of information and in a new environment, it can be tiring, especially if you travelled far and so I like to think of ways to keep people alert and invigorated.
So I tell them about some of our afternoon exercises early in the day which keeps them paying attention..
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I tell them that they'll get the chance to experience localised anaesthesia, full body catalepsy and other things and show pictures from previous seminars...
And boy do they pay attention then! However, in life, we can stop paying attention and find ourselves wandering and drifting and do not have a loud mouthed ginger haired hypnotherapist to scare us into alertness! So I thought I'd share another process that can be used in conjunction with self-hypnosis to get alert and not actually to finish the self-hypnosis session feeling sleepy and like a zombie! This article is demonstrating a way to use self-hypnosis to get alert, focused and paying attention.
You do not have to go through any deep structured process for this exercises; simply close your eyes and engage your imagination and use autosuggestion where relevant and this will revive, uplift, and get you invigorated and alert.
Just follow these simple steps...
6 Steps To Get Invigorated Using Self-Hypnosis: Step One: Induce hypnosis.
You can engage in any process you know of to do this.
Ideally a process that is fairly rapid and dynamic will suit this technique.
Once you have induced hypnosis, move on to the next step.
Step Two: Spend some time imagining that you are running gently and comfortably somewhere outside in nature.
Notice the sights of the place, the colours, shades of light and details of your surrounds.
Hear the sounds, and feel the feelings that go with being in this place with the scenery to admire, the temperature is perfect for you and enjoy the rhythm of breathing comfortably as you jog and feel yourself developing some liveliness.
Each step that you take as you gently run, tell yourself you are going deeper inside your mind and then move on to the next step of this process.
Step Three: Notice your breathing and tune into it as you continue to imagine being out on your revitalising run.
Imagine your breath is going deeper and that each breath is no invigorating you and imaginae that the breath is cool, fresh, stimulating mountain air that really gets your senses tingling.
Once you have noticed the effect that the air is having upon you, enlivening you, then move on to the next step.
Step Four: As you breathe, still running easily, slowly, gently and comfortably, now exhale quite forcefully and deeply and as you exhale imagine that you are letting go of anything stagnant from within you.
Breathe it all out, like you are letting go of the lethargy you used to have.
Breathe in and inhale the gentle, refreshing, cool air in a comfortable, easy manner, then exhale forcefully again and imagine letting go of everything unwanted, like having a good clean out of all that was staid and stagnating and the air you breathe in continues to reviatlise you as you continue your gentle, easy run in nature.
Do this forceful exhalation a few more times and once you really notice the difference, that you are notably more alert, then move on to the next step.
Step Five: Continue running along and then imagine that you suddenly fall into a hole in the pathway.
Yikes! Completely unexpectedly, you just step in, drop in and fall...
Notice how you gasp, how you jolt and how your mind delivers a neat shot of adrenaline...
But that you land very comfortably on a padded area and are beamed back to nature, with your heart beating slightly, enjoyably faster, your senses are tuned in and turned up, paying close attention to everything around you and you are ready to go about your day...
Notice how alert your rather surreal fall made you feel, notice how the initial shock has gone, but you are left remaining truly alert.
Now move on to the next step.
Step Six: Count loudly from 1 to 5 inside your mind, with a fanfare that is also loud playing in your mind, to bring yourself up and out of hypnosis.
Let the count stimulate and invigorate you.
Stretch out your limbs, shake your hands and feet, open your eyes and notice how much more alert you really are.
There you have it, one quick way to get yourself on track, alert and paying attention.
Go about your day revived!