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By Meg Tocantins, Certified Hypnotist
 

Hypnosis is not what you see on television or in movies. Surprised? What about stories you’ve seen with zombie-like people who steal or kill at the “suggestion” of an evil, powerful hypnotist? What about the Manchurian Candidate? Well, this is Fiction. 

I am a hypnotist who helps people with smoking, weight loss and a host of other issues and I can tell you that no one can make you do anything under hypnosis that you don’t want to do, because All Hypnosis is Self-hypnosis. 

In other words, when you are hypnotized, you actually hypnotize yourself; your hypnotist just guides you through the process. 

So, if you are suffering from hot-flashes, you can cool yourself down by teaching yourself self-hypnosis. 

Three years ago, I began waking up 10-15 times a night with hot flashes – I’d have to change my night shirt and sometimes the sheets because I was drenched. I had to sleep in another room to keep from waking my husband every hour. I was tired all the time because I couldn’t get a good night’s sleep.

After a month of this misery, I thought, I should be able to hypnotize myself out of a hot flash. (Hypnotists LOVE being hypnotized.) It worked! Instead of getting upset when I had a flash, “Oh, no - Here comes another one! What if someone can see my chest and face getting red? How long will this one last?” I hypnotized myself to cool down my hot flashes. If I can do it, so can you. Here’s how:

• Find a nice comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed for 20 minutes. 
• Take a breath in and out and close your eyes. 
• Imagine yourself at the top of a staircase with 10 steps. Slowly go down the stairs, breathing in and out with each step. Become more and more relaxed with each breath.
• At the bottom of the stairs, find a beautiful chair or recliner. Imagine relaxing each part of your body by saying to yourself, “my arms are heavy and relaxed” several times. Then your legs, “my legs are heavy and relaxed” several times. Go through your body repeating different parts of your body, neck, back, chest, etc. End with “my whole body is heavy and relaxed,” repeating several times.
• Now imagine a place where you go to be cool: Being in the snow, in the mountains, in a cool river, or, use mine: standing in front of a cold air conditioner. Really see yourself there. Use all of your senses: See the colors, the wind or water on your skin, hear the air conditioner or the sound of the river, etc. Feel your skin become cooler. Feel the temperature of your body actually go down. If you want, imagine putting a thermometer in your mouth and see the reading: Much lower than what you were feeling before! 
• Stay in this cool place for as long as you want – 5-10 minutes.
• Practice this technique once a day. 
• When you have a hot flash, imagine being in this cool place! Your eyes don’t have to be closed. With practice, you will be able to do this at any time: In the car, at a meeting, and when you are woken in the middle of the night. 
• Practice is the key. Soon this will work quickly and effectively because, when you do this when you are hypnotized, you are storing this new feeling and behavior in your subconscious, where you’ve stored everything you’ve ever learned. You’ll cool yourself down in moments!

If you find it difficult to focus on the relaxing part of this exercise, you can purchase one of the many good relaxation recordings online; mine is available on my website www.relaxationsuite.com. Use the relaxation recording to guide yourself into that wonderful relaxed, hypnotic state, and then, turn off the recording and spend 5-10 minutes “cooling yourself off.” 

Now that you’ve learned this technique, you can use self-hypnosis to change other unproductive feelings and habits in your life: Eating at night, fear of public speaking, biting your nails and much more.

Your mind really is much more powerful than you thought. 

For more information:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100713215202.htm