The following self hypnosis technique will help you to relax your mind and body in preparation for a good nights restful sleep. When you use self-hypnosis or when you meditate, you allow your mind to rest and recuperate. Because this technique is a bit lengthy it will help you reach even deeper levels of mental and physical relaxation.
It will also work wonders in calming your mind and alleviating stress. If you are constantly going over problems in your mind, your thinking and judgement becomes clouded. This technique helps free you from these problems. Once you get the hang of it you will be amazed at how good you will feel in the morning.
Stop at this point and read the script through a few times until you know what to do and then practise this technique every day.
You will find that the more you practise self hypnosis, the deeper into trance you will go each time, and the better you will get at de-stressing your mind.
Preparing yourself
When you are lying down in bed and ready for sleep tell yourself silently that you are going to use self-hypnosis to go to sleep.
The basic breathing technique
Close your eyes and begin to breathe very slowly and deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth. Make each circular breath long and deep, and at the top of your breath hold it for three seconds, and then count to five on every out-breath. As you breathe out imagine you are breathing away any nervous tension left in your body.
You can also say the word relax on every out-breath if you wish. Continue this breathing pattern ten or more times, or as long as it takes for you to feel completely relaxed.
The diaphragmatic breathing technique
Once you get the hang of the basic breathing technique you can add diaphragmatic breathing to the basic technique. So make sure that you breathe from your diaphragm (lower chest and stomach area) and not from the upper chest. Watch what happens to your body as you breathe. If you are breathing properly your stomach will go out as you breathe in, and will go in as you breathe out. This can take a little practice if you are unused to diaphragmatic breathing.
Clearing your mind
Allow your mind to go completely blank. Don’t worry if you still get unwanted thoughts drifting into your mind; tell yourself not to fight them, as they will soon drift away again. Every time you get an unwanted thought, imagine a large red stop sign. As soon as you see the red stop sign imagine the thought disappearing and your mind becoming clear.
Another thought-clearing technique is to imagine a large computer screen full of data that becomes blank by hitting a keypad. Imagine that by pressing a keypad you can clear your mind. Another method is to imagine you are looking up at the sky on a pleasant summer’s day. You notice a few small clouds that drift across the sky and then fade away. Eventually all of the clouds have drifted away and the sky is clear. Imagine your conscious thoughts are like clouds that fade away. Use whatever method works for you.
Relaxing your body.
Now you can relax your body. Imagine every muscle from the top of your head to the tips of your toes completely relaxing. You can start at the top and systematically work your way down to your toes. Imagine your eyelids have become heavy and tired and any tension in your forehead is disappearing. All the muscles there are becoming loose and relaxed.
Continue this pattern and imagine all the muscles relaxing in your jaw, neck, shoulders, back, arms and legs. Imagine the relaxation spreading down through your body letting go of any tightness or tension in the muscles. You can visualise the muscles relaxing and spend extra time relaxing any part of your body that holds more tension. Allow the outside world to fade into the background and continue your journey into your inner world.
Utilizing the trance state with affirmations
When you have finished your body relaxation and you are completely relaxed from head to toe, you can affirm the following affirmations. It is important you only repeat these affirmations word for word as they are below. I’ll discuss affirmations in more detail later on.
When you affirm these affirmations imagine every part of you absorbing the phrases with real belief, and use your feelings and emotions to supercharge them so that every cell in your mind and body resonates with each positive affirmation.
- I sleep easily at night
- I feel deeply relaxed
- I feel calm and centred
- I love to sleep at night
At this point you can allow yourself to drift off in to a deep natural sleep from which you will awaken feeling refreshed.
Please note
Do not worry if, when you first practice self-hypnosis, you don’t think much happened. The more you practice the easier it becomes to switch off and go into trance. Just the fact that you laid in bed and centered yourself by closing your eyes and relaxing will have benefited you.
You will be surprised at how effective affirmations can be in even the lightest of trances. The power of the unconscious mind works in a very subtle way. The most important thing to remember is to enjoy the process and to have faith, because as with all things, the more you practice the better you become!
By Glenn Harrold
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