Hypnosis for Relaxation
There are a lot of reasons to try hypnosis for improving so many different aspects of your life.
Hypnosis for relaxation is one of them as in its very simplest form, the hypnotic state can be a wonderful whole-person relaxant.
It is in many ways very similar to meditation in that it focuses the mind by blanking out all extraneous activity, all unnecessary thought ceases and you focus your thoughts only on one thing.
It is in this state that the physical body is awash with calmness from head to toe, creating a relaxed state that is hugely beneficial in many ways, as I shall now cover.
Hypnosis Relieves Stress
There are few that would argue that stress is a major cause of many ailments that occur in the body.
Stress coincides with the release of the hormone cortisol in the body, which is basically the fight-or-flight mechanism that is built into our bodies to protect us should we face danger. This hormone triggers the release of adrenaline which basically shuts off all non-essential bodily functions in order to divert maximum energy to the extremities (arms and legs).
This primitive action is there to enable us to fight an attacker (for example if we found ourselves face to face with a lion) or run away from it, whichever is the most prudent course of action in that moment. In modern times, of course it is highly unlikely we would be confronted by a lion unless we were actually strolling through certain open grasslands in Africa.
However, the mechanism is still there and is triggered the instant we believe we are under physical attack.
If, for example an angry person came up to us and threatened us with fists clenched and arms raised in the air, we would become instantly more alert and our arms would be ready to fight the attacker if we were physically strong enough, or turn and run away, if not.
The stress response is also triggered even when there is no actual physical attacker present, if there is the inference that we may be attacked in some way. This happens often in modern life. More often than is good for us, unfortunately.
A good example would be in the workplace. If we are called in by the boss to be reprimanded for something we did wrong, we would stand there and be affronted by a possibly angry person, which would trigger our fight-or-flight response.
The reality is that we have to just stand there and take it. However, inside, our body is screaming for us to either bash the boss's brains in or run like crazy to get out of there!
Even though we are not actually facing physical harm, the primitive part of our brain doesn't know that and we are flooded with cortisol and adrenalin nevertheless. Since we are unable to react in a physical was, which would have the after-effect of then releasing us from the stress situation, we remain in a state of alertness and stress.
Sometimes for the whole day, if the boss is a particularly disagreeable person!
There are many other pseudo-stress situations that challenge us throughout our day, from being cut out in traffic to missing our train or being late for an important meeting. Even reading a distressing story in the newspaper or watching it on the TV news can trigger a stress response.
The upshot is that we are in a state of stress for most, if not all of our day. This is highly destructive for our bodies!
The Debilitating Actions of Stress
Stress shuts down our digestive system. So whatever we ate, remains undigested in our body until the stress is resolved and digestion can resume.
Stress shuts down the body's natural process of cell repair, division and new cell creation. This has a knock-on effect of increasing the speed of the ageing process, because cells are not being renewed or repaired. The same goes for the repair of damaged muscle tissue, organs, nerves and blood vessels.
When we are in a state of stress, our immune system is one of those ″non-essential″ systems that is shut down.
There is a good reason for these systems being shut down when we are in a stressful situation. If, for example we were to be faced with a lion, it wouldn't matter much if our body needed to fight off a virus if it meant we didn't divert enough energy to our legs to run away and the lion caught us and ate us.
The virus would then be the lion's problem.
The problem with this is that the longer we are in a state of stress, the more time that we are defenceless if a harmful virus or bacterial should infect us. Normally, our immune system would go to work to eliminate the intruder. However, if the system is on hold, the intruder can invade and multiply and we become sick as a result.
Far too many cases of illness could be completely preventable if only people's immune systems were not compromised by stress!
With this in mind, it is therefore highly important to find a way to relieve stress quickly whenever we encounter it. One way is to go to the gym and workout at high intensity until you are physically drained. This causes the removal of cortisol from the body and with it, adrenalin.
The other way is to make use of hypnosis to relax the entire body. The most effective way is to either learn from an expert how to use self-hypnosis and suggestion techniques yourself, or visit a trained hypnotherapist who can provide you with a relaxation session.
Hypnotherapy
If you are in session with a hypnotherapist then you will be concentrating only on the sound of his or her voice.
If you are practising self-hypnosis (having first obtained some training in this method by a qualified hypnotherapist) then you will be concentrating on your own voice inside your head. Your breathing becomes slow and rhythmic, heartbeat slows to a relaxed pace and all your muscles relax.
A half hour spent in this state is hugely beneficial to both your body and state of mind. When you have finished, you return to full conscious awareness feeling refreshed and revitalised, positive and motivated. That can only be good!
Terry Didcott
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Posted on Tue, 21 Aug, 2007 in Hypnosis | 0 Comments
Last Updated on Mon 2 Nov, 2020