Self-insight is the foundation when you want to change your life. If you keep doing what you always did, you will get the same results. But what is the best way to change?
Having sufficient self-insight is the first step. Knowing yourself means having a good understanding of how you got to this point in your life. You can answer questions such as:
- What steps led to this?
- Why did I take these steps?
- What beliefs are underlying my behavior so far?
So initially, you want to increase your self-insight. Knowing where your pitfalls are and where your opportunities for growth in life are. This can be about your relationships, health and work. All aspects of life in which you want more insight.
Increase self-insight
Increasing your self-insight is done by looking at your past. On the one hand, you do this very practically. What choices did you make to get to this point.
You can even make a list of such key moments.
Then, to that list, you can write down why you made certain choices. Then you'll probably already arrive at the beliefs you have (had) that led to those choices.
Now this can be a confrontational exercise, but in doing so, keep in mind that you always have good intentions for yourself. At that moment, with the knowledge you had at that time, you made the best choice for yourself.
So looking at your past increases your self-insight, but that doesn't necessarily make your self-insight about what you're doing now or doing tomorrow better.
After all, self-insight also has to do with your self-awareness and making conscious choices.
Developing self-insight
If you want to develop your self-insight, you can also look at what you are doing now. How are you feeling right now? Do you notice how your body reacts to certain thoughts and choices? How well are you listening to your feelings and what are those feelings saying to you?
To become more aware of yourself, the hypnotic state helps . In fact, research shows that this state changes your awareness of yourself and your environment. This can even have the effect of making you process pain in a different way, making you less bothered by it[1].
But that is only one of the effects of hypnosis. For example, if you suffer from dissociation, not feeling connected to yourself, hypnosis can make you feel connected again (source 1). So you then become more aware of yourself again, and that helps you gain more self-insight.
Developing mindfulness and self-hypnosis for self-insight
Mindfulness and self-hypnosis are also very similar for promoting self-insight[2].
With mindfulness, you make sure to stay in the here-and-now with your thoughts. You train yourself, so to speak, to notice when your thoughts go to your past or future. When you notice, mindfulness helps you take a deep breath and bring your focus back to the present moment.
This may well give you the self-insight whether, for example, you often recall (unpleasant) memories or worry a lot about the future.
If you notice this, you might ask yourself where this is coming from. Especially if you want to change this, self-hypnosis is the next step.
In fact, self-hypnosis also reasonably starts with meditation, but in addition you can apply techniques to change your thoughts.
Especially if you know where you want to go in your life, or how you want to be, this can be very helpful.
Indeed, you can use self-hypnosis to change thoughts about yourself, for example, by changing certain suggestions or affirmations out loud or in your mind. It is helpful if these are related to the goal you want to get started with.
For example, do you have a goal of standing up for yourself better? Then suggestions might include:
"I'm good enough."
"I get to set my boundaries."
"How people deal with my boundaries says more about them than it does about me."
"I notice when I'm going over my limit, stop and then signal that my limit has been reached," he said.
These are just examples. Depending on your problems, a hypnotherapist may give you other suggestions to work with during self-hypnosis.
In addition, self-hypnosis can be used to revisit and process memories, but this is an advanced technique. If you are just beginning with hypnosis, it may be more convenient to do so under the guidance of a hypnotherapist.
Hypnotherapy for greater self-insight
Especially if you are just beginning to improve or increase self-insight, seeking help from a hypnotherapist can be helpful.
Because the hypnotic state makes you more aware of yourself, it can feel very separate. Especially if you haven't practiced it much before.
You may then also find yourself feeling "Okay, now what do I do with all these feelings?"
That's what a hypnotherapist helps you with. After all, where do you really want to go in your life? Are there problems you want to solve? Are you suffering from a particular feeling, such as feeling stuck in your current situation?
Hypnotherapy has even been compared to positive psychology in terms of how it works[3].
A hypnotherapist can then help you figure out what beliefs are currently preventing you from feeling free or achieving your goals.
Just like when you work on self-insight on your own, a hypnotherapist helps you by identifying where the root cause of a particular problem lies.
This is done with a regression technique, which helps you come back to the moment in your life when an impeding belief arose. Then the hypnotherapist helps you change your understanding of this moment.
After all, many of our beliefs form in childhood and are not updated with adult knowledge. Hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis can help you to do give yourself that update and thus improve your self-insight.
Thus, the hypnotherapist helps you, so to speak, repair a childish belief to an adult one[4].
Progression for making conscious choices
Another problem people can have with self-insight is understanding what they do want next. We often know very well what we don't want, but then when you ask "What do you want now?" Then we often remain silent for a while.
Good question.
A hypnotherapist can help with that, too. For example, by giving you suggestions about what your ideal self or ideal life actually looks like. Especially with the idea that there are no obstacles to achieving that ideal image.
Then a hypnotherapist can give you a suggestion to think about where you would like to be with your life next year or even in five years, for example.
This can be a good starting point for a progression. This is almost the opposite of a regression. In a progression, you are suggested to take a step back each time, until you are in the chair with the hypnotherapist.
This way, you get a manageable plan to achieve your goals. This then helps you make more conscious choices in everyday life that fit the insight about yourself that you have gained.
Combining hypnosis techniques for self-insight
By combining these types of techniques you can get a very clear picture of yourself.
Clarity about where you are coming from, what your own pitfalls are and where your growth opportunities lie. These can be opportunities on a personal and business level.
After all, not everything in life is about work. It can also be about improving your health and or improving your relationships.
A good foundation is a clear picture of yourself, and with this clear understanding, you know immediately what things can be put right in your life.
Hypnosis plays a supporting role in this.
Interested in getting hands-on with hypnosis and self-hypnosis? Then come to the free online master class.
Or register directly for one of our events or trainings.
Our trainings can be taken both in class and live online from a location. Ideal if you do find yourself traveling during training or don't even live in the Netherlands.
Click here to learn more about our first training if you want to use hypnosis knowledge to help people gain more self-insight and improve their lives.
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