Traveling in a car, on a boat, on the back of a bicycle, on a train and on a bus without being behind the wheel yourself can be very unpleasant for some people. This motion sickness, also known as seasickness, is very annoying and can cause you to actually never get beyond your own town or village. Especially when you actually feel like traveling and exploring the world, this motion sickness can greatly limit your freedom of movement.
Therefore, in this article, I will discuss the benefits of hypnosis on motion sickness. First, I explain what it is and why it occurs and then I talk more about the role hypnosis can play.
Car sickness
If you suffer from car sickness, also known as seasickness and motion sickness, you may experience nausea and dizziness when you are in a car, train, bus, plane or are on a sailing ship. In severe cases, it can even make you vomit. Terribly annoying!
Motion sickness actually has to do with the processing of movement by your sense of balance in conjunction with your vision(1). This motion sickness has become best known because when you are on a ship and the sea is wild you are shaken in all directions, but when you are in your cabin you do not see that the ship is moving.
As a result, you actually get signals that contradict each other. Your vision says nothing is going on, but your sense of balance says you are completely shaken.
This is why riding backwards on the train or bus is also a big problem for some people. After all, the bus doesn't really seem to be moving if you only look at the interior, but you are definitely moving.
The simplest solution is often to face the direction of travel when on the train or bus. Children with motion sickness are often allowed by their parents to sit up front so they can see what is happening, but if all children have motion sickness this becomes very difficult.
In addition, the train or bus can also be too crowded to sit in the right seat or it's so crowded that you can't see out properly. The solution is then already gone.
Why does motion sickness affect one person and not another?
What's special about this motion sickness is that you can suggest to people that they suffer from it, and that suggestion actually increases the likelihood of it. Even if you think you will get carsick, it is more likely to happen.
Therefore, whether a person suffers from car sickness or not also has to do with their beliefs.
Especially if you already suffered from car sickness as a child, you may suffer from it even more in your adult life. This is because your body has spent years learning how to react when you travel. As a result, you may get nauseous just at the sight of your means of transportation.
Preventing Car Sickness
This is why it is especially important not to think about it.
Of course, this can be very difficult, because your brain is also going to give those mixed signals when you're not thinking about it. In fact, reading a book or playing (hand) computer games for distraction can be disastrous again.
It is better to listen to music, and possibly sing along, than to do something that makes you look down.
Travel sickness in my child
A child who suffers from motion sickness is the child you most want to help. Especially since he/she is now so dependent on others in transportation. The sports club requires driving to away games, the day at the amusement park requires travel, and school trips can also be very exciting.
Fortunately, there are several things you can do to help your child with car sickness.
If your child suffers from car sickness, it is important to make sure they can look out the car window when driving. This will reduce confusion about the interpretation of vision and the balance organ which will reduce the effect of car sickness.
If you yourself are afraid that your child will get car sickness, you may unconsciously give signals that make your child think they are going to get nauseous. Try to avoid this. This illness is very sensitive to suggestions.
In addition, it is important to distract your child, but not by pushing a game console into his/her hand. It is better to focus your child's attention on what is going on outside the car.
For example, this is a good opportunity to teach your child about different car brands. Where you can see birds of prey along the road the most (on the posts of fences in meadows).
A few games you can play with your child to prevent them from getting sick are:
I see what you don't see
In this game, you indicate what color it is and it should be easy to guess, especially if you are driving fast.
What brand of car is that?
In this game, you have your child guess which brand of car is driving in front of you, for example, or which one you are overtaking or which type is driving next to you. If your child gets good at this quickly you can expand it to trucks, which of course are also super cool.
Where's the bird?
The Netherlands is a real bird country. There are birds in every meadow, such as crows, geese, ducks, storks, herons, swans and even a falcon or owl here and there. You can search the roadside meadows together for beautiful birds.
In addition, you can point out to him the crazy behavior of some birds; for example, a lapwing that has its nest too close to the road attacks passing cars, and a heron always keeps its neck curled up when flying, while a swan keeps its neck stretched.
Hypnosis against car sickness
Because car sickness is a condition in which suggestions play a major role, these suggestions can also reverse the disease.
Initially, during hypnosis, you look at the beliefs you have about nausea. This is also applied by hypnotherapists to people who remain nauseous after chemotherapy or after prolonged pregnancy nausea when there is no longer a reason for it.
This is because during a cure, the body has taught itself to go over its neck at certain smells. The same thing can happen if you are convinced from childhood that traveling makes you sick. Your body has learned to get sick when you are in a car, bus, train, plane or on a boat and so it happens.
This strange connection can be disconnected through hypnosis.
You will then receive post-hypnotic suggestions that will ensure that after hypnosis, you no longer automatically get nauseous when you travel. This could include:
From now on, when you sit in someone else's car, stay calm and enjoy your surroundings.
Being in the car calms you down and allows you to relax properly.
In addition, you can also be convinced that driving will always make you sick. During a hypnosis session, the therapist can figure out these beliefs and do something to change them.
You can even get self-hypnosis assignments to take home to further weaken these mistaken beliefs at home as well. In that case, you will be given hypnotic suggestions that you can repeat yourself.
You can also get a technique that allows you to control your nausea with a visualization after hypnotherapy. Thus, through certain visualizations and mental actions, you can reduce or "turn off" nausea(2).
For example, nausea decreases when you rub your neck.
Hypnotherapy is also used in this way for chronic pain management.
Reducing anxiety with hypnosis
In addition, you may also have developed a fear of traveling due to long-term car sickness. This is very unfortunate, because by doing so, you are letting much of the world pass you by.
Hypnotherapy also works extremely well against anxiety. This includes fears of events as well as fears of things.
Car sickness, for example, may have given you a fear of transportation that goes far beyond the fear of nausea. During hypnotherapy, we can look at how the nausea eventually led to such a fear that you don't even want to travel anymore.
The mental processes that caused the anxiety are examined, and in the process you are given tools to influence those processes so that you no longer have a fear of that nausea and actually have less nausea.
Having motion sickness is incredibly annoying and can ruin opportunities for happiness. A distant vacation, for example, may be out of the question. Initially, it is very important to realize that motion sickness can be influenced by suggestions and beliefs.
In addition, as far as possible, it is important to support your sense of balance with sight. So when traveling, look outside and especially don't look down. If necessary, distract yourself with music or a game.
Want to learn more about hypnosis and how you can help yourself or others with it? Then come to a seminar or check out Hypnosis Institute Netherlands' training courses.
Sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/caraccessories/8688774/Coping-with-travel-sickness.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4625628/
