Improving self-control with hypnosis
Behavior is largely determined by self-control. Self-control is therefore incredibly important to be successful and happy in life. In fact, self-control is about much more than just behavior. In fact, your behavior is the result of your beliefs, thoughts and emotions. These are factors that self-control affects
What is self-control?
Self-control is the ability to regulate your thoughts, emotions, and behavior when you’re tempted to do something that isn’t good for you.
When it comes to your thoughts, it can sometimes be very tempting to wallow in your negative emotions—for example, to wallow in a victim mentality.
This can be very tempting, but with enough self-control, you'll make sure to quickly repackage yourself to look at the positives instead.
When it comes to your emotions, self-control helps you avoid acting out when you’re furious or bursting into tears during moments of uncertainty (such as during a performance review).
Another way self-control deals with emotions is when you are down or cranky, for example. That again, you don't linger in that emotion, but instead choose to be happy or joyful.
Emotions and behavior go hand in hand. Controlling emotions therefore often leads to controlling behavior, but this isn’t always the case. For example, you might be very disappointed at work but not want to shout it from the rooftops. In that case, self-control helps you manage your behavior.
Healthy behaviors, such as eating well and getting enough exercise, are areas where self-control is particularly important. For example, how do you resist those delicious peppernuts every year in the months leading up to Sinterklaas and avoid eating all the chocolate Easter eggs in the spring?
What is self-control good for?
Self-control has a variety of benefits, namely:
You are better at making the right decisions, but the thing is, you can run out of self-control. After making too many of those good decisions, it can be very difficult to avoid making that bad decision.
The most recognizable example of this is that it's getting harder and harder to leave out that chocolate when you're on a diet.
You have a better chance of success. This is evident from training conducted for the U.S. military. People who enlist with the belief that their mental strength will help them often perform better than those who enlist relying solely on their physical strength.
You’ll be more honest and drink less. When you have more self-control, you’re less likely to lie about unhealthy behaviors, and you’ll also be less prone to binge drinking—which means you’re less likely to suddenly drink a huge amount of alcohol when you don’t normally do so on a daily basis.
It helps you stay focused. Duh. Doing homework instead of scrolling through social media? That depends on your level of self-control. Getting your work done efficiently and effectively? Yep, that’s another thing related to self-control.
The nice consequence of making good decisions, not drinking and being able to focus well while working is that you are also much more likely to get rich. After all, booze is expensive, so that's what makes you poor, and everything else mainly brings in even more money.
This is also evidenced by research conducted in New Zealand in which children were followed well into adulthood. What was found: the children/adults with more self-control only had poorly paid jobs and/or suffered from addictions in 10% of cases while 30% of those with little self-control had poorly paid jobs or suffered from addictions. That's as much as 3x the risk of poverty if you have low self-control.
Develop self-control with tips and hypnosis
With all these benefits in mind, you are naturally eager to train your self-control. It really does work like a muscle. Self-control is something that is exhaustible, but by training it you have more and more of it. Just as with strength training you have more strength in your muscles, but can exhaust that strength if you train too long.
Here are a few tips to improve your self-control.
Tip #1: Believe you are in control of your life
Believing that you are in control of your life is incredibly important to improving your self-control. If you feel you don't have that, you will also make less conscious choices to have control over your life.
By believing you have control you also take more responsibility for the choices you make.
How hypnosis helps:
Hypnosis influences your beliefs. These are deeply rooted in your subconscious, which is where hypnosis takes effect. Initially, a hypnosis expert will ask you questions about how you think the world works and how you believe you can exert control over it.
Depending on your answers, the hypnosis expert uses techniques to change your sense of control. This can be done, for example, through post-hypnotic suggestions about what to do when you feel like you’re losing control—such as staying calm and deciding for yourself how to respond to a situation that feels undesirable at that moment.
Tip 2: Make your goals measurable
Wanting to lose weight is great, but by making it truly measurable—“I want to lose 5 kilos”—you make it easier to take responsibility for your behavior and thus have more self-control to actually achieve those goals.
You can also have the goal of reading half an hour every day to learn something new. As long as it is clearly measurable and not something like "I want to read a book" or "I want to learn something new."
How hypnosis helps:
To make goals measurable, the importance of beliefs is also important. For example, if you want to lose 1 kilo a week or read for 30 minutes a day, it is important to know if you can do this and if you have the time to do so.
For example, when you think you don't have time for anything, it is important to counter this with other beliefs. This can be done, for example, with hypnotic suggestions that you repeat during self-hypnosis.
These may include:
"I can free up time."
"I am entitled to me-time for my personal goals."
"A day consists of 24 hours, out of which I need to be able to schedule 30 minutes for myself," he said.
These are just examples of hypnotic suggestions, depending on your beliefs and goals you may get other suggestions from your hypnosis expert.
Tip 3: Motivate yourself
The answer to the question "Why are you doing something?" is very important to the degree of self-control you have to achieve a particular goal. After all, this is about your motivation. If you do something because you like it, it is very easy to keep your behavior right, but when it comes to extrinsic motivation, it is already a lot more difficult.
For example, if you don't like your job, but it pays well, it is already more difficult to have self-control and not to do something else you like while you are working.
How hypnosis helps:
A good way to motivate yourself is to visualize what it looks like when you have achieved your success, which requires self-control. For example, you visualize the house you have, what you do in that house, how you look and how you feel. Maybe also who you share the success with.
You can create such a visualization together with a hypnosis expert and then repeat it at home during self-hypnosis. This helps you keep your goal in sight so you can maintain strong self-control.
Tip 4: Build your confidence that you can do it
To do something, it is important to be able to visualize yourself doing it. For example, if you want to run a marathon, but do not have the confidence that you can do it, there is little chance that you will attempt it at all, and the dream remains a dream.
By building your self-confidence, you’ll also improve your self-control, because you’ll simply be less likely to give up.
How hypnosis helps:
People often don't do things until they see themselves doing them. So you need to be able to imagine what it is like when you reach your goal and what it is like to achieve your goal. You literally visualize the steps you need to take.
For example, if you want to give seminars or presentations but find it very nerve-wracking, a hypnotherapist can help you visualize the process using techniques that will allow you to keep a cool head and perform well during such a crucial moment.
Self-control and hypnosis certainly go hand in hand. Would you like to learn more about how hypnosis can help simplify your life? Then come to a workshop or sign up for one of the courses offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.
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