Mental health: Hypnosis to help people and yourself

Waiting lists in mental health care in particular are incredibly long. A clear signal that something is going wrong with the mental health of many Dutch people. Because of these long waiting lists, many people are also looking for alternative solutions.

The gym is one such place. Unfortunately, you can’t shake off every negative feeling, and often you’ll feel down again after a workout.

So what can you do to improve the mental health of yourself or just other people (provided they ask for it)?

In this blog post, you’ll learn more about mental health and how hypnosis can help.

Good mental health

Good mental health encompasses several things, but you can best tell when you're mentally healthy by being able to function well without beating yourself up over small mistakes.

In addition to functioning well is also important:

1. Self-Acceptance
2. Emotional Resilience
3. Making decisions independently
4. The feeling that your life has meaning or a purpose.
5. Positive Relationships

So good mental health does not mean that there is nothing wrong with you, but that you are actually doing well.

If you have a mwoa feeling about your life, there is room to improve your mental health.

Situations where you may find that there is still some room for improvement include:

That you experience stress and pressure at work that is out of proportion to the work you do.

Despite friends and family, you still have feelings of loneliness.

You worry a lot at night, which makes it hard for you to fall asleep. You can get stuck in negative emotions.

You put aside your own needs and may become tired or frustrated as a result.

The mental disk of five

Esther van Fenema wrote the book on the Mental Disk of Five. The mental disk of five includes:

1. Sufficient rest
2. Limited engagement with the internet/your smartphone
3. Talking out problems
4. Social contacts
5. Sufficient exercise

So by working on these five things, you would already be in a much stronger position than if you spent all day with your smartphone, for example.

Research does indeed show that a lack of rest can lead to increased anxiety and depressive symptoms[1].

Addiction to your smartphone is even more damaging than internet addiction to your mental health. In both cases, you may suffer more anxiety and depression, but this effect is stronger with smartphone addiction[2].

Being able to talk to people is also important for your mental health. Being able to say a lot at work, for example, can detect problems early and allow you to address them before you have a major mental problem[3].

Being able to talk at work is actually a sign of healthy social relationships. Having those connections is indeed important in combating conditions such as depression and anxiety[4].

Exercise also helps very well against stress, to improve your mood and reduce depression. In the process, it also strengthens your sense of "I can do something," which is good for your self-esteem[5].

Mental health and hypnosis

Hypnosis can be used both directly and indirectly to improve people's mental health.

For example, the hypnotic state is excellent for relaxation, which helps reduce stress[6]. In addition, the hypnotic state helps you accept suggestions from a therapist ( or coach) more quickly, which in turn can be used to combat fears and influence your behavior and even your perception of pain.

In addition, hypnotherapy can be used to treat depression and thinking about the past (bad memories) every time[7]. This is then done in part with shifting your attention, visualizations and improving your motivation to achieve therapeutic goals and mindfulness.

Hypnosis for indirect influence on your mental health

Indirectly, hypnosis can also improve your mental health. For example, are you not exercising enough right now? Then your sports motivation can be increased with hypnosis so that you do exercise three times a week.

In addition, hypnosis can also be used to treat addictions, such as internet or smartphone addiction. That way, you can at least get that back on track.

Removing barriers to healthy choices

An important part of hypnotherapy is removing barriers that lead to unhealthy choices. For example, if you’re experiencing a lot of stress at work but find it difficult to tell your coworkers or even your boss that you can’t work overtime anymore, hypnosis can help you figure out why that is.

Or as a coach, you can help people use hypnosis to figure out why it is so for them.

Indeed, in addition to the hypnotic state, you can in fact do a lot with suggestions and people's imagination.

For example, when someone is under hypnosis, you can use the regression technique to go back to the first moment when certain feelings were triggered—feelings that now cause anxiety and depressive symptoms, for instance.

Maybe even feelings that keep you from going to the gym or even walking at all.

With regression, you find out what moment in your life created an impeding belief. You then go back to that moment in your mind, and with a good suggestion, you can even "feel" yourself completely back in that moment.

These are often moments from your childhood, because that is the moment in your life when you determine how everything works.

Only then do you not know everything. Yet those childhood beliefs often remain a major influence. With hypnotherapy, you can go back to such a moment and fix the belief[8].

This can make you stop thinking that sweat is gross, for example, and therefore you do go to the gym.

This can help you find the courage to stand up for yourself when dealing with someone in a position of authority, such as your boss or manager, and thereby set clearer boundaries. This, in turn, can bring you greater peace of mind.

Hypnotherapy has all kinds of benefits for feeling better.

Hypnosis for better socialization

Something that really gets in the way of social interaction is if you get triggered quickly when someone says something. Before you know it, you are known as someone with long toes or a short fuse.

Not at all convenient.

Identifying and eliminating these kinds of triggers can also greatly improve your social interactions, as you’ll be able to interact more calmly with people who might say unusual things.

There is also a hypnosis technique that is very good for putting people in your life in the right place. The social panorama has made a lot of difference for me in my relationship with my children.

In fact, I have 4 sons. I had the oldest son at a very different stage of my life than the youngest son and because of this, the bond with my oldest son was different, less close, than with my youngest son.

The social panorama exercise has helped me put my children all in a more similar place. So my oldest son a little closer. This immediately changed everything.

I was on my way home after practice and he called me. To my mind, this was no coincidence.

In the social panorama, imagine that you are standing in the middle of a room, and there are your family and friends there too. And those are somewhere relative to you. You can move those if the place does not make sense, which can change your behavior toward that person. This can make your bond better[9].

This sounds very easy, but it is not always so. To make it easy, a hypnotherapist can offer help. It's a bit like the family constellation, but a little different. At least it requires a lot less actors 😉 .

Coach for mental health

Whether you want to become a hypnotherapist or a mental health coach, knowledge of hypnosis is incredibly valuable.

Want to learn more about hypnosis? Join the free online masterclass.

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