Period: pain is not part of it with hypnosis
Every month it's that time again: your period and you're in pain. Super annoying, because you do have all kinds of things to do. So it would be nice not to have to. Menstruation bothers some women more than others. But if it bothers you, it is also really annoying. There are even cases where you faint a lot as if the pain is not enough. Staying at home then seems to be the only option
Where do you suffer from period pain?
You may experience pain in your lower abdomen and lower back. This pain may even begin before you have your period. Some women suffer from menstruation for 2 weeks, usually they are prescribed the pill to have less trouble with menstruation because then they can control how long the cycle lasts. Then you can go for a cycle of 6 weeks instead of 1 month, for example.
If you also experience pain in other areas, you may have endometriosis. In that case, uterine lining may develop outside the uterus. This is very painful during menstruation because the lining sheds outside the uterus as well. This causes painful inflammation that the body must clear in a way other than through the vagina.
Why does period hurt?
Your uterus is busy every month creating a nice place for a fetus to develop properly. For this, you get a somewhat thicker lining in the uterus, but if your egg does not fertilize, the uterus clears out.
The muscles that cause the excess mucus to be worked out of your body cause the pain.
Some people also experience nausea, sweating, vomiting, dizziness, headaches and diarrhea.
What to do about period pain?
In general, pain relievers work for menstrual cramps, but sometimes they don’t, and sometimes you just don’t want to take a pill.
In that case, a healthy diet, regular exercise, and stress reduction often help alleviate menstrual pain as well.
In addition, hypnosis can also help with pain. Hypnosis is used in many other situations as a pain relief method, such as for chronic pain, pain during childbirth, and other painful experiences.
Research also shows that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) combined with hypnosis has a significant effect in reducing pain. In this study, participants received 10 sessions in which they learned or performed self-hypnosis and CBT techniques in 45 minutes.
Why can hypnosis help with period pain?
Pain is a subjective thing, of course the same things hurt people. When someone pricks you, it hurts, it is felt by another person. But for one person a prick is much more painful than for another person.
This has to do with the pain threshold you have. The pain threshold is the amount of pain or discomfort you can tolerate without difficulty. This is different for everyone.
The most well-known evidence of pain threshold is the pain threshold that women have before or after natural childbirth. Before childbirth it is often lower than it is for men while after childbirth the pain threshold is often higher than it is for men.
This is a subjective feeling and it is precisely on that subjective part that hypnosis has an impact.
How hypnosis can help against cramping.
Well that's heartening that this helps, but how?
Cognitive behavioral therapy addresses the beliefs you hold, and by using hypnosis, you’ll be able to change those beliefs more quickly. In this case, that means the beliefs you hold about pain, about the quality of your life with pain, and about the influence you yourself have on that pain during your period.
Visualization with hand
A technique commonly used for cramping is visualization with your hands. Initially, it is important that you relax. You lie down and breathe evenly through your abdomen. You relax your muscles, possibly with a quick body scan, and allow your body to relax completely.
Then you place your hands on your lower abdomen where you suffer from the cramp. You leave them there for a while until you feel the warmth of your hands warming your abdomen. This soothing warmth also makes your lower abdomen feel calmer and soothes the cramps. You feel nice and serene. You feel how the heat does your uterus good and the pain of the cramp is less intense.
This visualization exercise, in which you can have someone read the text aloud to you, helps with many types of cramps. People who suffer from digestive issues also like to use this technique to reduce abdominal pain.
The visualization button
To increase the sense of control over cramping and pain in another way is by visualizing a button. You then see a kind of volume knob in front of you that you can turn up or down. If you are relaxed, as in the previous visualization exercise, visualize the knob in front of you and turn it softer. By doing this you are turning the pain to a lower setting, so to speak.
A place to relax
Cramping and tension often walk hand in hand. The visualizations mentioned above clearly focus on reducing pain, but you can also take a more subtle approach. For example, with a visualization of yourself in a relaxed place. A hypnotist can help you with this if you find it difficult to do this yourself.
In each case, you visualize a place you have fond memories of, like that beach during summer vacation where it was once exceptionally peaceful. Or that meadow full of flowers and buzzing bees where you found such peace. The visualization is meant to relax you and take your mind off the pain of your period.
A guided visualization can go as follows:
"You walk across the dunes in your favorite summer clothes that are snug. You feel a pleasant breeze and smell the sea. You hear the seagulls chattering, but luckily they fly a long way away. The sun is pleasant on your skin and warms you. You walk quietly through pleasant-feeling sand that warms your feet nicely to your spot and lay down your super-sized bath towel. Then you lie down on it. Wonderfully soft is the sand and everything is nice and comfortable. You feel the muscles in your body relax. Your feet, your calves, your thighs, your back, your belly and your arms. Even your tongue no longer presses against your palate. You enjoy the breeze that makes the heat of the sun really nice and maybe you even doze off a little."
This is just an example of a guided visualization, depending on your favorite place to relax you may suggest a different visualization.
Changing beliefs about cramping
Pain, then, is a subjective thing and is therefore highly dependent on the beliefs you have about it. For example, pain causes you to do certain things you would rather not do, such as moving around a lot or something similar.
If you are someone who focuses mostly on what you can no longer do because of pain, it is wise to shift that focus. This is something that can be done with hypnotic suggestions. You can repeat these at home during self-hypnosis or listen to them if you have been given an mp3.
Before doing this self-hypnosis exercise, you can do a visualization exercise that promotes your relaxation. This will also get you into self-hypnosis faster.
Suggestions then may include:
"Even with a stomach ache, I can enjoy my day."
"I can always put a smile on my face, then the rest will come naturally," he says.
"When I drink water the pain reduces." (Dehydration creates a stronger sense of pain)
"I can perform simple tasks when I'm on my period."
"When I stretch I feel better."
These are just examples of hypnotic suggestions, depending on your beliefs about pain and period, you may get other suggestions from your hypnotist.
However, your hypnotist must find out your beliefs to do this. He/she can do this in several ways. For example, with a Socratic conversation or with regression. In a Socratic conversation, the why question is repeated several times to get to your deepest beliefs.
If this doesn’t help, regression therapy may also be beneficial. During regression, you go back to a memory that led you to form beliefs about pain during your period—beliefs that aren’t helping you right now.
Perhaps when you were little, a family member suffered a lot of pain during your period and it made a big impression on you at the time. This may make you think you can do less and have less control than you have. During a regression, this can become clear and you can work with the hypnotist to determine if you have the same burdens as that person from your childhood.
Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and other mental techniques for solving problems? Then come visit the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands. Check out our calendar for upcoming events.
Sources:
http://armaghanj.yums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-945-1&slc_lang=en&sid=1