Self-hypnosis techniques: Techniques you can use yourself

Self-hypnosis techniques are widely used in studies to see if hypnosis can have certain effects. Often, people are also given self-hypnosis as homework to help them hold the treatment well and especially not let go again due to changing circumstances in life.

But what self-hypnosis techniques are out there, and can anyone do it?

Audio file listening

One of the easiest ways to practice self-hypnosis is by listening to an audio recording by a hypnotist. A hypnotherapist creates an audio recording that helps you induce hypnosis in yourself and then relax completely.

Sometimes you can get a personalized audio recording specifically tailored to your problem, so that you can use it to transform yourself into a completely new person. Whether this is to quit smoking, lose weight, overcome fears, reduce pain, or even alleviate symptoms of depression.

Self-hypnosis with an audio file is one of the easiest ways if you have no other knowledge of hypnosis. All you need then is a place where you can completely relax and sit or lie down. While you listen to the audio file with your eyes closed.

Inducing self-hypnosis

Sometimes, however, you may not have an audio file to listen to. In that case, you can also induce hypnosis entirely on your own and decide what you’re going to do. Whether you’re being hypnotized or hypnotizing yourself, it’s important to induce hypnosis.

The first step in self-hypnosis is relaxation and calm. Next, you can encourage yourself to go deeper and deeper into that state of relaxation and to focus more and more on nothingness.

For example, you can visualize yourself descending a staircase into a deep basement.

When you have hypnotized yourself properly, you are no longer so preoccupied with the reality around you, but can focus properly on the techniques and what you want to achieve with self-hypnosis.

It's normal to have doubts at first about whether you're doing it right, but just because you're enjoying yourself doesn't mean you have to worry so much about that question. You can always just do it again[1].

The more often you practice self-hypnosis, the better it will be and the faster you can get into the hypnotic state as well.

Visualization safe place

A next step to deepen that relaxation and hypnosis is often to visualize a safe place. For example, there might be a door at the bottom of the basement, and when you open it, you’re in that safe place—or you can simply walk there.

That safe place can be anything, such as a place you've ever been and feel completely comfortable[2]. Or even a place from your imagination that you just love, or who knows even a place you've only seen in a movie.

In that safe place, you can completely relax and just feel good.

Once you're here, many treatments or techniques for solving problems really begin. You can then work on techniques to reduce symptoms, for example.

Visualizing Your Body Clean

Once you’re completely relaxed, you can get started with other fun activities, such as visualizing your body and how you can replace negative emotions or feelings with positive ones.

Depending on your interest in yoga, for example, you can visualize cleansing your chakras. In the case of a woman receiving chemotherapy for cancer, this visualization was used while she was undergoing chemotherapy. For this she was also given an audio recording for self-hypnosis (source 2), but you can also do this for yourself without an audio recording.

In another visualization, she imagined Pac-Man eating the cancer out of her body until it was gone. Of course, this isn’t the cure for cancer, but it helps you feel better about the treatment and alleviates the stress associated with it.

You don't have to have cancer to visualize your body clean. You can also visualize how, for example, a fine light or color cleanses your body of negative emotions.

Self-hypnosis to reduce pain

In a study on the effect of self-hypnosis to reduce headaches , self-hypnosis was used the moment people felt they were getting a headache. They then had to imagine that there was a kind of ruler with numbers from one to twelve. And where on that scale the headache was then, an eight or on the nine for example. Then they could see how this number got lower and lower.

Like being in an elevator, you press a lower number each time until you hit zero.

Another visualization to get rid of the headache is to imagine that the headache is a certain color or shape. While another place in your head, where there is no headache there is another nicer color or shape.

Then you can watch as the color and shape of the headache gets smaller and smaller and the color of the good feeling actually gets bigger and bigger, until the color completely fills the screen of your imagination.

And maybe you have another way to visualize the headache going away. Whatever way works for you, use a way that works for you. It's all good.

This helped eliminate headaches and even make headaches less frequent[3].

Visualizations can also be used for Irritable Bowel Syndrome to self-hypnotize away abdominal discomfort. Metaphors can be used, such as rivers and, for example, removing large rocks or anything else that blocks the river’s flow. This way, you can also reduce the likelihood of experiencing blockages or similar issues in the intestines[4].

Repeating suggestions to yourself

In addition to visualizations, you can also repeat affirmations to yourself. This can help you with self-confidence and behavioral change, for example. If you do this at the start of your day, you can even set the tone for the entire day.

You then have some kind of intention about how you want to shape your day or how you want to behave during the day.

This can do something to improve your internal drive (ID) and ego and reduce your superego - society's influence on what you want[5].

Just consider the meaning of success—which , for yourself and your own ego, can mean something quite different from what society considers success and what your superego might imagine. Your id, ego, and superego are often in conflict with one another, and in such cases, self-hypnosis with affirmations can help you experience inner peace nonetheless.

For example, a well-known suggestion you can repeat is:

"I'm getting better and better every day in every way."

"I'm good enough."

"I am successful."

"People accept me."

"I'm a winner."

These are just examples, depending on your goals and inner conflicts you may choose other suggestions or affirmations.

These techniques can help you improve your concentration, stay focused on your goals, and feel better emotionally.

The longer you practice with this the less you suffer from your internal conflict between your internal drive, ego and superego (source 5).

Advanced self-hypnosis

If you have knowledge of hypnosis techniques, you can also perform some more complicated techniques. These can then be the techniques you normally practice with a hypnotherapist, such as with regression, talking to your inner child and progression.

These are really techniques for going through transformations and require good knowledge of hypnosis, especially since these techniques are usually supervised during hypnotherapy anyway rather than being done independently.

So I actually only recommend doing this if you’ve completed the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands training program and have experience providing hypnotherapy.

For example, if you become aware of a negative pattern in your life, you can use regression to go back to the very first moment you experienced a certain feeling that is now associated with that pattern. Then you can see how it originated. You can then view this moment not from your own perspective, but neutrally from a third-person viewpoint. You can empathize with other people to see if you can change the belief you’ve acquired using your current understanding of life.

Sometimes more is needed than just your current knowledge, and that’s when you can have a conversation with your inner child. Normally, a hypnotherapist helps you with this conversation, but with self-hypnosis, you do it entirely on your own. You then invite your inner child to let go of a certain defensive behavior and to reconnect with life as it is now.

With progression, you can actually plan for the future. Somehow this is somewhat similar to affirmations, but with the difference being that you are going to make some kind of roadmap on how you will reach your goal. This is a technique that comes back in the more advanced training.

So self-hypnosis techniques for beginners are mainly about visualizations to feel good, both emotionally and physically, and repeating suggestions or affirmations to improve self-confidence, for example.

For advanced users, and I'm really talking about hypnotherapists themselves, you can also use more complicated techniques with self-hypnosis such as regression, talking to your inner child and progression.

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