Hypnotherapy:  An Effective Tool to Change Bad Habits

Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you would give just about anything to have someone come in and fix a problem for you?  Would life be a lot easier and more enjoyable if it weren’t for everyday stresses or thoughts that seem to sap the life out of you?  Why is it that you seem to conquer most challenges in your life, but others seem to paralyze all of your capabilities and defy your logic?  Why do you allow yourself to repeat the same destructive patterns over and over again?

Whether it’s arguing, smoking, or procrastinating, there is an endless list of things people do that can be detrimental to their physical and/or emotional health.  Why is it so difficult to change?  Why is it so difficult to do something positive for ourselves?  The easiest way to explain it is that sometimes we don’t posses the proper tools or resources for the job at hand.  It would be perfectly normal to feel angry, upset, or confused if you had a job as brick layer, and you had no bricks to work with, yet the foreman was screaming at you to hurry up and finish the job!   Similarly, it is normal to feel overwhelmed when you are confronted with a stressful situation or emotion, yet seemingly have no clue how to deal with it. 

The key to improving one’s life is to realize that we actually do have the resources needed to deal with problems in our everyday lives.  We all have an incredible inner power, our subconscious, which has the capacity to help us in ways that we are not consciously aware of. It regulates important functions such as heart rate, blood flow, hormonal balance, breathing, blinking, and so many others that it would be impossible to list them all here. Why is it so important that I mention the subconscious mind in the same train of thought as the difficulties one can face when they do not have the proper inner resources?  The answer is found in Hypnotherapy.

Hypnotherapy is all about using your inner resources, or subconscious mind, to promote outward positive change in your daily life.  It allows you to acquire the tools you need to conquer the road blocks that occasionally pop up in life.

As we all know, various stresses and problems manifest daily in our lives.  Most of the time we are able to cope with them adequately enough, but sometimes, depending on the circumstance, we might lack the resources to properly solve them.  In this case, our conscious mind is overwhelmed, and asks the subconscious mind for help. During this moment of mental strife the subconscious mind has no choice but to come up with a quick answer that the conscious mind will carry it out as best possible.  The problem, however, is that the conscious mind has relayed limited information to the subconscious mind; in essence, it has failed to explain all of the parameters to the subconscious mind, as it simply wants the easiest and quickest way out. In this immediate, stressful moment, the subconscious mind is not concerned about the future or the best end result; it is only concerned with what it is being asked to do.  However, such a reaction may not be appropriate if repeated over and over, and it can even be detrimental to your health in the long run. 

How is it possible that you can become programmed to do the same thing over and over again, when it makes no sense on a logical level?  Simply put, it’s like one-time conditioning.  We have all heard about Pavlov’s dog-feeding experiments, and how after a while, the bell would go off and the dogs would simply drool even if no food was placed before them.  What is not as clearly understood is how easy it is to become conditioned to a certain behavior after only one event!  The key is how difficult, confusing, or emotionally stressful the situation is.  If we increase any one of those aspects in difficult situation, it is much easier for any future thoughts of the situation to promote the same negative feelings and reactions; a one-time conditioned response.

Why can’t we simply “un-condition” the response later?  Interestingly enough, sometimes people do un-condition negative responses. Sometimes we are able to consciously realize that we don’t need to continue acting a certain way. Or, we might be unhappy with a behavior because it violates our own personal beliefs and values in some way, so we stop doing it.  Voluntarily unlearning certain emotions or behaviors, however, is not always so easy. 

Nearly everyone has some sort of small neurotic behavior or superstition that compels them to act in a certain way, even if it is totally contrary to their outward character.   Have you ever done something that seemed natural to you, yet someone asked you why you were doing it, and your explanation was rather out of character?  One of the best examples is family gatherings.  How many customs do you have that are simply handed down over time, with no real explanation as to where they came from?  These are behaviors that we have repeated so many times that we justify them as normal without much thought.   How different is it when you are taking part in another family’s gathering? 

The idea is that most of us have certain learned or conditioned behaviors that we just accept as normal, because they don’t violate our sense of self.  Also, the more we repeat a certain behavior, the more we seem to accept it as an intrinsic part of who we are, rather than something we learned to do.  All of this is to just point out that we will only re-evaluate our behaviors and responses if they do not feel natural.  Thus, it is quite difficult for the conscious mind to un-condition responses that feel second-nature. 

What does all this mean?  In a nut shell, it means that even if we know a great deal of how unwanted behavior is formed, it is sometimes impossible for the conscious mind to figure out the real root cause.    This is because the conscious mind will not look at behaviors that it has accepted as being natural, even if they are indeed the cause of other problems.  In fact, the conscious mind will try very hard to defend all of its accepted behaviors.  Thus, dealing directly with a person’s conscious mind to solve their most difficult problems can be a very long and tedious battle.

So how does Hypnosis make change possible?  Hypnosis, when practiced for therapeutic reasons, allows the Hypnotherapist to access the individual’s subconscious mind directly, in regards to whatever issue they may have.  As discussed earlier, the subconscious mind is responsible for creating and maintaining an individual’s behavior, or even physical aliments which are brought about by psychological means.  Instead of competing with the individual’s conscious mind to find ways of helping themselves, the Hypnotherapist will access the person’s subconscious mind, which is much more aware of the unwanted behavior, and is able to make immediate adjustments without needing the help of the conscious filter.

Hypnotherapy uses an inside-out approach, rather than an outside-in approach.  It is much easier to help someone change their behavior by accessing their subconscious mind and allowing their conscious mind to feel the results, rather than trying to convince the conscious mind that it needs to change behaviors that it feels are necessary to get the results they want in life.

Hypnotherapy can be a very quick and powerful tool to promote immediate and long lasting change; however it should not be confused as a miracle art.  A client’s willpower and determination to succeed is the fuel that the Hypnotherapist uses to guide the individual to make positive life choices and changes.  For some individuals, it may be more difficult to achieve the changes they desire.  However, when you become more attuned with your subconscious, you can be comforted in knowing that you can change in other ways that you are now just discovering!