If you suffer from acute or chronic pain, give these free self hypnosis tips a try. Studies conducted by Harvard Medical School and the Society for Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis among others have shown that hypnosis can be used successfully for pain management.
How does it work? At the most basic level, these free self hypnosis tips will teach you how to attain a hypnotic state, which will enable you to control the experience of pain in your body.
A qualified hypnotherapist can guide you through this process and teach you three different strategies for managing pain.
1. Physical relaxation: both chronic and acute pain will tense your muscles, which then exacerbates the pain. Through free self hypnosis tips, you can relax the muscles and reduce the experience of pain.
2. Sensory alteration: in this approach, hypnosis is used to change your cognitive perception of pain. During the hyper-attentive trance stage, your conscious mind relinquishes control to your subconscious, which leads you to be highly imaginative and open to suggestion.
If your hand suffered from intense, burning pain, a hypnotherapist could persuade you that there was a cool, running stream nearby. He or she could advise you to place your hand in the stream. Soon, your senses would focus on the numbness caused by the frigid water. It would have filtered out thoughts of the physical pain.
3. Distraction: Finally, under using free self hypnosis techniques you could instruct yourself to focus on another part of the body. Once your mind stopped dwelling on the pain in your hand, it would subside.
This phenomenon has been well-studied. Elvira Laing, MD, from Harvard Medical School, studied 240 patients who were preparing for an invasive interventional radiology procedure, which involved planting micro-cameras in their arteries.
All of the patients were given pain medications. One group also learned free self hypnosis techniques for pain management. One group was assigned a nurse. The final group received routine care.
Surprisingly, the group that practiced self hypnosis fared much better than the others. In addition to using less medication and reporting lower levels of anxiety, their procedures were, on average, 17 minute shorter than the others.
How can you use these free self hypnosis tips to manage your chronic pain? Perform this simple exercise two to three times every one to three hours until it disappears. Repeat any time the pain worsens.
* Sit in a dim room free from distraction.
* Look up. Close your eyes.
* Breathe deeply. Focus on your breath.
* Let your body float. Feel it float. Imagine you are floating in the air.
* When it is time to end your hypnosis section, gently return your focus back the the room.
If you wish to practice a longer hypnosis section, try this free self hypnosis exercise:
* Perform the Jacobsen Progressive Relaxation procedure. To do this, sit or lie down in a comfortable position. Find an environment with few distractions. Slowly, tense each major muscle group. Hold it for a few seconds. Then, relax. Begin with your feet and progress all the way to the top of your head.
* Begin counting down from 100. With each number, fall more deeply into a trance. As distracting thoughts arise, brush them aside. (This will be familiar to anyone who has ever tried meditation.) As you practice more frequently, you can try counting for a lower number like 20 to see what works best for you.
* Prior to beginning the session, you should develop a short, powerful statement or image.For example, picture yourself in peak physical fitness, climbing a mountain or running without pain.
* Although it may be tempting to do so, don’t fall asleep or leap right up from your session. Set a clear boundary between hypnosis and the next activity. Tell yourself that you will be fully alert on a count of three.