A GOOD DEFINITION OF HYPNOSIS IS: 'A STATE OF DEEP RELAXATION AND CONCENTRATION,COUPLED WITH A STATE OF HEIGHTENED AWARENESS, INDUCED BY SUGGESTION.' Hypnotherapy for Health and Well Being – Aidan Noone, Registered and Certified - Hypnotherapist/Analyst – Telephone -042-933-0255 Would it surprise you very much to know that we experience the state of hypnosis numerous times every day? And you may think how can this be, isn’t hypnosis shrouded in mystery and secrecy? Isn’t it about being under the hypnotists control and chasing leprechauns and making fools of people on stage shows? NOW is the time to dispel these myths because hypnotherapy is a wonderful and gentle tool which we can use to enhance our lives and increase our sense of health and well being. So what is hypnosis? What is that state that we have wrongfully been conditioned to fear by the media and indeed Hollywood? Well very simply, it is a state of mind which we naturally access numerous times every day of our lives. Like those times when we are totally focussed on watching a film and discover that an hour or two have gone by and it seems like just a few minutes have passed. Or those times when driving and suddenly realising you’re on a particular stretch of road and didn’t remember the two miles you travelled to get there. So then we are indeed very familiar with this state altered awareness in which our conscious mind is relaxed and our unconscious mind is more to the fore. I like to think of the mind like an iceberg with a third of it visible and the other two thirds, the main bulk of it submerged. That one third is the conscious mind and the rest is the unconscious mind. The conscious mind is what we use every day. We decide to turn off the alarm clock in the morning, we choose what we want for breakfast, which clothes to wear, what time we need to get to a meeting and who is going to collect the children from school and so on. However, our unconscious is working away quietly and often unknown to us all the time. It looks after our digestion, our heart beats, regulates our body temperature and so on. It also stores each and every one of our memories and experiences. We could compare our unconscious to a bank which deals with day to day transactions and which also stores our resources and treasures, in its vaults. Hypnosis then is a state of relaxation in which we can communicate directly with this storehouse of our unconscious mind. So what about the hypnotists having our mind under his/ her control? Let’s take our experience of watching a film as an example. We go to the cinema and take our seats, for a few minutes we probably look around and observe and see who else is there. Then the film starts and we begin to focus on it. If the film is good we get lost in the characters and the story. Our conscious mind knows it’s just a film with actors and actresses but when we become riveted our unconscious accepts them as real characters and we cry and laugh as we become immersed in the story. So we are in a state of hypnosis! But at the same time we are aware of what is happening around us and can tune out the coughing and the sneezing and other sounds from the audience. We are not asleep but we are in an altered state of awareness. So we could say then that the film is our ‘hypnotist’ but it does not control us so we could say that the film guides us into this state- but at any time we can get up and walk out or stretch or whatever we choose. So we are not under the control of the ‘hypnotist’ (in this case the film); rather, we choose to be guided into this state. Likewise with our visit to a Registered Ethical Hypnotherapist we choose to go there and choose to be guided into this relaxed state, therefore we are really our own ‘hypnotist’ and we cannot therefore be hypnotised against our will. It’s impossible! Here it is appropriate to mention stage hypnosis and how it works. It really is quite simple. When volunteers go on stage they have a particular contract in mind with the hypnotist. They know he is going to ask them to do a variety of crazy things and to generally make fools of themselves. So by volunteering, they show that they are willing to do these things anyway. Now throw into this the atmosphere where they are being encouraged by their friends plus maybe two hundred more people in the audience. So they are going to co-operate with the hypnotist. When they go on stage they are asked to do a few tests-for example to imagine that their hands are glued together and they cannot take them apart, etc. From this the stage hypnotist knows immediately who is going to co-operate with him/her or not and it is at this point that he chooses who stays on stage and who doesn’t. Therefore the context dictates the behaviour of participants. Our unconscious mind holds all our experiences from our time in the womb right up to the present day. If there were experiences which were painful to us, embarrassed us, caused us pain in our younger years , they are stored there and maybe forgotten, but these emotions associated with the memories maybe affecting us in our daily lives in the form of anxieties, fears , nervous tension , nightmares, sleeplessness, depression, problem drinking and so on. There maybe powerful conflicts going in our unconscious which interfere with our enjoyment of life. Hypnotherapy can be the key to unlocking these problems and for many people has proven to be very effective. It attempts to recreate and then resolve this excess conflict. The person is then freed from the effects of what was hidden from their conscious mind because now it is brought into awareness. So now in a sense it is like the person is now in the driver’s seat and there is no voice coming from the back seat which affects them. This enables people to achieve a new strength of mind which helps them to enjoy life to the full. Hypnotherapy used is this way is called Analytical Hypnotherapy and usually takes from eight to twelve sessions. With this form we set about finding and removing the root cause of problems and therefore bring about a complete and lasting relief. Another form of Hypnotherapy is Suggestion Therapy, which is used to control or eliminate negative habits such as nail biting, non-smoking etc, weight loss. It can also be used to build self confidence and aid better performance in, for example, exams, driving tests and public speaking, sports performance. The potential of the mind is enormous and little is known of its huge resources. Sometimes I observe people and the differences between them. Aside from obvious physical differences then the next big difference are – how think and utilise the potential of their mind, how they see things and their reactions to life experiences. You are probably familiar with these lines: ‘Two men looked out through prison bars, One saw mud the other saw stars.’ The exciting thing is that if we become aware of our potential, aware of our minds and ourselves as spiritual and emotional beings in a physical body, then we can really become empowered, set our goals and go for them, change our lives to bring more fulfilment to ourselves and therefore to those with whom we share our lives. People are now taking responsibility for their health and well being. Increasingly more and more doctors and therapists of all disciplines are becoming partners with their clients on their road to recovery. The connection between the mind and the body is now acknowledged. Now the person is looked at in totality, all aspects of their lives are taken into consideration and from there, the road to recovery is planned. Aidan Noone ,DCH, MICHP, Registered and Certified. Hypnotherapist - Analyst/ NLP Master Practitioner. Tel:042-933-0255 E-Mail   info@changesforyou.net