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Hypnosis and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
Hypnosis
Is there anyone who can claim that he/she knows what exactly hypnosis, trance, meditation, guided meditation, or what creative visualization is? Do you know any other phenomena that we are experiencing every day, moreover benefiting from some of them but cannot explain, YET? There are several of them that we use or experience every day without complete or partial understanding how they work: gravitation, electricity, faith and many other, you mention.
Even we may not know yet what hypnosis specifically is but humanity uses it long time and we do know that it is a powerful phenomenon that we are benefiting from when use it as a tool. More and more people are taking advantages of using hypnosis’ unlimited potential even though there are still many myths and misconceptions about it. Those misconceptions have probably originated either by stage shows, movies or on majority by unknowingness. Nevertheless, there is a legion of professionals and individuals who know HOW to use it for your benefit!
So far we know that hypnosis is just another name for a natural state of the mind. It is something that we all experience everyday on a regular basis. You are using hypnosis every time you use your imagination and get absorbed by your inner experience - reading any book and seeing, hearing and feeling the world described in that book, you are in hypnosis - much like you are in hypnosis when you are absorbed in the action of the movie you are watching on TV or in a theater. Your attention is focused in on what is happening on the screen and you allow yourself to pretend that you believe in on what is going on there. In that state your senses are heightened and you become suggestible: you cry and laugh with the actors although you do know that everything there on the screen is not real.
Another example of a hypnotic state is an experience when you drive to a familiar place and suddenly find yourself at your final destination without realizing how you got there. We are in a similar state, at least, twice a day when we just woke up and about to fall asleep. During those several minutes (20 minutes in average) we are in contact with our inner wisdom. Those moments are very powerful to use for setting goals and using visualization techniques.
There is no sleeping involved in hypnosis state. You remain in full control of yourselves and are aware of your surroundings throughout the hypnosis session. Moreover, trance/hypnosis is a heightened awareness of all of your senses and abilities: you hear better, you visualize better and feel every emotion and sensation stronger. As I mentioned above, the hypnosis state is a hyper-suggestible state. You can give a suggestion to your body and your body will believe it and follow that suggestion. In hypnosis people can make many physiological changes such as blood pressure, heart beat and more. For example, when asked to raise your heart beat you would not be able to do it only with willpower but if you use your imagination and vividly imagine something scary or exciting then you can do that easily. It is like a vivid daydreaming. In this special altered state you can achieve self-control over feelings, emotions and easily change habits, achieve goals and much more.
There are things we do in our life and we are consciously aware of them. We can think about them and talk about them in a logical way. Like, right now, you might be aware that you are sitting or standing, looking at the screen of a computer and reading this paragraph. Consciously we can be aware of our memories, logical choices we make and so on. It is anything we can bring to our awareness. Often it is cold conscious mind.
Anything that is out of our rational awareness is our unconscious part. Often it is cold unconscious mind. There is an expression that conscious awareness is only the tip of the iceberg, while the unconscious is responsible for feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious awareness. Our unconscious is responsible for breathing, heart bit, blinking when a mosquito flies toward our eyes. We blink even before we realize what is happening. Another example is when somebody extending their hand to say hello our hand automatically goes up. When we begin to learn to read, write or drive we need conscious efforts then knowledge and skills sink into unconscious and we do not need any conscious effort to read, write or drive. They happen automatically. We need our conscious decisions only to know what to read, write or where to drive. When we drive to some place many times, like work or home, then even that behavior becomes automatic and is led by unconscious. I cannot count how many times I drove to work on weekends and only after arrival 'woke up' and laughed on myself that I did it again. Many people do that too as I checked with during my workshops.
Every hypnosis is a self-hypnosis.
You can always check on the web (definitions for hypnosis) how western coryphaeus of the field explain what hypnosis/trance is (?) and how it can be utilized (!) to benefit individuals and groups.
So, the most common question about hypnosis is, "Can I be hypnotized?" The answer that hypnotist almost always gives is, "Yes." Hypnosis is cooperation between a hypnotist and a client. A hypnotist helps a client enter the hypnosis state and utilize that powerful state to make desirable changes by offering suggestions that clients free to follow or not. The client is always in charge. The ability to get yourself into hypnosis with the help of a hypnotist is described as part skill and part talent. If you can comprehend and follow simple instruction you can be guided into the state of hypnosis.
I teach my clients self-hypnosis and special NLP techniques to take the full advantage of that state. With those skills you can get desired results faster and easier.
It is important to note that hypnosis itself will not bring about some magic cure or manipulate with you against your will. Perhaps you have seen stage hypnosis or in movies where the hypnotist uses some sort of force to over-ride the strongest will. That is simply not the case. If that is a case it would have been manifested much more obviously for example in curing people to demonstrate its overwhelming power as well. When a person in trance/hypnosis you gain an ability to help strengthen a purpose, that is already present in you (consciously or unconsciously), but it cannot create a situation where you automatically turn away from your habit against your will.
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP)
NLP is a powerful technology that fosters self-awareness, natural change and personal excellence. It is developed to help people better themselves by learning how other could excel. On the other words it studies how people overcome problems and excel and teaches others to do so.
More structurally, NLP is about how we take in information through our senses (Neurology), translate it into language (Linguistic), and make patterns of mental models (Programs) that influence our behavior.
NLP allows us to notice the process of our thinking separately from the content of our thinking. NLP also gives us choices about how we think, which inevitably makes it easier to change what we think and the behaviors that follow.
NLP was originated in 1973 by Richard Bandler (background in informatics, mathematics and gestalt therapy) and John Grinder (background in linguistics). They studied how people better themselves or excel and developed techniques to help others. Through the years, NLP has developed powerful tools and skills for communication and 'change' in a wide range of professional areas including: counseling, psychotherapy, education, health, creativity, law, management, sales, leadership, parenting and so on.
Check here on YouTube Richard Bandler's description of NLP
NLP is described as our brain's user manual which we have forgotten ...
to learn, remember and utilize :).
We experience the world around us through our five senses (also called representational systems): visual, auditory, kinesthetic, gustatory, and olfactory and our internal monologue or dialog. By these processes we organize, store and give a meaning to our outside experience. In the brain this input is translated into analogous internal images, sounds and feelings (including tastes and smells) which are symbols, or maps, that represent a reflection of the outside world. However, our perceptions and "reality" differ considerably because our filters -- deletion, distortion and generalization – allow us to take in only selected part of information. That selection based on our previous experience and that make us to have only the “map” of reality.
NLP discovered that within each senses/representations there are smaller elements of our experience. For example, within the visual modality smaller elements are size of the image, location in the space, brightness, color and others. For the auditory system, they are location of the sound, volume, rhythm and some others. The kinesthetic (or feeling) modality’s elements include temperature, location, pressure, duration, movement and some more. For internal dialog submodalities include location of the voice, volume, tonality, pitch, speed, direction and distance from the individual.
NLP argues that experience is coded on this level, the level of elements (submodalities) and therefore it is at this level that experience can be changed. The creators of NLP (Richard Bandler and John Grinder) found that by changing the smallest elements of experience people instantly change not only their feelings and emotions but also values, beliefs and even pain. Based on this concept during last 35+ years many effective techniques have been developed and successfully applied in changing unpleasant emotions, troublesome habits, limiting believes and values as well as some personality traits.
An example how NLP came up with the Fast Phobia Cure Technique can give you an idea how it works. So, as Richard Bandler tells the story, he advertised on a newspaper that he would like to meet people who used to have phobia. He interviewed hundreds of them and discovered that there are common patterns they got through to cure themselves. Based on those common patterns Dr. Bandler developed the Fast Phobia Cure Technique which decreased a time people spent to overcome phobia (if they succeeded, very low percent) from the best 6 months to less than one hour with more than 95% success rate. A client with phobia is carefully guided through the technique and overcomes it in one session.
Virtually any area of our lives can benefit from coaching with NLP. Coaches use NLP to gain deeper insight about their clients and facilitate growth and change easily, quickly and effectively.
Another advantage of NLP is that it uses the structure of experience and because of that it is not context and content specific. On the other words NLP techniques help achieve desired changes even when the client chooses not to get into discussing the content of the matter.
NLP allows us to influence people 'just by talking to them'.
You can master it and be more effective in helping yourself and others.
You can click here for NLP Guide for more detailed information.
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