30 Days of Hypnosis

Yay!  The book has arrived!  I was beginning to sweat it, but – as I was lamenting that it had not arrived – the doorbell rang and the lovely Fedex man handed me the answer to all my problems.  Well, actually he left it on the stoop and was already halfway down my street before I even opened the door, but I digress.

When I was invited to participate in this experiment, I was not entirely sure what to expect.  I am familiar with creative visualization and putting intention into the universe, but I didn’t know how this would differ from those approaches to self-help.  I immediately started reading the introduction, and the first thing I thought was, “Man, this reads like an infomercial.”  I kept reading, though, because then it occured to me that it was only the introduction and not the meat of the book.  As I continued to read, I realized that he seemed to have a similar attitude towards self-hypnosis as I do towards paranormal investigation (which is what I do)…he was very matter-of-fact, and he explained the reality of self-hypnosis as compared to the stuff you see on staged hypnosis shows or in movies where the hypnotist looks like James Lipton, wearing a turban and raising one eyebrow while he makes wild hand gestures.  He even referenced Scooby-Doo as his earliest recollection of an interest in hypnotism, recalling the episode where a creepy clown kept hypnotizing those meddling kids.  I found that very interesting since a lot of people that I know with any interest in the paranormal or metaphysical studies reference Scooby-Doo as their jumping-off point.

The book lists numerous areas of improvement on which one could focus, ranging from weight loss to better sex to becoming the life of the party.  The one that I have decided to focus on is stress/anxiety relief.  Given that the book offers hypnosis scripts for so many categories, choosing stress relief as my area of focus may seem like I am setting the bar too low.  However, let me give you some background on my choice:  I have been plagued by anxiety my entire life, suffering from anxiety attacks, headaches, stomachaches…you name it.  It’s a bitch.  If I could find some non-medicinal way to augment my stress relief, I am totally on board.  This summer has been one stress trigger after another, and I have developed some new stomach issue that causes me pain on a daily basis.  I would really like to be rid of this pain.

As I completed the first parts of the book, I thought “this makes sense.”  It explains the difference between your conscious mind and subconscious mind, and gives examples of what each of those is responsible for.  I followed along intently until I got to the part where I had to read aloud…What?  Seriously?  I have to read this?  I can’t even read stuff that I WROTE out loud, let alone a script that has me meandering through a meadow, approaching a castle while wearing a pair of VERY COMFORTABLE sandals that were clearly designed for WALKING COMFORTABLY through the forest…*sigh*…fine.  So, I put on the soft music and situated myself, and I began to read.  I felt foolish as I was reading this script, certain that the entire rest of my family was on the other side of the door, snickering at my own narration which has to be read in a soft, somewhat theatrical voice.  I kept reading, and I was wondering how this was going to work…how was I going to be hypnotized reading out loud with my eyes open…I continued to read, but I also noticed that as I read, I really DID start to relax, and I also noticed that a few chunks of text I read without even realizing I had read them, but I could clearly picture what the text was saying…it was weird. 

By the time I was done, I wasn’t completely healed, but I did notice that I was a little sleepy, a little relaxed, and my stomach didn’t hurt.  That certainly beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, for sure.

Hmmm…I guess we’ll see what tomorrow holds, eh?