How Exactly Does Hypnosis Work?

So you may have heard about the power of hypnosis ✨

But even more likely, you’ve heard one of the crazy myths or misconceptions too.

Unfortunately, when people primarily think of hypnosis, they imagine a stage shows where some volunteer gets up on stage and before you know it they start clucking like a chicken, or some other bizarre behaviour…and this could not be any farther from what hypnotherapy is like.

There’s actually a lot of science around how and why hypnosis works and it all has to do with your wonderful, creative, and super powerful mind.

Why It’s So Hard To Break A Habit (& What To Do Instead)

A lot of times our beliefs and habits are stored in our subconscious mind and all of those beliefs are either working to keep us away from pain or towards pleasure. So because your brain was really engineered just to keep you safe – yeah, that’s right, it wasn’t wired to make us happy, successful or fabulous – Its primary function is to keep us safe and alive. And obviously we want so much more than that from our lives!

So becoming our happy, successful and fabulous selves is going to require us to rewire some of those subconscious beliefs so that we can do the scary things that take us out of our comfort zones, but are going to give us that better life that we want.

So maybe for you, it’s getting up on stage and making that speech or asking that person out or even the uncomfortable work of changing our diets and workout routines.

The reason these are so hard to change with sheer willpower is because the subconscious beliefs ingrained in our minds are so much more control over you than willpower alone.

We’ve all been there before. An example I’m sure we can all relate to at one point or another is to stop eating junk food and start working out more. So you decide, you start, you maybe even stick to it for a while, but it’s not very long before you’re right back to your old patterns and your old habits.

(Collective sigh….)

And so in order to truly change our behaviors, habits and patterns,we need to change our minds and really break through our subconscious beliefs.

One way to do that is through hypnosis!

Strong Emotional Response

Because it was likely a strong emotional reaction that put those beliefs in your mind initially, it’s going to take an equally strong emotional reaction to take them out.

For example, some people who have trouble overeating, are actually emotionally eating and have created a connection between comfort and/or love with food.

This may have stemmed from being a young child, who was bullied, you didn’t have many friends, but every day after school they went to their grandmother’s house where they felt so loved and wanted, more than anywhere else. And what else was at grandma’s house? Probably an abundance of cakes, cookies, and all of the sweets, right? Because Grandma never says no! This person may grow up and never been able to stick to a diet because they’re not getting to the root of their problem, their emotional eating. In cases like this it usually takes them getting really really ill or ending up in the hospital – another strong emotional (fear) response – for them to actually change their ways.

Crazy right?

Another example of this could be let’s say you really want to start a business, but you have so much fear around failing, or people judging you or laughing at you. So you let those fears hold you back from ever taking any action.

In this case, it might take something as powerful as being laid off from work or being unable to find any work that you finally get off your butt and start that thing that you always wanted to do.

Before You Hit Rock Bottom

You always hear about people having their greatest successes right after they hit rock bottom,
and because it’s literally not until things get so bad, that the subconscious mind goes,

“Okay, maybe these habits, these beliefs aren’t working out for us anymore?”

And your subconscious mind gets on board with changing now. You know, going back to your mind’s sole purpose is really to keep you safe and alive, right?

So my goal as a hypnotherapist is to help you make those permanent and lasting changes, BEFORE hitting rock bottom.

And how do I do this? Through the power of hypnosis!

What Happens In A Hypnosis Session?

In a hypnosis session, how we do this is just by getting you into a very relaxed deep state of mind, so that we could turn off your conscious thinking mind, and get you more into a deeper alpha or theta level brainwave so that we can speak directly to your subconscious mind, and all of those beliefs and fears holding you back.

But even when you are in this deep hypnotic state, you are still very much awake, aware and in control. Many of my clients come out of our session remembering, and even repeating back to me many of the things I said to them during a session.

And this is the goal of our sessions. That you are awake, aware and able to rewire those limiting beliefs, bad habits, or thought patterns holding you back.

Hypnosis also cannot make you think or do anything that you don’t want to. Hypnotherapy actually requires you to be 100% committed to your change for results.

Ready To Try Hypnotherapy Yourself?

Curious to learn more and try hypnotherapy yourself? Please book a free hypnotherapy consultation with me to learn more.

I would love, love, love to chat more about how hypnosis can help you, to truly step into your best and higher self!