Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis: Unlock Your Healing Power and Discover the Magic of Your Mind

What others are saying about

Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis

If you have tried other hypnosis books that have you responding critically to the suggestions, give this book a try. It contains numerous techniques that really bypassed my inner skeptic. One simple and powerful technique that I used helped me to reduce my white coat hypertension allowing me to drop my systolic number by approximately 10 and diastolic by 3. This significant drop occurred in just a couple of days. I have never had such pronounced and easy success with any other hypnosis tools.

Lawrence Bandini

This book is amazing! Michael not only writes a powerful book, but he walks you through everything. I was able to slowly put my past behind me, and start working on the now and the future. I have learned to relax and renew myself everyday, which is something I have needed for years but could never quite get the hang of it with previous books and cd's I had purchased in the past. You can't go wrong by reading this book, it is powerful work in a simple and helpful way. Very easy to comprehend. 

Patricia Springer

I very much enjoyed your book, Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis.

Your book taught me things I had never realized before, and highlighted some things I knew. I very much enjoyed the visualizations and techniques you use.

I am using some of the different techniques, and would rate this book 5 stars.

Thanks for a wonderful new experience,

Bob Thomason

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Change Your Life with Self Hypnosis

Unlock Your Healing Power and Discover the Magic of Your Mind

Michael Hadfield

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Michael Hadfield

Discover other titles by Michael Hadfield at Self-Hypnosis-Mastery

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission.

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention

The right of Michael Hadfield to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act, 1988.

The information within this book is meant for your education. There is no intent that this information be used for diagnosis, prescription, or treatment of any mental, or physical, health problems.

This information is not a replacement for consultation with a competent healthcare professional. The content of this book is meant to be used in addition to a sensible programme of healthcare as suggested by a suitably qualified practitioner.

The author and publisher are in no way liable for any misuse of the material.

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Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Introduction

What’s Wrong and How to Make it Right

Being Different

How to Make it Work for You

Skills

What is Hypnosis

Self Hypnosis

Visualisation

Formulating Suggestions

Goal Setting

Mind

Confidence

Self-Esteem

Anxiety, Stress, and Worry

Phobia

Agoraphobia & Social Phobia

Relationships

Body

The Healing Room

Health

Pain

Weight

Smoking

Blood Pressure

Sleep

Spirit

Create Your Own Reality

Happiness

Wealth

A Little More On Relationships

Forgiveness

Freedom

Conclusion

Connect with me online

More Books by the Author

Resources

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

Appendix 3

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Dedication

For my wonderfully, kind, thoughtful, generous, and loving daughters,

Vicki & Jenny.

I love you both.

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Acknowledgements

I would just like to thank my LCCH tutor, Jane Bannister, who, many years ago, ignited in me a fascination for the things that I never imagined hypnosis could accomplish. I am especially thankful to Jane for introducing me to that marvellous subject - PsychoNeuroImmunology (PNI). PNI is at the heart of most of the content in the Body section of this book.

My thanks also to Raffaella Biscuso for the artwork of the pen.

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Introduction

This book has the power to change your life.

Many people suffer unnecessarily. Anxiety, stress and worry affect millions. Introverts live uncomfortably in an extroverted world. People suffering from chronic shyness end up lonely and isolated. Physical problems, for which there is no medical treatment, are endured when it is possible to ease the discomfort and improve life quality. There are people who feel lost, without direction, and have no idea that help is available because they themselves are unable to label the problem.

The real problem, of course, is what to do.

Medical experts either prescribe drugs that ease the symptoms but do not cure, or offer nothing more than ineffective counselling.

What is wanted is a solution.

But no one is providing it.

The mistake is to look for the solution outside of you. The answer lies within. I am sure that you have come across this idea before, and maybe even tried self-healing and had no success, but that can only be because the approach you tried was not structured appropriately.

The world is changing rapidly. In the past the medics were in charge; drugs actually seemed to cure; hospitals were magical places where you went in sick and came out well; but people are now realising the truth. The truth is that much of what doctors prescribe is just making money for incredibly wealthy pharmaceutical companies. These companies abuse their power by playing on the fears and hopes of the ignorant.

People are looking for new solutions. People are realising that there is an intimate connection between mind and body. This intimate connection makes it possible for you to use the power of your mind to control and direct your destiny. But with that power comes a new freedom – the freedom to impact your own mental, physical, and spiritual health. When you learn how to use this connection, at the very least, it could mean the difference between suffering and peace.

Along with this realisation that you can control your own destiny comes a freedom like no other. The difficulty is recognising that this possibility exists and then acting upon it in order to make it your new reality. You see, what you are about to encounter in this book are ideas that many would dismiss out of hand – simply because they still believe in the old world where the power of life, death, and medication lies in the hands of a few specialists.

The new world is one of personal power and the freedom to be who you want to be. So what I am providing here is an opportunity for you to discover how easy it is to use your own mind to impact your mood states, your relationships, your confidence and comfort, as well as your body’s natural processes. All it requires of you is that you follow a simple process, learn some new skills, and make a commitment to take action, because without action nothing changes.

I know that these things are true because I have been helping to bring about positive change in people’s lives for around 15 years now. But in my own past I suffered for many, many years from chronic anxiety, I was also severely agoraphobic - a shy introvert who never seemed to quite find his place in the world.

I was someone who never seemed to fit in. My solution was to withdraw. I did this so well that I experienced intense anxiety at the mere thought of a social encounter.

I have seen doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, been addicted to tranquillisers, and even spent 6 months in a psychiatric hospital. None of that did anything at all until I realised that the only cure was going to come from me. So the drugs only stopped when I decided to stop taking them. And I started to find answers and solutions when I started looking.

But it seemed that, as soon as I took personal responsibility, doors magically started to open and I was eventually led to hypnosis as a way to speed up the whole process of healing. I quickly realised just how powerful this technique was to solve problems like stress and lack of confidence. I was also very surprised to discover that hypnosis was equally powerful with physical symptoms too.

I have a reasonable expectation that if I can move from where I was to a place of professional respect and social ease, then you can too. The only thing I had going for me, eventually, was the realisation that I deserved better and that I was going to keep looking until I found it. If it is possible for me to find peace, enjoyment, and satisfaction in life, then it is possible for you to do the same.

What I am about to teach you in this book is what I have learned myself over the years. I am not only sharing with you my insights and knowledge, but also a way to learn how to do this for yourself – a way that is simple and easy. If you can close your eyes and daydream, then you can do this.

But understand also that just reading this book will not fix you. You are actually going to have to do something. You are going to have to follow my simple instructions if you want to achieve the results you are hoping for. This book is theory and practice. I know that you really wanted just reading the book to fix you without you actually having to do anything, but don’t give up on yourself just yet.

This book can help you to improve your life, your health, and your enjoyment, just by following my advice. Once you have learned the basic skills, you can make progress quickly and easily. Habits require no effort, so once you make this a habit then you will find that it becomes a normal and natural part of your day. From that moment on you will notice your life becoming richer as you realise that you have a valuable contribution to make to this world.

I would suggest that you read this book from front to back and resist any temptation to go straight to the chapter relating to the main difficulty in your life. This book is structured so that you build your way up to health and well-being. Even if a chapter appears to have no relevance to you right now, there are valuable insights to be gained in each one. Once you have been through it once then you can jump in anywhere you like.

The book is split into two main parts. The first part teaches you the skills you need. The second part teaches you how to make the changes you wish to make.

The first thing you do in carpentry class is learn how to use the tools you need before you attempt to make a piece of furniture. Shaping wood can be easy or difficult. Cutting off a two foot length of timber is easier with a saw than with a chisel. Using a power saw is less effort than a hand saw.

When you learn to knit you start with simple tasks, then, as skill and neatness develop, you move on to more complicated and intricate patterns. It is no use attempting a sweater with cable stitch running down the front if you have not yet learnt how to maintain an even tension in your knitwear.

It is the same with self hypnosis. You need to learn the basic skills and then, as you develop competence, you can move on to the more difficult tasks. This book is structured to facilitate this. The skills are in the first section which tells you what you need to know about hypnosis; then self-hypnosis; what visualisation skills you need and how to develop them; how to formulate suggestions and why this is especially important. Then finally I introduce the idea of the value of goals and goal setting. Now before you start to think this isn’t for you (goals always used to frighten the life out of me), goals is a shorthand term that just means what you want. A goal is just something you want. But when you make it a goal it suddenly has more power. It is almost as if, by making it a goal, you are inviting success and satisfaction into your life.

The second section of the book is about making changes. Making changes comprises the three sections: Mind, Body, and Spirit. Your mind is the source of your problems so we need to effect change there first. Once we bring peace here, then the door is opened to move forward and really start making the changes that will allow you to live the life you want rather than the life you have. Body will teach you techniques you can use to effect physical changes in your body – even if that is just some symptom alleviation. Once you succeed with a small change, the fact that you feel you have some control will dramatically change the way you feel about yourself. Finally we come to Spirit. This section is purely about that in you which is inspirational – inspired is really in-spirit-ed. This is how we connect with purpose and meaning in life.

Under each of these three sections I will be dealing with specific problems, like agoraphobia, stress, depression, weight loss, money, confidence, and other problem areas. The individual chapters are arranged in the order that I believe is most beneficial to you.

Before you move on and take the first steps towards mastery of self and life, I need you to know my intention for you with this book. In my experience self hypnosis books tend to be recipe books with a list of solutions for each life-problem you may be struggling with. The idea being that you turn immediately to the appropriate chapter; do what it says; then, hopefully, experience some change.

I have taken a different approach here because I believe the recipe-book solution is outdated and ineffective. My intention here is to arm you with the skills you need to become a Master of your own mind and, with my help, learn some new skills and approaches to the life-problems you encounter. Yes you will find chapters on anxiety and self-esteem as well as weight loss and stopping smoking, but here they are part of a structured step-by-step approach so that by the time you finish the book you will understand your own mind more deeply. You will also be able to apply the skills I have taught you to any situation in your life where you wish to change either your responses or your circumstances. So if you want a quick fix there are better solutions than mine, for a permanent change, read on.

I can help you to take control of your life and make it work for you. The techniques I teach are transferable and as your skills at self hypnosis develop you will realise how easy it is to adapt what you have learned to any new situation in your life. My intention is to teach you how to attain control over your mental and physical world so that your life becomes more pleasurable and is filled with more of what you want and less of what you don’t want.

A complete recipe book would be impossible anyway because the list of ills is endless. My intention, therefore, is not to provide you with a book upon which you can develop a dependency. Rather it is to equip you with the skills and knowledge needed so that by the time you have completed the exercises contained within these pages you will know exactly what you need to do in your self hypnosis in order to create a solution to any challenge that you encounter in the future.

My aim is to help you become a Master of your own mind. This book will guide you on that journey.

One last thing before we get started.

Some of the treatments need you to do a little preparatory work in order for you to gain the maximum benefit. This occasionally means you need to get a pad and pen. This symbol

lets you know when you need to reach for your pad and pen. So keep them handy while you read.

...and this one lets you know when it is time to do some trance work.

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What’s Wrong and How to Make it Right

If someone has a psychological problem that they need help with, they usually go to their doctor. Depending on the severity of the problem, the doctor will refer to a higher authority (psychiatrist or psychologist), a lower authority (counsellor), and/or prescribe medication. The only medication available is either anti-depressant, with SSRIs like Prozac being the favourite, or tranquilliser. Anti-depressants tend to win, even when the patient has no symptoms of depression, because anxiolytics have a bit of a bad press due to the addictive nature of the benzodiazepines usually prescribed. If it can’t be medicated then either a referral or a come back in two weeks if it is no better will be the consequence of the visit.

One of the things I noticed from my own experience many years ago, and more recently, the experience of my patients, is that medication doesn’t actually fix anything. Psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies gave up, a long time ago, seeking to find cures. So all they seek to do with their drugs is to alleviate symptoms. Quite apart from anything else, insurance companies will not pay for long periods of treatment for psychological problems. They require a quick fix. If you can suppress symptoms so that a person can at least function again then that is good enough for the insurers even though it falls far short of honouring their patient. They are happy to take your money, but reluctant to give anything of real and lasting value in return. The movie the Rainmaker, starring Matt Damon and Danny DeVito, is a very moving and entertaining exploration of this aspect of health care.

Nowadays it is all about money. In the UK at least, a counsellor costs a lot less than a psychologist, so even if you need a psychologist, you have to endure six weeks of pointless counselling, and that is after waiting anything from weeks to months to be seen. Then you have to wait another two weeks for another doctor’s appointment, then ask for another referral which places you on another waiting list which is probably several months long and then the psychologist gets six sessions to fix you. If that doesn’t work then you go back to the beginning and start all over again. It is a bit like Monopoly where every time you pass go and collect your $200 you immediately land on Income Tax and have to give your $200 back to the bank. So you just go round in circles forever.

I was in this system in one way or another for around 22 years.

If you have a psychological problem that prevents you from living your life fully, then I hope you can see that the bad news is that you are not going to get any useful help from the medics. Please note that I am not advocating that you avoid seeking medical help. Just be aware of getting up your hopes that they will provide a cure. What they can do is provide medication that allows you to stabilise your emotional state and move yourself into a mind state where self-help becomes a real possibility. Certainly if you have a physical problem then it is most important that you seek medical help, even if this is only for a diagnosis so that you know what you are dealing with. From that point on you are free to choose whether or not to take medical advice, but at least find out what the options are.

I am not against doctors. There are wonderful doctors around. There are also excellent doctors who are aware of MindBody approaches to health and will happily share the available options with you – only one of which will be medication. If this is your doctor, then you have an ally in your search for well-being. If they aren’t then I suggest you go and find one like this. It is just that for me a doctor is my last port of call. Only when my own knowledge and skills fail to bring about any change will I seek medical advice, but then I have a good doctor who does not push pills. I have only visited a doctor once in the last 13 years, and I came out reassured and without a prescription.

Please note I am not suggesting that you treat serious or life-threatening illnesses with self hypnosis. If this is the case, then get your physician’s support and use self hypnosis for symptom relief as an addition to your medical care. Hypnosis is very useful for reducing the uncomfortable side effects from things like chemotherapy.

The medical world has gone off somewhere and become totally lost when it comes to mental health and well being. The problem is of course, that they see us humans as bits of bio-mechanical machinery with plumbing, wiring, and a load of internal scaffolding to keep everything in place. They see mind as a function of brain, and physical processes as totally separate from thought processes despite a ton of evidence that suggests otherwise.

The truth is that not only are mind and body intimately connected, but also that the body clearly demonstrates intelligent action independent of brain. It is a well-known fact that stress weakens the immune system. Stressed individuals suffer more frequent minor illnesses because stress, that is negative thoughts about life, has an impact on the health of the immune system and your body’s ability to fight disease. Minor illnesses also give a legitimate excuse to avoid engaging with the source of the stress, for a few days.

Unfortunately, the traditional medical model is not geared to cure your problem. The medical model only allows for the alleviation of symptoms, and/or teaching you methods of coping with your difficulties.

I have solutions that will work for you because I am not locked into the short-sighted medical world view, nor am I constrained by budgetary requirements, nor controlled by insurance companies, nor groomed by pharmaceutical companies to prescribe their products. I once had a friend who worked for a pharmaceutical company and whose job was to entertain doctors and encourage them to use her company’s products, so I have some inside knowledge of what goes on here.

I have been using hypnosis to change people’s lives for around 15 years now, so I know that what I do works and that what I am suggesting to you is sound advice borne of years of personal experience treating patients.

A New Approach Is Needed

Clearly a new approach is needed, one that isn’t tied to the profitability of drug manufacturing companies and isn’t dependent on how much money is available to treat you. Not that there’s anything wrong with profit. I hope to make some money from this book. But I believe I have integrity, and that is something I have not noticed with drug manufacturers and insurance companies. Mind you, you only have my word for that, but I hope that by the time you finish this book you will realise that I only want to assist you in having what you want in life. I suffered too much myself in the past to want anyone else to go through that unnecessarily. I have knowledge to share that has the potential to help you find peace. So I am sharing it. I just hope you take advantage of it.

Prozac, one of over 30 available anti-depressants, is taken by 11% of the US adult population. Its manufacturer, Eli Lilly, reported revenue of over $24,000,000,000 in 2011. Anti-anxiety medication (anxiolytics), frequently accompany anti-depressants on prescriptions. Xanax, related to tranquillisers like Valium, generates more revenue than sales of Tide detergent.

The US generates over 60% of the world’s revenue for medication for psychological problems.

None of this would be a problem if these things did any good. If they cured the problems they were prescribed for I would have no problem with any of them. I took, for many years, various benzodiazepines, like Valium & Ativan, and anti-depressants, including SSRIs like Prozac, so I know about the effect they have. They numb you for a while, then you need more to maintain the level of numbness. They flatten your emotional responses so joy, happiness, and love are unavailable to you. But there comes a point, as happened with me and many others, where you find you are addicted to the medication. So your visit to your physician not only failed to fix the problem you went to get help for, but you also are left with an additional problem to battle with – your addiction to the medication and the hell you experience breaking that.

Of the 30 or so currently available antidepressants, there is not one that hasn’t had to defend a lawsuit against it within 5 years of its approval. You don’t hear much about these because settlement is almost always out of court with a very large payment made and a punitive contract signed preventing any mention of the harm the drug is alleged to have caused.

Two psychiatrists received $1.6million each from drug companies for recommending and promoting anti-psychotic drugs for children. Of course once you have a drug you want to popularise, and doctors willing to promote it, you have the stage set for the appropriate diagnosis to be made in order to use the drug, whether or not the symptoms fit.

This is why I mentioned integrity.

You go for help. Then because of profit and convenience you are given something that fails to help in any useful way. Then, when you eventually stop taking it, you find you still have the problem you wanted fixing in the first place.

The approach that the medical world is using to deal with treatable psychological problems is failing the people who need help.

It needs to change.

One of the ways it can change is when