Mind Power - Hypnosis As A Therapeutical Tool

One way to release the power of your subconscious mind is through the use of hypnosis. In order to benefit from hypnosis for therapeutic reasons you need three key elements: imagination, concentration, and a total acceptance to be hypnotized. Every time someone works with a group to induce hypnosis we can still say we are talking about self-hypnosis, because it is every person’s individual option if they wish to collaborate with the operator or not.

Therapeutic hypnosis is not available to all people, but most of us can reach light or medium states through concentration and patience. Deep levels of hypnosis produce the best therapeutic results, but takes some practice. Beginners may also achieve efficient states of relaxation and inner peace too.

Lighter levels of hypnosis usually enable their operators to experience feelings of relaxation and calmness. Various perceptions of physical changes may also occur: tingling sensations in the fingers, blinking eyelids, a sensation of weight in some parts of the body etc. The intensity of these experiences is low, but a few weeks of practice can teach you how to develop these skills even further.

Another element that often relates to initial hypnosis is time distortion. Most subjects will believe they were hypnotized for a shorter amount of time than it is in reality. After a few hypnotic experiences a person will start to get a better perception of the passing time.

The altered state becomes more enhanced as we progress to medium levels of hypnosis. Physical perceptions gain more importance and the subject may experience heightened tingling feelings or heaviness in the lower body. Some subjects experience floating sensations and all these feelings are perceived as being very real by the one being hypnotized. This stage allows the hypnotist to suggest stronger visual images in the subject’s mind. At this level, creating illusions becomes more accessible. New thresholds that were unavailable previously now become apparent. Conscious awareness may fade out for the patient when the level of hypnosis deepens.

Hypnosis is often seen as the sleep of the nervous system. There is a decrease of the rate of respiration, although not as much as the one experienced during sleep. Circulation also slows down, together with the brain waves.

Brain waves variations in intensity start with beta, the fastest, then slow to alpha, theta and delta. Beta waves are primary when the mind is under a normal state of consciousness. Reduced levels of hypnosis decrease the brain wave activity to alpha and deeper levels may take a subject’s brain waves all the way to theta.

Various applications of hypnosis in medicine include therapeutic pain relief, psychological treatment and many more.

Mind Power - Understanding Hypnosis

When you hear "hypnosis" what do you see in your mind’s eye? A half-bald scientist or psychiatrist waving a clock in front of you, whispering something you can’t hear and asking you to walk through jungles and fly through clouds or count stones in your mind, with your eyes closed? This is the general perception people have about hypnosis. While it’s not completely right, it’s not completely wrong.

Actually, a hypnotized patient will fall into a hyper-attentive state, mistakenly considered half-asleep. Thankfully, through the wide availability of information, we understand now more about hypnosis than we used to back then. Hypnosis, in fact, has ceased to be such a phenomenon and is now a more acceptable form of treatment for many mental and sometimes physical problems.

This form of treatment has been largely researched since it was first introduced and used to cure people. And we have yet to find the complete answer to that question. How does hypnosis actually work? And why does it work? What we are seeking to do is to find out how the mind works. It is unlikely that we will be unearthing any ‘deep and dark secrets’ about hypnosis nor will we ever find out about the magical appeal it has but many do understand what hypnosis is.

Hypnosis is a process of leading a patient into a trance-like state. The patient will have to be totally relaxed and his/her imagination will be heightened. Being in the state of trance is totally different from being half-asleep. When you’re in a trance-like state, you will be completely obsessed with something. Your mind is focused and sharp and yet you remain relaxed; this relaxed-but-focused state will help imagination soar. When you are half-asleep, you will have difficulty focusing. Therefore, being hypnotized is not like being half-asleep. If there’s a conscious state that we can draw a similarity with, it’s daydreaming. Being hypnotized is like being sent into an unrestrained state of daydreaming.

When under hypnosis, you will feel a lot of very real emotions - fear, sadness or happiness. It's a mental state, where you are totally uninhibited and relaxed, whole-heartedly embracing the idea the psychiatrist suggests. But when you’re daydreaming, everything seems real to you and the line between imagination and reality is blurred.

As an example, hypnosis makes easier for some people to overcome their fears. For instance, someone who has a fear of heights could be sent soaring happily in the skies with birds and planes during hypnosis treatment. Slowly, this patient will relax and eventually get over his or her fear of heights.

By hypnosis you can only be urged to do something, in order to help you solve your problem. But you cannot possibly be forced to do something you don’t want to - even in a state of trance.

Mind Power - Chinese techniques for your health and strength

Tai Chi Chuan - the wonder dance
This is how it looks like: very early in the silence of the morning, hundreds of people, alone or in large groups , perform apparently a weird gymnastics, with waving movements. The eternity of the universe and the rhythm of its permanent changes have induced the idea that the human being can become immortal if he adapts to and follows this rhythm. This method combines the subtle side of the human being (mental control, spiritual progress etc) and also his physical side (bones, muscles, articulation etc). Whenever you feel intellectually or physically tired, Tai Chi Chuan gives you the possibility to gain back, in only a few minutes, your strength and harmony.

Chi Kung, or the art of internal harmony
Chi Kung is a complex philosophical system at least 5000 old, which became very popular at the beginning of this millennium. This art of the vital energy is a very advanced and complex method of improving health and longevity, by offering a feeling of harmony with yourself and with the surrounding world. This technique takes into consideration four main principles: the mind, the eyes, the movement and the breathing.

The mind represents the intention, the eyes are considered the focusing of intention, the movement is the action of intention and the breathing is flood of intention. Although looks simple, it takes time and practice to understand and master profoundly their dynamics.

The practice of Chi Kung bring a lot of benefits, such as a better general health state and an increased vitality, even anti-aging effects. This technique is also a training of the mind and improves the intellectual capacities.

According to Chinese medicine, many diseases are the result of a subtle disequilibrium that make the vital energy to diminish or to be present in only certain parts of your body. By practicing Chi Kung you become more conscious of what’s going on in your inner universe and learn to build yourself a defensive system against the disequilibrium, which affects your vital force. The harmony of breathing and the agility obtained during the training sessions, confer a better concentration and a fast recovery from stress and tiredness.

Mind power - Focusing By Taoist Meditation

Another useful tool for improving the mind focusing is the Taoist meditation. This form of meditation is less abstract than the other similar methods evolved in India (the Hindu and Buddhist systems). One of the main focuses of Taoist meditation relates to the circulation of internal energy. It can be used to promote a healthy life style and increase life expectancy, by improving spiritual relationships with the world. Practical aspects of Taoist meditation may relate to interests and activities such as concentration, relaxation or spiritual healing.

There are two aspects related to meditation: the “jing”, which means calmness, stillness, and the “ding”, which stands for concentration and focus. Calmness is directed towards cutting off external factors of disturbance and allowing you to direct your attention towards your inner self. By focusing on the breathing and allowing your mind to concentrate you should achieve a state called “one-pointed awareness”. This state allows you to achieve a deep concentration, enabling you to get a better understanding of any elements that you are focusing on. There are none, or very limited, distractions during this heightened awareness state. This technique may be used efficiently to find solutions to problems presented by the exterior world and also prepares you to deal with these difficulties.

Starting to practice the Taoist meditation is often difficult as your mind is not willing to cooperate totally in the process. It is hard to tap into the high potential of the subconscious mind. The thoughts tend to fly away, increasing confusion when we need clarity the most, bringing mental chaos when order is sought. Your goal now is to recover your inner concentration and increase your ability to focus precisely on what you dictate your mind to, not vice versa.

The individual practice need to be developed in a timely way, starting with simple aspects and adding later more complex phases. Just to give you an image about this meditation technique, here are some steps of the process:

• Focus on the flow of energy through your body. You can do this by paying special attention to your breathing, to the air going in and out of your lungs.
  
  
• Take this a step further and focus on the contractions of the abdominal area as you breath in and out.
  
  
• Imagine a candle, with your eyes closed. Shift your focus on the center of the flame but don’t loose sight of the edges. At this stage it is vital to eliminate or ignore all outside interferences.
  
  
• Allow your breathing to create a rhythmic “drum beat” which will increase your energy and help you ignore outside interferences
  
  
• Focus on a symbol that is very important to you. This can be a person you love, a place or notion. When you feel relaxed and focused switch back to the meditation.

Mind Power - Meditation Used For Health Problems

Many health problems find solutions in meditation practices. You can reduce physical tensions and pain, such as headaches. Meditating can offer you a break from the every day problems, offering you a chance to recover and face outside difficulties with ease. A general improvement of your body’s response to stressful factors will help relaxing your mind and body.

Increasing life expectancy is scientifically proven by two main factors: lowering the body’s temperature and diminishing the calorie intake. Meditation can help you achieve the first condition, as a state of heightened mental awareness enables you to slow down your body processes and achieve a positive state of relaxation.

Dealing with pain also benefits from the healing power of meditation. Stress induced anxiety increases perception of pain and, in turn, more pain triggers increased anxiety. By using meditation techniques you develop the power to better resist the negative effects of physical pain through mental abilities. Improving your relaxation helps diminish pain, but it doesn’t eliminate the cause, so use this technique together with medical treatments.

People often adopt meditation in order to reduce the bad influence of the stress factors. It is, indeed, an efficient solution to improve your capacity to resist the negative effects of outside pressures such as illness, unpleasant events in family or at the workplace. Scientific research has shown that several hormones and other biochemical compounds found in our blood that are good indicators of stress do decrease during meditation. Stress factors often manifest themselves as muscular tensions and psychological problems such as depression and anxiety, so by using meditation techniques you should be able to minimize their effects on your mind and body.

The risk of strokes and heart attacks can also be diminished by using the meditation. You can lower your blood pressure as a result of meditation practices, thus lowering the chances of heart problems. Infertility is another issue that may be addressed by meditation practices. There are several psychological additions to infertility, such as depression and low self-esteem, and a reduction of these negative factors becomes more likely through meditation. Chances of pregnancy increase when the patients become more relaxed and in tune with their inner selves. Fewer respiratory crises are observed with patients suffering from chronic breathing illnesses, such as asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Breathing techniques combined with effective meditation improve psychological and physiological responses.

Meditation is a powerful add-on in all the above-mentioned conditions. But meditation is not a cure for some of them and medical treatment should always be considered first. Meditation helps support medical treatments by helping you relax and accept more positive aspects of your life, while diminishing the negative effects of distressful factors and illnesses.

Mind Power - The Mind And The Breathing

The importance of breathing is obvious and we depend on it to sustain our lives. As human beings we have to eliminate the things that our body is no longer using, and breathing takes care of 70% of this process. Other than eliminating the air from the lungs, after it has been depleted of oxygen, breathing also takes out toxins from the body.

There is also a hidden potential: breathing eliminates non-chemical items such as emotions or stress. By harnessing the immense power of breathing you can create a better connection with your inner self, preparing to efficiently combat outside stress factors.

By keeping the attention toward your breathing you will be able to reduce any outside negative factor. Stay focused on your breath and direct your mind to think only about it. The rhythmical sensation your breath produces will help your mind, and your body, relax and slow down. The way we think determines how most of the tensions and upsets we face, and this little exercise takes thinking into a harmonious and peaceful location.

Many of our thoughts are not so positive in nature. We often use or think about words like “won’t”, “can’t”, “shouldn’t”. Their negative connotations influence the way we feel, increasing nervousness and stress. Your brain processes millions of thoughts on a daily basis and focusing it on your breath gives it a much-deserved break. Temporarily lowering your mind’s activity gives you extra peace and helps relax both your brain and your body.

Try to see your breathing education similar to practicing a physical sport. In order to reach a goal you will need to improve certain skills. You can’t just be an Olympic athlete - you have to become one! This can be done by building up your strengths and stamina, as well as improving your techniques. Improving your breathing works exactly the same way. Right now you are at a low level, as you didn’t do any additional exercises to improve your breathing. Your subconscious mind usually takes care of this process, leaving your conscious mind to deal with other things. However, this is the time to take things into your own hands, and consciously control your breathing for the duration of the exercises.

At first, pay attention to yourself every time you inhale and exhale. Do this until your mind gets used to the rhythmic tone of breaths and let your brain preoccupy itself only with your breathing. It might be hard at first, as you will get distracted by varies outside interferences. In time, however, you will manage to ignore sounds or movements around you and sustain a prolonged period of clear focus.

Mind Power - Positive Emotions

We got used to consider emotions as a sign of weakness. The way we act or react is always dominated by emotions, even though we like to claim otherwise. We can't live without emotions. No matter how strict and logical you want to be, you will always be a human being and so you will always feel.

To have daily positive emotions is a life long goal for many of us. What is more important, in the end: how much dollars you made during your life or how many times you laughed? However, people tend to put their positive emotions in the dark shadow of their negative feelings. This is one of the biggest problems we come across during our lives. A negative experience can't simply be replaced it with a positive one. It just doesn’t work that way.

As a child, if your puppy dies, you would be extremely sad. Your parents will certainly buy you another puppy, but the sorrow still takes a long time to go away. Things get even more serious with adults. A quarrel with your spouse the night before will affect your entire day. You will go to work angry, tired, with your mind wandering. Then you will go home with an even worse mood. On the way from work towards home you won’t be able to notice the sun shining and you won’t be tempted to stop at the supermarket and buy your favorite ice cream. All these because that one negative thought is contaminating the way you perceive the reality around you.

Finding a place to relax your mind would do wonders. Such a place can be a real location or an imaginary place. The best idea is to totally emerge yourself in it. Let’s say you have a problem on your mind and it just won’t go away. Go play football. Or go fishing. You don’t know how to fish, you say? No problem, go out and try it! Just get caught up in the game. Your mind will suddenly jump from the negative thoughts that dominated your last hours or days and start processing a whole new kind of information.

Also good for relaxing your mind can be a song, a movie, even a person, just to get positive feelings and emotions. The main thing is to allow yourself to get completely involved with this new activity. You might still get flashes of the problem every now and then - ignore them and get even more involved in what you are doing.

When the game, the song, the movie or the conversation ends you will have a rather abrupt return to your problems. Maybe you will feel sad and want to go back to the safe place. Don’t do that. The safe place exists only as a helping hand, it is not the solution to your problems. It is there because you need it to relax your mind, for a few minutes or hours. You will feel energized, better about yourself and more confident that any issue can be resolved. This is how a small escape from a harsh reality can increase your fighting energy and allow you to deal even with the most difficult problems.