Will hypnosis work for me?

 Throughout history, millions of people have benefited from its power to help them make positive changes in their lives.  Some notable users of hypnosis have included Albert Einstein, Jackie Kennedy-Onassis, Henry Ford, Kevin Costner, and even Mozart.

 Hypnosis can help you to better understand yourself.  It can help you to change bad habits into good ones.  It can help you turn your negative or sad feelings into positive or happy ones.  It can help you to effortlessly focus on almost anything in your life that you would like to change, while leaving you unburdened by analytical or pessimistic thoughts.

Unfortunately, hypnosis has long been portrayed in a negative light by television, films, and other media.  Most people are familiar with the image of hypnosis as a traveling stage show in which people are made to bark like dogs or run around like chickens.  People have also been led to believe that, while under hypnosis, the subject is unconscious and unaware of their surroundings.

]These and other misconceptions could not be further from the truth.  A person of normal intelligence can only be hypnotized if he or she is willing to follow the hypnotherapists instructions.  And, of course, the vast majority of hypnotherapists  practice in offices rather than in circus tents, and are deeply committed to helping people as opposed to making them bark out loud.

To understand how hypnosis works, we must first learn about how our mind works.  In simple terms, our mind consists of two components: the conscious mind, and the subconscious mind.  Our conscious, or logical mind performs analytical duties, rationalizes, uses willpower in attempts to change personal habits and serves as our short-term memory.

The conscious mind also contains what is known as the critical factor, which operates automatically when you are using your conscious mind.  The critical factor can be thought of as protecting the status quo of your beliefs and must be bypassed in order for you to accept any suggestion that conflicts with your existing beliefs.

On the other hand, our subconscious mind is where our brain deals with habits, emotions, long-term memory, and self-preservation.  It is the part of the mind that the hypnotherapists will focus on, and the part through which it is possible to bypass the critical factor entirely in order to open the door to desired positive changes in your life.

A good metaphor is to refer to the subconscious as your hard drive, as in a computer, and to the hypnotherapist as a re-programmer.  When you have targeted a specific glitch, such as a bad habit, in your programming, the hypnotherapist is able to guide you into a very relaxed yet aware state in which it is possible to reprogram your subconscious with positive suggestions that replace negative elements.

Our conscious mind finds it difficult to change bad habits.  For example, when a person decides to try and quit smoking, they typically think they can accomplish this through willpower alone.  However, a student of the mind knows that willpower simply initiates the desire to change, and is usually unsuccessful at eliminating the problem.

The subconscious mind, however, is able to change bad habits by readily accepting positive suggestions.  Therein lies the secret to the effectiveness of hypnosis: through positive suggestion, hypnosis helps to change your outlook, attitude, motivation or behaviors, which you would like to improve.