Have you ever asked yourself how you can hypnotize yourself? More and more people are becoming interested in how to learn self hypnosis. They have heard stories of people being able to control their eating habits and thus lose weight by using hypnosis. Others look at their sporting idols like Tiger Woods and Roger Federer and hear how these athletes have not only trained their bodies for success, but their mind as well.

Let me start off by telling you that it is true that hypnosis can help you in all areas of your life, weight loss, to stop smoking, to do more exercise, be more successful, procrastinate less and become more confident. The problem is that many people have misconceptions about what hypnosis is. Ask the average person what comes to mind when they think about hypnosis and they'll probably imagine someone on stage asking volunteers to join, telling them their eyes are feeling heavy, then getting them to make animal noises. Of course that kind of act happens all the time, it's called stage hypnosis. In stage hypnosis, the hypnotist actually looks for volunteers, people that volunteer to go on stage are naturally more outgoing and thus more willing to display a range of emotions and behaviours in front of people, couple this with the fact that they have the expectation that the hypnotists has power over them. That last point is actually the key to understanding all hypnosis, not just self-hypnosis.

The stage hypnotist takes advantage of the fact that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. A hypnotist can not make anyone go into a trance, they can only help you put yourself into a trance. The biggest secret in hypnosis is that a hypnotic trance is something that you do to yourself and is something you can get better at the more you practice. This is why the best hypnotists will actually help you go in and out of trance multiple times in a hypnosis session as this quickly teaches you what it is like to go into a trance. This is the one thing you need to remember when learning any kind of hypnosis.

How to hypnotize yourself: A simple exercise

To get started with self-hypnosis try this simple exercise. Sit or lie down in a quiet room where you won't be disturbed. If you want close your eyes and breathe deeply into your belly. As you exhale say to yourself, quietly or in your mind: 'I relax'. Keep doing this over and over as you slowly feel warm and relaxed all over your body. At this point you'll be in a light trance where you are completely focused on your body and your mind with almost no awareness of what is going on in the outside world.

This is an ideal state to be in that will let you explore your emotion, motivations and beliefs. However in this exercise I want you to vividly imagine what kind of person you want to be. Imagine what your ideal self would do every moment of every day, what do you say to yourself, what activities do you do, how do people treat you and how do you treat them. You can focus on one particular part of your life or imagine a totally ideal life, whichever you choose. Once you've done this for as long as you feel necessary start listening for sounds in the outside world, feel the bed or chair underneath you and slowly bring your awareness back to the outside world. That concludes the first self-hypnosis exercise. It will help you shape how you feel about yourself and what you believe you deserve in life, it will reprogram your subconscious and eventually lead to real changes in your life.

I hope you enjoyed this introduction to self-hypnosis. And feel more confident that you can now hypnotize yourself. The more you practice the exercise the better you'll get, and you'll be building a strong foundation for your future endeavours in hypnosis.