by Brian Balke Hypnosis Rising
If we bite our nails or watch too much TV for long enough, changing our habit may seem too hard. We can suffer – or look for help. Life coaches, religions, meetups and recreational sports: any and all might bring encouragement and direction for change.
But what if that doesn’t work? What if our mind is wounded?
In medicine, that’s a familiar fear. When I had back pain, I worried that I might need surgery. To my relief, I healed through yoga. Stretching and strengthening solved the problem!
With the mind, we have the same options. Psychologists and psychotherapists are licensed to treat wounded minds – minds that are missing parts or overly sensitive. They are the surgeons of mental health. By law, hypnotherapists offer “vocational and avocational self-improvement.” We are the yoga instructors of mental health. We help clients change themselves.
As with our bodies, we need to control mental stress to avoid serious injury. A TV addiction can lead to a job layoff or divorce. Then we have plenty of cause to be depressed.
But why hypnotherapy as opposed to buying a friend? The psychologist Irving Yalom described psychotherapy as teaching relationship skills – a kind of friendship. How is hypnotherapy different?
Hypnosis is not a technique, but a way of learning. In hypnosis, the subconscious immediately adopts welcome suggestions as behaviors. Those changes affect the connections between our neurons and the flow of blood – a natural surgery. This happens efficiently because the critical part of our mind is comfortable and doesn’t protest, “Well, that’s not going to work!”
When in hypnosis you learn like you did before you started to doubt yourself.
Let’s compare this to psychology, which uses drugs to modify thinking. Two chemical systems control our basic emotions: dopamine creates euphoria and norepinephrine creates fear. Imbalance between euphoria and fear is the cause of several psychological disorders. The two are kept in balance by the reasoning part of our brain.
Where a hypnotherapist would strengthen reason and balance euphoria and fear, the psychologist prescribes drugs that amplify the weaker emotion. This is like using a brace to straighten someone’s back, rather than using exercise to balance their muscles
Just as in maintaining our bodies, adjusting the operation of our minds prevents serious breakdowns. Hypnotherapists help you make minor adjustments before they become major problems. And as hypnosis is a learning process, several approaches can be tried until the right one is found.
Let’s think of hypnotherapy as “mental hygiene.” Just as with dental hygiene, we should not be ashamed to clean up our behavior. In fact, it’s the best way to avoid more serious problems. Your dental hygiene can be managed by a dental professional in your area. This Dentist in McAllen for example even offers sedation dentistry for those people who are particularly nervous about going to the dentist for any mouth-related issues. That way there should be no excuses in improving your dental hygiene. Or any health-related problems for that matter.
Many psychological and physical problems are driven by anxiety. Even if you don’t have a behavior challenge, every hypnotist will help you to remember what it feels like to be relaxed. It’s an experience worth trying and might be the first step in bringing your whole self to life.
