Relax, and Unleash the Powers of Your Mind

Here’s a two-sided sword of advice: Learn to relax, and tap the power of your subconscious mind at the same time. My article about hypnotism touches on this (see link below).

Relaxation can be achieved rapidly through certain exercises, and relaxation helps you to get in touch with the resources available in the hidden reaches of your mind. As I mentioned in the article linked below, our subconscious tends to remember everything you took note of. But those memories or that information tends to get quickly buried, because your conscious mind is monopolizing the brain. When you relax, your subconscious then begins to throw pertinent information to your conscious mind.

Once a day, find a peaceful setting where you can lie down or sit back, and take a few deep breaths. The last breath should be held a few seconds, then released with a sigh. Then you continue with the suggestions outlined below. As you get better at inducing relaxation and achieving an associated “trance,” you can accomplish a restful state quite efficiently in a less than ideal peaceful setting, and do so quickly (I’ll enlarge on this idea later on). For now, you begin to talk to yourself as a hypnotist would, even if in your own mind. Between major milestones in your patter, you should continue to take a series of deep breaths.

The following two paragraphs are a review of my hypnotism article:

First, tell yourself (or your mind) a couple of things that will actually happen through natural processes: For example, “You are going to relax.” The following steps will help you to achieve this. Therefore, when the relaxation actually happens, your mind will see that you are right, and will give you respect for what you say or what you tell it to do later on.

Another thing to tell yourself is that your eyes are going to start watering, after you keep them open for a while. Hold them open, and then tell yourself again that your eyes will begin to water or burn. When they start burning or begin to water, and when you start to relax like you’ve never relaxed before, you are getting your subconscious to trust you, because what you predicted will actually come true. Therefore, subsequent things you tell your mind, like “You will stop smoking,” will achieve a credible status, and the subconscious will seriously begin working on that mandate. After you see that your eyes are watering or burning, you then tell yourself to close them, take a deep breath and relax.

Continue talking to yourself as you address each area of your body: “You are relaxing the muscles in your toes and feet. Just loosen them up, until there is no tension in them.” You then proceed to your legs, using the same language. Then you progress to your stomach, your chest and your back, assuring yourself that you are letting your body sag completely into the bed, sofa or chair you’re sitting in. You use words like “limp,” “relax,” “loosen up,” and so on. Then you mention how you will relax your arms, hands and fingers. You move to your neck and face. Consciously relaxing all these areas in your body brings on more relaxation than if you didn’t think about it, because a person is usually quite tense, if he or she is still thinking about the day. So you have to tell yourself you are done thinking about what happened before you decided to relax. In fact, as I suggested above, the subconscious mind is quite loyal to your thoughts and mandates. If - once you decide to relax - you tell yourself you will not do any thinking nor worrying about your daily deeds, this will help you to relax better.

While you’ve relaxed your body and limbs, there should be no movement once you’ve done that. But if you’re like me, sometimes there’s an itch or some other distraction. An itch that is ignored usually interferes with relaxation. So this is what I tell myself: “When I scratch my itch, I’m only using about seven percent of the muscles in my body, so this won’t interfere greatly with my progress.” I then scratch, take some more deep breaths, then continue relaxing. I’ve found this to be very effective, and I quickly come to complete rest quite rapidly, in spite of the distraction.

Next, choose a number like 20 or 30. Let’s say you choose 30. You can then say, “As I’m counting to 30, your body will sink deeper in a profound rest. You will active your subconscious mind so that you can get in touch with it. As you relax deeper, you will sink further into a suggestive state: One; You are completely relaxed, now. Two, you are relaxing even more. Three, you feel very rested as you are breathing deeply. Four, your body feels heavier as it is sinking into the mattress (cushions). Five, there is no tension, now. Six, you feel very calm. Seven, you are forgetting about the world around you. Eight, you are going deeper, deeper and deeper into relaxation. Nine, you feel wonderfully at ease, now. Ten, you are sinking deeper into a hypnotic trance. . . .” (Or, you can use the term “suggestive state” instead of “hypnotic trance.”)

Continue talking like this, or perhaps even repeating some of the phrases you already used. When you get to thirty, you can say, “You are now completely and totally relaxed, ready to receive my suggestions.” After a pause you can then say, “After each relaxation session, you will get better and better at relaxing, until you can do so rapidly.” More suggestions could be like this: “You will give your mind and body the rest they need.” “This rest will now permit your body to restore energy.” “You feel the healing chemicals spreading throughout your body.” “Your healing chemicals are so effective, you feel a therapeutic tickle in your torso.” “Your muscles feel like they’ve undergone a great massage.” You don’t need to say all that in one session; they can be spread out among others.

Next, you can address your character (mentioning your own name occasionally is quite effective): “Martha, you are not timid.” “You know how to get what you want.” “People respect you for your assertiveness.” (Don’t use the word “aggression,” which has a negative connotation.) “You are not afraid of important people.” “You are just as important as . . . .” “You are creative and efficient.” And so on.

Next, you can address your habits or addictions. You should talk as if they are in the past (the solution is not in the future; it’s in the past, in these exercises): You are free of the horrible habit of smoking” (always put a negative connotation to your bad habits). “You love the calming peace of an art gallery” (always replace your bad habits with good ideas and activities).

Now, it’s time to wind up the session. You can say, “When I count to three, you will open your eyes, and return to your normal life, and you will feel wonderfully rested.” If you wish, you do a little review after counting one, and then two, or make yourself promises of success and new powers. Then just say “Three.”

Often it was only after opening my eyes that I felt the peace and rest I had promised myself. There were times I didn’t want to open my eyes, because it felt so good to stay there in this relaxed sate. But when I did it, the promise of peace was fulfulled anyway. It seems that these suggestions really work, when done faithfully. If they work in achieving rest and relaxation, then you know that the other suggestions that promise self-improvement and personal strength will also come to pass.