You might have seen subjects of stage hypnosis do strange things – barking like dogs, singing opera or running around with absolutely no control. However, there is a great divide between hypnosis for entertainment and hypnosis as a therapy to heal the mind.
Hypnotherapy, the science that employs hypnosis to positively affect the mind, is gaining traction in terms of helping people improve on themselves and transform their lives. Hypnosis has been proven to be highly potent in relieving stress and anxiety, and generally freeing people to attain mental health and achieve the personalities they dream of.
The War Against Self
Overcoming addictions is one of the greatest battles one can face because it is a battle of self – what you want versus what you need. It takes a great deal of willpower to change any habit. You must have noticed how much more effort must be put into breaking a habit than it took to form it.
An addictive habit is one that has the potential to hold you bound so much so that you no longer have control over your desire to engage in a particular activity or your craving for a substance. An addictive substance or activity takes one from the stage of experimentation to regular use to increased use and then to complete dependence. When you become dependent on a certain activity or substance to get through your daily life, then it is most likely that you have become addicted to it.
The vast majority of people on the planet either struggle or have struggled with one bad habit or the other. Some actions are not bad in themselves, but the frequency with which they are performed could become unhealthy if not properly checked.
Hypnosis And Addictions
One remarkable thing about hypnosis is that it can change people’s innermost beliefs about who they are. Hypnotherapy aims to create a positive identity of health, control, power and freedom from the hold of addiction, because the first step to healing is adopting a picture of who we truly are rather than simply identifying with our present failures.
People stuck in the cycle of addictive habits, more likely than not, have deep-seated memories and outlooks of failure, anxiety, hopelessness and fear. The hypnotherapist will aim at unseating these core issues rather than just skimming the surface trying to deal with the habit itself.
Hypnosis for addictive habits is geared at tackling the root of the matter by the induction of a state of heightened awareness in the patient. This is a state in which the client is relaxed and better positioned to receive directions from the hypnotherapist that are in line with the goal.
During hypnotherapy, the client encounters an imaginary future moment with his or her healthy and liberated self. This encounter will be so real to the client that he or she actually feels what is like to be truly free of the doom and gloom of a lifestyle of addiction. Subconsciously, the person is able to let go of anxiety and absorb new beliefs, values, purpose and self-worth.
Hypnotherapy has been tested and proven to be a most suitable tool to help with breaking the cycle of addictive habits. If you are faced with an addictive habit, it is important that you know that there is a way out that alleviates the severity of withdrawal and sees to it that you become an even stronger person in the end.