Confront trauma, pain, or challenging situations voluntarily to readjust emotional responses and overcome them, rather than avoiding them. This active engagement is crucial for therapeutic change and building resilience.
When stressed, imagine your body floating comfortably in a safe place (like a bath, lake, or in space) while picturing the stressor on an imaginary screen. Maintain bodily comfort regardless of what you see on the screen to regain a sense of control over physical reactions to stress.
If you wake up in the middle of the night, avoid looking at the clock as it’s an arousal cue. Instead, picture whatever you’re thinking about or worrying about on an imaginary screen while keeping your body floating comfortably to help you return to sleep.
Categorize pain by asking if it signifies re-injury or if it’s a sign of healing. Modifying how you process pain based on what your brain tells you the pain means can help manage it, as the brain often treats all pain as novel and needing attention.
When experiencing grief, acknowledge the loss but also reflect on what the loved one left you with, what they bequeathed, and what traditions you carry on. Imagine what they would say or advise you to do now to find comfort and a deeper understanding of the relationship.
View interpersonal problems or threats as opportunities to take action and ameliorate the situation, rather than just something happening to you. This shifts your perspective to one of influence and control.
Induce a state where you imagine changing your body’s temperature, feeling cool, tingling, and numb, or floating in ice water comfortably. Alternatively, imagine leaving your body and going to a pleasant place like a desert island to distract from pain.
Manage anxiety by imagining the feared object or situation and then actively visualizing what you might do to engage with it and control the situation. This mental exposure can help build positive associations and reduce fear.
To assess your hypnotizability, look up at the ceiling while keeping your eyes open, then slowly close your eyelids. If your eyes roll back (showing sclera), you are likely highly or moderately hypnotizable; if they move down (showing iris), you are less hypnotizable.
As part of inducing a relaxed state, take a deep breath and then slowly exhale. Emphasizing a longer exhale can enhance relaxation by inducing parasympathetic activity and slowing the heart rate.
To break a superstition or unwanted habit, deliberately force yourself to not perform the extraneous behavior for a period (e.g., a week). This creates a new context where you achieve desired outcomes without the unnecessary action, demonstrating its lack of necessity.
Dissolve one packet of Element (containing sodium, magnesium, and potassium without sugar) in 16-32 ounces of water first thing in the morning and during physical exercise. This ensures adequate hydration and electrolyte balance for optimal cognitive and physical performance.
Take an all-in-one vitamin, mineral, and probiotic drink like Athletic Greens once or twice daily to cover basic nutritional needs, address deficiencies, and support microbiome health. Consider supplementing with Vitamin D3 K2 for brain, body, and cardiovascular function.
Use apps like Waking Up, which offer various meditation programs, mindfulness training, yoga nidra, and non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) protocols. These tools can help restore cognitive and physical energy, even with short sessions, and explore different states of consciousness.
Download the Reverie app (currently Apple-only, Android coming soon) for clinically developed self-hypnosis exercises to address pain, stress, focus, insomnia, eating habits, and smoking cessation. It offers short (1-2 minute) refreshers and longer (15 minute) sessions.
If seeking professional hypnosis, find a practitioner who is licensed and trained in a primary professional discipline (e.g., psychiatry, psychology, medicine, dentistry) and has specific training and interest in hypnosis. Use professional organizations like SCEH.US or the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis for referrals.
Understand that hypnotizability is largely fixed by early adulthood and is not significantly improved with training. Focus instead on becoming more skilled at utilizing your existing level of hypnotizability to address specific problems.
For children undergoing difficult medical procedures, clinicians can use hypnosis to help them focus on something else (e.g., a ‘happy button’ or imaginary trip to Disneyland) to reduce anxiety and pain, making procedures easier and shorter.