More and more people now realize that hypnosis can be very helpful for a large number of problems. Most of us know that hypnosis is very helpful for quitting smoking, for reducing stress and anxiety, for eliminating phobias, and for weight loss. But one area you may not be aware of where hypnosis can be very helpful, is for improving one’s self-esteem or self-confidence.
There is a very interesting story, told by James Loehr and Peter McLaughlin, two professionals who were working with a well-known boxer to help improve his performance. In the middle of the night, the boxer called one of them and complained that he had had a negative thought. The sports coach could not understand how this was a problem, but then said, “Oh, you mean you’ve had a stream of negative thoughts?” The boxer said, “No, I had one negative thought.” The sports coach was somewhat confused and said, “We all have occasional negative thoughts, why is that a problem?” The boxer answered, “I learned a long time ago in the ring that if I have a negative thought, I wind up getting punched in the face. So I don’t want to have even one negative thought.”
Can you imagine what your life would be like if you never or rarely had negative thoughts? How many of us have negative thoughts throughout the day? Probably most, if not all of us, have some negative thoughts every day. But did you know that these negative thoughts affect how you feel about yourself?
The above story points out the importance of having high self-esteem. What, you may ask, is self-esteem? There are many definitions but basically it refers to the opinion one has about him or herself. If you feel good about yourself, you probably have relatively high self-esteem; whereas, if you don’t feel good about yourself, you probably do not have very high self-esteem.
If any of the following descriptions apply to you, you are probably not accomplishing all that you can in life: Fear of rejection; making self-disparaging remarks; difficulty saying ‘no’ to others; inability to identify positive things about yourself; not having goals for your life or setting inappropriately low goals; discomfort in social situations; and/or inability to accept compliments. If some of these characteristics apply to you, your self-esteem could use a boost.
Many people do not realize how important self-esteem is. Let’s compare a person with high self-esteem with a person who has low self-esteem. The individual with high self-esteem feels in charge, energetic, centered, feels healthy, is living in the moment, has lots of personal power, and feels good about him or herself. The person with low self-esteem feels fearful, unsure, inadequate, insecure, defeated, drained, sad, anxious, lonely, etc. It is apparent that a person with high self-esteem would have a far different life than a person with low self-esteem. Not only would the person feel a lot better about him or herself, but the individual would accomplish so much more. Where do you think you fall on a scale of 1 to 100, if 1 is the lowest point, and 100 is the absolute highest self-esteem possible?
There are many ways to raise one’s self-esteem. One method many people may not be aware of is with the use of hypnosis. The beauty of hypnosis is that it allows new positive messages to bypass the conscious mind and go directly to the subconscious part of the mind. If one’s subconscious believes he or she is inadequate, clumsy, a failure, a slow learner, etc., it is necessary to change this subconscious belief. Hypnosis is an excellent way to do this. With hypnosis one can change these deeply rooted beliefs, and often more quickly than with more traditional methods.
It is unfortunate that there are a lot of myths about hypnosis. The truth is that one is always in control, one will not do anything that goes against his or her values or moral beliefs, and one will not remain in a hypnotic trance for an indefinite period if something were to happen to the hypnotherapist. Hypnosis is safe and very effective for a large number of problems. If you would like to change and improve the quality of your life, consider the use of hypnosis. You will definitely notice a change in your life.
Phil Rosenbaum
