Below is a guest article written by Holistic Practicioner Mitta Vicki Wise.  It describes a wonderful way to relax and gain deeper awareness with a walking meditation.

Walking Meditation

This exercise is best done on a natural, uneven surface. A park, forest or beach is perfect. Try to find a place and time when there is relative quiet or at least little traffic or construction noise. Before you begin your walk, stand still. Close your eyes. Take in the sounds around you. Be aware of your balance. Don’t try to stand in any particular way; just let your skeleton and your muscles hold you comfortably. Allow your arms to fall down by your side and let your head sink onto your chest.

Try to be aware of nothing external except the sounds that come to you. Attempt to identify each sound: is it high or low, shrill or mellow, pleasing or grating. Each sound repeats in a different rhythm. Despite the apparent randomness of natural sound there is, in fact, an underlying order to it. There is a pattern in the way birds repeat their calls and echo each other. There is an underlying cadence in the sound of a brook, a waterfall or the waves on a beach.

You are now ready to begin. Unlike an aerobic walk, this is a slow, ordinary series of steps based on awareness of your feet as they touch the ground. Notice the variation in the ground: subtle changes in the level you walk over, in the texture of the surface, in the way your feet roll over stones or roots. Awareness comes as you notice more and more differences in the same path. You can walk in a circle or in a line. You can go over the same stretch of ground many times or you can walk for about five minutes before turning back. Your eyes should be lowered to the ground, just a few steps ahead.

While walking, give attention to the contact of each foot as it touches the surface. When other things arise in your mind, simply notice what took your attention and gently return your focus to your walking. Towards the end of the meditation, ask yourself what differences you feel in your body and the way you walk from when you started and from when you last did this. Try this for 20 minutes daily or even every few days. It can result in a deep awareness.

To find out more about Mitta Vicki Wise, you can click the link below.

http://www.yourholistichealthcare.com

Confidence in yourself and in your ability to perform a particular task are essential to your success.  However, too many people have limiting beliefs in their subconscious mind that undermine their success no matter how great their ability, or how much they engage in positive self talk.  In these instances Self Hypnosis can be a powerful tool in giving you the confidence you need and the success you desire.

In the last post I gave you an outline of how to do a successful self hypnosis session.  I encourage you to use that outline as a guide in creating your Self Hypnosis session for increasing your confidence.  Below I am going to give you some powerful suggestions, affirmations, and other tips specifically related to increasing your confidence.

Simply plug these tools into the outline in the appropriate place.

Affirmations/Self Hypnosis Suggestions

I am absolutely confident in myself

I perform all necessary tasks with absolute confidence

I believe in myself and in my ability to accomplish what I desire

Other people have confidence in me to accomplish what I desire

I speak from my heart with absolute confidence

I visualize and imagine myself confidently succeeding everyday

My confidence in myself and in my abilities grows stronger day by day

Other people’s confidence in me and my abilities grows stronger day by day.

Being confident in myself comes naturally and easily to me

I love the feeling of confidence I express in all that I think speak and do

Special Tip For Increasing Confidence

You can incorporate the following as part of your self hypnosis session, or do it separately.  It is very powerful.

This tip involves your handwriting.  Handwriting as opposed to printing is an ideomotor response, which means it is a direct link to your subconscious mind.  Handwriting can accurately reveal what is going on in your subconscious mind, and can also be used to change what is in your subconscious mind.

For our purposes in increasing self confidence, we are only going to look at one letter, the letter “T”.  The letter “T” corresponds to self esteem (how you feel about yourself) and confidence (your belief in yourself to accomplish tasks).  The “T” stem represents your self esteem, and your “T” cross represents confidence.  The taller your “T” stem the higher your self esteem, and the higher you cross your “T” stem, the greater your confidence.

As part of increasing your self confidence, you want to make a conscious effort (until it becomes routine) to write your “T’s” with higher stems, and crossing them in the upper third of the stem.  Within a few days to a week you will likely notice your confidence going up significantly.

You can do this as part of your self hypnosis session by writing out your suggestions/affirmations when you get to that part of the outline.  You can also choose to write out your affirmations/self hypnosis suggestions before you go to bed when your subconscious mind is in a naturally receptive state.  Of course any time you write you can be aware of making your “T” stems and crosses higher.

With the combination of self hypnosis and an awareness of your “T’s” it won’t be long before you have all the self confidence you need.

Hypnosis is a very powerful tool for re-programming your unconscious beliefs which in turn will lead to positive changes in your life.  As a Spiritual Hypnotherapist, I have worked with people from all walks of life on issues ranging from health to career to relationships etc.  In every case what the client perceived as a challenge in their life was the result of an unconscious belief about themselves and/or what was possible in their life.

In order to change, or cause the subconscious mind to release these limiting beliefs, we need a way to access and communicate directly with the subconscious mind.  Hypnosis is one of the most powerful tools available to accomplish this.

Many people have misconceptions about what hypnosis really is, mostly as a result of seeing a stage hypnosis show, or an inaccurate presentation on tv or film.   In its simpleist form what hypnosis is from a therapeutic standpoint is giving the subconscious mind positive suggestions for change while it is in a relaxed, receptive, yet heightened state of awareness.

These positive suggestions for change can come from a hypnotherapist, a hypnosis recording, or they can come from you.  If you are facing a serious challenge you will be best served by seeking professional assitance.  However there are many instances when you can safely and successfully use the power of self hypnosis to make positive changes in your life.

Self hypnosis is very effective for reducing stress and anxiety, as well as increasing self esteem and confidence.  Self hypnosis can also be effective in improving athletic and other types of performance.

The key to self hypnosis is ensuring that your subconscious is in a receptive state to receive your positive suggestions.  Often this can be accomplished by sitting in a comfortable and relaxed position while focusing on your breathing for 2-3 minutes.  Once in this receptive state you can then proceed to give yourself your positive suggestions for change.

Below I have outlined the basic steps for an effective self hypnosis session.

1.  Get Into A Comfortable & Relaxed Position. You can either sit in a chair or on the floor, or perhaps lye on the floor.  You will discover which position works best for you.  Be sure your clothing isn’t restrictive in any way, and be sure you have chosen a time when you will not be interupted.

2.  Become Aware And Focus On Your Breathing. With your eyes closed simply become aware of your breathing as you breathe in and breathe out.  Notice if your breathing changes in anyway.  Most likely you will notice it slowing down and becoming deeper.  Continue this for two to three minutes allowing yourself to release any stress, tension or anxiety with every breathe and relaxing even more as your mind becomes mentally calm.

3.  Give Yourself Your Positive Suggestions For Change. Like affirmations all of your suggestions will be more powerful when stated in the present tense.  For example, “I am confident in myself and my abilities” rather than “I will be confident in myself and my abilities”.

You can choose to either say your suggestions out loud to yourself, record them and play them back while you are ina receptive state, or put them on cards, and look at them one at time.  You would do this by looking at the first suggestion, then close your eyes for a moment taking a deep breathe, and then opening your eyes to read the next suggestion.  Again with practice you will disvoer which method works best for you.

4.  Anchor The Relaxed Feeling. After you have given yourself positive suggestions for 5-10 minutes, you will want to “anchor” your positive expereince, and especially the feeling of relaxation.  You can do this by thinking of a word or phrase that describes the feeling you are expereincing.  Once you have this word or phrase, touch the thumb and middle finger of your left hand together, take in a slow depp, gentle breathe, and slowly exhale as you say your word or phrase to yourself.

You may want to repeat this a couple more time to strengthen the anchor.  Once you have set this anchor, you will be able to re-expereince that relaxed feeling anytime you desire by touching your thumb and middle finget of your left hand together taking in a slow deep gentle breathe, and exhaling as you say your word or phrase to yourself.

5.  Count Yourself Out Of Hypnosis. After you have set your anchor, its time to bring yourself full back to the present and the here and now.  You will do this by making a fist with your right hand, and counting up slowly the first time from one to five, becoming more aware and alert with every count.  Open your eyes on “five”.  then repeat the count a couple more times quickly.

6.  Drink A Glass Of Water. This is the final important step.  Drinking the water will ground you more firmly in the present and will reinforce all the positive suggestions your subconscious mind received during the session.

Now that you have the basics, go ahead and try it for yourself.  In the coming days and weeks, I will be exploring specific applications for Self Hypnosis, including confidence, reducing stress and anxiety, improving relationships, improving performance in a variety of areas.  If you have a suggestion for a situation you would like me to cover, let me know.