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.

In todays post in The Secrets Of Personal Development series, I will be discussing Clarity, one of the most important elements in making a positive change in your life. Almost all great Self Help books talk about the importance of being clear about your desired outcome. In the Seven Habits Highly Successful People, Steven Covey encourages us to “Begin With The End In Mind”.

By having a clear image and/or vision of what you want to experience in life, you automatically activate and give the needed information to your subconscious mind to start creating and attracting the circumstances, people, and resources necessary to manifest your desired outcome.

The challenge I have found in getting clear about what they want to experience in their life is that they confuse what they think they want with what society, parents, friends, etc. have programmed and conditioned them to want. Many people start off thinking what they want/need to be happy is more money, a better relationship, a more fulfilling career.

Certainly all of these things can enhance our enjoyment and sense of fulfillment in our lives, so many people strive for these things, and even after achieving them find they are still not expereincing the happiness or fulfillment they had hoped for.

I am sure you have heard it said that true happiness begins inside of ourselves. It is also inside of oursleves that we find the clarity of our passion and purpose in life. At this point it is common for your conscious mind to say “I know that” and tune out to the rest of what I am going to communicate to you. Let me tell you that this is simply a clever trick that the conscious mind uses to keep you exactly where you are.

To truly know anything you have to go beyond simply hearing about it, or reading about it, or even studying it. You must expereince it.  I am going to encourage you to tune out what your conscious mind is saying to you, and actually take a few minutes to experience becoming more clear about your purpose and passion in life and the path they lays before you.

Below I will outline a simple excercise for you to experience. You can choose to do it for longer periods of time, however for now all I ask is that you try it for ten minutes, and simply notice if you become more clear as a result of your expereince.

1. Get Into A Comfortable And Relaxed Position.
This can be sitting in chair, sitting on the floor, or perhaps lying on the floor. Be sure to loosen any clothing that you find restricting you in any way.

2. Become Aware Of Your Breathing
Once you are in a comfortable and relaxed position simply spend a minute or two being aware of your breathing as you breathe in and breathe out. Notice how your breathing becomes more deep getnle and rhythmic as time goes by. Also notice how your body begins to relax and your mind becomes mentally calm.

3. Place One Or Both Hands On Your Heart And Ask Yourself A Question.
After being aware of your breathing for a minute or two, place one or both of your hands on your heart, and ask yourself the following question “What do I truly want to experience in my life?”. Allow yourself to be open to receiving the answer in whatever form it may come. It may come as a feeling, it may come as a word or phrase, it may come as a picture, etc. Simply have an expectation of receiving an answer to your question and be open to receiving it.

4. Some Alternatives
In addition to asking the question above, you may also want to try asking the question this way, “What do I truly want to offer to the world? or “How do I want to be of service to the world?”. You can ask any one of these questions or all three. simply allow some time in between your asking and your receiving an answer.

You may also want (and I recommend asking) your question(s) several times to access deeper and deeper parts of yourself. Also if you are ever unclear about an answer you receive, you can simply ask your inner self to answer again in a way that you can understand.

The key to this excersize (as is the case in much of our lives) is to allow yourself to get out of your head and connect deeply to your heart. It is their that all the chaos, confusion, fear, and doubt will dissolve, and the path before you will become clear.

I welcome your comments and feedback, and of course I appreciate your sharing this article with anyone you feel can benefit from it. If you have questions about anything in this article or on this site, feel free to email me at mitchell@thechampionsheart.com