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Hypnosis
What is Hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a state of concentration and focused attention during which we are completely inwardly absorbed. This can be achieved with the help of someone else or on one's own. Hypnosis is a method of focusing your mind and using your imagination and thoughts to stir feelings and to alter your behavior and attitudes.
How does Hypnosis work?
Hypnosis is very much like using a magnifying glass in the sunlight. When you use a magnifying glass to focus and concentrate the rays of the sun into a pinpoint of light, the sun's rays become more powerful. When they are concentrated, the sun's rays can burn a hole through sheet metal or start a fire. Similarly when we focus and concentrate our mind's attention, it allows us to use our own mind in a much more powerful way.
Without realizing it, many people use spontaneous, informal trance states in a negative manner. For instance, we visualize negative outcomes or memories that stir up anxiety or depression. It's also not uncommon for us to speak internally to ourselves in quite critical ways. As we criticize and put ourselves down, we are essentially in light trance states, preoccupied and internally focused. It is thus important to realize that thoughts, imaginations and internal dialogue can be positive and helpful, or counterproductive.
In a sense, in hypnosis you are altering your internal world. When you change how you think, visualize and imagine things to be, your feelings and behavior will begin to change. It is commonly believed that we use only five or ten percent of our mental potential. Hypnosis is simply a focused state of attention and concentration that allows your to use more of that potential and power of your own mind. In a very real sense, hypnosis is actually the ultimate in a self-control skill.
General Benefits:
Pain control
Anxiety management
Resolve Traumas
Become more positive, and experience the resulting benefits
Hypnosis for Athletes:
There are many uses of hypnosis for sports performance. Hypnosis encourages the use of imagery. Mental imagery is very powerful, especially in a focused state of attention. The mind seems capable of using imagery, even if it is only symbolic, to assist us in bringing about the things we are imagining. For example, studies of sharp shooters show that shooters who use visualization perform better than those who do not use visualization.
A second basic hypnotic method is to present ideas or suggestions to the athlete. In a state of concentrated attention, ideas and suggestions that are compatible with what the athlete wants seem to have a more powerful impact on the mind. Athletes can imagine them selves competing with confidence, or can experience mentally the preparation and execution of a complex task.
Motor neurons that fire during the physical execution of a task actually fire when in a hypnotic state, even though the muscles are not moving. That makes hypnosis very useful during periods of injury as it allows a form of practice that has been shown to help maintain muscle memory. Hypnosis can be used as a form of pain control. It has been proven to be very effective in reducing postoperative recovery discomfort and as an aid in healing post operatively. People trained in hypnosis learn ways to help control stress and manage anxiety.
Finally, hypnosis may be used for unconscious exploration, to better understand underlying motivations or identify whether past events or experiences are associated with causing a problem. Hypnosis avoids the critical censor of the conscious mind, which often defeats what we know to be in our best interests. The effectiveness of hypnosis appears to lie in the way in which it bypasses the critical observation and interference of the conscious mind, allowing the client's intentions for change to take effect.
General Benefits for Athletes:
Shortened injury recovery period
Increased confidence
Improved ability to manage challenges
Return from a slump
Athletes/Professionals who use Hypnosis:
Laura Wilkinson - Olympic Gold Medalist
Tiger Woods - Professional Golfer, widely regarded as one of the best
to ever play the game
Kobe Bryant - Professional Basketball Player
Shaquille O'Neil - Professional Basketball Player
Kevin Costner - Actor
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