Original Link Article by hypnosistrainingacademy.com

It’s a familiar line of questioning…

Is hypnosis real, and does it actually work?

Is it just a myth, or does it have any basis in reality?

Can some of the results be backed up by science, or are they just one-offs?

Are they just coincidences?

Or is something else going on?

One of the problems, of course, is that there’s often no general agreement.

Ask two different professionals, and you might get two different answers.

That’s why you need solid proof.

You need to know that someone, somewhere, has taken the time to find out.

That they’ve done proper research under the right conditions.

That their results have been replicated elsewhere.

That’s what proof is, after all, right?

Evidence.

Verification.

Findings that have been confirmed over and over again, so there’s no mistake.

Because once you’ve got proof, you can’t argue with it.

No matter who you are or how many degrees you hold.

It’s fact. Written down in black and white.

And fortunately, when it comes to hypnosis, that kind of proof exists.

Hypnosis Rises Out Of The Fog

You probably know the story by now.

Hypnosis gets a bad rap because it’s so widely misunderstood.

Because of its association with mind control.

Thanks largely to being sensationalized by the media.

By newspapers, TV and film.

But, of course, it’s not about that at all.

Hypnosis is something you let happen to yourself.

It isn’t something someone else does to you.

If you don’t want to go into a trance, then no-one can force you to.

They can’t taken over your thinking.

They can’t make you do things you wouldn’t normally do.

It just can’t happen.

Once the myths surrounding hypnosis have been rebuffed, it’s possible to get at the truth.

And the truth is fascinating.

Hypnosis has the potential to be used in an almost limitless number of practical applications.

Here are just a few examples:

• To stop smoking
• To lose weight
• To cope with IBS
• To manage pain
• To deal with depression
• To fight phobias
• To wipe out stress
• To eliminate addictions
• To aid recovery from surgery
• To ease the process of childbirth
• To relieve nausea
• To repair skin conditions

And as research continues and our understanding grows, more uses keep on being found.

So what is it about hypnosis that makes it so powerful?

It’s not magic.

It’s not witchcraft.

But there’s definitely something going on.

Something that makes it possible to kick bad habits, endure the unendurable, and reverse long-standing conditions.

Almost like magic, but more like a secret ingredient.

And that secret ingredient is – you.

You + Hypnosis = Miracle

Miracle might be a strong word, but what can be achieved through hypnosis is almost miraculous.

Why?

Because under hypnosis, your conscious mind gets sidelined.

Your attention turns inward, and you connect with your unconscious mind.

That’s where the ability to heal, to make decisions, and to motivate yourself comes from.

Access that, and anything’s possible.

You can stop smoking, even if you’ve smoked for most of your life.

You can stick to your diet, even if you’ve never had any success before.

You can handle pain, even if you’re not given any painkillers.

You can convince your body to start healing itself.

You can program your mind to begin thinking in different ways.

You can achieve things you’ve never been able to achieve before.

But unlike magic, it’s not a trick.

It’s simply the power of the human mind put to proper use.

Switch it on, and watch yourself go!

Scientific Proof That Hypnosis Works

There are truckloads of studies that back it all up too.

For instance, Drs. Elkins and Rajab did a study on the potential for hypnosis to help people stop smoking.

30 smokers were referred to the study by their physicians.

After an initial consultation, 21 of these came back to try hypnosis.

Following a 3-session hypnosis program, 81% had managed to stop smoking. And almost half of these said they were still not smoking a year later.

In another study, hypnosis was integrated with a Rapid Smoking treatment protocol.

Of the 43 participants, 39 stopped smoking.

That’s more than 90%.

And they were still not smoking when followed up at intervals of 6 months and 3 years.

With results like these, it’s easy to see why hypnotherapy is quickly becoming a mainstream option.

For instance, take Hugh McCorry.

He was the first full-time hypnotherapist at Belfast City Hospital.

Working in collaboration with the Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke Association, McCorry gave group sessions to members of the public on Belfast’s No Smoking Day.

According to the Association’s spokesperson Myrtle Neill, more than half of those who took part were able to stop smoking.

McCorry is quoted as saying that one session backed up with take-home audio tapes was often enough to quench a 20-a-day habit.

Others, however, believe the best solution is to approach the problem from multiple angles.

Despite that fact, throwing hypnotherapy into the mix usually brings higher quit rates.

Higher than nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) alone.

Higher than going cold turkey.

That’s what Dr. Hasan from the North Shore Medical Center in Salem, MA, concluded.

He compared the quit rates of 67 hospitalized “smokers” divided into 4 groups based on the form of treatment.

Patients were followed up 26 weeks after discharge.

50% of those who received hypnotherapy alone, or hypnotherapy with NRT, were non-smokers.

That compared with 25% in the control group (going cold turkey) and just over 15% in the NRT only group.

According to Alvin V. Thomas, MD, FCCP, President of the American College of Chest Physicians:

“The results of this study and many others confirm that using a multimodality approach to smoking cessation is optimal for success.”

Hypnosis has also proven to be highly successful at helping people lose weight.

In one study, Cochrane and Friesen worked with 60 women between the ages of 20 and 60.

Each of the women was at least 20% overweight and not following any other diet regimes.

The women were divided into 3 sets, one undergoing hypnosis, one hypnosis with audiotapes, and a control group.

All of the participants were checked for weight loss straight after the sessions, and followed up after 6 months.

The results confirmed that hypnosis is an effective method for weight loss.

Studies have also shown how hypnosis works better than other forms of therapy.

One case reported in the Journal of Clinical Psychology compared 17-67 year olds given diet and exercise treatment.

The participants were split into two groups, one given hypnosis and the other not.

Both groups were successful at losing weight.

When followed up at 8-month and 2-year intervals, however, the differences were significant.

The groups who did not undergo hypnosis failed to lose any further weight – and most of them gained all their weight back.

The group who underwent hypnosis kept losing weight and were able to keep it off.

These results led the researchers involved to conclude that “hypnosis should be used by anyone who is serious about weight loss.”

Because weight loss is such a big deal these days, even the studies themselves have been scrutinized and analyzed.

In one such case, 18 studies were examined where other forms of therapy were supplemented by hypnosis.

It was discovered that people who received hypnosis lost more weight than 90% of participants who did not.

Not only that, but they kept the weight off for two years after the sessions.

The same researchers also investigated 5 weight loss studies chronicled in 1996 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.

They reported that these studies showed hypnosis to be more than twice as effective as more traditional approaches.

Studies like these show just how useful hypnosis can be.

They provide the proof that hypnosis is a viable and realistic therapy.

That’s why hypnotherapy has been recognized worldwide as a practical method for managing a wide range of conditions:

• In 1996, the Australian Hypnotherapists’ Association introduced a peer-group accreditation system for professional Australian hypnotherapists.

• In the UK, the Department for Education and Skills developed National Occupational Standards for hypnotherapy in 2002.

• In the USA, hypnotherapy regulation and certification is carried out by the American Council of Hypnotist Examiners (A.C.H.E.). The first state-licensed hypnotherapy center was the Hypnotism Training Institute of Los Angeles, licensed way back in 1976.

Nothing To Fear But Fear Itself

And then, there are phobias.

Phobias have been described as the fear of fear.

You’re not simply afraid of the spider, or of flying, or of speaking in public.

You’re also afraid of the way those things make you feel.

The way they make you lose control.

Most of us know these fears are irrational, but we just can’t help the way we react.

Interestingly, many phobic patients are believed to be easily hypnotizable.

Why?

Because their phobic experience puts them into a sort of trance-like state.

Not a particularly nice state, but trance-like all the same.

Maybe that’s why hypnotherapy is so good at helping people overcome their phobias.

Under hypnosis, the hypnotherapist can implant powerful suggestions in your mind.

They can also combine hypnosis with other forms of therapy.

Using desensitization or the Rewind Technique.

Desensitization involves breaking the fear down into a series of steps.

Working from the least frightening to the most frightening.

Using relaxation and coping mechanisms to deal with levels of fear at each step.

The Rewind Technique is used when a client has been put under hypnosis.

The therapist gets the patient to imagine watching a movie of themselves experiencing the phobic event in the past.

They then rewind the movie to a safe point, and then fast forward it.

The process is repeated until the client no longer feels any emotion about it.

Until they become desensitized to it.

Able to regain control of their lives and get on with living it.

And with help from hypnosis, it’s more than possible.

Hypnosis has been proven effective in dealing with a whole range of psychological issues.

From phobias to bulimia to post-traumatic stress.

As time goes on, it may turn out that we’ve only just scratched the surface.

That hypnosis and hypnotherapy are capable of a lot more than we ever imagined.

And if that’s true, you can be sure there’ll be plenty of new studies to back it up.

What Hypnosis Really Is

So what do all of these techniques and studies tell us?

They tell us that hypnosis is not a gimmick.

It’s real, and it’s practical.

In the right hands, it’s a valuable tool for helping people.

Sure, hypnotherapists make money doing what they do.

So do doctors.

But that doesn’t stop you from seeking out their expertise.

Because in the end, you’re getting the help you need.

You’re accessing your own internal powerhouse to make positive life changes.

To drive home suggestions that help reprogram you.

So you can think differently, feel better, and change your behavior from the inside out.

It’s not always possible to do that on your own, though.

You might already have a life that’s so busy, there just isn’t time to devote entirely to yourself.

Even if you did, you might not know how to go about it.

Hypnosis is a natural state we all enter on a regular basis.

When you get absorbed in a good book, or wrapped up in your favorite hobby.

It’s completely harmless and totally non-invasive.

It makes significant and lasting changes without altering who you really are.

And if you let it, it might just dramatically improve your life.

By Nanice Ellis

Contribution Writer for Wake Up World

Have you ever wondered why so many relationships end in heartache? Even relationships that begin with incredible love, faithful promises and the best of intentions often come to a bitter end. If love is all you need, why does it all go so wrong?

What if I told you, there is a single core issue responsible for almost every break up and break down, and, not just in our romantic relationships, but in all our relationships?

As a relationship coach for almost twenty years, I share this insight with you now so that you can gain the wisdom and power to find love in all the right places.

Humanity’s Invisible Wound

Most of humanity is silently suffering from the invisible wound of unworthiness. Because we have amnesia of our true selves, and we have forgotten that we are unconditionally loved by an All Loving Source, we come into this world asking, “Am I worthy of love?” From our first breath, we seek this answer, not knowing that the life-long quality of our relationships, prosperity and health all depend on our immature interpretation of the signs.

In most cases, this pivotal answer is, “I am worthy if….” Until we awaken, Conditional Worthiness is the foundational belief for almost every human being on this planet, and the core belief that every other belief is based upon. If you believe that you are fundamentally unworthy of love unless you meet certain conditions, you will construct a reality built on this false premise, and, as a result, you will embark on this game of life, seeking love outside yourself, and building unsustainable relationships upon that search.

Most people spend their entire lives trying to prove that they are worthy of love, never considering that the quest for worthiness is impossible to fulfill, nor understanding, that this impossible quest covertly sabotages virtually every loving relationship.

The Core Wound

If you look deep, you will find that the core wound of all emotional wounds is the belief of unworthiness or conditional worthiness. This belief is so painful because it is completely untrue, but since our parents, teachers and peers all suffer from the same debilitating belief, it seems perfectly normal.

As a way to cope with the emotional wound of unworthiness, the well-meaning ego selects a “primary emotional need,” that when met, temporarily fills this wound. The “primary emotional need” is specific to you and your life experiences, with the most common emotional needs including: appreciation, approval, acceptance, understanding and being heard, but there are many more, as well. This means that if your primary emotional need is acceptance, you must somehow get others to accept you, again and again, in order to feel worthy of love. Our personalities become molded according to this need and our unconscious strategies to get this need met, influencing our choice of careers, friends, clothes, interests and just about everything else.

Although we are usually unaware of this primary emotional need, there is a part of us who is constantly tracking for the fulfillment of this need, and, consequently, altering our behavior in order to get it met.

We might sacrifice our desires for approval, compromise our values for appreciation or hide behind a false self in exchange for being understood. Without knowing it, your primary emotional need runs your life, making you do things you don’t really want to do, and keeping you from expressing your true self. It is an invisible prison of your own making, and, even if you can get others to meet this emotional need, it is never enough to fill this bottomless pit of unworthiness.

Romantic Chemistry — A Trick in Disguise?

In an unconscious attempt to heal this wound, many of us search for that one special person who can love us enough to make us whole, but we fail to take into account that the wise Universe has another plan.

A substantial component of what we call romantic chemistry is the unconscious pull towards someone who will not meet our primary emotional need, and, as a result, trigger our emotional issues. Of course, when we first get to know this person, and we feel attracted, we usually believe that he/she will provide us with what we need emotionally, even if we are not sure what that is – which is generally the case. So, we open our hearts and we let this person in, totally expecting the relationship to grow and flourish, but within days, weeks, months or years, we recognize that we feel hurt and unloved because our partner is not giving us what we need emotionally, and then we blame him/her for withholding love. Our love language is really alanguage of emotional needs. No matter how much your partner says, or does, the “right” things, if he/she doesn’t meet your primary emotional need, you will likely feel unloved and unsatisfied.

This is the cause of dysfunction in virtually every problematic relationship. When our partner is not meeting our primary emotional need, we either sacrifice ourselves to do whatever it takes for our partner to love us in the way that we desire, be that through appreciation, approval or understanding, etc…, and if our partner still does not meet this emotional need, we defend ourselves with anger, resentment, resistance or we just shut down. We withhold love from our partner by denying him or her their primary emotional need in return. Of course, this is all orchestrated, by us, without our awareness. We just feel hurt and unloved, and, so, we try to protect ourselves.

Your Love Receptors

If you unconsciously believe that you are only worthy of love if your primary emotional need is met, your love receptors will only turn on when you perceive that this condition is satisfied, but, as soon as the condition is no longer satisfied, the receptors turn off. Your condition must also be met by a certain type of person, or a specific person. You might also have self- imposed conditions, for example, if you don’t look a certain way, even if your partner is meeting your emotional need, you won’t feel loved because your love receptors are turned off. This means that even a “bad hair day” can negatively impact a relationship.

The bottom line is, even if someone truly loves us, if our conditions are not met, we unconsciously block love. Conditions don’t bring us love – conditions block love.

On the surface, challenging relationships that our based on the “worthiness game” might seem like a waste of time, but, by no small means, this dynamic is by Divine Design. On a higher level, our true selves are playing the healing game. No matter the facts, details or history, the greater part of us is conspiring for our awakening. We don’t attract people who will meet our emotional needs because if those needs were met by others, we would remain oblivious to the deeper wound, which is not feeling worthy of love, and that wound would go forever unhealed, keeping us out of alignment with our true spiritual nature. We need someone (important to us) who will withhold the very thing we believe we need most, so that the pain and suffering associated with not getting this need met, will alert us to this wound, in such a way, we cannot ignore.

Relationships are meant to trigger issues so that we know that they exist within us, and we have the opportunity to heal, and free ourselves.

Many years ago, I found myself in a long term relationship where I felt completely unappreciated. I bent over backwards and even sacrificed my own integrity in order to receive morsels of appreciation, but no matter what I did, I still felt unappreciated. I requested, I demanded, I whined – still, less than nothing. As I grew resentful that my partner withheld appreciation, I began to withhold understanding. The key nuggets of our frequent arguments were, “You don’t appreciate me” versus “You don’t understand me.” As I felt unappreciated, I also felt unworthy of love, and as the pain grew with the passing of time, I arrived at the point where I was done seeking appreciation because it was just too painful.

The true purpose of emotional pain is to wake us up, and make us pay attention to the false belief(s) that is causing the pain in the first place.

Of course, you can ignore this pain through methods of distraction, addiction, rationalization, etc… but pain is designed to grow stronger the longer you ignore it, requiring greater and greater methods of avoidance. Depending on your ability to tolerate emotional pain, eventually, there will come a point, where the only way to be free of this pain is to uncover its true source and pull it up from the roots.

Finally, I stopped looking outside myself and I looked within. I began to see a hidden history revolving around my need for appreciation that began with my mother in childhood. I could see that my need for appreciation was a symptom of trying to prove that I was worthy of love. I could also see that there was an empty space inside me where my own self-love was missing. It became perfectly clear that in this unconscious game of trying to prove my worth, the cards were stacked against me.

Relationships cannot prove your worth. Relationships can only demonstrate whether or not you believe that you are worthy.

Until we are fully awake in our lives, the purpose of relationships, and especially intimate ones, is to alert us to our disempowering beliefs, so that we can heal and wake up. Other people, we call family, lovers and friends unknowingly act out our false beliefs and trigger our issues so that we have the opportunity to recognize and release these false beliefs and heal our wounds. Therefore, if I believe that my worth is conditional and I must prove that I am worthy, my partner can only reflect this belief by unconsciously offering behavior (withholding my primary emotional need) that activates my feelings of unworthiness.

If you don’t love yourself, you will need others to behave certain ways so that you feel worthy of love, but others can only demonstrate your belief that you don’t feel worthy of love.

In addition, because worth is intrinsic and unconditional, it cannot be proven or disproven. The mere act of trying to prove that you are worthy or getting others to treat you a certain way so that you feel worthy, comes from a belief that you are not worthy. If you know that you are unconditionally worthy of love, you don’t need proof.

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For many people, the idea of being awake while your skull is cut open sounds like something straight out of a horror movie. However, 37 people decided to forgo anesthetics for brain surgery and opted to receive hypnosis instead.
Hypnosis in surgery is not a new concept. In 1864 a Scottish surgeon named James Esdaile reported “80 percent surgical anesthesia using hypnosis as the sole anesthetic for amputations in India,” according to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In 1957, Dr. William Saul Kroger caught the New York Time’s attention when he used hypnosis on a breast cancer patient, the Miami Herald reported.

However, Dr. Ilyess Zemmoura of Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Tours and his colleagues have been evaluating the effects of using anesthesia since 2011. Focusing primarily on brain cancer patients, he and his team have been conducting awake operations to remove brain cancer tumors.

Certain brain operations require patients to be awake for at least part of the process. These surgeries are very tricky, according to the International Business Times, and surgeons depend on certain responses and interactions to avoid damaging critical parts of the brain, such as the eloquent cortex.

Typically when a patient undergoes brain surgery, they will be put to sleep at the beginning of the operation prior to the skull being opened, woken up in the middle to ensure responses are normal, then put back to sleep again. This process is known as asleep-awake-asleep ‒ or AAA – which seems like an onomatopoeia when thinking about waking up in the middle of brain surgery.

Zemmoura and other researchers detailed the hypnosis process to a total of 48 patients, according to Ars Technica. Hypnosis sedation, much like AAA sedation, begins several weeks prior to the operation. The patient meets with a hypnotist to practice entering a trance. From 2011 to 2015, 37 of the 48 underwent brain surgery using hypnosis sedation. Six patients were unable to enter a trance at the time of the surgery and switched to AAA sedation.

While the drawbacks to hypnotherapy may seem obvious ‒ waking up out of the trance, pain, sneezing while a surgeon has their hands on your brain ‒ there are many benefits as well. The Journal of the National Cancer Institute estimated that the use of hypnosis could save both time and up to $338 per procedure.

Although some in the medical community remain skeptical – there was no control group in the study to compare results with – Zemmoura’s small patient group largely reported positive results. Follow-up questionnaires showed little to no negative psychological impact, Neuroscience News reported.

Originally posted on Buzz Feed by Anna Borges

Caring both too much and not at all means never winning.

[Editor’s note: Anxiety and depression affect everyone differently — but dealing with both is extremely common. Nearly one-half of people diagnosed with depression are also diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Anxiety and depression are deeply personal, and although this list represents only one experience, we hope you find some solace in knowing others might be going through what you are.]
1. It’s freaking out at the idea of getting anything less than a stellar score on a test, but not having the energy to study.

2. It’s having to stay in bed because you don’t have the will to move, but unraveling at the thought of what will happen if you miss school or work.

3. It’s feeling more tired the less you move, but your heart racing at the thought of taking the first step.

4. It’s getting more tightly wound the more mess piles up, but only staring at it and thinking, I’ll clean tomorrow.

5. It’s making six million to-do lists just to untangle your thoughts, but knowing you’ll never actually cross anything off.

6. It’s believing that every canceled plan will end your friendships, but not having it in you to follow through.

7. It’s feeling hopelessly low that you’re still goddamn single, but canceling every first date because the thought of going through with it gives you heart palpitations.

8. It’s fearing every day that your partner will get fed up and leave, but your anxiety whispering in your ear that they deserve better and should.

9. It’s ignoring texts and turning down invitations, and it’s aching when the texts and invitations stop.

10. It’s the constant fear of winding up alone, but accidentally isolating yourself because you sometimes just need to hide from it all.

11. It’s wanting nothing more than to crawl home and sleep at 2 p.m., but your skittering, panicked pulse keeping you awake at 2 a.m.

12. It’s alternating between feeling paralyzed in the present and scared shitless about the future.

13. It’s not enjoying the good days because you’re too gripped by the anxiety that the next low is around the corner.

14. It’s sleeping too much or not at all.

15. It’s needing a break from your racing thoughts, but not being able to climb out of the pit of yourself.

16. It’s needing to do everything, but wanting to do nothing at all.

17. It’s coping mechanisms and escapism, because when you’re not trying to hide from one part of your brain, you’re hiding from the other.

18. It’s wondering if the things that are making your heart feel heavy are things your anxious mind just made up.

19. It’s sitting awake at 3 a.m. worrying about a future you’re not even sure you want to have.

20. It’s feeling too much and nothing at all at the same time, which means feeling like you can never win.

BUT YOU CAN. AND YOU WILL. YOU’RE NOT ALONE.

To learn more about depression and anxiety, check out the resources at the National Institute of Mental Health here and here.

If you are dealing with thoughts of suicide, you can speak to someone immediately here or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, which you can reach at 1-800-273-8255.