After the relaxation procedure, you will feel totally relaxed, but you can go even deeper into the trance-like state, which will help reach your subconscious. This part is called deepening. The staircase is a common approach to deepening.

See yourself standing at the top of a staircase. As you descend the staircase, you will relax even more. Let’s count backward. You are standing on the top, or tenth, step and step down to the ninth. Nine, relaxing more and more. Eight, every muscle and nerve is completely relaxed. Seven, you go deeper and deeper into this wonderful state of relaxation. Six, your mind is clear and calm. Five, deeper and deeper. Four, you are feeling wonderfully calm and serene. Three, you relax more and more. Two, nearing the bottom, you are totally relaxed. One, you have finished descending the staircase. You find yourself in a beautiful meadow with your body fully relaxed and your mind calm and open to beneficial suggestions. You can enjoy yourself knowing you can return to this wonderful state of relaxation whenever you wish.

If you don’t want to use the imagery of a staircase, there are many other ways to do the deepening. You can see yourself slowly descending to a landing in a hot air balloon. A good one is to use a sky writer. Imagine the sky writer writing the numbers 10, 9, 8, etc., and see each one fade away as you go deeper into the hypnotic trance.

Here’s another option. See yourself walking deeper and deeper into a beautiful forest. This can also be used as an induction, and is given in more detail in the induction section.

There are several parts to a self-hypnosis session. When you become good at self-hypnosis, that is when you are confident and successful, you can experiment with changing the procedure. While you are learning, stick with these steps.

Here are the parts of a self-hypnosis session in order: preparation, induction, relaxation, deepening, suggestion, visualization, termination.

In this section, we will go through a session without the suggestion and visualization, so you can practice the basic procedure, which is the same regardless of your goal. You will find that this procedure, by itself, is great for stress reduction.

The induction, which is what puts you into hypnosis, is given its own section, so you will have to go there to get that part of this session. The other parts are in this section.

Take your time learning and practicing this process. You will enjoy it the first time through, but it becomes more effective with practice. Don’t try to force it.

Try this. Work with a partner. Put your right arm straight out in front of you. Clench your fist and tense your muscles as hard as you can, using your will power. Have your partner press down on your hand. Now extend the same arm, relax and imaagine it being like an iron bar extending beyond your fingertips as far as you can see. Have your partner press on your hand again. (Nod when you’re ready.) Are you stronger when you relax? So much for will power. Relaxation and self-hypnosis work better.

After a while, you may be able to do a form of self-hypnosis in a busy place. Waiting at the airport is a good time to do self-hypnosis. So is the actual flight. While you are learning, practice in a quiet place.

Set aside 10 or 15 minutes a day to practice self-hypnosis. You can do this any time that is convenient, but it’s best not to do it at bedtime or you may fall asleep before you finish.

Find a place where you can be quiet and undisturbed. You should be warm and confortable, but not too hot and not in a draft. Many people like to lie down for their self-hypnosis sessions, but you can do it sitting in a chair if you prefer. It’s best not to practice within an hour after eating. You can do anything you want after your self-hypnosis session.

Ask your family not to disturb you, unless one of them is practicing with you. Keep the pets out, unless you are sure they will spend the time napping. Unplug the phone, and turn off the cell. You may not be able to avoid all traffic noise, but do the best you can.

Loosen any tight clothing and made yourself comfortable. You may want to take off your shoes, especially if you are lying down. You can sit in a chair or on a comfortable bench. Don’t sit on the bed or on a very soft sofa. You don’t have to sit on the floor or in a lotus position, unless that is relaxing for you. Put your feet flat on the floor if you are in a chair. Put your hands in your lap, or next to you if you are lying down.

After you are prepared, do the induction, as given in the induction section. You will feel pretty relaxed after the induction, but it’s best to go further. Next, you totally relax your body. You will use a type of progressive relaxation, but without tensing the muscles before relaxing them. This will be a total system relaxation that is cumulative. Here is your relaxation routine. You can record it, have someone read it to you, or just read it over a few times and then go through the routine on your own, without worrying about the exact words.

Start at your toes. Feel your feet relax as you wiggle your toes, Now let the relaxation come into your ankles and your lower legs, and feel yourself letting go of all the tension in your feet and legs. The wave of relaxation next comes up to your knees, lets the large muscles in your thighs relax, and moves into your hips and up to your waist. Now pause for a moment and feel all the tension leave your lower body, just melting away. It seems as though even your internal organs are relaxed and renewed. Your muscles are warm and loose, and your tendons and nerves are flexible and relaxed. Now let the relaxation move through your chest to your shoulders. The relaxation spreads to your lower back and on up into the broad muscles of your upper back. Your arms are loose and the relaxation goes into your fingers. Your hands feel warm and tingly. Now let all the tension in your shoulders just drift away. See the tension leaving your body and vanishing. The relaxation now moves up into your neck and on to your head. The surface of your scalp wants to relax too, so just let it go. Finally, let all the small muscles of your face just let go. Let the tension drain from your forehead, your cheeks, and your chin. Let your jaw relax and your teeth part. Breathe easily and let go of any remaining tension in your body. You are now totally relaxed, warm and comfortable. Every muscle and nerve is totally relaxed and you are calm and content. Take a moment to enjoy this wonderful total relaxation.

Yes, you have been in a trance when you finish the deepening. Trance is the traditional term for the state of hypnosis. It is also used at other times, with a similar connotation. Do not worry about being in a hypnotic trance. You are still in control.

It’s a little jarring to go from a hypnotic trance directly to full awareness, although it can be done, and certainly would be done if someone yelled “fire.”

Using a gentle trance termination when you have finished a self-hypnosis session makes the session more effective and helps you feel good for the rest of the day. Here is a simple trance termination.

I am going to count from 1 to 5, and you will slowly return to full awareness. Two, you are feeling relaxed and content. Three, you are feeling wonderful in every way as you proceed to your normal state of awareness. Four, your eyes feel bright and clear. On the next count you will open your eyelids and be fully aware, relaxed, and invigorated. Five, open your eyes, take a deep breath, and stretch. You’re feeling great!

Just go through the routine without saying it to yourself. It’s easy to remember. You can practice the trance termination with your partner, if you are working with someone else. Or just practice it yourself and let it become automatic when you want to end your self-hypnosis session.

Use all of the steps when you are first learning self-hypnosis. When you master it, or when you are comfortable with it, you can use pieces alone or with other pieces.

You can use the relaxation part alone, for instance, or relaxation and deepening.

When you learn visualization, that can come in handy in many instances, and can be used by itself.

You will learn to do rapid inductions, from which you can go to relaxation or focused awareness.

Read the rest of the book if you wish, then come back and practice the procedure in this section. To review, start with the preparation phase, where you move to a quiet, comfortable place. Then, in order, go through the induction, relaxation, deepening, and trance termination. When you’re comfortable with this, go on to learn about suggestions and visualization.

You can use relaxation as an induction. Instead of just using your mind to relax various body parts, this time we will use the technique called progressive relaxation. The theory is that you can relax deeper if you first tense the muscle involved and then relax it, so that is what we will do.

Most people like to go from foot to head, but you can go from head to foot if you prefer. They both work.

Use as many increments as you can. For instance, tense your toes first, then your feet, then your ankles, rather than tensing them all as one unit.

This takes a little practice, as it is easier to separately control some muscles than others. You may be able to tense each finger separately, or you may choose to tense them all together. It’s hard to tense your scalp, but you can tense your forehead and your jaw. Wiggle your ears if you can.

You may decide you’re bored with this and want to get though it more quickly by tensing groups of muscles.

Don’t forget to breathe! Breathe in when you tense your muscles. Breathe out when you relax. Take at least one breath between tensings to let the relaxation sink in.

When you finish this induction, survey your body and relax any area that seems tight. Then go on to the deepening and continue your session.

The induction is what gets you into the state of hypnosis, that is, the trance. There are many different inductions. Some are very quick. In fact, there are so many potential inductions, it’s not possible to list them all.

Remember, in hypnosis we want to divert the conscious mind so that we can get through to the subconscious, which is where change will be made. One way to do this is through shock or surprise. This is, of course, difficult to do if you are hypnotizing yourself.

The preferred type of induction for self-hypnosis is relaxation and repetition. We are going to get around the conscious mind by fatiguing it so it lets down its vigilance.

Our standard hypnotic induction, used here, centers on relaxation and is rather lengthy. When you are more experienced, you will be able to put yourself into a hypnotic trance quickly, using a method of your choice. Or you can continue to use the longer routine we present next.

Remember, we are going to divert the conscious mind. One way to do that is to bore it, so it’s not necessary to do anything clever or novel as an induction.

Here is a standard induction we use for self-hypnosis, which you can use or revise or replace with another induction. This is a good one to use when you are learning, and even later. You can record the script or have someone read it to you. Most likely, you will just run through it in your mind. Read it over several times. Just go through the routine. You don’t have to repeat the exact words. Note that you are not asleep. It is just traditional to use the word “sleep” for entering the state of hypnosis, and it works nicely in an induction.

Fix your eyes on a spot on the ceiling or high on the wall. Pick one that doesn’t require you to tilt your head back. Look at that spot and nothing else. Now take a deep breath, let it out slowly, and say to yourself silently: Sleep now. Take a second deep breath, let it out, and repeat: Sleep now. Now take a third deep breath. Sleep now. As you finish breathing out for the third time, let your eyelids close and breathe quietly and feel your eyelids growing heavy. Your facial muscles are relaxing and your eyelids grow so heavy that you don’t know if you could open them if you tried. But you don’t want to try. You are so comfortable and relaxed, sitting there with your eyelids closed and heavy.

Eye fixation is part of many inductions. In our standard induction, we fix our eyes on a spot on the ceiling.

You can choose anything that works for you for eye fixation. A candle works very well. Just make sure it’s set up safely and is not going to burn out or tip over while you’re watching it. The stereotypical pendulum or pocket watch you see in pictures works too. You will have to suspend it yourself, as you will not have the mysterious literary hypnotist there to swing it for you.

Think about an interesting, intricate design you might have on a picture or poster. Something that has different facets or colors can be sufficient to be used for an induction itself.

If you have trouble concentrating, it will be helpful to just sit for a few minutes and stare at something. Choose something natural, like an orange or a flower, so you can look at the different planes and shades of color. Add another minute or so each time. You will improve your concentration and powers of observation. You will probably slip into a light trance, but you can come out of it easily.

You can use one of these eye fixation techniques as an induction when you get more comfortable with self-hypnosis. If you are a beginner, use it as part of our standard induction, as the spot on the ceiling.

You can use deep breathing as an induction. Do this seated.

Put your feet flat on the floor and your hands in your lap, in any way you find comfortable and relaxed. Fix your eyes on the floor, looking down about 45 degrees. Breathe deeply and easily, from your diaphragm. (Your abdomen should move out when you inhale and in when you exhale.)

After a couple of minutes, you will enter a light trance. Close your eyes and continue with the self-hypnosis procedure.

An alternative is to use rhythmic breathing. Try breathing in to a count of 5, pause, then breathe out to a count of 7. Try different rhythms. What is natural for you? Don’t force it. Don’t rush it. You can also try just taking a few deep breaths, then starting rhythmic breathing.

Most of us do not breathe deeply enough in everyday life. There’s also a tendency to hold your breath when you are concentrating on something. Make sure you breathe deeply and easily during self-hypnosis. It will help you to breathe more deeply and efficiently during the day as well.

This induction is a variant of a technique popularized by the famous hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson. It is called the “handshake” technique because of the position of the hand at the beginning.

Extend your hand in front of you as though you were going to shake someone’s hand. It’s rather a limp handshake, because your wrist is very loose. You can either close your eyes or fix your eyes on your hand. It’s up to you.

You will notice that you have a lot of options in self-hypnosis. There are many “right” ways. This makes sense, because everyone has different preferences and experiences, so trying to force everyone into the same mold is unrealistic. You are in charge.

After assuming the handshake position, hold your hand out and pay attention to your breathing. Then notice how your hand is dangling in midair. Imagine different ways your arm might be suspended, such as floating in water or being suspended by balloons.

When you’re ready, notice that your arm is beginning to feel heavy. You may want to count backward from 20, feeling your hand get heavier.

Any movement in your arm makes you more comfortable. If your hand falls in your lap as you finish counting, you will enter a trance. If your hand decides to go up and touch your face instead, that will signal you are in a trance. If your hand is still extended in front of you, you can finish the induction where you began it and continue on with the rest of your session.

You will notice that Erickson is not too strict, but allows you to use what works best for you. You shouldn’t be too strict with yourself either.

You have to do this induction in a sitting position. Close your eyes. Sit up straight and press your hands together, in any position you choose.

Press the palms of your hands together tightly, as you tell yourself your hands are beginning to stick together. Feel all the surfaces of your palms touching each other. Do you feel your hands getting warm?

Try to pull your palms apart, and you will find they are stuck together. See if you can concentrate on your hands and make them feel cooler.

When you are ready, tell yourself your hands will no longer stick together. Drop your shoulders and relax your hands so they just fall into your lap. Feel them cooling off. Continue with your session. Breathe normally for this one.

As an alternative to the sticky palms induction, interlace your fingers and try to pull your hands apart with the same routine. When you are ready, spread your fingers and let your hands come apart.

There are a number of quick inductions you can use when you are proficient in self-hypnosis.

You can use the quick relax routine as an induction.

You can give yourself a post-hypnotic suggestion. Here’s how it works. Use the standard induction plus some relaxation. Give yourself the suggestion: I enter this wonderful state of relaxation every time I count backward from twenty to one. (Use something you’re not likely to do by accident.) Repeat this over several days.

You can use a quick induction with a regular suggestion, or when you just want to spend a little time in a relaxing trance. This is especially useful at times when you haven’t had enough sleep or are going to have to be awake and alert at a time you’re not used to.

Here’s one more example, though you can come up with your own.

Sit behind a desk or table. Put your fingertips of both hands on the desk. Feel one hand becoming very light and the other becoming heavier and heavier. It doesn’t matter if your hands actually move, though it’s fun if they do. Then take a deep breath, drop your shoulders, and put your hands in your lap. Feel your hands tingling as the energy moves through them. Then continue with your session.

The advantage of quick inductions and relatively brief self-hypnosis sessions is that you are more likely to do them.

If you are recovering from an injury, for instance an ankle sprain, put yourself into a trance, and replay the accident that caused the injury in your mind. The pain will get worse at the point in the replay when you actually hurt yourself, but will quickly subside. For pain relief, do this two or three times, and the pain will be less each time. When you bring yourself out of hypnosis, you will find that the ankle hurts less than it did before. It will also heal more quickly after this mental exercise.

Researchers used positron emission tomography to show that there are actual brain changes when hypnosis is used for pain relief. Hypnosis reduced the activity of the anterior cingulate cortex, an area involved in pain, but not the somatosensory cortex, in which the sensations are processed. This indicates that hypnosis pain management occurs in parts of the brain other than that where the pain is registered. (Scientific American, July 2001) This doesn’t fully explain how hypnosis works in pain relief, but it indicates that it does.

Hypnosis helps many women during childbirth. Some clinicians believe that 10 to 20 percent of the general population can be trained to use hypnosis as their primary analgesic. However, a larger percentage of the population can use self-hypnosis to allay their fears of pain (including labor pain). This helps to keep them calm during the stages of early labor before they can be given an epidural — stages which can last quite while.

Here’s a pain relief technique that can keep you from making a minor injury worse: Let’s say you are out for a run. You feel a pain or cramp in your leg. Slow down gradually while you concentrate on that area in your leg and tell it to relax. (Yes, you can talk to your body.) This can relieve the tension in the muscle and keep it from tearing. Slow to a walk and see if the pain is gone. If not, you can deal with it with the appropriate first aid or ride home if necessary. If the pain is gone, you can continue on your way.

For migraines, here is a good tip for headache relief. When you feel a migraine coming on, relax and visualize your hands becoming very warm. Migraines are thought to be associated with dilation of blood vessels in the brain, so warming your hands will bring more blood to the extremities and let the coronary arteries return to normal, thereby relieving the pain.

For pain management, imagine a thermometer on its side, something like what you see on your computer screen when a page is loading. Put a 1 at one end and a 10 at the other. Now place your pain at a spot along the scale, with 10 being the worst you can imagine and 1 being hardly any. Put yourself in a trance and relax. Visualize your pain subsiding as the thermometer marker moves slowly down the scale. You may not get to 1, but if you move your pain from 7 to 4, you will feel much better. Don’t force it beyond where it wants to stop.

Research has shown hypnosis to be more effective in pain relief than placebo. This shows that hypnosis is more than just having a good imagination. There are actual changes in brain function involved.

Pain management is one area in which there may be a danger in using hypnosis. Hypnosis can be too successful, covering the symptom of pain before the cause is found. Always see your health provider for a diagnosis of the cause of pain, and approval for treating it with hypnosis, before you try to relieve it through hypnosis.

According to Consumer Reports, discomfort during certain medical procedures can be reduced with the help of hypnosis. In a study in Wales, 80 cancer patients ages 6 to 16 received hypnosis from a therapist. They reported less pain and anxiety during their treatments. One of the treatments involved spinal cord punctures. The test subjects demonstrated less distress than those who received only standard care during those painful procedures.

Pain is necessary as a message to let you know you have an injury or physical condition that needs attention. Once you have taken the necessary steps–first aid, rest, seeing a doctor–the pain is not needed. You do not want to block all future pain. Renew pain relief as needed.

Enough research has been done over the years to prove that hypnosis is an effective tool to eliminate and even prevent nearly every kind of pain. More specifically, the list has included back pain, cancer pain, labor pains during childbirth, dental anesthesia, headaches and migraines, and arthritis or rheumatism.

There have been many clinical studies documenting the effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief, according to an article in Scientific American, July 2001. The article also asserts that hypnosis should not be the only intervention for a medical or psychological disorder. Pain management, including for such uses as relieving arthritis pain and headache relief, is considered by many to be the best documented use of hypnosis.

Your pain threshold is higher when you are relaxed, so train yourself as part of pain management to relax quickly and you can head off an attack of chronic pain. Plan to relax when you know pain is coming, as during a visit to the dentist. Dental pain is usually not as bad as we fear, so relaxing can prevent it completely.

Pain can be psychological or physical. The sensation of pain is similar, and often it is difficult to identify psychological pain. The techniques that are effective for pain relief in physical pain may not work for psychological pain. If you think you have psychological pain, you can put yourself in a trance, focus on the pain, and let your mind wander back to the cause of the pain, which then lets you get rid of it. If the problem is deep seated or severe, see a qualified hypnotist, who will help you discover the cause of the psychological pain, and get rid of it.

Isadore Rosenfeld (Dr. Rosenfeld’s Guide to Alternative Medicine) explains that light hypnosis is sufficient that you would not feel a pin prick, but deeper hypnosis is necessary for severe pain. This would indicate that you may be able to achieve pain relief for minor pain through self hypnosis,

Hypnosis helps many women during childbirth. Some clinicians believe that 10 to 20 percent of the general population can be trained to use hypnosis as their primary analgesic. However, a larger percentage of the population can use self-hypnosis to allay their fears of pain (including labor pain). This helps to keep them calm during the stages of early labor before they can be given an epidural — stages which can last quite while.