Confidence. It’s something we all want and many of us need it. That’s the topic of the week here at Hypnotic News. Many of us fear things that we should not merely because we lack the confidence to deal with those situations. But these are just thought patterns. Patterns we can overcome and grow through with hypnosis.
Our Inner Voice
We all have an inner voice. A voice that has quite a bit of control over how we feel and think about ourselves. When it feels like we are good at something that inner voice can be our most ardent supporter. Even when no one else does. It can also be our harshest critic. Filling our minds with negative, unhealthy thoughts about who and what it claims we are. And overcoming these thoughts is a challenge, to say the least.
These thoughts are automatic and deeply embedded in our minds. It happens unconscious and automatic. Often our low self-esteem is often the result of flaws in our unconscious thought patterns. They aren’t rational or based in fact. Many come from our earliest years, overly critical and unhealthy. Based often on something that no longer even affects us.
But these voices can be shifted. Can be shown the truth. They are working with faulty information. Information can be updated through some form of hypnosis or behavioral intervention. In my opinion, however, hypnosis is simply the quickest path there. That state, whatever causes it, allows us direct access to our unconscious where we can modify those thoughts, thereby modifying our beliefs, and eventually, actions.
Low Self Esteem and Self Confidence
Self-esteem and self-confidence tend to be used interchangeably. However, they represent two very different ideas. Self-confidence can be seen as the inner judgment we make about our abilities or merits. For example, I’m great at creative endeavors, but I’m still learning to overcome my awful housekeeping skills. Self-confidence varies based on the situation and our knowledge of it.
Self-esteem, on the other hand, tends to remain constant. It is a measure of our feelings of self-worth and love. If you have low self-esteem, it doesn’t matter what you do, you feel negative about yourself doing it. Causing you to be even harsher on yourself if something goes sideways.
Causes Anyone?
Both of these concepts and the feelings related to them are believed to be formed by past experiences. Feedback from our peers, family, and the media all affect us. And while I’d love to tell you that we tend to absorb the positive, the research indicates that we are more likely to embrace the negative for some unknown reason.
We also know that trauma plays a significant role in our self-esteem and confidence. They diminish our feelings of worth and or sense of trust in others. Ultimately, self-esteem presents itself on a scale. Some have much while others are nearly always running low. They are likely to feel:
- Hopelessness or depression
- Boredom or a lack of motivation
- Being overly sensitive to criticism
- Lacking assertiveness
- Hearing negative, overly critical self-talk
- Feeling like a failure
But It Gets Better
The good news is that everyone can fix their negative thinking patterns. It’s like a glitch in your mind. It’s something we’ve taught ourselves through repetition and a lifetime of thoughts. Informing how we feel and act in certain situations. And self-esteem is flexible. We can learn to improve it.
If you can keep an open mind, you aren’t doomed to live a life of low self-esteem. It’s possible to overcome those thoughts, to reduce or eliminate them from our inner monologues.
Our Toxic Inner Voice
It doesn’t take much to develop negative perceptions about ourselves. Bullying, negative social experiences, and even family can cause these negative harmful thoughts. These experiences follow us into our adult lives.
They aren’t designed to hurt us but they do. Our unconscious wants to protect us the best way it can. And when we’re small the options are limited. These automatic thoughts are the result of those efforts. Something bad happens and your unconscious tells you you’re bad at a thing. That you should avoid it. Consequently, this is also how phobias (LINKS) form. The more you listen to that voice, the more you avoid, and the more you engage that fear. In any case, it tends to become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
When we begin to expect to fail because we think we’re bad at something, we will. Our mind will practice all the ways it can go wrong instead of focusing on ways to make it go well. If left unchecked what starts as one set of infected habits can become many. Cycling over and over again until we think we fail at everything in our lives. When we allow our unconscious to dictate (with partial information) how we should feel about ourselves, we allow these thoughts to be continually reinforced.
Behavioral Therapy Only Takes You So Far
Therapists often suggest repetition to heal these wounds. That you need to do the thing you fear over and over again, learning to accept and embrace it. To push ourselves to try and fail and try again until we succeed. Or fake it till we make it. The only problem is that approach doesn’t actually change our thoughts. We can tamp them down, but that doesn’t address or correct them. They may still expect failure after success because they still hear that negative and irrational voice in their head.
How Hypnosis Helps
Negative self-talk is like and addiction (LINK). We might feel the pain that addiction causes, or see its effects, the damage in our lives, but we still cannot stop. We just hear the urge to avoid that fear again or to continue to tell ourselves how we’ve failed this time. The thoughts are compulsive. Hypnosis can be so successful for low self-esteem because its goal is to repair the mind.
Hypnosis helps teach the unconscious to be a more supportive partner in the mind. We rework those irrational negative thoughts and help the unconscious find the missing puzzle pieces of information to see the value in all the things you do. You could say that it is akin to meditation (LINK), but with a very specific goal in mind. A focus that doesn’t generally occur in meditation where the goal is to detach from a focus on the world.
In the hypnotic state, the way our brain behaves changes (LINKS). We’re able to access our unconscious and bypass the critical or analytical mind. We can speak to that inner part of ourselves directly. Not to mention that hypnosis makes us more receptive to suggestion. It’s quick and easy and direct.
Does It Work?
That is usually the question I get when someone asks me about my profession. How effective is it? In my experience both personal and professional, my answer is highly effective in anyone willing to follow directions and listen to the hypnotist.
A 2008 South African study looked at hypnosis for improving the self-perceptions of college students. Following two tests, the researchers concluded that hypnosis was effective at improving self-esteem.
In 2004, researchers examined the effects that self-hypnosis had on 261 U.S. military veterans struggling with substance abuse. At a 7-week follow-up, the group that had consistently used self-hypnosis reported higher levels of self-esteem and serenity.
A 2013 study examined the effect that hypnosis could have on patients post-surgery, in particular in pain management, and for improving self-esteem. The results suggested that hypnosis could be a useful tool for improving self-esteem after surgery.
YOU CAN DO IT!
Everyone can change their mind. The way they think and behave. It’s part of what makes us different from most of the animal kingdom. In many cases, we can do it by ourselves. Sometimes, though we need just a little bit of extra help.
For more information check out All About Hypnosis (LINK). It is our center of hypnotic information gathered all in one place.
