In this article, you will learn how to hypnotize yourself easily and effectively using my 5-step process. I will guide you through these 5 steps so that you can use self-hypnosis to reprogram your subconscious mind.

Learning how to hypnotize yourself is a wonderful skill to acquire. It allows you to change unconscious habits, banish limiting beliefs and release or resolve troublesome emotions. It feels great too!

All hypnosis is self-hypnosis, so even when you are being hypnotized by a hypnotherapist, it is actually you that is doing the hypnosis. This may seem hard to believe, especially if you have seen hypnosis on stage or on TV. I’ll explain how this works shortly.

Keep reading and you’ll discover how to hypnotize yourself so that you can make lasting changes to your life right now.

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What is a Hypnotic State?

Every thought you have is a form of self-hypnosis. Why? Because every thought is either taking you towards or away from some desired outcome.

The characteristics of a hypnotic state include a more focussed concentration or attention on one idea and a greater internal focus with less awareness of the external world. It’s also characterized by slower brainwave states.

You have been in a hypnotic state many times in the past. For example when reading a really captivating novel and you’re completely unaware of what is happening around you. Or when watching a movie that you get completely involved with emotionally.

I believe that addictions are a form of negative hypnosis. People think so much about their next cigarette or alcoholic drink that it becomes their focus of attention. Once they have it, their mind returns to normal for a while before the same thing happens again.

The Different Brain Wave States

In normal everyday awareness, your brainwaves are at the beta level. This is a fairly fast brainwave state and is required for taking action, keeping safe and mental alertness.

However, at certain times during the day, your brainwaves slow down to the alpha level. This often happens when daydreaming, reading a book, watching a movie or when in hypnosis. In the alpha state, your concentration improves and you learn and remember things more easily.

When your brain waves slow down even further, you reach the theta level. This is close to falling asleep and is associated with rapid eye movement and that light dreamy sleep feeling. In hypnosis, people often reach the theta level too.

When asleep, brain waves slow down to the delta level. This can occasionally be achieved in meditation too, after many months or even years of practice.

Purpose of Self Hypnosis

So the purpose of hypnotizing yourself is to reprogram your subconscious mind. This is the part of your mind that is responsible for your feelings, emotions and impulsive behaviors. By consciously hypnotizing yourself, you start to reprogram the subconscious mind so that you naturally do the behaviors and actions that you want to do.

The 5 Steps to Hypnotizing Yourself

To learn how to hypnotize yourself, follow the 5 step process that is covered below.

Step 1 : Slow Down Your Brain Waves

There are a few parts to slowing down your brain waves that I will cover below:

Develop Peripheral Vision

With your eyes open, focus on an object in the room that is directly in front of you. Now, without moving your eyes, notice what you can see above, below, to the left and to the right of the object that you are focussing on. This is known as peripheral or side vision.

As you do this, your brain is forced to take in more information from your eyes. Your brain can only hold around 6 to 9 pieces of information at a time. Therefore, whilst you hold the peripheral vision, your brain is forced to slow down other processes in your brain, including your internal dialogue or self-talk.

Relaxation Breathing

Now start breathing in deeply. Ensure that your stomach or diaphragm expands as you breathe in. This is known as diaphragmatic breathing and is how we naturally used to breathe when we were babies. When you breathe out, make your out-breath slightly longer than your in-breath.

Repeat the word “relax” as a mantra

Now repeat the word “relax” either out loud or silently to yourself every 3 seconds for 1 minute.

Close your eyes

If you haven’t already, now is the time to close your eyes. You are now in a state of hypnosis. You may notice yourself being less attached to, or involved with your thoughts. You will be more internally focussed and less aware of what is happening around you. You will feel relaxed and be in a great state to learn and take in new information. Your subconscious mind is now much more receptive to new information.

Step 2 : Suspend Existing Beliefs

A key step in learning how to hypnotize yourself correctly and effectively involves understanding how the critical faculty works and the importance of suspending existing beliefs to keep this part of your mind out of the way.

Your “Door Policy” for New Ideas

Imagine your critical faculty as being like a bouncer in a nightclub. The queue of people waiting outside really want to get into this wonderful place where all the fun, excitement and enjoyment is. However, the bouncer decides who to let in and who to turn away.

If you directly challenge the bouncer, he will block the door, so you have absolutely no chance of getting into this amazing nightclub. If you could make friends with the bouncer or distract him, then you could make it into this club.

So think of your new positive ideas and suggestions as being the queue of people. Your critical faculty (your internal bouncer), decides which ideas and suggestions will be accepted by your mind (so are let in) and which are rejected (kept out).

Directly challenge your critical faculty with a new suggestion such as “I am a millionaire” and it will probably be rejected because it won’t be believable. Your door policy for new ideas will reject it.

One way to make friends with your critical faculty, your door policy for new ideas, is to use a suspend belief statement. Its a way of compromising with your mind by saying that you only need to accept these new ideas for the duration of the self-hypnosis session. When done regularly, this is long enough for the new ideas to become embedded in your unconscious mind.

The Suspend Belief Statement

Here is the suspend belief statement that I recommend that you use.

“I consciously, deliberately and willingly suspend my existing beliefs about (the desired outcome), Instead, I accept these new ideas as if they are completely true right now. My desire and belief are completely aligned just for now and that feels good.”

The suspend belief idea originally came from “The Nature of Personal Reality” by Jane Roberts.

Step 3 : Reinforce Core Beliefs

In Step 3, you will reinforce up to five core beliefs. This is key to learning how to hypnotize yourself effectively. These five core beliefs provide a firm foundation for the unique positive suggestions or visualizations that will follow in step 4. The five positive core beliefs are:

1. I am good enough

Behind any limiting ideas such as I’m not intelligent enough, smart enough, extravert enough (or pretty much anything else ending in “enough) is the core belief that I am not good enough. This is why it is so important to reinforce the positive core belief that “I am good enough”

2. I am worthy enough

If you feel that you are not worthy of love, money (or something else) or you feel that you don’t deserve to have something, then you will want to reinforce the core belief that “I am worthy enough”

3. The world is a safe place for me

If you feel that you could get hurt mentally, emotionally or physically, then repeat the positive core belief of “the world is a safe place for me”. However, do exercise common sense with this one, and don’t knowingly venture into places or situations that could cause physical harm.

4. I am powerful and can influence my world

This one is super-important if you have been trying to change part of your life for a while without success. The more times you try something new and fail, the more it reinforces the core belief that “nothing will work for me”. I see this happen a lot in people that struggle to find solutions to chronic health issues. It can also happen if you spend a lot of time and money on self-development activities, but find it hard to change.

Reinforce the core belief of “I am powerful and can influence my world” to help increase your belief that whatever you are learning, applying or getting outside help for will work for you. It’s also a great core belief to have to increase your ability to influence others in a positive way.

5. Love and Relationships = Pleasure

This is only relevant when working with love and relationship goals, especially if you have been heart-broken or suffered mental, emotional or even physical pain from relationships in the past.

If you keep attracting people that cause you pain and unhappiness, then you need to reinforce this core belief strongly, so that it becomes part of your identity.

It’s not necessary to use all of these five core beliefs. Just pick the ones that resonate with you or would help you the most.

Step 4 : Introduce New Positive Ideas

The next step is to create new positive ideas about the thing you want to change. This should be about something that you don’t have right now, but you want in the future. The new positive ideas could be affirmations or mantras that you repeat, visualizing what you want to happen or asking yourself self-hypnotic questions.

Self-Hypnotic Affirmations or Mantras

The simplest way to introduce new positive ideas is by creating affirmations or mantras that you repeat during self-hypnosis. It’s super important that these new positive statements are believable. Here are 2 examples of positive statements that are not believable.

• I am a millionaire (for a person that is broke and in debt)
• My body is in perfect health (for someone with a chronic and perhaps life-changing disease).

In both these examples, the person’s critical faculty will challenge these new ideas and not let them inside, just like a bouncer would turn this person away from a night club. The new ideas will simply not be accepted.

To make your new positive suggestions more believable, use the following phrases.

• I want to…
• I can…
• I am learning to…
• Every day I am getting better at…
• I take action every day to become one step closer to…

Here is an example of how to apply these statements to help your body heal from a health condition.

• I want my body to begin to heal itself and feel good once again.
• My body can begin to heal itself and feel good once again.
• I am learning to find ways to help my body heal itself so that I can feel good once again.
• Every day, my body is getting better at healing itself.
• I take action every day to become one step closer to healing myself and feeling good once again.

Can you see how much more believable these positive statements would be to a person that wants to overcome a health condition or disease.

Creative Visualization

Instead of repeating affirmations or mantras, you can visualize the goal or outcome. See yourself having already achieved the thing you desire. Creative Visualization is covered in greater detail in another blog post that you can access here.

However, the key points are to imagine visualizing on a large cinema screen (rather than the back of your eyelids) and to use all your senses. Imagine what you hear, feel, taste and touch as well as what you see. Also, include the positive internal dialogue of self-talk that you will notice when you have achieved this outcome.

Self-Hypnotic Questions

Asking yourself questions encourages your mind to find or seek an answer automatically. When done in hypnosis, the answers can come more directly from your subconscious mind or intuition. As a result, they will often be more powerful and accurate.

Here are some great self-hypnotic questions to ask yourself.

• How can I increase my ability to do… (desired action)?
• How can I do this even more?
• How can I motivate myself to do (desired action)?
• What would be the best way to achieve (desired outcome)?
• What other ways would help me more easily achieve (desired outcome)?

Allow your mind the time and space that it needs to answer these questions. Sometimes, the answers will come after the self-hypnosis session, so be aware of your intuition and new ideas or answers that come to mind in the next few days.

Step 5 : Return to Normal Waking Awareness

The final step is to come back to normal waking awareness. The easiest way to do this is to count from 5 to 1 and become more aware of different parts of your body as you do so. Then open your eyes and have a stretch.

How to Hypnotize Yourself More Effectively.

Here are a few tips to help make your self-hypnosis sessions even more powerful and effective.

1. Repeat the self-hypnosis session every day for around 30 to 40 days. It can often take a few repetitions to plant the new ideas firmly in your subconscious mind.
2. Focus on one desired outcome only during the self-hypnosis session.
3. Focus on one new positive affirmation, mantra or visualization for at least 20 seconds. Holding one idea for 20 seconds or longer is unusual in today’s fast-paced world, so your brain will see these new ideas as important and build new neuro-connections in your brain. The technique of holding only one idea in your mind for 20 seconds or longer is called “monoideism”.
4. Use your emotions. The subconscious mind really takes notice of emotions. The more you can feel the positive emotions behind your suggestions or visualizations, the more this will imprint the new positive ideas into your subconscious mind.
5. Do self-hypnosis first thing in the morning or just before going to sleep at night. At these times, your brain is likely to be in the more receptive alpha brain wave state, so your new positive suggestions or visualizations will go in at a deeper level. This also means that you can skip step 1 and jump straight to step 2, as your brain waves will already be slower than normal.
6. Record your self-hypnosis session and then use the recording to guide you through it. It can be quite difficult to guide yourself as your mind can wander off. When you use a recording, your brain can focus on the recording and you can immerse yourself completely in the process.

Although learning how to hypnotize yourself is very effective, there may be times when you need an experienced hypnotherapist to work through your specific issues, habits or mental blocks. I can help you do that, so if you would like me to hypnotize you, then click on the link below.

https://selfhelpforlife.com/hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy can be delivered very effectively online from the comfort of your home or office using Skype, Facetime or Zoom.

Thank you for reading this article.  If you enjoyed it and found it useful, then please share it with other people, or on social media.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Paul

In this article, you will learn all about the four main personality types. These are Type A, B, C and D. 

Knowing the four main personality types is very useful when dealing with other people.  If you can quickly understand how they tick, then you can build rapport more quickly and create a deeper connection.

I’ll cover the positive and negative traits of each of these four main personality types. I’m sure it will interest you to see which one you fit in to.  I’ll also reveal the one that most closely matches my personality. 

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Human behavior is often very predictable and can be categorized into one of four different personality types. These are Type A, B, C and D. Each person is unique but may exhibit stronger personality traits from one of these types. Knowing these 4 personality types will help you understand why people react and respond the way they do. This then helps you communicate with others more effectively and understand them better.

For each of the four main personality types, I will cover both the positive and negative aspects. As you read this article, you may relate to one of these personality types more than the others. It’s good to know which type it is, as this will help you understand why you act and react the way you do.

If you don’t like some negative aspects of the personality type that most closely resembles you, then you can change it. Your behavior is not set in stone. You can change how you act or react in certain situations.

So I will now cover the four main personality types in greater detail.

Type A – The Go-Getter

Type A people are high achievers. They are competitive, ambitious and very well organized. They are very aware of time and use time wisely and efficiently. Type A people are proactive and love to set goals. They like to push the boundaries and get outside their comfort zone. These people can be workaholics, and they push themselves with deadlines. They are also eager to help others.

These are great behaviors and traits to have. Many self-help books promote these traits as important to success. However, there are some negative aspects to the Type A personality.

Type A people are often more stressed and anxious. They have less job satisfaction and may change jobs often, believing that the grass is greener somewhere else. These people can often feel less satisfied in other areas of their life, such as health or relationships. Type A people can be very status conscious. They can be impatient because they value time highly.

Another trait is aggression. Type A people can display this in positive or negative ways. They may act aggressively and proactively to achieve things, to be the best and at the top of their game. However, this aggression can sometimes come from ignoring the needs of other people. Type A people can be hasty, impulsive and hyper-alert. They can get angry or frustrated easily.

Would you like the supreme confidence of a Type A personality? Then download my 100% confidence self-hypnosis recording by clicking the button below.

Download my free 100% Confidence Hypnosis MP3

Type B – Relaxed and Social

The Type B personality is almost the complete opposite of Type A. They are more relaxed, consistent and steady. They enjoy the work required to achieve things and have a calming influence on other people. These people are often more peaceful and grounded. It can take a lot to make them angry or frustrated. They are less competitive, it’s more about enjoying the game or experience than winning or losing.

Type B people are more tolerant of other people. They often have many friends and a great social life. They excel in social situations, find it easy to relax with others and enjoy themselves. Type B people find it easy to have fun.

Type B people are often more perceptive and pick up on other people’s emotions. However, they are also emotionally stable within themselves. They are very patient and it is this combination of qualities that lead to Type B people becoming very good therapists, writers, actors or actresses.

However, Type B people may not achieve their full potential because they are less ambitious, more relaxed and laid-back. They can procrastinate and leave things to the last minute. They need the pressure of a tight deadline to spur them into action. Being less aware of time can cause them to be late for meetings and appointments. These people can also find it hard to decide on a course of action.

Would you like to be a super-relaxed Type B person? Then click the button below to download my Rapid Relaxation Exercise. This will help you relax completely in 6 minutes!

Click here to download the Rapid Relaxation Exercise

Type C – The Rule Abiding Perfectionist

The Type C personality is similar to Type A, but with some noticeable differences. A key one is perfectionism. Type C people spend more time on the details and check work several times for accuracy. They value the importance of doing an excellent job. Unlike Type A people, Type C people are less aware of time. For this reason, their strive for excellence and perfection can mean that a task takes much longer than it needs to.

Type C people are consistent and reliable, and they rarely bend or break the rules. The aggressive or impatience of a Type A person is more likely to result in them bending, breaking or even changing the rules. They will challenge the status quo. A Type C person will happily follow the rules, so they enjoy jobs and tasks that follow a set procedure or are about complying with rules, laws or procedures. Type C people are great to have in any safety critical roles.

Type C people like to go deep into studying and learning one subject. Rather than being good in lots of areas, they prefer to be an expert in one or two areas. They are more introverted and enjoy meaningful conversations with one or two people. They are less keen on the surface level banter that often comes when communicating socially within a larger group. Type C people also prefer to avoid conflicts with others, so as not to upset the status quo.

Having a routine and focussing on one thing at a time is important for Type C people. Any disruption to this can be stressful or frustrating. They also like a sense of stability and security and will make decisions based on logic rather than emotions. Type C people can be deep thinkers.

Type C people often get bogged down in detail and making things perfect. As a result, they might miss a deadline or spend too long on tasks. They can feel overwhelmed when there is too much going on and may need time alone to process things. They need time to make decisions, so they can get all the facts and details beforehand.

Would you like a step-by-step formula for success? Or to learn the rules that successful people follow? If so, click the button below to discover this for yourself.

Grab my “Ten Strategies for Your Success” eBook for Free

Type D – Distressed and Sensitive to Others

Type D people can have a tendency towards negativity. The D actually stands for distressed. However, Type D people have many positive aspects too.

They are warm people, very peaceful on the outside and sensitive to other people’s emotions. Type D people have a very realistic view of life. They like security and are fairly resilient. They love to help and give advice. These people rarely give up and can be a source of wisdom to other people.

However, Type D people often feel isolated, lonely and negative. They experience more negative emotions than the other types, but won’t share those emotions with others, because they are afraid of rejection. Instead, they suppress their emotions, keeping them inside.

Type D people often worry, and might feel pessimistic and gloomy about life on occasions.

A wonderful way to change the negative aspects of the Type D personality is by using Creative Visualization. To learn how to visualize the right way, download my guided creative visualization recording by clicking the button below.

Download my Guided Creative Visualization MP3 here

Conclusion

As I mentioned earlier, no one is completely Type A, B, C or D. It also depends on the situation or event. You might exhibit Type A behavior at work and Type B when out with friends. The key here is to acknowledge and enjoy the positive traits in your behavior and personality and then work on changing any aspects that seem negative to you or other people. Awareness is always the first step to change.

In case you’re wondering, I lean most closely to a Type C personality. I like to do things really well, follow a proven path, and enjoy meaningful conversations with 1 or 2 people rather than big groups. However, there is quite a lot of Type A personality in me too.

Let me know the personality type that most closely resembles you by leaving a comment below.

Thank you for reading this article.  If you enjoyed it and found it useful, then please share it with other people, or on social media.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Paul

In this article, I cover the reasons that people stay stuck in life and show you how to move forward with your life, so that you feel that things are changing for you.

Feeling stuck is like being on a train that has stopped.  You know that until it moves, you are not going anywhere. Life can feel like that too sometimes.  Do you feel stuck right now?  Do you feel that something different needs to happen to allow you to move forward with your life?

The thing that makes you stuck is fear.  In this article, I cover 3 specific fears that keep you stuck and how to overcome them, so that you can move forward with your life.

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Why we get stuck

We have an internal thermostat, set point or paradigm that keeps us in a safe, familiar place. It works like a central heating system that keeps the temperature at a comfortable level. Our subconscious emotional mind especially, does not like too much change too quickly.

Attempting to lose weight is a classic example of this. You eat healthily and exercise regularly. As a result, your weight reduces and you feel different, possibly uncomfortable. Perhaps you get attention from other people that you didn’t get previously.

Perhaps you deal with the uncomfortable feeling of moving outside your set point, by indulging in some comfort eating. You do this a few times and your weight is right back at where it was before.

The same thing can happen when investing in personal development seminars, courses or books. You get fired up by the new material and are highly motivated to apply it to your life, so you take action and things begin to change. This feels uncomfortable and the motivation from the seminar or program wains and before you know it, you’re back where you started.

I believe this also explains why so many lottery winners lose all the money they won. The winnings take them out of their comfort zone and they don’t know how to handle that. So they spend the money poorly and end up back where they started, which feels comfortable and familiar.

Why does this happen? Well it’s down to FEAR and 3 specific fears in particular. Understand and overcome these fears and you can permanently change your thermostat, set point or paradigm. These 3 specific fears were identified by Brendon Burchard.

Fear of Loss

When you make any significant change in life, there is a fear that you might lose something that you currently find enjoyable. It could be a person, job, security, foods you love, time out or doing fun things. that make you happy.

To lose weight, you might need to stop eating foods that you love (but don’t love you!), give away some of your favourite clothes that you will no longer fit into. You might need to give up some time to prepare healthy foods or exercise.

To develop a business alongside your job, you might need to sacrifice time with your family and friends, This could involve saying no to invites to social activities. It might involve spending less money, so you can invest in your business.

When your business becomes full time, you will lose the security of a full-time job and predictability of a regular income. If you are a single person wanting a relationship, then you might lose time with friends or your independence. To master a sport, you might sacrifice time with friends, certain foods, alcohol and anything else that could hamper your performance.

Any kind of change involves losing something that currently feels comfortable and familiar. However, the way that you perceive that loss and think about it really matters.

Focus on what you will gain

The easiest way is to change your focus to what you will gain instead. Using weight loss as an example, you will gain a healthy body, fit into your clothes better, have more energy and reduce the chances of nasty diseases later in life.

If you’re developing a business, then the benefits might include working for yourself rather than an employer, additional income, a secure income when you retire, better holidays or paying off your mortgage early.

For the effort involved in finding that special someone, you could focus on being in love, making new friends through your partner, sharing your life with someone else, getting married and having kids.

Fear of the work involved

The second one is fear of the work involved to change. It’s a fear of the process of changing and what is required to change. This includes the discomfort of learning new things, the fear of changing as a person or perhaps doing something that you’ve never done before.

In the case of weight loss, this includes the discomfort of exercise, trying new healthy foods, different recipes, cooking methods, venturing in to a health food shop or learning all about superfoods, supplements and natural alternatives.

If it is starting a business, it could be learning about technology or marketing. This was huge for me when starting both Self Help for Life and my hypnotherapy practice. It could also be a fear of making mistakes or feeling overwhelmed by all the different things you could be doing. It could simply be the fear of doing something that is new. When I started my hypnotherapy practice, I felt extremely uncomfortable taking my first phone call from a prospective client, then running my very first hypnotherapy session as a professional and asking for payment at the end.

Change your focus

To deal effectively with the fear of the work involved also requires a change of focus. Here is how I did it.

When I delivered my first session as a professional hypnotherapist, I reminded myself that I had successfully achieved a government accredited hypnotherapy qualification, and provided 50 hypnotherapy sessions to friends. I reminded myself that this first session as a professional would be no different to working with friends.

Rather than thinking about the work involved in getting Self Help for Life off the ground, I focussed on enjoying the process of learning the things I needed to know to be successful. I reminded myself that I could be at university learning theoretical information that might work, completing assignments that might be useful in the “real world” and spending a small fortune for the privilege.

If it’s the process of dating, then focus on how going on dates will improve your communication skills and your understanding of different people. Focus on how any rejection will make you more resilient and leads you one step closer to finding the right person.

A key thing to realize is that where you are now is comfortable. The work involved to achieve a significant goal or change in your life can be uncomfortable, but the result (and sometimes the effort as well) will be satisfying.

If you don’t put in the effort, you’ll feel comfortable, but not satisfied. Take action and get out of your comfort zone and you’ll experience satisfaction.

So you can have comfort or satisfaction, but not both! Well not initially anyway! There will come a time when you achieve your goal when you finally make it. That’s when you can have both.

Fear of Failure

The third fear that keeps you stuck is fear of failure or fear of not getting the outcome. This is a biggie! Let’s say you take massive action, you sacrifice other parts of your life that you enjoy, and you don’t get the results!

You do things to achieve a better lifestyle, whether that’s making money, losing weight or mastering a sport. Achieving success in these areas gives you more enjoyment and more satisfaction. But what if this doesn’t happen? What if you fail? You put in all this time and nothing changes.

Anything you do in life is a risk, but there are ways to minimize this risk and change your perception about any risks involved.

Focus on the process

Start by focussing more on the process rather than the end goal. For losing weight, focus on completing each exercise session or becoming curious about trying lots of different healthy foods and discovering how tasty they are!

If it’s a business or new career, focus on the new skills you will learn and how you can apply these new skills to other areas of your life. For example, I know that every YouTube video I make improves my verbal communication skills. This makes me a better communicator and presenter and that’s a great skill to have.

The same applies to writing articles like this one. Written communication is so important in achieving success in your career. In my case, it might even lead to me writing a book.

So, even if the business venture is not successful, you have still learnt some great skills that will stand you in good stead for whatever you decide to do next.

Keep taking action

I also believe that if you put in the effort, the results will follow eventually. If you do enough of the right things, results will start to happen. It can take longer for some people and that’s okay. We all come from a different starting point.

It takes a certain amount of effort to get the numbers to work in your favor. You need to go on enough dates to find your perfect partner. It takes a certain amount of healthy eating and exercise to smash your weight loss goals. It requires a certain number of blog posts or YouTube videos before Google takes notice! So, the more you do and the more consistent you are, the greater the chance of hitting the goal.

Another great way to overcome the fear or failure is to visualize what you want. This makes you feel excited and that increases your level of vibration. So if you’re working on losing weight, visualize yourself feeling fit, happy, vibrant, enjoying tasty new food, or shopping for clothes that fit your new body.

For a business it could be visualizing being your own boss, having a long term passive income, or simply doing what you love.

Conclusion

So, to recap, the 3 fears that keep you stuck and stop you moving forward with your life are:

1. Fear of loss
2. Fear of the work involved
3. Fear of failure

To overcome or change your perception around these fears, you will want to:

1. Become aware of these fears (you need to notice them before you can change them)
2. Change your perception of these fears by thinking about them in a different and more positive way.
3. Focus more on what you want. This will allow the fear to take less space in your mind.
4. Develop a really strong why. This will give you the energy and motivation to overcome your fears.
5. Enjoy the process and the journey. The experience and skills that you learn are in many ways more important than the outcome.
6. Have trust that the results will come and faith in your own ability to make it happen.

Thank you for reading this article.  If you enjoyed it and found it useful, then please share it with other people, or on social media.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Paul

In this article, you will learn how to stop excessive and repetitive thinking in its tracks and feel more relaxed and peaceful instead.  I believe that repetitive and excessive thinking is a habit, possibly even an addiction. 

In this article, I cover 12 highly effective ways to reduce or stop excessive and repetitive thinking, before it stops you! I’ll also talk about the reasons why you overthink things, the likely triggers and how to know the difference between useful thinking and excessive thinking.

So, if you want to stop excessive and repetitive thinking today, then this article will really help you.

Watch the Video Below:

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Could excessive and repetitive thinking be a habit or even an addiction? Could you be addicted to your thinking and reluctant to let go of it? Maybe you believe that if you don’t think about something fully, then something bad is going to happen.

So why is excessive and repetitive thinking a problem? Well, it makes the problem bigger than it really is. It can even seem scarier. Think about any past fear in your life. What made it worse? Probably thinking about it too much.

Now think about an unexpected event that happened in your life where you had to act quickly with little or no time to think. What was the fear like then? – Probably a lot less.

So overthinking increases fear. It also reduces the enjoyment of positive things that you are looking forward to. For example, you have a party coming up and you start thinking about this party quite a lot. You think about how you will act, interact with others and how others will react to you. You then show up at the party, and you find it hard to relax and get into the party spirit. This happened because the overthinking beforehand has subtly raised your level of anxiety making it harder to relax and enjoy the party.

Excessive and repetitive thinking also keeps you out of the present. Instead, you have thoughts about regrets from the past or you’re worried about the future.

Thinking is good and is absolutely essential. It’s overthinking that becomes a problem. So how do you know when you have tipped the balance from thinking to overthinking or excessive thinking?

A normal or useful amount of thinking will help you solve a problem. Excessive and repetitive thinking keeps you in the problem, it keeps you stuck.

You now know what excessive or repetitive thinking is and how to know when you’re doing it. I will now cover 12 powerful and effective ways to help you stop or reduce overthinking.

1. Identify the Specific Fear behind the excessive thoughts

It’s time to get really specific with the fear behind these excessive thoughts. When you overthink things, your mind comes up with vague fears or disaster scenarios without really thinking about what could actually happen.

Ask yourself, what is the worse thing that could happen? Get really specific on what that worst case scenario is and how you would deal with it. By doing this, you will realize that the worst-case scenario is often not as scary as your mind makes it out to be.

2. Reconnect with your senses

When you notice yourself overthinking things, change your focus to your senses. Notice and become completely absorbed in what you are seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and perhaps even tasting. As you notice things, don’t give them a name or meaning (you want to turn this part of your mind off for a while). For example, you’re outside and you notice this lovely flower. You look at it, really get into the detail of the flower. However, you don’t give it a name, think about what it is, or whether you like it or not. Instead, you simply notice it for what it is. Keep doing this with other things, just noticing them with your senses but not thinking about them.

Another way of reconnecting with your senses is to focus on parts of your body. This is also a great way to relax too! Start with your forehead, eyes, cheeks and jaw muscles and consciously notice and relax these muscles. Then continue with your neck, shoulders, arms, hands, chest, stomach, back, lower back, waist, legs, feet, and toes. Focus on how each part of your body currently feels and then imagine the muscles relaxing. The wonderful thing about this exercise is that it gets you out of your head, (your prefrontal cortex to be precise!) and allows you to focus on your body instead.

I highly recommend doing this body awareness exercise regularly. Set reminders on your phone throughout the day to remind you to take a few minutes to do this.

3. Make decisions super quick!

The way to combat overthinking about decisions is to set short decision deadlines. If it’s a small decision such as whether to answer an email, set yourself 30 seconds to decide whether to do that now or later. For bigger decisions (ones that currently take days or weeks), set yourself 30 or 60 minutes to go through all the information then make that decision. Or decide, that you’re going to make that decision by the end of TODAY.

4. Go into the future

Ask yourself, is what I’m thinking about right now, going to really matter in five weeks, five months, or even five years? If the answer is no (and it very often is), then decide to stop thinking about it Just answering this question can help reduce the fear that drives the excessive thoughts.

This is also a great way to identify whether the thinking is useful or excessive. If the answer is no, then you know that it’s just a minor worry that you can let go of.

5. Realize that you cannot control everything

Overthinking is often used as a way to attempt to control every possible outcome or scenario. Or, to avoid making a mistake. However, it’s impossible to predict all possible scenarios in advance, Everyone, even the super successful, make mistakes and that’s okay. Making mistakes is how you learn.

Become more comfortable with making mistakes. Let go of the fear of doing things incorrectly. When you do that, the emotional need to overthink and control every possible scenario will reduce. It’s also very energy draining, so the more that you can let go of control, the more relaxed you will feel.

6. Have trust in a larger process

This larger process will be unique to you and could include God, a universal power, or simply the confidence that you will naturally do the right thing. It could be believing that the right thing will happen naturally.

Alternatively, focus on the what and forget the how. Get really clear and specific on what you want to happen, but be very open and flexible to how it happens. If this fits in with your belief system, then imagine that a higher power will work out the how for you.

7. Know your triggers

Habits and addictions require a trigger to set them off. This trigger can be a situation, person or a time of the day. So, if excessive thinking is a habit, then there will be situations, people and events that trigger this too.

Notice what the triggers are and write them down. Is it a particular person or situation? Once you know what the triggers are, ask yourself, “what can I think and do instead that will make me feel happier and more in control?”.

8. Meditation

Meditation is great because it helps you to observe your overactive mind and any excessive and repetitive thoughts. It also allows you to step back and observe your thoughts. It helps you to realize that you are not your thoughts, but rather the presence behind those thoughts.

Here is a great meditation exercise to help you slow down and reduce the excessive and repetitive thoughts. Imagine you are watching a busy road from a safe place. It’s rush hour and you see the cars going past bumper to bumper. It gets later and later and the number of cars starts to reduce. You notice the space between the cars becoming greater and greater. As you notice this, you become aware of spaces between your thoughts and even moments of silence or absence of thought.

Any type of meditation will work because it focusses your mind on one thing. This could be your breathing, a mantra, a visualization (like the car example above) or someone’s voice (if listening to a guided meditation). By focussing on one thing, you can take a step back and realize that you are not your thoughts, you are the presence behind your thoughts.

9. Dissassociating

Imagine that you are about to do a parachute jump. You are on a plane, looking down, ready to jump and you’ve never done this before. You will probably notice emotions in your body right now. It may be fear or perhaps adrenaline.

Now, imagine the same experience on a movie, a TV screen or even your smartphone screen. See yourself on the plane getting ready to jump and notice how that feels. It’s likely that any feelings will be less intense.

The technique of imagining watching an experience on a screen is called disassociation. It’s a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) term. You can use this in any situation that makes you feel uncomfortable. In that disassociated state, you will often get new insights on how to deal with the situation. It will give you the space to think about it more logically.

10. Change Life Goals

Setting unrealistic life goals can force your mind to spend too much time trying to figure out how you’re going to achieve them. In this case, the solution is to make the goals more realistic. I often set myself goals that are very challenging and have really noticed how easy it is to think excessively about how I’m going to achieve these goals. I’ve seen how this can negatively affect my mental health, so I’m a little more realistic now.

11. Notice thoughts, but don’t judge them

Notice your thoughts and become really curious about them. However, don’t judge these thoughts. Even if a really negative thought comes up, just notice it for what it is, just a thought.

Then ask yourself, “is this thought helpful and productive, or is it getting in the way?” If the thought is getting in the way, ask yourself, “what could be a more helpful or productive thought?”.

For this to work best, become really curious about your thoughts, have a sense of fun and playfulness about it.

12. Say “At this moment, I am okay.”

When you notice yourself thinking excessively or repetitively about something, say “At this moment, I am okay“.

In the vast majority of situations, this will be true. Saying this mantra or affirmation will also help you to let go of thoughts about regretting the past or worrying about the future.

You could also say to yourself “right now, everything is good and I am safe and comfortable“

So these are 12 wonderful ways to help you overcome excessive and repetitive thinking once and for all. I encourage you to practice and apply these methods and find out which ones work best for you.

Thank you for reading this article.  If you enjoyed it and found it useful, then please share it with other people, or on social media.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Paul

In this article, you will learn how to easily improve your self-image today.  I will also cover the symptoms of a low self-image and the types of behaviors that are common when your self-image is low.

I’ll then cover 9 effective and practical ways to improve your self-image so that you can feel better about yourself right now. What would your life be like when you improve your self-image? It’s easier than you think and in this article, I’ll show you how.

Watch the video below:

Click here to watch on YouTube

Listen to the Podcast  

Self-image is what you think about yourself, it’s who you are and what you think other people think of you.

To help you understand what self-image really is, I’m going to talk about a plastic surgeon called Maxwell Maltz. He used plastic surgery to help people look better. He noticed that around 80% of people that underwent plastic surgery, acted differently as a result of looking better.  Basically, the surgery had caused their self-image to change.

However, the remaining 20%, continued to behave the same way.  When studying the 20% that didn’t change, Maxwell Maltz realized that in spite of the plastic surgery, their self-image, their internal sense of themselves had not changed. If this was the case, then perhaps people could improve their self-image without having surgery. It was this insight that led to Maxwell Maltz writing an incredibly successful self-help book called “PsychoCybernetics“.  This was the first self-help book that I ever read! – Highly recommended!

The core idea in this book is that we have some kind of mental picture of ourselves, which he calls our self-image.  When your self-image is low, you’ll tend to do things that don’t help you, such as eating junk food or drinking too much or taking drugs.  You might say negative things about other people as a way of boosting your self-esteem. You might avoid doing things that make you happy.

Our self-image or sense of self is often quite unconscious. The way you behave in any given moment depends on how much you like yourself in that moment.  Your self-image is not static, it’s constantly changing throughout the day. When your self-image is low, you might say things like, “I don’t deserve this” or “I’m not worthy”.

What people with a low self-image typically do

I’m now going to cover some common behavioral traits of people with low self-image.

People with a low self-image tend to compare themselves with others. Notice the times when you compare yourself with other people, judge others or even criticize other people.  This is a common sign that your self-image has taken a hit and you’re trying to use other people to give it a boost.

Another behavioral trait is being unable to receive compliments. Imagine someone comes up to you and says “you did that brilliantly”. What would you say in return?  A person with a high self-image would probably smile and say “thank you”. A person with a low self-image might say something like “it was okay”, “it was nothing really”, or ” I could have done it better”  Which of these statements could you relate to?

People with a low self-image also find it really hard to give compliments to other people.  It could be because they are too much in their own head to notice the wonderful work of other people or it may be a fear of the compliment coming out all wrong.

Low self-image can also make it hard to ask for what you want or leave you feeling envious or jealous of other people.

You might also find yourself focussing on the needs of other people too much.   This can be difficult to judge.  If you feel good helping others, then it’s coming from the right place within yourself.  If it’s feeling like a chore and your own needs are getting neglected, then that’s going to lower your self-image over time.

Another one to watch is excessive negative self-talk. If you’re noticing a lot of internal dialogue or self-talk in your head, then this can be a characteristic of having a low self-image as well.

So how do you improve your self-image? To some extent, it is doing the opposite of what I’ve just covered above.  However, I’m going to cover specific ways to help you improve your self-image today.

1. Don’t Compare Yourself with Others

You never really know what is going on in someone else’s head, so it’s almost impossible to really compare yourself with anyone else. You might notice someone that is really confident and self-assured on the outside. They look like they’re really together, but their internal world of thoughts and feelings could be very different!

Focus on being your authentic self instead.  Act as you would really like to be.

Instead of comparing yourself with others, compare yourself with where you want to be. Think about where you are now and compare that with where you want to be in a month, a year or five years time.

2. Give and Receive Compliments

Giving compliments gets you out of your own head and focussing on other people.  You begin to develop a sense of gratitude for who they are and what they do.  You focus on what you can learn from others.  This is so different from comparing yourself with others because it comes from a place of gratitude and abundance.

Then start graciously accepting compliments. When someone gives you a compliment, just smile and say “thank you”. That’s it!  Think about how Richard Branson would accept a compliment. He would probably smile and say “thank you”.

Also, take the time to notice how lovely it feels when someone compliments you.

4. Separate Your Behavior from You

What you do and how you act or behave is not related to your self-image, your self worth or sense of who you are.

If you make a mistake, it’s not part of you. It doesn’t mean you’re a stupid person, you just made a mistake. If you upset someone, don’t make that part of who you are. Just realize that you upset someone, it wasn’t intentional and that you’ll learn from the experience. It does not mean that you’re a bad person, You might feel a bit guilty, but that won’t last for as long if you don’t define this incident as part of who you are.

5. Develop a Morning Routine or Morning Ritual

A morning routine or ritual is doing something proactive for you first thing in the morning. You do this before you do anything else. There are lots of things you can do including meditating, reciting positive affirmations, journaling or visualizing yourself and the person you want to become. You could use this time to read books, watch videos or listen to podcasts that develop the mind.

Whatever you decide to do, the key is to take some time out for yourself, to work on proactively improving your mind and emotions, so you’re looking forward to the day and you’re programming your day for success.  This can do wonders for your level of self-image because you are putting yourself first and you’re working consistently on improving your mental (and perhaps) physical health as well.

If you would like some help on how to create an empowering morning ritual, then click here to check out Morning Ritual Mastery.

6. Think Good Things About You

Any negative thoughts that you have about yourself are no more accurate than the alternative positive thoughts. It’s impossible to know which thoughts are more accurate. Even if the negative thoughts were more accurate, they are going to make you feel bad and who wants that?

So you might as well think the kind of thoughts, that will make you feel good, excited and inspired!  Some examples include “today is a great day” or “I’m a good person and good things happen to me”, or “I am enough”, or “I am good enough”. Say affirmations like these regularly to yourself throughout the day.

7. Say Good Things About You

Now that you are thinking good things about you, it becomes easier to say good things about you.

Start by stopping yourself from saying anything negative about yourself. When a negative thought comes to mind (and it will), resist the temptation to say it to another person. It’s better to keep your mouth shut than to say something that makes you feel bad.

8. Look After Your Body

This is easier said than done, because when you have a low self-image, you don’t feel like exercising, eating the right foods or doing the right things to nourish your body.

The solution is to “act as if”. Do the exercise, make healthy food and drink choices even when you don’t feel like it.  When you “act as if”, your self-image and self-worth will improve.

Do just one minute of jumping jacks, running on the spot or simply smiling! Eat well and exercise regularly and you’ll soon have more energy and you’ll feel better about yourself. You’ll feel more motivated and your self-confidence will improve as well.

9. Visualize How You Want To Be

It’s the current thoughts and images in your mind about who you are now, that lead to a low self-image and feelings of low self-esteem,

Instead, think and imagine the you that you would like to become. Think about how you will act in different situations in a new and confident way. Notice how things will change in your life.

This is a great thing to do regularly as part of a morning routine. When you visualize who you want to become consistently, you will change your sense of identity and the inner feeling of who you are.

When your identity, your sense of who you are, changes, your beliefs, thoughts, feelings, and behavior change to reflect this new identity.

So these are my practical ways to help you easily improve your self-image today, I hope you found these useful and I encourage you to practice them. Start applying these on a daily basis and notice how your self-image starts to improve and old thoughts and ideas begin to fade away.

Thank you for reading this article.  If you enjoyed it and found it useful, then please share it with other people, or on social media.

Hope you are having a wonderful day!

Paul