A lot of people like to use hypnotherapy to fix somethingspecific they wish to change in their lives: to quit smoking, lose weight,overcome chronic pain or anxiety etc.

Buthypnotherapy can also be used in another way, in a more holistic andpermanently life changing way. In the same way as a personal trainer is helpingyou to make permanent changes to your entire body in small incremental stepsusing consistent actions towards your goals, hypnotherapy can be used to lookat your entire life path and guide you to becoming the whole person you reallyare.

Thesedays more and more people are choosing to live consciously, aware of the needto express their authentic self. Rather than just concentrating on working ajob which merely pays the bills and keeps them on the edge of survival, peopleare choosing to explore an expanded way of being which encompasses theirtalents, gifts, true nature and the things they have to bring to the world inorder to leave a positive legacy.

Hypnotherapyas a life process is very empowering. Aside from working on eradicating littlehabits like nail biting, or even larger problems such as eating disorders oraddictions, hypnosis encourages us to look deep within our souls, by awakeningthe power of our subconscious mind.

Thesubconscious mind represents 88% of the total mind power – that’s over fourfifths. Truly more powerful than the puny 12% we use everyday with ourconscious mind! The proportions are similar to an iceberg, and indeed thisvisual analogy is very apt, because like an iceberg, most of the mind is kepthidden beneath the surface – unseen, untapped, and perhaps lurking to strike usone day when we are least aware.

Soconsider how useful it is to be able to tap into this power, harness it, sothat it is now working for us instead of against us. For generations, humanbeings have concentrated on mere existence, surviving in a sort of haze ofautomatic actions, feeling out of control and trapped in their life circumstances,unable to break free of the patterns which dominated them since childhood.

Butnow we are waking up to the unlimited possibilities that surround us. We arerealizing that we live in a sea of vibrating energy and we are part of thisenergy. By using 100% of our mind instead of just 12%, we are empowered touncover and reverse negative life patterns. For the first time, we can trulybreak free from the prison of our own minds. This is something that yogis andmystics have been practicing for centuries. But only in the last couple ofhundred years have we in the Western world recognized that what we perceivethrough our limited five senses is only a very small part of the world aroundus.

Sohow does this relate to hypnotherapy as personal training for the mind? Well –after spending 20, 30, 40 years habitually reverting to one mode of thinking,which may be negative and certainly is less than completely effective – ittakes regular practice to train ourselves to think in a different way. And thispractice can only take place in the subconscious mind itself. If you weretrying to train yourself in karate, for example, you wouldn’t only work on onearm or leg, you would need to get the whole body involved in order to seeresults. Similarly, when you are training the mind, you need to train thesubconscious and conscious mind together, in order to really see a change inhabitual behaviors and repetitive modes of thinking.

Hypnosisis a state of trance in which the subconscious mind is more accessible to thesuggestions being placed there. And during the hypnotherapy session – and to alesser extent while listening to hypnosis CD’s, self-hypnosis or otherwise – astate of trance is consciously induced. The brain waves slow down, the criticalarea of mind softens, the physical body relaxes, visual and auditory stimuliare decreased – all of which allows the subconscious mind to feel safe enoughto reveal its secrets and learn new information given to it. The hypnotherapisthas been trained to know and use the exact right positive suggestions for thespecific client, taking into account their suggestibility, personality and lifeexperiences. So during a hypnotherapy session, the client’s subconscious willbe taking in information which can only have a beneficial effect.

Useof these suggestions on a regular basis will gradually train the subconsciousmind into new behaviors, more congruent with the aims and desires of the clientand their long-term health and happiness.

Sohypnotherapy is not just a tool for “crazy people" or people who have aspecific issue or problem. It’s actually a useful tool for just abouteverybody. Anybody who feels like their life is a continually evolving “work inprogress" – and who doesn’t? – can find hypnotherapy useful at some stage intheir lives. On a short term basis it can help you overcome a crisis or othersituation which is having a severely detrimental effect. Or on a long-termbasis it can help to mold and shape you into the person you really are and knowyourself to be – boosting self-esteem and confidence, reducing stress andanxiety with attendant health issues, and taking back control of your life.

Hypnotherapycan thus be seen as preventative medicine. Because when self-esteem is high andstress is kept under control, we are better able to deal with the curve ballsthat life may throw at us, while striving to live to our fullest and greatestpotential.