Hypnosis for Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence
Hypnosis for Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence
The terms self-esteem and self-confidence are often used interchangeably. But are actually very different. Self- confidence is often deemed as how we judge our own abilities or qualities. For example, one might be good at public speaking but not singing, therefore you’re a self- confident public speaker, but will be a nervous wreck at karaoke night. Self-confidence, therefore, depends on the situation. Self-esteem, on the other hand, is consistent and indicates the amount of self-love and self-worth we have. If you have low self-esteem, you will continuously feel negative about yourself, regardless if your public speaking or singing karaoke.
What Causes Low Self-Confidence?
Scientists believe past experiences shape both self-esteem and self-confidence. During our life, we receive both negative and positive messages that can significantly influence how we feel about ourselves. These messages can come from different angles such as our peers, our family or the media. And unfortunately, we accept and respond more to negative messages, thus we store them in our subconscious mind more often. Trauma can also severely impact our self-esteem and self-confidence. Traumatic experiences can diminish our feelings of self-worth and our sense of trust.
Self-esteem varies from person to person. Some people have plenty, while others need to build theirs. But often people suffering from low self-esteem also have low levels of self-worth.
They might experience:
- Hopelessness or depression
- Boredom or a lack of motivation
- Being overly sensitive to criticism
- Lacking assertiveness
- Hearing negative, overly critical self-talk
- Feeling like their life’s a failure
You Can Improve Your Self-Esteem
There’s hope. You can alter your negative thinking patterns into positive ones. In fact, low self-esteem can be seen as a glitch happening in your mind. Over the span of your life, you’ve repeatedly told yourself how to feel about yourself and your skills in certain situations. Self-esteem is flexible and fluctuates at different periods of our lives. But, we can learn to adjust and improve it.
In other words, we aren’t doomed to lives of low self-esteem. We can very much build a healthy level of self-esteem. Most importantly, we have the power to master these automatic thoughts and reduce or completely banish them from our inner thinking patterns. That’s how you can boost your self-confidence and self-esteem.
How Negative Perceptions Form
Often we develop negative perceptions about ourselves very early in life: A negative social experience, a bully belittling our looks, failing a test. All these experiences can cause us to cultivate a negative self-perception and most often will last into our adult lives.
Why? Because our subconscious mind wants to protect us from feeling the same or similar hurt, pain, embarrassment or failure that we might have experiences in the past. Therefore, it develops a defense mechanism to make us feel like we’re bad at having conversations with new acquaintances.
This manifests as those automatic thoughts. For example, after you’ve had an unpleasant social experience, your mind might have started telling you that you don’t like social situations. You’re not good at them and should not partake in them. The negativity then manifests in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We convince ourselves and expect to fail at talking to new acquaintances and that’s why we do. We allow our shyness to take over and restrict ourselves from meeting new people. These negative experiences will continue to occur if our low self-esteem and confidence stay unchecked; making them harder to remove.
Here’s one way to look at it: Negative self-talk is like an addiction
Often times we are aware of the pain our addiction causes, we see the negative effects it’s having on our relationships and social life, we notice how it is demolishing our emotional health and performance at work or the things our mind is telling us that we are unable to do. Yet, we can’t stop and continue to allow those thoughts to control us. It’s similar to the “urge” that pushes the addict to use again.
Hypnosis can be so successful for low self-esteem because its goal is to repair the mind
Think of hypnosis as meditating with a specific goal. In ancient times, people used mediation to tame the mind, find inner peace, and quiet the inner voice.
Hypnosis takes this one step further and adds a goal to the practice.
Here’s how: During a hypnotherapy session, your body and mind will be in a state of heightened relaxation and awareness (just like during deep meditation)
Being in this stage alters the way the brain operates. The mind is in a complete relaxed state and the subconscious becomes accessible. In fact, we can bypass the critical mind and go straight to that inner voice and speak directly to it. When the mind is in this state, we can bypass the critical mind and directly communicate with the inner voice. But more importantly, in this state, our brain easily accepts suggestions.
That’s why in this state mantras such as “you will feel confident in everything you do,” are more likely to stick. We’ve put to sleep the conscious layer that always criticizes and analyzes suggestions.
Getting Started with Hypnosis for Confidence and Life Success
Thinking of trying hypnosis to empower you to beat your negative self-talk? First, you need to know your options. Generally speaking, there are three ways you can pursue hypnosis: Self-hypnosis, visiting a hypnotist, or following guided hypnotherapy sessions.
A hypnosis session starts with thinking and explaining what you wish to achieve. The hypnotist will then guide you to uncover the root causes and triggers for your emotions. Next, the hypnotist (or the script or recording) will instruct and guide you into a highly relaxed, hyperaware state. Your hypnotist will then speak directly to your subconscious and try to reframe your negative beliefs.
What happens after the session
Many people reported that they experienced improvements as soon as a session ended. Most people continue their initial session using recordings and self-hypnosis techniques to reinforce the suggestions, and followed up for maintenance sessions. And rightfully so, cause overcoming deep-seated negative self-talk requires a commitment to persist. Research studies have concluded that a minimum of 6 hypnotherapy sessions is required for long-term results. Additional studies also point out how beneficial regular self-hypnosis can be.
Does Hypnosis for Self-esteem Work? A Review of Research
A frequently asked question is: Is hypnosis for confidence effective?
The answer to this is in the research data that suggest hypnotherapy as a powerful tool to beat negative self-talk. Data has proven hypnotherapy to help in a wide range of addiction such as improved feelings of self-worth and reduced levels of depression. Here’s a look:
- In 2008 a study conducted in South Africa utilized hypnosis to help college student improve how they perceive themselves. After just two tests, the researchers concluded that hypnosis was effective at improving self-esteem.
- In 2004, researchers conducted a study on 261 U.S. military veterans who struggle with substance abuse. These veterans were asked to use self-hypnosis 35 times per week to prevent relapsing. At a 7week follow-up, the group that had consistently used self-hypnosis reported the higher levels of self-esteem and serenity.
- In 2013 researchers studied the effect that hypnosis had on patients who had just undergone surgery, especially in the area of pain management and boosting self-esteem. The result deemed hypnosis a useful tool for boosting self-esteem post surgery.
Online Hypnosis for Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence Pain Management: Affordable, Effective and Digitally Optimised to meet the demands for the Modern Era using Zoom and SKYPE technologies.
Too many times in our life, we are our own worst enemy. Too many times, we beat ourselves up or talk down about ourselves. Often, we end up sabotaging our success. Even before we give ourselves permission to try something new and different for positive change. Hypnosis is a medically and scientifically recognized technique that uses the mind’s natural abilities to effectively reduce physical pain and promote wellbeing. Learn how it can help you.
Legal Disclaimer
As a consulting hypnotist, Luis’ role is help you resolve ordinary, everyday problems using hypnosis. He is not a medically trained doctor or a licensed mental health practitioner that can diagnose, prescribe, treat, cure, or heal any physical, mental, or emotional illness. The hypnosis services rendered are not to be considered in any way, a form of health care, psychotherapy, or counseling.