vaporcloud
lurking kiwi
This thread maybe useful to anyone suffering from quitting MJ, Insomnia or anxiety or just looking for a way to relax.
I was shown this technique by a qualified Doctor who now specialises in teaching self hypnosis (at $90 a session) predominately to pregnant women looking for a way to have a drug free birth. The same doctor told me stories of how he use to attend serious car accidents and would take the victims through his hypnosis technique and when the paramedics arrived they were always surprised at how calm the victims were ... as if they had already and a shot of morphine!
The technique revolves around disassociation. The analogy given to me by the Doc was its like having a leg in plaster and its itching like mad. You cannot do anything but itch that itch. Then your favourite TV shows comes on. Your glued to the telly until the next ad break. Then you notice your leg getting itchy again. But why not during the TV show? Because you have disassociated the itching because your mind is occupied with TV.
Stage 1:
Seeing if you are compatible for Self Hypnosis. If you have a good imagination this should work for you. But you have to believe its going to work or you will not get the full benefits. At $90 a session its not hard to belief
If you have a poor imagination, the 'bean counter mentality' then you may struggle.
Next the Doc took me thru a scenario to see if I could utilise self hypnosis ... which doesn't really work in the written form ... so the best I can say if you have a strong imaginative mind your halfway there.
Stage 2:
Learning to melt.
This is the relaxation phase. Its about creating relaxed muscles thru visualisation.
Imagine a magnifying glass with the sun coming thru one side and the focused beam of light it projects. So focused it can start a fire. Focus like that thin stream of light and focus firstly on the muscles in your foot. Start from the inside and feel them beginning to melt from the inside out. Then move up to your calf muscle, thigh, other leg, buttocks, stomach, chest/neck area then arms. By then end you should feel like you have melted into the floor or wherever you are lying or sitting at the time. At this point you should be super relaxed yet still very lucid and conscious of what's going on around you.
Stage 3:
Replicating R.E.M sleep
Now we have melted like a knob of butter in the midday sun we can work on replicating REM sleep (Rapid eye movement). To do this the Doc took me through a process that on the surface seemed pretty cheesy but will work if you have successfully relaxed (melted) and believe!
He told me to visualise a long hall or corridor with a series of doors on one side. I imagined the old school corridor back when I was only 9 years old. Long wooden hallway with classroom doors on the right handside.
He then said I had a pack pack on the contained all my problems. I was to put on the backpack and walk down the hall towards a door at the end of the corridor. The bag certainly felt heavy as I walked towards the door. At the end of the corridor I was told to take off the back pack and open it up, where I would find a bunch of rocks which represent my problems. The bugger the problem the sharper or rough surfaced the rock would be. Each rock had to be identified as a problem and then cast into a pile by the door. Of course these rocks represent your problems and by recognising each one and casting it aside you are emptying your mind.
Once all rocks (problems) have been accounted for and place in a pile its time to walk thru the door and enter your 'happy place'. This I did ... I'm going to say what I found in my happy place because I wouldn't want to influence anyone, but needless to say I didn't find any of my problems, actually I didn't find anything. It was pretty blank, like my mind.
From here I was told to think of a scene that would fill me enjoyment. I picture me sliding down a big glassy wave at my local surf break or racing a motorcycle in a moto-x race. This thought should then pass over into a dream (REM) and your asleep!!!
I must say, I was still quite lucid when I first tried this at home and when I did stage 3 and went thru the door into my 'happy place' my eyes began flickering like mad ... which is what happens during REM sleep. So I had successfully replicated REM and I went to sleep.
I got pretty good at it over the next few months and I could go thru the whole process in under a minute and would get to sleep within 2-15 minutes from then ... which is fucking great for me!
These days I hardly ever use it and to be honest it doesn't seem to work as well as it once did. If I got into the same pattern think I'd go back to the doc for a one session refresher.
Stage 4:
Leaving your body
The last session was all about leaving your body ala Trans-whatever meditation. I know by this stage I was sleeping pretty well and wasn't that interested in leaving my body but I was shown how it works and did manage to do it once while at home. It wasn't scary but not really necessary for me.
So that's about it. Certainly not for everybody, I know one friend I recommended to go and see this Doc, well she did and couldn't get past stage 3 because she had to many rocks (problems) and ended up building the Berlin wall each time and never got to enter her happy place (I do hate that term).
I'm not sure if this method of self hypnosis is standard but it certainly worked for me.
VC
I was shown this technique by a qualified Doctor who now specialises in teaching self hypnosis (at $90 a session) predominately to pregnant women looking for a way to have a drug free birth. The same doctor told me stories of how he use to attend serious car accidents and would take the victims through his hypnosis technique and when the paramedics arrived they were always surprised at how calm the victims were ... as if they had already and a shot of morphine!
The technique revolves around disassociation. The analogy given to me by the Doc was its like having a leg in plaster and its itching like mad. You cannot do anything but itch that itch. Then your favourite TV shows comes on. Your glued to the telly until the next ad break. Then you notice your leg getting itchy again. But why not during the TV show? Because you have disassociated the itching because your mind is occupied with TV.
Stage 1:
Seeing if you are compatible for Self Hypnosis. If you have a good imagination this should work for you. But you have to believe its going to work or you will not get the full benefits. At $90 a session its not hard to belief
If you have a poor imagination, the 'bean counter mentality' then you may struggle.
Next the Doc took me thru a scenario to see if I could utilise self hypnosis ... which doesn't really work in the written form ... so the best I can say if you have a strong imaginative mind your halfway there.
Stage 2:
Learning to melt.
This is the relaxation phase. Its about creating relaxed muscles thru visualisation.
Imagine a magnifying glass with the sun coming thru one side and the focused beam of light it projects. So focused it can start a fire. Focus like that thin stream of light and focus firstly on the muscles in your foot. Start from the inside and feel them beginning to melt from the inside out. Then move up to your calf muscle, thigh, other leg, buttocks, stomach, chest/neck area then arms. By then end you should feel like you have melted into the floor or wherever you are lying or sitting at the time. At this point you should be super relaxed yet still very lucid and conscious of what's going on around you.
Stage 3:
Replicating R.E.M sleep
Now we have melted like a knob of butter in the midday sun we can work on replicating REM sleep (Rapid eye movement). To do this the Doc took me through a process that on the surface seemed pretty cheesy but will work if you have successfully relaxed (melted) and believe!
He told me to visualise a long hall or corridor with a series of doors on one side. I imagined the old school corridor back when I was only 9 years old. Long wooden hallway with classroom doors on the right handside.
He then said I had a pack pack on the contained all my problems. I was to put on the backpack and walk down the hall towards a door at the end of the corridor. The bag certainly felt heavy as I walked towards the door. At the end of the corridor I was told to take off the back pack and open it up, where I would find a bunch of rocks which represent my problems. The bugger the problem the sharper or rough surfaced the rock would be. Each rock had to be identified as a problem and then cast into a pile by the door. Of course these rocks represent your problems and by recognising each one and casting it aside you are emptying your mind.
Once all rocks (problems) have been accounted for and place in a pile its time to walk thru the door and enter your 'happy place'. This I did ... I'm going to say what I found in my happy place because I wouldn't want to influence anyone, but needless to say I didn't find any of my problems, actually I didn't find anything. It was pretty blank, like my mind.
From here I was told to think of a scene that would fill me enjoyment. I picture me sliding down a big glassy wave at my local surf break or racing a motorcycle in a moto-x race. This thought should then pass over into a dream (REM) and your asleep!!!
I must say, I was still quite lucid when I first tried this at home and when I did stage 3 and went thru the door into my 'happy place' my eyes began flickering like mad ... which is what happens during REM sleep. So I had successfully replicated REM and I went to sleep.
I got pretty good at it over the next few months and I could go thru the whole process in under a minute and would get to sleep within 2-15 minutes from then ... which is fucking great for me!
These days I hardly ever use it and to be honest it doesn't seem to work as well as it once did. If I got into the same pattern think I'd go back to the doc for a one session refresher.
Stage 4:
Leaving your body
The last session was all about leaving your body ala Trans-whatever meditation. I know by this stage I was sleeping pretty well and wasn't that interested in leaving my body but I was shown how it works and did manage to do it once while at home. It wasn't scary but not really necessary for me.
So that's about it. Certainly not for everybody, I know one friend I recommended to go and see this Doc, well she did and couldn't get past stage 3 because she had to many rocks (problems) and ended up building the Berlin wall each time and never got to enter her happy place (I do hate that term).
I'm not sure if this method of self hypnosis is standard but it certainly worked for me.
VC
