A Quiet Mind: Imagery & Hypnotherapy

A Quiet Mind: Imagery & Hypnotherapy

When I ask a new client what their goals are for the sessions, they often have two answers. The first answer deals with the problem that brought them in. The second answer is “and if you can help me to quiet this constant chatter in my mind, that would be wonderful.” When they begin to go deeper into trance, the two answers are reversed in importance, and they realize that what they want more than anything is a sense of peace.

Last week, I spoke about using confusional techniques to help people to quiet their minds. This week, I’d like to share an imagery based hypnotic process for quieting the mind.

“Begin by closing your eyes. Notice that you can see light through your eyelids. Slowly move your eyes down a little. With your eyes still closed, keep a soft focus on that spot on the inside of your eyelids.

Take a deep breath through your nose. Keep breathing in until you can’t breathe in any further… hold for the count of 3…and release it through your mouth. Take in another deep breath through your nose, breathing in until you can’t breathe any further, hold for the count of 3, and release it through your mouth. Do it again one more time.

Continue to breathe deeply throughout this exercise, but you don’t need to fully inflate your lungs each time.

With soft eyes, continue to stay focused on that spot on the inside of your eyelids. Use your concentration to keep your eyes there, and on your deep breathing….

See yourself standing in a green field… it’s a warm and sunny day… There’s a light breeze coming from behind you, and in front of you, you can see a large openness, which graduates slightly downward, and then up again to the rise of a small hill. You know that the hill contnues to extend downward on the other side, farther than you can see…

Feel the sunshine on your face… feel the breeze blowing very gently on the back of your head…

As you are using this guide, you probably have some pressing matters on your mind right now… I’d like you to pick one of those thoughts, while staying focused on the spot on the inside of your eyes… breathing deeply…

See the thought in your mind’s eye… see an image, and the sounds with it…

Now, blow a bubble around the thought… notice how it muffles the sounds, and filters the light with its silvery, reflective surface…

Now, blow the bubble away in your mind’s eye. See it float away from you slowly… carried by the breeze that comes from behind you… across the grass in front of you… it floats further away from you, and all you can see is the sun shining off of its shiny exterior…

It goes further away into the distance, over the top of the slight hill, and down in the distance on the other side, out of sight… that thought is now blown away, out of reach, carried on the breeze away from you

Remember to focus on the spot on the inside of your eyelids… and take a deep breath in through your nose… hold it for the count of 3… and release it through your mouth…

Feel the relief that the thought is no longer your problem, and the universe will take care of it… keeping a soft focus on the spot on the inside of your eyelids… continuing to breathe deeply…

And now, perhaps a different thought has entered your mind… see a picture of the thought… hear the sounds… and blow another bubble around it, blocking any sound… notice how it’s muffled… and how you can no longer see the vision contained in its silver reflective surface… blow the bubble away… down the grassy slope in front of you… carried away on the breeze… see the silver bubble go over the top of the hill and out of site…

Keeping a soft focus on the spot on the inside of your eyelids … taking a deep breath in through your nose, as deeply as you can… hold for 3… releasing through your mouth… and feel the relief that is no longer your problem… and confident that this thought will be dealt with by the universe…

Begin to move your toes and fingers… deep breath and open your eyes… feeling and appreciating how your mind is now less cluttered… and knowing that you can come back to this guide any time you want.”