Congratulations: you’ve downloaded the hypnosis you will listen to every day (or more!) for the next two weeks (or more!). The next step is to power up that hypnosis by making your personalised visualisations.
You are going to create two Mind Movies to play in your imagination when you listen to your download.
A Mind Movie is a visualisation in the form of imagined moving images – like a movie – which you create to watch inside your mind when you listen to your download.
Phobia Delete Mind Movie
Rational Response Mind Movie
Follow the steps below to create your Phobia Delete Mind Movie.
This shows moving images representing the experience which sparked your phobia of dogs or, if you can’t remember this, the worst episode connected to your phobia.
Identify the experience which sparked your phobia of dogs.
If you can’t remember this, identify the worst experience you’ve had relating to the phobia.
Find somewhere comfortable to relax.
Close your eyes.
Take five deep breaths (inhale through your nose for four or five counts, exhale through your mouth at a slower pace).
Then breathe deeply in a way that is comfortable for you, taking breaths from low down in your abdomen. Place your hand on your stomach to check that it is moving up and down as you breathe.
Create a Mind Movie of imagined moving images representing the experience.
Have the Mind Movie start just before the event happened when everything was fine, then move on to show the experience happening, and then finish when everything is fine again.
The images should be in black and white and grainy in quality (this will make it less distressing to imagine).
Your Mind Movie should be about 30 seconds.
Imagine you have a control board in front of you which allows you to play with your Mind Movie.
Practice pausing it, fast forwarding it, and rewinding it while you watch it.
Damien had a phobia of dogs which started when he was bitten by a dog as a child.
He made a black and white Mind Movie of the incident which started when everything was fine (he was sitting in his buggy), moved through to the dog approaching and the pain and fear when it bit him on the arm and ended when all was fine again (his mother pushed the dog away).
We are going to use the brain’s “conditioning” function to show your brain how to respond calmly and rationally when you think about dogs or encounter them.
Our lives contain experiences which, if repeated, trigger an automatic response in our behaviour. In the most famous example, Pavlov, the Russian scientist, rang a bell every time he fed his dogs. After a while, just hearing the bell would trigger his dogs to salivate. An otherwise neutral stimulus like a bell ringing took on a positive meaning for the dogs.
Other examples of classic conditioning might be: standing up when the school bell is rung; or feeling tearful at the sight of a needle because of past painful injections; or a song from the happy moments in the past putting you in a good mood. Put simply, two stimuli are linked together to produce a learned response.
Follow the steps below to create your “Rational Response Mind Movie”.
Your download will instruct you on how use this to respond calmly and rationally when you think about dogs or encounter a dog.
Identify what a “rational response” to the subject of your phobia would look like (so, imagine how someone without a dogs phobia would respond to dogs).
Find somewhere comfortable to relax.
Close your eyes.
Take five deep breaths (inhale through your nose for four or five counts, exhale through your mouth at a slower pace).
Then breathe deeply in a way that is comfortable for you, taking breaths from low down in your abdomen. Place your hand on your stomach to check that it is moving up and down as you breathe.
Create a Mind Movie of imagined moving images representing this rational reaction.
Don’t forget to include the emotions which go with it (For example: calm, able to cope and in control).
Your Mind Movie should be in full colour and last about 30 seconds.
Imagine you have a control board in front of you which allows you to play with your Mind Movie.
Practice watching yourself on the screen, as well as experiencing it through your own eyes (jump into your body in the movie).
Play your Mind Movie repeatedly.
Work it into your every day activities: e.g. when you brush your teeth, your hair, when you have a hot drink, or take a loo break and so on.