Congratulations: you’ve downloaded the hypnosis you will listen to every day for the next two weeks. 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.
We are going to use the brain’s “conditioning” function to create a trigger to bring on feelings of restfulness when you get into bed.
What is the trigger? Breathing out and saying to yourself “relax”.
Our lives contain repeated experiences which then trigger an automatic response in our behaviour.
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. Put simply, two stimuli are linked together to produce a learned response.
Follow the steps below to create your Fall Asleep Fix Mind Movie.
Your download will instruct you in how to use the trigger to start to take pleasure in resting in bed.
Think about a time when you felt really relaxed, comfortable and happy in bed.
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 in which you imagine moving images showing you resting comfortably in that bed.
Think about the feeling of the bed covers against your body, the pressure of the mattress, the temperature of the room, the sounds, etc.
Don’t forget to include the emotions you were feeling at the time (eg. tired and content).
Your Mind Movie should be in full colour and last about 20 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 (imagine being able to jump into your body in the movie).
Trigger: both before and after you watch your Mind Movie, take a deep breath and on the out breath say to yourself “relax”. Your brain will make the association between breathing out and saying to yourself “relax” and the comfortable relaxed way you felt in your Mind 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.
Example: Ted found it difficult to get to sleep because his mind would race, magnifying his problems. He remembered falling asleep easily when he worked on a cruise ship.
He created a Mind Movie which showed him lying in his small cabin bed, the soft, cool, crisp covers over his body and the gentle swaying of the boat. It ending with his eyes closing and a calm, restful expression on his face.