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.
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 or, if you can’t remember this, the worst episode connected to your phobia.
Identify the experience which sparked your phobia.
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.
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.
Nelly had a phobia of clowns. She couldn’t recall why the phobia started but she could remember the worst episode was being surprised by a clown at a party as a child.
She made a black and white mental Mind Movie of moving images which started when everything was fine (dancing at the party), moved through to her panic (when the clown jumped out at her), and ended when all was fine again (her mother intervened and picked her up).
This consists of moving images representing a rational response to your phobia.
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”.
Identify what a “rational response” to the subject of your phobia would look like (so, imagine how someone without a phobia would deal with it).
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.
Delia made a “Rational Response Mind Movie” showing her calmly watching a clown perform his show and then shaking his outstretched hand.