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 of vomiting or, if you can’t remember this, the worst episode connected to your phobia.
Identify the experience which sparked your vomiting 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 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.
Example:
Arya had a phobia of people being sick around her after her mother had vomited next to her when she was a child. She was worried that she would be unable to deal with her son falling ill.
She made a black and white Mind Movie of the incident of her mother vomiting which started when everything was fine (her mother was reading to her), moved through to her saying she felt unwell and vomiting next to her chair and ended when all was fine (her mother cleaned everything up and felt better).
Example:
Isaac had a phobia of vomiting after he had been sick on himself at school.
He made a black and white Mind Movie which started when everything was fine (sitting in his lesson), moved through to his being sick on himself and ended when all was fine again (his teacher helped him out of the classroom to the sickbay).
We are going to use the brain’s “conditioning” function to show your brain how to respond calmly and rationally when you think about vomiting or encounter it.
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.
Identify what a “rational response” to the subject of your phobia would look like (so, imagine how someone without a vomiting phobia would deal with vomiting).
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 moving images representing this rational reaction.
Don’t forget to include the emotions which go with it.
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.
Example:
Arya made a “Rational Response Mind Movie” showing her dealing with her son being sick. She saw herself calmly using a cloth to clean the sick up, and comforting her son warmly.
Example:
Issac made a “Rational Response Mind Movie” showing himself being sick into the loo. He saw himself flushing the loo, cleaning himself up afterwards and brushing his teeth, calmly and efficiently.