I often feel too stressed to listen to a hypnosis audio

I often feel too stressed and "hurried" to listen to an hypnosis audio... Even though I consciously know that it would help me greatly!

From the outside, it would truly seem like I would rather have an entirely unproductive week, than take 20-25 minutes out of that week to change my mindset!

Sometimes my To-Do-list feels so pressing that it feels like I cannot even allow my mind to relax into the hypnotic induction, and I just stop the audio a few minutes in!

Is there a way I can reframe things for myself to make this less of a struggle?

This question was submitted by 'Michelle'

Mark says...

That's a great question. You know, all kinds of things that shouldn't be a chore can become a chore if the mind becomes just a to-do list. Are you in this life to see reality through the mental set of a tick-off to-do list? If you are, you're missing vistas of reality.

You know, "I've ticked that off, I've come home from work, I've played with the kids for half an hour, I can tick that off"; everything approached in that way. And in a sense, it's a left hemispheric way of approaching reality. The left hemisphere is very much: What's the point of this? Why am I doing this? I've got to tick it off. I've got to go on vacation and tick off all these sites; the Colosseum, the Spanish Steps. Rather than actually letting reality come to you and enjoying the experience, the right hemisphere is more about absorbing, encompassing - not everything has to be done in a manipulative way.

So, being in nature for a while, slowing things down, not just seeing straight-line shapes; all of that is very good for the right hemisphere. It helps develop that part of yourself that can do things you don't consciously know how to do.

Certainly, listen to the session when you feel like it. Don’t do it if it ever feels like something you should do. I want you to really want to do it, in your own time and in your own way. That’s a contradiction - telling you what your own way should be - but it needs to be at a time when it feels right. A time in which you've got untrammeled you-time, not going to be interfered with by any other demands; a time when you naturally go into a slower reality.

We all have ultradian rhythms, just like we have circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles: wakefulness during the day, sleep during the night. But ultradian rhythms occur every 90 to 120 minutes. The brain switches hemispheres, and you start zoning out. You might override this shift with caffeine or cigarettes, or if you’re at work, you might just stare out the window for a while.

In modern life, it's easy to get out of touch with these ancient rhythms in the brain and body. A hypnotherapist becomes very good at spotting these ultradian shifts in clients. The time to induce hypnosis might not be at the beginning of a session, but after you’ve been talking for a while. Then it’s much easier.

So, I would suggest to start observing these shifts in yourself. It's much easier for a sailor to move the sailboat when they know the wind is in the right direction, rather than trying to make it work with no wind or wind blowing the other way. When you spot this shift in your own awareness, that’s the time to listen to the session. And you’ll find you get much more benefit from it.