On Thursday 3rd November I’ll be running an introduction to self hypnosis workshop. In this highly practical workshop I’ll show you how you can use a simple self hypnosis system that stops negative thinking and starts  positive thoughts instead. When you think positively you feel great! The workshop runs from 7.30pm-9.30pm at 28 Stonebridge Park, Bristol BS5 6RR.

There are only 5 spaces for this one so if you are interested book early. The price is just £10.

For more information about hypnotherapy bristol go to www.bristolhypnotherapist.com

A lack of confidence is one of the most common things people want to address with hypnotherapy. Confidence, of course, is a feeling of self assurance, an inner trust that you can do something well.

But how can you create that positive feeling of certainty with something you feel down about? Here are 5 self help steps to get you going in the right direction.

Step1. Be specific. When do you feel a lack of confidence? Is it a feeling you always have, or is it just in certain situations? For example, it may be in relationships, social situations or something with work or business. Being specific will help you isolate the situations that are affecting you the most. Isolating them is like containing them within a boundary, which in turn enables you to then recognise positive resources outside the boundary.

Step2. Create a list of the things you are confident with. Be honest. What are you good at? Once you get going you will be able to come up with plenty of things (no matter how small they seem). Write them all down. When you have completed your list single out the thing you are most confident with.

Step 3. Think about the thing that you are most confident with. Notice how it makes you feel. Remember a time when you were at your most confident. Spend a moment with your eyes closed imagining that feeling. Notice how your body feels. Now, think of a colour or sound that best fits that feeling of confidence?

Step 4. Of the things you were least confident with, which is the most important to you? Single it out. Write down what thoughts you have about that thing. Writing things down gets them out of your head and on to the paper in front of you, where they are easier to manage. Now imagine the feeling of confidence you felt earlier and think of the colour and sound that best represented the feeling. Imagine you transfer those positive resources into the thing you want to be more confident with. Notice how you feel. See how you are now acting in that situation. What new thoughts do you have about it?

Step 5. Practice being confident in the situation that matters to you the most. Ask yourself questions like, ‘if I was really confident right now how would I be acting?’ A variation on this is to think of someone you know who is already confident in that situation and imagine you are borrowing those resources from them. How would they act? What would they be thinking?

In a way you are retraining your mind. With so many things we become creatures of habit. Our mind can be like a train going round the same old track over and over. By imagining what you want you start to lay new tracks for the train to follow. You start creating new thoughts and new habits, and pretty soon you will have a new feeling of confidence to go with it.

This article was written by Richard Braybrooke. Feel free to comment or ask any questions about hypnotherapy near you.

During my time as a hypnotherapist, coach and explorer of consciousness I have come to realise three states that lead to what I call the ultimate creative state. Hypnotherapy enables you to access these states easily and effortlessly. which in turn can help you start creating the things you really want.

The first state of empowerment is the surrender state.

By surrender I don’t mean quitting in a negative, defeated sense, but rather an enlightened letting go. It is a state in which your ego yields to a higher consciousness.

The surrender state is like a handing over of responsibility, a kind of delegation. There is a relaxation in your heart and in your head, a softening in your core. There is also the sense of giving yourself over to that other consciousness.

People often arrive at this state in desperation, others through a mature understanding of consciousness. How you arrive at this point doesn’t matter. The important thing is to recognise that the state of surrender can help you transcend negative beliefs that you just can’t seem to get past.

Surrender is the foundation of the three states of empowerment. It is a state of mind that opens you up to a power far greater than your intellect. In the moment of surrender you stop fighting against what wants to happen. You stop resisting life. Instead you become more allowing, which in turn creates the possibility of new things opening up for you.

The second state of empowerment is the faith state.

The faith state is what comes on the heels of surrender, when you have trust that the higher or greater consciousness will help you create what you really want. There is an uplifting feeling of confidence, an optimistic, enthusiastic lightness toward life, or toward whatever you are trying to create. There is a certainty, even if the way ahead isn’t entirely clear. There is a mindset of curiosity as to how things will work out not if they will work out. There is an increased sense of excitement.

The faith state opens the doors in your mind that doubt and negative beliefs close. In this state your mind is open to receiving the ideas, steps and information that will lead you to create what you really want (which is sometimes different to what your ego consciousness thinks it wants!)

The third state of empowerment is the creation state.

What characterises the creation state is the understanding that the higher consciousness you are surrendering to, and having faith in, is actually yourself – your true self. There is an ownership of that power. There is an understanding and experiencing of new life in your body.

In this state, no matter how long it lasts, there is a feeling of awe, a time stopping, wow moment. It is calming and exhilarating, soothing and inspirational. There is a quiet, peaceful joy as you understand how to access your true power.

The creation state is what I see as the ultimate state of self realisation. Rather than looking outside yourself for salvation, there is a trust and appreciation of the amazing intelligence that is inside you!

This article was written by Richard Braybrooke. Feel free to comment or contact him for hypnotherapy in bristol or if you are interested in personal development groups.

Self hypnosis has numerous health benefits, including lowering stress levels and boosting the immune system. This technique is a really simple variation on the very first self hypnosis technique I ever learned.

All you do is sit or lay down and close your eyes. Then become aware of your breathing. On each in-breath silently count from 5 down to 1, and on each out-breath count down from 5 to 1 as well. Keep going with this until you establish a smooth rhythm. After a while you will naturally drift into a state of hypnosis, a state of calm, relaxed awareness.

This technique uses a mantra as the focal point of attention. A mantra is a word or phrase repeated over and over. There are any number of different mantras you can use. Some people like to say the word ‘calm’ with each out breath. Others use ‘om’ or the number ‘one’. Some meditation styles insist that having your own unique, private mantra is essential but really as long as it is one you enjoy, that is all that matters. The thing to do is to keep repeating it and to focus your attention on it.

When you practice self hypnosis it is normal for random thoughts to pop into your mind, the trick is to let them go without getting embroiled in the thought.

You will find after a while your body starts to relax quite naturally of its own accord. Aim to keep the mantra going for ten or fifteen minutes, making sure you won’t be disturbed during this time.

Self hypnosis is one of the things I teach people early on in a hypnotherapy session. I consider it to be one of the essential skills we can learn to promote optimal health.

Despite it being a really positive thing to practice people often worry about the state of hypnosis. Many people often think it is a trance that you might not be able to wake up from. This is not the case. In actual fact you could say that your life is made up of dozens and dozens of trances and that hypnosis is a ‘trance-free’ state. Say, for example, you were driving in your car and another driver did something you considered inappropriate, in all likelihood you would go into an anger trance. Or if you were at home listening to the radio you might hear a particular song that put you into a sad trance. All day long your environment causes you to get pulled into these trances that are disempowering states. In other words you have no control over them.

Self hypnosis is a way of regaining control, a way of getting your power back. In this state you are relaxed, empowered and able to see things in their true perspective. Looked at in this way you can see that hypnosis is a highly desirable state to experience as often as you can. And with just a little practice you will find that you start to open up to a reservoir of inner resources that can transform your life in many positive ways.

This article was written by Bristol Hypnotherapist Richard Braybrooke. Feel free to comment or ask any questions, or contact if you are interested in hypnotherapy in Bristol.

Probably the most common phobia that people come to me for hypnotherapy is the fear of public speaking, or glossophobia.

Like with all phobias there is a heightened or exaggerated stress response when you are about to give a talk or presentation. The stress response is better known as the fight or flight response. Though more accurately it is the fight, flight or freeze response, since a common reaction to a stress is to be virtually unable to move (or speak). The stress response is a survival mechanism that has evolved over millions of years as a reaction to a threat. It either prepares an animal to fight for its life, run like crazy or play dead. In the case of a phobia it is a distortion in your belief system that causes the reaction, rather than a response to an actual threat.

Negative or distorted beliefs can be formed either through repeated conditioning or after a nasty shock. For example, in the case of a fear of public speaking, there may have been an earlier episode in your life where speaking to a group resulted in some kind of humiliation. The humiliation may not have been your own either. It could have been where you witnessed someone else’s embarrassment and then fear the same thing happening to you.

So how does hypnotherapy help?

There is a saying in therapy that when you change a thought you change the behaviour. So by changing the thoughts you have around public speaking you change how you feel about it.

Hypnotherapy helps you identify the specific beliefs that you have that are causing the phobic reaction and then helps you create new, empowered ones instead. Often just acknowledging a belief can be enough to begin the process of changing it. Other times it can be necessary to let go of emotional energy that is being held onto unconsciously.

Stuck emotional energy is like tension in the psyche. By relaxing in a specific way, which you are able to do using hypnosis, you release that energy and feel a sense of relief. In that moment it is easy to create new, accurate and positive thoughts about pubic speaking. You are able to relax and enjoy it more. Of course you still need to do basic things like rehearsing and preparation, but you are able to do those things with greater freedom and confidence once all that unconscious stress has been released.

Hypnotherapy also enables you to gain new insights into what happens when you are about to give a presentation. One of the things I help people focus on is that moment when everyone’s attention focuses on them. I help people relax into that moment so they feel a sense of power and confidence rather than feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

Visual imagery helps with this process a great deal as well. By visualising yourself giving a confident talk your mind learns a new behaviour pattern. It also gives you a different sense of yourself – empowered and confident rather than stressed and incompetent. This in turn helps you give a talk that is more present, spontaneous and engaging for the audience.

This article was written by Richard Braybrooke, a Bristol hypnotherapist. Feel free to send any comments or questions about hypnotherapy generally or about hypnpotherapy in Bristol.

Self hypnosis is an effective way of helping you relax, and one of the things you will learn in a hypnotherapy session is how to use self hypnosis. Used a couple of times each day it can help you boost your immune system, gain a better clarity of thought and feel more refreshed and vital.

This simple technique combines tension and relaxation with visual imagery to take you into a light state of hypnosis. You can feel completely relaxed about this state because it is just relaxed awareness. You are always in control and you can open your eyes at any point if you need to deal with anything important. Just think of hypnosis as a special kind of relaxation, one where you are more aware of your inner reality rather than your external reality.

To begin with make sure phones are switched off so they don’t disturb you. Then either sit or lay down on a chair or a bed.

Create tension in your body by closing your eyes tightly, clenching your jaw and fists and tensing the muscles in your legs. Then take a deep breath and relax your eyes. Take another deep breath and release the tension in your jaw, so it feels slack and loose. Next, allow your breathing to find a natural rhythm and as you breathe out relax your hands and arms so they are comfortably resting by your side. Finally, let go of the tension in your legs and allow your body to feel like it is sinking into the chair or bed.

You may find your body starts to feel heavy or light, or there may be some other comfortable feeling. However you do feel is fine and when you are ready imagine you can see an inflatable version of yourself filled with air. Imagine it is like a big air bed, and then imagine the stopper is removed. Imagine you can hear the sound of the air rushing out and think of how that would feel as the inflatable starts to settle down.

Next imagine you are staring at a big, white television screen. Then imagine an ‘off’ button is pressed so the white screen shrinks to a dot. Let the dot get smaller and smaller and when it disappears you will be in a state of relaxed awareness. Stay like this for five minutes or so and just listen to the rhythm of your breathing. Let thoughts come up but when they do just let go of them. Allow your awareness to move around your body letting your muscles relax even deeper.

When you are ready to finish, imagine the ‘on’ button is pressed and the screen becomes white again. Then count to three and open your eyes. Take a couple of deep breaths and then carry on with the rest of your day feeling relaxed and positive!

This article has been created by Richard Braybrooke who is an accredited bristol hypnotherapist and counsellor. Feel free to leave a comment or contact him for information on hypnotherapy in bristol.

For those of you not familiar with The Wizard of Oz, the yellow brick road was the path that Dorothy had to keep on to stay safe from the wicked witch of the west. Unfortunately she got distracted and strayed from the path and ended up in all sorts of peril.

Similarly for us as we journey through life. Our yellow brick road is the path of authenticity, the road that is most true to ourselves. A path that although joyful can also be very challenging, since it involves doing something us humans can resist like crazy – being honest with ourselves!

Of course, we have many distractions, many things that pull us off course. Our ego mind, through years of conditioning, can chase after, or hold onto things that are not best for us. Fear will pull us in the wrong direction as well. Not just our own fears, but the fears of other people.

So how do we focus ourselves? How do we stay on our own yellow brick road and create peace and prosperity? Here are a few quick tips to remind you.

1. Use your creative imagination

There are many ways you can use your imagination to stay on the yellow brick road. One way is to imagine you are talking to a wise oracle that can advise you on what to do in your life. This is a technique I use a lot with clients as a way of training them to ‘tune in’ to their own inner compass. With a little practice you will find you start to tap into a different field of consciousness that is free of ego fears and attachments.

2. Remind yourself that you are the source of your own happiness.

It’s easy to get caught up in chasing after things and people, thinking you can’t be happy or fulfilled until you have that job, that house or that person. Keep reminding yourself that what you really want you already have. No one, or no thing, can give that to you. You are the source of it all.

Remember as well that the yellow brick road is not so much a path leading you to a destination as a destination in itself. It is an optimum state to enjoy on your journey through life. Once you’re on it, just savour the feeling and let go of the rigid attachment to goals. In that moment you will feel freedom.

3. Create a support system.

When you go through a challenging time it can seem that the yellow brick road gets very narrow. Your fears can seem in much closer proximity, reaching out trying to grab you. At times like these it is important to have someone, like a therapist or a support group, who can help you stay on track. If you’re really lucky you might have a friend who can see beyond fear-based thinking. Along with this build up a good stock of positive thinking books and dvd’s. Develop a daily habit of putting positivity into your brain. It’s an unfortunate reality but much of what is out in the world is negative and has the ability to drag you down. Your support system will not only help you cope with difficult times but help you thrive and develop an inner strength. Think of your support system as helping you create a ‘neg’ shell – a shell against negativity!

Do all of that and you’ll see that peace and prosperity are states you can enjoy irrespective of your external circumstance, right here, right now.

Most self help books and courses will at some point stress the importance of determination and perseverance. Some will say they are essential if you want to achieve anything in life. So you may wonder why giving up can be good in any way.

First of all, let me say the kind of giving up I’m talking about is not the same as quitting. It’s not a defeated negativity. I’m talking about a very specific state of mind that could also be called surrender, a state where one part of your mind yields to another, more powerful, part of you.

The problem with highly determined types is that they become so fixated on an outcome that they drive and push way beyond what is actually good for them. They may well achieve their objective but it can be at a high price. As a therapist I often work with people who have exhausted themselves through constantly going beyond their healthy limits.

The other problem with pushing single mindedly toward a goal is that there can be an inflexible mentality that starts to develop. That inflexibility may mean other opportunities may be missed that are actually better in the long run than the initial goal.

By developing a more relaxed, open ended outlook toward your goals you leave the door open to bigger and better opportunities.

So how does this fit in with giving up?

In terms of goals it is giving up a rigid attachment to what you want. In his book The Sedona Method Hale Dwoskin talks about developing a state of mind called ‘hootlessness’. This is where you set a goal but you don’t give a hoot whether you make it or not!

On the face of it you might think this is ridiculous and it would stop you from ever achieving anything. But in actual fact the reverse is true. Hootlessness is the same as surrender. It is a state where you relax and become open to a greater part of your mind. You could see this as the source of intuition and inspiration, the driving force behind your creativity. By mentally giving up to it, by yielding to it, you open up an internal channel of communication that can navigate you through difficult times as well as helping you achieve your goals.

But even beyond the realisation of goals this state of giving up helps you transcend your everyday state of mind, and in that moment you touch greatness. It’s not a state that is based on outcomes either, it’s just a simple state of power and contentment, of love and creativity.

An exercise that develops this state is this 3 step meditation.

1. Sit with your eyes closed with your awareness in your body. Notice how your body is feeling. Notice where there is tension and where there is relaxation.

2. Imagine a very powerful, calming presence is about to come into you. Be open, even ask it to come into you if you want. Perhaps imagine that presence as a colour flowing through you.

3. Then just wait, mentally yielding to your own creative power.

You may need to stay with it for a few minutes. The mind can be very resistant. But keep practising and you’ll feel the benefits. I find this is a great way of relaxing and of dealing with difficult situations. It’s also an effective way to stimulate your creativity. Perhaps more importantly it allows you, just for a few moments, to experience greatness – just by giving up!

Hypnotherapy is the use of altered states of awareness to bring about positive change. This meditation, called ‘Authentic Power’ is a technique that uses a range of powerful altered states that you can use everyday to relax, feel confident and start attracting the things you really want in your life. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Start by sitting or lying down. Make sure you are going to be undisturbed for fifteen or twenty minutes. Turn off mobiles and landlines etc.

Step 2: With your eyes open focus on a spot in front of you and then, without taking your eyes away from the spot, become aware of what is in the periphery of your vision. Keep your awareness in the periphery for a few minutes until you start to feel more relaxed.

Step 3: Close your eyes and take your awareness from the periphery into your body. Hold your awareness there until you feel even more relaxed.

Step 4 : Use your minds eye to become aware of a light inside your body. This is your ‘inner energy field’ or your ‘Authentic Power’. Your Authentic Power is an energy that acts rather like a magnet, attracting whatever you need and desire. It is also the creative energy by which you will get inspirational ideas.

Step 5: Surrender to that light and power. Surrender is like a humble, egoless letting go as one part of your mind yields to another, more powerful part of you.

Step 6. Start to develop a state of complete trust in your Authentic Power and its ability to attract the things you want in your life.

Step 7: As you surrender and develop that trust realise it is yourself you are surrendering to and trusting in.

This technique will help you develop an expanded awareness of your own consciousness and help you tap into the creative reservoir that you have inside.

The Authentic Power meditation is the one we use at our group meetings. For beginners it is a nice, easy way of relaxing and for advanced practitioners there is tremendous depth in each step that you can go on exploring and enjoying no matter how advanced you become!