It has its roots in Buddhism, but over the last few decades it’s been increasingly recognised in western psychotherapy as a very helpful technique for dealing with problems like anxiety, depression and chronic pain conditions.

I’ve been practising mindfulness for several years now, and I often use it with my hypnotherapy clients. It’s a technique I highly recommend learning if you’d like to feel calmer, more compassionate towards yourself and others, and less prone to getting lost in worries, regrets, and impulsive behaviours.

Here’s the free meditation mp3:

You can also download this mp3 to your computer by right-clicking on this link and choosing “save link as”.

You may also be interested in my latest album, The Hypnotic Holiday.

This was my second collaboration with Alan Whitton, and I think it’s a remarkably effective way of learning how to deeply relax your mind and body.
£9.95 ($16 approx)

Mindfulness Part 1 – Witnessing is a post by Joseph Kao at www.exploringtrance.com

So it makes sense that stories can help you deal with personal problems, because a story can point you towards different, more helpful perspectives on life.

The brilliant, innovative hypnotist Milton Erickson M.D. was renowned for treating some of his clients purely through hypnotic metaphors, disguised as a series of apparently irrelevant anecdotes. After hearing his stories, Erickson’s patients would often notice changes in their thoughts and feelings happening “as if by magic”.

As an example of hypnotic metaphors in action, here’s a video clip from a workshop I taught in 2010. The student in the video was wanting to run her own trainings, but she was held back by an anxiety about public speaking.

(Unfortunately, the quality of the footage is far from perfect, but I hope you’ll still find it a valuable demonstration).

If you’re new to hypnosis, you may find it interesting to see how hypnotic suggestions can be conveyed indirectly simply through telling stories.

Notice that there is far more to hypnotherapy than the Hollywood cliché of putting someone into a mysterious, zombie-like state and then commanding them to do something. Hypnotherapy can, in fact, be a very respectful, creative, empathetic method of creating inner change.

If you’re studying hypnotherapy, or if you’ve trained in this field, I hope you’ll find some useful distinctions in the video too.

The primary technique I was demonstrating is “multiple embedded metaphors” (sometimes called “nested loops” in NLP).

If you pay attention to the order in which I tell the stories, you’ll notice that some of the ideas and metaphors are “sandwiched” within other ones.

This tends to make these central metaphors more difficult to consciously recall, which discourages over-analysis in the listener, and promotes direct emotional engagement with the stories.

Also, rather than using any lengthy, pre-planned metaphors, I was keen to demonstrate to the group that they could draw upon simple, everyday examples and anecdotes from their own lives to evoke therapeutic change.

With practice, you can do this completely on the fly, so that you find yourself effortlessly coming up with stories that fit the situation at hand. This gives you a very elegant way to communicate therapeutic ideas.

If you’d like to master this technique, I highly recommend the book “The Answer Within” by Lankton and Lankton. It’s available from Amazon (UK) or Amazon (US).

Hypnotic metaphors for self-confidence is a post by Joseph Kao at www.exploringtrance.com

The handshake interrupt is a rapid hypnosis induction created by Richard Bandler, the co-founder of NLP. The technique involves interrupting a normal handshake, and thereby inducing a moment of confusion in someone, so that they don’t quite know how to respond. You can then utilise this momentary “huh?” response to lead them into hypnosis.

However, because it’s such an odd, “martial arts-like” manoeuvre, I find students rarely put it to practical use outside of hypnosis seminars. After all, it’s pretty rude to suddenly grab a stranger’s arm when they’re just trying to say hello to you!

This video demonstrates a method I use to segue into this technique conversationally, which I find makes it much easier to use with clients, and anyone who wants to experience “instant hypnosis”.

If you’re new to hypnosis, just notice how “the magic” is not in the handshake interrupt itself, but in how I begin by building expectation in the student, and how I make use of her momentary confusion to create a full hypnotic response.

At the end of the clip, you can see from the student’s astonishment what an impact the arm levitation made on her. Evoking hypnotic phenomena is a great way to let people know that they are genuinely in an altered state of consciousness, and that they aren’t just pretending.

If you’re more experienced at inducing hypnosis, notice how I seed the idea of automatic, ideomotor movement before I begin the induction, and how I utilise the arm catalepsy by attaching it to feelings of enthusiasm.

Even though I am apparently only talking to the student, the suggestions for enthusiasm (e.g. “let’s do this”) are something I am indirectly communicating to everyone in the room, in preparation for the exercise they are about to do.

I hope you found some food for thought in all the above, and there’ll be more to come next week.

I am also the head scriptwriter for hypnosisdownloads.com, where you can find specific downloads to let you experience instant self-hypnosis and hypnotic phenomena like hand levitation, arm catalepsy and many more therapeutic topics.

I also spoke about hypnotic phenomena earlier in this blog.

Rapid hypnosis: a demonstration is a post by Joseph Kao at www.exploringtrance.com

As usual, beneath the video is a free hypnosis download to teach you how to use this technique immediately.

Here’s the free hypnosis MP3. Just click on the play button, sit back, and relax…

You can also download this mp3 to your computer here.

For hypnosis downloads about specific topics, like stopping smoking, alcohol abuse, or even caffeine addiction, I recommend www.hypnosisdownloads.com. I am the head scriptwriter for these downloads, and I can attest to their quality.

Break bad habits with hypnosis is a post by Joseph Kao at www.exploringtrance.com

This week, I’d like to share with you a simple, effective technique to give you more willpower. If you want to stop smoking, slim down, or to firmly say “no” to certain people in your life, this is one way to instantly be stronger and more self-disciplined.

Beneath the video is a free hypnosis download, to help you start using this technique instinctively.

Here’s the free hypnosis MP3. For this session, you need to be sitting relatively upright. When you’re ready, just click on the play button, and relax…

You can also download this mp3 to your computer by right-clicking on this link and choosing “save link as”.

For more research on how posture influences mood, take a look at this article from Psychology Today.

For a thorough, practical training in how posture affects our values and attitudes, I highly recommend James Tsakalos’s trainings in Spiral Somatics. (He’s based in Australia, but occasionally comes to the UK).

Boost your willpower with hypnosis is a post by Joseph Kao at www.exploringtrance.com

Beneath the video there’s a free hypnosis download, which is about using hypnosis to feel great, and make your life better. Not by fixing problems, but by amplifying what’s already good in your life.

Here’s the free hypnosis mp3 for generating good feelings and focusing on your strengths.

Just click on the play button, sit or lie back comfortably, and relax…

You can also download this mp3 to your computer by right-clicking on this link and choosing “save link as”.

If you want to learn more about the research I mentioned in this video, take a look at these links:

Hallucinating colours in hypnosis and how it affects the brain.

New Scientist article about daydreaming and the default network.

What is hypnosis? Part 4 is a post by Joseph Kao at www.exploringtrance.com

As usual, there’s also a free hypnosis download, which will teach you how to use self-hypnosis to relax and make inner changes whenever and wherever you need to. I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s the free hypnosis mp3 to teach you how to do self-hypnosis.

This is based on a very reliable technique developed by Betty Erickson (wife of the famous hypnotist Milton Erickson), and it’s a technique I regularly use myself.

Just click on the play button, sit or lie back comfortably, and relax…

You can also download this mp3 to your computer by right-clicking on this link and choosing “save link as”.

What is hypnosis? Part 3 is a post by Joseph Kao at www.exploringtrance.com

There’s also a free hypnosis download, so that you can experience hypnotic phenomena for yourself. I hope you enjoy it!

Here’s the free hypnosis mp3 to give you a direct experience of hypnotic phenomena like time distortion and arm catalepsy.

Just click on the play button, sit or lie back comfortably, and relax…

You can also download this mp3 to your computer by right-clicking on this link and choosing “save link as”.

I am also the head scriptwriter for hypnosisdownloads.com, and if you’re interested in experiencing instant self-hypnosis and hypnotic phenomena like hand levitation and arm catalepsy, they have specific downloads on these topics.

What is hypnosis? Part 2 is a post by Joseph Kao at www.exploringtrance.com