One of the areas of psychology that really appeals to me is hypnosis. I will write an article in detail on hypnosis later on, but for now I want to concentrate on memory and the likelihood that hypnosis can improve a person’s memory. First of all let’s stay away from the stage performance with people clucking like chickens and everyone in the audience laughing and enjoying the show. Let’s examine the possible benefits of hypnosis and memory improvement.
Even when we cannot remember certain things that have happened to us in our lives the brain stores a lot of these memories, which are retrievable and some are not. However the unconscious mind will remember even if the waking mind cannot. Hypnosis is a tool to release the secrets of our unconscious mind.
There are many reasons why we don’t remember things. Sometimes things are just too painful that is much easier to bury the memories in our subconscious than it is to remember horrible things like incest or details of a rape and so on. Sometimes, try as we might to remember these painful events we cannot. Hypnosis is a good tool to bring up the events of these buried memories so that we can remember them in therapy or for whatever reason deemed necessary.
However hypnosis is more than just bringing up memories we would rather forget. Hypnosis can improve all kinds of memory.
The effects of stress on memory
Do you find that you have test anxiety? When you need to remember something for school you blank out, or you have a job presentation and you blank out, or since most of you reading this article are writers, when it is time to write an article you black out?
Perhaps you have trouble remembering people’s names, or phone numbers or little things that you want to remember but just don’t seem to be able to anymore.
Have you had the experience of getting up from sitting in one room to do something in the other room and before you get to that room you already forgot what you were going in for?
Maybe you just had a piece of paper in your hand and you put it down just two minutes ago and you want it again and you don’t remember where you put it?
No you are not going crazy and no it is not only you that this is happening to, it is happening to many people.
These are just some of normal everyday things that we forget as we go through each day. Barring any serious medical condition such as brain injury or Alzheimer’s, a major reason why we don’t have the ability to remember all the things we would like to remember is due to stress. Stress on our jobs, stress at home, divorce, troubles with teenagers, financial problems, health problems, social problems, the list goes on and on as to why we have stress in our daily lives.
To relieve stress you need to relax and one of the ways you can learn to relax is through hypnosis. The more relaxed a person is, the better he or she will be able to concentrate on the things he or she has to, the more he or she will be able to absorb that information and in turn remember the things her or she wants to.
Improving memory through hypnosis
There is quite a bit of buzz about enhancing memory by using hypnosis as a relaxation tool. When the mind calms down the ability to stay focused and concentrate increases. When the mind is calm it has to the ability to retain information easier and thus improves memory.
Individuals who have an interest in using hypnosis for improving memory can seek a clinical hypnotist are can practice self-hypnosis at home.
Self-hypnosis
Self-hypnosis is not as difficult as it sounds. You don’t need to go into a trance staring at a swinging pendulum or any of the stage theatrics you have seen in a stage performance or on television.
You simply begin by closing your eyes and relaxing. To get your body to relax you begin by breathing deeply, slowly and rhythmically. You will begin to feel your heart rate slow down, this is good, and it is a sign that your body is beginning to relax.
If you are still having trouble relaxing do a little mental relaxation exercise involving all your body parts. Begin by focusing on your toes, wiggle them, now stop and tell them to relax, feel the sensations in your toes, and continue to tell them to relax. When you feel them relax continue onto your feet and ankles, move them and then stop and tell them to relax. Feel the relaxing calm in your feet. As you feel the calmness entering each body part it is then time to move onto the next body part until you reach your head.
After each body part is relaxed count slowly backwards from 10. You can use imagery here, to help you relax. Imagine you are on a staircase and once you get to the bottom of that staircase you will be relaxed. Count 10, 9, 8 etc and see yourself slowly descending these stairs. At this point you should be in a self-induced trance and relaxed enough to go forward.
Self Commands
Now you are in a highly suggestive state. Simply tell yourself you want to improve your memory. Tell yourself that whenever you see, hear, read, touch, smell, or taste anything you want to remember you will be able to do so on command. Tell yourself that all mental blocks impeding your memory are no longer present and holding you back. When you speak to yourself in this way, in this trance-like state, you are bypassing your conscious mind and going directly to your subconscious.
It is the same technique that is used by trained hypnotists. When they are giving you suggestions under hypnosis they are talking directly to your subconscious mind.
This method is wonderful for improving your memory and can really work, but you must believe it will. If you already start out skeptical, thinking it is just garbage and it can’t work, guess what, it won’t work!
You are going to need to practice this technique over and over again but in time you should see an improvement in your memory. If you need a little help there are several tapes, ‘DVD’s and videos that will take you step by step through the process.
Sources:
http://www.neuro-vision.us/Articles/hypnotic_memory_enhancement.html
http://www.toimprovememory.com/selfhypnosismemoryimprovement.php
