The Top 3 Techniques Used in Confidence Hypnotherapy Sessions
Once upon a time, there was a boy named Alex. He would always doubt his abilities and shy away from challenges. He felt afraid of failure and worried about what others thought of him.
One day, Alex’s school held a talent show. Alex loved singing, but felt too scared to get up on stage and perform. He thought to himself, “What if I mess up? What if they laugh at me?”
As the talent show approached, Alex’s anxiety grew stronger. He even considered backing out altogether. But his friend, Lily, saw how nervous he felt and offered to help him practise.
Lily spent hours with Alex. She encouraged him to believe in himself and reminded him of his natural talent. With Lily’s help and support, Alex began to feel more confident in his abilities.
Finally, the day of the show arrived, and Alex took to the stage, feeling nervous but determined. As he began to sing, he felt the audience’s eyes on him, but he focused on the words of the song and the joy it brought him.
To his surprise, the audience erupted in applause as he finished. Alex beamed with pride and felt a sense of confidence he had never experienced before. From that day, he knew that with hard work and practise, he could achieve anything he set his mind to.
The experience taught Alex that confidence comes from within, but the support and encouragement of those around us will nurture it. With the right mindset and a positive attitude, anything is possible.
I love how children know what to do. When left to their own devices, they always seem to get it right. There is much to learn from this story, which you can take and combine with hypnosis in confidence hypnotherapy sessions, to increase your own confidence.
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Are confidence and anxiety related?
Anxiety is different from a lack of confidence. However, if you experience anxiety about something, you’re unlikely to feel confident about it, and if you lack confidence, you’re likely to experience anxiety when out of your comfort zone. Some people avoid anxiety by staying inside their comfort zone. Possibly preventing you from reaching your potential or experiencing new things, which you might enjoy. Some people have confidence, but still feel anxiety.
Whether you lack confidence in others or confidence in yourself, as Alex recognised, confidence comes from within. External validation is unlikely to increase your confidence, though it will nourish the confidence you already have. The dictionary definition of confidence is, “a feeling of self-assurance arising from an appreciation of one’s own abilities or qualities”. This is slightly different from the assumption we often make about people who appear confident. Confidence is a feeling of self-assurance in your ability, not necessarily in your ability to show others.
Continue reading for three techniques used in confidence hypnotherapy sessions, that you can practise yourself to feel self-assurance in your ability.
Practise your Act.
Alex loved singing, he sounded lovely, but felt scared to perform. After practising for hours with a friend, he found some confidence in his ability. Whether your struggle is confidence to perform in front of an audience or confidence to order in a restaurant… practise! It sounds so obvious, but many people I work with expend energy on trying to find a thing called confidence, which isn’t a thing at all!
Physical practise isn’t always possible, so practise in your mind as often as possible. When you imagine something, your brain perceives it as reality. If you use confidence hypnotherapy, your hypnotherapist will help you imagine yourself feeling comfortable outside of your comfort zone. Your brain will hold on to the imagined memory and feel safe in the experience going forward. If you know how to use self-hypnosis, you can do this at home. If not, and additionally, practise in front of a mirror or with family and friends.
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Practise Self-Hypnosis or meditation
The hypnotic state of mind creates a brain state, which makes it easier to generate internal changes. The increased connectivity between the bilateral dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex and the ipsilateral insula makes it easier to engage in tasks with reduced anxiety. During hypnosis, there is a decoupling of the default mode network and the executive control network, which researchers believe reduces mind wandering and self-reflection. Hypnosis and meditation create similar, if not the same changes in the brain.
Hypnosis and meditation are forms of brain training. Like all body training, you improve the more you do it. Although the image portrayed is of someone laying down or sitting crossed legged with their eyes closed, this is not obligatory for self-hypnosis or meditation. Both generate a flow state in which your mind is fully in the present and accepting of any physical and emotional feelings that arise. When you use self-hypnosis regularly, it’ll become a technique that you can use whenever you like, to do things without fear.
At home, use meditation or self-hypnosis techniques to increase your tolerance of difficult feelings. This will give you the ability to “feel the fear and do it anyway”, because you no longer try to run away from discomfort and instead challenge yourself to step outside your comfort zone. Although you might still feel nervous in certain situations, you’ll develop confidence in your ability to achieve despite fear.
Develop your Confident Character
The technique I use the most in confidence hypnotherapy sessions is the confidence character. This is an alter ego that you create with your imagination, or you can use a version of yourself that you’ve known before. The concept is personal to you. I use three ways to find your confident character. Some people will combine the three. You…
- Remember a historic version of yourself, and pull-out characteristics from that version of you.
- Use the characteristics of yourself from a part of your life in which you feel confident.
- Use your imagination and traits from people you admire to create an alter ego.
Your hypnotherapist will help you create your confident character by combining a list of traits. You’ll create an exaggerated character that you use when you need confidence. With practise, you’ll develop an imaginary routine that helps you get into character. In time, you’ll find it easy to step into character and show this confident side of yourself. My blog post here gives a more in-depth description of how to create your character. I regularly repeat a piece of advice given to me years ago by a stage hypnotist, which is to remember that all confidence is an act.