Hypnosis can have various applications that can enhance health and change bad or negative habits. In this article, I wish to concentrate on self-hypnosis, which can be likened to a form of creative daydreaming. Self-hypnosis becomes your servant when used to control emotions and habits as opposed to you being at the mercy of your emotions. By imagining a goal or outcome, you increase your likelihood of achieving that goal.

Some common areas where self-hypnosis can be useful are smoking cessation, weight management, and sports enhancement. While using hypnosis, you can imagine all the benefits you will receive from giving up smoking such as better health, more energy, more money, whiter teeth and cleaner breath, just to name a few. If you want to lose weight, you will need to imagine yourself in better health, with more energy, more sex appeal, a better self image and pride in your appearance. Motivational goals, to enhance sports, is also a frequent subject of self-hypnosis. Imagine yourself hitting the ball, or powering up a hill on your skis, or crossing the finish line in the twenty mile marathon.

Though there are many ways to induce relaxation to enter hypnosis: here is a simple way most people can use to induce hypnosis on their own:

Starting at your toes, imagine a relaxing sensation entering your toes, and spreading up through your feet, into your anklesIt feels so relaxingWith every breath, the feeling of relaxing spreads up through your legs, your thighs and your hipsnow your buttocks, stomach, and lower back feels so relaxed, and the feeling increases with every breath you takeAll the muscles of your upper back, your chest and arms are heavy, with a feeling to total relaxationThis feeling continues on up into your neck, scalp, and faceNow your whole body is totally relaxed.

At this point, you can start to count down from ten, to enhance your relaxation
Number tendeeper and deeper, relaxing physically
Number ninedeeper and deeper, relaxing mentally
Number eightdeeper and deeper, relaxing emotionally
Number sevendeeper and deeper, relaxing totally
Number sixevery nerve and muscle relaxes completely
Number fiveeach number takes me deeper
Number four the deeper I go, the easier is becomes to go even deeper
Number threejust drifting into total relaxation
Number twojust drifting into a deep hypnotic peace
Number oneway, way down

Now you are ready to progress by personalizing your fantasy to your own goals, whether to stop smoking, to lose weight or to become a better skier.