by Trisha Fuller
Everything we say, think, and talk to ourselves about, out loud or in our head, is a form of self-suggestion.
So, what are you saying to yourself?
One of the simplest ways to begin formulating useful suggestions or words for yourself is to change what you don’t want to what you do want.
Is what you currently think or say to yourself what you want? If it is, fantastic!
If it isn’t, you can acknowledge that what you are thinking is not useful and ask yourself what the opposite of that suggestion is.
Flip the script!
Create suggestions around your goals or what you really want your life to be like. This is easy and can be fun. Changing a few words in your language will benefit you and others profoundly.
Here are some easy rules for developing new ideas through self-hypnosis or for making your communication with others more concise.
1. Keep it simple – Keep your statements and words as simple as possible. Fancy words tend to confuse the mind. If you want your message to be understood, state it in the simplest words.
- Be specific – State what you want or what you need. (Do not state what you do not want or what you want to get rid of!)
- Use the present tense—Make suggestions in the now or statements that imply that success has already happened. This helps the brain perceive current success. We are naturally lazy, so if you put it in the future, the mind does not know exactly when that may be.
- Attach emotion —Make statements and phrases that are emotionally significant or powerful. This will help the statement resonate, and this will make you want to achieve it! We make all decisions based on emotion first, then justified with facts or intellect second.
- Make it a Virtual Movie —Use phrasing that creates a mental image, with sound and feelings, to create a movie in your mind of exactly what you desire. In NLP and Hypnosis, this is referred to as VAK, Visual (sight), Auditory (sound), and Kinesthetic (feelings). If you really want to make it profound to the mind, you can add all of the senses, Olfactory (smell) and Gustatory (taste).
- Eliminate negatives – Keep all suggestions positive. Eliminate words like can’t, don’t, won’t, etc most of the time. To help you understand why this is important, “Don’t think about a squirrel!” Your mind cannot process negatives. Just because you put the word “Don’t” in front does not make you not think about it.
- Repetition—Get in the habit of repeating each suggestion; it is the mother of all learning. Different pieces of literature state different amounts, between 7 and 30 times. Each of us has a magical number where the suggestion tends to ‘click’ or resonate in our minds. Find yours.
Life can become easier, calmer, and more motivating as you focus forward with these new personalized self-suggestions.
Imagine the results if you braided all of these strategies together! Could you begin to utilize your language to enhance your life? Could you create positive changes for others? Inspiring and motivating yourself and others could then become simple. See De-Hypnotizing vs Hypnotizing to learn more.
The most important person we talk to is ourselves. Begin with these strategies to shift your internal dialogue to help you reach your goals. Once you notice the benefit, shifting your language to lift the lives of those around you will be easy.
What if you embraced your power as an influencer and began feeling like your tasks were a welcome challenge and opportunity to help others?
Imagine, hear, and feel yourself doing that now easily and effectively. That’s right. You got it. Now, do it!
