Self-Hypnosis and Social Anxiety Disorder
Self-hypnosis is one way to overcome social anxiety. I have been doing this for years, however, I have made a few mistakes along the way that I would like to share with you. This way you won't fall in the same trap that I have.
I'm assuming that whoever is reading this page already knows how to do self-hypnosis. If not, then please see Self-Hypnosis Social Anxiety - this will teach you how to breathe correctly and relax - then eventually enter into hypnosis in order to overcome your social anxiety disorder.
The secret of self-hypnosis, at least with overcoming social anxiety, is to be persistant. I once read from experts that if you have a certain problem, then visualize (during hypnosis) in overcoming it, everyday for thirty days. So you have to be consistent if you want to overcome your fears and anxieties. This has been my mistake with self-hypnosis. I would skip every now and then, sometimes a few days straight - and I don't see anything positive happening. So basically, I had to make it a point to set a time everyday to do meditation (an other word for self-hypnosis obviously) and not miss it. Very easy to get off the track, you basically have to make it a part of your life.
One short side note here. It's been reported that if a person does meditation for two to three times a day, anxiety will drop over 75%. Personally, I have seen my anxiety go down, but not by that much. So I'm thinking that it depends from person to person.
Let me touch on imagery for a minute. Positive imagery is the part after you relax both your body and your mind during your self-hypnosis session. You basically just imagine the problem in your life, and seeing yourself succeed or overcoming a certain issue. For an example, if you are nervous about speaking in front of people, you basically see yourself in your mind's eye, acting confident and being relaxed in front of people. You also see the audience hanging on every word that you are saying, approving of your speech. That is positiive imagery.
I will have to put a disclaimer here about self-hypnosis and positive imagery. Sometimes, it may take a few weeks to overcome a problem. However, most of the time, we have been thinking negatively for years and our negative belief about ourselves is so ingrained in us, that it may take months of self-hypnosis to overcome a certain negative issue in your life. So if you have been diagnosed with social anxiety and have had it for many years - don't expect to overcome it overnight. There is really no magic bullet for this - unless EFT works for you. You will see that you will get better with your social anxiety, but it will be small improvements that you will notice. Just remember that Rome wasn't built in a day - and your social anxiety will not go away quickly. So please be patient.
One last advice. This is a major problem for me when I do self-hypnosis. Try not to fall asleep. I've been so good at relaxing my mind and body and going "deeper and deeper" into a beautiful state of self-relaxation, that I end up falling asleep. You will not conquer Social Anxiety by sleeping! So try to train yourself to relax to a point and to avoid falling asleep. However, if I do fall asleep and wake up ten minutes later, I just do the whole process over again. So if you do fall asleep (and I think everyone does) - don't worry about it. Actually, that means your getting better using self-hypnosis - and remember, you can always do it later on during the same day.