How to Apply Autosuggestion to Empower Your Life

Your internal messages really can make a monumental difference.

Changing lives is a cool experience. Sometimes all it takes is selective word use and trust. As a Board Certified Hypnotherapist, I worked with women traveling in from all over the nation. Their freedom to live happy lives often came with an anchor holding them down.

These women struggled in abuse situations for decades. The stories I heard were painful. I’ll avoid the sorrowful details. Over time, as the women lost more and more elements of their personal identity and confidence, the option of running away evaporated. With the abuses, these women suffered a long list of serious health conditions.

In time, if the abuser didn’t kill them, the effects of the abuser would as the victim’s bodies wore down and failed.

With negative suggestion, abusers employ psychological tactics to feed the message of error (sometimes terror) and brokenness. Victims become resigned to life as a hostage and lose the ability to trust themselves. They believe the lie that says they cannot fend for themselves and must remain with their offender.

This is negative autosuggestion. My job was to gain their trust so they knew my purpose was to help them. I needed to begin the work of undoing decades of negative programming. The work always begins by proving how they are successful during our first hypnosis session.

Their first session

These women believed an untruth that they were not successful at anything. Yet, in just a few minutes, they saw themselves successfully completing a variety of checks. They saw themselves as proficient. Their perception of being broken faded away and their confidence grew.

Every thought creates a chemical reaction in our bodies. As we worked through our sessions, I watched their breathing calm and often their skin color looked healthier from relaxed blood flow. Through the simple power of suggestion, they experienced a deeper relaxed state of rest than they’ve ever felt before.

I’ve had hundreds of clients tell me they’ve never been so relaxed in their entire life. I think that’s an awesome thing. I want them to enjoy this sense of rest, knowing they made the choice to allow themselves this time of peace.

When they first arrived, many were afraid and unsure of what would happen. So often they cried when describing their life. After bringing them back to a waking state, it’s an amazing thing. Their eyes are brighter, skin clearer and they are happy, laughing, and excited because a new life IS possible for them.

I didn’t perform magic to create this first stage of change in their lives. There was no trickery. Through our talk, I gained their trust and showed them I want their best. During our session, I used a selective word choice personalized for them.

This is positive autosuggestion, it changes lives and it can change your life too.

I’m not talking about getting you in my chair for hypnosis. With world events, I’m doing work remotely via zoom sessions. Because of the physical changes, stress relief, and help with sleep, I have people schedule sessions with me for regular spa treatments, preparation for important meetings, tests or interviews. If this is something you want to do, send me a note HERE.

Tools you can use for YOU

What I’m describing with autosuggestion is something you can do for yourself. Dr. Émile Coué discovered the concept about a century ago at the Nancy Medical School in France. In the book, “The practice of autosuggestion by the method of Émile Coué” written in 1922, there are incredible cases where Dr. Coué changed lives by the words he used.

It was the potential of making such differences in people’s lives that prompted me to earn my Board Certification. There are many incredible changes I’ve witnessed myself. This is one of the key reasons that people become hypnotists. They experience this unique process and want to be part of it.

Let me reiterate: I’m not doing magic. I’m well-trained and have the skill set to apply various methods for my client’s best. The primary tool embedded into each process is autosuggestion.

Regained hearing

I had one female client that never told me she was deaf in her right ear. She came for stress work and told me, “I don’t always catch what people are telling me because of the noise in my own head.” I hear things like that all the time with stress clients.

During the session, I told her she will “notice a new sense of calmness in her life, and be attentive to other people, fully understanding what they say.”

When I emerged her from hypnosis, she sat there looking like she’d seen a ghost. When I asked how she’s doing, she told me, “I can hear in my right ear. I’ve been deaf in this ear since a child,” I had no knowledge of her hearing issues.

In our next session, we did a regression and found there was in fact a trauma that began her hearing issues at an early age. Forty years later, she regained her hearing because she trusted me and accepted the suggestion that she will be attentive and understand what people say.

It’s always amazing how many times I’ve seen physical ailments eased when relieving stresses.

The tremors

This is one of the most remarkable cases I witnessed in front of me. A Registered Nurse brought a friend with significant stress issues. She also suffered with tremors from Parkinson’s Disease. I only work with clients on a medical-related issue when referred by a medical professional.

With this 66-yr old woman, I knew I could help with her stress, but was unsure of her tremors. I’ve seen time and time again instances when stress relief accompanied physical relief. During our first session, I noticed her tremors stopped at the point where she was deeply relaxed.

I asked her at the second session if she noticed her tremors stopped. She acknowledged they did. I explained the correlation between thoughts, chemical reactions, and bodily movements. During our conversation I had her take three slow abdominal breaths, and I suggested when I count back from 5 to 1, her tremors will subside.

To be honest, I didn’t know what would happen. I knew if her tremors could stop in deep relaxation, she should be able to calm them some if I taught her relaxation techniques.

After a few deep breaths, she settled in the chair and began relaxing. I counted back:

5… relaxing…

4… feeling comfortable and rested…

3… feeling peaceful…

2… your entire body is relaxing…

1… any involuntary body movements are now calmed…

Her tremors stopped completely. She was fully awake, not in hypnosis, and autosuggestion helped her calm her tremors. They never stopped for long periods of time, but through her own ability to practice relaxation and self-autosuggestion, she calmed them and applied this as part of her daily self-care.

How can YOU use autosuggestion?

Dr. Coué recognized his patients didn’t need him to provide suggestions. While there is value is applying specific wording, what if they just wanted overall improvement? He began teaching his patients to use the phrase, “Every day in every way, I’m getting better and better”. He found it most useful right before sleep at night and first thing in the morning because that’s a time when your subconscious is most receptive (except in hypnosis).

When first using this myself, I found improvements in my sleep and overall temperament. Yet, I thought a lot about the word, “getting”. Imagine a child in the car’s backseat asking when we are “getting there”.

From “Getting there” to having it NOW

I replaced the term to read, “Every day in every way, I AM better and better”. I began teaching my clients to use this before bed, upon waking, and during the day in meditation, quiet times or when walking. My clients began telling me how it also helped them with stress and overall wellness.

My client’s self-work

Using this approach for autosuggestion, I had them create their own affirmations to use plus the regular statement. It was important that they create their own statements because the words are personal to them. I often use their own words because it offers a sense of familiarity.

The guidelines

They were told to follow these guidelines:

• Select only one to two statements, plus the regular “Every day in every way” statement. We didn’t want a laundry list, just a couple things to change at a time.
• Ensure the statements are NOW statements, not getting to… NOW.
• Stay away from all negative words like “No”, “Not”, “Won’t “, etc. The subconscious mind is literal and might hear, “I will not have fear” to mean, “I will have fear”.
• Use these statements every day for at least a week before changing them. Two or more weeks is better. When using the statements, repeat each statement at least 10 times.

Some client statements and results

While not a scientific study, my clients created the following statements:

• Every day in every way, I am happy and optimistic about my life and career.
• Every night I go to sleep easily, and every morning I wake fully rested.
• Every day I breathe clearer and my lungs function perfectly.
• Every day I attract kind and helpful people.
• Every day my vision improves, and I see clearer.
• Every day in every way, I am calm and at peace.

Of the three clients, each with two statements plus the standard statement, all said they noticed positive improvements. Most agreed that they often forgot the first day or two, but by day four they were consistent. Each did the statements for seven to ten days. One was an asthmatic that noticed an improvement in her breathing. Another that often had conflict with coworkers, had calm dealings with each other. One told me the underlying fears she carried for years began fading away.

It’s important to resolve negative beliefs. Untouched, they can grow to something insurmountable.

While hypnosis with autosuggestion is the fastest way to bring resolution, self-autosuggestion is a consistent form of self-care that you can customize and adjust for your specific needs.

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⭐️ About Anthony M. Davis

Anthony M. Davis is a Leadership, Success & Stress Coach, Board Certified Therapist, and Top-100 International Travel Photographer. His free book, “Keys to Your Success” is available now.