Now more than ever, we all need to protect our health. You have a powerful force within you that can support your wellness: your unconscious mind. Besides strengthening your immune system, your subconscious mind can fight off disease; it controls all the vital processes of your body and it knows how to heal you.

In addition to healthy eating, exercise, staying hydrated and getting adequate sleep, you can boost your immune system by being calm and relaxed and engaging in activities that sustain hope and joy. And self-hypnosis is a proven way to direct your thoughts in support of your body’s ability to heal and keep you healthy.

Of course, the opposite is also true — your thoughts can have a negative impact on your health:

If you are bathing in scare-mongering news, you are depleting your immune system.
If you are stuck in fear and anxiety, you are depleting your immune system.
If you are perpetually worrying about yourself and your loved ones, you are depleting your immune system.

Sadly, negative thoughts are highly contagious at any time. Just think how a gloomy person entering a room can drag the whole group down. Or how you can actually sense the tension in a space where people have been arguing. The best thing you can do for yourself now, is turn away from negativity in all its forms and learn new techniques of self-care for your mind. Then go soak up some spring sun and fresh air.

Your thoughts literally change your brain, cells and genes. We know that just thinking about something can cause your brain to release neurotransmitters, chemical messengers that allow your body to communicate with parts of itself and your nervous system. They control virtually all of your body’s functions, from producing hormones to digestion to feeling happy, sad, or stressed. This means your body is constantly physically reacting – actually changing – in response to the thoughts that run through your mind.

Even in this time of uncertainty, you still have a choice. You can activate your sympathetic nervous system (the fight or flight mode) and choose anxiety, fear, anger or any other upsetting emotion that can weaken your immune system. Or you can choose to live in the balanced state of your parasympathetic nervous system acknowledging the realities of the moment, breathe, be calm and take responsible action to enhance your immunity.

Hypnosis, which is something you can learn to do at home on your own, is known to buffer the effects of stress and upregulate immune function. The Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis states that hypnosis may potentially be able to alter immune responses in order to influence the underlying biochemical factors of physical diseases.1

Right now, it’s even more imperative that you are in control of your thoughts and emotions. Self-hypnosis can help you to do that by getting you out of the trance of fear and anxiety and getting you into a balanced state of health and well-being.

Roger Moore is a certified counselor and registered hypnotherapist with Palm Desert Hypnosis and author of Becoming Slender For Life. He can be reached at [email protected] or 760.219.8079. www.PalmDesertHpnosis.com

Reference:
1) Australian Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis, November 2005, Vol 33 No 2, Page 140 – 159.