James Clear to the Rescue
Stress relief is so easy if one just acquires an Inner Guide and then does self-hypnosis regularly. But here's the Catch-22: you may have trouble sticking to your routine for doing self-hypnosis long enough for your Inner Guide to do the work that would make your routine become automatic.
The book Atomic Habits, by James Clear, may help solve this problem. Apparently, lots of people want help with their habits, as his book has sold over fifteen million copies and has been translated into fifty languages. He has launched the "Habit Academy," from which over 10,000 people have graduated.
If you haven't yet established a reliable routine for doing self-hypnosis, you can try his method. It rests on four principles:
One: Make it Obvious
• Formulate a Plan. Decide where and when you will do self-hypnosis.
• Habit Stacking. Plan to do it immediately after you do something else that is an established habit.
• Environment. Do it at/in a particular spot that you have designated for it.
Example: "I will do self-hypnosis every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, as soon as I get home from work, right after changing into my comfortable clothes, and I will do it while sitting on the sofa."
Two: Make it Attractive
• Temptation Bundling. Associate something you need to do with something you already want to do.
Example: "As I sit on the sofa, I will first drink my after-work cocktail, then do self-hypnosis."
Three: Make it Easy
• Law of Least Effort. Eliminate friction that may get in the way.
• Two-Minute Rule. When beginning a new habit, do it for only two minutes.
• Habit Shaping. In the beginning, concentrate on doing it correctly.
Example: "I will eliminate the friction of having to respond to my partner by explaining that I need this time to do self-hypnosis. I'll set a timer for two minutes. I'll review the directions, if necessary, and concentrate on simply getting into the trance state.
Note: In establishing a habit and making it become automatic, it's the number of times you do it, rather than the length of time you do it, that determines when it will become automatic.
Four: Make it Satisfying
• Habit Tracker. You can record on a chart each time you perform a new habit. This provides satisfaction, as it causes an additional spurt of dopamine (a hormone that gives a sense of pleasure).
• Accountability partner. If you report to someone else each time you perform your new habit, that act, and their response, increase your pleasure.
Notes:
1) As self-hypnosis is inherently satisfying, you may not need to use a habit tracker.
2) Although your Inner Guide knows what you need help with, so you don't have to tell it, I had a patient who, at the beginning of each session, would think about a problem at work; not as a request to her Inner Guide, but simply because that was what was on her mind. After the session, she would know what to do. That was an additional source of satisfaction.
3) I am currently an accountability partner for someone who is changing his diet. It is working well.
I hope this helps. If you haven't yet acquired your Inner Guide, you can do so here:
https://emotionalcomfort.com/blog/post/you-can-acquire-an-inner-guide-part-4
