Bob Proctor, Hypnosis, and chill
A subconscious jump in rewriting the daily lived patterns of life.
I had very little experience with hypnosis or guided meditations before I was pregnant with my daughter, almost three years ago. During that time, I certainly felt grateful to have found a doula who helped me get into a specific hypnosis series for birthing (there are a few different ones out there) that was reasonable in its expectations for birthing outcomes. It also taught me about being open to the best while being prepared in love for all that could happen during childbirth. This article is not a child birth story although I will say that I did end up having a manageable (not necessarily blissful) birth in my home with assistance.
It wasn’t until I had a dental appointment months later that I brought up the hypnosis practice again, and it was wonderful. I turned off my mental “light switch” and was able to relax through most all of a filling replacement procedure.
The way I’m speaking about hypnosis can be blurry in contrast to the idea of guided meditation, and most often these two practices are distinguished by the amount of suggestion and imaginative allowance provided for the listener.
There are many hypnosis tracks out there that offer suggestions to the mind about healing bruxism (grinding teeth) or making tons of money, increasing confidence, etc. Still, the idea is to create a feeling of acceptance and normality for the new suggestion that engages the listener in a way that leads them to grow into new belief patterns. (And perhaps without that participation and engagement, the effectiveness of such hypnosis begins to decrease.) Guided meditations focus less on suggestions and more on imaginative prompts, whether that be body scanning or leaving the body to a different place. Because the guided meditation provides structure and something to focus on, it can help the listener drop into a state of deeper relaxation, more free from the bumbling landscape of the wandering mind.
What is listed below are Guided Meditation and Hypnosis-like tracks below that I’ve appreciated and I hope to share them with those who are interested in exploring more.
The 6 Phase guided meditation
This past winter, I was introduced to a structured guided meditation from a person in a Self Care online group I participated. It was Vishen Lakhiani’s The 6 Phase Guided Meditation (Mind Valley). This practice can be helpful for learning to develop a visual imagination, and so much more.
The 6 phases are Connection, Gratitude, Forgiveness, Creative visualization, Intentions for the day, and Blessing/Feeling supported. Each section has its own guided visualization prompt, which includes, for example, visualizing the future three years from now.
bob proctor Guided abundance meditation
I really enjoyed the relaxation I was reaching during my 6 Phase Guided Meditation sessions, and ended up looking for others Mind Valley may have released. This led me to Bob Proctor’s Guided Abundance Meditation, produced for Mind Valley.
I have a lot of opinions about abundance practices as most of them focus on obtaining a lot of money and the idea of having lots of money, while sounds amazing, is often linked to a heavy amount of responsibility or inheritance, lawsuit, etc. Point being it has to come from somewhere and I think where it comes from is almost more important than how much is coming in.
However, this specific track brought me to levels of consciousness that-by the time the it finished- led me to feeling like I had taken a nap, and then some. Deep relaxation, check. Colors blooming behind my eyes, check. Difficult to open eyes upon finishing, check. Because of its highly suggestive language and repetitive prompts to hear Bob’s voice, hear nothing but Bob’s voice, it did have a very old school ring of manifestation guidance. But none of that over weighed its helpful body focused imaginative qualities, its expansive abstract links to self worth, and its ability to guide the listener back to a state of less identity- a place of pure creativity.
Practicing this track has only led to good and wonderful experiences for me, personally, and I highly recommend trying it for multiple days for the mere cost of 20 minutes of bliss.
Deep Guided meditations and Deep Workshops through To Be Magnetic
My most recent deep dive into the heart of the self-a kind of staycation activity- has been working independently through an organization called To Be Magnetic, combines guided meditations that they call DIs or Deep Imagenings™ (enter one of my only critiques that this org decided to own certain terms that they named, which is very uncommon and confusing as these terms describe already established activities). I’ve been exploring two of their workshops so far focusing on healing the inner child and doing shadow reflection. Both of these have been extremely healing for me in a way that feels like a major shift despite how much there is to really tease out of being a whole human being of patterns that have been practiced and demonstrated for life times.
There are other programs out there that might be similar, but for the cost and effectiveness of what I’m getting out of this one, I personally think it’s been worth it. For example, a person could spend XXX amount of money on an in-person inner child workshop, but upon leaving, have no way to go through it again, or perhaps they found it more difficult to go inside and release in the presence of other people, etc.
Back to somatic with open eyes
The full body experience of guided meditations is somewhat incomplete without embodied emotional awareness and feeling. During the late part of the winter this year I had the amazing gift and experience of receiving a few somatic experiencing sessions with a local practicing community member. In the heart of these sessions, I learned so much about how to perceive my emotions in my body and allow them to share a story reflective and meaningful to my own, and the way we opened up a couple of the sessions-what I referred to as the cat glancing exercise- was additionally fantastic.
This specific video practice is led by Sukie Baxter, who suggests giving somatic meditation a try when a person feels bored or restless easily during guided meditations and seated meditation. It’s practiced with eyes open and begins and ends with prompting the meditator to ask where their focus is right now. In general, when my mind is busy, I find it extremely helpful to ask my self “where am I right now?” and then describe where I am and what I am doing. From the thought realm to an earth grounded reality, right here, right now.
This is the “and Chill” part of the article where I tell readers to go learn about the importance of rest and sleep by checking out the Headspace Guide to Meditation or Guide to Sleep on Netflix. The Headspace Guide to Sleep series is composed of short episodes that have some information about sleep, followed by a guided meditation practice. This is a great and simple way to merge into relaxing intentions for rest and recovery while getting an introduction to the guided meditation practice.