Excerpt from Finding Your True Self (out of print)
It is much more difficult to enjoy your life when your energy is focused on physical pain. We benefit greatly when we use the mind to accelerate healing the body. It frees you to live as an expression of your True Self.
One of the keys to accelerating physical healing is visualization, by itself or in combination with hypnosis. Visualization works because the subconscious does not know the difference between visualization and an actual event. The subconscious does not judge or analyze. That is the function of the conscious mind. The subconscious simply accepts what it is told. I have proven this again and again in accelerating my healing. Visualization has repeatedly accelerated my healing to a point where my doctor was amazed. Notice that I did still see a doctor. And because I believe in the mind/body connection, I also continued to exercise (when physically possible) and ate nutritious foods. Visualization is not a cure-all, but it is an incredibly powerful tool in healing.
As my story unfolds, you may say to yourself, “I can’t see how this could work.” In the past, my conscious mind would sometimes ridicules the process. My chatterbox would say, “What makes you think that this well work?” Other times it said, “This is stupid, you are just making it up!” I have learned to ignore that pesky voice.
Visualization works whether you believe in it or not. It does, however, work more effectively and more quickly if you do believe. Its effectiveness is also increased if you are in a hypnotic state–either occurring naturally just before sleep or upon waking, or induced through hypnosis. Give visualization a try, suspend your disbelief mechanism, and allow yourself to accelerate your healing and relieve your pain.
My Story: The Bone Glue Visualization
In December 1996, I broke my right femur. Although it is the biggest bone in the body, breaking it was not all that hard! Among other things, it was an incredible inconvenience. I was determined to heal as quickly as possible so that I could get back to “business as usual.”
As soon as I got home from the hospital where they set my broken femur, I arranged to have a private hypnotherapy session with a colleague. I had two goals for this session. I wanted to relieve the pain and to create a metaphor for mending my leg quickly.
The pain subsided automatically as I entered the trance. Pain is a double-edged sword. We tense our muscles when we are in pain, which makes the pain worse. The converse is also true. When we relax our muscles, we release or at least lessen the pain considerably.
My second goal was also easily attained. With my colleague’s assistance, I created a mental image that I could use during my daily self hypnosis sessions. My subconscious suggested a tube of “bone glue” that I could squeeze into the break every day. I could “see” the glue being absorbed into the break. I used this metaphor daily for about thirty days. Two days before my next doctor’s appointment I went into the trance as usual but was unable to use my standard picture. My body was saying that the visual image was no longer necessary. My accelerated healing was validated when the doctor saw my next x-ray. She said, “You’re making new bone like gang busters! What are you doing?” I’m sure that she wasn’t surprised with my progress. She is used to the fact that I use the power of my mind to heal my body. In fact, she encourages it. As a consequence of this accelerated healing, I was allowed to put weight on my leg sooner than originally predicted.
Unfortunately, I stopped there. If I had thought out the healing process more thoroughly, I would have continued with restoring my muscles, nerves and tendons to their natural state. Since I skipped over that part, I have spent many hours in the gym and on the dance floor rebuilding my muscles. However, you can learn from my experience. Take a look at how all the systems in your body are affected by your illness, surgery or injury, and address each and every one.
I also used a metaphor successfully years ago when my knee gave me trouble. I had surgery in 1966 that left one knee worn out. I do two things to keep it working. I exercise the muscles surrounding the knee three days a week and when I experience any pain I use a visualization to clear it up. This visualization also began during a private hypnotherapy session. In hypnosis I “saw” the inside of my knee as a cave. When I was in pain the cave was dark, dank, wet and gloomy. It was not a place that I would enter willingly. To relieve the pain I simply imagined cleaning out the cave. I imagined bringing in a scrub brush, soap and water and sometimes friends to assist. Once the cave was clean, I imagined a window and sunlight streaming through it. I planted grass and flowers. Within two days the pain was gone. Does my visualization make any sense? No. Do I care? Not really. I no longer have pain. And this particular pain was not serving any useful purpose. This was a challenge for me in the beginning because I am very analytical and wanted to know why visualization worked. I quieted that doubting voice a long time ago. I am just happy that images work to re-create parts of our lives that are not working.
When working with using your mind to relieve pain, keep in mind that some pain is necessary and important. The pain associated with a heart attack signals the need for medical attention. When I first broke my leg the pain said, “for God’s sake, don’t walk on it!” Once you have determined that the pain is not necessary, it is safe to reduce and/or eliminate it.
Key Points
▪ To lessen or eliminate pain, use trance and visualization.
▪ Let your subconscious suggest an image that is effective for you.
▪ Use the image until your subconscious is no longer willing to conjure it up, or until your healing is complete.
▪ Don’t stop too soon. Evaluate whether other related systems in your mind/body could also benefit from visualization.
▪ Make sure that your pain no longer serves any purpose.
Be joyful, be grateful, live in peace,
Katherine Zimmerman
Clinical Hypnotherapist