A lot of people ask me to tell them the difference between hypnosis and meditation. Are they the same thing? One of the reasons it can be difficult to give a clear-cut answer is that both can be defined in broad terms. In regard to hypnosis it is a condition of narrowing your attention where you and your hypnotherapist work together so that suggestibility can be greatly heightened. All whilst being in a heightened state of relaxation like meditation. A hypnotherapist can never put suggestions in to your Mind that you do not want and it is important to know that you have to want your changes and be open to allowing them in for change to begin. Hypnosis has its aim as not the mere quieting of your mind, like meditation instead it goes a step further by utilising a change of mental conditioning delivered by the therapeutic suggestions.
When we see our Mind like a computer, a hypnotherapist literally goes in to reprogramme the ‘software’, which is your thoughts, behaviours or habits and changes them to the specific goal. Everyone can react differently to hypnosis, however 80% of us can go in to a light trance state, which is all that is required for suggestions to take effect. Hypnotherapy is more useful when you have a professional practitioner who works with you to finely tune these ‘old thoughts’ or stale mind patterns as the alpha-theta brainwaves can be reached faster.
In comparison meditation has many forms, for example, one method is guided meditation another is active meditation. Guided meditation is a popular choice for most people because it is one of the easiest types to do. Why? Because most of us are visual by nature, therefore, visualisation helps us to switch off our awakened consciousness and relax in to that wonderful space of an uplifted feeling and sense of calmness. Hypnosis also uses visualisation techniques.
Both hypnosis and meditation can release endorphins and uses the gateway of the inner mind to quieten us from our awakened consciousness of all the noise and clutter. Furthermore, we actually experience this state daily before we go to sleep. Therefore, hypnosis and meditation are similar, however the only big difference between hypnosis and meditation is perhaps what it’s called and the techniques used to arrive at the intended condition. Both can be used for self-development, where as meditation has an aim of quieting our thoughts, hypnosis on the other hand is a focused intention of our thoughts that is highly conducive to change.
