General Relaxation - Page 2
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Very nice you actually did what I asked you, and you were just in a first state of hypnosis. Many people think they do what I ask, but in reality they don't. The only way to actually open your eyes is to let go of the relaxation, so they open they eyes and say... see I can open my eyes. Of course they can, because the let go of the relaxation.
But I asked them to open their eyes while keeping the relaxation, and when you do that you cannot open your eyes at all. This is because a totally relaxed muscle cannot move. The guidance a hypnotist gives is in those details. If you do exactly as asked not because it is a command, but because I ask then you will go into hypnosis like you just did. This is extremely interesting, as the old style of hypnosis was all commanding but many people don't like that. It works a lot better if I help people to understand why they are asked to do something so they don't feel like they have to prove me wrong.
Now another misunderstanding is that your eyes need to be closed for hypnosis, and that is absolutely false. In a moment I would like you to take the next small step, and this may sound silly, but just do what I ask you and you will learn wonderful things.
Like you did before, I want you to close your eyes and relax them. When you get to the point that you know you will not be able to open them because they are so relaxed I want you to try to open them while keeping the relaxation. You will notice that you can of course not open them, however once you tried them and failed, I want you to open them every time you inhale, and close them every time you exhale. There is no need to worry about deep breathing, just normal relaxed breathing.
As you get into a rhythm, I would like you to count down starting from 10 and say 'deeper and deeper' each time you breath out. So inhale, open eyes. Exhale "10 deeper and deeper". Inhale and open. Exhale "9 deeper and deeper". When you get to one, you will open your eyes and keep the relaxed state you have reached. Does that make sense? You can have the relaxation from your eyes just flow down into your entire body at your own pace. You can carry on reading when you are done.
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