Art of self-hypnosis

Since the day we have been born we were being hypnotized - by parents, friends, society and media. Our sense of right and wrong, our intuition, values, ethics, most cherished beliefs, common sense, music, art and so the list goes on. Our hypnosis is so deep and ingrained that it almost defines who we are. This hypnosis is what makes us hate or love someone or something, it is this same hypnosis that makes us sad or happy.

What if we could hypnotize ourselves into believing something? That is what a lot of leaders do. They hypnotize themselves without realising and believe in themselves so sincerely that this sincerity induces hypnosis in their peers. In fact, each one of us at one time or the other had self-hypnotized him/herself. We constantly self-hypnotize ourselves to get through tough situations - it acts as a sedative that numbs us to the vagaries of life. Self-hypnosis can be positive beliefs like"Eveything that happens, happens for our own good. Perhaps we lost all this money for a reason. We have learnt a lot from this." They can be negative beliefs like, "I am inherently an unlucky person, everything always goes wrong for me" or "Every man is for himself, no one can be trusted."


I once read the secret to be always happy - "twist your interpretation of reality until everything seems nice." In other words if you self-hypnotize into seeing everything in postive light, so will you be. I have some friends who find it hard to enjoy most movies - they look for something that they do not find. "Comeon how stupid was that!!!", "the story sucked, it had no depth!!!". They criticize the movie and not only do they self-hypnotize themselves into believing that they wasted their money but also people around them. A sad person makes everyone around him sad. On the other had, I also have friends who can walk out of the silliest movie having enjoyed themselves and completly happy. Who is ultimately the happier one on the long run? Someone who is finds it easy to be happy or someone whose standards are hard to satisfy?

I must have asked hundreds of people, "How life going?", I can only remember two of them who always replied, "lifes great." In fact when I answer, "I am happy" to the question, "How are you?" I see many surprised at it. Some even ask, "Why what happened?" Is happiness indeed such a rare commodity that so few feel happy most of the time.

Self-hypnotizing oneself into being happy is art that requires a lot of consious practice. When is the last time we stopped to hear a certain bird's chirping or lay down on the grass looking at the clouds. Happiness lies within, one has only to learn to draw it out from within. Wakeup every morning and smile without reason, go in front of the mirror and smile at yourself, hum your favourite song, walk out of the house and tell yourself "another great day ahead" and your day is already well begun.

I really love the song, "Don't worry be happy". No matter how low I feel, thats a song that never fails to make me feel better.