Paul McKenna (speaking in a Mindvalley video) argues that excessive stress, anxiety and worry are major global problems and that many health visits (he states “50%” of reasons people go to the doctor) are stress-related. He recounts a pivotal 1980s experience—meeting a hypnotist while a stressed radio DJ—that led him to learn and practise hypnosis. McKenna describes hypnosis and relaxation as scientifically-backed techniques used by clinicians worldwide, effective for smoking cessation, weight loss and reducing trauma/stress. He promotes an upcoming Mindvalley masterclass teaching relaxation, re-framing stress as challenge vs threat, unconscious problem-solving, and psychosensory techniques to rapidly reduce trauma.
Chapters
Everybody has some stress, but hardly anyone has the skills to deal with it. An astonishing 50% of the reasons why people go to the doctor are stress related. I strongly believe that one of the major problems facing the world today is too much stress, anxiety and worry. If we could all just relax a bit more as a planet, then many of our problems would clear up. In the last few decades, I've had the opportunity to use hypnosis to help many, many people all over the world improve their lives for the better. I could ask you to close your eyes and sleep and relax. Sleep and relax. Sleep and relax. Now I want to help you. Many years ago, back in the 1980s, I was a radio DJ and I was interested in yoga and meditation. But I had to interview the local hypnotist. That day had been a bad day. I was stressed. I had broken up with my girlfriend, had a row with my boss at the radio station, and people in the apartment above me were making a noise and keeping me up late. So when I showed up to interview the hypnotist, he said, rather than me talk to you about it, let me do it to you because you look like you need some, you're stressed. I said, go ahead, let the healing begin. I was a little skeptical, but a few minutes later I felt so relaxed. It was though a burden had lifted off me. I was almost floating in this lovely sea of happiness and I could hear the man talking to me and his voice was off in the distance. But I just felt so good. I was in deep bliss. I opened my eyes when he tells me to wake up and felt like it had been just a couple of minutes, it had been half an hour. I could suddenly see a way forward. The future looked bright. I was optimistic and I said, can I borrow some books from you on this? And he said sure. And he gave me a book by Richard Bandler, who was later to become my most prolific teacher. And I dec that I wanted to be a hypnotist. I began doing little hypnotism shows and pubs and clubs and then theaters and then hypnotizing my friends to lose weight and quit smoking. And it pretty much worked all the time. I couldn't believe how powerful this was. At the time it was a little bit controversial. People said, hypnosis, is it like voodoo? No, it's actually a scientific set of techniques used by doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, the world over. A lot of people think that controlling stress is remedial thing. It's only for people that are high pressure executives or working themselves all hours. It's also for anyone and everyone who wants to actually get more out of life. It's about being able to learn how it is to relax profoundly and deeply whenever you want to. In my upcoming masterclass with mindvalley, we go deeper into understanding what causes stress and teach you some techniques so that you can relax profoundly and change the way you perceive stress so that you see things, rather than threats, as challenges. I'll help you to use the creative part of your unconscious mind to solve problems so much more easily so that they don't bother you in future. I'll also teach you some of the cutting edge of psychosensory therapies, techniques that can knock out trauma and stress in a moment. So I'll help you control your stress, worry less, and be happier. Please share this video with someone who you know is overly busy, stressed out, and can benefit from this exercise.
