Encouragement works by anchoring a good feeling to doing something. This drive to feel good can be strong enough to motivate us to do more. When we attach the good feeling to accomplishing something, we want to do it again so that we’ll get the good feeling again.
I suggest you start with yourself. When you finish the next task you’re working on, sit back a moment and tell yourself that you did a great job. Notice how good you feel? Great! Now do it again after you complete the next few tasks, and notice how that good feeling just keeps feeling better.
Don’t worry about whether or not your accomplishment deserves praise. Starting with the little things, like getting through your inbox, folding the laundry, meeting a deadline are great places to start building the encouragement momentum.
The Role of Hypnosis
Hypnosis uses language, emotions, and neuroscience to give people the tools they need to create lasting positive changes in their lives. Encouragement is an excellent way to reinforce positive behaviors, and when we tap into those positive emotions we feel when we are being encouraged, we create new patterns of behavior.
Hypnosis can remind you of how awesome you are by tapping into that part of your mind where those feelings are stored. Try this self-hypnosis exercise for self-encouragement:
Sit in a safe and comfortable position and think of an area in your life where you could use a little encouragement. Once you have that in mind, imagine yourself how you’d like things to be. Imagine your own desired outcome, so that you can see you there with everything going just how you want it to go.
Perfect!
Now, let yourself remember a time in your life where you did something you didn't think you could do before. A time when you used your own abilities to get something done. Whatever first comes to mind is perfect.
Great!
Now really get into that memory with as much detail as you can. Remember the sights, sounds, people, the things around you. Go into that memory as if you were there again, seeing it through your own eyes, hearing the sounds around you in your own body, the smells and temperatures. Make it as real as possible, almost as though you’re there again now.
Good.
Now remember that feeling in your body, that feeling of accomplishment, pride, strength - however you label that feeling - let it build up inside you until it fills you up and becomes the dominant sensation in your body.
Excellent!
Now with that feeling of your own awesomeness filling you up from the top of your head to the bottom of your feet, project yourself into your desired outcome. Don’t just observe your success. Make it vivid. Make it clear, as if it was never really a question that this was a possibility. That’s right.