Posted in psychotherapy but wanted to add here as well.....

Hi all -

Update on this week's hynotherapy session. He tought me a few "quick induction" methods that I can do myself that will help me relax real quick. The one that worked the best was to do a deep belly inhalation with my eyes open and then exhale with them closed. I do that until I feel like I can't open my eyes anymore.

Then we worked on a method for pain management. He brought me under using the boat method I like. I felt like I went under much deeper than ever today - I've been practicing meditation so I think this helped. Then he had me stretch a muscle in my neck until it hurt. I then concentrated on that muscle, pretending it was not part of my body (this works the best for me) while I was in my tranquil spot in New Hampshire.

Before he even said it I felt it. He told me that when I felt a change in how the muscle felt to nod my head. I had already felt the change. So he brought me back out of it and asked what it felt like. I was stretching my neck to one side until it was uncomfortable and then as I practiced the skills it slowly became less tense and then all of a sudden my neck just stretched even more and the muscle was relaxed. Pretty cool!

He said I'm doing very well. He said it usually takes a few weeks for people to get the breathing down right and I already had that. Also, he said it usually takes a few weeks to feel the difference in the muscle and I felt that. So that's cool. We are going to keep working on it. He said that eventually I should be able to do this when I'm not in a meditative state. So, if I'm exercising and in pain I should be able to control the pain with my thinking.

I'm hopeful!

Tranquility