If you keep saying that you’re confused, you’re blocking any possibility of discovering your direction. When you imagine that you know what to do, you open to the wise part of you that knows. Here’s a guided meditation to engage your imagination to access that wise part to help you find your direction.
~ Linda-Ann Stewart
Question: What is a mantra, how long is it used in meditation, and how many times do you say an affirmation?
Answer: A mantra is a word, phrase or sound that’s repeated during meditation to help a person focus their mind, and take their attention away from the outer world or their extraneous thoughts. How long you say it varies from spiritual system to system.
Some state you should say it for as long as you’re meditating, some state you repeat it until your mind is calm and serene, open to the Universe. If you’re using an affirmation as a mantra, I’d recommend that you repeat it to yourself until you feel it resonate with truth within you.
If you’re saying an affirmation out loud, it’s recommended that you repeat it for at least 15 minutes a day. But while doing so, concentrate on its meaning and on feeling its truth. The feeling connects it to the subconscious.
Copyright 2004, 2013 Linda Ann Stewart
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Question: How do I use self-hypnosis to change a habit?
Answer: Congratulations on wanting to change your life. Self-hypnosis can help you change a habit or quit something, but it takes dedication and commitment on your part.
For instance, I’ve had many smokers come to see me, saying “I really don’t want to quit. I want to want to quit.” In this case, they don’t have the commitment to stop smoking. They want a magic pill that will make it go away. Self-hypnosis makes the process of changing or quitting easier, it doesn’t make the choices for you.
Whatever it is that you want to change, you could decide what it is that you want instead of it. You could use an abstract, like greater self-respect or pride, or you could substitute something more concrete, like a carrot stick or green tea.
Once a day, in self-hypnosis, you imagine the desire for ‘whatever’ transferred to what you really want, and imagine yourself satisfied and delighted with the new substitute or abstract. Then, during your waking hours, whenever you think of the ‘whatever,’ you say to yourself, “No, I don’t do that anymore. Instead, I’m choosing ….”
The change won’t happen overnight, and you will have to dedicate yourself wholeheartedly to letting go of the habit or making the change, no matter what happens. And you may have to practice your self-hypnosis up to three times a day in the beginning.
Copyright 2004, 2013 Linda Ann Stewart
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Question: I have an extremely stressful job, supervising many people, with schedule changes every few hours or days. What can I do to cope with the stress?
Answer: I’ve given seminars on stress reduction, and define stress as “any adjustment that has to be done to the normal routine.” So if your schedule changes several times a day, just the having to adjust to something new will create stress.
Doing meditation, relaxation, or self-hypnosis will help to reduce the stress. Any of these mimics the end process of the stress response, namely the “let-down” period. By doing self-hypnosis, you’re telling the mind that all is well now, and it’s safe to let go and relax. It doesn’t have to take long, just 15 minutes a day.
I know that when I do this after a stressful day, it gives me a lift, and I feel much more refreshed. My clients and the seminar attendees also say the same. You’ll be amazed. You can find the instructions to do self-hypnosis on my site at
Self-Hypnosis Steps.
In the space where you are to put in your suggestions, just imagine yourself in a special place of peace and comfort. It may be someplace you enjoy visiting, or someplace imaginary. And it may change from time to time. You’re giving yourself a mental vacation.
Copyright 2003, 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
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Question: How do I block extraneous thoughts during meditation, visualization, or self-hypnosis?
Answer: Extraneous thoughts are normal when you meditate, visualize, or do self-hypnosis. It takes time and lots of practice to learn to not let them distract you during your spiritual and/or mental practice.
When other thoughts come into your mind during your practice, you don’t have to let them interfere. I know that sounds odd, but the more you resent or resist those thoughts, the more attention they’ll get. The more attention they get, the more often they’ll interfere. When they come into your mind (and come they will, it’s the nature of the mind), just acknowledge them then put your attention back on your practice.
When I’m working with a hypnotherapy client, I say something like “other thoughts won’t interfere,” because the more a person is concerned about those thoughts, or resists them, the more they take attention away from the goal of the session. Therefore, I subliminally give them permission to have other thoughts, but then suggest that they won’t have any power to distract.
The essence of this idea works with any individual’s spiritual and/or mental practice. Give the thoughts permission to be there, but don’t get emotionally involved with them. It’s part of spiritual/mental practice to watch them objectively. This objectivity then translates into the rest of your life.
Copyright 2003, 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
All Rights Reserved
by Linda-Ann Stewart
My friend Lily read lots of self-help books, listened to motivational CD’s and went to personal development workshops and then complained that her life didn’t improve. When I asked her if she’d practiced any of the exercises in the books or CD’s or workshops. “No,” she said. “That’s too much trouble.”
To change, you need to participate and use the tools you’ve found. It’s easy to fall back into old habits. They’re familiar and comfortable, but they won’t provide you with a new direction. They won’t improve your life. There’s an old saying, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
Negative thinking is simply a habit. People aren’t born to be pessimists, they learn to be that way. It can be changed with time, attention, and energy. One of the complaints of negative people is that it takes effort to be positive. It always takes work to change a habit, no matter what that habit might be.
Are you going to continue to float along with your old ways of thinking and doing things? If so, your life isn’t going to improve much. What are you willing to do to make it different? Think of one thing that you could start doing, and then commit to practice it every day. It could be meditating, self-hypnosis, being mindful, an affirmation, journaling or one of any number of other techniques and exercises that you’ve found over the years.
By choosing to make one small, consistent difference in the course of your life, you’ll begin to break up the inertia that’s gripped you. Each day that you follow through with your choice will take you in a new direction. You have the power to change your life. You just need to work it.
Affirmation
I have the ability to change my life. All the power of the Universe is available to me to create new ways of thinking and new beliefs. I now decide to use the tools that I’ve been given to create new habits that are more beneficial for me. My life will only improve if I choose to change it. I take charge of my life and commit myself to my well being.
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
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Reading self-help and personal development books, and listening to CD’s of them, is helpful to expand the awareness of the possibilities for yourself. It also can uplift you and put you in a more constructive mindset. But if you don’t start using some of the tools that you learn about, the improvements won’t last long. You need to create your own foundation so that you can build a strong structure that can withstand the winds of storms.
Here are a few techniques for you to begin with, if you need to start somewhere.
Choose one of these to begin practicing consistently and you’ll notice an improvement in your life in a very short time. It will give you the tool you need to hold onto when life gets a little bumpy. You’ll get through the challenges much more smoothly when you have been making time for your personal development.
Fear is normal. It simply tells you when you’re edging out of your comfort zone. As long as you recognize fear is a signal, not a command, it won’t become a prison. Learn how to build trust in yourself and continue to expand out of your comfort zone. In this video, hypnotherapist and life coach Linda-Ann Stewart shares an affirmation and autosuggestion that she gives to her clients to help them with confidence in their abilities.
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
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Dr. Robert Anthony is one of my favorite authors. He writes simply and directly about how to use your mind in a constructive way to get what you want. In this simple and fast guided meditation, he leads you to visualize what it is that you want. Pick the goal you wish to accomplish and allow your mind to follow the directions in the meditation. Done every day, this simple 12-minute mind programming technique will attract what you want. The only way this method will not work is if you stop using it. Learn more about Robert Anthony’s The Secret of Deliberate Creation.
When you’re stressed, you go into a Fight or Flight mentality. This reduces access to your brain’s resources, and compromises your ability to think straight. Here are 5 ways to calm down your overactive stress response so you’re able to respond to situations in a more constructive way.
Copyright 2012 Linda Ann Stewart
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