How Self-Hypnosis Saved My Mental Health

4 min. read | Self-Hypnosis | Meditation | Emotional Intelligence | Resilience

Self-hypnosis transformed the way I process stress, emotions, and challenges when nothing else seemed to work. Here’s how it saved my mental health and how it might help you too.

I had always been an aspiring but undisciplined, even reluctant meditator. I wanted to be someone who meditated regularly - I appreciated the idea of meditation, understood its purported benefits, and dabbled quite a bit - but it never became a habit or a regular practice. Why? Was it because I never experienced the kind of breakthrough benefits I was supposed to enjoy? Or was it because I often got bored…impatient…didn’t go deep enough…wasn’t doing it right? 

Doesn’t matter now, because looking back, I realize it wasn’t that meditation itself didn’t work for me - I just hadn’t found the “right” approach that clicked. That changed when I discovered self-hypnosis, specifically the holistic and systematic approach that I now teach my clients.

Side note: all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. This is an important concept to understand because, contrary to popular belief, hypnosis isn’t something that happens to you - it’s something you do for yourself, with guidance.

I was never skeptical about hypnosis. I had always kind of recognized the power of the mind and the subconscious, but I never really knew how to access or harness it beyond just sitting still and hoping for insight.  Learning self-hypnosis was the catalyst that finally made a regular mindfulness practice stick for me, because it didn’t just help me build a daily habit - it fundamentally changed the way I processed my thoughts and emotions. More than that, it saved my mental health.

Before self-hypnosis, I kept getting stuck trying to think my way out of stress, challenges, or just strong emotions. Talking things through (sometimes too much), overanalyzing, ruminating, or letting negativity bias take the wheel with a good old-fashioned vent session. Sometimes it helped, but mostly, it just felt kind of like running on a mental hamster wheel, especially during those sleepless nights when my brain decided thinking even harder about it all was more important than actual sleep. (Spoiler: I don't think the overthinking ever actually solved the problems.)

But self-hypnosis gave me a structured, powerful way to quiet and get behind the conscious, thinking mind - to actually process and digest what was happening in my life at a deeper level.  It became a positive, intentional container for working with my emotions - without needing to act them out in my relationships or let them spiral in my mind.

Through self-hypnosis, I was able to integrate deeper insights into my conscious behaviors.  Instead of just reacting, I found myself responding thoughtfully with more clarity and ease. My nervous system calmed because I had trained it for calm, easily and effortlessly.  My perspective shifted.  I began to trust my own inner wisdom in a way I never had before.

Interestingly, I now love meditation (what a funny “side effect” of self-hypnosis given how it all started!).

The biggest takeaway?  With all the stressors of modern life, self-hypnosis is a game changer.  It’s not just about relaxation or surface-level affirmations. It’s about cultivating what I recognize now as a truly restorative practice that leads to catalytic insights and deep, lasting transformation.  And the best part?  It’s something anyone can learn.

If you’ve ever struggled with meditation, emotional overwhelm, or just feeling stuck in unhelpful patterns, self-hypnosis might be the missing piece.  It certainly was for me.

Read more about the difference between meditation and hypnosis here.

Let’s talk about how you can learn and use self-hypnosis in your life.