Exam Nerves and Study Concentration using Hypnosis

One of the doctors who attempted to bring hypnosis out of the realm of hocus pocus and to establish it as a rigorous scientific study of immense benefit to humankind was a man called James Braid. He studied hypnosis in depth, and was able to achieve amazing things. He was the man who coined the term "hypnosis". Hypnosis is the Greek word for sleep. James Braid quickly realised that hypnotic trance is anything but sleep. It can actually be a state of intense focused attention to the exclusion of everything else. He attempted to change the name from hypnosis to monoideism, but for some strange reason, the name of hypnosis stuck. 

Monoideism when broken down means mono-idea-ism, or concentrating on one idea at a time. We have to learn things with our conscious minds, but our unconscious minds are responsible for storing all our learning, experiences, memories and emotions. It is much easier to learn when you have access to your unconscious mind. When in a learning trance, you are concentrating all your attention on what it is that you are studying to the exclusion of everything else. This is like opening a trapdoor on the top of your head, and pouring in the information. Glug, glug, glug. Bear in mind that hypnosis is not magic, you still need repetition and practise to get good at anything! However, the aim of hypnotherapy would be to help you to achieve a state of mind where studying is enjoyable. After all, we tend to be motivated to do the things we enjoy. Can you think of something you enjoyed today or over the last couple of days? Let's say it was watching your favourite program, or playing your favourite sport, just something you really enjoy doing. Was it difficult to motivate yourself to do that enjoyable activity, or was it easy? What would it be like if the thought of study was as enjoyable as that, if the act of studying was as enjoyable as that. Wouldn't you be doing it?

Of course, you need to move from procrastination to motivation if you need to get moving on what you study. Assuming you have that, you have prepared, and now there is an exam looming. Some people feel anxious about exams, they go into exams, and read the questions, and something happens to prevent them from performing as well as possible. They have all the information in their heads, and then up comes fear and anxiety, and performance decreases. What usually happens there is that we make scary thought patterns in our head, and those thought patterns manifest as negative body feelings. Here is a metaphorical example. Imagine a foot wide plank that is five metres long on the floor where you are. It would be easy to walk along that plank, wouldn't it. Now imagine that the same plank is over an abyss with streams of lava fifty metres below. It's the same size plank, the same muscles are used to traverse it, however the difference is magnified in the mind. Our imaginations are very powerful, as we imagine things our minds make it real to a certain extent, and generates emotion to go with the imagined thing. Very simplistically, if we imagine good things, we get good feelings, if we imagine bad things, we get bad feelings.

If anxiety is an issue in other areas of your life, we may need to tackle the anxiety as the overarching cause. If it's the case where the anxiety in relation to exams is just one example of things you are anxious about, we may need to clear the anxiety in general.

There are two broad categories of learning. They are procedural knowledge and factual knowledge. Factual knowledge is the gathering of facts, and the linkage and association of those facts to what you already know. Procedural knowledge is the step by step ways things are done. For example, you can learn lots of facts about how to drive a car, but you actually need to drive a car to learn the procedure of driving. Another example is playing snooker. You can learn all the facts about geometry and angles and momentum and action and reaction, but it's unlikely you'd beat an experienced snooker player unless you have the process learning (commonly known as practise) first!

Some people are great on facts, but weaker on procedural knowledge, and with others it’s vice versa.

Procedural knowledge and factual knowledge are both very useful, and getting better at the one you are weaker on will tend to enhance the other one also. For example, having the procedural knowledge of playing a musical instrument can be useful in learning the harmony of mathematics.

Summarising how hypnosis can help with study concentration and exam nerves we have:

1) Motivation to study, by changing study to something you want to do because it's enjoyable to you.

2) Learning how to go into a deep study trance, so you are completely engaged in your study to the exclusion of everything else, while being aware of the context of what you are studying.

3) Clearing out fear and anxiety in relation to exams.

4) Follow up hypnosis CD / mp3 to reinforce the session(s), and to enhance your factual and procedural (practise) learning.

If you would like an explanatory brochure, or a free consultation, please phone
Daniel Madden ADHP MICHP BE
Phone: 085 - 1318344

Email: dmadden@experiencetheworlddifferent.com