Self Hypnosis For Memory Recall Improvement Tips
If you are reading this, you’ve probably forgotten something that you’d like to remember. You’ve probably left out a grunt as you try and try and try but it just won’t come back to you. You know you know it but you just can’t remember it. Have you wondered if self-hypnosis for memory recall might work for you?
If you’re going to understand how self-hypnosis can help with memory improvement, you first have to understand how memory works. Most people have good memory retention for some things and then poor memory for others.
Short-Term Memory Vs. Long-Term Memory
Our short-term memory is governed by what’s called Miller’s Law. There are thousands of bits of information in our world at any given moment. Miller’s Law states that we can be consciously aware of seven bits of information (plus or minus two) at any one given moment. If you just stop and think about that, it is staggering!
This is why, when police look at witness statements to a crime, some contain details that aren’t in others. This is why, if you are trying to memorize the license plate of a car and then someone interrupts you, you can lose track quickly. You are being overloaded.
How Do You Fix Bad Memory?
First of all, you have to understand exactly why your memory is bad. There can be a number of reasons for poor memory:
- Stress: When you are stressed, you produce more adrenaline and cortisol. These chemicals act to prioritize the body’s resources for whatever lies ahead. If your mind believes there is a dangerous or challenging task ahead, adrenaline and cortisol prepare you to either run away or fight. By prioritizing blood flow to the muscles, it reduces blood flow to the brain and other non-essential areas of the body. Therefore, memory becomes “non-essential”.
- Bad Sleep: If you suffer from insomnia or wake up often during the night, your memory can be affected. The good news is that, in most cases, when your sleep returns to normal, so should your memory.
- Depression: Feeling depressed reduces your ability to be present in the moment.
- Substance Abuse: Using tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and certain medications can cause memory problems.
- Thyroid Problems: Both overactive and underactive thyroid can be a cause of memory problems.
- Vitamins: There are some people who cannot get B vitamins from their food and need regular injections of it. Deficiency in vitamin B! and B12 particularly, can cause memory problems.
I would always suggest that you look at what’s causing the problem and start to change that. So, for instance, if your problem is caused by stress, learn how not to stress.
Can Hypnosis Improve Memory?
If we take the reasons I have given above, I have some excellent self hypnosis recordings that can help you solve some of those memory loss problems:
- Stress: Download and listen for thirty days to my recording entitled “Stress Management“
- Bad Sleep: You can download my “Natural Deep Sleep” recording, listen for 30 days and improve your sleep quality.
- Depression: Get my “Overcome Depression” recording and lift your mood by listening every day for at least thirty days.
- Substance Abuse: You’ll find recordings that relate to your particular addiction in my “Addictions” section.
Could I Create False Memories With Hypnosis?
The answer is very definitely, yes. This is why, when a good hypnotherapist works with a person to recover a memory or piece of information, we are very careful to use what’s called “clean language”. We would try not to mention any detail that might influence you to remember in a specific way.
For instance, if I were to say to you “Take yourself back to that traumatic experience….”, I am suggesting to your subconscious mind that the experience was indeed traumatic. Instead, I might say “Take yourself back to that experience…”
Now, of course, all of us hypnotherapists do our very best to stick to clean language, but even the best of us can have a little slip of the tongue at times and influence the clients recollection. It’s possible for the client to be adamant that the memory is the absolute truth.
However, it’s important to remember that we all add to stories when we remember them. Because it can be difficult to spot the parts where we have added to a story, you should never use just a memory, but should always look for corroborating evidence. This is why many justice systems throughout the world will not accept a memory by itself as the absolute truth.
Can You Use Hypnosis To Forget Someone?
No. Hypnosis cannot help you to forget someone. However, it can help you not to care so much. With painful memories, for instance, the right hypnotic suggestions or self-hypnosis techniques can help to reduce the pain or upset you feel.
In the case of childhood abuse, hypnotherapy treatment can help with the meaning you give to those childhood memories so that you can reduce the emotional difficulties you have today that are linked to those memories of abuse.
Can Hypnosis Recover Drunk Memories?
The people that generally ask this question are those that fear that something untoward may have happened while they were blacked out.
With girls who have blacked out, they may have a fear that they may have been taken advantage of in some way, so they have a fear of being sexually assaulted or raped. With guys that have asked me this question over the years, they are mainly concerned about whether they misbehaved in some way while blacked out.
Because there is so much at stake, I would always warn against the use of hypnosis in this case. Your unconscious mind is eager to help you out and may create false memories of traumatic events simply because that is your fear or expectation.
I always tell clients it is better not to know rather than to create a false version of events.
Can Traumatic Memories Be Remembered?
For traumatic memories to be dealt with so that they don’t affect you any longer, it is very helpful if you actually remember them.
When our mind stores a painful memory, if it judges that we can’t handle the negative emotions that would be created by being aware of the traumatic memory, it represses the memory. In other words, it locks away those memories in a place where we can’t find them. This is great from the point of view of protecting us.
The problems start occurring when we get a little older and that traumatic memory now causes us to have some negative effects such as post-traumatic stress disorder. The process of therapy is all about working through the memory that caused that PTSD, but if you don’t know what the memory was, you can’t process it and leave it go.
This is where the state of hypnosis can be very helpful. Used by a person who is well-trained and experienced, hypnosis can be a very effective tool to help uncover that memory, reframe it, and let it go so that it no longer affects the person.
In this case, the use of regression therapy (and being very careful to use clean language) can help uncover enough of the memory to help the patient let go of their problem or condition today.
How To Recover Repressed Memories
When there are really strong emotions involved, I would always recommend doing therapy with a qualified and experienced hypnotherapist. A self-hypnosis session can be extremely useful for the lower-level recovery of memories, but the more traumatic your past experiences are, the more important it is to get professional help.
Remember, if your mind has repressed the memory, it is because your mind doesn’t think you can handle the emotions that are associated with the memory. For this reason, self-hypnosis for memory recall wouldn’t be appropriate. It might work in recovering the memory but leave you without the support you might need.
Can Hypnosis Help You Find Something You Lost?
Absolutely. Hypnosis can definitely help you to find something you lost. However, hypnosis can only help you find something if you were the one who lost it. There is a very simple, chemical reason for this. When we are under stress, we pump out more adrenaline and cortisol into our bloodstream.
Essentially, these chemicals help us prioritize all our resources to either fight or run away (the fight or flight syndrome). Memory is not a priority if you are preparing for fight or flight.
When you go into a hypnotic state, one of the first things that happens is that the production of adrenaline and cortisol pauses. You enter a more relaxed state where you have better memory. All memories are stored with associations.
A memory is like a spider’s web of information from your representational systems. In other words, sights, sounds, feelings, smells, and tastes all make up a memory. When you are in a trance-like state, you can link these together better. Your memory performance is improved by this state of deep relaxation, so self hypnosis for memory recall is definitely a good idea!
Author: Paul Hunter
Although thousands of people read his blog every month, Paul's path to success was not an easy one. Click here to read his amazing story "From Unwanted Baby And Adopted To A Respected Self Help Blogger". If you want to send Paul a quick message, then visit his contact page here
