Reason Number 1 Why Self Hypnosis May Not Work (And What to do About It)

SUGGESTIONS ARE POORLY WORDED

Complicated suggestions tend to be ignored, because they are more work to understand. Consider, for example, a sentence with two negations in it like, “I don't want you to not catch the ball.” We understand it, but it takes a moment to untangle “don't want” and “not catch” to get the meaning. And, we have focused the listener’s mind on “not catching” rather than what we want, which is for them to successfully catch the ball.

Also, a complicated suggestion like, “imagine yourself catching the ball almost every time, and feeling strong enough to score repeatedly every game” takes a bit of work to untangle linguistically. Give the unconscious mind simple suggestions to be effective. “You catch the ball”, “You score more and more frequently” are simple, easily understood, and much more effective.

Avoid ambiguous suggestions. Consider the name Atlanta Center for Back Pain. Ouch! I have enough pain already. I think I'll go to the Atlanta Center for Back Health.

Hint: Make suggestions short
Hint: Suggest exactly what you want (forget about the negations)
Hint: Make sure that your suggestions have only one meaning