The Land

First of all, the land. How can we harness the places that we are intrinsically connected to? It truly is profound how it speaks to you, through memories, scents, sounds and vision. That land that you can remember as a child, a teen or any specific age that brings back a feeling of total safety, comfort and inner joy. The one that made your heart sing. For the first meditation we call in a particular space in nature, be it the ocean or the forest, a park or any natural space which you feel safe and calm.

Land Hypnosis One

Take a moment, centre yourself. Take a deep breath. Diving right in...

In this moment my clients usually have their eyes closed. I’d like you to read this passage then do the same.

In a moment, when you close your eyes I want you to take 3 deep breaths. Feel into you chest region space and notice how it feels there. Then expanding your awareness from the chest region space up to the crown or tip of the head, feel this breath travelling along the line from the tip of the head and washing down to the chest region. Any sensation of discomfort or stress is dissipating with every breath.

If you feel you can, I want you to breathe the feeling of that place into this region of your body, that place which brought about feelings of safety, love, joy. The ocean, the forest, a particular city. Call upon it now to cleanse you.

This lands vibration is pouring into you now, purifying every cell from the chest to the tip of the head. That feeling the land gave you is magnified into every cell replacing what was there before and upgrading you into the reflection of that place.

Take as much time as you need. Close your eyes and breathe coming out only when you feel ready. Maybe you wish to continue to cultivate this space for longer, relish the moment and this beautiful connection you have.

Notice how you’re more connected to your body. Even after such a brief moment. perhaps this is the first time in weeks you’ve given your body some recognition. Maybe it was a mere 5 or 15 seconds. Now recognise, are you clearer in the eyes, lighter in the body and calmer in the soul. If you instead feel tension, aggravation and heaviness ask yourself what do I need right now, maybe it is simple, maybe there is a lot there, realise this is a starting point. You are safe right now. Take a really deep breathe in and out. All is ok.

We are going to paint this chest region as a safe space by the end of this book. It begins with wherever you are truly at.

This is our starting point into hypnosis as a form of therapy. Research has found this also has the power to decrease inflammation and calm the gut.

That land that you called upon may be even more important than you think. Psychological scientists discovered that walking in the forest also had the power to change your gut-microbiome via the transfer through the air from the plants! So that calming feeling you get after a nature walk is actually your gut being 'fed' and nourished and decreasing the inflammation pathways causing your stress, addiction and depressive symptoms. So, if you can actually go to the ocean, or that natural space you envisioned and meditate there your benefits will be double fold.

Without getting too far into the research the gut includes tiny microbes which, when undernourished or in 'lack' cause the inflammation, stress, depression and addictive patterning you may be dealing with day to day. This is why it is so important to take probiotics after antibiotics which kill off the gut-microbiome. Research shows that a simple breath-work and calming visualisation practice can also proliferate and calm this entire system, this is hugely profound and accessible to all.

This is a blend of all the well-researched validated goodness mixed with ancient wisdom.

Nutrition will also come into the mix in later chapters as it obviously is profound in its ability to overcome many physical and mental barriers to a healthy life.

However, from what I have seen, to stay on track with nutrition programs we must firstly retrain, rewire and redesign the brain and shift the gut biome. This is particularly important for addiction, disordered eating, weight fluctuations, being overweight and/or hormonal imbalance, skin issues, gut issues.

If someone is stuck in negative programming they may have the best intentions but it is honestly too hard to truly make the change and stick to it.

Basically anyone living in a modern society in which foods are so far removed from the natural source that to not be addicted to the perfectly choreographed sugary, fatty treats and high cortisol nutrient derived living is abnormal and honestly requires a lot of resilience. However, through retraining pathways to want and crave different the resilience becomes far less burdensome and a new level of normal is established.

I can hand on my heart say, retraining and perspective shift of hypnotherapy with nutrition is so profoundly impactful and in my belief should be the only way we target weight, addiction and gut dysfunction in today's world.

Now let's listen to your body again and take it to another safe space.

Land hypnotic meditation two

That chest space is going to call on the land, the first happy place that you remember as a child. This time it is more specific, your cells have a memory recall of this place and you can harness it now to bring in the version of yourself you wish to retrieve. Just like your favourite person, you envibe the soul of this place that is frozen in your memory in time.

If you struggle to remember one I want you to take yourself back to the practice in hypnosis one, it may just be the ocean in general, the trees or any place that makes you feel safe in nature, If you can access a bright memory that occurred in a particular area call it in with clarity, perhaps the memory is attached to a particular beach that you always go to, a ski destination where you for some reason feel connected to your heart, a family holiday destination where you saw beautiful sunsets, the street you grew up on, or maybe even your favourite trail to walk or run on. This is one of those moments where you felt true safety and inner peace, supported by that particular land and moment in time. You can be by yourself or in company in this memory.

Now, retrieving that moment in time, with the land still as it were in the memory call it in.

As if it were a friend, connecting to it, remembering its personality, its space, the smells, the colours. Hold your chest and press with your index and forefinger into your sternum gently. Any tension rub in a circular motion as you visualise this land area.

I want you to remember the version of you and how you felt there. Picture yourself smiling, peaceful and radiant. You are your best version of you. You are so safe there. If you feel safe close your eyes now for a few moments, as long as it feels comfortable, and really connect. Open your eyes when you feel ready.

With your eyes back open stay in touch with your chest. As if your chest is absorbing this knowledge, the land connection, almost like a snow globe where that land continues to exist, that part of you has be recollected and placed into the chest space. The quantum energy of this beautiful space for you is now within.

This space can become an inner garden, a sanctuary of calm available at anytime. The more you do this practice for 1-5 minutes a day the easier it becomes to do and the clearer the visualisation becomes. You can begin to daydream on this land and the brain begins to actually accept it as truth. I am a firm believer in creating more positive memories to move into what we want to experience and attract rather than relieving the negative.

Why? The mind literally cannot tell the difference between day dreaming and the wakeful state, which is why manifestation truly does have the power to change your life. So, if you can practice this for 5 minutes a day your body and mind literally believe you have gone to this space for 5 minutes. Isn't that incredible!

The best time to do these practices is upon waking and before sleeping in order to make more profound changes as the mind is already naturally in this 'hypnotic' state and more impressionable (which means everything you experience is engrained far easier). This is also why you here many leading health psychologists talk about the importance of switching off from the news, emails, technology in general, stressful experiences before bed and upon waking.

So back to the hypnosis of the land.

We have called it into your chest for a reason. This is a point which contains the vagal nerve and largely governs both our gut (how we digest food and hence weight, addiction, inflammation, stress and many other physical symptoms) and our brain and all the psychological and perspective interpretations that come with it.

You don't have to know all the nitty gritty about how exactly this beautiful vagus nerve works! However, it is so profound that you realise the power you have inside to reset your system and hence your experience of life through these points.

Utilising a slow count of breath along with positive visualisation is activating this nerve. Then naturally, the breath and mind is restoring your whole inner nervous system, and physical system.

The most beautiful thing about breathing is it is purely automatic, it takes no thought and the tempo modifies to suit our needs and environment. If you do this visualisation, of that safe land space, and focus on slowing down the breathing to 6-8 counts research has shown that and in breath of 6-8 counts with and out breath of 6-8 counts for 5 minutes a day begins to activate this vagal nerve. You literally have the power to change your state into one of healing and repair reprogramming the former stress, anxiety and trauma that may be unconsciously wired in.

Many of us have it with out even experiencing major life 'trauma' it is purely a function of being human in the current modern society where many of us feel out of control and detached from our bodies.

The power of retrieving a positive 'land' space:

Whether the land you can recall is a moment in time OR a general 'forest', 'beach' etc. the best part is that you've experienced that safety and love before, which means you can access, and become aware of these places, people and rituals that attend to the same vibration as that place, which are existing in the present, in your everyday life.