Public Speaking Performance Anxiety Hypnosis

Welcome to the Hypnotist, the show that gives you inside access to cutting-edge hypnosis with real clients facing genuine issues. Brought to you by the hypnotherapist demanded by celebrities, CEOs, and even royalty, Adam Cox. These recordings took place live from Adam's clinic in London's world-famous Harley Street. This podcast features powerful hypnosis, so do not listen while driving or operating machinery. This recording is not suitable for those with epilepsy or severe mental health issues. So, get yourself comfortable and enjoy today's episode of The Hypnotist. Hi, it's Adam Cox here. And in this episode, you're going to be hearing a session I did over Zoom with a lady that was very confident, but wanted more confidence when it came to public speaking, either on stage or over video conferencing or things like Facebook Live and YouTube videos. So, in this particular episode that you're about to hear, I was working with a combination of regression, par, ego states therapy, and par's therapy, and also there is for any NLPers listening, a variation of the swish pattern. And what was evident in the diagnostic part before the actual session itself was the most of the time when she was communicating with people. And it was absolutely fine. But occasionally, if she had evaluated that it was a bigger audience or a more important audience, then there would be in a dialogue saying something along the lines of, "You really need to be, you know, you can't mess this up. You need to be good here." And it's normally the case that when you've got that kind of role to play, it's trying to protect in some way. And it was certainly the case that in her case, there was a point in her past where she had a traumatic experience while public speaking, where she froze and there was embarrassment around that. So, the session here is about effectively resolving or reducing the trauma related to the point of inception of that part, and giving it a more important role to play when it comes to protection, which was rather than feeling tense at the point of actually doing the performance, give this protective part the role of preparing. And she had another part that she said, "Love's, you know, is kind of always in flow, channeled words like this, the very best part of her." And that was the ideal part to be the performer. So, we used a combination of kind of shifting the roles, enabling more collaboration, but also having a unconscious trigger that if she perceives herself to be in front of an audience, and it's the wrong part, I say the wrong part, it's the protective part that's in the executive at that point, then that automatically can switch to a motivational strategy of her seeing the performance part in the executive and enjoying that role, having more of an impact feeling relaxed and those kinds of things. This particular session is going to be really useful if you feel that you normally are quite good at public speaking and talking, but that sometimes the wrong part of you is performing when you're stressed or anxious. So, great for public speakers, great for YouTubers, great for people worried about doing Facebook Lives and things like that. So, I think you'll enjoy it. To get the best out of this, it's worth listening to the audio on headphones, switch off any devices that could interrupt you. There's going to be about a minute and a half worth of relaxing audio before it actually starts, so just kind of focus on your breathing while that's taking place. And the whole thing is about half an hour or so, so not a very long session, but really good if you want to be a better performer, a better public speaker, or you want to get more comfortable doing things like videos on social media. So, enjoy. [Music] [Music] Take a nice deep breath in, and on the ab-breath, just close those eyes and feel a sense of relaxation. And as you breathe in, I want you to imagine that you're breathing in just a feeling of tranquility and relaxation, just to kind of start easing any feeling of tension in different parts of your body. Breathing in a feeling of relaxation, as you breathe out, just imagine that you're releasing a feeling of tension. And occasionally while I'm talking, your conscious mind will pick up on different sounds, perhaps sounds in the room or sounds elsewhere, and in a strange and contradictory way. These distractions will do exactly what I need them to do, because the more distracted your conscious mind is, the better able I am to influence your unconscious mind, because most of what you do is not conscious, but unconscious. You're able to breathe and blink and walk and talk, and you do all these things without conscious decision making. This is what we call auto-pilot, and the vast majority of what you do is auto-matically. And right now, as you breathe in, just going to sense them, each and every breath is enabling you to go deeper and deeper relaxed. I want you to use the power of your imagination to imagine that you are in a distant galaxy. On a different planet, and on that planet, there is breathable air. On that planet, there is the most incredible nature. Now it may be that the colours are different, but I want you to imagine that the air is cleaner than it would be on Earth. The surroundings are even more beautiful and you're in a place in nature, where you've got this fantastic scenery, but trees might not look quite like trees, and lakes or the oceans might be a different colour. And they might move differently, maybe there is different types of gravity, so you might feel either lighter or heavier. And all I want you to do is imagine that in this particular place, there is the most comfortable chair that has ever existed. And this might be a chair that you would find on Earth, but it happens to be on this particular planet. When you're breathing this fantastic fresh air, and you're feeling this different sense of gravitational pull, and you're looking out towards this incredible scenic nature, it is safe there. It is quiet there. There might be a gentle breeze that you can feel on your skin, and there might be an overall sound, and that sound might be animals, safe animals that are just making the kind of noises that you would expect in nature, but just know that you feel safe, you feel relaxed, and you feel that with each and every breath, you're able to feel even more deeper and deeper relaxed. And you feel so comfortable and so safe there that even on that chair, while you're looking out at that incredible scenery, you feel it's completely okay to just close your eyes. Allow all the muscle tension around your eyelids, around your eyebrows to completely relax, and you just get a sense of breathing in the most clean, fresh pure air. And it may be that on this particular planet, there was just more oxygen in the air. As you breathe in, you just know that you're replenishing your cells with even more of what they need most. And that might make you slightly dizzy or lightheaded, but it feels good to just breathe fresh air in this incredible environment. That's right. And I want you to, as you breathe in and breathe out, just to get an overall sense, and in different parts of your body will be different levels of tension, and I just want you to hone in onto the parts of your body, where there is likely to be more tension than other parts. And right now I want you to focus on the muscles in your neck and your shoulders. And as you do that, I want you to get an overall sense. An overall sense of you becoming deeper and deeper relaxed. That's right. Focus on the tension, breathe in and imagine that any tension is almost like, almost like knotted elastic bands and as you breathe in this feeling of relaxation just imagine that those elastic bands become untwined, unnoted, more and more relaxed. That's right. And while you're lying on that chair, feeling relaxed, feeling that muscles that are tense are just naturally organising themselves to become less and less tense, you're able to breathe deeper. I want you to imagine, imagine what it would be like to be able to travel back and forward in time. As you lie on that comfortable chair, breathing in that fresh air full of oxygen, you get an overall sense that what if you could travel back in time? Back in time to a specific memory, where a specific part was created. Now to create this part, what I want you to do is to imagine a time where you were performing. You were performing in front of people, real people perhaps on a stage or perhaps an audience of people, maybe through social media or video conferencing. And when you can imagine a recent time where you felt genuine anxiety that you weren't at your best, I want you to place yourself in your imagination. So as if that is happening in the present, your internal time machine is taking you to that specific time where there was genuine anxiety at the very point where you're communicating with an audience. And when you're at that place, just let me know about nodding your head. That's right. Now I want you to just point to which part in your body you feel an increased amount of tension that is related to the anxiety, whereas the anxiety located. That's right. And right now the goal is not to remove that anxiety, that tension, but to figure out at what point this association between performing and anxiety or consequence was created. And I want you to use the ability to travel backwards and forwards in time. And I just want to check, I'm communicating to the part that is responsible for the tension that you're experiencing at the point of performing. And if I'm communicating to that part right now, just let me know by nodding your head. That's right. And it's also true that when you're born, you don't have different parts of your subconscious mind. These parts are created sometimes in childhood, sometimes later on, which means that there was a time that you didn't exist as a part. And now you do exist because I'm communicating to you right now. Therefore, there must have been a point of inception, a point that you as a part with a very good function and intention were created. And if that's the case, let me know by nodding your head. That's right. And I want you to think back in your internal time machine to the very point at which you as a part was created. And when you can think of that memory, just let me know by nodding your head. And I want you to now travel back to that moment as if you're witnessing the version of you, the younger version of you that it happened to create whatever the emotional material was to then create this part. I want you to witness exactly what happened to the point that your convinced that that was the point of inception. And if you witness the point of inception, to which this protective part that fills the anxiety when performing what's created, just let me know by nodding your head. That's right. And if it feels emotional, just watching that, just let me know again by nodding your head. That's right. So what we're going to do is we're going to drain the emotional way because it did have a point of inception. And the meaning that you gave to that point is that perhaps performing is something where you be where you're evaluated by other people, that it requires pressure or consequence. And if that was an unpleasant experience back then, just let me know by nodding your head. Okay, and if your function is to avoid negative emotional consequences like embarrassment or humiliation or negative approval or evaluation from other people, just let me know by nodding your head. That's right. And I'd like to say thank you for the positive intention and function that you serve. And I think what you have done and aimed to do is very honorable. And I would like to give you an increased level of responsibility to help in a way that you haven't been able to help before. But first of all, we need to drain the emotion from this initial point of inception because you may have been created at this point, but that doesn't mean that we need to associate with something negative. So I want you to take this whole memory and realize that since it was a memory and happened a long time ago, we can just collapse this memory down and I want you to make it the size of the postcard, maybe just a few inches tall. So you're seeing that memory. And whereas before it was a movie, now it's a stationary image and that image is small. And I want you to drain all the color out. So if it was color before it's now black and white. So you've now turned that memory into a small, black and white postcard or photograph style memory. And at that point, just let me know by nodding your head. That's right. And if by doing that, suddenly the memory loses its emotion. So you're able to see it much more objectively. Again, let me know by nodding your head. That's right. Because you've learned all the lessons that you needed from that experience. It happened a long time ago and it was enough to be traumatic that one time. So it doesn't need to be traumatic every time you think about it. And if your unconscious mind is happy that it now understands that this happened a long time ago and that we can give new meaning to that particular memory that can enable you whenever you're thinking about performing or speaking in front of other people to have a more useful resourceful state. Let me know by nodding your head. That's right. Because at the point of actually performing, there is another part of you that is going to be more suitable for that particular role. But that other part can only work if you do your job to perfect, to protect again, to the negative evaluation and the possibility of humiliation. Now at this particular point, I'd like to suggest a new strategy and a new role to enable you to be able to protect in a much more eloquent and effective way than you've ever been able to protect before. And if you're receptive to that new increased level of responsibility to protect even better than you've ever done before, let me know by nodding your head. That's right. And I'd like to suggest that one of the key things required for any form of public performance, whether that's on a stage, whether that's on camera, whether that's on social media, whether it's five people or five thousand people or five hundred thousand people, what is essential is the adequate amount of preparation. And they say that the right amount of preparation can make the difference between a good talk being an outstanding talk, a reasonable performance being an outstanding performance. Now there is another part of you that loves to communicate, loves to be in flow, to be able to channel all your resources to be the very best version of you. And I would like to suggest that that would be a more suitable part to actually do the speaking because you don't like being in front of an audience. You've only ever wanted to protect from this feeling of negative evaluation or humiliation. And if you're receptive to helping the part of you be able to perform better than ever before and you've can still protect better than ever before. That's right. And now what I want you to do is I want you to accept the preparation forward planning. The ability to mentally rehearse different things that you could say could be a useful form of preparation. And the right amount of anxiety is a useful signpost, a useful action signal to help you prepare in the adequate way. And what you'll find is that the better prepared you are, the less anxious you feel. And actually, by preparing well, or doing something that you know is within your skillset, or the kind of content that you can talk about comfortably, in fact there is just no anxiety because it is not necessary to prepare any more than the level required to give the right level of performance. And if that's accepted, let me know by nodding your head. That's right. And now what I want you to do is I want you to imagine that because you're no longer the right person, or the right part to actually do the performance, we need to work out which is the right part to do the performance. So all I want you to do is I want you to think of a different point in time. And that might be a point in the future, or it might be a point in the recent past where there would be an opportunity to communicate with an audience. And I want you to let me know at the point where that would be something that could happen but you're actually doing. And when you can see that scene in front of you as if you're actually doing it, just let me know by nodding your head. That's right. And because you're not the right part to do that, we need to access the part that is more responsible. And all I want you to do, this scene in front of you, and maybe it's a camera, maybe it's an audience, maybe it's something else. Whatever it is, all I want you to do is to put a frame around the image in front of you and then shrink that image down to the size of a tiny coin, several meters in front of you, and then replace that with a really big image, a moving image, brightly colored, of you seeing the version of you that loves communicating, that loves performing, that loves this kind of stuff. And I want you to see them doing it in a well-prepared, channeled way. And it's the very best part of you doing that performance. And if you can see that image, having replaced the other image, let me know by nodding your head. And perhaps that audience is known, you can see them, you can see their eyes, or perhaps that audience isn't known, and you just know that they are reviewers, somewhere out there watching your performance, maybe through a camera, or social media, or some video conferencing. And at that point, I want you to create a frame around that particular image. And all I want you to do is to shrink it down, whish, all the way down to the size of a tiny coin, a few meters, way back, and then instantly replace it with a big image. But this time, you're seeing the part of you that loves to perform, it just feels like you can effortlessly communicate. And this is in color, and it's a movie, and it's bright, and it feels so compelling, but you're seeing yourself doing exactly what you would want to do in the way that you would want to do it. And if you can see that, just let me know by nodding your head. That's right. We're going to do that a couple more times. So each time I want the beginning scene to be different. So it might be that you want to stage, and then you might be in front of a camera, and then you might be in front of a laptop with a webcam. And each time the performance trigger changes. We put a frame around it, we shrink it, and then you see the version of you, the part of you, the very best part of you that loves to perform, loves to communicate is the person that's then doing it, and it's almost like you're watching it like you're witnessing, like you're estranged during the room watching what's happening. So let's start with that first image. So you're there, you're seeing whatever you're seeing in front of you, you know that you're performing right now, and then put a border around that frame around it, shrink it down, and then make a really big image, replacing that image, but this time is the very best part of you, the channeled part of you, the person that loves to perform that is just knows the right thing to say and how to say it, that you feel relaxed, there's no tension, and in fact you can see that there is no muscle tension around the forehead, there is no muscle tension around the neck of the shoulders. You can see that there is effortless relaxation, and that the person that you're watching is really enjoying doing what they're doing, and if that seems to be the case, let me know by nodding your head. That's right, and then jump back again, so it's you're in your own body, you're about to perform, but it's a different type of performance, and when you know that you're performing, put a border around it, shrink it down, replace it, big image, and you're seeing yourself, but it's the very best part of you, the channeled part, the one that can align all the resources that knows exactly what to say and how to say it, and you're enjoying that performance, and then you're watching that, and I want you to get a sense of pride watching that part of you do the performance to the very best of your ability, and when you see that, let me know by nodding your head. Okay, and then one final time, and again, a different type of performance, and it might be that it's a different venue, or it might be a different size of audience, in fact, make it the very biggest audience that it could possibly be, and there you are performing, you can see them through your own eyes, and that might be the amount of thousands of people, perhaps on a page, or it might be lots of people sitting in the audience, and I want you to see that, put the border around it, shrink it down, and then replace it, with a big image, and you're seeing yourself in a movie, doing the performance of a lifetime, and you know that you're enjoying it, you can tell because you look relaxed, you're smiling, you're connecting, you're building rapport with the audience, and also notice that the audience are appreciating how you're talking in the content that you're delivering, and if that's the case, let me know by nodding your head. That's right, and now what I want you to do is I want you to step into that version of you, the version of you that loves performing, and you feel that there is no tension, you know you're performing to a big audience, but there is no tension whatsoever, around your eyes, around your forehead, you're able to breathe without any tension around the neck, the rib cage, in fact, you're breathing deeper down in your diaphragm, you feel so comfortable there, it's unnaturally relaxed, and you can be that relaxed because the other part of you ensured that you did the adequate amount of preparation to enable you to feel so relaxed. Any anxiety is long gone in your past, but that anxiety prompted you to do the research, the preparation, to ask any questions that you needed, to mentally rehearse it if required, because at this point when you're actually performing, you can do it and just enjoy the process. And if it feels like you're really enjoying communicating to this audience right now, let me know by nodding your head. That's right, this is the very best part of you, this is the channel part of you, this is the part that really enjoys this, and I want you to accept that it's only possible because that other part has helped you prepare. I want you to point in your body how or the location where you feel this element of resourcefulness, that you just know it's you inside that loves performing and you enjoy this moment, you want to have more of these moments, you don't want someone to take a microphone away, you want to be doing this for as long as you possibly can. I want you to point to where you feel that feeling of resourcefulness and relaxation and comfort in this type of context and just point to that now. That's right, I don't want you to leave your hand there. Okay, that's right. And then I want you to use your other hand to point to the part where the anxiety was located, the part that was trying to protect you from any kind of embarrassment or negative valuation, and that that was there, that's right. And all I want you to do to the point where you're happy to work as a team. So the part that was before reluctant to speak but was doing it anyway is now in charge of preparation. Asking all the right questions, preparing in the right way, any anxiety is going to be funneled into preparing. But the part the- prepares is not going to be the performer. The performer is going to be the part represented by your other hand. The part in the resourceful part. And at the point where your unconscious mind is happy that these are the defined roles and you're going to work in this way to get the very best. So the anxious part can channel that anxiety to better prepare. And the part that loves to perform etch actually gets to be in front of the audience, be in flow, channel all those resources, deliver that valuable content and make an impact on the audience. That part is now going to work in collaboration with the protective part to help you prepare to the best of your ability. And at the point where your unconscious mind is happy to work as a team in collaboration, slowly move one hand with the other hand. And at the point where they touch signifies this new working agreement. That's right. And now want you to feel with both hands touching. What now the future looks like. I want you to think about what could be your very next performance. And I want you to see the part that has been trying to protect you is going to fuel the desire to prepare not from a point of anxiety, but a part of protection in the same way that you wouldn't go out in the rain without the right jacket. And you wouldn't cross the road without looking these protective parts are always there. But this protective part is now going to help you prepare for any form of communication public speaking by doing what's necessary. No more than what's necessary but certainly no less you will do enough to make sure that you're ready for that performance. And I want you to see that your future looks like you're preparing in the right way. And in fact, you enjoy the preparation. You have a sense of creativity, but you also know that you are avoiding feeling uncomfortable. And then I want you to see what the performance looks like when the part that is channeled the very best part of you the part that loves to make a difference and have an impact on other people's lives where that's the part that's actually performing. Notice that you enjoy it more and the audience enjoys it more as well. Now want you to see what the next few days looks like. What the next few weeks looks like. I want you to see perhaps a year from now or two years from now. That the more you enjoy it the more you're invited to speak and the more you're invited to speak the better you get until the audience gets bigger and bigger and bigger. And the impact that you're having on the lives of other people become even more profound. That after any performance people are hanging around to ask you questions. They want to connect with a very person they saw on that stage or on that video conference. Days turn into weeks, turn into months, turn into years. And I want you to refine whatever's needed to refine based on that future idea of what that looks like. If the protective part needs to do a bit more preparation in some way than allow them to do it. And if the performance part needs to enjoy even more than I want you to see that part even more relaxed, even more flow. Because too much preparation deprives the performer of that spontaneity and vulnerability that connection. But equally not enough preparation means that potentially that performer hasn't got enough to talk about or how to deliver the content in the best way. But because these parts are not working in harmony I want you to see that that's enabling you to be a better speaker, to feel more comfortable, but most importantly to have more of an impact on the audience that you're communicating to. And if you can see that future in a way that makes that an appealing future that you're looking forward to more of these performance that you're happy that the protective part is helping you prepare and the channeled part is helping you perform. Just let me know by nodding your head. That's right. Now what you've imagined that in this internal time machine you're going back into that body of yours which is on a relaxing chair in a distant planet in a distant galaxy on this incredible nature with different perhaps nature around you. And I want you to get a sense that again you're breathing air breathing air with more oxygen and you get an overall sense that you've attributed different meanings that you've trained the emotion of any traumatic or undesirable speaking or performing events of your past. You've taken all the lessons and the lessons really. Other than that the more prepared you are the more relaxed you can feel in the moment, the more relaxed you can feel in the moment, the more you can connect with your audience and make a difference to the quality of their life. In a few moments time I'm going to count from one to ten to awaken you. You will awaken with a sense of feeling excited and optimistic about any and all future speaking events. You hope to have more invitations. In fact you will reach out and request more opportunities to speak. You will do things not through necessity but through desire because the more you do them the more comfortable you can feel until there will be points in the future where you're able to do something with no preparation required simply because you feel so comfortable in that environment. You will awaken with a sense of clarity, a sense of balance and harmony but most importantly you will awaken with a sense, a sense of collaboration and optimism for any and all speaking events in the future. Starting to count, to awaken you. One, two, three, waking up, four, five, six, more alerts, seven, eight, open your eyes, open your eyes, nine, ten, wide awake, wide awake, wide awake. Thank you for listening to The Hypnotist with Adam Cox. The show that gives you inside access to cutting-edge hypnosis with real clients facing genuine issues. To automatically receive the latest episodes please subscribe. 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