During your journey of living a peaceful lifestyle, you may have discovered different means of achieving peace and relaxation in your life. Guided meditation and hypnosis are some of the tools to achieve the mental freedom that you are after. But what is the difference between guided meditation and hypnosis?
Both guided meditation and hypnosis require relaxation and creative visualization, but these tools have some differences. Hypnosis attempts to find the root of an issue by having an ongoing exchange with your instructor whereas guided meditation requires minimal interaction with your instructor and requires structured scripts with generic instructions to guide you through your meditation.
Guided meditation and hypnosis are similar in nature, but these tools have different processes to achieve your desired outcomes.
What is guided meditation?
Guided meditation is a process in which you achieve a calm mind and peaceful state by being guided by a trained practitioner. You can be guided by the practitioner in person, through a reading, or sound and video recordings. Your practitioner might incorporate a combination of verbal instructions and music.
For what is guided meditation used?
Guided meditation is used for treating a range of mental and physical conditions, such as:
- Reducing stress
- Reducing asthma attacks
- Subsiding pain
- Enhancing coping skills
- Reducing insomnia
- Managing emotions
- Reducing anxiety
- Relieving addiction
How does guided meditation work?
Guided meditation can be done individually or in a group being guided by a guided meditation expert. You can have your guided meditation in person or over the phone, messages, video, audio, or reading.
Your guided mediation could be between five minutes and one hour depending on the purpose of your guided meditation. Your guided meditation will typically begin with you sitting or lying down and your expert should instruct you to relax the muscles in your body.
Once you are relaxed you will be guided through specific visualizations. As your visualizations intensify and your mind becomes clearer you will become open to suggestions. Your instructor, through a calm voice, will guide you through your thoughts and aspects of your life to achieve your desired outcome.
What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis, also referred to as hypnotherapy or guided hypnosis, is a form of psychotherapy where you are guided through your meditation by an expert. Hypnotherapy puts you into a trance state where the expert helps you remedy your behavioral or thinking patterns. Hypnotherapy also helps you achieve relaxation and mental clarity.
Hypnotherapy is the safest form of hypnosis because you remain in control of your mind and actions throughout the hypnosis. You will remember everything that you have said or done during the hypnosis, unlike stage hypnosis or non-medical hypnosis.
For what is hypnosis used?
Like guided mediation, hypnosis is used to treat a wide range of mental and physical health, including:
- Addiction
- Phobias
- Sleep disorders
- Weight management
- Mood disorders
- Pain management
- Substance abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
How does hypnosis work?
Hypnosis in the form of hypnotherapy begins by discussing your issues and goals with your hypnotherapist. You will work together with your hypnotherapist to resolve your issues and achieve your goals.
You and your hypnotherapist will produce a treatment plan together for the ideas to be planted into your subconscious mind. Thereafter you will begin a series of sessions where you will be guided through your relaxation and concentration to achieve your hypnotic state.
During your hypnotic state, you will temporarily block out the distractions around you making you highly suggestible. This will give your hypnotherapist the opportunity to calmly plant the thoughts and suggestions into your subconscious mind.
Differences between guided meditation and hypnosis
You may now understand how guided meditation and hypnosis are similar in nature but vary in technicality.
Hypnosis in the form of hypnotherapy tries to uncover the cause of certain conditions whereas guided meditation does not have any analytical functions.
Hypnosis uses the power of suggestion to make a subconscious change in your mind while you are in a hypnotic state whereas guided meditation uses the power of your own imagination to bring about change in your subconscious mind with the guidance of your instructor.
Hypnotherapy is more so focused on curing certain conditions and behaviors than achieving relaxation whereas guided meditation is primarily concerned with achieving general goals you have set for yourself whilst achieving a clear mind and relaxed state.
Guided meditation is one-directional whereby only the instructor speaks and there is minimal interaction between you and the instructor whereas hypnosis in the form of hypnotherapy is focused on one person at a time and is personalized to your goals requiring some interaction between you and your hypnotherapist.
Guided meditation makes use of scripted text containing generic meditation instructions to serve a large group or audience whereas hypnosis in the form of hypnotherapy alters the sessions according to your changing desired outcomes.
Hypnotherapy places a strong emphasis on placing you in a hypnotic state to insert your desired mental pictures and positive suggestions into your subconscious mind whereas guided meditation requires you to plant visualizations and thoughts into your subconscious mind yourself with the guidance of your instructor.
Similarities of guided meditation and hypnosis
Although guided meditation and hypnosis are technically different, they do have some similarities in nature and what they hope to achieve. Both guided meditation and hypnosis are positive experiences that will help you live a peaceful and happier life.
While guided meditation and hypnosis in the form of hypnotherapy have their similarities and differences, they can work together to achieve the most effective results. Guided meditation could result in a hypnotic state and similarly hypnotic states could seem like meditative states.
Some would argue that guided meditation is yet another means of getting to a hypnotic state, with complete concentration on the same thought. Guided meditation and hypnosis could be defined as two different tools of belief systems that achieve the same state of mind and outcome.
Both guided meditation and hypnosis in the form of hypnotherapy can give you relaxation and mental freedom using specific suggestions and trigger words to get you into a trans-like state. They are both helpful tools to make you feel calm and relieve stress.
Guided meditation and hypnotherapy both help you achieve a healthy mind and body each with different means of guidance. It is important to decide which guided meditation and hypnosis would work best for your needs before you embark on your journey.
