Teaching kids to use self-hypnosis can be like getting them to eat veggies..unless

you make it seem like a game to them!

Kids are notorious for avoiding anything that seems like a chore. "Um, I'm playing a game, why would I want to clean my room" is probably thought by a large amount of kids, wouldn't you agree?

Recently I made this discovery myself while on a camping trip with my "nephew". We were camping out at Hanakapiai beach located in the city of Hanalei on Kauai, Hawaii. Laying outside of the tent on the cool sandy beach, listening to the crashing of the waves, and looking to the never ending gallery of stars above I decided to ask my nephew something.

"Whos your favorite super-hero" I ask, knowing that people love to talk about themselves, as if giving an interview. "The hulk, he can do anything. He's big, and he can beat up all the bad guys and jump over everything". After a few minutes of talking about super-heroes and all of our favorite super-heroes I started to ask him about dreams. Kids minds haven't yet been polluted with the rules of "grown up" land and their minds are a fertile playground - a land of information.

To prove this simple point, think about a little baby that has just opened some kind of present. They have just ripped through all of the colorful wrapping paper, and have opened the box. You can see their eyes light up with wanton curiosity, like they have just discovered the meaning of life, and they start to play - not with the gift, but with the box. At some point in a childs development they start to acquire the use of a "b.s. detector" that allows them to reason. While this is a great thing, its also good to have them engage with their imagination fully at times.

Dreams, for a child, are a gateway into their imagination, their own personal playground. If at any point they get bored with the current playground, everything can switch up in an instant to a new un-discovered playground. Knowing this to be true, I wanted to some seeds of thought inside my nephews mind about dreams and being able to choose what he dreams. Who wouldn't want to be able to choose what they dream about. "Wouldn't it be cool to be the hulk in your dreams?" asking in a an enthusiastic tone of voice to pique his interest. "Yeah, if I was the hulk I could beat up all of the bad guys, and jump over everything." There was no point where he questioned the possibility of being able to do this. He was hooked!

With the hard part done, alls I had to do was to teach him the Betty Erickson self-hypnosis method. I could have easily told him it was self-hypnosis, but this would have opened a can of worms "whats self-hypnosis..." and a ton of other questions. After a few days of dreams convincing that he its possible to control your dreams, a child will be much more willing to use self-hypnosis. When I asked him what we would like to be when he grew up I got a few interesting answers from him "a guide on Kalalau trail", "a musician", "I would also like to be President".

Think about that, we may very well have the first Hawaiian President in the not to far future (Obama is not Hawaiian so this doesn't count), or even a Hawaiian Superman. Any time in the future when he may be having a hard time in school or any other area in life I can simply ask him "what super-hero would be able to easily do this?" and plant yet another seed in his fertile mind.

Oh, and if you want kids to eat veggies, cover them with sugar ;)

Antonio

This is from http://www.hawaiihypnosis.org/selfhypnosis-for-kids/