Mind Wandering: Good or Bad?

[blakejsmith]

I've never been that great with hypnosis, and to this day am not sure what the ideal state is. Basically what happens now is I get extremely relaxed, don't want to move, and eventually my mind begins to wander. I believe this is a state of hypnosis, but am not positive. I guess my question (or two) is am I supposed to try and stay focused on the hypnotist or let my mind go where it will. Currently when I find my mind wandering, I try and pull it back to what is being said, but by doing that I also get a little less relaxed. My other question is this, is what I described above a state of hypnosis, or am I missing something. (there are times when my mind wanders that I'll miss minutes of what is being said).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Blake

[hypnointerest]

I believe that you can enter trance while relaxing and thinking of nothing at all, or you are concentrating very hard on one particular thing. The relaxed state you felt is definitely a good sign. Just keep practicing.

[whatthe75]

Your mind wondering is a good sign.As long as you wake when the file suggests at the end your doing just right.

[MN_FriendlyGuy]

Blake, you're an excellent subject and yet you're unaware of it! I hope your posting will help others too.

Instinctively, you've discovered how unimportant evaluation is.

You've noticed that when you pull back (shifting your focus) to resume listening, you lose some of your relaxation. The reason you lose the relaxation is because active listening causes you to evaluate. And evaluation is a function of the conscious mind.

When you find your mind wandering - smile. Be happy about it. For most folks, it's a sign that their mind is doing what they want it to do - integrating concepts, ideas, emotions, memories and goals.

The direct answers to your questions are: Let your mind go where it wills; and yes, the 'wandering mind' you described in your posting is a sign of trance.

I've never been that great with hypnosis, and to this day am not sure what the ideal state is. Basically what happens now is I get extremely relaxed, don't want to move, and eventually my mind begins to wander. I believe this is a state of hypnosis, but am not positive. I guess my question (or two) is am I supposed to try and stay focused on the hypnotist or let my mind go where it will. Currently when I find my mind wandering, I try and pull it back to what is being said, but by doing that I also get a little less relaxed. My other question is this, is what I described above a state of hypnosis, or am I missing something. (there are times when my mind wanders that I'll miss minutes of what is being said).

Thanks in advance for your help.

Blake

[blakejsmith]

Thanks everyone for their response all very helpful, on the note of waking at the end of the file, what i'm doing is I'm taking and induction, then one body and looping that body, I don't actually have a wakener, after about 3-10 loops of the body, my mind tends to want to wake from the trance itself, so I let it. Should i be doing something different?

As always, thanks for the help in advance.

Blake

[cardigan]

When you loop the file forever, your mind will pull you out at some point. Just let it. One hour of trance is about as much as anybody can take, I guess. Then your mind really needs to relax - get away from trance! - and you wake up.

Cardigan

[slutinmyhead]

The wandering mind is an important phenomenon that trance helps you to notice. This is your internal voice. Most people aren't even aware they have one, but you notice when you go under hypnosis. With practice going under, you'll also learn how to let it shut down. The important thing here is that you become more apt to recognize it while awake. Unlike most people, you actually will know what you're thinking. You may develop better intuition as details usually only noticed by your subconscious are communicated with your conscious mind. Gotta love that internal monologue. Just one more way warp my mind is making you superhuman.

[jennieprice]

Glad i'm not alone with the wandering mind. Was wondering myself whether is was a good thing or not,

[slutinmyhead]

My mind wandered a lot when I first got into hypnosis. Now it doesn't at all. It's not a matter of trying to silence it so much as I'm just better at focusing. I think the mind wandering happens a bit more with the more boring inductions. I try to do my inductions so that happens less.

[janglywhack]

My mind wandered a lot when I first got into hypnosis. Now it doesn't at all. It's not a matter of trying to silence it so much as I'm just better at focusing.

Any tips on that? My mind tends to wander quite a bit in trance, though I also don't get much effect from the files, even though by most standards I'm going deep(post-hypnotic amnesia, total body relaxation, and so forth).

[slutinmyhead]

Try to find files with longer or more interesting inductions. Maybe listen to a file more than once or start one while doing something else, then replay it when you're really ready to go under. It's a lot about letting the voice of the hypnotist assume your inner monologue. I'm thinking mantras might help. Another possibility is to try listening to two files simultaneously. The effort at following two trances might be enough to draw you out of your head. All I can say is it does go away eventually. I can't really pinpoint when that happened for me, but my mind used to wander and now it doesn't.

Good luck.