The subconscious mind – our “inner voice” – controls quite a bit about how we feel about ourselves.
Our unconscious thoughts can be ardent supporters, telling us to feel good about the way we look and our abilities. Or the subconscious can be a fierce critic, filling our minds with negative, unhealthy thoughts about ourselves.
The problem is: Overcoming these negative thoughts is a real challenge.
These thoughts are automatic and deeply embedded in our minds. You look in the mirror – and bam! – the subconscious tells you not to like what you see. It happens unconsciously, automatically.
In other words, low self-esteem is often the result of flaws in our subconscious. Our automatic thoughts aren’t rational. They aren’t based in fact – very often becoming embedded in childhood – and they’re overly critical and unhealthy.
But what if these thoughts could be quieted, or better yet, removed altogether? What if we could gain control over our inner voice and re-teach it to be more supportive, positive and helpful?
That’s the basis of confidence hypnosis.
Utilizing hypnotherapy, we can access these unconscious, automatic thoughts, and through the power of suggestion, we can begin to unseat and reframe them.
Simply put, hypnosis can be a very powerful tool for targeting the root cause of low self-esteem. It can help prevent those negative, overly critical thoughts from telling us how to feel about ourselves and empower us to rid ourselves of these negative thinking patterns.
Low Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence: Can Hypnotherapy Help You?
The terms self-esteem and self-confidence tend to be used interchangeably. But they represent two very different ideas.
Self-confidence, for example, can be thought of as that inner judgement we make about our abilities or our qualities. I’m good at public speaking but not singing, for instance. Therefore, I’m a self-confident public speaker.
Self-confidence can change based on situation. That person with plenty of self-confidence prior to a public speech might be a nervous wreck at karaoke night.
Self-esteem, on the other hand, tends to remain constant, and it’s a measure of our feelings of self-worth and self-love. If you have low self-esteem, whether you’re public speaking, or singing karaoke, you feel negatively about yourself.
What Causes Low Self-Confidence?
Both self-esteem and self-confidence are believed to be formed by past experiences. Throughout life, we receive a lot of negative and positive messages – which can have a significant impact how we feel about ourselves.
This feedback can come from our peers, our family, the media. And unfortunately, we’re more responsive and receptive to negative messages – they’re much more likely to get filed away in the subconscious.
Trauma too can have a significant impact on our self-esteem and self-confidence. Traumatic experiences can diminish our feelings of self-worth and our sense of trust.
Ultimately, self-esteem presents itself on a scale. Some have an abundance, while others might struggle in certain situations. But people with low self-esteem tend to feel a constant level of low self-worth. They’re likely to experience and feel:
- Hopelessness or depression
- Boredom or a lack of motivation
- Being overly sensitive to criticism
- Lacking assertiveness
- Hearing negative, overly critical self-talk
- Feeling like their life’s a failure
You Can Improve Your Self-Esteem
There’s hope. You can fix your mind’s negative thinking patterns.
In fact, low self-esteem is a lot like a glitch in your mind. You’ve taught yourself, through repetitive thinking over your lifetime, how to feel about yourself and your abilities in certain situations.
But self-esteem is flexible. At different periods in our lives, it can be high, or low. We can learn to improve it or make adjustments.
In other words, we aren’t doomed to lives of low self-esteem. It’s very possible to build and increase self-esteem. And it’s possible to overcome these automatic thoughts – reduce and eliminate them from our inner monologues.
And that’s the key to improving your self-confidence and self-esteem.
The Polluted Self-Conscious: How Negative Perceptions Form
We can develop negative perceptions about ourselves, sometimes very early in life: A negative social experience, a bully belittling our looks, failing a test.
These experiences tend to have a lasting impact on our self-perception – long into our adult lives.
Why? For starters, our subconscious wants to protect us. After negative experiences, the subconscious develops defense mechanisms – i.e. feeling like you’re bad at having conversations with new acquaintances – to prevent us from feeling the hurt, or shame, or failure that we might have experienced.
This defense manifests as those automatic thoughts.
After that negative social experience, for instance, your mind might have started to tell you: You don’t like social situations. You’re not good at them; you should avoid them altogether.
And the negativity becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We expect so convincingly to fail at talking to new acquaintances – that lo and behold – we will ourselves into having a bad time, letting our shyness take hold, and pushing ourselves to avoid meeting new people.
If left unchecked, this low self-esteem and confidence persuades us to have these negative experiences over and over again.
That’s why they’re so hard to remove.
Because we’ve allowed the subconscious to dictate how we should feel about ourselves and our abilities over a lifetime, we allow these thoughts to be continually reinforced.
Why Behavioral Therapy and Coaching Only Goes So Far
So how do we overcome those negative thoughts? How do we get past them, and prevent them from controlling our actions and feelings?
A common approach suggested by therapists is repetition.
Behavioral coaches say you need to do the thing you fear over and over again, whether if that’s public speaking, mingling at parties, or looking in the mirror and learning to love what you see.
In other words, we push ourselves to try and fail, and try again, until we consistently find success. But here’s the problem with that approach: Those negative thoughts still exist in our minds!
Sure, we can work to tamp them down, but they still affect how we approach facing our fears and how we feel about the results.
In other words, many find it challenging to work up the courage to overcome their fears in the first place. And even when they discover the nerve to practice over and over again, they’re still expecting failure or a negative outcome.
If you’ve ever earned praise from a friend, only to feel inside that “they’re just being nice” or “they don’t really mean that,” you know exactly how that feels. Sure, you quieted those thoughts enough to perform, but those negative beliefs are still informing and making up a part of our self-perception.
Simply put, proof and fact do very little to sway our unconscious thoughts.
We might experience success. Our conscious thoughts might tell us that we’re improving. But those irrational, unconscious thoughts are still there, telling us how to really feel.
Confidence Hypnosis: How Hypnotherapy Can Help Us Overcome Low Self-Esteem
Repeatedly facing our fears can certainly be a tool for improving self-esteem and self-confidence.
Yet, it’s a challenge. It’s difficult to stay on course, and do something over and over even though the mind is yelling at us that’d we’d rather not.
Here’s one way to look at it: Negative self-talk is like an addiction.
We might feel the pain our addiction is causing, we might see the effect it’s having on our relationships, we might literally see that it’s destroying our emotional health or our performance at work, or in social situations, or for whatever our mind is telling us that we can’t do.
But yet, we can’t stop. We can’t seem to shut those thoughts off.
It’s just like the urge the addict “hears” telling them to use again.
Hypnosis can be so successful for low self-esteem, because its goal is to repair the mind.
Hypnosis helps to re-teach the subconscious to be a supportive partner in our day-to-day lives. We’re taking out those irrational, negative thoughts, and repopulating the subconscious with more helpful information.
How exactly?
You can think of hypnosis as meditation with a goal. For centuries, meditation has been used to help people learn to tame the mind, to find inner peace, and quiet automatic thinking.
Yet, hypnosis takes this one step further – hypnosis adds a goal.
Here’s how: During a hypnotherapy session, you’ll guide your body and mind to a state of heightened relaxation and awareness. (Much like you’d expect from deep meditation.)
In this state, the way our brains behave changes. Our minds become completely relaxed, and we’re able to access our subconscious. In fact, we can bypass the critical mind and go straight to that inner voice and speak directly to it.
What’s more, when we’re in a state of hypnosis, our brains become highly receptive to suggestion.
Therefore, when we hear mantras in this state like, “you will feel confidence in everything you do,” they’re much more likely to stick. We’ve bypassed that critical conscious layer that’s always so quick to qualify and analyze suggestions.
Now, you might be thinking: Is that really all there is to it? And the short answer is: Yes.
Sure, hypnosis for low self-esteem can be highly complex; a hypnotherapist can use numerous techniques for empowering and repairing the subconscious mind.
But whatever the technique, the idea is the same: In a state of hypnosis, we’re able to add newer, more helpful and more supportive information to the subconscious. And at the same time, we can work to release the negative thinking patterns that are causing our self-esteem issues in the first place.
Getting Started with Confidence Hypnosis
You want to try it. You want to see if hypnosis can empower you to overcome your negative self-talk. So what options do you have?
In general, there are three ways you can pursue hypnosis: Self-hypnosis, visiting a hypnotherapist, or following guided hypnotherapy sessions.
Which option should you pursue?
Well, the short answer is that all have their benefits, but they’re all effective if you’ve made it up in your mind to make a change. Here’s a look at each method:
Self-Hypnosis for Confidence: Self-hypnosis is self-guided, and a key advantage is that it can be conducted anywhere you are, at home, at the office, etc. In self-hypnosis, you follow your own hypnosis script, to induce the state of hypnosis, and then to provide yourself with suggestions related to improving confidence. (You’ll find plenty of great confidence hypnosis recordings in our store!)
Guided Hypnotherapy: Want to follow a recorded hypnotherapy script for self-esteem? Downloadable recordings or hypnosis CDs can help you do that. This form is easy to follow, it’s typically professionally produced, and it can be conducted just about anywhere.
One-on-One Sessions: Visiting a certified hypnotherapist offers many benefits. A one-on-one session offers you the chance for a completely personalized experience, and you can ask questions about the process and what to expect. A hypnotherapist will also work with you to determine a plan of action for overcoming your esteem issues.
What happens during your session. A session will begin with thinking and talking about what you hope to achieve. Additionally, you’ll work with a hypnotherapist to learn root causes and triggers for your emotions. Then, following the hypnotherapist’s instructions (or those on a script or recording), you’ll be guided into a highly relaxed, hyper-aware state. Your hypnotherapist will begin to speak directly to your subconscious to challenge your negative beliefs.
What happens after the session. After a session with a hypnotherapist, many experience improvements almost immediately. Yet, typically, individuals continue to work, using recordings and self-hypnosis techniques to reinforce the suggestions, and following up for maintenance sessions.
Ultimately, the type of hypnosis you use to improve your confidence comes down to preference. What works best for your lifestyle? What’s aligned closest to your goals?
Yet, the key is persistence: Overcoming deep-seated negative self-talk requires commitment. In fact, research suggests at least 6 hypnotherapy sessions are required for long-term results, while additional studies have found that regular self-hypnosis offers significant benefits.
Does Hypnosis for Self-Esteem Work? A Review of Research
Is hypnosis for confidence effective? That’s the question that almost everyone wants to know.
The truth is: When you look at the research, the data suggest hypnotherapy can be a powerful tool for overcoming negative self-talk. From improved feelings of self-worth, to reduced levels of depression, many studies have returned promising results. Here’s a look:
A 2008 South African study looked at hypnosis for improving the self-perceptions of college students. Following two tests, the researchers concluded that hypnosis was effective at improving self-esteem.
In 2004, researchers examined the effects that self-hypnosis had on 261 U.S. military veterans who struggled with substance abuse. Ultimately, the veterans were asked to use self-hypnosis 3-5 times per week, as a means for relapse prevention. At a 7-week follow-up, the group that had consistently used self-hypnosis reported the higher levels of self-esteem and serenity.
A 2013 study examined the effect that hypnosis could have on patients post-surgery, in particular in pain management and for improving self-esteem. The results suggested that hypnosis could be a useful tool for improving self-esteem after surgery.
These are just a few examples. You can learn more in about blog about the science of hypnotherapy.
Start Your Hypnosis Journey Today and Breakthrough Negative Thinking
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I’ve found hypnosis for self-esteem and self-confidence to be very effective. I’ve spent years suffering while trying to do all the things other people told me would be good for me and helpful for me. Through hypnosis recordings, I’ve been working on reducing my anxiety, letting go of caring so much about what others think, and working on my self-love. And for the first time in my life, lately I have been finding myself effectively and consistently standing up to the bullies, and just focusing on what I know is good for me, regardless of anyone’s reactions.
I find this a very inspiring blog on the human potential with hypnosis!
I have used self-hypnosis for overcoming self-esteem issues. It has been so helpful in creating deep change and helping me learn to love myself! My favorite hypnoaffirmations are:
“Every day, in every way I love myself more and more.”
“I know my worth and truly dig myself.”
“I am worthy of a big, bold beautiful life.”
I have listened to the confidence session on the app over and over again. Plus I did the 21 day challenges and single sessions. This is the issue I started with online. I can tell that my self-love and confidence has increased since July 2018. I am doing better in all areas of my life and this blog post is really helpful in defining where self-confidence and self-esteem come from and what might impact them. Knowing this will help me continue my journey.
I’m going to do 7 days straight of self love hypnosis.
I learned something last night while reading #CloseYourEyesGetfree by Grace Smith.
The primordial brain needs the first work, then you can work on the emotional brain, then the logical brain. I realized that I have to start with training my brain that I am good, safe, and calm before I fix all the other things I want to work on.
My little lightworker, Kiegan, said (about my brain while trying to give me pain relief from a headache), “It’s loud in there, Mom”. I am going to take his assessment to heart and quiet the noise.
i agree for a long lasting result hypnotherapy works better because it goes to the root cause of the problem.
So very interesting. I think this can be a very effective tool in helping those who are struggling with this. It all begins in the mind and to tap into the subconscious to aid in creating new thoughts, new pathways, new behaviors is powerful
Wow! Huge take away.. Is that our automatic thoughts aren’t rational. They’re actually not based in fact – they’re often embedded in our childhood and can ultimately set the stage for the overly critical and unhealthy messages that we tell ourselves about ourselves. This provides great descriptions on ways to meditate with a goal (hypnotize) – focusing on the subconscious and reprogramming negative self-talk to a more positive view. As said here, it’s a wonderful thing that our self-esteem is flexible! We can alter its state.
This is the post for me. The area that I most need to address and the area that has defined most of my entire life. I am going to try not to think about how everything could have, would have been entirely different if the area of self esteem had been able to be addressed so many years ago!
I appreciated how the post differentiated between self confidence and self esteem. This is very important for people to understand so they are able to address their true root issue. There are so many confident people who have low self esteem!
I’ve been doing the hypnosis single recording for self-love once a week for a month, and the level of my negative mental chatter/noise has dropped by a ton — at least 50% or more. I’m getting better and better and catching my self-deprecating thinking and canceling them on the spot and replacing them with positive and helpful thoughts. This is a game-changer. I am truly loving myself exactly as I am.
Yay…Grace Smith Hypnosis Rocks!
Love this, “In a state of hypnosis, we’re able to add newer, more helpful and more supportive information to the subconscious. And at the same time, we can work to release the negative thinking patterns that are causing our self-esteem issues in the first place.”
We are able to completely release old patterning and just leave it in the past where it belongs as a teacher instead of an anchor!
So true that behavioral therapy only goes so far. Facing the same fears over and over until you find success, can definitely work, but its like ramming your body into the door over and over until it breaks down, when you could just use the doorknob! lol. I’ve used hypnosis for this often. I LOVE the confidence series in the inner circle. I’ve been through it maybe 4 times because it makes me feel so good!
I think this topic is so interesting – in the US, being in therapy is very trendy and accepted now. It is almost assumed that everyone has a therapist. We are not there yet with hypnotherapy but it feels good to be on that path working towards that!
This article is great! It shows us the difference between self-confidence and self-esteem. Hypnotherapy can definitely help people to go through issues like that. And it can be for a lasting time. I like that it gives you different options to overcome that issue. It can have a big impact on us if we truly want to change those negative thoughts. Hypnotherapy is a very important tool in our change.
Fascinating! It’s amazing how working with a coach and daily affirmations can only get someone so far. Hypnosis, though so simple and not a all invasive, can be so effective for actual and lasting results. I’ve noticed that using recordings for self-love and acceptance helps to change the running track in my mind. What was once full of negative comments has now been replaced by either silence or lightness or confident thoughts. It really works.
I personally find hypnosis highly effective for over coming years of a lack of self-confidence and self-esteem through Grace Smith. The beauty of these recordings is you can play them any time it is necessary to reinforce thought process. Every day in every way am more confident. Thank you Grace for making these recordings they are priceless.
I started hypnosis through Grace recordings 2 months ago. I feel 80% better than before. You should try hypnotherapy. It really works. I was very anxious and love helping others more than anything in the world. I forgot how important is to feel confident and present. Now I love helping others, but first I take care of myself. This is where self esteem starts. Don’t forget that you are your most valuable gem. As always, thanks Grace for your great gift to the world.
I love this blog, I’ve used hypnosis for so many self esteem issues and self-confidence issues and it’s had such an impact on my teaching, my perfuming on stage and just interacting with confidence in life.
“Our unconscious thoughts can be ardent supporters, telling us to feel good about the way we look and our abilities. Or the subconscious can be a fierce critic, filling our minds with negative, unhealthy thoughts about ourselves.” This is so true, I love this article! It does an excellent job of explaining the difference between self-esteem and self-confidence and how hypnotherapy can improve both. Through hypnosis, we can choose to have our subconscious mind support us and help us feel good about ourselves and our abilities. I’ve personally seen the improvement in my own life and this article clearly explains how and why it is so effective.
Love this article
REALLY love the Confidence hypnosis recordings on Grace Space!!!!!
So freaking good.
Tricia
Fascinating to learn about the difference between self-confidence and self-esteem, I thought they were one and the same. Self-hypnosis really does work, I’ve been doing it for a while for confidence in public speaking and have had many fringe benefits. One is that I’m no longer terrified of horseback riding. Quite a feat since I swore off horses 25 years ago and this summer, ended up trail riding for a week in the High Sierras. Can you say, rocky, skinny trails with 1,000′ drops and I felt perfectly confident? OMG!!!
Feeling confident and worthy were the best recordings I have ever had. Now I can tell how tall and empowered I feel. People is telling me that I look very confident. I am introvert. Maybe I was? This is the right path to keep doing what I am doing right now. Self-hypnosis is helping me too. I am very grateful for this big opportunity that came into my life when I needed this so badly. Loving this more and more.
Oooo I loved learning about the difference between self-confidence and self-esteem!
In my personal experience, these two have always been a huge issue. Since I was young I suffered from lack of self-esteem and confidence. So this post really spoke to me. I love it!
Thank you!
I believe that self-confidence and self-esteem can be crushed because of gender expectations. However, by rewiring our minds with hypnosis, which is supported by holistic wellness approaches (e.g. healthy diet, spending time in nature, etc.), you acquire the key to unlock negative habits, beliefs and emotions that have been closed behind the door.
I have had low-self-esteem since childhood and believe it’s one of the root causes of many other problems I struggle with. I have all different types of therapy, affirmations, education, research, religion, wellness retreats, online workshops… you name it! I would often get a degree of progress for a bit, but then never quite to where I wanted to be and after awhile it often seemed as though I had even backtracked! This line in the blog post says it all for me. “The subconscious mind – our “inner voice” – controls quite a bit about how we feel about ourselves.” You can’t think your way to the subconscious. Hypnosis is the first tool that has connected me directly to my subconscious where those messages started and where I can replace them. I find it’s also gentler and quicker than other therapies. The more hypnosis I do to focus on an issue, the more I feel a ripple effect happening that is healing other issues. It’s amazing!
This article is amazing!!! I’ve never thought of esteem and confidence in this way. I’ve always looked at it as being the same boat but now I see the difference!!!!! Printing this one and rereading , also doing the hypno session too 🙂
This is a phenomenal article. I can personally attest to the power of hypnosis for sel-confidence and esteem as it has been helping me in these areas in my own life.
Using hypnotherapy suggestions/affirmations is a great way to improve self-esteem. This is non-invasive and doesn’t take near as long as other modalities. How many self-development books have you read? Having a hypnotherapist to walk you through the process is a great advantage and will show improvements in a significantly shorter amount of time.
Super helpful article thank you!
I love that hypnosis can help people overcome low self-esteem and low self-worth. This is one of the main reasons I decided I wanted to become a hypnotherapist!
I can completely relate to the low confidence and even low self esteem in certain situations. Having curly hair growing up it was a source for other kids to bully me. I can actually remember getting off the buss for first grade and expecting to meet all these new friends but what I met instead was already kids formed in different group and all of which instantly began calling me names. It is cray to reflect back on that experience and realize that is most likely why when I meet new people I almost always self full fill that I am not good at meeting new people. I am sure my outward appearance in these situations has quite a bit to do with it but also realize that the appearance I allow out is probably manifested from these memories. I have always told myself “I am just not good at meeting new people.” How profound that I myself was reinforcing this very notion and making it true. This is something I am currently working on and will continue to.
This post was very informative. I am glad to have resources like this, especially where each post is focused on a specific application, so I don’t have to try to mentally flounder while trying to figure out different ways some statement might apply to something else, or might not.
Hi,
I would love to do hypnotherapy. I have been single prolonged time and have some past traumas from childhood. If I find competent therapeut I could start journey.
I have found that self love has been a huge theme with my clients so far. Good article.
I agree with Grace on the fact that it is really hard to change your subconscious negative thoughts. But there is hope after all as she says. Somehow someway those negative patterns lay deep inside our mind. I tend to worry too much about how to make everyone happy but the truth is I can’t. There is always will be someone who won’t be happy at the end. I should not allow those people to project their negativity on me and blame myself for their negative thoughts. I find self hypnosis very effective for concentrating on my own feelings instead; not letting my self-esteem be hurt by the outside influences. There is a way long to go but I’m working on it!
What an excellent explanation of how hypnosis works, thank you!