WEBVTT - A Stanford Uni psychiatrist on hacking your brain for better focus

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<v Speaker 1>Well, Hello, they're Healthyish listeners. Thanks for joining us today

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<v Speaker 1>on this Body and Soul podcast. I'm your host, Felicity Halle. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>hypnosis has had a pretty bad rap over the years,

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<v Speaker 1>but my guest today wants to change the public perception

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<v Speaker 1>and he's got the credentials to back it up. Doctor

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<v Speaker 1>David Spiegel is the Associate Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral

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<v Speaker 1>Sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, the director of

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<v Speaker 1>Stanford Center of Stress and Health, and has published over

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<v Speaker 1>four hundred and eighty journal articles, written thirteen books. He

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<v Speaker 1>joins us today from the US to discuss the power

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<v Speaker 1>of self hypnosis. Now make sure listening to Extra Healthy

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<v Speaker 1>Ish where we go a bit deeper into the whole

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<v Speaker 1>topic of hypnosis and self hypnosis. I assure you that

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<v Speaker 1>is a very interesting episode. You should listen to it.

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<v Speaker 1>You can catch it wherever you get your podcasts. David,

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<v Speaker 1>thank you for joining us today all the way from

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<v Speaker 1>the US of A.

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<v Speaker 2>How are you.

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<v Speaker 3>I'm fine, Thank you, Felicity. Glad to be here with you.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, me too.

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<v Speaker 1>I'm excited to chat to you, particularly about self hypnosis.

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<v Speaker 1>I feel like we, you know, we've all got a

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<v Speaker 1>view of hypnosis, which will talk a bit more about

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<v Speaker 1>in Extra Healthy Ish. But what is self hypnosis?

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<v Speaker 2>Exactly?

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<v Speaker 3>Well, feliciting all hypnosis is really self hypnosis. It's people

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<v Speaker 3>learning to use this shift in consciousness that we're not

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<v Speaker 3>aware that many of us have. You know, we're endowed

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<v Speaker 3>with this remarkable three pound organ on the top of

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<v Speaker 3>our shoulders that is connected every part of the body,

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<v Speaker 3>controls things going on in every part of the body,

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<v Speaker 3>and census things from every part of the body. But

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<v Speaker 3>we don't usually use it to its fullest ability. We

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<v Speaker 3>don't get a user's manual on it. And hypnosis is

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<v Speaker 3>a naturally occurring shift in concentration. Have you ever had

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<v Speaker 3>the experience of getting so caught up in a good

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<v Speaker 3>movie that you forget you're watching a movie and you

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<v Speaker 3>enter the imagined world.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh all the time happened to you all of the time.

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<v Speaker 3>Yeah, and that it enhances your enjoyment of the movie.

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<v Speaker 3>Hypnosis has been called believed in imagination, and what it

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<v Speaker 3>really is is a state of highly focused attention the

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<v Speaker 3>way you feel in a movie, coupled with dissociation. You

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<v Speaker 3>put out of conscious awareness things that would ordinarily be

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<v Speaker 3>in consciousness. Right now. For example, you're sitting in a chair.

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<v Speaker 3>Your body has sensations touching the chair, but hopefully you

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<v Speaker 3>weren't even aware of that until I brought it to

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<v Speaker 3>your attention. If you were, we could just stop the

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<v Speaker 3>interview right now. So in order to focus, we have

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<v Speaker 3>to regulate the amount of input, and we have enormous

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<v Speaker 3>input all the time from our body, from the world

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<v Speaker 3>around us, thoughts about the past, thoughts about the future,

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<v Speaker 3>and to function we have to narrow the attention and

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<v Speaker 3>in hypnosis you do that in a more extreme way.

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<v Speaker 3>And one of the other things you do in hypnosis

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<v Speaker 3>is you disconnect from your usual way of being. One

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<v Speaker 3>of the coolest things about it, one of the things

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<v Speaker 3>that helped people change is that you can try out

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<v Speaker 3>being different and seeing what it feels like. And normally

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<v Speaker 3>people think of that in a bad way. They think

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<v Speaker 3>of some hypnosis show they saw where the football coach

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<v Speaker 3>was made to dance like a ballerina. I don't like

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<v Speaker 3>using hypnosis or anything else to make people feel silly,

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<v Speaker 3>but there is an important message in it. If you

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<v Speaker 3>want to see what it would be like to be different,

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<v Speaker 3>dry being hypnotized and see what happens.

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<v Speaker 2>How is it different?

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<v Speaker 1>You know, your description there is a lot like flow state,

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<v Speaker 1>even visualization.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, and.

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<v Speaker 1>How is it different or is it just semantics? Different

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<v Speaker 1>ways of approaching it.

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<v Speaker 3>Well, for listening, if you kind of combine the two,

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<v Speaker 3>you get close, so you can visualize being somewhere having

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<v Speaker 3>an experience or doing something different. But if you do

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<v Speaker 3>it in a state of flow where doing it is

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<v Speaker 3>its own reward, where you're totally engaged in the experience,

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<v Speaker 3>I knew checks Chick sent me Hi, who wrote the

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<v Speaker 3>book Flow, He called it an auto tel experience, one

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<v Speaker 3>where you naturally you keep doing it just to do

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<v Speaker 3>it because it feels so good to do it. And

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<v Speaker 3>that's one of the cool things about hypnosis is you

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<v Speaker 3>get fully engaged in what you're doing, and you most

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<v Speaker 3>of the time enjoy what you're doing, and so you

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<v Speaker 3>do it more intensely. The intensity helps us in our lives. Now,

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<v Speaker 3>we're so scattered in different directions, fragmented that it's hard

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<v Speaker 3>to enjoy anything because you're always constantly being nagged at

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<v Speaker 3>on the side to pay attention to something else. And

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<v Speaker 3>hypnosis you just allow yourself to be immersed in the

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<v Speaker 3>focus of what you're doing.

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<v Speaker 1>I mean, we generally know hypnosis for things like you know,

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<v Speaker 1>ceasing smoking or losing weight. How can it help, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>talk to us a bit more about how it can

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<v Speaker 1>help us with other areas of our health, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>particularly focus as you just mentioned there.

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<v Speaker 3>Well, yes, part of what it does is it teaches

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<v Speaker 3>you to coordinate what's going on in your body with

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<v Speaker 3>what's going on in your mind so that you can

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<v Speaker 3>make the most out of whatever experience you're having. So

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<v Speaker 3>you allow yourself to focus on what matters and put

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<v Speaker 3>aside the things that don't. So, for example, the coach

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<v Speaker 3>of the Stanford women's swimming team, we have a fantastic team.

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<v Speaker 3>Many of the swimmers wind up in the Olympics, but

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<v Speaker 3>the coach noted that they were doing better in practice

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<v Speaker 3>than they were in meats. Their times were quicker, and

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<v Speaker 3>he realized that they were distracting themselves by worrying about

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<v Speaker 3>what the women in the neighboring lanes were doing when

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<v Speaker 3>they were swimming in a meat. Now you'd think being

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<v Speaker 3>in a meat you're at your most, you're at your peak.

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<v Speaker 2>You know, adrenaline's pumping, but it.

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<v Speaker 3>Was actually disrupting their knowledge of their bodies and how

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<v Speaker 3>to best use them to move through the water as

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<v Speaker 3>smoothly and quickly as possible. So I had them practice

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<v Speaker 3>self hypnosis and imagine themselves swimming their best possible race,

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<v Speaker 3>and their times got better because they were ignoring the distraction.

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<v Speaker 3>You don't worry about the goal, you fully engage yourself

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<v Speaker 3>in the process.

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<v Speaker 1>So did you hypnotize them or did they use self

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<v Speaker 1>hypnosis as the tool?

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<v Speaker 3>I taught them self hypnosis. So we all met as

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<v Speaker 3>a group and they learned to practice it for themselves.

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<v Speaker 3>All hypnosis, as I said, is really self hypnosis. It's

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<v Speaker 3>using a skill that you have but may not be

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<v Speaker 3>aware that you have. It's kind of a hidden power

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<v Speaker 3>that people have that they don't often utilize fully.

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<v Speaker 2>Oh we like that. We need any superpower that we've got.

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<v Speaker 3>How do you?

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<v Speaker 2>Oh yeah, do you? How do we actually do it?

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<v Speaker 1>I mean you've developed this app called Reverie. How do

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<v Speaker 1>we actually put ourselves into this state?

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<v Speaker 3>So in Reverie, which is just a simple self hypnosis

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<v Speaker 3>app that you can download from the App store a

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<v Speaker 3>Google Play, and there I instruct you how to go

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<v Speaker 3>into a state of self hypnosis. So if you want

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<v Speaker 3>to try it, all you have to do is look

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<v Speaker 3>up to the top of your head, close your eyes slowly,

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<v Speaker 3>take a deep breath, let the breath out slowly, let

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<v Speaker 3>your eyes relax, let your body float, and if you want,

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<v Speaker 3>you can let one hand or the other float up

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<v Speaker 3>in your laca balloon and picture yourself floating in space

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<v Speaker 3>and a bath, in a lake, a hot and just

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<v Speaker 3>allow your body to experience itself in a state of

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<v Speaker 3>comfort and relaxation. And then you concentrate on what you

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<v Speaker 3>want to concentrate too. You don't have to count upstairs

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<v Speaker 3>and downstairs and take thirty minutes to do it.

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<v Speaker 2>Watch in front of yourself.

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<v Speaker 3>Under a minute.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, yeah, I mean that's quite amizing and under a minute.

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<v Speaker 3>Under a minute. And one of the coolest things is

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<v Speaker 3>you will know whether hypnosis will help you with stress,

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<v Speaker 3>for example, or pain. In the first ten minutes of

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<v Speaker 3>the exercise or less. You'll see whether your stress and

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<v Speaker 3>pain is better. I was just with helping a woman

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<v Speaker 3>who I just met for the first time who's having

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<v Speaker 3>trouble getting to sleep, and her stress levels were like

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<v Speaker 3>six out of ten, and within a couple of minutes

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<v Speaker 3>she was down to one. She said, I just feel

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<v Speaker 3>so much better. Now and she pictured it was wonderful.

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<v Speaker 3>She I asked her to think of an image that

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<v Speaker 3>would help her get to sleep. And she has cardiovascular problem,

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<v Speaker 3>she has respiratory problems, she has sleep at me. She

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<v Speaker 3>has all kinds of things that are real reasons for

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<v Speaker 3>having trouble sleeping in addition to the emotional reasons of

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<v Speaker 3>tension and anxiety. And I had her picture. I said,

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<v Speaker 3>what's your favorite image of going to sleep? And she said,

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<v Speaker 3>when I was a kid, my father used to take

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<v Speaker 3>us to Provincetown on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and he

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<v Speaker 3>would have me picture. He would take his imaginary belt

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<v Speaker 3>and strap me to Joe Fish, and Joe Fish would

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<v Speaker 3>take me for a ride and then take me down

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<v Speaker 3>to where his family where Mama Fish and Whitefish, and

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<v Speaker 3>I would play with them for a while, and then

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<v Speaker 3>I'd come back and I would be asleep. And she said,

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<v Speaker 3>why didn't I think of that? You know I've done

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<v Speaker 3>that all my life. She said, I feel so good

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<v Speaker 3>right now, and her stress level just kind of dissolved.

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<v Speaker 3>So she was trying out being herself as a little

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<v Speaker 3>girl in a situation where her father played a game

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<v Speaker 3>with her that helped her immerse herself in sleep.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, what a beautiful ses.

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<v Speaker 3>So that's an ability that many many people have that

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<v Speaker 3>they can learn to use better.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, thank you David for joining us on health es today.

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<v Speaker 3>You're most welcome for us.

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<v Speaker 1>Rey, I hope you got a lot of that chat

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<v Speaker 1>with David. I sure did. I just get such a

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<v Speaker 1>kick out of interviewing people with extraordinary credentials. By the way,

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<v Speaker 1>David is offering healthyish listeners. Yes, that's you a special

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<v Speaker 1>offer for his app Reverie. I will leave a link

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<v Speaker 1>to that offer in the show notes. If you didn't

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<v Speaker 1>enjoy this chat, jump on rate and review it, or

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<v Speaker 1>of course, subscribe to this podcast, share this set with

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<v Speaker 1>a friend, anything else, head to body insoul dot com

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<v Speaker 1>dot you for us on socials, grab our print edition,

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<v Speaker 1>which is out in your local Sunday paper, and until

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<v Speaker 1>tomorrow stay help you