Wholeness Healing Center

Notes of Growth

The Effects of Hypnosis on my Exercise

When my friend first talked me into running a 10 k, I was pretty excited. I have always wanted to be a runner. I was the only thing standing in my way. When I started my training, I was walking on a treadmill, watching television. The thought of  running outside made me anxious. My friend and I joined a group with her personal trainer to help motivate us. The plan was to get together one or two times a week and run together to help support each other. So I started running outside to get used to it. A block seemed like a mile; I was so anxious I couldn’t breathe. I convinced myself that I had exercise-induced asthma. I just couldn’t breathe. I told myself all sorts of crazy things, such as I wasn’t good enough or fast enough or that I would never finish six miles; it was just too far. In a two mile run, I had to stop a lot to catch my breath even though I wasn’t running fast. I just couldn’t relax and breathe. I started to feel defeated. I had built myself up to three miles when I heard about a group of runners going to try hypnosis. I wanted to try anything so I signed up.

We met in Deb’s office and we all got comfortable. I could feel my heart beating out of my chest, then time seemed to fly by.
She mentioned something about running and before I knew it, we were done. My heart beating normally, I felt energized. This began a whole new mindset for me. All of a sudden I was going to do this race and do it well. The next few weeks I listened to my hypnosis CD every night at least once, sometimes more. I began to get centered, calm and relaxed, even during the day when things got stressful. I started looking forward to my runs and stopped the negative messages I was telling myself. Deb also gave us a list of affirmations. Soon I was hearing them in my head when I ran, and all day long. I was determined to let no negative messages in my head. My breathing became controlled; I found that I could run farther, and it wasn’t my breathing holding me back.

On race day I was nervous but very mentally prepared. I repeated to myself “calm and relaxed” automatically over and over. When the race started, I took a deep breath and went. As my playlist on my iPod played, I continued one step at a time “calm and relaxed”. I would hear in my head phrases such as, “You can do this,” “Rest when it’s over.” Those positive affirmations were just there; I didn’t have to think of them. I was just calm and relaxed. I finished the 10 k in one hour. That was great
for my first one. But more important was that I had fun. I experienced no problems with breathing or negative thinking. My head was clear and I was “calm and relaxed.”