Here is an interesting article from Mindfulness and Psychotherapy with Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.

I often write about the demanding and criticizing voices in our heads because they are so amazingly prevalent and I figure just about anyone can identify with that and almost all of us need support with them. Every day these voices arise out of habit, telling us “I can’t do that right,” “I’m never going to achieve that,” or “I’m not good enough.”

More often than not we indulge and get overwhelmed by these limiting beliefs or as Thich Nhat Hanh says,” we water the seeds of our own suffering.” The end result is we end up hating ourselves. But what if these voices were trying to help us in some way?

That may sound crazy, but really, consider it for a moment. What if these negative and limiting voices were looking after our best interest?

As humans, we have the capacity to worry about pain that MIGHT happen in the future. And if you’ve ever found yourself worrying – did you notice that it only makes the pain and discomfort worse?

Imagine having the ability to think your pain away.

“The biggest pharmacy on the planet is the one between your ears”

Since endorphins were discovered in the 1970s, researchers have been hot on the trail of the biochemical basis of the mind-body interaction. Endorphins are chemically similar to morphine and because they are naturally produced, they are completely safe. According to Sebastian Schulz-Stubner, MD, Ph.D., an anesthesiologist at the University of Iowa, physical changes result in the brain with hypnosis, scientifically explaining why hypnosis is so effectiveⁱ.

15 minutes a day

One study enrolled breast cancer patients to do fifteen minutes of hypnosis a day to prepare for surgery. The hypnosis group (as compared to controls) reported the following: 22.1% reduction in local anaesthetic, 33.8% reduction in general anaesthetic, 53.1% reduction in pain intensity and 74.3% less nauseaⁱⁱ.