The Mind Gut Connection | Relaxing Sleep Hypnosis
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Hi, I'm Jessica Porter, and welcome back to Sleep Magic, a podcast where I help you find the magic of your own mind, helping you to sleep better and live better. Thank you all for being here. I love doing this show. I just want to say we recently had another mailbag episode, so I hope you check that out. I'd love to hear what you thought of it. There's an extended version of it for subscribers, but everyone should be able to listen to at least some of it.

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This offer ends August 19th. I'll see you over there at Sleep Magic Premium. Tonight, the mind-gut connection. A handful of listeners have asked for an episode around digestive issues. Seems like many people these days are experiencing some distress in their guts. Now, I'm not a doctor and I don't specialize in this area in my hypnosis practice, but

But I do know a thing or two about relaxation. And it seems to me that this is an area in which we can and probably should wave the magic wand of relaxation. You see, we all tend to have a universal reaction around discomfort or problems, especially in the body. We experience fear when we experience discomfort. And then we tense up. And that makes sense.

Maybe the signal coming from our body means we need to reach out for help. That initial signal is an important one, so please address it accordingly. However, over time, that response to tense up can become a problem in and of itself. Because once we do something a number of times, it can become a habit, a feedback loop. And then we get better and better at it, purely out of habit.

which is great if you're learning how to play tennis or speak Portuguese, but not so great if you're reinforcing a stress response in your gut or some other place in your body. So someone with digestive issues feels a sensation in their gut, they tense up, their brain sends out stress chemicals, and those stress hormones are felt throughout the body and in the mind and in the gut.

which tenses up even more, making whatever issue that's occurring even worse. Which is not to say that we create the issue, but we can reinforce it without even knowing that we're doing it. And a very special quality of the gut, which we're just beginning to understand, is its actual relationship to the brain. They're like partners in your life.

Not only does the gut feel things in its neurons and report those feelings to your brain, the bacteria in your gut actually create many of your brain chemicals. 95% of your serotonin, more than 50% of your dopamine, and most of your GABA, another beneficial neurotransmitter, are all produced by the bacteria in your gut. So how we treat the gut really matters.

So tonight we're going to break that habit of tensing up every time you feel something in your gut and train you to relax. We'll be creating a new positive habit. Now for those of you who do not experience gut issues, one, congratulations, and two, I will instruct you within the hypnosis to use this same technique on any other thing that bothers you in or about your body.

something with which you experience a negative feedback loop, whether it's other physical discomforts or negative thoughts you may have about your body. So get yourself into a safe and comfortable position and let's begin. Allow your eyes to close easily and gently. Hello, here we are again. Just bring your awareness to your breath. And we're just really allowing the awareness now to settle, bringing it to this place where

of the breath, this gentle, simple movement that's always happening. The awareness can always come home to the breath. And you may find yourself bringing your awareness home to your breath at different points during the day, just to slow everything down for a moment, just to come back home to your body. Good. Now I'd like you to bring your awareness up into your eyelids. And let's imagine your eyelids are feeling heavy.

Just let them feel sleepy and heavy like you're taking a nap in the afternoon or you've been reading a book in bed for a long time. And those little muscles in your eyelids are becoming loose and limp and relaxed. And now that your eyelids are feeling nice and heavy, I'd like you to accept the suggestion that your eyelids are so relaxed they simply will not open. And this is a pretending game. This is...

using our imaginations. So in a moment I'm going to ask you to test your eyes to make sure they won't open by wiggling your eyebrows while your eyes remain closed. So do that now. Just give your eyelids a little tug. Good. Perfect. Now this wonderful feeling of relaxation that you have in your eyelids, let's move it throughout your body.

This same wonderful relaxation will soon be moving through your whole body. In fact, it may have already started. Let it flow. Good. Let's imagine this relaxation in your eyelids spilling back into your brain. Just let it flow into that wonderful, beautiful brain of yours, taking over every single cell of your brain.

And by just imagining that your brain is relaxing, it begins to relax. By imagining that your head feels heavy on your pillow, it's feeling heavy. And by imagining that the muscles of your face are softening and relaxing, they're letting go. Good. And as you imagine this warm relaxation moving throughout your brain, this amazing activity

taking place in your brain is starting to soften and balance itself and come back to this wonderful healing relaxation. Your body knows what to do. We can let go and let our bodies do what they need to do. So as you give your brain permission to slow down and the relaxation moves down into your neck,

and throat and deeper down into your shoulders. Your body knows how to come home to this soft, peaceful place, coming back to balance. As the relaxation moves into the muscles of your shoulders, the muscles of your shoulders are softening, sort of melting like butter. And as your shoulders are relaxing, all of the responsibilities you carry on those shoulders

or falling to the floor. Responsibilities you have toward your family, your friends, responsibilities you feel at work or in your community, responsibilities you feel toward the world and the future, and even responsibilities you may feel toward the past, all falling to the floor. And you can pick any or all of them up tomorrow morning, but for right now your only responsibility is to yourself.

As the relaxation moves down your arms now, that wonderful warm feeling of relaxation rolling down your arms. Your arms are feeling heavy, heavy, like they're made of marble. As the relaxation moves down into your hands and fingers, they too feel heavy, heavy, so relaxed. And you may be aware of some of the sounds going on around you right now.

But from this moment on, no sound that you hear will bother or disturb you in any way. In fact, from this moment on, any sound that you hear like traffic on the streets or people within your household, those sounds will actually cause you to go deeper and deeper into relaxation because you're using your mind in this new, more powerful way.

And you're allowing those sounds to just move through you as vibrations and letting them take you deeper. Well done. The only sound you need to pay any real attention to is the sound of my voice. But even that is simply here to take you deeper and deeper. And it too is a vibration like the music playing on this recording. Everything taking you deeper and deeper. Good.

So now let's imagine this warm relaxation moving down into your chest. And now it's going deep inside your torso, spiraling within your chest, softening, opening, relaxing your ribcage. As you imagine this relaxation surrounding and supporting your heart, your heart is more than an organ. Your heart has energy.

nerve cells in it, feeling, sensing, responding, sending out energy into the world, feeling the energy from the world. Your heart is intelligent and processes information in the form of energy. So now that you're relating to your own heart with that warm relaxation surrounding it, any tension or negativity,

that may have built up in your heart over the last little while, let it soften and disappear. Because you're here with yourself now, the most intimate relationship you have. And just allow it to be good, to accept yourself, all your strengths and all your weaknesses, your humanity, as all tension disappears.

As you imagine this warm relaxing energy moving down into your belly, pelvis feeling heavy on the bed. And now we're gonna go straight to this warm relaxing energy moving all the way down into your legs. Your legs feeling heavy, heavy, like they're made of marble. Relaxation moving all the way down into your feet and your toes. Very good. And now we bring your awareness back

into your belly. Any muscles you may hold unconsciously during the day or letting go as a relaxing energy moves deep inside this lower part of your body. As you bring your awareness to your gut, your small intestines, large intestine, as we honor them for a moment and allow them to relax,

There's so much energy in this part of your body. Such important energy in this part of your body. You receive life through your gut. You take in food through this part of your body. It's the doorway from the outside world into you. You absorb the material world through your gut, and yet it is also a place

from which you release the life force physically and vibrationally. Your reproductive organs are deep inside the body and down at this end of the body creating all sorts of energy, feelings, attractions, intensity. So as we hang out in the lower part of the body, we realize that this part of you sends all sorts of information

into your brain and it also sends information up into your heart. Your gut has a mind of its own. With all this activity and communication inside of you, you may have set up some negative patterns and that's natural. We all do that without even knowing it. So tonight we are going to identify one feedback loop that you've created

between your mind and body and replace it with a new more positive feedback that will strengthen and support you from deep inside. So if you're listening to this because you experience any kind of distress in your gut, the feedback loop will be between the sensation you feel in your gut and your mind's reaction to it. And if you are not here,

for gut issues. I suggest you bring your awareness to a part of your body in which you feel negative sensations or about which you have negative thoughts. It might be an ache or a pain or a part of your body that you judge harshly. Just pick one, the first one that comes to mind. And if you have none of these issues, the sound of my voice will simply take you deeper and deeper

as you relax more and more. Good. First we examine the current negative feedback loop. Imagine feeling that sensation, whether it's in your gut or any other part of your body. Imagine it. You felt it many times, so you can imagine it easily. Good. Now as you imagine it, notice what happens in your body. Notice that on a very subtle level,

Your body is conditioned to tense up. This sensation causes tension. And even though you're relaxed right now, you can identify that tendency to want to tense up. And now notice what the sensation does to your mind. Notice if there's a tendency toward fearful or negative thinking in your consciousness.

chances are this sensation in your body causes negative thoughts and mental tension. And the mental tension causes more physical tension. And the physical tension makes the original sensation worse. This is the negative feedback loop. The original sensation in your body causes your body to tense up and your mind to think negative

stressful thoughts, and this mental tension feeds back into the body, creating more physical tension, which causes the original sensation to get stronger. This feedback loop is feeding the problem, making it worse. And without knowing it, you've created a habit, and it has become automatic. Because your subconscious mind is a very, very good learning machine,

and it's gotten better and better at the feedback loop. You're good at learning things and improving upon them, even when they may not serve you. But we are here to change that. You are now solving your problems from a deeper level of your magic mind. So it's easy to create a more positive feedback loop, a positive habit, and you will get better and better at this new feedback loop.

as you practice it. And this will be easy. You've learned many positive things in your life. Walking, talking, riding a bike. Your mind is very good at learning things and developing positive habits. But first, we need to break the old habit. So I'd like you to imagine yourself in the negative feedback loop again. Imagine the sensation

and notice how it causes tension in your body and the negative thoughts you begin to think. Now notice how the negative thoughts move down again, causing your body to become even more tense and the sensation to get louder, more intense. I'd like you to imagine that this feedback loop is represented by a thick gray rope, a rope moving from your gut to your mind

Looping down again from your mind to your gut. This is a rope you've created unconsciously by repeating this cycle. And now it's time to cut the rope. What tool do you need to cut this rope? You have it in your hand. Now cut it. Good. And watch as the rope evaporates and the feedback loop is gone forever. Well done.

Now in a moment I'm going to ask you to imagine the sensation again, but this time you'll experience a new reaction to it. In a moment you'll feel the sensation and then relax. This is a new response to the sensation. You've tried reacting to the sensation with tension for quite a while, but it only made things worse. So you are happily establishing this new reaction.

this new relaxation. So imagine the sensation again, feel it, and now you're relaxing completely. Your whole body becoming loose and limp and relaxed, allowing yourself to go deeper and even deeper. You have a new response to the sensation now. Your new response to the sensation is to relax. Your muscles letting go,

Your whole body feeling loose and limp, like a ragdoll. Good. It feels good to relax in response to the sensation. So let's do it again. Imagine the sensation, feel it, and now you relax. Your whole body becoming loose and limp and relaxed. This is your response to the sensation now. Relaxing. All your muscles letting go.

And now when you feel the sensation, your mind is relaxing too. In the old feedback loop, you responded to the sensation by tensing up mentally, trying to figure it out or thinking fearful thoughts, but it only made things worse. So from now on, you will respond to the sensation by relaxing mentally, letting go of any thinking or opinions about the sensation.

You let go. You give up. And your mind relaxes. And now you find that the sensation is just there. With no extra energy around it. It's just there in your body. Because you're relaxing, blood is flowing to this part of your body. And healing energy is moving there. It's softening. Relaxing. No longer such a big deal. Well done. In a moment,

We're going to practice this response one more time. I will ask you to imagine the sensation and then relax, repeating this new relaxation response. So imagine the sensation in your body. Good. And now you relax, taking yourself deeper and deeper, the muscles of your body becoming loose and limp. And because your body is relaxing, your mind is relaxing.

letting go of any thoughts or opinions. Just letting go. And notice that you are experiencing the sensation, but it's just there as you relax around it. So from now on and for the rest of your life, when you experience this sensation, you relax. And because you're relaxing, the muscles of your body are softening and letting go. Because the muscles of your body are softening,

You're secreting relaxing hormones. Because you're relaxing, your circulation is increasing. Your blood pressure is going down. Because you're relaxing, everything is healing. Everything is healing. Your body is healing itself. And you've changed the momentum on this response. You've changed the direction of this response.

and where you were creating a habit in one direction, you're now creating a habit in the new direction. Because whenever you experience this sensation now, you relax as you practice it right now, imagining the sensation and now relaxing. This new response feels really good because every time you relax, healing occurs because your body knows how to relax and heal.

naturally. And soon you notice that you're thinking about the sensation less often. In fact, the sensation is getting weaker, disappearing. Because now you have a relaxation feedback loop. Every time you experience a sensation that bothers you, you relax. Because your mind and body are working together in an entirely new way. And you find that things are getting better and better.

and better. And you're feeling good. It feels good to use your mind in positive ways. You're feeling better on every level. And you find that you're practicing this new response on a regular basis. Practicing it like you would a new task or a new language. And as you practice, it's getting easier and easier. More and more natural. Well done. So now you settle back

into your bed, into this present moment, letting go of this exercise, releasing into relaxation as you drift and float and dream.