The reason for me writing this today is because I have only just recovered fully from a sore throat and chest infection. One of the biggest problems a runner faces from time to time is getting ill – I had been burning the candle at both ends with my workload, my training and my social life and somewhere along the line picked up a nasty and enduring bug that seems to have been doing the rounds in my locale.
My next marathon is not until later on this year, but this bug put a dampener on my training schedule which I am having to revise as I slowly get my fitness levels up again.
I found the past couple of weeks very tough going and felt very run down at times… With a sore throat.
Cue the violins here please….
So I have been engaging in much self-hypnosis to help my sore throat, especially as I have plenty of talking to do at work. The self-hypnosis process is not all I do, of course not; I have plenty of hot tea on the go and a healthy diet is essential, though I think most runners are a pretty healthy bunch and overcoming illness is something we take in our stride, physically. For me though, my mind is important too.
So just a short and simple process today, to help ease a sore throat and then I shall be offering another technique tomorrow to help unblock airwaves when ill so that you runners have some tools in your psychological kitbag to utilise if and when needed, helping to speed up your recovery from such.
5 Steps To Soothe A Sore Throat Using Self-Hypnosis:
Step One: Induce hypnosis.
You can do so by any means you desire or know of. You can use the process in my self-hypnosis book, use the free audio at this website to practice or have a look at the following articles as and when you need them; they are basic processes to help you simply open the door of your mind:
Using eye fixation for self-hypnosis.
The Betty Erickson Self-Hypnosis Method video clip.
Using Magnetic Hands for Self-Hypnosis.
Once you have spent enough time doing this, move on to the next step…
Step Two: Just tune in to your body and get a sense of how it is in this moment. Just heighten your awareness of your breathing, your body’s rhythm, and just allow yourself to relax further and enjoy this stillness.
Now focus particularly upon the area in and around your throat and begin to relax that area. Relax the jaw, the throat and all the areas connected to it throughout the region of your ears nose and throat.
To do this, you can imagine a soothing, warming colour that spreads and develops and grows within those areas. Or you could imagine a soothing sound that resonates and vibrates in a particular way throughout that area alternatively you could simply develop a soothing sensation or feeling that spreads comfortably through the area – or of course, do all the above!
When you feel that you have relaxed that area beautifully and well, continue to allow this part of the process to take you deeper inside your mind, then move on to the next step.
Step Three: Next up, with the area relaxed, now start to engage your imagination and imagine a warming, flowing shower of water running down and through your relaxed open throat.
Let the flow of water be as fast as you choose, and imagine it is at exactly the right temperature for you, the most soothing, warming and comfortable temperature.
As it flows and warms, get a sense that the flow of soothing, warming water has healing properties of some kind – you can imagine this to be medical properties, or you can imagine it to be magical, or naturally healthy in some way. Just pick and choose whatever is best for you and imagine the water to be healing as well as soothing as it warmly flows in and around your throat.
Imagine that you gargle with the warm, healing water for a few more moments and when you are ready to move on to the next step, stop gargling and proceed to the next step.
Step Four: Now that the throat is warmed, cleansed and soothed, now imagine thick, warm, sweet, soothing honey, rolling slowly down your throat. Imagine it is healing, glistening and soothing warmly, comfortably. Imagine it is coating and protecting the inside of the throat. Imagine that the soft, warming protective coating of the inside of the throat is helping to keep this feeling of soothed healthiness in place for longer and is working to help your throat get better and better in most efficient and effective timescale for you.
Spend as long as you like enjoying this wonderful part of the session, then move on to the final step.
Step Five: When you have noticed some real difference in how your throat is feeling, then you can bring the session to an end, telling yourself that the effects carry on through and are extended beyond this session, helping you throughout the day.
Take a couple of deeper energizing breaths, wiggle your fingers and toes and open your eyes.
Enjoy using this to help you get through any sore throat encounters that may come your way, and ideally, get you back running sooner than usual. Though do be sure to do your best to avoid them happening in the first place; prevention is the best medicine, as they say.
Last Summer I wrote about how to use self-hypnosis to overcome a cold and flu, which you can read here if you’d like to build upon what I have written about today.
If you don’t want to engage in the process yourself and would like me to guide you through it with music and induce your hypnosis for you, then you can also buy that as a download at our store here for less than a fiver…. and todays process using hypnosis to soothe a sore throat, you can get here.
Have a great day, I’ll be back tomorrow.
