Just recently, I was in bed with my two-year old daughter as she had woken early and my wife was out at her boot camp she goes to. We watched a bit of telly together while snuggled up warmly, and we were both dozy and laying under the covers. Then on the Cbeebies channel, the regular presenters burst into song with “ready, steady, get set go”, which you can watch here if you would like.

My daughter jumped up, started wiggling and jumping up and down with a HUGE smile on her face, laughing and smiling; “Daddy do it!” she insisted, so I joined in with her and we both vigorously danced and shook ourselves into life. When it ended; “again Daddy, more Daddy” so I rewound the telly and replayed it. We watched it three further times thereafter and then skipped downstairs for breakfast. My daughter insisted we play music on my iPad to which she performed and sang and moved around and she was in a wonderful, happy and energised mood and stayed that way for much of the day – a couple of exceptions were when she and her three-year old brother starting fighting over toys!

I run very early in the morning most days. It is practical for me to do so. I get my training done before my family are awake and before work, fitting my running training in at any other time of day would be near-on impossible. However, there are other benefits to doing so. My metabolism gets stoked when I run, so I feel energised for much of the day. If I run in the evenings, I often find that I struggle to sleep as well as I usually do as a result. Running early in the morning means I start the day energised and invigorated.

The start of the day is a time when our body and mind is receptive, recharged (usually), and ready to set the tone for the day ahead. Many psychological practices recommend using this time early in the morning for your benefit too; meditation, tai chi, mindfulness, self-hypnosis are all encouraged at this time to help you make the most of the day ahead and to get yourself properly prepared.

Very often self-hypnosis is associated with relaxation, calmness and stillness, yet it absolutely can be used for inspiring ourselves, motivating ourselves and of course get energised. When we imagine taking action, being too relaxed can inhibit the ability to get energised and up-beat. In a therapeutic process I use with my anxiety clients, we teach clients to inhibit the anxiety by practicing very specific relaxation skills that makes the anxiety very difficult to happen as intensely. The same way it desensitised anxiety, relaxation can desensitise motivation, inspiration and drive if we are not careful: Just like lying in bed with my daughter was relaxing and made us dozy, whereas singing and dancing, moving our bodies made us energised and put us in a great, energised mood.

Get Energised, Motivated Ready For The Day Ahead

So today, I thought I’d share with you a self-hypnosis process that can get you energised and motivated, ready for the day ahead.

Follow these simple steps:

Prior to starting, think of a motivational affirmation that you like and that makes you feel good and driven when you say it with meaning. I have a few famous and well-known favourites that I use when I am in bed and about to get up in the (often cold, dark and wet) mornings for my run:

  • “Get busy living or get busy dying” (Quote from the film Shawshank Redemption)

  • “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.” Steve Prefontaine

  • “I run because I can. When I get tired, I remember those who can’t run, what they’d give to have this simple gift I take for granted, and I run harder for them. I know they would do the same for me.”

  • “Conditions are never just right. People who delay action until all factors are favourable do nothing.”

  • “Now if you are going to win any battle you have to do one thing. You have to make the mind run the body. Never let the body tell the mind what to do. The body will always give up. It is always tired morning, noon, and night. But the body is never tired if the mind is not tired. When you were younger the mind could make you dance all night, and the body was never tired. You’ve always got to make the mind take over and keep going.”

  • “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

  • “Champions are made when no one is watching.”

  • “The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”

  • “I do today what you won’t so I can do tomorrow what you can’t.”

  • “Man imposes his own limitations, don’t set any.”

  • “There will be days when I don’t know if I can run a marathon. There will be a lifetime knowing that I have.”

  • “The body does not want you to do this. As you run, it tells you to stop but the mind must be strong.”

  • “You always go too far for your body. You must handle the pain with strategy…It is not age; it is not diet. It is the will to succeed.”

  • “Every man dies, but not every man really lives.”

I tell myself to think of my wife. Think of my son. Think of my daughter. I tell myself to make them proud. I tell myself to “get out there and run Adam.”

With one or two good quality affirmations at the ready, follow these simple steps to use self-hypnosis to get fully motivated, stoked, pumped, driven and inspired for your day ahead…..

Step One:

Induce Hypnosis.  You can do so by any means you desire or know of. You can use the process in my ‘Science of self-hypnosis’ book, use the free audio we give away on 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:

Heavy Arm Self-Hypnosis Induction Method

Using Eye Fixation for Self-Hypnosis

The Chiasson Self-Hypnosis Method

Hand to Face Self-Hypnosis Induction

Using Magnetic Hands for Self-Hypnosis

The Coin Drop Self-Hypnosis Induction

Once you have induced hypnosis, move on to step two.

Step Two:

Repeat your affirmation to yourself. Start off saying it however you choose, but as you repeat, start to repeat it to yourself with more gusto. Perhaps start to see the words in your imagination, or imagine them being spoken to you by a person you find to be motivational. Repeat the words and get to the point where you are saying the words in a fashion that you find to be undeniably convincing.

As you repeat those words, as you do so, imagine your body coming to life, filling with energy, enthusiasm and inspiration – imagine this by thinking about colours filling your body, good, positive feelings spreading through you, vibrations increasing throughout the body. Anticipate the joy of how you are going to feel when this session comes to an end and you are able to go about your day in a progressive and positive frame of mind.

Imagine a light rising in your awareness; that could be watching a sunrise, or just imagining the place you are in is getting brighter. Imagine filling your senses and awareness with light. Imagine drinking in that light, letting your body and mind absorb a mental lightness.

With all of those initial elements completed, move on to step three.

Step Three:

Now we use music and sounds. Imagine hearing and listening to an inspirationally loud rendition of some uplifting music. Perhaps music that you’d dance to, or music that you’d listen to if you were doing exercise.

In addition or instead, imagine the sound of someone who you find inspiring speaking to you, turbo charging your attitude, giving you a pep talk, or a motivational speech. Or imagine someone who you want to be proud of you saying some words to you that charge you and make you feel inspired to take action and be positive.

With those sounds dominating your internal awareness, move on to step four.

Step Four:

Now fill your sense of smell. Think of a stimulating smell, such as the smell of fresh coffee, of grated fresh ginger, of squeezed lemon juice or powerful smelling salts. Choose whatever is best and right for you and let a stimulating smell fill your senses. Imagine it firing you up further.

Add some other invigorating thoughts to that; perhaps imagine breathing in cool fresh mountain air and it filling your lungs and feeling wonderful. Or imagine the sensation of cool spring water enlivening your senses.

(N.b. I have used ideas associated with iciness to energise and be alert with self-hypnosis in other processes too)

Once you have filled your sense of smell with enlivening scents, move on to step five.

Step Five:

Imagine physical movement. Think of a movement that you could do that would make you laugh or feel silly, or energised in a beneficial way. You could imagine jumping on the spot like a Maasai Warrior.

(N.b. I used this theme in another process, aimed at using self-hypnosis for a hypnotic high)

You could imagine dancing your favourite dance and really going for it with your moves. You could imagine running, jumping, skipping, clapping or whatever other type of physical movement that would get you moving in an uplifting fashion.

With that in mind, now mentally rehearse the physical movement. That is, imagine yourself actually doing that movement at the end of this hypnosis session. See the room you are going to do it in, imagine being in your body making those moves and enjoying the liberating sensation of it.

Once you have fully mentally rehearsed this movement, move on to the final steps.

Step Six:

Exit hypnosis. If you follow the process in my science of self-hypnosis book, count yourself up and out of self-hypnosis by counting from 1 through to 5. otherwise, wiggle your fingers and toes, take a couple of deeper breaths and open your eyes to bring the self-hypnosis part of the session to an end.

Step Seven:

If you have it handy, play your piece of music. Dance to it like nobody is watching. Move, express yourself. Repeat your affirmation to yourself. Really move. Use all the elements of the self-hypnosis session and fill your senses with smells, light, awareness and uplifting words and really get yourself energised and ready for a great day ahead.

The tone and mood which you start the day in has an incredible effect on the way your day goes. Why not capitalise on knowing this? As well as your usual cup of coffee and turning on Radio One, add to this emphatically by using your own brain, your own imagination, your own positive intention and creating your own path that day. All we have is our ongoing experience of ‘now’ – so why not absolutely take charge of it and refuse to be a passive recipient of life.

I’ll be back soon.

If you’d like to learn more or if this has resonated with you in some way, then visit these pages:

1. Has lack of energy held you back and is it still doing so now? Do you need more drive?
Coaching with Adam Eason Or Hypnotherapy with Adam Eason
2. Would you like a satisfying and meaningful career as a hypnotherapist helping others become more energised and driven?
Adam Eason’s Anglo European training college.
3. Are you a hypnotherapist for whom lack of energy and drive is negatively effecting the success of your business? Do you need more inspiration to fulfil your career ambitions?
Hypnotherapist Mentoring with Adam Eason.

Likewise, if you’d like to learn more about self-hypnosis, understand the evidence based principles of it from a scientific perspective and learn how to apply it to many areas of your life while having fun and in a safe environment and have the opportunity to test everything you learn, then come and join me for my one day seminar which does all that and more, have a read here: The Science of Self-Hypnosis Seminar.