Meditation vs Hypnosis

Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions on Track

Have you made your resolutions for the new year? Small changes may be easy to accomplish, but what about those which may be more challenging? How do you plan to accomplish these commitments?

While there are many “altering mind and emotion” approaches available, two of the most well-known are meditation and hypnosis. Which one may be right for you depends on what you seek to accomplish. Let’s explore the similarities and differences between these disciplines.

Both meditation and hypnosis can help you find a calm and relaxed state of mind. Both can help you move through your day with a minimum of stress. One definition of the hypnotic state is “total concentration on a single train of thought,” which is also a core discipline within meditation. Both seek to create a specific state of mind, however, the ultimate goal for each is where the greatest difference occurs.

Hypnosis has a specific end-point in mind, e.g., sleep better, stop smoking, address a particular fear, ace the test, etc., and organizes mental and emotional energy to support that goal. Meditation, in its purest form, aims to detach mentally and emotionally, and let the inner voice become quiet. A “single train of thought” in meditation is actually designed to allow for the absence of thought and is not easily achieved. For example, it takes a lot of time to train yourself to allow your eyes rest on a candle’s flame, and let all thought regarding it to become still. For many, the time commitment to truly benefit from meditation is difficult to manage, whereas, hypnosis can often produce results in very few sessions.

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.” – William James

For many, one session is all it takes to effect change. If in meditation the ultimate goal is to quiet the mind, then the opposite is true in hypnosis, which directs thoughts to focus on what you wish to happen and the way you think about challenges.

Both disciplines have their advantages. Whichever one will help you keep your resolutions this year is naturally the right one.

Barry Wolfson is director of The Hypnosis Counseling Center, which provides group counseling for smoking cessation and weight loss throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Connect with Barry at 908-303-7767 or HypnosisNJ.com.