What are the right kinds of words to perform covert hypnosis?
One way to really change the way someone feels about something is to use words that make the person see the thing in a different way. I call this reframing.
A common reframe is the glass is half full, not half empty metaphor. This causes someone to move from viewing a situation that was thought of as negative now as a positive.
Reframing can be used for very complex things as well by switching some words in a sentence. Look at the following examples:
It’s gorgeous outside today, but it’s going to be overcast tomorrow.
It’s gorgeous outside today, and it’s going to be overcast tomorrow.
It’s very pretty outside today, even though tomorrow it’s going to rain.
These sentences describe the same things, but the small change of only a word or two makes you think about the weather differently. Go over these sentences again and be sensitive to how each one makes you feel about the weather today and the weather tomorrow. Can you feel the different attitudes they bring out?
The ways of reframing are many.
By using words that enlarge the frame, the person you are speaking with will focus on the big picture.
Here’s an example that might sound very familiar. Someone is shopping for shoes and is concerned about the price because she knows she can get a better price across town. You might say, Wow, imagine getting those shoes for such a reasonable price without having to spend all the gas and time to go across town.
You can also reframe the context of a situation.
Friend: Man! I really wanted to go to the beach today but its so windy outside it wouldnt be any fun.
You: Sure, sitting on the sand in this wind won’t be fun, but imagine the waves! What a day for surfing!
And there is also the content reframe.
Friend: What a jerk! That man blew by us doing 100 mph. Can you believe some people!
You: He was going pretty fast. He had his emergency lights on, maybe he is going to the hospital.
So you can see how changing the language you use can actually change someones attitude about things.
Reframing is very powerful because it is a type of conversational hypnosis.
Reframing let’s you distract the listener’s conscious mind and causes her to listen to her subconscious brain.
There is no obvious hypnotic trance here like you would see in overt hypnosis, but nevertheless, this use of words in conversational hypnosis causes the listener to respond to things using her subconscious mind.
Learn more about conversational hypnosis and reframing, and try it out.
