Hypnotic Suggestion is a direct and powerful method to intentionally influence your subjective reality. The way it works is to pretend or act as if the suggested reality is true. For example, imagine that your leg is getting heavier and heavier. To experience old fashion hypnotic suggestions personally, play this audio and exercise the faculty of your imagination, listen to the Heavy Shoe. audio.
Try not to let your nose itch.
If you don’t want to bother listening to the audio, see if you can prevent your nose from itching. If it’s not itching yet, it will soon. When it does, you might get some relief by rubbing your nose., But you have enough willpower to resist the temptation. . . . Don’t you? You may wonder if you can resist the impulse to touch your face around your nose for the next 60 seconds. To find out, set a timer and see if you can do it.
This ironic phenomenon— experiencing exactly what you tell yourself not to experience— is called an Ironic Process: The harder you try to not let your nose itch the more it itches.
How it works: To make sure your nose is not itching you have to compare the current sensations around your nose with what you would experience if your nose was itching. To do this comparison you must imagine what an itchy nose would feel like, which is a tricky way to deliver the suggestion: Imagine your nose itching. Ironic, isn’t it? [See The Imp of the Perverse for more on counter-regulatory motivation].
“Try not to. . .” is the typical way to initiate a self-sabotaging suggestion. For example, “try not to be anxious” or “try not to look self-conscious.”