Heidi added self-hypnosis into her toolbox to eat better and relax
after meditating daily for 20 years.
“I’m a little ball of rage — or I was, for a lot of my life. Finding ways to calm myself down is really crucial for me.”
This is why Heidi has meditated daily for the last 20 years. Ten years ago, she added qigong into her daily practice. By the time Reveri became available on Android in October 2022, she was curious to try it, because she’s always looking for new tools to relax and center herself.
Which Reveri exercises have made the biggest impact on your life?
Eat Well and Relieve Stress.
“We always hear we need to take care of our bodies, but hearing it during self-hypnosis really sent it home for me. Especially if I consider my body as if it’s a baby I need to care for — this was a novel way to approach it for me,” Heidi tells us. “This idea reframed the way I see chocolates, sugars, and coffee. Instead of always seeing them as treats, I see too much of them as toxins now.”
She goes on to express how Relieve Stress helped her manage her learned helplessness. “Just focusing on one problem that’s stressing me out — versus all 832 problems — and then one solution, is really helpful. To just focus on one problem and one solution that I can start working on right now makes it so much more doable.”
In the time since you started using Reveri, how do you navigate the world differently?
“I have more ‘free won’t’ from using Reveri. I think it lessens my decision fatigue when I’m mentally debating whether I’m going to eat that piece of cake or the chocolate bar.”
Heidi sees something she formerly identified as a “treat,” and now asks herself, “Do I really need this?”
She’s also managed her impulsiveness when it comes to buying things she doesn’t need with the help of Reveri. “Spending money on things I don’t need can cause me stress, and Reveri helps me avoid doing that.” This has a downstream effect of keeping her calm.
How is Reveri different from your other practices?
Reveri has enabled Heidi to find another way in, as she puts it. “Reveri gives my spirit more voice… I use it to tap into my spirit, or my subconscious. My spirit always knows I’m worthy of self care. My conscious mind forgets.”
There is a lot of overlap, but also several distinctions between hypnosis and meditation, according to the scientific literature. Heidi is a walking example of someone who can speak to their similarities and differences.
“It’s interesting, because hypnosis is similar to my meditation practice — it’s calm, focused attention. The thing that is different about Reveri is that I’m doing two extra steps that allow me to get closer to speaking to my subconscious, or my spirit:
Rolling up my eyes to induce hypnosis seems to stimulate the vagus nerve and immediately sets off an innate relaxation response.
Reveri introduced the concept of floating. When I’m floating, I’m somewhat less ‘grounded,’ and less stuck in the rigid and biased thinking patterns of my conscious mind.”
Heidi explains that these two aspects of self-hypnosis with Reveri seem to calm her system down more quickly and deeply than when just sitting in meditation or practicing qigong. “When I am in an ungrounded and freer state of relaxation, I am able to entertain those thoughts from the doctor about how to take care of myself.”
She notices she is evolving further by adding self-hypnosis into her regular wellbeing practices, because it has introduced novel ways of thinking. “Reveri offers a great way of marrying self compassion, attention, novel ideas, goal-oriented thinking, and concentration.”
Achieving goals with hypnosis vs. meditation
Heidi practices insight meditation. In this practice, you allow yourself to notice when thoughts come up, and you let them go once you notice and briefly examine them. This brings us to a prominent distinction between meditation and hypnosis.
Heidi says, “In fact, if you go to a meditation retreat, they warn you against setting goals when doing these types of meditations. If you set a goal and blindly move towards it, you miss all this other fascinating stuff that might come up, because you’re in tunnel vision. What if you pick the wrong goal?”
She continues, “Buddhism isn’t against goals. They just want to make sure you don’t set goals that are bad for you, or hurt yourself in the process of striving towards it. Buddhist meditation focuses on the journey, not the destination.”
Heidi highlights that experienced meditators may find it stressful to strive for a goal, because striving is considered a negative in the meditation world. If you are attached to something outside of yourself, it’s seen as suffering — even if it is the resolution of an acute problem. “With Reveri, you can feel like you’re trying to achieve a goal in a skillful way, because you’re setting a ‘worthy’ goal, that feels true to yourself.”
This expands on what Heidi referenced when she said Reveri gives her spirit more voice. Reveri helps her identify what is truly important to herself, like taking care of her body, and remaining calm in potentially agitating situations.
“There’s greater potential for enriching all of your practices with Reveri.”
Heidi describes this journey of achieving worthy goals like planting a garden. To plant your garden so that it flourishes, follow her playbook, which she learned from her insight meditation teacher:
Make sure your intention feels true to you. These are your garden’s seeds.
Determine if it’s a wise goal, or if you’re pursuing it for reasons that aren’t healthy for you. Before planting your seeds, assess if they are the herbs, flowers, and trees you want around you.
Ensure your intention is something you can stick to. This will be your regular watering and tending to your garden.
Recognize that you’re going to have to give some things up to achieve it, but relinquishing can be freeing. Are you willing to let go of your habits and attachments while you are tending your garden?
As you proceed, check in with yourself. Do you feel peaceful in the actions that help you achieve your goal? Once you’ve achieved it, does it bring you a sense of satisfaction? If not, maybe it was the wrong goal for you. Plant different seeds next time if so.
Heidi’s advice to others who want to achieve the same things
Paraphrases an old Chinese proverb:
“The best time to plant your garden was 20 years ago. The next best time is today. All it takes is practice. Just start.”
Heidi is a real Reveri member.