2. Deepening Procedures

time. But as a beginner, take your time. It will be time
well spent.
A very popular method of deep relaxation is the
Jacobson Progressive Relaxation procedure. This involves
tensing each of the major muscle groups of your body
(foot and lower leg on each side, upper leg and hip,
abdomen, etc.). Tense the muscle group for a few
seconds, then let go.
2. Deepening Procedures
Once you have completed the relaxation phase of your
self-hypnosis induction procedure, you can begin to
deepen the relaxed state. At some time between the deep
relaxation and the deepening procedures you will move
into a hypnotic state. You probably won't know it,
especially as a beginner, but it will happen sooner or later.
One of the first hurdles a beginner must get over is
the compulsion to "watch for it." That is, you will keep
waiting for hypnosis to happen, for some change in your
awareness or the way you feel that will say to you, "You're
hypnotized."
Watching for hypnosis will definitely get in your way if
you don't get it out of your mind. Going into a hypnotic
state is, in this respect, similar to going to sleep. If you try
to catch yourself going to sleep – if you try to be aware of
the precise instant in which you actually go to sleep – you
are much less likely to go to sleep. "Watching" keeps you
awake.
In this same way you will not know when you go into a
hypnotic state (but that won't be because you lost
consciousness – you won't). Later, after you have been
practicing regularly for a few weeks or a month or two,