Auto-Suggestion And Ways To Practise It

Autosuggestion is a technique developed by the French apothecary (or what might these days be called a pharmacist) Émile Coué just over a century ago.

It’s a psychological technique that some have described as a form of self-hypnosis combined with the placebo effect, but Coué himself defined it, in his book Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion, as “an instrument that we possess at birth, and with which we play unconsciously all our life, as a baby plays with its rattle. It is however a dangerous instrument; it can wound or even kill you if you handle it imprudently and unconsciously. It can on the contrary save your life when you know how to employ it consciously.“

This article looks in more detail at what autosuggestion is, and how you might choose to use it.

What Is Autosuggestion?

Put simply, it is a method by which words or, more usually, full sentences, are said repeatedly to yourself in order to change perceptions and beliefs – and that refers to yours, not other people’s.

Some would say that these words are positive, but as Coué points out, there are different types of autosuggestion – some may be conscious and are therefore often positive (e.g. “I choose to get things done on time“) while others may be subconscious (or unconscious) and may be negative, without you knowing it (e.g. “I’m a loser“).

Either way, this technique is based on the process of planting ideas into your subconscious mind and leading it to believe that those ideas are actually true.

My late wife had a saying that “thoughts are things”, and what she meant by that is pretty much what Coué was saying – every thought you have matters and can affect your future thinking.

For example, we’d not been working together or dating online long (see this article for more information about how we met), and we were talking (via Skype) about a new online software tool we were working on together.

I was programming the tool as we chatted, and had just made a rookie mistake. Without really thinking, I simply uttered the word “Idiot!” to myself out loud – and she heard me (of course) and immediately told me off!

And that’s when I first heard her talk about “thoughts are things”.

This is also why negative thoughts can be tricky, because our brains sometimes have trouble with words such as “not”. Some even go so far as to say that negative words are ignored by the brain, which would mean “I am not lazy” may be “heard” internally as “I am lazy“. However, others say we react differently to negative words such as “not” and “cannot” depending on the sentence structure.

As for its being a placebo, then it’s my view this is a little harsh.

We don’t yet know how the human brain really works, but it does seem to be the overall consensus (not that science works by consensus, of course) that the mind is capable of some truly astonishing feats.

So, while a placebo is supposed to be an inert substance, thoughts are not inert – they have the ability to alter our perception of ourselves and the world around us.

In many ways, autosuggestion is what is also known as affirmations, which is a subject I cover in Module 1 of my Brain Training For Success course (and in a few other articles too).

But to summarize, then, according to Louise Hay, affirmations are “really anything you say or think.”

Note again that this definition includes both positive and negative statements!

How To Use Autosuggestion

The keys to making autosuggestion as effective as possible are:

1. Define what it is you want to change. This needs to be realistic and achievable, but still challenging.

   For example, telling yourself “I make $1,000,000 a month” is likely unrealistic if you currently work in a supermarket stocking shelves, but if you’re already making $1,000 a month, telling yourself “I choose to make $100,000 a year” is not outside the bounds of reason.

   Also, the words you use need to trigger some form of emotion within you and carry sufficient meaning or importance in your life.

2. Use the first person – autosuggestion is about you and only you.
3. Ensure the words are positive – as mentioned above, the brain can have trouble decoding negative words.

   So, it’s better to say “I choose to be on time for every appointment” than “I will not be late for any appointments“.

4. Use the present tense, as though you already have the quality you want. That means, you should use “I am…” instead of “I will be…“.
5. Leave it open-ended. In other words, do not set yourself a time limit on this change.
6. Repeat your statements to yourself (out loud if that’s appropriate, or mentally), as often as you can.
7. And remember, these affirmations are 100% for you – they are to help you change your own beliefs and perceptions and attributes, not anybody else’s.

How To Practise Autosuggestion

Here are a few tips on how best to use autosuggestion to make the changes you want or need:

1. Meditation, where you can repeat your affirmations as a mantra while you meditate.

   All of the usual meditation recommendations apply – e.g. find somewhere quiet, make sure you’re comfortable, play relaxing music if that is not too distracting for you.

   You’ll find plenty of articles about meditation here.

2. Sleep, in which case you would record yourself saying your affirmations (at least ten times each), but in this case only, you should use the second person – i.e. “You are a punctual person” instead of “I am a punctual person“.

   You should use a firm but gentle voice, and if you want or need to, you can get somebody else to record these affirmations for you.

   And once you have the recording, you should play it to yourself for at least 14 consecutive nights, preferably using headphones or earbuds (whichever is most comfortable given you’ll be lying down) or, alternatively, a pillow speaker (if you can find one that works reliably – almost all of the ones I found on Amazon, for example, have bad ratings and reviews, as you can see here, which is not an encouraging sign).

3. Software is available that can flash affirmations on your computer screen in an almost subliminal manner.

   Good software will come with a variety of pre-loaded affirmations on common topics, but will also allow you to enter your own, which is always preferable because they will be more personal to you.

4. Visualization, where the key is to do this just before you go to sleep or just after you wake up, because the brain is more open to suggestion then, and also to not only repeat your affirmations to yourself but to visualize experiencing a situation where the affirmation is actually true.

   Again, these visualizations should have emotional content and be as vivid as possible – which are similar to how you should use mnemonics, for example.

You’ll notice that many of the above requires you to be relaxed, because this is when your mind is most open to suggestions.

Example Uses

1. The Original. If Coué is famous for anything, it’s the following sentence: “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.“

   It’s what he would have his patients say to themselves to augment prescribed medicine, and he found that it made that treatment more efficacious. (Yes, he wasn’t against standard medicine at all – he was only trying to improve the results.)

   As a mantra for life in general, whether you’re ill or not, why not say this to yourself every morning when you wake up?

2. Changing Negative Self-Talk. You need to start by listing any negative statements you make about yourself.

   Next, you need to listen very carefully to what you say (and think) over the next couple of weeks or so, and note down any of those negative things that you use – either out loud or in your head.

   Then, for each of those negative self-statements, you need to rewrite them as positive statements instead. These statements need to be as strong as possible (so you can use a thesaurus if you’re struggling to come up with the most appropriate words).

   Next, you need to make sure that list of positive statements is visible to you during the day (e.g. by your computer, by your bedside), so that you can be reminded frequently of your affirmations, and repeat them whenever you have the chance.

   And lastly, you need to make sure that you cannot see the negative statements you started with, because that can derail your attempts at autosuggestion.

   Of course, you could use the resulting affirmations in any of the techniques listed in the previous section too.

3. Look For Evidence. The key to this is to make sure you can spot the difference between evidence and opinions.

   For example, “This weather is depressing” is an opinion, whereas “It’s raining” is a fact.

   It may be true that you find the weather depressing, but that doesn’t mean everybody else may do – others may love seeing or hearing the rain, or even being outside in it.

   But it would be pretty difficult to dispute the fact that it is indeed raining.

   So, when you hear negative self-talk, check whether there is any evidence to back up what you just told yourself.

   In many cases, you’ll find that your self-talk is based on an opinion and not on facts, in which case it’s often safe to discount that opinion.

   And when it is based on fact, then you can work on changing matters so that next time, it will be different (e.g. because you have learned a new skill).

   For example, if you say “I made a mess of that task“, you may discover, on investigation, that you were correct – you did mess it up. But digging deeping, you may uncover that the reason was because you didn’t have the appropriate level of knowledge or skills – both of which are remediable.

4. Rephrasing. This is another way to help deal with negative self-talk, where you change one or more words you’ve used to describe yourself to a gentler, more supportive word or phrase.

   For example, if you hear yourself saying “I’m a failure“, try “I’m looking for a way that works“.

5. Using Mementos. Studies show that it is easier to change when you experience positive emotions.

   In practice, then, you can think about a time in your life when you dealt with a specific situation well, and then create a persona memento that reminds you of that occasion.

   Then, when you’re faced with a similar challenge, you can use that memento to reinforce the belief that you dealt with that issue before, so you can do so again.

Conclusion

Autosuggestion can be a powerful tool if your affirmations are:

1. Believable.
2. Well worded (e.g. present tense, powerful words, positive).
3. In the first person (unless you’re going to use recorded affirmations to play when you are sleeping).
4. Repeated often enough, preferably when you’re relaxed, but any time is better than never.

And lastly, note that autosuggestion may be considered a form of positive thinking, but the affirmations used during auto-suggestion are much more specific and targetted, whereas positive thinking is often more vague, with an attitude of “it will work out in the end”.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Affirmation Software
2. Self Mastery Through Conscious Autosuggestion