Close your eyes
Think of a place where you feel tranquil, calm, relaxed, comfortable... Could be a real place, or a fantasy place... Maybe you're on a tropical beach, or a mountainside. Maybe you're in a forest or a meadow of wild flowers, or a beautiful garden. It's your place, unique to you and perfect for you.
Focus on the sights. Turn slowly around in your minds eye you can see the beautiful scenery all around stretching as far as the eye can see. The colours are bright. The sky is stunning. You can see every detail.
Now focus on the sounds... Can you hear the waves or a nearby stream? Perhaps birds are singing or a soft breeze is rustling leaves... Focus on the sounds of your perfect peaceful place, as you look around.
Now think about what you can feel. The warm sun on your skin, a gentle breeze in your hair, cool, fresh water, the texture of sand or grass under foot, the feel of rough bark or delicate petals... Wherever you are, focus on the textures and sensations of that perfect, peaceful place.
There may be tastes or smells... Cool fresh scent of the earth under the trees, the ozone smell of the ocean, the taste of a juicy fruit from a tree or the scent of flowers.
Now, focus back on the sights. Make the colours brighter, explore in different directions, seeing everything so clearly.
And as you explore notice the changing sounds...
And what can you feel here?
Can you taste or smell anything here in your perfect, tranquil place?

Revisit your place when you need to de-stress. Take time with each sense. Develop it.

Lots of things can block us from being as effective as we'd like to be. Knowing something holds you back doesn't make it magically disappear.
Phobias are one example.
Tasks 'out of our comfort zone' are another.
Issues that resonate with our past or current difficulties can be hard to deal with...

Hypnosis and associated simple techniques can help with some of these issues. Not suggesting all leaders need psychotherapy but...!

Eg. Using visualisation to rehearse difficult conversation. Progressively over time get further and further through the visualisation. Use your peaceful place whenever you start to feel tense or anxious. Repeat, repeat, until you can visualise all the way through while feeling calm throughout.

Eg. Using 'fast phobia cure' on an area that bothers you (not just for phobias). Choose a memory that bothers you, an experience you have a negative relationship with, something you're scared of, or dislike. You're going to put yourself in the cinema. It's comfortable, you've got an excellent seat, and you have snacks. Now leave yourself in that seat and float your mind back up to the projection booth. You can see the projector, ready to go. When you turn it on (not now, but when I say to do so in a few minutes), you'll be switching on a movie that stars you. The movie is a summary of the memory, phobia or whatever. It's a short clip, that starts with you, relaxed and happy before the incident, and the movie clip will end with you relaxed and happy after the experience. It's a shocking piece of film, scratched, black and white and faded, plays fast then slow, jerky like a Charlie Chaplin-era silent film. Now, your mind in the projection booth is going to flip on the projector and play the clip forward - you're going to watch the you in the audience watching the you in the bad black and white movie. Remember, the movie starts when you're relaxed and happy and ends after the incident when you're relaxed and happy. When you flip on the projector, you will be surprised to hear that the whole movie is set to the Benny Hill soundtrack... Turn the projector on now.
The film is frozen on the last frame, with you relaxed and happy after the event. Now, jump into the film ... You're the you on the screen. You're frozen in the final frame, and the setting is in 3D and colour all around you. You're the actor you. And I've got the rewind button. When I hit rewind you're going to experience the whole movie, very fast, backwards, with backwards benny hill music as you whizz in reverse through the entire movie, back to the beginning where you were also relaxed and happy. 3-2-1 rewind...
Repeat jump into final frame and rewind faster and faster several times.

Visualisation of times, places and experiences where you've felt confident, proud of yourself, appreciated etc can be combined with triggers (a secret gesture, a mental image) to help you create confidence in settings where you might normally be anxious.

Using the peaceful place to relax, combined with thoughts / suggestions around openness, creativity, dreaming, can be really effective.

Artfully vague language vs directive language
"Discover useful learnings"
"Recall helpful experiences"
"Develop deeper understanding"
"Generate interesting suggestions"
"Process relevant history"


Suggestibility
Directions are all suggestion with or without hypnosis.