How Hypnosis Rewires the Overthinking Brain

Hi there,

I used to think hypnosis was a joke.

A gimmick. A scam. Right up there with pyramid schemes and people who charge $300 to tell you your aura is "clogged." It was definitely something I associated with weak minds and drama kids.

The idea of someone “hypnotizing” me made me cringe. I didn’t want to lose control (or my dignity) and get tricked into clucking like a chicken.

Then it cracked my type-A brain open like a coconut and everything changed.

What I didn’t know was this: hypnosis doesn’t work because you lose control. It works because your brain is already operating in hypnotic states. Every day. Without you knowing it.

If you’ve ever:

• Missed your freeway exit while deep in thought,

• Lost track of time scrolling your phone or gotten completely engrossed in a good book or movie,

• Zoned out during a meeting and then snapped back with zero recollection

… then you’ve already experienced a hypnotic state.

The difference is, you didn’t do it on purpose.

According to Dr. David Spiegel at Stanford University, one of the foremost researchers in the field, hypnosis is simply a state of highly focused attention paired with reduced peripheral awareness. It’s a state where your brain becomes more receptive to suggestion, but you’re not unconscious. You’re just selectively tuned in.

When you’re under hypnosis, fMRI scans show several neurological changes:

1. The dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, your brain’s alarm bell, quiets down.
   

2. The insula (which processes body sensations) and the prefrontal cortex (which governs decision-making) start working in sync.
   

3. The default mode network, including the posterior cingulate cortex (your internal narrator), decreases activity.

In plain English: you become less reactive, more embodied, and less locked into your usual identity script. You stop running the same old story. That creates space for neural pathways to open up, to imagine, and more importantly, to build something new.

Why It Works (and Why Most Self-Help Doesn’t)

Most attempts at change focus on willpower and logic. But the real patterns, the pesky ones that trip you up, don’t live there. They live deeper.

Habits, fears, defense mechanisms… these are stored in subcortical regions of the brain. They’re not accessed through rational, conscious thought. They’re accessed through altered states, which is exactly what hypnosis provides.

It’s not woo-woo, mysticism, or bro science. It’s neuroplasticity. You create a state of focused inner attention where the brain is more flexible and more willing to rewire itself.

That’s why it works.

When My Brain Worked Against Me

I didn’t set out to try hypnosis because I believed in it. I tried it out of desperation and sheer panic.

It was 3 a.m. in a dim hotel room in Washington, DC. I was the lead writer on a $20 million proposal project. I sat on the edge of a stiff hotel bed, fluorescent lights buzzing overhead, the clock ticking. Literally. Each second dragged me closer to a 9 a.m. deadline for one of the most high-stakes projects of the year.

And I couldn’t write.

I’d started and deleted the opening paragraph a dozen times. Each version sounded too flat. I second-guessed every word, every sentence. My inner critic was having a field day:

“That’s weak. You write like someone who learned English through karaoke subtitles.”
“That’s not a paragraph. That’s a cry for help in Times New Roman.”
“Who let you lead this? Just quit already, take a vow of silence, and spare us your pathetic attempt at words.”

The clock ticked louder. My chest got tighter. My hands felt cold and clammy. I was trying to breathe, but it felt like I was underwater.

I needed a way out. So I grabbed the only thing I hadn’t tried: a hypnosis track I’d saved months ago and never opened.

I didn’t believe it would work. I just needed the panic to stop screaming.

I hit play.

The voice in the recording was calm, steady. It said things like, “Imagine what completion feels like” and “Let the words come to you like pieces of a puzzle, one by one slotting into place.” (I still remember that phrase and that image to this day.)

And somehow, they did.

My jaw unclenched. The storm in my head got quiet. I didn’t fall into a trance or lose consciousness. But I did stop arguing with myself for the first time in days.

I felt my breathing again.

I opened my laptop and wrote the thing. Not with a burst of inspiration, but with quiet certainty. All of it. By dawn, the proposal was done.

Hypnosis didn’t write it for me. But it did interrupted the spiral long enough for me to show up. And it gave me access to the part of me that could.

That was my first glimmer into the power of hypnosis.

What No One Tells You

We think breakthroughs require force.

We think we need to push through, fight back, take control.

But what if the real power lies in soft, focused attention, not brute force?

Hypnosis isn’t about forcing your brain to behave, it’s about gently suggesting new ways for it to see. Because once your mind opens up to possibilities and you can imagine it then you will take the steps to start to build it.

Here’s what no one tells you about changing your life: it doesn’t feel like a movie montage. It feels like standing at the edge of a cliff, heart pounding, legs shaking, and realizing no one is coming to push you. You have to jump.

Hypnosis didn’t shove me. But it quieted the part of me screaming not to move.

Since I started using it, my entire life has changed… quietly, steadily, and completely.

I walked away from a job that had me waking up with anxiety in my throat every morning. The kind of job that drains your spirit one ignored boundary at a time. I left a boss who weaponized charm and criticism in equal measure and finally stopped mistaking survival for loyalty.

I moved to a new country. No backup plan. Just the voice in my head getting quieter and a different one getting stronger.

I embarked on a whole new career path aligned with what actually matters to me.

And I started writing again. After years of talking myself out of it. After ten years of watching other people do it and telling myself they had something I didn’t.

All of this happened in the last 6 months.

No guru. No five-step plan. Just a tool that helped me get beneath the noise and finally hear myself clearly. Hypnosis wasn’t the magic. But it gave me the space to make magic possible.

None of that would’ve happened if I hadn’t first interrupted the loop in my own head. Hypnosis helped me break that cycle.

And before I tell anyone else to try something, I test it on the hardest subject I know: me. Again and again. Because I’m a hard nut to crack and before I ever stand on a soapbox, I want to know that what I’m sharing has real teeth. This does.

It’s the only thing that’s ever managed to outsmart my overthinking, over-analytical, type-A, immigrant-brain-wired-for-survival, achievement-addicted inner monster who thinks rest is for people who don’t love their parents.

Now I can stand here and say this with clarity: It works. It’s real. And it’s worth your curiosity.

What It Really Comes Down To

If you strip away the word "hypnosis," what’s left is a skill we rarely practice:

Talking to yourself on purpose and with intention.

Not with shame. Not with judgment. But with care.

So if your inner monologue has been running on autopilot filled with doubt, fear, perfectionism maybe it’s time to try something different.

Not louder. Not harsher. Just… different.

You don’t have to believe it works.

You just have to slip past the armor of your rational mind to allow another suggestion or possibility to seep into your reality. Try it with the same openness you’d give to anything else that works below the surface.

Like gravity. Or love.

Because sometimes, all it takes to shift your focus is a quieter voice. And allow yourself an opportunity to experience something different. (Dangling pocket watch optional).

Want to Try It?

Ever dismissed something you thought was total BS, only to be completely shocked when it actually worked?

Reply and tell me. I’d love to hear it!

And if you’re curious to try it, reply “add me” to this email. I’ll be offering three people a complimentary 1:1 session once I wrap up my hypnotherapy certification later this year.

Again, it’s not magic. I’m just offering the tool that finally helped me shut up my panic and make big, bold moves in life.

Until next week,

Shakila

P.S. Here’s the results of last week’s poll.