Émile Coué 1857 - 1926 was a French psychologist and pharmacist who introduced a method of psychotherapy, healing, and self-improvement, based on autosuggestion or self-hypnosis. He has been called the Father of Applied Conditioning. He is remembered for his formula for curing by optimistic autosuggestion. His teaching achieved a vogue in England and the United States in the 1920s.Some of us are familiar with the quote by Émile Coué, "Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better." Few people are aware that he was also a pharmacist and a pioneer in hypnosis.
He believed in "autosuggestion" (self-hypnosis). He noticed that remedies given with positive autosuggestion worked better than the remedies alone. He also was known to state that each person had the solution to their own problem; "You have in yourself the instrument of your cure."
Coué often worked with patients to build what we would call today, their self-image or self-esteem. He did this by utilizing his "Law of Concentrated Attention." The Law of Concentrated Attention states that whenever attention is concentrated on an idea over and over again, it spontaneously tends to realize itself. That's where "every day..." came in.
Much of the modern brief therapy and solution focused therapy share parts of this philosophy.
Coué learned hypnosis from Ambroise-Auguste Liébault, the founder of Nancy School, and in 1913 Coué founded the Lorraine Society of Applied Psychology. His book Self-mastery through conscious autosuggestion caused a sensation on its publication in England (1920) and in the United States (1922).
Coué introduced a new method, the self-starting of conscious autosuggestion. He modified the theory of Abbé Faria by proposing that for autosuggestion to flow from the mind, one has to feed it first. By repeating words or images as self-suggestion to the subconscious mind, one can condition the mind, and then the conditioned mind will produce an autogenic command when required.
His familiar mantra, "Day by day, in every way, I am getting better and better" (Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vais de mieux en mieux), is sometimes known as Couéism, or the Coué method. The method depended in part on routine repetition of the formula.
Here is the complete Émile Coué formulation:
Maintain a calm, soothing tone of voice as you read the formulations, and when you are familiar with the text, you might want to record it so it can be played back while you are in the alpha state.
Get comfortable, either sitting down or lying on your back, and close your eyes. I don’t want you to try and fall asleep. I am telling you to close your eyes so you can concentrate without being distracted by anything you might see. Now tell yourself that everything I am going to say will be recorded by your brain, engraved in your mind. And that, without your knowing it, without any effort on your part, your organism and your entire being will obey what your subconscious mind tells you to do.
1. The first thing I am going to tell you is that every day, 3 times a day, morning, noon and evening, at mealtimes, you will feel hungry. You will experience the pleasant sensation of feeling slightly hungry and think, “Mm, I’d love to have something to eat!” And you will eat, savoring every mouthful, enjoying your food immensely, without eating too much. You’ll be careful to chew your food well, transforming it into a soft paste in your mouth before you swallow. This will help you digest well, so that you will feel absolutely no discomfort in your stomach or intestines afterwards, no pain or heartburn, no discomfort at all. Your body will digest and assimilate the food you ingest perfectly, using all the nutrients it contains to renew your supply of blood, muscles, energy, in short, to regenerate life.
2. Because you digest your food well, your intestines will function normally and effectively. Every morning, shortly after you wake up, you will feel the need to go to the bathroom. Your bowel movements will be normal and satisfying, and you won’t need the help of any kind of medication or artificial stimulant.
3. Every night, from the moment you want to go to sleep to the moment you wake up in the morning, you will be able to sleep deeply and calmly, without having any bad dreams.
4.When you wake up in the morning you will feel fresh and fully rested, ready to enjoy the day.
5. If you sometimes feel sad or depressed, if you sometimes get bored or worry too much, you can rest assured that you won’t have those kinds of feelings any more. Instead of feeling sad or depressed, instead of worrying, you will feel happy, very happy, for no eason at all, in the same way that you may have felt sad for no reason from time to time. From now on you’ll feel happy and joyous inside. And even if you have real cause to worry or feel sad, you won’t fall into depression. You will do what has to be done, nourished by the joy and happiness of being alive.
6. If you sometimes became impatient or angry in the past, you won’t anymore. From now on you will have infinite patience, you’ll always be able to control your anger. You will no longer be bothered by the things that used to irritate or upset you in the past.
7. If you sometimes find yourself thinking terrible things, things that are unhealthy for you, fears, phobias, temptations, hateful thoughts, rest assured that these kinds of thoughts will arise less and less frequently in your mind.
8. And whenever they do, they will melt away, like clouds dissolving in a clear sky, until they disappear completely. All your useless, harmful thoughts will simply vanish, just like a dream when you awaken.
9. All your bodily organs are functioning well. Your heart is beating normally, blood is circulating freely through your body, nourishing all your cells. Your lungs are functioning normally, as are your stomach, liver, gall bladder, kidneys, and bladder. If one of your organs happens to be functioning abnormally at the moment, rest assured that the problem will get better day by day, and in the very near future, disappear altogether, so that all your organs can function normally.
10. And if any of your organs have developed lesions, the lesions will start healing as of now. They will get better day by day, until very soon they will have disappeared completely.
11. I also have this to say, and it is very important: if, in the past, you felt there was something wrong with you, if there was something you didn’t like about yourself, rest assured that from now on whatever was bothering you about yourself will gradually start to disappear, and will be replaced by a strong sense of self confidence, based on the strength you draw from that immeasurable force that exists in each and every one of us.
12. You should know that this unshakable confidence in yourself is absolutely indispensable for all human beings. Without self confidence you’ll never amount to anything, with it you can do anything you want, within reason. Your self confidence will get stronger day by day. It will provide you with the certitude that, not only are you able to do things well, you are able to do whatever you want and whatever it is your duty to do extremely well, on condition, of course, that what you want is within the bounds of reason.
13. So whenever you want to do something, or when you have some duty to fulfil, always remember that the task will be easy for you. Words like difficult, impossible, can’t, too much, not good enough … and so on, will disappear from your vocabulary, and be replaced by words like I can, it’s so easy, I will … If you think something is easy, then it becomes easy for you, although it might seem difficult to others. Whatever you do will be done quickly and effectively, without fatigue, almost without effort. But if you consider something difficult or impossible, then it will become difficult or impossible for you, just because of the way you think.
Coué suggests that specific formulations pertaining to individual cases be introduced at this point.
14. Rest assured that in all ways, both physically and mentally, you will enjoy excellent health. You will start feeling much healthier than you’ve ever felt before.
15. Now I’m going to count to 3, and when I say ‘three’you’ll open your eyes and emerge from the state you’re in, slowly, gradually. As you resurface you won’t feel at all tired. On the contrary, you’ll feel strong, vigorous, alert, refreshed, bursting with energy. You’ll also feel happy and joyous, both in yourself and in all your relations with others. 1 … 2 … 3. . .
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