Nail biting is related to skin picking and hair pulling. These behaviors are labeled as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders. Nail biters keep their hands behind their backs or in their pockets. Nail biters often feel social embarrassment and experience out-of-control feelings at times. At times they may wonder why they are not able to stop biting and they often question whether or not they are sane.

Biting often happens when people are in one of two modes. Some nail biters do it in an automatic way, as if they are in some kind of altered state and not really thinking about what they are doing. It’s often when they are engrossed in some other activity at the same time such as talking on the phone or watching TV, etc. For others, their main activity at the time is the actual picking or biting, and they will usually interrupt their other activities to engage in it.

There is a strong commonality seen in the various purposes behind nail biting, skin picking and hair pulling. At a very basic level, these symptoms satisfy an urge. Many report an uncontrollable compulsion to do them. Pulling, picking or biting also seems to deliver a pleasurable or relaxed sensation.

When sufferers feel stressed, doing these things has a kind of soothing effect on their nervous systems and reduces levels of stimulation. On the other hand, when they are bored or inactive, they seem to provide a needed level of stimulation to the nervous system. This may account for why so many people who dislike doing them find it so hard to give up these behaviors. It simply “feels good” at the time no matter what.

Even if you have more than one of these problems, do not give up on yourself. These symptoms can be overcome if you have the motivation. More important is learning to “de-stigmatize” yourself. You are not crazy, helpless, morally weak or totally out of control, even though you may feel like you are at times. Once you realize that you are just a person who simply happens to have a bad habit, you can make some serious progress.

Skin picking and nail biting are chronic problems, so there is not currently a “cure” but you can find a recovery if you are willing to work at it. Hypnosis for nail biting consists of three parts.

Therapy For Nail Biting

First off, nail biting is a nervous habit. So the first part of the therapy is to teach the nail biter how to be more relaxed at all times. To that end, I have found that traditional hypnosis, Ericksonian hypnosis, and NLP techniques are usually quite effective. That’s because the very essence of hypnosis is relaxation. The biter can learn to apply several different methods to increase both the relaxed state, as well as his/her overall feeling of relaxation and well-being.

The second part teaches the biter awareness of this unconscious habit. Suggestions are given to the unconscious mind to make the consciousness aware that you are about to bite your nails. Then you get to consciously decide whether or not you are actually going to bite them.

There are also several other powerful hypnosis and NLP techniques. As an example, we can help the client to set up an “Anchor” or trigger so that he/she can momentarily mentally step outside of him/herself. This is an effective method that will effectively relieve the compulsion.

The third part of the hypnotherapy is to eliminate the compulsion to bite. There are hypnotic techniques that actually program the client with a compulsion to not bite.

With this particular behavior, being realistic is very important. First, you have practiced the unwanted behavior hundreds or even thousands of times. It is important to accept that the urge to bite your nails will not be overcome in a few days.

Second, you are fighting the fact that biting your nails feels good, and it offers a lot of short-term satisfaction and either stimulation or soothing feelings. It can take time to overcome, but it will be worth it. My experience has shown a number of techniques to be very effective!

Have you ever felt you communicated clearly with someone, but that person didn’t understand what you said? Did you blame them for not listening properly, or for misinterpreting your words? Or did you take responsibility for the response your communication elicited? Were you centered with your truth while being flexible in your approach?

Communication is like a dance, where we lead and follow, give and receive, speak and listen, create and accept. Through this dance we can come to master our self. First, though, we must take responsibility for how our communication lands in someone else’s universe. It doesn’t help the dance, nor does it reflect well on the dancers when one partner blames another for missteps.

It takes two to tango.

Effective communication is more than just saying what’s on your mind. Effective communication bridges worlds! It requires active expression, listening, information processing, flexibility, and awareness. Communication is most effective when two people seamlessly align and become one in mind.

How many different ways are there to express the same thing? When a child in grade school is taught to say, “May I use that, please,” instead of, “Give me that,” how does it change a playmate’s response?

Not only can we use different words, but we can also adjust our tone, inflection and volume. On a sports field it may be acceptable to really project our voice, where as in a library it is more appropriate to communicate quietly. It’s amazing how minor changes in how we communicate lead to profound changes in how people respond.

Much of communication is, in fact, nonverbal, including pauses, body language and awareness. When the totality of our communication is congruent with what we wish to express, the response we get will be most aligned with our desired outcomes. If our body language, tone or volume doesn’t match our words, or our words conflict with our identity, then we are less likely to achieve the results we desire.

Self-mastery and communication

If you have difficulty communicating or find yourself dissatisfied with your results, investigate the reasons, and remember that we are always empowered to create the change we wish to see in the world. At Niurka Inc. we teach our team members and clients many tools including mirroring and matching, how to frame communication and how to build rapport.

Effective communication produces effective responses.

Resistant responses reflect to us that we are communicating with resistance.

We have all heard someone say, “so and so is impossible to communicate with?” What they are really communicating is that they lack the skill to align with and fully move a person to action through their communication.

Masters of influence and communication don’t label people as being stubborn or slow, impossible or stupid. These masters are aware of their partner’s mode of communication, and flexible enough to adjust to that person’s way of communicating.

Truly successful people take ownership for the results their communication produces, because they recognize that they are empowered to create the change they want. They are conscious of how the responses they receive are a reflection of their own expression.

Some people prefer to meditate silently without any music but there are others who prefer to meditate with music. Different people like different music to meditate by. Some like to have music playing in the background while they meditate while others like the form of meditation that involves making music to meditate by.

Meditation is a simple and easy art and even children can easily practice it. With music to meditate by meditation can be made even more interesting for children. You get a choice of meditation music that is especially meant for children.

Whatever form of meditation you choose, it is important to remember that music to meditate by should be simple, calm, soothing and peaceful. It should induce feelings of inner peace and help you to focus. Loud music to meditate by is destructive and unproductive. It is distracting and creates feelings of chaos. The most popular musical instruments associated with meditation include the sitar, flute, Tibetan singing bow and the tambora.

While some people use music to meditate by, there are many musicians who use meditation to calm themselves and to stay focused before any major performance. If you are using music as a means of meditation, you should try and stop doing everything else and just focus on the music in order to get the full benefits of the music. It also helps you to enjoy the music more.

If you are looking for music to meditate by, there are plenty on online websites that offer different kinds of meditation music that you can buy. Some websites allow you to listen to a sample of the music so you can decide if that is what you are looking for. There are even a few websites that offer free mp3 downloads of music to meditate by. Just do an internet search on meditation music and you are sure to find something that is just right for you.