My hypnotherapy client said that he couldn’t meditate. He said he couldn’t stop thinking. Then it hit me… if he’s constantly thinking, then let’s use that to his advantage. And the Ping Pong Technique was born!
If you can’t relax your mind, this one’s for you. If you can relax your mind, but you’d like to relax it even faster, then this one’s for you. If you just love saying “Ping Pong,” then this one’s for you.
Ping Pong Technique
1. Think of a random thought, and keep thinking about it for one or two seconds.
2. Then switch to another random thought every one or two seconds. Do not go beyond two seconds per thought. Constant switching to new thoughts makes this technique work.
Notes
Some people will last 30 seconds. Some will last one minute. A few will last two minutes at most. (Cue the tasteless jokes.)
- Usually once a client tries this technique, within two minutes they’ll say, “I stopped thinking. I don’t want to think. My head is clear.”
- They are often shocked, especially if they have tried traditional meditation.
- We just took their unwanted skill of constant thinking, and we used that skill to their advantage.
- They just overloaded their brain with thoughts until their brain says, “Enough! You want me to keep thinking? Well, forget you! I’m not thinking!”
After you have a clear head, you can simply enjoy that state of mind.
If you’d like to enhance it even further, use a breathing meditation such as the Simple Countdown Technique or Four Count Breath. Links are below.
https://habitproject.com/2014/simple-countdown.html
https://habitproject.com/2015/four-count-breath.html
If you try the Ping Pong Technique and have any questions on how to do it, I’m happy to have a quick phone call to help out.
If you decide to try it out, please post your experience with it in this blog post. You may inspire someone else to try it, too.