Increasing the power of your self-suggestions
 

Start every suggestion by breathing in, and by exhaling when you get to the keywords of your suggestion (e.g., "more and more" while breathing in, "relaxed" while exhaling).

This trains your mind to associate positive release of exhale with suggestion itself and make it much stronger. Furthermore, it slows down your pulse and allows you to physically relax faster. When you get better with self-suggestion, you can stop doing this, but experience has shown it really helps beginners overcome any resistance for guiding themselves. --- from Teppo Holmqvist

https://www.reddit.com/user/teppo_holmqvist/ (last post on that page)

SIMPLE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO SELF-HYPNOSIS

For actual instructions, all your directions should be stated slowly in the second person narrative (e.g., "You are becoming more and more relaxed."). While suggestions should preferably be so specific as possible, you also want leave them open-ended. This way the mind can just direct you in a way which feels most natural for you. For instance, if you request your mind to lead you into place of "perfect relaxation", it will lead you into place inside your mind that seems most ideal for you. Your mind will also always edit a suggestion to match your intention. For example, if you give yourself suggestions about relaxation won't make you comatose.

• Close your eyes
• Relax your body and allow yourself to breathe slowly
• Tell your mind that each time you visualize the number 3, your body will relax more and more.
  Visualize the number 3 three times focusing on any feelings that visualizing the number causes
• Tell your mind that each time you visualize the number 2, your mind will relax more and more.
  Visualize number 2 three times focusing on any feelings that visualizing the number causes.
• Tell your mind that each time you visualize the number 1, you want to go into open state of mind where you "learn and imagine best".
  Visualize number 1 three times focusing on any feelings that visualizing the number causes.
• Open your eyes

This process should be fairly self-explanatory. You are just basically training your mind to associate different types of relaxation with visualizing the number. The key of doing this process is to focus on how these numbers make you feel like instead of the numbers. This will start to train the brain to associate specific kind of relaxation with the number. You want to separate physical relaxation from mental primarily because it is easier to relax your mind after you have become physically relaxed. For number 1, you just want your mind to recall state of mind where you are particularly receptive for learning new experiences. Evoking state like this is just easier when you are already very relaxed.

After doing this routine, you should feel much more relaxed and focused. Now, you just need to have intent to relax yourself and visualize the numbers in order to relax yourself faster. In the beginning, effects of this process will most likely be on the weak side, but each time you repeat the triggers, their effect get more profound. You will also get faster and faster in doing this through repetition. This kind of relaxed and open state of mind makes it much easier for you to do any kind of mental exercises.