self hypnosis/NLP

Has anyone tried this? I think the first time I heard this I might have thought it was kind of a fake thing.. But the more I learned about it, the more I realized its completely real. We actually go through some sort of hypnosis all the time, its more common than you think. All it means is reaching an altered and slower state of brain activity. Its the state you commonly get in say seconds before and after sleep, reading a highly engrossing book or watching a movie, sitting in a boring class where youre being lulled, or even yoga/medititation. That's not new to me. But how do affirmations and suggestions get absorbed into our psyche this way? Im really curious about this. With a few spoken words, how do we really absorb this into something our brains can meaningfully decipher?

More importantly, does it really work. Ive been successful at a few exercises to combat my anxiety, but Im not sure Im really not just mentally blocking the pain AND experience rather than feeling the pain and the glory of it. Im wondering if NLP/hynosis will make me take the edge off enough to just "GO!" and dive in head first and feel every bit of it.

Ive been successful at a few exercises to combat my anxiety

Be cautious that you are not experiencing the placebo effect.