Over the past couple of decades, mindfulness has moved from the margins to the mainstream—and for good reason. There’s now a solid body of research showing that regular mindfulness practice can do more than just help you “feel calm.” It’s been shown to improve emotional regulation, reduce attentional biases, and help us take a step back to gain broader perspective on life’s challenges.
But the benefits go even deeper—literally. Mindfulness doesn’t just shift how we think and feel; it also creates changes in the body and brain. At the neurological and cardiovascular level, mindfulness practices can help recalibrate how we respond to stress, bringing the autonomic nervous system back into balance. This has far-reaching implications for both mental and physical health.
Interestingly, these effects aren’t exclusive to mindfulness. Meditation and hypnosis, two practices often viewed as very different, share a lot in common when it comes to how they affect brain function. Research has shown that both can lead to structural and functional changes in the brain (Stevens, 2011; Zimmer, 2017), particularly in areas like the amygdala and the anterior cingulate cortex, which are heavily involved in emotional reactivity and stress responses.
In short? Both meditation and hypnosis can help calm the storm. They also share a common ability to boost something known as metacognitive awareness—that is, our capacity to notice and reflect on our own thoughts and feelings. Depending on the approach, both practices can bring attention inward (helping us tune into bodily sensations and improve physical well-being) or expand it outward into more transcendent, empathic, or big-picture states of mind. Whether it’s guided or self-practice, both hypnosis and meditation can help foster compassion, perspective-taking, and deeper emotional resilience.
One fascinating area of overlap is how both modalities use language. In solution-focused hypnotherapy, for example, guided visualisations often rely on rich metaphor and imagery—an approach influenced by the work of Milton Erickson, who favoured a gentle, non-directive style. These metaphors aren’t just poetic touches—they help people uncover and reframe deeply held, limiting beliefs in ways that feel meaningful and personal.
And the brain loves metaphor. Studies using EEG and fMRI scanning (Comer et al., 2021) have shown that when we hear stories or metaphors, our brains respond differently than when we hear plain, literal language. These imaginative forms of language light up areas of the brain connected to emotion, empathy, creativity, and meaning-making—not just the usual language processing zones.
All this points to a much more widespread—and often unacknowledged—use of trance-like states in modern therapeutic work.
For example, psychologist Michael Yapko (2011) has highlighted the hypnotic elements present in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programs, pointing out their philosophical and linguistic similarities to trancework. Aaron Beck, one of the pioneers of CBT, supported the use of guided imagery in therapy. Bessel van der Kolk (2014), a leading figure in trauma research, has spoken about the clinical benefits of inducing “alpha states”—those dreamy, relaxed mental states that often accompany meditation and hypnosis. And in a more recent development, Professor Andrew Huberman introduced a protocol called “Non-Sleep Deep Rest,” which, if you look closely, shares much in common with classic hypnotic induction.
Even major institutions are catching on. A 2022 report from the Wellcome Trust highlighted the clinical potential of mental imagery techniques, reinforcing what many therapists and practitioners have known for years: that the way we use our minds has a powerful impact on how we feel in our bodies—and how we show up in the world.
References:
Comer, C & Taggart, A (2021) Brain, mind and the narrative imagination. Bloomsbury
Stevens, FL et al (2011) Anterior Cingulate Cortex: Unique role in cognition and emotion. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.
wellcome report What-science-has-shown-can-help-young-people-with-anxiety-and-depression.pdf
Yapko, M. D., (2011). Mindfulness and Hypnosis: The Power of Suggestion to Transform Experience.New York, NY: Norton.
Zimmer, C (2017) In patients under hypnosis, scientists find distinctive patterns in the brain. Stat. https://www.statnews.com/2016/07/28/hypnosis-psychiatry-brain-activity/