How to cope with cancer through self-hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is a guide that leads you from your conscious state into a state of calm relaxation. The relaxed state allows you to develop a new perspective on your condition. Positive feelings ensue, and you can better communicate with your body through the subconscious mind. Instead of working through an analytical mode of thought, your mind shifts to a synthetic mode of thinking. This allows greater communication between emotions, sensations, and the body. In turn, you have greater control of your body on physical and psychological levels. Self-hypnosis is also very effective in modulating pain. Sensations of pain are closely associated with depression and anxiety. Hypnosis can help you lessen cancer pain by removing the negative feelings that accompany it. This process also helps you replace pain sensations with pleasant ones. Visualization is a powerful tool in self-hypnosis because the subconscious mind does not distinguish between reality and imagination. Self-hypnosis helps you focus on positive emotions and sensations, making them real in the mind. Your body, then, responds in kind. Breast cancer patients need fewer anesthetics during operations and reported less pain, nausea, fatigue, and emotional distress after the operation if they have been relaxed by hypnosis beforehand, US research suggests. Patients in the study of 200 women by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine reported less pain afterward.