Stress & Anxiety
Anxiety is necessary but it needs to be appropriate. It is a normal response to stress or danger, more commonly referred to as the ‘flight or fight’ response. Adrenalin is pumped throughout the body, enabling it to deal with whatever catastrophe (whether real or imagined) may happen.
Symptoms can be both psychological and physical and include:
- Stomach churning
- Rapid heart beat
- Sweaty palms
- An urge to use the loo quickly
- Negative thinking, negative forecasting, negative introspection, negative questioning of oneself
In everyday life, this response is seldom required. Whilst the anxious caveman would have had a better chance of surviving because of being aware of the ever present threat of wild tribesmen and wild animals, modern day life, though it can be challenging, does not require this same response. Yet, the brain misinterprets the constant bombardment of stressful situations, the result of which is anxiety.
A healthy amount of anxiety can help get the very best out of us but too much can seriously affect our lives and stop us being at our best. Every negative thought we have is converted into anxiety and anxiety is stored in what we might term the ‘stress bucket’. We can fill that bucket gradually, almost without our noticing, until we reach a point where small tasks become difficult and we begin to avoid certain situations, as the brain sees those situations as dangerous.
How hypnotherapy can help
Hypnotherapy can have immeasurable benefits by helping to reduce anxiety and stress, fundamentally altering the way we live our lives. When a person is focused on what they want, rather than what they do not want, the grip which negative thinking has on a person is loosened. The more relaxed we are generally, the more we move from the primitive parameters of the emotional mind (the symptomology of which is anxiety, anger and depression, or a combination of all three) to seeing life instead from the perspective of the solution focused, intellectual mind, the resources of which are vast. Hypnotherapy helps a person gain access to those resources, which are already there waiting to be accessed.
The aim of hypnotherapy is not to get rid of anxiety, as it is fundamental to our survival. Rather, we reduce the level of anxiety we experience to a level appropriate for any given situation, enabling us to see life more clearly and create new precedents for continued success. A dramatic effect can often result simply by our having an understanding of the processes involved.