Managing Blood Pressure with Hypnosis
Obviously,
the first thing in relation to blood pressure is to check with your
doctor.
Hypnosis can help with keeping blood pressure low in the following
ways. There are quite a lot of people who feel stressed or anxious just
as the doctor is taking their blood pressure, this is known as "white
coat syndrome", or "white coat hypertension". Some of these people
don't have high blood pressure during the course of the day, but if
your heart starts pounding as your blood pressure is being taken, it
will not be your at rest blood pressure!
Simply learning self hypnosis can be useful in this situation, as you
relax your body and mind, and thus your doctor gets the at rest blood
pressure. Typically to get your blood pressure during the day, the
doctor will ask you to wear a device that takes your blood pressure at
various times during the day. There are also blood pressure reading
devices that are simple to use that you put onto your wrist, and while
these are not as accurate as the arm cuff devices the doctor uses, they
are useful as biofeedback devices that let you know how you are doing
with your blood pressure. The typical hypnotic "treatment" for blood
pressure is simply to teach you self hypnosis, combined with a short
meditation. In this state of mind, you have a certain amount of
conscious mind influence over your autonomic nervous system. The
autonomic nervous system is the part of you that functions
automatically, outside of conscious control. It's a good thing we don't
have to consciously regulate our heart beat, otherwise we'd have to say
to ourselves, I'd better remember to keep my heart beating while I'm
reading this book!
The autonomic nervous system has two main "modes", the parasympathetic
nervous system, and the sympathetic nervous system.
The
sympathetic nervous system is in action during times of high action,
working, running, fighting, reproduction, exercising, worrying, and
during stress and anxiety. Blood and oxygen are typically diverted to
the arms and legs and other parts of your body for purposes of action.
The
parasympathetic nervous system is active during times of rest, eating,
relaxing, daydreaming, sleeping (unless during a disturbing or
stimulating dream!). It is the time when your body rests, recuperates,
heals itself, boosts the immune system, and where digestion is at it's
most effective. It is very important to get a good balance of rest and
action.
Todays world is quite busy however, and if somebody is all action, and
does not take the time to rest during the day, over time this can have
a toll on the body, and high blood pressure can result. Simply using
hypnosis to relax your mind and body can be very effective. The natural
cycle of action and rest during the day is called the ultradian rhythm,
and it consists of about 90 minutes of activity, followed by 20 minutes
of recuperation. This would be the ideal, however very few people can
follow this in today's world, even though this 20 minutes could be used
to allow your deeper mind to work on a problem. (Note that
the
ultradian rhythm is different to the circadian rhythm, which is the 24
hour cycle).
There is the story about two people chopping wood. The first person
worked constantly, the second person would work for a while, and then
sit down, relax and take an occasional break. At the end of the day,
the person who took the breaks had a bigger pile of chopped wood. The
first person said, "How is this possible, I worked hard all
day,
and you took loads of breaks!" The other person said, "When I took my
breaks, I also sharpened my axe and drank some water!".
So all this means that simply putting yourself into a relaxed hypnotic
trance with a meditation with the intention of reducing your blood
pressure uses your natural cycle to heal yourself in an ordinary way.
There is nothing extraordinary about this, it just uses your bodies
natural ability to heal itself. Your body just needs rest now and
again, which means "turning on" your parasympathetic nervous system.
This can be achieved easily with self hypnosis with a little practice.
If a person is stressed, the fight/flight response is activated, and it
usually takes about 20 minutes for the fight/flight to settle down
allowing the body to relax. Hypnotic relaxation dramatically shortens
this 20 minutes.
As with every client, we go through an intake form. If there are a lot
of emotional issues, like anger,
fear,
hurt
and sadness, guilt,
it would be very beneficial to clear those negative emotions from the
body, to resolve those issues from the past, so the old emotions don't
keep resurfacing when people press your buttons, you have new choices
as to how to respond at the times you would have brought up one of the
above emotions, bringing up old baggage of unresolved negative emotion,
which can also contribute to blood pressure as well as other physical
symptoms.
If
you would like an explantory brochure, or a free
consultation, please phone
Daniel Madden ADHP MICHP BE
Phone: 085 - 1318344
Email: dmadden@experiencetheworlddifferent.com
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