Managing Stress with Hypnosis
Stress
is very common in
today's society. Our bodies and minds are still as they were thousands
of years ago when we were living in the jungle or on the savanna. We
still have the basic motivations of the four "F"'s - feeding, fighting,
fleeing and I can't remember the fourth f, but it is do with
reproduction. All of these are fundamental to the survival of the body,
and to the survival of the species, and are born with us as
instinct.
We
all
need a certain amount of stress in our lives, we need to exercise our
muscles and our brain so they get more powerful. We also need to
exercise the stress response in our bodies every now and again. The way
Deepak Chopra puts it is that we spend our lives oscillating between
pleasure and pain. He says we are on the river of life. Pain is on one
bank, and pleasure is on the other bank. It is not possible to
experience pleasure without experiencing pain. How do you know what
pleasure is unless you have experienced pain to compare it to?
The
problem with stress in todays society is that there is so much of it.
Our autonomic nervous system is the part of our nervous system that is
controlled by our unconscious mind, all the bodily functions we don't
have to think about because they are automatic. Examples are heartbeat,
blood flow, immune system, muscle movement, balance, digestion, hormone
secretion and so on. The autonomic nervous system is divided into our
sympathetic nervous system, and our parasympathetic nervous
system.
The
parasympathetic nervous system is activated when we are resting, it is
a time of healing and rest. It is when we digest our food, fight
infection, and maintain and heal our body and mind.
The
sympathetic nervous system is active when we are engaged in activity.
When in fight/flight mode, our sympathetic nervous system is active,
adrenaline and cortisol are dumped into our bloodstream, our heart beat
increases, our breathing rate increases, and oxygen and blood is
diverted to the legs and arms for action. Digestion is suspended, and
our immune function is suppressed, because defeating or getting away
from a life threatening situation needs all our energy for survival, or
so the primitive response assumes.
There
are not too many sabre toothed cats around nowadays, but there are
plenty of people who are willing to shout at you over the phone, or
hoot their horn at you, or cut you off on the road. Our mind/body tends
to respond to these things as if they are life threatening, and so our
bodies spend a lot more time in fight/flight than is good for them.
Stress
management using hypnotherapy is similar to managing blood
pressure using hypnosis, in fact the treatments are one and
the same! 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. Once you have resolved those issues from the
past, 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. Instead of bringing up old
baggage of unresolved negative emotion, you will have more choices as
to how to respond.
We
identify the things that you find stressful. We identify your strategy
for stressing your body, some of the things that stress you, that
bother or disturb you, and we teach you strategies for interrupting
those old triggers with new and more appropriate responses that you and
your unconscious mind are happy with.
The
interesting thing is that in ongoing fight/flight mode, we go into a
black and white mode of thinking, we may even get a sort of tunnel
vision, everything seems extreme. This can be useful in a
simple
and real life or death situation, because instant action is needed at
that time.
For
most situations in modern society where fight/response is activated,
the last thing you want is black and white thinking. You need to be
aware of the context, and you need to be able to examine different
options, and be flexible in your thinking, and be aware of the shades
of grey, so it is much better to be calm and relaxed! Being calm and
relaxed allows your body to heal itself, digest your food and
fight infections better. It also allows your blood pressure to be more
normal. When calm and relaxed, you have much more access to your
unconscious resources, and you have more flexibility and more choices.
Your
fight/flight response is always there, if an emergency arises, your
fight/flight response will kick in so you can protect your body. The
fight/flight response is actually an emotionless state of high action.
Fear or anger are secondary responses, and are there for learning
through emotional imprint, or for letting you know your boundaries have
been violated, and are not useful for purposes of action in and of
themselves. Fear or anger are too slow. You have probably been in an
emergency situation where you just took action and afterwards the
reaction kicked in. A lot of people have had the experience where they
were crossing the road, saw a car coming too fast, and their legs
seemed to move by themselves to get them to safety! In that situation
we don't say to ourselves, Oh, I'm afraid, I'd better move - BANG! We
just act without thinking about it, and that's the fight/flight
response in it's pure form.
There
have been a lot of medical studies that show that too much stress is
bad for the body, so it is much better to manage it. The benefits are
not just in the area of your good health, but in all the areas of your
life, in your relationships, in your work, in your leisure, in the way
life becomes more enjoyable.
If
you would like an explanatory brochure, or a free
consultation, please phone
Daniel Madden ADHP MICHP BE
Phone: 085 - 1318344
Email: dmadden@experiencetheworlddifferent.com
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