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