Hypnotherapy

Over the past few weeks we have presented the concept of the “4 point plan” designed to move our lives in a much more positive direction whatever our situation is. The 4 points of the plan are:

• Positive Activity
• Positive Interaction
• Positive Thinking
• Hypnotherapy

Previous blogs have discussed the “three positives” – positive activity, interaction and thinking. This blog discusses how hypnotherapy can reinforce the benefits gained from thinking, interacting and acting in a positive way.

There are a few misconceptions around hypnotherapy, which we covered in a previous vlog:

https://youtu.be/afAuFWJgyEs

Hypnotherapy sessions at ONE LIFE are structured in two parts. The first part of each session is conversational, where the therapist helps the client identify the next small step towards a more positive future. This small step is generally an action based upon positive activity, interaction or thinking.

Having come up with the next small step, which needs to be achievable and well-defined, the second part of the session takes place. This is the “trance” part of the session, where the client relaxes on the couch and the therapist delivers positive imagery and suggestion. This is designed to reduce the activity of the parts of the brain that cause anxiety and put up barriers against any change, and increase the power of the creative parts of the brain to greatly increase the likelihood of the client taking the next small step discussed in the first part of the session. The suggestions delivered by the therapist helps the client to replace negative thought patterns with more positive ways of thinking.

Trance might sound a little scary, but it is a very natural state. We enter many times a day, when we’re watching a good movie, or absorbed in a book, or maybe out for a run.  Trance is when we fully focus our mind on one thing and the rest of the world just fades away.

Trance helps us access the deeper levels of the mind, allowing positive suggestions made by the hypnotherapist to be taken on board and acted upon.

It’s also a very positive process. It’s relatively straightforward to go to the gym or meet up with a friend but thinking positively is more difficult. Trance engages the deeper parts of your mind to focus more positively on what’s good, what you want, and what you want to achieve.

So that’s the four point plan. It’s an incredibly powerful model for improving lives. Perhaps you’re ready to take the first step?

Over the past few weeks we have presented the concept of the “4 point plan” designed to move our lives in a much more positive direction whatever our situation is. The 4 points of the plan are:

• Positive Activity
• Positive Interaction
• Positive Thinking
• Hypnotherapy

The previous blog discussed positive interaction. This blog talks about positive thinking.

Each point in the plan is crucial to living your best life but point 3 is arguably the most important for long term happiness.

We are all the product of our experiences.  Our experiences define us and affect how we perceive life.  It’s easy sometimes to imagine the worst.  After all – we’re only human.  It’s a common misconception to believe that expecting the worst somehow prepares us for it or helps us deal with it more effectively.

In actual fact the opposite is true.  Our brains are incredible but they cannot distinguish between imagination and reality.  By anticipating the worst, we release adrenalin and cortisol into our system, creating the exact same levels of anxiety and fear as if we were experiencing it for real.  It’s a form of self-torture.

Conversely, when we expect the best outcome these stress hormones are replaced with serotonin, the brain’s natural feel good chemical.  Not only does this lead to us leading more calm and contended lives but it subtly directs us to a more positive and desirable outcome.  Positive thinking can become a habit.  The more we think positively the more we are seen to be positive.   There is not an area of life that cannot be enhanced by positive thinking.

How do you start to think positively? One small step at a time. Start to notice all the small things that have been good about your day. Perhaps write down three good things that have happened in your day, before you go to bed. This becomes a habit, and slowly but surely your brain starts to rewire itself in a more positive direction. And the serotonin will flow…

A couple of blogs ago we introduced the concept of the “4 point plan” designed to move our lives in a much more positive direction whatever our situation is. The 4 points of the plan are:

• Positive Activity
• Positive Interaction
• Positive Thinking
• Hypnotherapy

The previous blog discussed positive activity. This blog talks about positive interaction.

Humans are social creatures. We evolved to operate in tribes rather than individuals, so we get a feeling of wellbeing when we interact positively with other people. This feeling of wellbeing is caused by the production of happy chemicals such as serotonin, released by the brain in response to this behaviour.

When you ask the question “What would make you happy?” people will frequently talk about money or material possessions.  However, research shows that the happiest people are those with close connections to others, whether it be friends or family. These connections make us feel needed, valued and loved. Money just doesn’t cut it in the happiness stakes, beyond having enough to meet our basic needs for clothing, food, shelter and perhaps the occasional week in the sun.

There’s a remarkable study that has been running for 75 years in Boston, tracking the lives of individuals from different backgrounds over several generations. And the clear outcome from the study is that good relationships keep us healthier and happier.  Here’s the link to a talk from the latest director of the study:

https://youtu.be/8KkKuTCFvzI

So, rather than wishing for fame and fortune to come along and make you happy, your time would be much better spent keeping your relationships healthy and positive. That way you create a life with less anxiety and more happiness, both for you and the people with whom you foster these close relationships.

What are you waiting for? You only have one life…

The previous blog introduced the concept of the “4 point plan” designed to move our lives in a much more positive direction whatever our situation is. The 4 points of the plan are:

• Positive Activity
• Positive Interaction
• Positive Thinking
• Hypnotherapy

This blog discusses positive activity. What do we mean by “activity”? It can be anything from running a triathlon to walking your dog, as long as it’s something you enjoy doing. Any form of physical exercise creates lots of our happy chemical, serotonin, which gets us in a much more positive frame of mind. And with that more positive mind set, our problems don’t seem quite as insurmountable.

The positive mental effects of exercise are well established and can be achieved remarkably quickly.  Research has shown that a single exercise session immediately increases levels of serotonin, improving our mood and ability to focus. What’s more, regular exercise actually grows the part of our brain which is responsible for motivation, confidence, sense of wellbeing etc. This part of the brain is known as the prefrontal cortex. It also increases the size of the part of our brain responsible for memory – the hippocampus. Think of that…the brain is physically enlarged by exercise! And how much exercise are we talking about here? Three to four sessions per week, lasting 30 minutes. With that, you get to feel happier today. But the other impact of growing our brain with exercise is that we become less prone to cognitive decline in the future. So we’re less likely to suffer from degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

So, what’s stopping you? The thought of exercising can be daunting if you haven’t done any for a long time. But start with a small step – a walk in the park perhaps. Once you’ve started, it becomes easier for it to become part of your life. And your life trajectory will be changed for the better.

Here’s a link to a talk by a neuroscientist which describes just how good exercise is for the brain:

https://www.ted.com/talks/wendy_suzuki_the_brain_changing_benefits_of_exercise

For so many of us, life is a struggle filled with anxiety, anger, frustration, depression and other psychological problems. How can we change the script and move to a calmer, happier and more fulfilling future? By creating a more positive mind-set.

Our mind-set, the way we see the world, is not fixed. Our brains are constantly adapting to our environment. That ability to adapt is why humans have been so successful as a species. The ability of the brain to “rewire” is known as “neuroplasticity” and it is amazing. We can unlearn unhelpful habits and behaviours and take on new attitudes to life.

At ONE LIFE, we help our clients create a more positive future by helping them to make more and more positive connections in the brain, reducing their tendency to react to life with anxiety, anger or depression.

How do we achieve this? With the “four point plan”. This plan is designed to enable our clients to start to reduce the amount of stress chemicals they produce (such as adrenaline) and simultaneously increase the amount of “happy” chemicals (such as serotonin). Over a period of time, the new chemical balance of the brain becomes permanent and life is then much more enjoyable.

So what is the four point plan?

• Positive activity. Exercise does a remarkable job of creating serotonin, our happy chemical. But it needn’t be pounding the treadmill at the gym. A walk in the park, with or without a dog, will get that feel good feeling going.
• Positive interaction. We’re designed to be social creatures. Keeping our relationships with friends, family and work colleagues as positive as possible increases our levels of happiness.
• Positive thinking. This can be the toughest nut to crack, but being able to notice the good things that are happening in your life becomes a habit that will change your mind set beyond recognition.
• Hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is extremely effective at accelerating the journey towards a more positive mind set and also drastically reduces feelings of anxiety.

Future blogs will discuss each part of the four point plan in more detail. So stay tuned!

In this 1 minute video, Graeme explains what hypnotherapy is…and what it isn’t.

https://youtu.be/afAuFWJgyEs

Mobile phones are amazing devices – they bring the world to our fingertips. And social media is great for keeping up with what our friends and colleagues are up to. But we’ve all seen situations where the phone has meant lost human interaction; a couple sitting across from each other in a restaurant, barely exchanging a word or a glance as they stare at their phones. A parent ignoring the arm tug from a toddler as their need for attention goes unmet while daddy checks the football scores or mummy scrolls through her Facebook feed.

Attention is a fundamental need for humans. We are social creatures and thrive on being noticed. And the need for attention starts on day one. No other creature on earth is born as helpless as a human baby. An elephant can walk before its first meal, a gazelle can run with the herd the day after it’s born. We’re born “unfinished” for a very good reason. Evolution has meant that humans need to be born at the stage we are, because our heads would be simply too large otherwise. So it’s vital we get the full attention of those who will look after us, or we simply die.

Those early vulnerability circuits are still there when we’re adults. Whenever we feel ignored, stress hormones such as cortisol surge through our system. When we get attention, “happy” chemicals like serotonin flow. This applies to other primates too. Researchers have found that chimpanzees will actually exchange food for the chance to look at photos of the alpha male in their group.

To a certain extent, social media interaction can act as a substitute to direct human interaction. We all feel a little better when our post is “liked” or shared. But there can be a downside. For example, internet trolls do what they do because any kind of attention, even negative, is better than being ignored.

And does an electronic “thumbs up” really fill you with the same sense of joy and wellbeing as a good natter with an old friend? I think we know the answer to that.

The human brain is an incredible thing. Billions upon billions of connections are made within it, creating pathways that determine how we react to life. In fact, it has been estimated that the number of neural connections in each brain exceeds the number of atoms in the universe!

Neuroplasticity is the phenomenon whereby connections die off and new ones are made. It is neuroplasticity that allows us to make lasting change so that we deal with life in a much more positive manner.

Easy eh? Let’s get to it…

Except it isn’t so easy. The control centre of our brain, the part that decides how we respond to situations, is known as the amygdala and it is biased towards maintaining the status quo. It tends to encourage repeated behaviour patterns, which explains why we get caught up in unhelpful habits. Creating new pathways in the brain takes a lot of energy – it can be likened to hacking your way through the jungle as opposed to walking a well-worn path. There is a strong evolutionary drive to conserve energy, as our ancestors didn’t know when their next meal might arrive.

But that doesn’t mean change can’t happen. The human brain has evolved beyond being a simple survival machine. We now have the capacity to think and to imagine, and we can decide that we want our lives to be better. Given a little determination, we can use the power of neuroplasticity to rewire our brains and move to a more optimistic, positive mindset. And once we’ve hacked through the jungle, that path becomes easier to follow.

We can start today, by taking one small step in the direction we want to go. And once that first step is taken, the next step can reveal itself.

Make today Day One.

Links:

https://www.quora.com/How-many-neural-connections-in-the-human-brain

We speak of our future as having goals and dreams, but when that future becomes our today, how many goals and dreams are realised?

“One day…” we tell ourselves, while one day turns into many days, weeks, months, years, without that dream or goal realised.

The today we are present in is different.

Today we have a choice. We can make a change. If it’s important we will find a way, if not we will find an excuse. WE decide.

Today, stand firm and take a step forward. Mark the calendar with DAY ONE because the truth of the matter is, ONE DAY may never come…

There are a lot of misconceptions about hypnotherapy out there, and this can mean that some people may be wary of considering it as an option to improve their life. The image of hypnosis is often that of people up on stage, eating onions or barking like a dog. All good fun, but as far removed from hypnotherapy as you can imagine. Everyone on that stage has volunteered, and have decided for themselves to participate fully in the show. Hypnotherapy, on the other hand, is a process of self-improvement, not entertainment.

However, there can be a fear that somehow the hypnotherapist will be able to control your mind… but we can’t, nor would we want to do so. What we do instead is provide plenty of positive suggestions while the client is in trance, enabling therapeutic change to happen via the subconscious mind. And there’s nothing scary about trance. We all go into trance at least twice every day; just before falling asleep at night, and upon waking up every morning. Most people easily enter a form of trance when being totally absorbed in a good TV show, getting lost in a good book or while driving. It’s that feeling you get when you focus on one thing, and the rest of the world fades away.

There is often a belief that hypnotherapy is “mumbo jumbo”, but there is a wealth of scientific research behind its effectiveness. Psychologists such as Freud and Jung used it, and more recently Dr. Milton Erikson and others have moved the field forward. A recent study at Stanford University identified the neural changes associated with hypnosis, and hypnosis has been used medically to perform operations without general anaesthetic. The Pain Clinic at Liege University Hospital in Belgium has performed over 9000 operations in this way, demonstrating how powerful a tool it can be.

We often hear people say something like “Well, you wouldn’t be able to hypnotize me!” Again, this is based on the misconception that hypnosis is something the therapist imposes on the client. Hypnotherapy is not a battle for control. If you’re capable of breathing a little slower, and relaxing a little bit while lying down, then the therapy works. You don’t have to “go under”. And we’re all susceptible to suggestion – that’s why the advertising industry exists! It is important here to emphasise that any suggestion that the client does not feel is in their best interests will be rejected.

Here at ONE LIFE, we have seen clients make amazing progress in dealing with their issues and creating a more positive life for themselves with hypnotherapy. You can read about some of our success stories in the testimonials on this website.

And we never use pocket watches!

Links:

https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2016/07/study-identifies-brain-areas-altered-during-hypnotic-trances.html

 http://www.esh2017.org/news/25-jul-2017-over-9000-patients-have-surgery-with-hypnosis