Blog of a Hypnotherapist

Meditation Uncategorized • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • By Brad Mace 0 Comments

Improve your life through Meditation

Improve your life through Meditation

A person sitting in the lotus meditation position meditating

Hello everyone and I hope that you have all had a positive week since my last blog and as you can see from the title of this weeks blog I have decided to talk to you about how you can improve your life through meditation as I believe that meditation is beneficial to each and every one of us. It is a natural mind state that many of us have become detached from. Everything has become so fast in our lives now that people find it hard to switch off. In fact we could all benefit from learning to LITERALLY SWITCH OFF! That’s switch off your mobile phones, your ipads, your wifi and all this other electrical equipment that is putting different radio waves and electric ions into our surrounding atmosphere. It is a good idea to first switch these things off before we can relax our minds and go into our own meditative state and SWITCH OFF our own minds. Our minds definitely need much more rest than they are currently getting.

I learned meditation myself at quite a young age. I did have some trauma in my life and I now believe that meditation saved me from quite a lot of psychological damage. Of course at a very young age I didn’t even really realise I was meditating and I certainly didn’t realise that meditation was a form of self- hypnosis. So, for me, at that time it was escapism, turning my mind off to the real world. This used to be more in the form of reading fictional books or pretending I was someone else. It was all a coping mechanism I naturally used to help me through some harder times. It was later on when I was in my teens that I discovered what meditation, as we know it now, really was. I believe everything that happens to us happens for a reason and I was lent a book on meditation and astral projection that I found fascinating. I found that, with some practice, I could learn to shut down my conscious mind and enter a state of extreme relaxation. I say with some practice because it’s not something that you can learn to do it one sitting. Like everything worth having you really have to practice and train yourself as it is a discipline. It is a fantastic practice to learn though for your own physical and mental health.

To begin with it was just a case of sitting down quietly somewhere I wouldn’t be disturbed and trying to switch off my thoughts. This wasn’t always an easy task so I often used my imagination to focus on something. I remember imagining a flickering candle in my mind and concentrating on that until I felt my mind and body relaxing. Sometimes I would put relaxing music on (with no words) and I would focus on this, again, until I felt my mind and body quietening down. The more I practiced this, the easier it got, until I was finding myself in deep meditative states. I didn’t realise it at the time but when I became trained as a professional Hypnotherapist I realised that I was putting myself into self -hypnosis where I could often find answers to questions and solutions to problems that would naturally come to me. I believe that this is our natural way of being. How we should be much more of the time than we currently are.

So, what are the benefits of meditation?

Calmness – Letting go of negative thoughts so that the mind doesn’t dwell on them until they are blown completely out of proportion causing anxiety. The act of the deep breathing exercise also helps to slow and calm our bodies down.

Anti-Inflammatory – Stress cause inflammation which has been linked to heart disease and asthma and skin conditions such as psoriasis. Relaxation through meditation helps switch off this stress response. This is also very good for Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Lower blood pressure – A study at Harvard Medical School found that meditation lowered blood pressure by making the body less responsive to stress hormones, in a similar way to blood pressure-lowering medication. Meanwhile a British Medical Journal report found that patients trained how to relax had significantly lower blood pressure.

Increased Fertility – Studies at the University of Western Australia have revealed that women are more likely to conceive when they are relaxed and men have a boost of sperm count through relaxation.

Helps cure neurosis – Helps to find emotional balance and cure neurosis and un healthy emotional states. It helps cleanses emotionally soaked memories.

Boosts Immunity – Relaxation has been shown to help boost the immune system making it very beneficial to recovering cancer patients. A study at the Ohio State University found that progressive muscular relaxation, when practised daily, reduced the risk of breast cancer recurrence. In another study at Ohio State, a month of relaxation exercises boosted natural killer cells in the elderly, giving them a greater resistance to tumours and to viruses.

Aside from the regular sitting still and closing your eyes and trying to clear your mind there are many other ways to meditate from using guided imagery to breath focus, yoga, saying mantras and guided imagery. I find the most beneficial meditation for me is a tapping meditation using Emotional Freedom Technique. An introduction video to EFT can be found here. And a video showing me demonstrating the basic recipe for tapping can be found here. If you would like a guided imagery relaxation audio you are welcome to download my relaxation mp3 FREE OF CHARGE here.

You may want to try some different forms of meditation to see what works for you. The important thing is to find the time to do it, even if it is just twenty minutes a day. We all deserve at least that. Give it a try and see how much more positive your life becomes. GO ON! YOU ARE WORTH IT!

HAPPY MEDITATING!

 

Brad Mace, Dhp, MAPHP (acc).

Anxiety coping mechanisms EFT fear of flying Hypnosis Hypnotherapy Motivation positivity Self-improvement Therapy • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • By Brad Mace 2 Comments

Fear of flying. Plane stupid?

A man flying in the clouds with an ipad attached to his chest looking panicked.

Fear of flying. Plane stupid?

Hello again everyone. Welcome to my latest blog about fear of flying. I apologise for there not being a blog for the last couple of weeks but this is due to me taking a much needed holiday. I always choose to go away somewhere nice and warm as it is coming to the end of winter here. It’s nice to soak up the sun after the many months of early darkness and dreary grey days knowing that on my return home that it is nearly spring and the days are getting longer and the sun is beginning to shine much more warming us both physically and mentally. Sometimes it’s not until you actually go away that you realise how much the rest is needed. While I was away it got me thinking about people that have a phobia of flying (aviophobia) and how awful it must be not to be able to just escape to another country when they feel like it. The interesting concept of phobias is that there is not normally a rational fear behind them. Even if the fear doesn’t actually prevent a person from travelling anywhere it can greatly impair their enjoyment of the journey. We all know that flying is actually one of the safest forms of transport but many still hold a fear which is out of their control. So, what can they do about it?  After all there is far greater risk, statistically, of being kicked to death by a donkey than dying in a plane crash.

I have had a very high success rate with fear of flying using a combination of Hypnotherapy and Emotional Freedom Technique. EFT is a great self-help tool that can be used to bring down any anxiety about flying and the beneficial aspect of this therapy is that, once learned, it can be used anywhere. On the way to the airport, at the airport or sitting on a plane. That is the wonder of emotional freedom technique. I would, however, look deeper into the root cause of the problem to help clear the phobia using hypnotherapy. In my experience the majority of the time it’s because of one issue – CONTROL. People feel out of control in a plane. The average person does not have is a great understanding of how planes work and what the noises are that they hear and where there is a lack of understanding people feel out of control with many not able to put their trust in a pilot that they don’t know and a machine that they don’t understand. If a client feels out of control in their life then this problem will just be exacerbated. This may not  necessarily mean that the client is feeling out of control presently but using hypno-analysis we can look into the past and find out the originating cause of the phobia. This may not necessarily even have anything to do with flying or planes but may just simply be a control issue or a deeper set condition.

I once had a client, many years ago, that had never flown and even if she saw a plane flying overhead she would duck in panic! Hypnosis regressed her to eight years old where she remembered watching a news report about a plane that crashed onto a motorway. This had made the news as it was such a rare occurrence but the fear of seeing that at her young age was repressed into the subconscious causing her phobia. Reliving this event as an adult helped release the negative emotion stuck in the subconscious and we used some suggestion therapy for another couple of sessions re-framing any negative thoughts related to flying. She wrote to me after, happily informing me she had taken a short flight and actually enjoyed it and had booked a much longer flight for her honeymoon.

So, what should you do and not do should you suffer from fear of flying?

  • Don’t avoid flying. It is a treatable problem. Fears and phobias have one of the highest success rates for treatment of psychological problems. We tend to make ourselves feel safer by avoiding things but we truly grow by stepping outside our comfort zone.
  • Think about the destination you are going to. Really focus on all the positive things about being there.
  • Challenge any negative thoughts. There is a big difference between discomfort and danger. Think about your triggers. If turbulence is a trigger, for example, think about it logically. ‘Ok I might spill my drink but the plane isn’t going to fall apart.”
  • Learn some relaxation techniques. Deep breathing exercises, meditation and of course emotional freedom technique will all help. Reading is also a very good distraction or listening to music.
  • Keep hydrated. Try to avoid alcohol and drugs. Before and during the flight, it’s important to keep blood sugar levels up. Stick to water and juices to keep hydrated and remember to eat little and often to maintain your energy, which can help control anxiety levels. Rest if you can, though sleep is not essential.

To learn more and for further support with any of these issues please contact me for a free initial consultation.

Happy Holidays! 😉

Anxiety bad day coping mechanisms positivity Stress Therapy By Brad Mace 0 Comments

Having a bad day? What can you do?

Having a bad day? What can you do about it?

A sign with a flower in the background that says "It's just a bad day, not bad life"

Hello everyone and thank you for taking a look at my latest blog. It’s a funny time of year as there is a sense that we are coming to the end of winter and soon the greyness will be going out of our lives. We have had a couple of days of sunshine which gives us a real indication of what is to come and it’s suprising what a positive effect that this can have on our feelings. I happen to like all seasons. I love the sunshine and warmth and that in the summer we can do so much more outside. I also love the cosiness of winter and curling up in front of the fire on a cold night and watching a nice film or becoming engrossed in a good book. I love it when Spring arrives and the garden starts coming alive again and I love the beautifully natural colours of autumn. But whatever time of the year it is we can all have bad days. Even the most minor of things can trigger a bad day. A falling out with a friend, getting stuck in traffic making you late for work or even just, as the cliché goes, getting out the wrong side of bed. Just one unkind or critical word from someone can put you in a bad mood and onto a negative vibe. Even I am not immune to this and have to check myself sometimes to get myself back onto a positive  vibe. We all know that one negative comment can make all the energy drain from your body. So what can we do about this?  What tools can we use combat negativity and get us back onto a positive vibe?

Sometimes just getting back to nature can help raise your vibration. A walk in the park or local forest. Breathing in the fresh air and reflecting on things. Even walking on the grass in bare feet can be very grounding.

If you are feeling low it’s always a good idea not to go onto social media. Looking at other peoples lives can sometimes give us a feeling of inadequacy if things aren’t feeling right in our own lives. There are a lot of positive benefits to social media but not always when we are feeling down. I do also believe that all these wifi networks and different radio frequencies  traveling through our air waves are taking us away from natural energies.

Exercise is always good to make us feel positive wether it is going for a run, going to the gym or partaking in our favourite sport, bike rides or an exercise class. All these things stimulate blood flow and let off our endorphins which are our natural feel good hormone.

Another good technique is to put onto paper what is bothering you. I would recommend to do this by hand and not just type onto a computer because I believe there is a much more powerful discharge of emotion by putting pen to paper. If it’s someone who has bothered you then maybe write them a letter. You don’t have to send it to them. You can burn it after. You can also burn anything written about what is bothering you in your own life. It’s a good way to get negative feelings off your chest. LET IT GO! Once you have done this you can write a list of all the positive things in your life that you are so grateful for.

Meditation is  great for relieving stress and reducing our anxiety. Deep breathing exercises and positive visualisation will help stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system, quieting down your stress response.

Any of you animal lovers spend time with your pets! Petting or stroking an animal can have such positive and soothing effects on us. If you haven’t got a pet but like animals then visit someone who has or even go to a local petting farm.

HUGS HUGS HUGS!!!!  I think hugs solve so many things. As humans we are becoming so detached from each other. I know some people that stay in the same room and exchange words on social networks or even texts!   If you are feeling down grab your partner, a close friend or a family member and share a loving hug with them. It is amazing how much better you will feel.

Book something to look forward to. Wether it is a holiday, a weekend away or even a theatre show or a visit to a faraway friend that you have not seen in a long time. Make that positive move and have something exciting to feel excited about in your future.

Listen to your favourite music! Listening to music can really alter your mood and help to alleviate depression. It could be a good idea to make a feelgood playlist for you mp3 player or phone. Put in it all the songs that make you feel good!

If I am feeling particularly negative I take a shower!  I imagine that the water is washing all the negativity off me and disposing of it down the drain. I find this to be very effective. Also you can alternate the hot and cold tap to help increase your circulation and get rid of negative energy.

Another good idea is to watch a funny comedy even if it is something that you have seen before. If you can laugh then I believe that is the greatest form of therapy anybody can have. Sometimes just watching a few funny you tube clips can help lift your spirits.

If all else fails then learn Emotional Freedom Technique. I do believe this to be such a positive tool and you can see a video of me teaching the basic recipe to learn this fantastic tool here.

If these bad days are getting more often than not then I offer a kind and confidential therapy service including Hypnotherapy and Emotional Freedom Technique in Essex. For information on this please complete this contact form here or contact me on 01702 233323 or 07795573280.

I hope that you have  found some of this information useful and I hope that you all have a fantastic and positively Calm week !

 

 

 

Uncategorized • • • • • • • • • • By Brad Mace 0 Comments

Bringing EFT (tapping) into the mainstream and celebrities that use it

Hello everyone and welcome to this weeks blog. I hope that we are all having a positive week. I have chosen this week to talk a bit further about Emotional Freedom Technique and how more and more it is proving to be such a powerfully effective therapy and being brought into the mainstream with many celebrities using it. I know from my own research and success with clients what a fantastic job it is doing by helping to positively rewire the brain against negative thoughts. The great news is that experts are now calling on the NHS to start using this fantastic self help technique after research has proved its effectiveness in treating a number of conditions. Researchers at Staffordshire University have been leading research into the effectiveness of EFT in the UK. Professor Tony Stuart, who led a trial of the treatment in the Birmingham area said ‘EFT is a new and emerging therapy that can be used to treat a wide range of conditions. Patients gently tap with their fingertips on acupressure points, mainly on the head and hands, and relate this to the voicing of specific statements. A growing number of statements suggest that EFT is a growing and safe treatment and with the increase of demand for mental health services and a decrease of NHS resources we feel the use of EFT within the NHS should now be extended.’

The research studied 39 patients during the trial and say that most improved significantly as a result of the treatment.

The researchers say that one of the key benefits of EFT is that, once learn’t, it can be easily self- administered meaning that patients can use it on themselves for any issue whenever it is required.

A further study using Staffordshire university students has provided evidence that EFT could boost performance in pressurised conditions. One hundred students were approached to randomly to receive either an EFT session or a motivational lecture ahead of giving a marked presentation. Amazingly, although I am not surprised after the results that I have seen in my consulting room here at positivelycalm, the 50 students that received the EFT remained calmer and achieved higher results.

On average it has been determined that just over five sessions are required to treat clients which compares well with other therapies such as cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) where around 20 sessions would often be required depending on the severity of the condition.

I think that this research is so exciting and proves what I have seen time and time again with my own eyes in my consulting room using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) here in Essex. The research has been published in the journal of Psychological therapies in Primary Care.

It’s also interesting that a lot of celebrities are now also using EFT. See this video here to see Olympic athlete Bralon Taplin using the ground break technique just before an event.

Actress and Comedienne Whoopi Goldberg has also talked about EFT tapping over the last couple of years and how she has used it for many different aspects in her life. Here is a video of Whoopi on an American television show using Emotional Freedom Technique to help her overcome her fear of flying.

Singer Lilly Allen also talks about how she has used EFT to help her overcome her addiction to chocolate after other therapies failed. She had tried Hypnotherapy, aversion therapy, willpower, diets and even sniffing vanilla to curb the cravings without any success. After she heard that EFT research claimed an 80 per cent success rate for overcoming chocolate addiction she decided to give it a go. Even though she admits that at first she was sceptical she now claims that it has worked to help her overcome her cravings after just one session. See below:

I think it‘s fantastic that celebrities are now speaking about this ground breaking treatment and bringing EFT into the mainstream. Madonna is also said to be a big fan of EFT.

Michael Ball has also spoken out about how he uses EFT to overcome performance anxiety and informs us that he was actually taught the technique by the late Stephen Gately who used Emotional Freedom Technique for exactly the same reason. On this video here you can see Michael Ball speaking to BBC news about how EFT has helped him.

So, all in all, I think that this is a really exciting time for EFT and I love seeing all this proof of how successfully this therapy works after I have used this in my consulting room for years. As the cliché goes ‘the proof is in the pudding’ and it certainly is with EFT as I have seen time and time again the amazing evidence that EFT can really change peoples lives. For more information about Hypnotherapy or EFT in Essex please contact me here. Wishing you all a positively calm and inspirational week.

Avoiding arguments • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • By Brad Mace 0 Comments

First Blog Of The New Year – Preventing Heated Arguments

Two people pulling on each end of a gold chain with a sign in the middle of the chain saing 'Why I'm Right'

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to my first blog of 2017. Sorry that it’s been a bit delayed but things have been busy here at positivelycalm. I hope we all had good Christmas and New Year celebrations. Did everyone got through it in one piece without too many arguments?;-) I say this because it can be a stressful time for some people and along with too much alcohol sometimes things get heated. We have all heard of the famous Christmas argument. Well with many people making new years resolutions concerning quitting bad habits and weight loss how about a resolution to keep calm and stop arguing? It doesn’t have to be the start of a new year to make a resolution; we can make change at any time. I always find arguing such a waste of energy. After all what is arguing? It is just difference of opinion and wouldn’t the world be a boring place if we all thought the same? Our opinions come from our different backgrounds and experiences which colour our thoughts and judgments in later life so, of course, we can’t all have the same ideas. And discussing things calmly is a fantastic way of learning from each other but when things get heated or aggressive then that is when it becomes an argument. And what is the best way to lose an argument? Exactly that! Getting aggressive really takes away all credibility.
So what is an argument? A dictionary definition of an argument is as follows:
1. Give reasons or cite evidence in support of an idea, action, or theory, typically with the aim of persuading others to share one’s view.
2. Exchange or express diverging or opposite views, typically in a heated or angry way.
So yes it is great to debate things but when people start getting upset or angry it can cause a bad atmosphere and bad feeling. How can we avoid this?
First of all listen! Just by showing the other person that you are taking into account what they are saying will make them feel better. It doesn’t mean that you have to agree to what they are saying.
Display open body language. Crossing your arms or turning away from a person is an aggressive gesture that is just going to aggravate the person that you are conversing with.
Try not to raise your voice. Keep it on an even level. There is a big difference between argumentative and assertive behaviour. It is much better to be assertive and get your point across without losing your temper.
If you feel yourself getting angry then talk about your feelings. It’s much better to discharge them by speaking before you get angry otherwise that leads to frustration. If you can both consciously take five minutes each at the beginning to talk about your feelings this can really help keep your anger down.
Don’t make threats. This is a very weak way of trying to convince someone to understand you.
Don’t bring up negative feelings that the other person may have done in the past. Try to calmly concentrate on the matter in hand.
Abuse is never acceptable. This includes verbal or physical abuse. If the discussion/argument reaches this point then walk away.
Don’t be goaded into an argument. Even negative attention is attention for some people. Some people actually do like to argue because it gives them a sense of power or gratification albeit temporary. Avoid getting sucked into their need for attention.
Listen to your body. When you are angry your body releases chemicals that may cause you to react in ways that can be destructive to you. Learn to understand your feelings and how the process of anger affects you physically and emotionally.
Sometimes if you start feeling negative feelings in your body from arguing you need to step back and take a deep breath and think about what you are saying. Our subconscious will always jump in before our conscious so a great deal of the time when you are having an argument you end up saying something that just makes the argument ten times worse before you have even had a chance to think about it.
If you are finding avoiding arguing hard that is where Hypnotherapy and Emotional Freedom Technique can help. No one really wants to walk around with these negative feelings and often we don’t have any idea why we are feeling them because they spring from repressed negative feelings in the subconcious. Working with a trained therapist can bring these negative feelings out and take a huge weight off your shoulders. Anger management is a big part of my client base here at positivelycalm where I provide a top class Hypnotherapy service in Essex.
For further information do not hesitate to contact me on 07795573280 or complete this contact form.
Wishing you all a positively calm and argument free New Year!

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