Tag: <span>trauma</span>

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! 😉

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

General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

mr-worry

General Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

Hello everyone and I hope that you have all had a positive week. This week I am talking about general anxiety disorder. Although this is a common symptom in a therapists consulting room I seem to have had a lot more enquiries/appointments  booked regarding this subject recently. Much more than normal.
Although everyone has times in their lives when they can get anxious or even nervous it becomes  a problem when these symptoms get so frequent and so strong that it takes over their lives. So how can you tell if it has become too much? Well if you are suffering from any of these symptoms on a regular basis you might want to get some help.

If you are worrying excessively about everyday things however big or small they might be. If you lay in bed at night and can’t go to sleep because you are overthinking these things or situations. Do you worry about things that haven’t happened and may never happen? Are these thoughts becoming more and more persistent?

Do you have irrational fears attached to a specific situation, event or thing? This could be social situations, flying, traveling, certain animals or insects or do you have a fear of heights. If your reactions are way out of proportion to the actual harm that could realistically happen to you then you are suffering from a phobia which is also a part symptom of general anxiety disorder.

Are you suffering from any physical symptoms? Muscle tension or tension headaches or even migraine on a regular basis? Sometimes people get so used to being tense that after a while they don’t realise they are suffering from symptoms until they are relaxed with hypnotherapy or other forms of relaxation. Other physical symptoms of anxiety are chronic digestive problems such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome). The symptoms of IBS would be stomachaches, cramping, bloating, gas, constipation, and/or diarrhea.

Another symptom of GAD could be Stage fright. Most people get at least a few butterflies before addressing a group of people or otherwise being in the spotlight. But if the fear is so strong or if you spend a lot of time thinking and worrying about it, you may have a form of social anxiety disorder. Are you very self concious in front of only a small group of people. That is exactly how I was myself before I had my own therapy that led me myself to want to help others and become a hypnotherapist in Essex.

Have you ever suffered from a panic attack? A sudden  Rush of helplessness to your body with symptoms including breathing problems, a pounding or racing heart, tingling or numb hands, sweating, weakness or dizziness, chest pain, stomach pain, and feeling hot or cold. A real sick feeling in your stomach almost frozen on the spot. Not knowing whether to hit out (fight) or run (flight). This is called the fight or flight response.

Do you have flashbacks to a disturbing or traumatic event that has happened in the past? Do you constantly think or obsess about it. This is a symptom of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which is also linked to GAD.

And finally are you obsessive? Are you constantly looking for everything you do to be perfect. Do you beat yourself up a lot in your mind with a feeling of nothing that you do is ever good enough.
Do you rely on alcohol or other drugs to mask your feelings?

If you have any of the above symptoms then you are probably suffering from a form of GAD. So, what can you do about it? I used to suffer from some of these symptoms and as I have mentioned in earlier blogs I went through Hypno-analysis and this cured me. In fact that is what lead me to become a therapist and want to help others. Analysis consisted of being regressed to events in my early life that caused my symptoms and by doing this emotional repressions were released allowing me to move forward. Another good tool for helping with GAD is Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). I wish I had known about this powerful therapeutic tool when I was younger. It’s a great way to clear fears, anxieties and blockages in life.  Otherwise known as tapping, in a nutshell, it is tapping on your acupuncture points along with some talking therapy.  For more information see this video on EFT and you can also see this video of me showing you the EFT tapping points.

No one wants to be going through life with these symptoms and being shown the way to move forward and alleviate these symptoms has such an impact on peoples lives that they can emerge in a much bright and positive world.

If you suffer in any way with any of these symptoms do not hesitate to contact me for a free initial consultation at my Hypnotherapy practice in Hullbridge Essex.

 

 

Motivation • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • By Brad Mace 0 Comments

Motivation

Hello again everyone and welcome to my third blog. This week I have decided to talk about motivation.  Funnily enough I had to motivate myself to write this blog! At the end of the last blog you will remember me putting that I would write about motivation in the next blog. Well I am not sure where that came from. It just came into my mind, probably because, yes, it is an important part of a hypnotherapists work. When I really thought about it though I wondered how I could possibly condense that down into about a thousand words for a blog. After all there is so much to be said about motivation. Then I got a cold. It is very rare for me to not feel well. I became de-motivated! Sometimes though our bodies have ways of telling us that we have to slow down and I believe this is what happened. So, between clients, I recharged and re-motivated myself.

What is motivation?  Motivation is defined as the process that initiates, guides, and maintains goal-oriented behaviours. So, motivation can be self-orientated and it can also be used to motivate others. The Cambridge English dictionary describes the nouns of motivation as both enthusiasm and reason. For example ‘there seems to be a lack of motivation among the employees’, ‘that student lacks motivation’ (enthusiasm) or what was the motivation for the attack and’ the motivation behind the decision is the desire to improve the service to our customers’ (reason).

There are two ways motivation works in hypnotherapy. First I will talk about the definition of reason. This would be what I, as a hypnotherapist, would be looking for during  hypno-analysis.  Hypno-analysis is the process of hypnotising a client and guiding them back to their former years to find out any emotional baggage that their subconscious may be holding onto. By doing this we can find out what  colours the individuals thoughts and behaviours and makes that person act in a certain way. For example, if a client was seeing me for weight loss and we regressed to a time in childhood where that particular person had been told off for not eating all their meal then their protective subconscious may have held onto negative emotion related to this that then caused that individual to always finish a meal even if they felt full and to overeat. It would be a learnt thought process that eating everything was good. By releasing this as an adult the adult mind realises that actually this is not quite true and that person can move forward more healthily. Suggestion would also be used here to reinforce healthy eating and only eat as much as is needed.

So many things happen in our former years that can affect our motivation. If there is a lot of trauma this can lead to depression which has a huge effect on our motivation. Anyone that has suffered from depression realises that it can be hard to even motivate yourself out of bed in the morning. If somebody was constantly told that they were useless, that they would never amount to anything then they may become de-motivated. So there are reasons behind each of ours very ways of being. What motivates or de- motivates one person will not necessarily be the same as another. Once we clear what has de-motivated an individual we can move onto motivating them in the right direction which leads me onto the second definition of ‘enthusiasm’.  So where a hypnotherapist has used hypno-analysis to find the reason for demotivation he/she can then use suggestion therapy to motivate and enthuse the client. Some clients will get positive results just from some suggestion work. For example I have had marathon runners beat their best time by having some suggestion work to help with motivation. If a person is generally de-motivated in life though we would have to start looking at the core reason for this. A person may come to me for a quit-smoking session. This is a one off two hour session using psychotherapy in the first hour and then an hour of hypnosis using suggestion therapy to quit the habit. If anyone still smokes after this then I offer a free top up session. It is very rare that anyone needs to return for this. However if they do and then after that the habit is still there then it indicates a much deeper rooted reason for self-destruction that would have to be investigated with analysis should the client wish to go down that route.

Some of us are better at self-motivation than others and some of us are better at motivating others. That doesn’t always necessarily mean that they are as good at motivating themselves. All of this comes down to life experience.

So, have a think. What motivates you? Also, what de-motivates you? If we can face up to some of our demons that de-motivate then it makes it much easier to motivate ourselves. Willpower has a great effect on our motivation but what makes some people have stronger willpower than others? Again it’s very much down to life’s experiences. “All you need is will power” is part of the new years resolution language. Many hypnotherapists find that they get their busiest periods towards the end of January when people are breaking their new years resolutions by not being able to break a bad habit by willpower alone. Motivation hypnotherapy is a great strengthener to a clients will power.

Of course there are many other factors that can de-motivate us. Illness, for example. As I mentioned earlier I became de-motivated when I got a cold. Don’t beat yourself up if at times you are not as motivated as others. There is really only a problem if you are never motivated to do anything.

It’s not only hypnotherapy that can help with motivation but also EFT. Finding your blocks to success and then tapping away those blocks! Look at my EFT page for more information.

Alcohol or narcotics abuse will definitely demotivate you. Don’t fall into the trap that drugs will give you a buzz and energy. They can end up taking control of your life and motivation is about being in control.

Sometimes just having a goal is enough to motivate us. I know, personally, if I have a few extra pounds on and I have a holiday booked those few extra pounds are going to be gone by the time I get on that beach!!!

So think about what could motivate you towards your goal and if there is no goal there find one!

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