24 Feb Instilling calm before, during and after a storm…

Learn how to see this time as harnessing super powers and skills we have forgotten how to use… before and after.

Becoming a calmer you is accessible with the right tools and techniques. Hypnotherapy can boost your resilience skills almost immediately.
It is an effective platform for change and progression, a learning curve in understanding the conscious and subconscious mind.

The Soho Hypnotherapy Clinic is busy right now for obvious reasons. The virus has exacerbated our usual woes, worries and struggles, pretty consistently, on a relentless scale.
Nervous systems are frazzled frankly, and it’s a good excuse to leave your home!
Who knew how embedded we would be to our four walls.

The current situation also seems to shine a light on problems that were possibly bubbling underneath the surface, that we were able to manage previously.
Deep rooted anxieties, even addictions or eating disorders have reared their head, old coping mechanisms coming to the fore.
Our world was a sophisticated collection of soothing tools for anxiety and overwhelm.
Often before, we could book a mood enhancing holiday, have a warming dinner with friends or pop to the gym to let go of stress or put a full stop on a difficult chapter.
All these enabled us to change the scene when feeling blue or isolated and uplift our being through fresh experiences and upbeat socialising.
However this year, we have had to dig deeper. Quite a lot deeper…..
This is in fact a super power as opposed to a hindrance. We are developing skills we did not realise we had, or forgotten how to utilise.
We are in fact learning tools that are valuable for life, which have previously lain dormant.
We are having to learn these under duress, in the monotony of the very same living room and bedroom we frequent in daily.
We therefore often don’t realise how far we have come in this rollercoaster of a pandemic.
We are learning to live with our loved ones in close proximity, tend to relationships and dynamics with a new unusual care, so as not to rock the boat, our safest haven right now.
We are learning to cohabit in ways so as not to accentuate the anxiety further.

Before, we could escape, leave the fold and come back with fresh zeal and vigour.
Although our circumstances can be difficult and immensely hard, our frame of mind is paramount to get us through this tumultuous time.
Helping others is the most effective antidepressant I know, so help the food bank, call a Granny…. call or check in on the lonely pal who feels too much of a burden to ask for help.

Hypnotherapy can improve our state of mind and lead us into a state of resilience and calm for whatever is going on in your life in the here and now.
It can change and improve your neural pathways into a supportive culture in your own head, becoming more capable of dealing with all that life entails.
Here are some ideas to support you right now - especially during a pandemic or crisis…

Stop overthinking it
Often we obsess over a certain thought or worst case scenario, creating worry and deep fear.
This takes up so much of our mental capacity and will end up draining our vital energy stores.
This is when we need crucial ‘time out’ from our own headspace.

Take a walk, have a shower or a bath, phone a friend.
So many negative thoughts can melt away if we choose not to entertain them.
The key is living in the present. This is your safest haven.
I highly recommend ‘The Power of Now’ - Eckhart Tolle

Thoughts are not facts - fact!
We have so much more control over our thoughts than we realise.
Learn and practice to let go of the non supportive and negative ones.

They tend to lean into catastrophe and drama, usually much further away from the truth than we realise.
For example, if we choose to believe we are not worthy of our position in the workplace, it will trigger a relentless steam of negativity, reiterating stories that confirm this stance.

The way we talk to ourselves matters, as do the words we use.
We will find peace of mind and confidence in ourselves this way.
Our own personal support team within us, as opposed to the noisy crew or joining hands with the inner critic.
Be the bystander of your thoughts and sift through them.
Practice this daily and it will become a natural tendency leading you into a flow state, a more authentic state of being.
Hypnotherapy will enable you to achieve this in a relatively short space of time.

Talk to someone you trust.
At the moment we are all feeling a sense of isolation, not knowing what is around the corner.
When we feel alone and stressed, we tend to feel that we are the only person experiencing such misery and pain.
It is possible to communicate your feelings to someone you trust?
It can be incredibly relieving to speak the words you feel inside and often others will feel similar too, even at a different time in their own life.
Reach out. Helping someone else is also the best natural feel good factor, money simply cannot buy.

Mindfulness or mind management is fun and ongoing.
The beautiful thing about mindfulness is you can practice it anywhere you go. You can be standing in a shopping queue, sitting in a car at the traffic lights.
Waiting somewhere can be thought of as an ‘opportunity to practice slowing down’.
It’s a great thought which will lead to a great action…that being stopping and focusing on slowing down your mind.

Meditation - let’s call it lying in your bed for an extra 20 minutes… !
It exercises the muscle you need in order to let of non supportive thoughts.
Thoughts and stories come in all the time, that’s ok but during mediation we exercise letting go.
By doing this we tap into the now. The present moment, an upbeat place to be.