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Anxiety the Good, the Bad, the Ugly and the Relief

3 steps to find relief from chronic anxiety

Anxiety can be a normal part of life.  In the short term, stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol can be helpful. For example, you may have felt anxiety before a deadline or in a job interview. Anxiety can help you to overcome fears and obstacles between you and your goal(s) by increasing your heart rate, focus and concentration. These stress hormones are designed to be in the body for a short time to keep us safe. Not to be in our body for a long time.

However, when anxiety become too intense, or lasts too long, persistent exposure of these stress hormones can have a devastating effect on our physical and mental health. 

Enter Anxiety the Bad. 

Below are some of the bad effects persistent anxiety has on the body:

·       Sense of doom – difficulty concentrating

·       Panic attacks

·       Depression – helplessness, loss of interest, social withdraw

·       Headaches from constant worry

·       Irritability

·       Pounding heart-

·       Breathing problems rapid shallow breathing

·       Loss of libido

·       Upset stomach nausea and diarrhea

·       Extreme fatigue – sleep issues- I love this one, being so tired from anxiety and yet cannot sleep. 

·       Increase in blood pressure

·       Muscle aches and joint pain

Anxiety the Ugly

When the body is exposed to chronic anxiety and the persistent long exposure to stress hormones, enter Anxiety the Ugly.  This persistent and chronic exposure to these stress hormones can increase the frequency of symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and depression and lead to serious health problems with our immunity, heart, and digestive systems of your body.

Our immunity and our body’s ability to heal are reduced when there is a high and long exposure of stress hormones in the body. It behooves us to remain relaxed and calm as much as possible.  This increases our feel good hormones like serotonin and dopamine thus increasing our body’s power to heal

Heart issues and high blood pressure are serious issues with chronic anxiety as well as digestive problems and IBS.  Chronic anxiety and the stress hormones place a tremendous amount of stress on the heart and digestive systems of our body. 

Enough of the ugly already! 

Here are 3 steps I use to stop these bad and ugly states of anxiety

1st–        Develop body awareness

2nd        Take deep slow breaths Start immediately at onset of bad anxiety and continue

3rd        Walk away, talking it out, take a walk and/or use mindfulness

Allow me to explain these one by one. 

1st Step: Develop body awareness means to learn when our body is under stress.  This may take some practice and may require practicing meditation or mindfulness to learn what relaxation feels like.  How do you know your body is under persistence stress if you are always in stress?  By practicing some relaxation techniques like meditation or mindfulness you teach your body what ‘calm’ feels like. Then when it is assaulted by stress, you will know it.  So you know your body is under stress or you are experiencing some or all of the symptoms from the Anxiety the Bad above.  What to do?

Step two: Breathe.  Take a slow deep breath in and release it slowly.  Repeat a few times more if required.  You should notice an instant relief from the anxiety state after the breaths.  This is an important and extremely effective step in changing the body’s anxiety state. Now your mind and body are prepared for the next step.

Step three: You have several options based on the type of anxiety and stress you are experiencing.  Perhaps walking away and going somewhere safe and calm is the best recourse or taking a walk to clear the mind and gain perspective.  Another form of stress may require talking it out.  For example: what is the source of this anxiety? What about this is in my control? Or other questions that come to mind.  The important part of step 3 is to face the source.  Anxiety is often another side of fear and when fear is faced it often dissipates. 

Practice these steps and let me know how they work for you. 

I have other blogs with more tips. You might like:

Five Steps to Stop the ‘what if’s’ and Increase your Power and Peace

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In other news:

Leave behind 2020’s junk, beliefs, habits and other garbage.

Start your new year clean.

When you are ready, contact me for a free 20 min consultation to determine if hypnosis is right for you.  Call me at (805) 242-1649 or use the contact form below.

As a reminder, Hypnotherapy and Reiki sessions can be performed in person, phone and online Zoom.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Who is Art?

Art is a certified hypnotherapist and Reiki master teacher.  He received his hypnotherapy certification from Hypnosis Motivational Institute, an accredited hypnotherapy college
 Art’s passion is to empower others to find and unlock their own healer and personal power.  Once this power is unleashed, a life of intention and balance in mind /body/spirit can unfold.   He uses Reiki infused hypnosis during his session work to enable clients to connect intuitively and heal holistically.

He holds additional certifications in PTSD, Smoking Cessation, Inner Child Healing and Spiritual Hypnosis and Counseling.

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Five Steps to STOP the “What Ifs” and Increase your Power and Peace

Would you like to remain calm and empowered most of the time?  If you could stop stress, anxiety and the ‘what if’s’ with a few simple steps, would that be something you would be interested in?  Yes?  Then read on as I share my simple 5 steps to stop the ‘what if’s’.

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This technique, I am offering today, I use all the time.  It is a quick and easy method to reduce stress and anxiety and stop the ‘what ifs ‘anywhere and anytime. When you feel stress and anxiety regarding anything, it is basically a fear of some future event not turning out as you would like.  The ‘what if’ this happens and ‘what if’ that happens and so on.  (FEAR by the way is an acronym for ‘False Evidence Appearing Real’.  That is all fear really is.  When fear is faced, it is often exposed for what it really is, False Evidence Appearing Real)

The first step is to stop this feeling with a few deep abdominal breaths; breathing into the core or abdomen, filling it with air first.  Then, continue to slowly breath in, allowing the chest to rise as you continue to fill the lungs with air.  This is important.  This is the type of breathing that completely fills the lungs with air.  Repeat these deep abdomen breaths three to five times.  This type of deep abdomen breathing, signals the subconscious to turn off the ‘stress’ response and to turn on the ‘I am safe and happy’ response. 

Step two: Now that I have stopped the ‘stress’ state with my breaths, I ask myself, what is causing this feeling?  Is it real? What is the worst case scenario?  What is the likelihood of this really happening?  What is out of my control and what is in my control?  What can I do now?  These questions usually will cause the fear to dissipate.

Step three: Then ask yourself, what do you really want instead?  You have thought of the negative scenarios that you don’t want.  So, what do you want?  What is the desired outcome?  What does it look like, feel like, taste like, sound like.  Envision what you want. Like it is a picture or video with full color and sound, see what you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel.   Now, how does that picture or video make you feel? Good, Right? Absorb that feeling into your body, wrap up in it.  Experience the outcome with your whole body. 

Step four: Now that you have your desired outcome with picture and sound, apply emotion to it.  The two strongest emotions are Love and Gratitude.  Fall in love with it and be grateful for your outcome as if you already have it.  Here is a little secret….your subconscious mind that controls habits, emotions, and behavior cannot tell the difference between reality and what is imagined.  Case in point, you feel stress when you imagine something bad happening don’t you?  It isn’t really happening right now, is it? Yet, your subconscious mind has set up your body ‘now’ in preparation for an imagined event.   So, when you are grateful for your outcome, before you actually receive it, your subconscious mind makes it happen for you. Why?  Because, when you are grateful for something, it must have already happened.   Be in LOVE with your new outcome.  Be Grateful for it.  Pretend it is your life NOW!

Step five: Now, play this new outcome every time the nasty past arises in your head.  When it arises, Say “STOP!  That isn’t me anymore.  This is me!” Then play your new life outcome and be sure to include all the emotions and BE GRATEFUL. 

Retrain your brain for success, for being empowered, calm and peaceful with the 5 Steps to Stop the What If’s

If you are interested in a FaceBook group specifically designed to help you stay empowered and calm, let me know by responding to me with the form below and stating your interest in the comment section. Thanks

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When you are ready, contact me for a free 20 min consultation to determine if hypnosis is right for you.  Call me at (805) 242-1649 or use the contact form below.

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When Will-Power isn’t Enough

When Will-Power Isn’t Enough

How to use the power of your subconscious (or unconscious) mind to make quick and permanent changes

Join the VIP Text club and receive the free PDF "5 Steps to Stop the 'What If's'"
Join the VIP Text club and receive the free PDF “5 Steps to Stop the ‘What If’s'”

Did you make a new year’s resolution this year?  Or, perhaps, thought about making some different life choices for 2019?  And with those decisions, have you already experienced difficulty keeping them?  Maybe you didn’t make any decisions to change because you already know that they are just too difficult to keep.  Nothing changes, so why set myself up for failure.  If these are your New Year thoughts and experiences and you want a different successful experience, then I have a treat for you.  

What if, you knew a few mind tricks that could put YOU in charge of your success rate?

 YOU will be in CHARGE!   Would that change things?   Then read on…… This power lies in your unconscious or subconscious, two words that relate to the same part of the brain.  It’s your hidden power of success.  

What is the difference between the conscious and subconscious mind and why is it so important to your success?

We live predominantly in our conscious mind which, by the way, is only 10% of our brain power.  We use our conscious mind to look, listen, learn, reason, judge, analyze, criticize, accept, and reject all information we take in through our senses. Whew that’s a lot! Also within this 10%  of our conscious mind is our will power.  The will power that we rely on to make some of our most important changes has only 10% of our brain power.  The subconscious mind holds 90% of the brain power and its primary job functions are as follows: handles all bodily functions, stores all our long term memories and also our beliefs, habits, emotions and reactions.  These beliefs, habits, emotions and reactions were most likely programmed into the subconscious mind, between  birth and 8 years of age, before the conscious mind was developed enough to filter out the negative and erroneous’ information.

Think about it, 90 percent of your brain power is running on programming set up before you reached your 8th birthday!

Then those programs were reinforced with every circumstancing event thereafter. And you wonder why you struggle with will power to make lasting changes?  You are fighting against 90% of your brain power that has been engrained, empowered and reinforced throughout your entire life.  All is not lost. There is hope.  There is one more primary function of the subconscious mind.  And it does this function very well and we can use it to our benefit….The Subconscious mind loves to act out any image and emotion it is given.

Why is this so important?

Our subconscious mind doesn’t care what program it is given to run so, in lieu of another, it will continue to run the most powerful program.  Ever hear the saying, strongest emotion wins?  Emotions created those powerful programs that are keeping you stuck. Now, all you have to do is create a more powerful Emotion with a picture to overwrite the existing program.  Simple right?  Make the powerful subconscious mind work for you instead of against you.  

So how do we do this?

First, create your why. (Finding your why will engage the emotion) Why do you want to change?  Make a list of all the activities of your new changed life.   You want to create a mind picture or, better yet, a mind video of your new life including all the senses and feelings and emotions.  So for example let’s pick weight control.  Ask yourself, if I am at my desired weight / shape, what would I look like? Picture that and now let’s build on it. What would you be doing?  hiking more, walking more, going, doing, being more? Picture that and let’s continue. What would you be wearing? Perhaps a nice dress or suit that shows off your great shape for date night? (Or insert your why here)  Where would you be going? Now as you are building these pictures in your mind, incorporate the emotions.  Cum on, you are at your desired weight and shape.  There must be feelings and emotions of satisfaction, confidence, empowerment, self mastery. etc.  Now build  the pictures into a movie Experience! You want to experience your new life with all the senses in your video.  As you build in all the feelings and emotions, what do you feel, see, hear, and smell?   Go inside yourself and imagine the new you, with all the emotions of your being you in your new life. Play this video a few times building and increasing the feelings and emotions each time. 

Now Step into your new you as if you are that new person in the video and experience it now as You.   Play this video several times continuing to increase the feelings and emotions.  If you are not smiling and feeling excited you are not there.  Really get into that state of you being the new you.  Be grateful for the new you.  Love yourself.  Remember this state. You will want to come back here often.

  Perhaps create a word or short phrase for this new mind video’s emotional state.  Something that will empower and remind you of your ‘new you’ experience. 

Second, now that our mind video is complete, your job is to play it as often as you can.  Especially during these times: 

Upon awakening or soon thereafter to set the tone for the day.  Play your mind video, and don’t forget to engage the emotional state, to get you into a positive motivated state first thing in the morning.  Also, play your video experience every time the old defeating program, habit or emotion pops up its ugliness into your life, Stop it immediately by either saying Stop It in your head or picture yourself holding your hand up and use your empowerment word, play the mind video and use this as a subconscious mind retraining moment. (this may take some practice so don’t give up on yourself) Finally, the subconscious mind loves to accept new programming at night during sleep so before going to sleep, repeat your video experience.  This will reinforce your new program.

In conclusion, you now have the keys to unlock your limitless potential to change anything you want.

You have access to your hidden power of the subconscious mind.  What you can do with this is limitless.  You can create health, prosperity, wealth, anything you want.  Be patient with the process, please.  Remember you are working to overcome very powerful habits and programming that have been operating for a long, long time.  It takes 21 days to change a habit and even longer to permanently replace it. Keep at it. You can do it!

If you find yourself against a wall and need a little push, I am here to help. Hypnosis is a very powerful way to make these changes quickly and permanently.

When you are ready, contact me for a free 20 min consultation to determine if hypnosis is right for you.  Call me at (805) 242-1649 or use the contact form below.

Thank you for your time! I would love to hear about your challenges or interest.
Art

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