Negative self-talk: how it affects us

What is self-talk? Self-talk is the internal dialog we all have ongoing through our minds every day. This internal dialog can take two forms, positive and negative.

Are you a positive thinker or a negative thinker? Do you tell yourself: Yes I can do this. I can reach my goal. Or do you tell yourself: I will never get that job so there is no point going for the interview. I am fat. I am stupid.

We all have moments of self-doubt where we question whether we can achieve something, but the difference between a constant negative thought pattern and a positive one is the difference between a person who never feels good enough and a person who feels content with life, happily challenged.

We all know those people who seem to have it all. They are always so happy. But when you stop and look at their life next to yours they have nothing more than you - sometimes they even have less than you. The difference is their internal dialog is set to positive; they look for the positive and they appreciate the things they have got.

Negative self-talk affects us in many ways. It can lead to stagnation, self-pity, depression and many more negative influences. When we repeat a negative statement over and over again we begin to believe it. “I am not good enough” may prevent us from taking the steps to achieve a promotion that we are easily qualified for. It gives us a lack of confidence that isn’t based on anything real, but reinforced by the internal negative dialog. Eventually these thoughts become all consuming and you find that you approach every aspect of your life with this negativity, beginning to feel stressed easily, depressed and having a lack of confidence and motivation.

Changing the internal dialog to positive statements makes our life better and assists us in moving forward, giving us the confidence to achieve our goals. If instead of saying “I am not good enough”, say “I can do this”. Not only will you achieve your goals but you will happier and healthier. Positive self-talk gives you a permanent cheerleader in your corner, one that carries positive messages to all areas of your life and helps you to move forward. Once you have this positivity no one can take it away from you, as it comes from within you, from your own though process.

Very often the nature of our self-talk originates from a very early age. It may be a teacher that said you weren’t good enough, or a parent that always made you believe anything is possible.

Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you to challenge the source of the negative thoughts and change them to positive ones. Eventually you will surround yourself with positive thoughts and that will create an environment that will allow you to live your best possible life.

Here a few easy steps to start to become positive:

· Smile more.

· Replace your negative thoughts with positive ones. This can be hard at first. Start by talking positively. When you have a negative thought or catch yourself about to say something negative, stop yourself and see if you can spin it on its head and turn it into a positive one. Soon this will become second nature and you will find yourself thinking in the positive first.

· Expect positive results. When you set a goal expect that not only will you achieve it but you will be better than you thought.

· Actually visualize the success you want. Picture it in your mind, picture what you DO want, rather than having a list of what you DON’T want. Have an image of what you DO want, and see yourself achieving your goal.

We all have the ability to retrain our minds, we do it every day. Give it a go. What do you have to lose? Nothing. What could you gain? Everything.

© EKTherapies

What does Hypnotherapy feel like?

What does Hypnotherapy feel like? This is a question I get asked a lot. The world of hypnosis is becoming more recognised now, with the NHS even recommending hypnotherapy to treat certain conditions such as IBS, Anxiety, Insomnia ect. But what can you expect to feel when you come for a hypnotherapy treatment?


The feeling of a hypnotic trance is something we experience every day. It is the feeling when you become absorbed in one thing, lost in thoughts, daydreaming, driving your car and zoning out, driving on auto pilot, going for a walk, or perhaps simply through meditation. There are so many different ways that we enter into this completely natural trance-like state every day.

Being in a hypnotic trance is a similar feeling to just before you fall asleep, where you are still aware of things but are beginning to drift off. You are able to hear and sense things around you but at the same time your muscles become relaxed and your mind begins to release the stresses from the day. There is a sense of distance from where you are as the passage of time gets distorted and often you feel the pleasure of deep relaxation allowing both your body and mind to relax completely.

Everyone’s experience of hypnosis will be personal and slightly different and you may find that you feel different every time you get hypnotised depending on the level of relaxation you reach. As you begin to feel more comfortable with the hypnotherapist and the more you work together, you begin to allow yourself to relax further entering a deeper state of trance. Although you don’t need to experience a deep trance state to be able to have life a changing experience, it can be enjoyable to experience a deep trance and allow yourself the pleasure of letting go completely and being guided through suggestions.

As you enter hypnosis, your awareness is withdrawn from the normal alert state that we walk around in and goes inward. The power of hypnosis is your ability to harness the full potential of your mind without the normal restrictions of the critical mind. This is when a hypnotherapist can help you make dramatic changes in your life, with the suggestions you listen to and how much you embrace these new ideas.

Hypnosis feels very relaxing, the big difference is in what you are guided to experience during this relaxation. A hypnotic trance is simply a naturally relaxed state of mind, which almost everyone can achieve at some level. You are still you, with your own thoughts and beliefs. You remain in full control the whole time, being able to bring yourself out of the trance at any point.


To find out the kind of things Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help with please click here. Take the first step today to understanding the power of your mind and how you can help yourself to achieve your goals in a positive and focused way.

© EKTherapies

Can a Good Night’s Sleep Make us Look Younger and Slimmer?

We all know that sleep is a vital part of our bodies' health but can a lack of a good nights uninterrupted sleep have a bigger effect on our health then we realise?

This year's Mental Health Awareness Week focussed on sleep as being vital to our ability to stay mentally healthy. Up to one third of us may suffer from insomnia. This can affect mood, energy, concentration levels, our relationships and our ability to function during the day. Sleeping poorly increases the risk of having poor mental health.

“While energetic twenty-somethings might not show any ill-effects of repeated late nights, as we age insufficient rest has a dramatic effect on our looks, too.

Brad Pitt recently admitted that six children means virtually no sleep - and it’s clear from his exhausted appearance that he wasn’t joking. But the ever-glowing J-Lo (below) claims to get at least eight hours a night, which may explain why she appears ten years younger than her real age.

Dr Shahrad Taheri, a consultant endocrinologist at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital has done a series of studies looking at weight and sleep, and studying the metabolic rate. He says: ‘We discovered that people who sleep for significantly less than seven hours a night often end up being obese.’

It also seems that people who sleep for fewer than four hours a night are 73 per cent more likely to gain excess weight, while restricting sleep can lead to cravings for up to 900 extra calories a day.

Recent research discovered that sleep deprivation has a similar hormonal effect to the aging process and may even increase the likelihood of age-related diseases. Eve Van Cauter, the scientist who led the study, says: ‘We suspect sleep loss may not only hasten the onset, but could also increase the severity of ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and memory loss.’

Other studies have shown that sleep deprivation produces a stress reaction in the body, raising levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, and glucose, which can indicate a higher risk of heart disease and strokes. Interrupted sleep can also affect blood pressure (which usually falls during the night) and leave us vulnerable to colds and flu.

During deep sleep, new skin cells are produced. The reason so many of us feel and look ten years younger after a holiday is because, for once, we’ve had enough sleep.

‘One of the major functions of sleep is to allow the brain to repair itself,’ says professor Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University.

‘During deep sleep, the cortex [the largest part of the brain, governing higher function such as thought and action] goes into recovery mode. Without that period of rest, you may wake up irritable, moody, forgetful and unable to focus on tasks.’ ” Click here for full article.

Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you to understand your stressors and find out why you are struggling to sleep. You will leave the sessions with the tools you need to have a good night’s sleep, waking up feeling refreshed and ready for the day. Our bodies and minds are amazing resourceful things that can put up with a lot of the pressure we put on them, but they need support from us to maintain their health, allowing us to feel full of energy, younger and fitter ready for what life has to offer us.

Negative self-talk: how it affects us

What is self-talk? Self-talk is the internal dialog we all have ongoing through our minds every day. This internal dialog can take two forms, positive and negative.

Are you a positive thinker or a negative thinker? Do you tell yourself: Yes I can do this. I can reach my goal. Or do you tell yourself: I will never get that job so there is no point going for the interview. I am fat. I am stupid.

We all have moments of self-doubt where we question whether we can achieve something, but the difference between a constant negative thought pattern and a positive one is the difference between a person who never feels good enough and a person who feels content with life, happily challenged.

We all know those people who seem to have it all. They are always so happy. But when you stop and look at their life next to yours they have nothing more than you - sometimes they even have less than you. The difference is their internal dialog is set to positive; they look for the positive and they appreciate the things they have got.

Negative self-talk affects us in many ways. It can lead to stagnation, self-pity, depression and many more negative influences. When we repeat a negative statement over and over again we begin to believe it. “I am not good enough” may prevent us from taking the steps to achieve a promotion that we are easily qualified for. It gives us a lack of confidence that isn’t based on anything real, but reinforced by the internal negative dialog. Eventually these thoughts become all consuming and you find that you approach every aspect of your life with this negativity, beginning to feel stressed easily, depressed and having a lack of confidence and motivation.

Changing the internal dialog to positive statements makes our life better and assists us in moving forward, giving us the confidence to achieve our goals. If instead of saying “I am not good enough”, say “I can do this”. Not only will you achieve your goals but you will happier and healthier. Positive self-talk gives you a permanent cheerleader in your corner, one that carries positive messages to all areas of your life and helps you to move forward. Once you have this positivity no one can take it away from you, as it comes from within you, from your own though process.

Very often the nature of our self-talk originates from a very early age. It may be a teacher that said you weren’t good enough, or a parent that always made you believe anything is possible.

Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you to challenge the source of the negative thoughts and change them to positive ones. Eventually you will surround yourself with positive thoughts and that will create an environment that will allow you to live your best possible life.

Here a few easy steps to start to become positive:

· Smile more.

· Replace your negative thoughts with positive ones. This can be hard at first. Start by talking positively. When you have a negative thought or catch yourself about to say something negative, stop yourself and see if you can spin it on its head and turn it into a positive one. Soon this will become second nature and you will find yourself thinking in the positive first.

· Expect positive results. When you set a goal expect that not only will you achieve it but you will be better than you thought.

· Actually visualize the success you want. Picture it in your mind, picture what you DO want, rather than having a list of what you DON’T want. Have an image of what you DO want, and see yourself achieving your goal.

We all have the ability to retrain our minds, we do it every day. Give it a go. What do you have to lose? Nothing. What could you gain? Everything.

© EKTherapies

Hypnotherapy on the BBC

The benefits of hypnotherapy are gaining more recognition every day. The latest news, as reported in BBC News 19th May 2011, is a study into hypnobirthing. For full BBC article and video click link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-13451637

‘Expectant mothers at a hospital in Greater Manchester will be able to try hypnobirthing, as part of an NHS trial.

Studies have found self-hypnosis, which started in the United States, allows many women to give birth without pain, and without gas and air. Women are not distracted from the pain but learn how to stay calm so their muscles relax.

Dr Soo Downe, a midwifery expert at the University of Central Lancashire (Uclan), said: "The mind and body are actually linked.

"There is an effect in the way people think and feel in what happens in their body.

"The reason we are looking at this - apart from the fact women have asked us to look at it - is because it appears if you can reduce anxiety in women through the use of hypnosis we can then reduce pain because pain and anxiety are connected."

Mother-to-be Sophie Kreitzmann, who is due to give birth in August, is trying the new technique.

She said there were so many horror stories surrounding labour and wanted to feel calm when she meets her first child.

Hypnobirthing practitioner Katy Redford, 37, is running the sessions at Tameside.

She said: "Hypnosis is really misunderstood.

"Before I'd experienced it I thought it was all about being in a trance and someone having to wake you from it.

"But it's not like that at all and the women who do this are all able to take themselves into deep relaxation/hypnosis and are very aware and in control throughout. It's very empowering."

Midwife Jackie Brocklehurst added: "I've delivered three babies to mums who were under hypnosis and it is amazing to see. It means as midwives, we have to change the way we work because this is a totally new concept.

"But if you go into it with an open mind, it really is unbelievable to see these women requiring no pain relief."’

This is not the first time the BBC has spoken about the benefits of hypnobirthing. Have a look at this article from 20 July 2002:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2136691.stm

It is so exciting to see this industry getting more recognition; the power of our thoughts is amazing. The more we learn how we can help ourselves through positive thinking and behaviour the happier we will all be.

To see how hypnotherapy can help you to release anxiety and stress, sleep better, stop smoking and so much more please contact Erika for a non-obligation chat.

Stress

Stress seems to be the buzz word at the moment but what is stress?

Stress is when you have insufficient resources to meet your demands.

Stress and anxiety are normal, even healthy, human feelings that can be useful to help you achieve your goals. The chemicals that are released when we are under stress or feeling anxiety can help you to meet deadlines, keep presentations fresh, help actors to make every performance have that spark, even help athletes win their gold medal and give us the energy to do amazing things in times of crises. Stress and anxiety only become a problem to our health when they go on for too long and we don’t expel the chemicals put into our body that are generated by it. Eventually these chemicals can become an illness affecting your mental and physical health.

We, and the world around us, are very good at putting stress and anxiety into our lives but you should ask yourself how long do you spend each day de-stressing yourself?

With the advance in technology making us more contactable and bringing the office into our home life, it has never been so important to make sure you de-stress yourself, being in the moment and enjoying life for what it is, allowing time for ‘you’.

Some signs that you may not be de-stressing yourself enough:

MIND

Do you feel tired or lacking in energy all of the time?
Do you have episodes of panic?
Do you feel worried all of the time?
Are you unable to concentrate on a task for as long as you used to be able to do?
Do you feel unusually irritable, with tasks or people, or get angry quickly?
Are you finding getting to sleep difficult, or are you waking earlier than usual?
Do you wake up feeling tired even though you have slept enough for your body?
Do you feel there is never enough time in the day?
Do you walk quickly everywhere, thinking about certain tasks rather than enjoying the walk/moment?
Do you feel you have so much to do that you can’t focus on one thing and try and spread yourself and your time too thinly, not giving your full attention to anything?

BODY

Do you ever experience a strong or rapid heartbeat? (Sometimes known as “palpitations”)
Do you grind your teeth, either in your sleep or when you are awake?
Do you have regular or constant pain or tension in your muscles?
Do you find that you are often contracting/holding onto your muscles (e.g. shoulders up)?
Do you find that you breathe shallow breaths?
Do you find yourself breathing quickly or more heavily at times of anxiety?
Are you experiencing indigestion or diarrhea?

If we understand how stress and anxiety affect our body and mind, then we can learn how to use this to our advantage, allowing ourselves to relax and de-stress at the end of the day and enjoy the ‘free’ time we have. We will then be more productive and focused at work and at home, feeling calmer and in control. Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you to understand stress and how it affects your body. Teaching you relaxation techniques and giving you the tools you need to help you enjoy life with a healthy level, for you of stress and anxiety.

Understand Sleep Mechanics

If we have a better understanding of things we have a better chance of succeeding in them. Understanding how sleep mechanics work can help you to wake up feeling refreshed. The principles of how sleep works are quite simple.

Sleep occurs in cycles of around 90-110 minutes, most people normally go through 5 cycles during the night (7.5-8.5 hours).

Each cycle includes 5 different stages occurring in a particular order.

1. Stage 1 – Drowsy sleep. This is the transition period from fully awake to sleep, where you drift in and out of sleep and can be awakened easily. Your eye movements are slow as is your muscle activity. You are starting to loose conscious awareness of your external environment. This is the stage when you occasionally may experience sudden twitches or the sensation of falling, these are all normal to feel in this stage.

2. Stage 2 – Light sleep. This is the stage your body is relaxed and prepares to enter into deep sleep, this state usually lasts longer than the other stages – you spend 45-50% of your night in stage 2.

3. Stage 3 and 4 – Deep sleep. Deep sleep is characterized by maximum brain and muscle relaxation, with stage 4 being a deeper version of stage 3. Stage 3 is when you may experience night terror, sleepwalking and sleep-talking. People who awaken during stage 3 and 4 often feel groggy and disorientated for several minutes. In stage 4, there is no eye movement or muscle activity. You usually go less deep each cycle throughout the night, so your deepest sleep (stage 4) occurs in the first half of the night.

4. Stage 5 – REM sleep. REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement; this stage is very different from all the other stages because in REM sleep brain wave activity is similar to an awakened state. In REM state your heart rate and blood pressure increases, your eyelids flutter. This is the result of intense dreaming; which occurs mostly during REM sleep. The end of the REM stage is the ideal time to wake up.

5. Stages go in the following order to form a cycle: 1-2-3-4-3-2-1-REM. The duration of each stage varies from 5 to 15 minutes. REM stage lasts for around 10 minutes in the first cycle, with each recurring REM stage increasing in duration, with the final one lasting an hour. Total cycle time ends up taking round 90-110 minutes, with the first cycle usually being the shortest, closer to 90 minutes.

Another thing to take into consideration

Drugs such as alcohol and sleeping pills can suppress certain stages of sleep. Even though you sleep longer, the sleep may not fulfil its physiological functions completely, making you feel unrested when you awaken.

What to do with all this information to help you sleep better

• The best time to wake up is at the end of the cycle. Pay attention to your state when you wake up and try to identify what stage you are awaking from.
• If the alarm wakes you up interrupting your dreams it is very likely that you are in a REM stage or stage 1 which is a good time to wake up.
• If you feel extremely disoriented when you wake up then your waking up from stage 3 or 4, this is not the ideal time to wake up. If possible take another 30 minutes of sleep to help you wake up feeling refreshed.
• Write down how long you sleep each night and how you feel when you wake up. Try and adjust your sleep duration so you wake up at the end of the cycle.

Experiment slowly – you can’t change your sleeping patterns in one day, but you can do it easily over time with small steps.

Understand your body and its sleep patterns will help you to have a good night’s sleep and wake up feeling refreshed.

Contact Erika to take the first steps to achieving a good night’s sleep.