New Job, New You

It is that time of year when many of us get restless and we start to look around for our next job. Just as important as ensuring you have edited and polished your CV before applying for the job you’re after, is making sure you are full of confidence and energy and ready to sell yourself to prospective employers.

Many of us have mixed emotions when it comes to the idea of starting a new job. Even if it is something that we have been dreaming of or a career stepping stone that we know is the right one, it is perfectly natural to feel nervous or anxious about the process of applying for a job and being interviewed. We feel the excitement as we begin to imagine what it would be like to be in our new role, but we also feel fear as we begin to think about the possibility of rejection. We begin to consider whether or not we have what it takes to be successful. The fear of failure begins to creep in and we worry about not succeeding, so our confidence can get knocked before we have even started.

Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you to overcome any anxieties you have. It can help you with public speaking fears, confidence and anything else you feel you need to build on. You can learn how to walk into the interview room feeling calm and confident, ready to “sell” yourself to the company without being overly confident or arrogant. We all need to build on our skills, even if we are good at our current job, we need to learn how to adapt to a new company.

During a session of Hypnotherapy with CBT & NLP we can look at dealing with the weight of expectation you may be carrying and help you to challenge any negative beliefs, building on your strengths and understanding your weaknesses. We will then aim to turn any weaknesses into positives, putting you in a place to grow and develop from.

Even if the job you are going for is an internal promotion, you may still need help to combat old beliefs. We tend to feel that we need to know everything; to admit we have weaknesses can be seen as a negative but that’s not always the case. Often it is actually the opposite – the greatest things can be achieved if we let go of the fear of failure and accept that with a bit of help we can continue to grow.

© EKTherapies

Public Speaking

For many of us the idea of public speaking brings us out in a cold sweat as butterflies start to race around our stomachs. But how come something that we do every day so easily like speaking all of a sudden becomes terrifying? Many of us would like to avoid public speaking entirely but this is not always possible. Making presentations, giving talks, a bestman's speech at a wedding, business meetings, the list of when we may have to confront our fears of public speaking is endless.

There are many reasons why public speaking starts to turn us to jelly. Here are just a few common reasons:

• Self-consciousness – this could be because of accent, grammar, voice, image, the way we stand, how we perceive ourselves
• Lack of confidence – often stems from a feeling that others are better speakers than ourselves or that they know more about the topic in question
• Unfamiliar situation – unless public speaking is something you do regularly the formality of speaking to an audience can cause apprehension
• Fear of looking foolish – we worry that we might forget what we want to say or stumble over words, even say the wrong thing
• When you start to panic over public speaking your body goes into fight or flight mode, releasing adrenaline to help you cope with the situation

Public speaking is a perceived threat and although that perception feels all too real to those who suffer from it, the act of public speaking can do us no harm. Public speaking doesn’t have to be stressful, it can even be enjoyable. If you correctly understand the hidden causes of public speaking stress and if you learn a few tricks to calm your body and mind, it will soon become an invigorating and satisfying experience. Hypnotherapy, CBT & NLP can help you to conquer any public speaking anxieties you have by building up your confidence, helping you to remain relaxed and calm. You can learn your body’s unique reactions to stress and anxiety and develop a healthy and positive way of thinking and feeling. You wouldn’t walk into a meeting having not prepared what you want to say, in the same way you need to prepare both body and mind for how you are going to say it, so you walk into the room ready to speak clearly and confidently.

Imagine, instead of public speaking filling you with dread, you can learn to enjoy it, even to look forward to writing and giving a presentation. Take the first step today to conquering your public speaking fears, relaxing in the weeks leading up to it and even enjoying giving the speech as your new found confidence fills the room.

The Duchess of Cambridge - Confident, Elegant a Role Model

The Duchess of Cambridge, Kate (Catherine) Middleton. What springs to mind when you hear her name?

For me, the first think I think of is a confident, elegant woman and someone who always has a smile on her face.

Kate is becoming a style icon, a role model for not only young girls, but also for the older generations too. She carries herself with such confidence and composition, understanding her role and fulfilling it perfectly. Kate’s confidence comes across in how she holds herself and how she dresses, wearing clothes that suit her own style - including high-street brands as well as the top-end designer clothes too. She feels accessible to us, wearing clothes we recognise or may even own ourselves.

Whilst I am sure behind closed doors she has her moments of uncertainty as we all do, in the public eye she always comes across as very confident and sure of herself but in a gentle, inoffensive way.

So how did Kate become so confident? Is this something she was born with, a gift? Or is this something we can all learn to develop in ourselves?

It is easy to put people like Kate onto a pedestal and think that you will never be able to be as confident as them but as with us all her confidence is always growing and developing. She remains in her comfort zone but probably still pushes the boundaries. You can see this on her first tour as the newly-married Duchess to Canada. Kate was not pushed to do any public speaking; she is still learning the ropes and didn’t push herself to do more than she felt comfortable with. I am sure that as she gets used to her new role and develops her confidence she will begin to push her boundaries more and publicly speak to people, inspiring them on the way.

Of course Kate has access to the best advice money can buy but she still needs to take all of this on board and continue to grow, becoming the person the public admire and look up to.

I can’t claim to know what methods Kate uses to deal with the pressure of becoming one of the most photographed women in the world. I do know from seeing my clients develop and achieve things they could have only dreamt of, that Hypnotherapy, CBT and NLP can help to teach you what your strengths are. Giving you the tools you need to become a more confident person, believing in yourself and your abilities; from the way you carry yourself to the way you dress. All these little signs we give off reveal how we feel. You can learn how to challenge your negative beliefs and achieve the goals you never thought possible. Kate gives us all a chance to see that if you focus on your strengths and build on them, having the confidence to believe in yourself you can achieve incredible things.