are your fears holding you hostage ?

How often do you delay doing the things you’ve always wanted to do because when it comes right down to it, you’re too afraid, too uncomfortable? Perhaps you’ve delayed going on that diet, starting that exercise program, quitting the smoking habit, or avoided talking to your spouse about what is important to you. Maybe you dreamed of continuing your eduction or starting a new career but found yourself stuck, paralyzed with fear, doing absolutely nothing at all. You may have found yourself avoiding social situations, refrained from speaking up and thwarted efforts to pursue your dreams because it would involve breaking out of your comfort zone. Think about it. Do you notice that your fears have been holding you hostage inside your comfort zone? And really...how comfortable is that?

If you want to change your bad habits, end an unhealthy relationship, get a new job or ask your boss for a raise you will need to step out of your normal routine. By doing the thing you fear to do, you expand the territory of your comfort zone. But imagine if the fear wasn’t even there? That would make things much easier wouldn’t it?

Let’s be honest it is not the fears themselves that you are afraid of... you are afraid of the resulting uncomfortable feelings that may occur if you step outside of your comfort zone. But how do you really know you are going to have those feelings? Perhaps you think you know because you’ve experienced stress, anxiousness, panic attacks in the past and believe if it happened once it can happen again. Even thinking about those negative possibilities causes you to have a relapse of those feelings which in turn may cause secondary symptoms of stress like depressed feelings , heart palpitations, and sheer exhaustion. Is this sounding familiar?

Now STOP for a moment, take a breathe and start to observe purposefully. Fear, like stress, is not a tangible thing. It is merely an idea, an opinion, an assumption. It has no form. It is merely an illusion of your mind.

Illusions can disappear as easily as they appeared. You have the power to dissipate the illusions that were created or stored by your own mind. Hypnosis is a process that can help you do that. During a hypnosis session we utilize techniques to get to the root perceptions that are creating the illusions of fear. Perceptions are the filters by which you see and experience the world. By changing these filters, these perceptions, the illusion of fear disappears taking away with them the old fearful thoughts and feelings.

When you diminish or eliminate the fear altogether then you no longer need to continue those unhealthy behaviors like smoking, overeating, nail biting, alcohol and drug use that were failed attempts to combat uncomfortable feelings. Imagine being comfortable with eating right and exercising. Imagine being comfortable giving a speech to a group of people. Imagine being free from old negative behaviors. Imagine having healthy, positive productive behaviors that enable you to achieve success in all areas of your life.

Come on! Aren’t you ready to live a little ...or a lot?! Schedule a free consultation and learn how hypnosis can help you release yourself from the bonds of fear so you will feel free to achieve your goals!

To learn more about how hypnotherapy, continue exploring this website and discover a wealth of information to motivate you forward... or call Theresa today at 360-499-6211 and request a FREE no-obligation consultation to find out how hypnosis can be utilized to address your specific needs.

 

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Getting Unstuck

Ever found yourself trying so hard to make a change, perhaps trying to change a habit and it seems the harder you try the more it eludes you? And as the same old behavior comes into play again you are left asking yourself, “Why do I keep doing that?”

Often times people end up blaming themselves for lack of willpower. Some may claim that an addiction has power or control over them keeping them from changing. Others believe they are somehow naturally defective in some way.

To really make a change effectively and permanently, it is important to discover the “why” behind what you do. What I have come to understand during my study and practice of hypnosis is that we do the things we do because it works for us. On some level there is a reward, a benefit to every behavior. In other words, a need is being met. If the unwanted behavior happens to be the quickest perceived way to meet the need, the mind gravitates to it as the “known”.

If you drive to work, why do you take the route that you do? Because it’s the quickest or easiest way to get to your destination, right? Well the brain reverts back to the quickest and easiest way it knows to get a need met. For example, if an individual believes that smoking a cigarette relaxes them, then during a time of stress and tension the subconscious mind recognizes the need for comfort and it searches in it’s memory database for past experiences of quick and easy relaxation. The result is: you revert to the old programmed route to get to your destination, your goal of perceived relaxation.

So you recognize that a need is trying to be met, but you also realize that the way you tried to meet the need in the past is no longer productive or healthy for you or your body. How do you overcome the old programming?

When you get an idea of why you behave a certain way and what you gain from that behavior this should uncover the basic subconscious need that the behavior is trying to meet. Once you become aware of that need you can begin to logically come up with new more positive solutions to meet that need. For instance if you find that you eat to comfort sad feelings. Consciously think about all the others things that you’ve done or experienced in that past that effectively and healthfully changed your mood and made you feel happier. Perhaps, for example, remembering the times that you took walks around your neighborhood and how good it made you feel to get outside moving your body. That reaction is obviously far healthier than stiffling emotions by feeding from the refrigerator.

So perhaps you have already tried replacing old behaviors with new ones to get the same need met and it didn’t work. This is where using hypnosis can be especially helpful.

Hypnosis techniques can help you uncover subconscious imprints that created the need in the first place. An imprint is any experience that in turn created a perception or reaction that is uncomfortable which resulted in unhealthy behaviors in an attempt to cope with the uncomfortable feelings. Through hypnosis “reframing” processes we can effectively alter or eliminate subconscious imprints. It is like updating a computer document. By changing it’s format, like changing a Word document in to a PDF, the document can no longer be opened by the old application. As a result, you can still maintain the information from the document, in this case the memory, but you no longer react to trigger(s) with the old uncomfortable feelings. With the absence of discomfort there is no need to comfort. So in the example of the smoker who smoked during times of high stress can effectively alter his/her stress reactions to specific triggers...therefore eliminating the need to comfort and relax self with cigarettes. This hypnosis imprint reframing technique is effective with a wide variety of issues (See List).

For more information on how hypnosis can help you with your specific issue call Theresa to schedule a free consultation 360-499-6211. To email click here.

 

Spring Renovation Article: Getting Unstuck

Ever found yourself trying so hard to make a change, perhaps trying to change a habit and it seems the harder you try the more it eludes you? And as the same old behavior comes into play again you are left asking yourself, “Why do I keep doing that?”

Often times people end up blaming themselves for lack of willpower. Some may claim that an addiction has power or control over them keeping them from changing. Others believe they are somehow naturally defective in some way.

To really make a change effectively and permanently, it is important to discover the “why” behind what you do. What I have come to understand during my study and practice of hypnosis is that we do the things we do because it works for us. On some level there is a reward, a benefit to every behavior. In other words, a need is being met. If the unwanted behavior happens to be the quickest perceived way to meet the need the mind gravitates to it as the “known”.

If you drive to work, why do you take the route that you do? Because it’s the quickest or easiest way to get to your destination, right? Well the brain reverts back to the quickest and easiest way it knows to get a need met. For example, if an individual believes that smoking a cigarette relaxes them, then during a time of stress and tension the subconscious mind recognizes the need for comfort and it searches in it’s memory database for past experiences of quick and easy relaxation. The result is: you revert to the old programmed route to get to your destination, your goal of relaxation.

So you recognize that a need is trying to be met, but you also realize that the way you tried to meet the need in the past is no longer productive or healthy for you or your body. How do you overcome the old programming?

When you get an idea of why you behave a certain way and what you gain from that behavior this should uncover the basic subconscious need that the behavior is trying to meet. Once you become aware of that need you can begin to logically come up with new more positive solutions to meet that need. For instance if you find that you eat to comfort sad feelings. Consciously think about all the others things that you’ve done or experienced in that past that effectively and healthfully changed your mood and made you feel happier. Perhaps, for example, remembering the times that you took walks around your neighborhood and how good it made you feel to get outside moving your body. That reaction is obviously far healthier than stifling emotions by feeding from the refrigerator.

So perhaps you have done that, you have tried replacing old behaviors with new ones to get the same need met and it didn’t work. This is where using hypnosis can be especially helpful.

Hypnosis techniques can help you uncover subconscious imprints that created the need in the first place. An imprint is any experience that in turn created a perception or reaction that is uncomfortable which resulted in unhealthy behaviors in an attempt to cope with the uncomfortable feelings. Then through hypnosis “reframing” processes we can effectively alter or eliminate subconscious imprints. It is like updating a computer document. By changing it’s format, the document can no longer be opened by the old application. As a result you no longer react to same triggers with the old uncomfortable feelings. With the absence of discomfort there is no need to comfort. So in the example of the smoker who smoked during times of high stress can effectively alter his/her stress reactions to specific triggers...therefore eliminating the need to comfort and relax self with cigarettes. This hypnosis imprint reframing technique is effective with a wide variety of issues (See List).

For more information on how hypnosis can help you with your specific issue call Theresa to schedule a free consultation 360-499-6211. To email click here.