Tips to reduce anxiety: how hypnotherapy can help

There is no template for anxiety: who experiences it, why, and what can be done to eliminate it. Something that one person takes in their stride might send another person into a spin. And when we have an accumulation of troubling issues, our tolerance of additional stress will be reduced. Nobody is immune to anxiety, and most of us will experience it at some point about something. But for some people, anxiety may become persistent or overwhelming.

In this article, we explore anxiety, some of its common effects, and how hypnotherapy may offer support.

Symptoms of anxiety

Whatever our susceptibility to stress and fearfulness, how it manifests will vary from person to person. Some people may experience digestive problems such as IBS or gastric reflux. Some experience insomnia or sleep problems. Some will clench their jaws or grind their teeth at night (a condition known as bruxism). Some will experience tension headaches or stress-induced migraines. Others might become irritable and snappy. And that’s not an exclusive list. These symptoms, triggered or exacerbated by stress, can cause significant problems beyond the original focus of concern, making life really tough.

Lowering stress levels is essential when experiencing anxiety or fretfulness. Learning meditation or self-hypnosis may help to reduce the severity of physical symptoms. Many hypnotherapists teach their clients self-hypnosis techniques as well as offering hypnosis for anxiety reduction. Hypnosis can be a very effective way to quieten the mind and provide a welcome sense of calm. Before using hypnosis to reduce physical symptoms, it’s recommended that you seek advice from a medical professional.

How knowing your triggers can help

Do you tend to feel more anxious at a particular time of day or in a specific situation? Does the worrying start when you wake and begin thinking about work or other commitments? Do the events of the day start running through your mind when you’re lying in bed trying to sleep? Does watching the news on TV set off a chain of catastrophic thinking?

You may be very aware of what prompts an anxious reaction. If not, recording triggers in a mood diary can make it easier to avoid anxiety-provoking situations (or to mitigate them). Whether you intend to seek the support of a hypnotherapist for anxiety as a first step or want to try self-help techniques, knowing your patterns can be really helpful.

Can you relate?

Anxiety can affect everyone differently, but many people notice recurring patterns of thinking that can keep them feeling stuck. If any of the following sound familiar, these tips may help you begin to break the cycle.

Tip 1: stop thinking, start doing

Do you spend ages debating internally what to do whenever you need to make a decision? Do you worry about the consequences of making the ‘wrong’ choice? Maybe you have a gut feeling but don’t trust your intuition. Or perhaps you do act on your inner voice but only after running every scenario through your mind first.

Weighing up the pros and cons of a situation is fine, of course, as long as you only do it once. Dithering for days, weeks, or more before making a decision is time-consuming and exhausting, and it keeps you stuck; the more you fret, the less you do!    

Tip 2: rein in your irrational thoughts

Do you find yourself focusing on the worst possible outcome in a situation? Do you have ‘runaway’ thoughts that get increasingly negative or extreme? Perhaps your thoughts follow a familiar pattern that always ends in an imagined disaster. You may know that these thoughts are irrational, but feel you have no control over them. When you find yourself starting down this track, stop. Get busy with something; nobody is anxious all the time, and when you are absorbed in a task, you may forget to stress. Yes, really!

Tip 3: put the past in the past

Do you re-run conversations, thinking about how things would have been if you had said or done something different? Do you rehearse various outcomes or imagine how others would have responded if you’d said the 'right’ thing or done something better?

Ruminating in this way can lead to low mood, as the inability to change things can leave a sense of helplessness. Focus on the present and leave the past in the past. Running a post-mortem on past conversations or events doesn’t change anything except your mood.

If you want to break anxious patterns and rein in runaway thoughts, hypnotherapy may be ideal for you. Many people choose hypnosis because it provides a pleasant, relaxing, and effective way to manage anxious thinking.