Anxiety and your powerful mind

It is important to remember that anxiety is completely natural, and everyone will experience anxiety and stress as a part of life. No one has a constantly smooth and perfect life. Every person will also experience sadness, loss, disappointment, and grief. The important thing is to know that it will pass.

When you have anxiety constantly and it starts to make your world smaller through avoiding situations, then this is when it is becoming unhealthy. Living in a constant state of anxiety is unhealthy and impacts us emotionally, mentally, and physically. A constant release of stress hormones can increase the frequency of symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and depression, and can lower your sex drive, increase blood pressure, and leave you with fatigue and muscle aches.

Anxiety eats away at our self-esteem and self-worth. We make decisions based on how we see ourselves, and if we do not see our true value and worth, we make decisions that are not right for us, excepting less in life than we deserve; our confidence then decreases, as does our joy of life. The good news is that anxiety can be reduced and managed successfully, and you have all the power to do this.

Anxiety is future-based, which means we are using our mind to imagine scary future occurrences and reconfirming this with our self-talk. Just think of that what strong imaginations people with anxiety have; so vivid that they can allow their mind to think that the danger or risk is happening now, so that it starts up the flight, fight, or freeze response. Wow! Our minds believe what we tell ourselves or imagine - it really cannot tell any difference between what is real or imagined.

What magic and power we hold inside us. Just imagine for a moment that you start to use this power inside your mind, to build you up, feel confident; that you can use this power to increase your confidence and calm your mind and body. The good news is that you can. If you can use your own words and imagination to fill you with dread and panic, you can use it to help you make the changes you want to make, and to help you live the life you wish to live.

Use visualisation. Just imagine, seeing yourself feeling wonderful, doing what you wish to do and loving it. Be in that moment, experience it, and notice how confident you look and feel, using all your senses. Your mind will believe that it is happening. The more you do it the more it works. Another way that can help change the critical self-talk is simply to become aware of it, and when it starts the unhelpful chatter, just say stop - this isn’t true, and replace it with something helpful. By doing this, you're changing old programs that repeat like a computer program. The more you do it, the better results you get.

Hypnotherapy can also greatly help with reducing anxiety and increasing confidence and self-value. Hypnotherapy uses the power of your mind for making positive changes.

Try this simple self-hypnosis practice

Here is a little self-hypnosis meditation; it takes about five minutes. Try to do it every day for at least a month and enjoy the peace of mind and the positive changes it can bring into your life. Sit comfortably, preferably in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed. However, when you have memorised this, you can even do it on a bus.

Close your eyes and take a couple of long deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Now imagine bringing your mind down to your heart, feel the loving space you are creating for yourself. Just think your heart knows all your secrets, all your emotions and dreams. Such a beautiful loving and tender heart.

As you breathe out, just imagine any unhelpful thoughts or emotions just leaving your body, in any way that you wish, just leaving, drifting away until they just disappear into the distance.

With every breath, you breathe in peace, calm, and self-love. Know that you are valued, unique and special, filled with calm, peace, and love, allowing all those feelings to fill your heart space, filling you with peace and calm.

Now see the wonderful feeling spread down your body right down to your toes and move, up filling your head, arms, and hands. Nothing but peace and love filling every part of your being with every breath you take. Now, just sit, relax, and enjoy the feeling.

You could record yourself saying this, and listen to it on your device if this is easier.

This is a little insight into the way hypnotherapy can help you make the changes you wish for while using the power of your mind. This is teamwork; the therapist and the client working together both have an important part to play in the success of the sessions, and there is likely to be some follow-up exercises to do at home.

If you experience anxiety and are ready to make changes in your life, why wait? Support to make the changes is available in a gentle, supporting way.