Put Anxiety into the Past

It seems as though anxiety and panic attacks are the new health scourge of the western world. I know that half of the clients I see as a Clinical Hypnotherapist are seeing me for anxiety relief, and that percentage is echoed when I talk to other health-care professionals.

Personally, I love working with clients who are seeking anxiety relief because hypnotherapy can have fast cut-through. Anxiety doesn’t discriminate with age. I have helped many clients from age 8 to 80 to put the symptoms of anxiety into the past.

So what is anxiety? Anxiety exists in the limbic brain; the primitive brain. Think of a cave-man being confronted by a sabre-tooth tiger. He doesn’t say “hey, there’s a sabre-tooth tiger!” His automatic response will be to freeze, flight or fight. The emergency centre of the brain (amygdala) would have been activated, helping the body to react accordingly to put the person out of danger.

In a modern day sense, if we are in bed asleep and we hear a floor-board creek, it is likely that we will wake up with a startled response. The amygdala is doing its job - it is responsible for preparing the body for an emergency, processing emotions (mainly fear), and physical arousal. If the amygdala is primed for action, some of the physical changes we experience (amongst many) are:

• Heart palpitations

• Shallow breathing

• Neck and shoulder tightness

• Foggy head and scrambled thoughts

• Restriction of the throat

• Sweaty palms and body

• Butterflies in the stomach, or a need to find a toilet (NOW!)

We have two components of the Autonomic Nervous System. We have the parasympathetic nervous system which is the “rest and digest”, and then we have the sympathetic nervous system which is the “flight, fight, freeze” part. If someone is experiencing the symptoms listed above, it means that the body’s responses are being dominated by the sympathetic nervous system.

Most people experience a panic attack or anxiety, with no present danger. There is no sabre-tooth tiger. Your life is not in danger, yet your brain has pushed the emergency button.

Anxiety exists in the unconscious mind. One doesn’t consciously think “hey I’d like to have anxiety right now.” It is an automatic action. As automatic as breathing. The trained hypnotherapist is working with the client’s unconscious mind, allowing the client to look at the old anxiety from a new perspective. In a safe environment, the client can have the ‘aha’ moment of realising that the danger is over. It is now in the past. It is as if the mind still has a memory of an event, and the learnings from an event, but the negative emotion has been disconnected.

I love hearing clients telling me “that hypnosis was weird. I feel so calm and in control, as if I’ve just given myself a software upgrade”.

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Over the past 13 years as a professional Clinical Hypnotherapist, I’ve been able to assist many clients to make the changes necessary to move towards their goals. If anxiety is ruining your life, I’d love to work with you. If you are ready to be free of anxiety – check out the special Anxiety-buster program on page 31 or try the range of self-hypnosis MP3s on Spotify and iTunes (search Cameron Hypnotics).