Stop Smoking tips 2
Stop Smoking Tips 2
In my first article on ‘how to stop smoking tips 1’, I discussed three of the essential background stop smoking issues that focus your mind on the big day. Firstly, recognise that the nicotine cycle is just cravings fooling your mind. Over time, as the addiction takes over, you will make up any justification to keep the addiction going. Secondly, by appreciating how anxiety and stress are connected with smoking, you can find new ways to cope with your anxious and stressful issues. Without this, you will feel like an “ex-smoker” who is still vulnerable to smoking again. Thirdly, recognise how breathing (inhaling) is part of your smoking habit. Relaxed breathing is a way of controlling anxiety and stress. When you see these connections for what they are, life without a cigarette becomes a realistic achievement. In my hypnotherapy consultations, I aim to identify other important issues that individualise your smoking habit and match them with an appropriate stop smoking hypnotherapy treatment. Converting to being a non-smoker requires an understanding of your personal smoking triggers and then rehearsing alternative ways to cope without a cigarette. This way you can be ready for your stop smoking transformation. If you want professional help to stop smoking: Stop Smoking CardiffStop Smoking Tips #1:
If you’ve previously stopped smoking, identify what caused you to re-start smoking
Stop Smoking Tips #2:
If you’ve never tried to stop smoking, identify when you smoke more cigarettes and what influenced you to start in the first place
If you’ve never stopped smoking for more than 3 days then you are dependent on identifying your smoking triggers “inside” the nicotine addiction. Those with a heavier addiction may not be aware of those differences because there’s very little time when you are not smoking. Those with moderate addictions are likely to recognise these subtleties. Maybe it’s stress, anxiety or boredom. Once you have identified the link with your increased dependency on cigarettes, you can find alternative ways of coping once you have stopped. The reason that you first started smoking may have been several years ago, but don’t dismiss it as being irrelevant. Teenage traits can still direct adult behaviour. Many of you may have succumbed to peer-pressure back then. Do you find that you still smoke more cigarettes socially? If so then, social reinforcement is still part of your adult life. When you are stuck in a negative habit and are struggling to change it, hypnotherapy can be an effective technique to uncover the cause of the habit. Hypnotherapy can then be used to release the emotion behind the habit. For example, some of you may have started smoking to defy controlling parents. As an adult, the defiance is no longer required but is still blocking your progress. Taking a “U-turn” with your belief system can be difficult on your own. Many adult patients recognise that the reason for continuing smoking is pointless. But transforming defiance into something positive would mean changing a deeper part of your belief system. Regression hypnotherapy is used in this situation to help change emotional blocks.Stop Smoking Tips #3:
Consider if you “miss” smoking in situations where you can’t smoke
This issue is something that smokers have had to deal with more since the ban on smoking in public places. When the ban was first announced, there was a moderate rebellion followed by general compliance. It may have hardened the defiant smokers attitudes to smoke “by right” when they ‘can’ smoke. For others, it was a breath of fresh air; (pun intended!) you just went outside! What is so helpful for the aspiring non-smoker is to consider if they “miss” smoking when they are not allowed to smoke. Many of my stop smoking hypnotherapy patients say that they just accept the situation and focus on other things. They don’t feel deprived. They flick the “internal smoking switch” off when entering their workplace, but switch “it” on again the moment they have left work. Can you see this positive “mind-mechanism” as a decision of choice? If you can, then it’s a choice that is transferable into other situations where you “can” smoke but chose not to smoke.How to stop smoking tips: summary
For further information on stop smoking tips, and stop smoking Cardiff hypnotherapy courses contact Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Overeating: lose weight with hypnotherapy
Overeating: lose weight with hypnotherapy
Overeating: Do you ever wonder why you find it had to stick to a diet? When overeating causes you to stray from your diet, then weight gain is unlikely to be just about the food types. Do you find yourself raiding the fridge or the snack cupboard after a bad day at work? If you do, then it can mean that something in your mind is much bigger than the motive you had when you first started your diet. Ignore this ‘something in your mind’ and it will gradually erode the best dietary intentions and cause you to put on weight.
This article focuses on overeating and considers how hypnotherapy can be used as an effective method to treat it.What is overeating?
Overeating and comfort eating are terms used to describe an increase in your consumption of food. This increase is usually (but, not always) motivated by negative changes in your emotions and feelings. Emotional eating describes either an increase or a decrease in the consumption of food, affected by a change in emotion or feeling. In many ways, these terms overlap but in essence, they describe how a normal eating routine can be altered by a change in emotion or situation. It’s as if the person is temporarily possessed by a mind-state that replaces the original eating intention. After the excessive snack or meal, the person is left questioning “why did I do that?”Why do you start overeating?
Why does overeating continue?
A surge of emotion can create tension, disguising the usual internal awareness of fullness. You have already learned that food gives you momentary escape and thus a habit has been formed. So you keep overeating with the hope that it will ease the feeling of tension when a new problem surfaces. But some situations appear to have no way out. The overeating is ineffective at shifting the abdominal tension but you repeat the habit nevertheless, believing that it will still help you. You have become locked into a cycle of food being used to solve emotional problems by association. Now, your overeating is causing you to put on weight.Who does overeating affect?
Eating excessively can affect anyone; there is an element of over-indulgence in all of us. It can be something that starts unnoticed until you jump on the scales, change a clothing size or hear a polite mention from someone you know (and then despise!) This triggers an awareness of the issue and you will attempt to be more careful. If it’s controlled then it usually fades into the background. When these situations accumulate and the attempts to change it fail, then it is classified as a problem. Hypnotherapy can be a useful solution at this stage.Would a diet help you to deal with overeating?
Can overeating be the same as binge eating?
Overeating involves eating in excess, but doesn’t fall into the same severity as binge eating. Binge eating can be classified as an eating disorder. It involves frequent episodes of prolonged uncontrollable eating patterns that go way beyond any feelings of fullness. As a disorder, binge eating can be placed in the same category as anorexia and bulimia; there are a number of complex issues affecting these conditions. Even with hypnotherapy, binge eating is rarely dealt with in a short period of time.What situations and emotions cause overeating?
Any negative (and some positive) emotions can cause overeating. Generally, overeating can be used to comfort an emotion or divert the arrival of a worse emotion or situation. Positive emotions can include social situations or where food is used as a reward. Here are some examples of emotional situations where overeating is common: Anger: A row with your partner about something you both strongly disagree about can trigger a pattern of overeating. Anxiety: Worrying about and preparing for an exam can be a situation where overeating is used to divert your anxiety. Apathy: A persistent situation like a court battle can leave you feeling numb. Food might be used to lift the spirits during spells of frustration. Boredom: Overeating is a common response to a life of routine and drudgery. Even when work has become this way, the emotion carries through into your social life where overeating has become the activity of interest. Blame: A culture where the outcome of a situation must have a cause can be turned inwardly when you can only point the finger of fault at yourself. A mistake that has caused a row in a relationship may influence overeating to comfort this blame. Denial: Ironically, overeating can be a behavioural response when someone is putting on weight, but they’re not quite ready to admit that there is a weight problem. Depression: A change in your job description that now has pointless objectives can create a state of meaninglessness where overeating is a temporary escape. Despair: Overeating can comfort a situation that appears to have no way out. The arrival of a long-term medical condition is an example. Disappointment: Food can be used to comfort you when something you expect to happen just didn’t go your way e.g. not getting the grade you wanted in an exam. Guilt: Overeating can be used to block feelings of guilt in a relationship after you have done something wrong and have been denied the opportunity to apologise or put the situation right. Hopelessness: An accumulation of stressful events may provoke an overeating response as way of coping with the feelings of resignation. Loneliness: Feeling isolated because your peer group have not invited you to a social arrangement can trigger an overeating reaction. Loss of self-confidence: Doubting your abilities may be reinforced when a project at work has not achieved the objective. Overeating is used to negatively reinforce this self-doubt dialogue saying “I can’t do this!” Procrastination: Food can be a tactical way of delaying dealing with stressful issues. Resentment: Being constantly excluded from your work colleagues for no apparent reason could provoke an overeating response to counter feelings of loneliness. Responsibility: A recent job promotion and taking care of a large family can leave you feeling overburdened with responsibility. Overeating can become a ritual that “gives you some space” when things are going wrong and you making risky decisions that are affecting people’s lives. Sadness: When a relationship has suddenly ended, the emptiness in your life can spark a desire to fill that space with food. Overeating can be something that is used to fill the emotional gap. Self-hatred: Maliciously lashing out at a loved one to get their attention, but finding that they suffer fatal consequences as a result can cause you to hate yourself. Overeating can be used to conceal your powerlessness to remedy the situation. Self-pity: When something has gone wrong, overeating can be a way of medicating yourself when others have seen through your attempts to seek attention. Shame: When a sensitive subject-matter has been exposed and ridiculed by your peer group, overeating can seem like an escape from your feelings of shame. Shock: The news of an unexpected bereavement can trigger overeating patterns to hide your feelings of grief. Stress: Overeating can be used as a way of coping with the pressure of having intense work deadlines. Tension: Physical tension can be generated from any negative emotion or situation. Parts of your body feel tight and you can feel generally irritable. You may not be able to identify the situation but overeating can somehow shift the uneasiness in your abdomen. Worthlessness: Overeating can be a reaction to numerous criticisms that cause you to question your own abilities. So when you do something wrong again, you reach for food to divert your feelings.How can hypnotherapy help with overeating?
Each hypnotherapy treatment is individualised to your issues. Hypnotherapy is used to treat overeating in the following ways:- Hypnotherapy can help identify the emotions or situations that are causing the overeating.
- Hypnotherapy can be used to access unconscious experiences that are provoking your overeating responses.
- Hypnotherapy can help dissociate the overeating behaviour from the emotion or situation.
- Hypnotherapy can help create new beliefs and attitudes towards your eating habits.
- Hypnotherapy can help you to recognise your internal feelings of fullness.
- Hypnotherapy can teach you breathing techniques that reduce your stress levels and so be less dependent on food as your comfort.
For further information on how to control overeating, comfort eating and emotional eating in Cardiff contact Hypnotherapy Cardiff
How to stop smoking tips 1
How to Stop Smoking Tips 1
There are many articles offering ‘how to stop smoking tips’. In this article, these ‘how to stop smoking tips’ are based on my experiences using hypnotherapy as a successful smoking cessation method. Hypnotherapy uses techniques that help the patient’s mind to be more receptive to positive suggestions and visualisation. When this is combined with an awareness of central issues that drive the smoking habit, the hypnotherapy patient is ready to stop smoking. They can then go through a re-learning process of how to stay “stopped”.These three ‘how to stop smoking tips’ are part of that early journey. Your mind and body moves from being a “smoker” to “ex-smoker”. Once you have stopped smoking, you can then ultimately embrace the belief system and lifestyle of the “non-smoker”. In this lifestyle change, you lead your life naturally without the want or need for a cigarette. This is how to stop smoking.
If you are seeking professional help to stop smoking: Stop Smoking CardiffHow to Stop Smoking Tips #1:
Recognise that the nicotine cycle is just cravings fooling your mind
In my view, the first of the ‘how to stop smoking tips’ is the most fundamental tip of them all. If you smoke on a regular basis, then you are likely to be addicted to nicotine. Being a very addictive drug, it serves a simple purpose – once addicted, it wants to keep you addicted.When your blood-nicotine level falls, your brain registers this depletion. You begin to feel “incomplete”. Symptoms include irritability, edginess, poor concentration and physical tension. In many ways it is similar to mild anxiety. These feelings sweep through you in waves until you are able to smoke a cigarette. When you smoke your next cigarette, you are increasing your blood-nicotine levels. Your brain registers this increase and the irritability symptoms begin to subside as you feel “complete” or “relaxed” again. The blood-nicotine levels are normalised and for how long this equilibrium lasts depends on the severity of your addiction. It can be a few minutes to a few hours.
Consider the nicotine cycle as purely an addictive drug cycle that wants to keep you on the inside. All other reasons for justifying smoking are superfluous to that cycle. If you are using those excuses of “but I like it” or “it helps me to feel better...” recognise that it is just the nicotine cravings that are deceiving you. Those who say that they “like” smoking have gone way past the initial nausea stage. You have dragged yourself through this stage, using another ‘value’ to keep you firmly on the smoking path e.g. “I want to look grown up”. As the nicotine cravings and smoking habits changed you, you will have suddenly realised that you are struggling without them. In my stop smoking hypnotherapy consultations, when my patient can recognise that they are stuck in the nicotine trap, they can then throw out all of the other excuses that justify the need to keep smoking. Hypnotherapy is a useful way of communicating this to the patient’s unconscious mind. It facilitates an important dissociation stage.How to Stop Smoking Tips #2:
Appreciate how anxiety and stress are connected with smoking
How to Stop Smoking Tips #3:
Identify how relaxed breathing is part of your smoking habit
In my view, the reason that cigarette manufacturers have kept trapping people for so long is because smoking involves the process of deep breathing. Any habit or ritual that incorporates deep breathing techniques will succeed because it involves the very natural relaxation mechanism that you all have. It is a technique that is so under-used. You will probably have heard the advice to “take a deep breath” to release stress. Non-smokers who cope with their stress effectively will use this breathing technique. It is used in yoga, meditation and hypnotherapy. Most smokers take up their habit as a teenager. Teenage life has many anxiety issues and finding a reliable way to cope independently with this period of life is very important; you are effectively setting up a template of coping for your adulthood. The best time to learn relaxation skills would be around (or just before) teenage hood. If cigarettes are introduced during this period and before any independent skills have been learned, the smoking-breathing habit becomes the crutch. So if these skills are learned too late, you may already have become hooked on cigarettes and believe that they help you to “relax” when tense. Over the years as a smoker, you forget about this natural ability. When stressed, and in a place where you can’t smoke, you are left gasping for air. It’s as if only smoking the cigarette gives you the permission to breathe deeply and relax. It has become your stress management prop. Nicotine and smoking has deceived you over the years. So when ‘stressed’ and you smoke more cigarettes, it’s your ‘breathing’ technique that is relaxing you, helping you to feel better. It is the breathing that is reducing your anxiety and stress, not the cigarette (point made in ‘how to stop smoking tips’ #2). For the ‘ex-smoker’ to convert to the belief system of the ‘non-smoker’, these relaxation skills must be embraced. Without these relaxation skills, the ex-smoker goes through life as if something is missing. They fear a stressful event and their ability to cope independently. It’s more than just will-power that makes this conversion; the smoker must be aware of how your habit has changed your life. In my hypnotherapy consultations, learning breathing and relaxation techniques are part of the hypnotherapy treatment. They help you with the immediate cravings and cope with stress and anxiety once you have stopped smoking.How to stop smoking tips: summary
For further information on how to stop smoking tips in Cardiff, and stop smoking Cardiff hypnotherapy courses contact Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Breathing techniques to relieve stress
Breathing Techniques to Relieve Stress & Anxiety
When the pace of life is taking over, there is a helpful solution: you can use breathing techniques to relieve stress and anxiety. Once learned, they can be used in a variety of situations e.g. before an exam or interview or prior to a performance to reduce anticipatory anxiety or panic attacks. Breathing techniques can control anxiety “during” an event or can be used naturally throughout the day. Breathing techniques can also help with insomnia when the mind is racing and needs to slow down before the sleep response can take over. Hypnotherapists commonly teach breathing techniques to relieve stress and anxiety in the early stages of a hypnotherapy treatment. It often forms the first stage of the hypnotherapy induction. Progressive relaxation and visualisation are also used to create a deep state of “inner focused awareness”. This helps the client to become more receptive to hypnotic suggestions given by the hypnotherapist. During the early part of the first hypnotherapy consultation, I like to ask my patient about any prior learning of breathing techniques to help them relieve stress. By ensuring that you are using the full potential of each breath, it can facilitate a more rapid hypnotic induction. The benefits of learning breathing techniques can also help you relieve stress outside of the hypnotherapy consultation. You can then practise these breathing techniques independently or use them with the assistance of a hypnotherapy relaxation CD.How to use breathing techniques to relieve stress
Even for those who have had some previous relaxation training outside of hypnotherapy, I am often surprised at how much emphasis is given to counting as the most important feature of breathing techniques to relieve stress. Leave out the numbers; each person’s breathing rate is different. When working with my private patients to relieve stress and during stress management workshops, I teach breathing techniques using the following stages: 1. Breathe in through the nose: With the aim being to slow down breathing patterns, I prefer the inspiration of air to be drawn in through the nose. The nostrils have a smaller surface area compared to the opened mouth and so help to ensure that the duration of inspiration phase is lengthened.Breathing techniques: continuation exercises to help relieve stress
10. Posture and general tension: A general observation of the client’s posture is natural for the hypnotherapist. For the novice who is learning to relax, freeing areas of tension can be facilitated when the mind is engaged into your internal state. Gradually work through the body from top to toe (or from toe upwards), releasing of any tense areas. Visualise each body part feeling helplessly heavy. Choose a place to practise at home where the head and body can be supported e.g. a high-backed chair, recliner or lying on the bed. 11. Visualising a calm place: These are the latter stages of relaxation training in which the topic can be an article in itself! In my hypnotherapy consultation, I discuss how my patient likes to relax. I then integrate this imagery into the hypnotic induction. 12. Using hypnotic suggestions You can use hypnotic suggestions to help you achieve your relaxation goal or any other goal that you may have. There is more information in this practise self hypnosis article. Click the following link if you want to know more about the differences between self hypnosis, meditation and mindfulness.Practise your breathing techniques to relieve stress
Being mindful of your breathing techniques is an important part of relieving stress and anxiety. Your autonomic nervous system controls all of the unconscious bodily functions like gut functioning, heart rate, breathing and the release of hormones like adrenaline. By controlling your breathing, it gives you an opportunity to take back some conscious control over what your unconscious mind and body is doing. In effect, your breathing can be your “doorway” into slowing down some of the “fight or flight” responses that are triggered by modern living stress.Evidence of the benefit of relaxed breathing techniques
Is there any evidence that if you practise breathing techniques to relieve stress that it actually has a physiological benefit? Yes, there is a strong connection between breathing and brain control. Evidence linked to this article suggests that the brain’s “pacemaker” can be altered by changing your breathing rhythm. Rapid breathing (common in highly anxious states) increases the activity in the brain’s circuit, whilst slow deep breathing reduces the brain’s circuit activity. Relaxed breathing can benefit some of the unconscious physiological functions controlled by the brain’s parasympathetic “calming” nervous system. These include better regulation of your blood pressure, improved emotional control, increased memory capability, immune system resiliency and energy metabolism efficiency. So perhaps there is much more behind the cliché “take a deep breath” than previously thought!Breathing techniques to relieve stress: conclusion
This article has outlined how to use breathing techniques to relieve stress. As a practising hypnotherapist, my teaching points are built on a collection of numerous consultations with past hypnotherapy clients. I do not advocate that this is the only way to teach breathing techniques to relieve stress. Being responsive to your hypnotherapy client and observing where to focus help is part of being a successful hypnotherapist and creating therapeutic change.For more information on practising breathing techniques to relieve stress contact Richard J D'Souza Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Gastric Band Hypnotherapy
Gastric Band Hypnotherapy – Just another fad!
Over the years in practice as a registered hypnotherapist, I have witnessed a number of “new” treatments that have come and gone. Gastric Band Hypnotherapy is the latest catch phrase when you want to lose weight. “New” hypnotherapy treatments can be created as a response to a new development or invention. In this case, the medical development is Gastric band surgery, an operation that limits the amount of food you can consume by reducing the capacity of your stomach. Rather than having this intrusive (and costly) medical procedure, you can have your “mind” taken through the process, in a course of gastric band hypnotherapy and live your life as if your stomach has been reduced in size...well, in theory anyway! Does gastric band hypnotherapy offer anything more credible for weight loss than other personalised courses of hypnotherapy administered by an experienced practitioner? In my view, it does not. When you delve a little deeper into what is being offered in a gastric band hypnotherapy course, it is little more than a re-hash of common methods, disguised to look new and more effective under a catchy phrase. What are the shortcomings?Gastric Band hypnotherapy: Where’s the evidence?
Gastric Band hypnotherapy: If the Gastric Band hypnotherapy treatment is that successful, there wouldn’t be a need for the surgery.
When a treatment is consistently effective, the NHS is quick to establish where money can be saved. Gastric band surgery can cost about £5000 and if there was a more efficient method that can save the NHS funds, they would promote that treatment which is cost-effective and reliable. At the time of writing, patients who are eligible for gastric band surgery must have (amongst several criteria) tried and failed with other weight loss treatments. I’m not aware that the gastric band surgery is in decline because of the success of Gastric Band hypnotherapy courses.Gastric Band hypnotherapy: Does one story of success mean it’s good for everyone?
When you desperately want something, you are vulnerable to believe anything that might confirm your ambitions. You can over-generalise one incident and take it as a fact that it will apply to everybody, in every situation. So when you see an article with a celebrity who has lost weight with Gastric Band hypnotherapy, it’s easy to believe that “if it worked for them...it’ll work for me”. Unfortunately, one incident of success can disguise some major issues that either wasn’t reported or just didn’t come to light in that treatment. So you go into it with an inflated expectation only to be disappointed when the hidden issue blocks the success of your treatment. In my hypnotherapy practice, you would think that when a patient makes a rapid change, the “word-of-mouth” success story referrals would be great for business. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. It can be quite harmful to business. Those referred patients arrive with that same inflated expectation and want to benefit in exactly the same way that the original patient did. Every patient is different. When those patients haven’t had their miracle cure, they leave with a feeling of disappointment. Expectation is important in therapeutic change, but inflated expectation can create unrealistic demands and disappointment.Gastric Band hypnotherapy: Regardless of what you visualise, are you just having fewer calories?
When a newspaper article headlines that hypnosis was the cause of an 8 stone weight loss, you are likely to believe that it was the Gastric Band hypnotherapy suggestions that caused the change. It’s as if a magic wand was waved and from that point forward, the patient lives the life of a gastric band surgery patient. In a Daily Mail article published on 30th August 2011, the patient followed the same extreme diet as that given to a gastric band surgery patient. They started on an all-liquid diet and then proceeded through to pureed foods and then on to solids. The article failed to mention the number of calories being consumed during this period of the programme. What is common understanding with weight loss is that if you eat fewer calories than you burn, you will lose weight.Gastric Band hypnotherapy: It’s more than just visualising that you have had the surgery in hypnosis.
Gastric Band hypnotherapy: Is it necessary to visualise anything different from a traditional weight loss hypnotherapy course.
When you read weight loss hypnotherapy scripts, they commonly use suggestions that help you visualise that “your stomach feels smaller and tighter and you feel fuller and satisfied on less food”. This is a common direct suggestion building block that focuses the patient towards their goal. Helping to alter what they are eating and how they are eating it is also part of the treatment. Imagining that your stomach has shrunk in size can be a beneficial visualisation that creates the same effect – thereby feeling fuller and satisfied on less food. If the patient can imagine this, it will have the same effect as a Gastric Band hypnotherapy treatment. Going through the process of imagining gastric surgery is just not needed.Gastric Band hypnotherapy: A good reason to be cynical about its effectiveness.
When you keep hearing that “in order to lose weight, eat fewer calories than you burn”, there must be something authoritative in that information. There are many ways that you can achieve that goal. Gastric Band hypnotherapy attempts to treat weight loss in a specified number of sessions. It doesn’t necessarily mean that it can treat your weight loss successfully in that number of sessions. The psychology and behaviour of weight loss has a number of issues that can affect whether you ultimately eat or drink fewer calories. A personalised approach (rather than an unconfirmed “one treatment fits all”) takes into account your personal weight loss issues. It has the best opportunity to guide you further into achieving your goal.For further information on choosing personalised weight loss programmes instead of Gastric Band Hypnotherapy in Cardiff, contact Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Weight loss tips 2
More Weight Loss Tips
If you have read my first article on weight loss tips, the majority of the weight loss tips focus on eating patterns, habits and rituals. How you approach your food will influence what you eat. From my weight loss hypnotherapy courses, the majority of my hypnotherapy patients know what they need to eat to lose weight. They struggle to lose weight because they are using a dysfunctional belief system, clouded by stress, anxiety and bad habits. They end up eating too much or lose control of their eating intentions. Changing your approach and belief system to anything can take time. When you allow these weight loss tips to fall into place, you will be able to make clearer choices about the food you want to eat and then stick to your intentions. These weight loss tips focus on making lifestyle changes that become a natural way of healthy eating.Weight Loss Tips #1: Relax before you eat
Your awareness of “fullness” can be affected by your emotions and a feeling of tension. A negative emotion like anxiety can cause you to lose your appetite and (at the other end of the scale) comfort eat. Positive emotions can also affect your gastric awareness. By relaxing before you eat, you can stabilise some of these emotional connections. Relaxation can simply be in the form of using three slow, deep diaphragmatic breaths when you have sat down and are about to eat. Diaphragmatic breathing involves the use of the abdomen when you inhale. Then pause before extending your exhale as is giving off a slow, deep sigh. This form of relaxation places your mind in the “here and now” i.e. how you want to approach your food. It also helps you to naturally incorporate some of the other weight loss tips. Relaxation training is an essential part of a typical hypnotherapy course. It is a fundamental technique for centring your mind. When relaxed, you can be internally more aware of signals like a feeling of fullness.Weight loss tips #2: Eat consciously
Eating consciously is about devoting some attention to the eating process rather than focusing on what is happening around you. It includes what you are eating, how quickly you are eating, having a sip of water at regular intervals etc. It’s too easy to get drawn in to the emotions of the environment and lose the awareness of your eating style. Try eating finger-food with a blindfold on. You’ll be pleasantly surprised that you eat less food, eat slowly, chew more and notice a feeling of fullness much earlier. Like so many routine and repetitive activities, like driving the car to and from work, your “mode” of eating is influenced by your emotional state. When feeling anxious, there is the tendency to increase your pace. Have you noticed the way some people unconsciously eat popcorn when they are watching a thriller or horror film at the cinema? They take bigger mouthfuls and chew quickly, often unaware of the quantity they are consuming until the box is finished. Stress influences “daydreaming”, a natural occurrence where your mind is dealing with problems internally. It can cause you to lose concentration when you are doing something that is low intensity like eating. When stressed, you are more likely to eat unconsciously as if distracted, unaware of the quantity, pace and internal fullness signals. Using weight loss tips #1 (relax before you eat) will help you to eat more consciously. Sometimes the stress can be deep-rooted and hypnotherapy can be used to manage and release your stress. Even when “actual” situations can’t be changed, how you are coping with them can ease some of the symptoms, and that includes comfort eating.Weight loss tips #3: Stop eating when you are full
Feeling full is not a visual response i.e. it is not about seeing that you have finished everything on your plate. But this is the common marker used for when you have “finished” your meal. Understandably, this is a deep cultural issue to “only leave the table when you have finished your food”. It’s likely that you will have been told this as a child and you will have guided your own children gently towards this aim. You don’t want to waste food if possible and you don’t want your children to “give up” on broccoli too easily when they know dessert is next and tastes much sweeter! Prioritise losing weight over the guilt of leaving a small amount of food. It won’t make you a wasteful person. Social pressure can also “force” you to keep going until you have finished everything on your plate. This is to avoid offending the host who has gone to so much trouble to prepare the food. You eat everything on your plate and then find it difficult to refuse an offer of a second helping in case it offends. You can see that there are situations that put pressure on you to override your internal “fullness” response. Another harmful situation is going to an “All you can eat for £...” meal. Unless you have disciplined yourself to feel your internal responses, you will keep going until just short of bursting point. Not good for the diet or the digestive system. Weight loss hypnotherapy courses aim to identify your vulnerabilities and then help you develop the confidence to deal with these situations more assertively. Some excessive eating issues are very individual.Weight loss tips #4: Eat a variety of food
As you move through these weight loss tips, you are becoming more psychologically prepared toapproach your food with choice. Begin a plan of eating different food types. Try not to eat the same type of food too frequently. This can ensure optimum nutrition from a variety of food sources e.g. different types of meat: chicken, red meat and fish and another day go vegetarian. Aim to eat a variety of different coloured fruit and vegetables. Vary the carbohydrate sources: potatoes, pasta, rice, couscous etc. Also vary the ways the food can be cooked: boiled, roasted, steamed, baked etc. Food phobias can limit the ability to eat a varied diet. In my weight loss hypnotherapy courses, part of a hypnotherapy patient’s goal can be to remove food phobias. Being sensitive to certain strong tastes and textures can be treated easily with hypnotherapy, so that you can learn to eat more healthily.Weight loss tips #5: Have the occasional “treat”
Give yourself some freedom with what you eat. When you are too strict with your eating plans, a small lapse can lead to a collapse! By allowing some freedom, you prevent an over-reaction in the form of a binge. When you are making gradual changes, the odd calorie-laden food won’t seem like a disaster. If you want to have a piece of chocolate, have it! In my weight loss hypnotherapy course, I help my weight loss patient set realistic goals that will become part of your lifestyle. Being relaxed about your food choices neutralises the “power” that food may have previously had on you. You can control food, rather than food controlling you. After following this second series of weight loss tips, you will be able to approach what you eat with confidence. There will be very few occasions where your emotions throw you off track. If you are still finding that you are vulnerable in any situations, a short weight loss hypnotherapy course will further break any over-eating responses that still remain. More information on how to diet and lose weight.For further information on weight loss tips in Cardiff, eating habits and emotional eating, contact Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Weight Loss Tips 1
Weight Loss Tips 1
There are numerous articles written on the topic of weight loss tips. It can be useful to refresh your knowledge, particularly when you slip back into old habits. My article on weight loss tips shares a wealth of experience dealing with weight loss hypnotherapy patients. These weight loss tips consider some of the emotional issues and eating habits that can knock you off your desired weight loss path.Weight loss tips #1: Make time to eat
Making time to eat is about making your eating plan a priority in your life. It’s about you valuing YOU, your weight and your health. Without this, your other priorities will eat you up! At the start of this process, it will seem like eating is at the forefront of your mind. But that is only natural when you want to make a change. Aim to do this in a series of small steps. As you gain momentum through this series of weight loss tips, it will then feel natural and happen more unconsciously. In the absence of making time to eat, you are likely to skip meals. This is an absolute no-no! Low blood-glucose levels and fainting or bingeing are your mind and body’s attempts to compensate when there is no food. When I treat a new weight loss hypnotherapy patient and offer them weight loss tips, I find that they have usually failed because they have tried to give food less importance in their life. I use hypnotherapy to help them explore their strategies, beliefs and values related to food and the rituals that surround eating. I help them embrace the new habits that will create healthy eating lifestyle changes.Weight loss tips #2: Eat regularly
Eat meals regularly. Ensure that you have some food at least every four hours. This prevents you from feeling too hungry and then compensating by overeating. When you get too hungry, there is the temptation to binge on food. This is when you eat in excess without the usual satisfaction or fullness responses limiting the quantity. Some people live by the belief to “eat when you are hungry.” This can ignore the way that emotions can affect your awareness of hunger. Many people suffering with anxiety or depression are vulnerable to rapid unhealthy weight loss (or weight gain) because stress hormones interfere with the functioning of the digestive system. Your mind’s perception of hunger and “feeling full” can become distorted. When I treat a new weight loss hypnotherapy patient and offer them weight loss tips, I find that the majority of my patients seek my help because they have lost control of that "full" awareness. Suggestions are used in the hypnotherapy induction to create a clear path of communication between your mind and your digestive system, putting you back into control. By eating regularly, you are helping yourself to reduce those binge episodes.Weight Loss Tips #3: Eat food slowly
Eating food on the “go” or eating in a hurry can cause you to overeat. When eating slowly, a swelling stomach gives “gastric feedback” to your brain telling you that you are now full. But when you eat quickly, this signal has not yet been communicated and more food is still on route. This situation is made worse when you are eating “buffet style”. You can lose the awareness of your portion size because you re-fill a partially full plate and continue eating. When you make time to eat, you can chew your food slowly and more frequently per mouthful, reducing the chance of indigestion. You can appreciate your feeling of fullness and are more likely to enjoy the taste of the food. When you eat food slowly, you will eat less food because you will feel fuller earlier. When I treat a new weight loss hypnotherapy patient and offer them weight loss tips, I help the patient visualise turning down their “meal pace-setter”. Ultimately, this is about being relaxed enough so that you can take your time to eat. Use breathing techniques to help you relax. Any deeper past issues that resist these changes are identified and re-framed (using hypnotherapy regression techniques) so that slowing down at meal times can feel like a natural choice.Weight loss tips #4: Keep hydrated
Drink fluids regularly is important on most expert's list of weight loss tips. During meal times, ensure that you have a glass of water. It will slow down the pace of the meal and help to fill you with zero calories. If you prefer something with more taste, chose something that is low calorie. Reduce your intake of any drinks that can be harmful if drunk in excess e.g. reduce tea and coffee to reduce your intake of caffeine. But still enjoy these drinks in moderation. If you severely deprive yourself of something, you can build up a binge response. In between meals, keep the fluids up. Quite often the temptation to eat more food following a meal is an indication that you are still thirsty. This can be in the form of having plain water or low calorie drinks. If you have a small healthy snack, have a low calorie drink with it. Keep a glass of water with you if your work situation allows it. Reaching for a drink can give your mind a welcomed mini break. Use water or a low calorie drink during those vulnerable times when you are likely to snack but don’t need to have it e.g. when relaxing in the evening. You may have an eating association with a certain time of day, an activity or an emotion. In my hypnotherapy consultations, many patients associate (confuse) hunger with boredom. So when you are trying to fill your time at home, eating food becomes “an activity” rather than something you are doing because you are genuinely hungry. Ensuring that a drink is available can help break this association.Weight loss tips #5: Clear out the junk food (to begin with)
When you want to change your eating habits, keeping those unhealthy snacks available in the cupboard will play on your mind and reinforce the strength of that habit. In the way those habits have been learned, they can be re-learned simply by eating something healthy. If you justify keeping those snacks available, it signals that you’re using food as a comfort or a reward. I’ve heard many hypnotherapy patients justifying keeping unhealthy snacks available in case guests arrive, so that they have something to offer them. The problem is that the majority of the snacks don’t get eaten by the guests, so you buy more unhealthy snacks just in case. Justifying keeping it for the children or the partner only encourages them to eat unhealthily too. It’s those food associations or habitual eating patterns that remove the feeling of “choice”. When you slowly change the eating response, your mind gradually accepts that food can be something that you just “eat.” It may take a few weeks to re-learn this food dissociation in this way, but when your mind has accepted this change, eating the occasional snack will seem like a “free” choice once again. That’s the time to re-introduce a small amount of those unhealthy snacks into the cupboard so that you don’t feel deprived and it prevents you bingeing. As far as weight loss tips are concerned, this often surprises most patients to structure their weight loss plan in this way. By starting your weight loss programme slowly, these and other weight loss tips will change some of your rituals that pre-dispose you to eat more and to feel out of control when stressed. A weight loss hypnotherapy course will help personalise your treatment to your specific issues. You all relate to food in different ways. More information on how to diet and lose weight.For further information on weight loss tips in Cardiff, eating habits and emotional eating, contact Hypnotherapy Cardiff
How to diet and lose weight
How to diet and lose weight
When you are thinking about how to diet and lose weight fast, many people try crash/starvation dieting or over-exercising as a way of shedding those pounds quickly. Most attempts to diet and lose weight attempts last very long however. Typically, those on diets crash within about three weeks of starting their regime. They will have started with all the best intentions.How to diet and lose weight problem: changes are too drastic
When inflated plans to diet and lose weight collapse before they have really taken off, consider that severe changes can be too stressful for the mind and body to accommodate. A sudden, rapid drop in calories can leave you feeling lethargic, disrupting your day to day functioning. You can get away with infrequent snacking particularly if you want to squeeze into a dress for a special occasion for a short period. But once the occasion is over, if you haven’t planned this drastic drop in calories in advance, you are unlikely to keep this routine going for long enough without being malnourished and feeling lifeless. Planning what you will eat for that month before the special occasion could be enough to ensure that you diet and lose weight, and remain healthy during that period of routine change. Calorie count what you are eating. Aim for 500 calories less than your daily average per day to lose 1 pound per week. This is considered a healthy weight loss plan. Keep food varied in type and colour (fruit, vegetables, pulses etc) to ensure optimum health. Keep a watchful eye on those portion sizes – you’ll be surprised how quickly the calories add up. For my hypnotherapy patients who want to diet and lose weight and are seeking help late in the day, I help them to visualise a shrinking stomach combined with a feeling a fullness. I also use suggestions for a healthy diet and calorie count to maintain optimum health. I then use a follow-up hypnotherapy consultation after the “big day” to return any changes back to a sustainable level. How to diet and lose weight solution: Make small changesHow to diet and lose weight problem: Expectations are unrealistic
Goals to diet and lose weight are doomed when the expectations are set too high. Typically, when I see my hypnotherapy patient in this “mode”, they want to imitate a celebrity who has boasted some weight loss figures, but ignores (or the report has not included) other essential issues. “They lost that weight, so can I...right NOW” is their desperate model of approach. Their urgency is so great that they will jump on the weighing scales after every meal and remove an extra item of clothing if there hasn’t been a positive change since the last weigh-in. Does this sound familiar?In my 'diet and lose weight' hypnotherapy courses, patience and long-term lifestyle changes are built into the programme so that realistic changes can feel lived (habituated). Your mind is taken through the process repeatedly in the hypnotherapy consultation so that it feels as if your goals to diet and lose weight have already been achieved, rather than something you are trying to set up from scratch. Using this approach, realistic eating plans feel natural and achievable.
How to diet and lose weight solution: Make realistic goals
How to diet and lose weight problem: Goals are too strict
A regime to diet and lose weight that is too strict, is likely to fail because the individual can feel deprived. Deprivation is a strong emotion that causes the patient to lose control of their eating patterns. When you ignore the importance of this issue, it can re-surface as bingeing.How to diet and lose weight problem: Goals involve skipping meals
It can be tempting to skip meals as a conscious plan to diet and lose weight. When you have a hectic life, you may even justify it by saying that that there wasn’t time to eat. But the effect of skipping meals puts the body into “starvation” mode. In this state, the body slows down the key metabolic and digestive processes to conserve energy. The next time you eat, the starvation mode causes you to burn fewer calories and thus hinders weight loss. Skipping meals can cause immediate health risks because there is a lack of available carbohydrates. Symptoms of dizziness can occur because the body is trying to maintain blood-glucose levels. You may even feel faint if you participate in any intensive physical activity. When you do eat, there is a surge of insulin to cope with meal that is usually calorie-laden. With pro-longed meal skipping, these persistent patterns could develop into diabetes. Another key feature of skipping meals is that intense feelings of hunger can take over at a later stage in the day, resulting in a food binge that still doesn’t give any feeling of satisfaction. When you have eaten, you still crave more food. Potentially, you are condensing the calories from two or more meals into one and still feel like you could eat some more food. So your total intake of calories may be the same, but just eaten later in the day and in one sitting. Keep eating regularly to maintain your metabolic rate and optimum health via nutrition from your food. When your eating patterns are rehearsed in this way, you will find that the meals are effortlessly eaten on a regular basis. When making a change in your life, your priorities also need to be re-evaluated. In my 'diet and lose weight' hypnotherapy consultation, suggestions are used for optimum health to ensure that you make time to eat and eat regularly. How to diet and lose weight solution: Eat regularlyHow to diet and lose weight problem: Goals ignore wider issues
Other wider issues can be called lifestyle issues. One lifestyle issue is the subject of exercise. Before participating in any form of physical activity or exercise, check with your GP that you have no medical conditions that could contra-indicate the exercise. Most people can participate in some form of moderate, low impact activity e.g. brisk walking.How to diet and lose weight with hypnotherapy
“Knowing” what is required to diet and lose weight is very different from being “emotionally focused” on achieving those goals. Stress and emotional issues connected with food and eating patterns can lead someone down a very different path from their intentions. If these issues aren’t dealt with in a way that helps you to release these emotional connections, they will cause you to give in early. In my 'diet and lose weight' hypnotherapy courses, your treatment is personalised so that your motivation and emotional obstacles are taken into account. When it feels like eating food is a reaction to some underlying issue, a more thorough treatment plan like hypnotherapy is needed to help you diet and lose weight. There are so many benefits from hypnotherapy, it can be used to initiate your diet and lose weight plans and support you through a special occasion such as a wedding. More information on weight loss tips 1 and weight loss tips 2.For further information on how to diet and lose weight in Cardiff, contact Hypnotherapy Cardiff
Insomnia & Sleep Problems
Insomnia & Sleep Problems
When your insomnia and sleep problems are taking over your life, contact Clinical Hypnotherapy Cardiff to treat your nocturnal awakening and the issues that are causing it. Below are a series of articles on insomnia & sleep problems that can help you understand the nature of your insomnia. For more help, contact Richard J D'Souza to resolve all aspects of your sleeplessness. Insomnia: Using Hypnotherapy to treat insomnia & sleep problems Insomnia: Relax in your day to help treat your insomnia Insomnia: Resolve your anxieties with visualisation Insomnia: Treat your Insomnia by taking "sleep" to bed with you Insomnia: Learn self-hypnosis to help you sleep Insomnia: Getting to sleep Insomnia: Waking up in the night Insomnia: Restless sleepInsomnia: Using Hypnotherapy to treat insomnia & sleep problems
How important is a good night's sleep? Sleep is crucial for your health, your vitality and the maintenance of essential physiological and psychological processes. Various studies have demonstrated the part sleep plays in affecting cardio-vascular functioning, immunity, concentration and retention etc. Modern day living tends to run at a hectic pace and the quality of sleep is suffering.Insomnia: Relax in your day to help treat your insomnia
Insomnia: Resolve your anxieties with visualisation
In my hypnotherapy practice, I meet many patients suffering with insomnia or some mild sleep-related issue. When they enter a course of hypnotherapy, an insomnia patient will have attempted a number different sleep tips. Some of those sleep methods have a scientific basis; others are desperate attempts to alter the feeling of hopelessness. Insomnia has a solid association with anxiety and depression. The relationship is often two-way; those who suffer with anxiety and depression also suffer with insomnia or some sleep-related problem. Hypnotherapy offers a number of techniques to treat insomnia. Hypnotherapy does more than just introduce a form of relaxation. If you suffer with insomnia and you want a better night's sleep, then your mind can benefit by using visualisation to release those anxieties earlier in the day. This is one part of treating insomnia with hypnotherapy.Insomnia: Treat your Insomnia by taking "sleep" to bed with you
In my hypnotherapy practice, I treat many patients who suffer with insomnia. By the time the insomnia sufferer enters their course of hypnotherapy, they have cornered themselves into a cycle of anxiety and hopelessness. The insomnia patient is desperate to break their deficient night ritual, but what really needs to be broken is their "desperation".Insomnia: Learn self-hypnosis to help you sleep
In my hypnotherapy practice, I regularly meet patients suffering with sleep-related problems. It's reasonable to consider that their insomnia is linked to their anxiety and physical tension. At the beginning of the hypnotherapy course, their sleep ritual is drowned by frustration. The insomnia patient is being dictated by a night of misery that obstructs their mind. As a result, they create even more tension that further submerges any efforts to get to sleep. There are numerous ways to treat this insomnia. During my hypnotherapy consultation, I teach my insomnia sufferer self-hypnosis and breathing techniques to take them out of their negative cycle and focus them in the direction of a new sleep ritual. When a goal is constructed in a positive way, your mind is efficient at directing you towards the achievement of that goal e.g. "I want to create a deep state of calmness that will help me to sleep peacefully tonight". However, the mind fails miserably to focus away from negatively constructed goals. Try "not" to imagine a blue sheep and your mind struggles with this concept. You think of the blue sheep and then your mind focuses on something else. As the insomnia patient who is stuck in your negative cycle, you are driving yourself to your unconscious negative goal. Your typical approach will be "I am cringing just thinking about going to bed for yet another night of restlessness!" So your mind creates an image of you lying in bed, wide awake and is very likely to achieve that negative unwanted state. How a goal is phrased also plays a part in its outcome. For the insomnia patient (and most general anxiety patients), you are making matters worse by using "anxious" language patterns e.g. must, should, have to, got to etc. Telling yourself that you've just "got to get to sleep tonight" is another way of taking tension to bed with you. Understandably, when a goal is phrased using this pattern of language, it reflects the desperation of the sufferer. Despair (and any negative emotion) however, generates the common stress responses and physical tension that harms your attempts to sleep. Your mind is very sensitive to what you are instructing it to do. So the insomnia patient is setting up another frustrating night of sleeplessness without realising they are "fuelling the fire". Want, can, will, going to etc. are confident ways of structuring your language. This will help align your mind towards your desired state. Having recognised these adverse internal language patterns, you can then consider what methods will have the positive effect of helping you with your sleep ritual. Simply lying in your bed, waiting for your luck to turn, won't help you control your sleep. Self-hypnosis is a technique that is comparable to other disciplines that use focused thinking e.g. meditation, yoga etc. Essentially, self-hypnosis or self-guided hypnotherapy uses three stages:- Relaxed breathing techniques
- Muscular relaxation and
- Visualisation
Insomnia: Getting to sleep
- Medical conditions – Cardiovascular conditions can make it challenging to get comfortable and control your breathing when in a lying position. Similarly, joint (arthritic) conditions can be painful when lying down.
- Medication – Some prescribed drugs can have a stimulating effect on the mind.
- Eating or drinking late – Problems with heartburn and reflux can be a symptom of eating late meals within an hour of going to bed. Drinking caffeine e.g. coffee or certain fizzy drinks at night can keep you awake.
- Late and extended napping – Dozing in the evening can upset your internal body clock. It can alter your natural tiredness responses that your mind would use to help you to go to sleep.
- Exercising late at night – When you exercise late in the evening, you produce Cortisol. This also has a stimulating effect on the mind and body.
- Working/studying late or doing shift work – Anything that requires intense concentration just before going to bed can put the mind on the alert. Working shift patterns e.g. days and nights can upset your body's natural internal clock.
- Anxiety and stress – Stress also produces the chemical Cortisol. Taking your anxieties to bed generates physical tension for your body. This makes it more difficult for your mind to use natural relaxation responses when you go to sleep.
- Frequent changes to your bedroom – Retaining an amount of familiarity helps your mind to feel secure. Repeated changes to your bedroom can agitate your mind at night. Noise from neighbours or a partner that snores in bed can distract your own sleeping habits.
Insomnia: Waking up in the night
A positive sleeping habit is important for your health and general wellness. When you're deprived of your sleep, you can experience tiredness, irritability and poor alertness. As an experienced registered hypnotherapist, I see several patients with some degree of insomnia. This can be the case even when it isn't their main therapeutic purpose. At the beginning of a hypnotherapy course, some questions into my patient's general lifestyle usually show that they are also having disrupted sleep patterns. Insomnia can be a symptom of anxiety and when your life is distressing; your sleep routine can be unbalanced. There are several kinds of insomnia. Some insomnia sufferers have problems going to sleep and others have intense dreams. Nocturnal awakening is the term used to describe irregular waking through the night. It is also used to characterise early waking with the inability to return back to sleep. This article deals with nocturnal awakening and how hypnotherapy can be used to treat it. Nocturnal awakening can be caused by a variety of ways:- Anxiety about being awake – Having woken from your sleep, worrying about this only makes it more difficult to go back to sleep again. 'Sleep anxiety' can then further disrupt your insomnia.
- Anxiety and depression – Any anxieties that you battle with in bed can leak into your dreams. Anxiety produces cortisol, a chemical that places your mind and body on the high alert.
- Medical conditions – Certain medical states can interfere with your sleep at night including heart, lung and arthritic conditions. Pain awareness can make it more of an effort to go back to sleep.
- Medication – Some medication can have a stimulating affect on your mind. If you have made the recent choice to withdraw from your sleeping tablets, your body needs time to adjust to the chemical changes.
- Alcohol - Drinking alcohol at night can alter the natural cycle of your REM sleep causing you to wake up early. Once you have woken up, you don't have the sedating influence of the alcohol to get you back to sleep (unless you drink more!)