You all know now that I am a huge advocate of self-help and also ‘passing it on’. What I do at Your Wellbeing isn’t a magic art, for most people I support it is helping them to understand how anger/anxiety/depression/OCD/fear etc is created then sharing learning techniques to build more positive and helpful habits. For some there is a deeper level where we work together on core beliefs etc due to the impact of trauma on a persons life.
Anyway, this month I wanted to share some information of mindfulness, meditation and self-hypnosis.
Mindfulness and meditation are similar, however there is a key difference. Mindfulness is more about being in the moment and paying attention to your thoughts, your environment and emotions. Meditation is more focused on helping you clear your mind of intrusive thoughts.
There are dozens of benefits to doing just 10-20 minutes of meditation a day. It lowers stress hormones (cortisol), helps with sleep disorders, helps with motivation, enhances intuition, relaxes your nervous system and releases happy chemicals (endorphins). It alters your brain waves (Alpha brainwaves) where you enter a deeper state of awareness.
There are many many different ways to meditate. There are hundreds of free resources online and I also have some free guided meditations on my website https://www.yourwellbeinguk.com/just-for-you.
Mindfulness as I mentioned above is where you are in the moment, focussing on the NOW. There are lots of ways in which you can practice mindfulness and you can do it just about anywhere. Some examples would be a walk in the woods (notice the things around you, the sounds, the smells, the touch etc), expressing gratitude, taking some deep breaths, giving yourself time away from your phone and laptop, really focussing on what you are eating or drinking (notice the sensations, taste, feel etc). You are basically allowing yourself just 5-10 minutes of being in the now – not focusing on what you have to do in the future and not focussing on what has happened in the past.
I personally find that self-hypnosis or hypnosis (all hypnosis is self-hypnosis because no-one can be hypnotised against their will) is the most effective at helping you control unhelpful and negative emotions. You will go into a deeper level of trance whilst working with a professional hypnotherapist however self-hypnosis is still effective. Our minds drift in and out of various states of trance each day when we are either day dreaming or when we get lost in our thoughts; this is similar to the feeling you get when you are using self-hypnosis. When we are in this state of trance we are working at the subconscious level of our minds. This is where all memories and patterns (habits) are stored and where change occurs. It is obviously a bit more technical than that…. Self-hypnosis is a tool that gives you access to your subconscious mind; it’s that simple. If you follow guided self-hypnotic scripts then you will help yourself program in new more helpful thoughts/habits. As with meditation there are hundreds of free resources online; I use a few YouTube self hypnotic scripts to help me get back to sleep if I wake up at 3 in the morning. I have also recorded a few self-hypnosis scripts that you are welcome to download and use. They can be found on my website https://www.yourwellbeinguk.com/just-for-you. PLEASE NOTE, that you should only ever listen to these scripts when you are relaxing. I always ask the clients I support to listen to them at night when they are in bed, because they also have the wonderful effect of sending you off to sleep (no sarcastic comments now please 😉).
So, give yourself 10 minutes a day to work on self care. As the saying goes, you’re worth it.
I know I say this often, however, I totally appreciate that we are not all suited to self-help and if we are in the depths of trauma or can only focus on the negative and unhelpful emotions then it would be best to seek help. Some problems are deep routed and do need intervention.
Much Love Jo xxxx
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