Stress - A to Z of Hypnotherapy

Stress is not a bad thing…in moderation anyway! When we have a deadline or perhaps in sport, a bit of stress can give us an adrenaline boost that helps us perform better. It’s actually great for our survival too, if you’ve ever found yourself in a situation that you’ve realised is unsafe and you need to get away from it quickly, you’ll know that suddenly you develop strength and stamina that you never knew existed within you.

However, in our day to day life, excess stress doesn’t serve us. In my sessions, I tell people about their stress buckets, which is a metaphor for the stress that builds up within them. As your bucket fills up, and it can either happen rapidly or over a long period of time, we lose control of our rational thinking and go into fight or flight mode, where things that would perhaps just be irritating to most people, leave you feeling angry, anxious or depressed. Now, we do have a natural way of emptying that stress bucket, it's called REM sleep. During REM sleep we move stuff from our stress bucket into the archive vault of our brain, but in moving it, we let go of the emotional aspect of it, and store it as just a memory. I wonder if you've ever had someone that REALLY grinds your gears, and you come home and tell your partner or friend about it, and they say something like "Honestly, don't worry about it, they're not worth it" but you still can't let it go (after all, who has ever calmed down from a stressful situation by being told to calm down), but that night you sleep on it, and the following morning you've completely forgotten about that person that annoyed you (or if not completely, it just doesn't feel so bad anymore), well that's because REM has taken it out of your stress bucket. The problem comes when you are putting too much in and your REM sleep can't reprocess it during the night so you end up with a backlog in your bucket.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is of course one way of looking after our stress bucket, helping to regain control of your stress levels and restrict how much goes into your bucket.

There is a really useful technique that you can use though which helps you to overcome stress in the moment. It's called 7/11 breathing. You breate in a deep breath through the nose (pushing out your belly) for the count of 7 followed by a short pause and then out through the mouth to the count of 11 through pursed lips as if you are slowly breathing out through a straw. Here's a demo video for you if you still need a little extra help with this technique.

We can think of this technique as a way of hitting the reset button, moving our nervous system from "Fight or Flight" to "Rest and Digest", however if you are suffering from long term, persistent stress, seeking additional help is advisable.

To book a free initial consultation to find out how I can help you become calmer and overcome your stress levels, plus receive a free relaxation recording, get in touch via the details below.

Call/Text: 07557 157084

Email: info@hypnotherapychangeworks.co.uk