My messy draw

 My messy draw is in my hallway. Dare to open the messy drawer and you will find it filled with random items from myself and my family. At the back I can see hair mousse, passports, dummies, a vacuum attachment, dog collar, various chargers and plastic shoes for barbie dolls.  Once upon a time, in the very near past the draw was emptied out, with all the promises and good intentions of only putting essentials in it and placing all other items back in their ’designated location’. However, everyday life happens, we’re running late for school, throw the hairbrush in, unexpected guests are on their way, quickly hide the toys away, and there is no point putting the passports in the file when we will be needing them again soon (we didn’t have a holiday planned).

When I look into my messy draw it represents all the small stressful moments of our families daily lives. It demonstrates how busy we are, displays time when we are too tired or  can’t be bothered and reveals the moments when the chaos of life has been too much. My messy draw causes me stress and provides a reminder to my subconscious everyday of the times when I have been stressed out and overwhelmed. My messy draw has become the perfect metaphor for everyday stresses that occur to everyone.

Stress can be caused by small moments in our daily lives.  Humans have evolved to handle small doses of stress, but modern living is resulting in generating more stress daily than ever before. We all know that the more stress piles up, the more overwhelmed we feel and thus the more stressed we become. Once we have gone beyond our natural threshold, our bodies respond with emotional and physical problems. We become weary, emotional, tense, and other devastating long term consequences such as obesity, high blood pressure and cardiovascular diseases.  The world health organization (WHO) classifies stress as ‘the health epidemic of the twenty first century’. However, while we are in the middle of this stress epidemic hypnotherapy along with lifestyle changes can provide practical solutions to de-stress your life.

How the modern medicine is failing you 

I would just like to say from the outset I am not devaluing modern medicine or any or the life saving treatments that the hard working medical staff provide. But, we are in the middle of a stress epidemic, and modern medicine has been providing drugs to suppress patients symptoms, following textbook diagnosis. So they will give you some ‘happy pills’ or sign you off work for a few weeks and eventually you will feel a little better. However, when you return to your daily life, those stresses are still present and sooner or later you have reached your stress threshold and bam, you back at the doctors again. This occurs because the medical professional is not getting to the root cause of your problems and is simply treating the label rather than the person. If we can treat the person, then we might help alleviate several additional problems at the same time. Hypnotherapy is able to achieve this because the mind and body are connected.

There is a basic presupposition that the mind and body are part of the same system. This means that our thoughts affect our physical bodies. Ever recalled a situation that made you angry and suddenly your shoulders are raised, your jaw is tense and your breathing has increased. Your thoughts are having a direct impact on your body.

But if we can change our thoughts then our bodies will also change. If you can THINK BETTER the you will FEEL BETTER. The inter-connectedness of the body and mind means that there can be more than one cause of the condition, hypnotherapy can help address all these conditions often in a couple of sessions.

Why is hypnotherapy a good treatment for stress

Hypnotherapy is an effective method in the treatment of stress. It allows you to have a moment of calm in your life, whilst also enabling you to start altering your mindset. Once in hypnosis we can work together to instill positive daily affirmations, and reframing of your negative thoughts in more positive ones. It allows you to get your thoughts in the right place, and you can start to see the good which already exists in your life. I work with you to change your attention from the negative and focus on the positive, this in turn will leave you feeling motivated and purposeful. It will stop you dwelling on situations that distress you and stop your going over and over problems in your mind.

I had a client who was suffering from a skin condition called eczema, alongside tiredness, headaches, raised blood pressure and comfort eating. Through consultation, we noticed that her eczema would flare up when she was feeling stressed. She described her life as a never ending to do list, which focused on her children and she felt did everything for everyone else and had no energy to do anything for herself by the time the children were asleep. During her hypnotherapy session she underwent a full body relaxation and mental massage. As part of the treatment, we visited each trigger point in her day and installed coping mechanisms. Finally we worked on the motivation for a routine, and positive affirmations. We made the changes small and manageable, and I also taught her the gift of self hypnosis.

After a few weeks, she told me her mornings immediately felt less stressed, and not only had her eczema improved she had had to apply medicated cream.  Not only that but her children had commented on how much nicer it was to be at home and people were amazed at how much fitter and healthier she was looking. My client realised this was true. Since our hypnotherapy treatment she did feel more motivated and in control and was no longer reacting to the stress and chaos in her life.

So what about my messy draw

My messy draw has become an issue, because it feels so overwhelming to sort it out. But, I know it needs sorting out, as seeing it everyday is reminding me of my stressed out situations. I am off now to sort the draw out one object at a time. I will put the passports in the file, place the shoes back on the doll and put the mousse in the bathroom cabinet. Before long, with each small step, the draw will be organised.  This is the same as the stress you are experiencing everyday. Now that you have read this blog, I urge you to realise that you don’t have to be a victim of the stress epidemic. When you do, I hope that the benefits of hypnotherapy to treat stress resonated with you. Your mind and body are interconnected and hypnosis is the perfect way to link them up. When you THINK BETTER you FEEL BETTER.

Helen Birch

To find out more about hypnotherapy, check out the website www.hypnosisinyorkshire.com