[img]560|left|Nicholas D. Pollak||no_popup[/img]“Stress is any change to which you must adjust.”
Most of us think of stressful situations as negative. Illness, death of a friend or loved one, losing your job, dropping out of school, divorce. Situations commonly thought of as positive, may also produce stress — moving to a new home, gaining a promotion, going away to college, getting married.
Stress stems from both external and internal sources. It may spring from the environment, from the body or from thoughts and emotions since we are known to have 60,000 thoughts every day.
Hypnosis is useful in teaching reduction of stress. Also, other techniques such as nutrition, time management, assertiveness training, visualization, meditation, regulated breathing, job stress management and biofeedback all may be effectively used to reduce your stress levels.
Remember stress has been linked to many health problems, including heart attacks and strokes. Web MD estimates that 75 percent of all doctor visits are stress- related. Excess stress may lead to low work performance, sleep issues, absent-mindedness, decreased interest in life or addictions.
Some clients I have seen who are suffering from stress amplify whatever problems they may be having at the time. A lady I am seeing for pain admits that when she experiences stress, her pain level increases. It becomes important to determine the cause of the stress, to understand it, and to work to reduce it. It may mean changes in lifestyle, including diet, exercise, job changes even finding new friends.
People who respond well to stress and know how to prevent unnecessary anxiety typically are peak performers.
Being able to manage stress and anxiety effectively will:
• Increase your energy and focus.
• Allow you to deal effectively with authority, roles and limits.
• Increase your tolerance for frustration during difficult circumstances.
• Let you adapt to change and prosper from it.
• Help you to develop a sense of belonging.
• Let you show friendliness, care and love.
• Allow you to enjoy recreation.
• Permit you to relax and sleep better.
• Free your sense of humor and ability to laugh at yourself.
• Let you demonstrate a reasonable sense of independence and self-reliance.
Twelve-step programs suggest “letting go.” Stress commonly is caused by a person wanting to control his environment. This is known as being “Captain of the World” whereby if everyone were to live the way you want, it would be a better world. But all it does is heighten your stress level. You see so much around you being done the wrong way.
Expectations is another stress inducer. If you have an expectation of something being done one way and it was not, that causes stress. If you eliminate expectations, there is nothing to be stressed about.
Example of expectations: I was driving home from a client call one evening. Knowing my wife was home, I had an unexpressed expectation that when I arrived, my dinner would be ready, and I would sit down with my wife. When I arrived, though, she was busy doing something else. She had not prepared dinner. I was upset. I expected my meal. I did not expect to have to cook it. Had I not had that expectation, I would not have been upset.
Hypnosis will guide you through exercises that help you learn to adapt to stressful situations, to reduce/eliminate existing anxieties, and create new stress-free ways of functioning.
Remember the mind and the body have a learned subconscious habit pattern that reacts to certain triggers that cause you stress. Using hypnosis helps to change the triggers so that when you encounter situations that had stressed you out before, the hypnosis has helped to train your subconscious to react differently to a previous stressor. Now you can endure the same situation but without stress.
In a recent study at Ohio State University, medical students who learned just one part of what you will experience in your hypnosis sessions, were able to significantly reduce exam-time stress. Furthermore, blood samples revealed the students' immune systems became stronger the more they practiced the techniques.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me by telephone, 310.204.3321 or by email at nickpollak@hypnotherapy4you.net. See my website at www.hypnotherapy4you.net
