Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Evening Calmness – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 26, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Evening Calmness – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

How joyous it is to experience an evening of calmness. The main business of the day is done and it’s time to relax and unwind in some way. And whether you are watching a film, reading a book, pursuing a hobby or chilling out with friends, you can decide what to do, choose whether you engage with others or answer messages and just take some time for yourself.

Or maybe not. Perhaps the busyness and distractions of the day are still running and racing through your mind during the evening. You struggle to let go of the stresses and strains from dealing with people and tasks during the day. Your mind fills with everything you need to do and the kind of obstacles that you wade through each day. Something someone else said or did, an injustice you think you were at the end of, or perhaps a sense of overwhelm and burden from aspects of your life can all keep your mind too noisy. Instead of an evening of mental and physical calmness that allows you to recharge, things niggle at you and lurk in your mind. You overthink through the evening and perhaps even lie there in bed at night churning over stuff as your mind refuses to switch off from the day.

And, of course, holding onto the busyness, stress and events of the day inside your head can make you feel stressed and irritable. It can lead to unhealthy eating or using alcohol to try and hush your thinking and relax your body. It interrupts the very time when you should be happily calm and comfortable, recharging and refreshing yourself for the next day. And it can interfere with getting a good night’s sleep, meaning you get up the next morning feeling tired, defeated and harassed.

So rather than struggling to relax, unwind and enjoy your evening, wouldn’t it be nicer to let go of the emotions, thinking and weight of the day you’ve had? You want to be able to calmly reflect on the day you’ve had and to let go of any negative emotions. You want to feel good about the positives and accomplishments of the day rather than overthinking the problems and challenges. And you definitely want to feel calm and relaxed during the evening so that you can enjoy your time and reset effectively for the next day.

Can Being Kind To Others Reduce Social Anxiety? Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 15, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Can Being Kind To Others Reduce Social Anxiety? Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

I’ve written before about my own earlier struggles with social anxiety and how it plagued my life for many years before hypnotherapy helped me. It’s something that I often discuss with clients who are seeking help with social anxiety itself or related issues such as low self confidence and low self esteem. It certainly is very possible to end all that anxiety and worry and to feel more relaxed and comfortable in your own skin.

I can still clearly remember how I would initially get excited about an upcoming event when it was first mentioned. Yet then over time, that initial excitement and enthusiasm would get slowly eroded by feelings of worry and nervousness. I would start to think of all the things I could mess up, from what I might say and do, through even to what to wear and what others would think. Every little decision was a potential minefield that could lead to embarrassment, being judged or failing in some way in front of others (and usually others who I would then have to face again afterwards knowing they would know about whatever I’d messed up).

My social anxiety would drive my imagination into all sorts of worst cases and catastrophes. Sometimes I would feel sick beforehand. Many times I would contemplate cancelling plans or not going through with things. Many times I did actively avoid situations. And I would often be hot, sweaty, panicky and tense from the outset.

At work I would avoid presentations, endlessly overthink before meetings, minimise my interactions with senior staff, try and avoid speaking on the phone in front of others and seek to manage my work style to minimise all of these risks and threats. Sometimes out of frustration I would push myself to go outside my comfort zone in the hope that at some point all of the anxiety would vanish, yet it would be there throughout, leave me exhausted afterwards and I’d just end up starting my worry habit about the next hurdle I would be facing.

I proposed on stage in front of five hundred people, made myself join a running club, became a parish councillor and a district councillor so I’d have to speak and do stuff in front of others. Sometimes these steps went ok and I felt good for a while. Other times they were just an ordeal that I would negatively dwell upon afterwards. My own negative beliefs and social anxiety patterns of thoughts and feelings would just rumble onwards relentlessly no matter what I tried to do to overcome it (before hypnotherapy).

Dealing with Flight Anxiety – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 9, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Dealing with Flight Anxiety – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

Flight anxiety can be made up of a whole load of anxious thoughts, feelings and behaviours. For some, their generalised flight anxiety can mean that even seeing a plane or hearing about someone else’s flight can stir up all that anxiety and fear. There will also likely be anticipatory flight anxiety where you can worry from the moment you buy a ticket right through the airport and getting into the cabin.

And there will certainly be the anxiety once the plane doors close and the crew start going through the safety regulations. It may be the take off that bothers you most or being way up in the air. You may feel anxious during landing, or maybe even more relaxed at the end of the flight because you know you are only minutes away from being back on the ground. And a combination of sounds, movements and turbulence can all contribute to your fearful anxiety and worry.

And as if the flight and flying itself wasn’t enough to already ramp up your anxiety about being on a plane, there can also be other things that contribute. You may worry about passing out or having a panic attack on the plane. You may feel anxious about whether you will even be able to get onto the plane or whether you will have to abandon your plans, let people down and head back home. And, naturally, your anxious imagination can conjure up all sorts of disaster scenarios and catastrophes that add to your uncomfortable feelings.

Logically you know that flying is the safest mode of transport and you may even be fed up with being told this repeatedly. Yet flight anxiety will always win over logic and reason and so the dread, avoidance and discomfort continue to run and run.

Searching For The Root Cause – Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Oct 24, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Searching For The Root Cause – Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Perhaps one of the most enduring ideas and misconceptions about hypnotherapy is that it relies on seeking and finding some sort of originating root cause for your anxiety. There is often a sense that hypnotherapy always involves spending a long time trying to uncover things from way back in the past and into childhood.

Certainly it is an approach and model employed by some hypnotherapists who do wish to try and find the historic root cause for what led to your anxiety. They will often want to spend a great deal of time talking about your childhood experiences or encouraging you to revisit the past in some depth. They will describe how their approach helps you to discover the root cause for your issue as a way of overcoming your current anxiety. They are of the view that by discovering and uncovering this long forgotten root cause, your current emotions and unhelpful thinking patterns will be transformed.

Yet while it can be helpful to look back on significant events that have contributed to your current challenges, I’m not sure it logically follows that knowing why something started changes how it currently happens. All too often a client knows, or believes they know, what contributed to the development of their unhelpful anxious thoughts and feelings, yet the anxiety persists. If someone was fine in a plane or car and then has a traumatic experience travelling that causes anxiety and panic whenever in a car or plane, then it’s reasonable clear how the problem started and the root cause of it but the anxiety and panic in those situations remains all too real. And if someone doesn’t know what caused their anxiety, do we really want to spend session after session trawling through the past hoping and trying to find and discover ‘the thing’.

So do we actually need to spend some time searching for the root cause of a problem, or can we just get on with ending the anxiety pattern and having you feel better now and into the future?

Two Stage Thinking Process – Anxiety Hypnotherapy

by Dan Regan | Oct 13, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Two Stage Thinking Process – Anxiety Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Anxious thoughts can easily start to take over your mind until it feels like there is just a constant, uncomfortable, noise throughout your head. Those thoughts of what could go wrong and worst case scenarios fill you with fear and dread and they just keep coming back again and again. Anxiety will always find something to attach to and for you to worry and worry about.

I’ve written many times before about the cycle of anxiety. Your anxious thinking process leads to anxious feelings which then leads to avoidance and increased discomfort. And those feelings and behaviours of worry and anxiety just add to even more anxious thinking. It’s a self perpetuating internal cycle. And on top of that you may start to have other negative thoughts towards yourself and about your own capability to handle, deal, cope with things or to successfully take the steps to achieve your goals. You may start to think of yourself as less adequate than everyone else as they seem to cope so well with the sort of things that ramp up your anxiety. Your confidence and self esteem suffer, you feel even lower and then the cycle of habitual, automatic worrysome thinking takes an even firmer hold.

Anxiety affects how you feel in yourself and what you feel capable of doing. You can feel out of control over your own thoughts and feelings. You may avoid things, neglect relationships, struggle to be productive at work and find yourself wide awake and worrying at night.

One thing I deliberately seek to highlight through the many anxiety articles on my website is that, no matter where you are right now with your own thoughts and feelings, it certainly is possible to take back control and to start feeling better in yourself. You can learn to be able to orchestrate and direct what goes on inside your own mind, your imagination and self-talk and the sort of things you give belief, time and space to inside your own thinking.

Break Down Anxiety and Worry

by Dan Regan | Oct 6, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Break Down Anxiety and Worry – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Anxiety and worry are unpleasant and uncomfortable and can become all-consuming and debilitating.

You may struggle with all of the anxious thoughts that race through your mind. You find yourself imagining all sorts of worst case scenarios and catastrophes that could occur and that would be disastrous for you in some way. One worrying thought can just spiral into another and another, taking up all of your brain space and focus and wearing you out. And you may have found that the more you imagine these anxiety provoking thoughts, the more and more you think them. It can get harder to stem the tide of anxious thoughts and if you think them enough, after a while it starts to seem habitual and automatic. Your mind is filled with the anticipation and expectation of disaster, failure, distress and suffering.

And those anxious thoughts lead to the uncomfortable physical feelings and sensations that you struggle with. And because you feel anxious, you find even more thoughts race through your mind and fixate your thinking. And the feelings just linger and persist. It can easily become and exhausting and unpleasant internal roller coaster where you may feel your are thrown from negative thought to negative thought and from anxious feeling to anxious feeling.

In amongst all of those anxious feelings will be a mix of heart racing, tension, restlessness, rapid breathing, sweating, shaking and an inability to focus and concentrate. Your anxious thoughts lead to your body doing what it’s meant to do when faced with a threat (albeit here it is a perceived threat in your own thinking). Those uncomfortable feelings then add to a sense of dread, disaster and doom and your mind starts to seek out the source of the threat leading to even more unwanted thoughts. In this way, the anxious cycle can keep itself running and running and the whole while you feel more tired, frustrated, despairing and out of control.

Talking about things like ‘anxiety’ and ‘worry’ and using those words/terms to describe things can also come with its own difficulties.

Suppressing Negative Thoughts To Improve Mental Health

by Dan Regan | Oct 2, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Suppressing Negative Thoughts To Improve Mental Health – Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

One of the most challenging things about negative thoughts, particularly when they are linked to anxiety, worry and low self esteem, is how they can start to become more habitual, enduring and seemingly automatic. You can start to find yourself being more and more negative about anything and everything.

If you are used to thinking the worst, catastrophising, dwelling and being self critical, then very soon you can find that you just do it without even always realising. You start to focus on the negative and what could go wrong. You put yourself down and start to feel worse in yourself. Even though you know it;’s unhelpful and makes you feel bad, you may feel out of control of your own thinking and of what goes on inside your own head.

And the more you focus on the negative thoughts, and the more you invest in them, let them run and invest belief in them, the more you can feel low, bad, down and anxious. And those negative emotions and feelings just drive even more negative thoughts into your mind. Our brain filters things through how we feel and will unhelpfully remind you of previous mistakes and regrets and future worst case scenarios and catastrophies just waiting to happen to you.

Very soon it becomes ongoing, self supporting cycle of negative thinking and negative feelings. It can impact upon how you feel in yourself and your self esteem. And it can affect relationships, work, study, friendships and other areas of your life. You may dread things and avoid things. And even when you crack on with things you may carry with you a sense of doom and gloom.

Cambridge Independent SME Awards 2023 – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Sep 18, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Cambridge Independent SME Awards 2023 – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

As I write this there are under two weeks to go until the final of the Cambridge Independent SME Awards 2023.

I’m super excited to be representing hypnotherapy in Ely at these awards, that cover the whole of Cambridgeshire. There are lots and lots of amazing businesses shortlisted for the final so it’s a huge honour just to be up for contention and on that finals list.

Whilst I wanted to share my excitement with you in this article, I also wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has sent me positive wishes and good luck messages for the awards night. Thank you so much, I really appreciate it. And I want to also say a massive thank you

Putting Anxious Thoughts on Trial – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Sep 15, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Putting Anxious Thoughts on Trial – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

If you struggle with anxiety, then all of those anxious thoughts that go around and around your mind can seem like an endless, frustrating, fearful cycle of dread and worry. Your anxious thoughts drive your anxious feelings and then, feeling worse, your mind fills with even more worst case scenarios and catastrophic outcomes.

The more anxious you feel, the more those fearful thoughts seem to spin faster and become more habitual and entrenched. And the more you think those anxious thoughts, the more you feel all the physical symptoms of anxiety. You’re filled with worry, fear and dread and you stop doing things and try to avoid any things that are linked to your anxiety.

And all the while, that cycle of thoughts, feelings and behaviours becomes seemingly more automatic and habitual. You feel less and less in control of your own thoughts and feelings and you can struggle to find any respite from anxiety within your own head.

Even though you know that most of your anxious thoughts aren’t logical or rational, they keep spinning and racing around your thinking. Maybe you can distract yourself from them for a while, yet they just keep coming back again and again. Now, of course you know they you are thinking those anxious thoughts and they are happening inside your own imagination and focus. So rather than responding to them or engaging with them, it’s time to start challenging your own thoughts and putting your own anxious thoughts on trial.

The Anxiety and Sleep Cycle – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Jul 2, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

The Anxiety and Sleep Cycle – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

We’ve all experienced it. There’s something from your day that is causing anxiety, stress or worry and that has been on your mind. You might feel shattered and exhausted from thinking about it and trying to handle it. And then you go to bed and that little voice in your head, and the troublesome scenarios, just keep going around and around inside of your mind. You just want to switch off and sleep yet it’s like your brain has other ideas.

If you are just dealing with something that will get sorted the next day, like an upcoming important meeting or interview, then your night time restlessness may be short lived. You struggle to sleep well for a night or two, the situation or event passes, and things return back to your normal sleep pattern.

And of course, your anxiety and sleep disturbance may stop you getting to sleep easily when you first close your eyes, or it may be that you wake in the night (from anxiety or from something like needing the loo, the kids disturbing you or you other half snoring) and then in an instant your brain is whirring away and you start thinking all sorts of negative things. At night those thoughts can often be very negatively distorted and things can seem a lot worse than they actually are. The whole time you lie there awake and thinking and you may be very conscious of time passing, your opportunity for some sleep reducing and the growing likelihood of needing to cope with the next day whilst feeling exhausted.

And that’s all just where there is something short term and specific to deal with. When you struggle with more persistent and enduring anxiety or insomnia, you can quickly get drawn into a cycle where your tiredness exacerbates your anxious thoughts and feelings, and your anxiety strengthens your sleep issues.

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