Dan’s Blog

Anxiety and Worrying What Other People Think – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 29, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Anxiety and Worrying What Other People Think – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

When I used to struggle with social anxiety, my life was dominated by the overarching, and ever present, worry about what other people think.

Anxious thoughts and feelings about being judged negatively, making an idiot of myself or somehow failing in the eyes of others, would lead to overthinking, anxiety and avoidance. I would worry about everything, from how I looked and dressed, to how I moved and to what I said and did.

At school, I would get out of anything in the limelight if I could in any way do so, I would hesitate at speaking up, or giving an opinion, and I would struggle in groups. It dogged me through my teens and well into my thirties. There were even periods when I struggled to force myself out of the house, and, when out, I would be almost paranoid that people were looking at me, mocking me and judging me.

Somehow I made it through education and into the work place and into management despite my worry, anxiety and fear. Yet it was never a smooth journey or an entirely comfortable one. Certain tasks, people and places were fine, others left me feeling awkward, uncomfortable, unable to think clearly and wanting to just escape to somewhere more comfortable for me.

And although that anxiety is now long gone, that same anxiety and worry about what other people think is a regular theme that comes up time and time again when I’m working with people.

Time To Relax Hypnosis Download – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 26, 2022 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Time To Relax Hypnosis Download – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

I always enjoy heading into the recording studio and producing some quality hypnosis downloads for you to benefit from. As well as being an additional therapeutic tool for my clients to use to support their hypnotherapy sessions, I know many, many people have downloaded and enjoyed using my hypnosis downloads to support making positive changes in their lives.

Last year I was able to get into the studio on several occasions to record hypnosis downloads. This year has been a little more restricted due to issues such as covid and family illness and so on. So I was very happy to carve out some time to get back into the studio this week and do some more tracks. I also got to work with an awesome sound editor who told me a bit about the band he plays in and about his singing (we decided he should stick to singing and that I would, with my singing voice, stick to the hypnosis!).

And if you have been struggling with stress, worry and anxiety, then this hypnosis download may be just what your overthinking and tired brain needs right now.

Gambling Addiction Help – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 24, 2022 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Gambling Addiction Help – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

We’ve probably all got used to the warning slogans that appear on adverts for gambling websites. When the fun stops, we are told, you should stop your gambling. You should gamble responsibly and never gamble with more money than is affordable.

And whilst for many, their gambling in whatever form, is a bit of fun and affordable, for many people I’ve worked with, their gambling has become a problem that has caused massive problems. By the time they do something about it, the gambling will have affected friendships and relationships, caused arguments and distress, led to unaffordable financial losses, and will more than likely have caused stress, anxiety and a reduction in self-esteem.

Recently, it was reported in the press how doctors and the NHS have been experiencing a surge in people going to A&E with gambling addiction issues. There has been a massive rise in the number of people, primarily young men but not always, seeking help for their problem gambling.

And like any addiction, even through the distress and negative consequences can be mounting up, the same habits, thoughts, feelings and behaviours can still strongly lead you to taking even more risks and suffering even greater losses as you try and chase something to pull you out of the dark hole you are rapidly descending into.

Controlling Unwanted Thoughts – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 22, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Controlling Unwanted Thoughts – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

As well as all of the uncomfortable feelings of anxiety, worry and stress, it is often the constant stream of anxious thoughts that causes the most distress.

You may find your thoughts racing off in all sorts of negative directions. You find yourself thinking the worst, catastrophising and overthinking everything. You feel mentally exhausted, making it even harder to deal and cope with your thoughts. They follow you around inside of your head, turning everything into anxiety, dread, fear and worry.

And you may very well find yourself stuck in the negative spiral and cycle where your anxious thoughts lead to anxious feelings increasing. And all of those anxious feelings lead your thinking towards the source of all the worry and dread and you find yourself imagining and thinking about things getting worse and worse. That cycle of thoughts increasing feelings, and feelings increasing thoughts can start to become more and more habitual, persistent and distressing. Your anxiety can start to pervade into all areas of your life as you worry about things going badly or wrong in some way.

There are many ways you may try to deal with your unwanted anxious thoughts. You may try and distract yourself and aim to avoid thinking about those things (although you probably find they still come into your head again in quieter moments). You may go through a gruelling battle inside your own mind as you battle with the anxiety generated thoughts. Or you may simply find yourself lost in the never ending flow of anxious thoughts as they spiral from one thing to another and one worst case to another catastrophe of some kind.

As well as many of the strategies I’ve covered before for dealing with anxiety and anxious thoughts, an approach that is quite common within hypnotherapy and cognitive behavioural therapy is to start to learn how to challenge, dispute and undermine those thoughts and, in so doing, to calm your anxiety and take back control over what goes on inside of your own head.

The World Cup Kicks Off! Football Confidence Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 20, 2022 | Sports Improvement

The World Cup Kicks Off! Football Confidence Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

The football World Cup is here! Having never seen Wales at a world cup before in my lifetime, it’s something super exciting to be able to watch them at the biggest tournament in the world!

There are a whole host of non football related issues around this world cup, yet from my sports psychology perspective, it’s a useful opportunity to remind you of how hypnotherapy can help you with your confidence and performance if you are a footballer.

If you play football, then you’ll already know that your mindset is just as important as your physical fitness, skill and technique. You need to be able to calmly make decisions, respond to setbacks, keep focused and play to your confident best. If you lose your focus, get too emotional or let a negative thought grow inside of your head, then the rest of your game can go out of the window.

Football confidence hypnotherapy can help you to improve your football performance through management of your emotional levels, effective visualisation and harnessing your self-talk constructively. You can draw upon previous successful performances, learn from role models, build your sense of self belief and capability and prime your mind for successful performance.

Whatever your level of playing, you want to perform to your best and enjoy your football and be using effective sports psychology hypnotherapy, you can achieve just that.

Heading To The National Business Awards – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 20, 2022 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Heading To The National Business Awards – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

As I write this, it is now under two weeks until I head to Wembley for the SME National Business Awards 2022!

I always knew I’d get called up to perform at Wembley one day, although I’m pretty sure they won’t let me anywhere near the pitch (probably a good idea!). Still, to continue the metaphor, I guess this is my hypnotherapy equivalent of cup final day (or maybe the world cup final as that tournament has just started!)!

I’ve been shortlisted in the Service Excellence category after winning in that category at the Ely Business awards this year.

The Service Excellence award is given to the business that is judged to give outstanding assistance and advice to those who use the products and services of the business.

I’m super proud to have made it this far and massively grateful to everyone who has kindly left me a positive testimonial to share the successes they have achieved through their hypnotherapy sessions.

Way Beyond The Comfort Zone at the Winter Wars – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 14, 2022 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Way Beyond The Comfort Zone at the Winter Wars – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

I wrote recently about some of the benefits of stepping out of, and so expanding, your comfort zone. Moving outside of what is normal and comfortable for you can help boost your confidence and self-esteem and can help you to become more comfortable with being a bit uncomfortable as you grow as a person and take action on your goals. You can start to expand your ability to handle challenges by working through them and coming out the other side, and there a wealth of benefits and positive ramifications that come from truly stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Depending on your goal and the steps you need to take to get there, you’ll likely engage in activities you otherwise wouldn’t, achieve and progress towards goals you’ve set for yourself, learn new things, test yourself a bit to see what you are actually capable of and there are opportunities to enjoy life even more and to experience an increase in good feelings.

Always remembering, of course, that the things you find so comfortable now were once a step outside your previous comfort zone and also involved taking action and expanding your boundaries. And then at some point, your mindset, skills and capabilities caught up and it all became more comfortable and familiar over time.

As a reminder, my own journey well outside of my comfort zone here, involved entering a crossfit competition, getting through the qualifiers, and making it along to the actual competition day. Even before the event itself, there had been many benefits from expanding and stepping out of my comfort zone in this direction. I’d definitely got fitter and stronger and I had to learn new things (sometimes gracefully, sometimes reluctantly!). There were challenges to set, actions to take and obstacles to work through. And there was the massive bonus of taking the journey with some awesome people who it was a pleasure to spend more time than usual with.

And even with all of these benefits under my belt, there was still the seemingly massive step of actually competing against others, of taking on workouts you only got to see for the first time the night before, and of trying to manage all of the thoughts, feelings and logistics that go with performing on the day in a format and environment that I’d never experienced before.

If you’d like to know how the Winter Wars event went for me, I’m covering that here (and as a little spoiler alert, I didn’t have to go out and buy a trophy cabinet afterwards!!!).

Mindfulness For Anxiety and Depression – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 14, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Mindfulness For Anxiety and Depression – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Anxiety and depression are two of the main things that people come to see me for help with. All of those unhelpful thoughts and feelings can feel overwhelming, impact upon all areas of your life and leave you feeling stuck, low and full of distress.

In conjunction with other coping mechanisms and strategies, hypnotherapy has an excellent track record and body of evidence to support it’s effectiveness for helping you with anxiety and depression. By learning how to take control over your own thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions, you can start to alleviate your symptoms and feel more comfortable inside of your own mind.

Alongside hypnotherapy, mindfulness can also be very effective for anxiety and depression. Something that certainly exacerbates how bad you feel are all the negative and worrying thoughts that seem to dominate your mind. It’s like your brain always finds something to feel anxious, low or fearful about. And all of the ceaseless negative thinking can feel more and more draining and exhausting for you, leading you to withdraw from the things you might usually do and enjoy. In some cases, you might even start to fear the thoughts that go through your own mind and wonder if you will ever be able to feel better.

Yet, by developing your skills, through hypnotherapy and mindfulness, you can start to feel more calm and comfortable in yourself. You can learn how to feel more at peace inside of your own mind and how to notice your thoughts without engaging with them or responding negatively to them. By doing so, not only will you start to reduce the volume of problematic thoughts you experience, you will also be more and more able to let thoughts come and go and manage what goes on side of your own mind.

Self Compassion and Social Anxiety – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 8, 2022 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Self Compassion and Social Anxiety – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

When I used to struggle with social anxiety, perhaps one of the most detrimental things I used to do came from the excessive level to which I would be hard, negative and harsh upon myself. Never mind what anyone else was thinking (probably nothing if we are honest), I would chastise, criticise and berate myself over any slight perceived failing or embarrassment. If I felt I’d said something stupid, done something not quite perfectly, or if I missed the opportunity to do something positive, then that self-critical inner voice would be there.

And, swith social anxiety, that inner voice and the way we communicate with ourselves, probably won’t stop with just the current perceived self-failing. In my case, it will probably then also drag out a whole load of the other past mistakes and other justifications for considering myself to be a failure, stupid or an idiot in some way. A lack of self compassion, self encouragement and support can easily exacerbate and consolidate that social anxiety and the worries about failing or being judged negatively by others.

A lack of self compassion and kindness to yourself, and a habitual tendency towards self-criticism and negative self judgements, can feed your ongoing social anxiety and contribute to more generalised anxiety, lowness, perfectionism and low self esteem.

Yet, of course, just because your social anxiety patterns of thinking and feeling currently lead to worry, negativity and lowness, doesn’t mean that you are stuck that way. It is possible to learn how to be more balanced and rational in your own thoughts and feelings towards yourself, to even encourage yourself sometimes, to recognise that sometimes things do go awry and to to feel more comfortable in your own skin so that you can be more relaxed around other people.

Moving Out Of Your Comfort Zone – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Oct 20, 2022 | Confidence and Self Esteem

Moving Out Of Your Comfort Zone – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

We’re told a lot that life begins at the edge, or outside, of our comfort zone. The message is clear, if you want to live a fulfilling life and to be happy, then you need to do more and more and newer and newer things.

And certainly there’s an element of truth in this. As humans, we are learning machines, we seek out novelty and grow accustomed to sameness. We can become stale and feel stuck in the same old routine if we aren’t stretching ourselves a bit. Getting a bit uncomfortable can make life more exciting and interesting, and it can add that good feeling that comes from giving effort and focus towards a desired goal.

Yet, despite that, I do think there can be happiness and reward even if you stay within your comfort zone. You don’t need to start jumping from planes, dropping off cliffs, speak in front of a thousand people or do any of those things that living outside your comfort zone can easily inspire in your imagination. You can stretch yourself within the realms of the areas you already enjoy. You can add variety and challenge into what you already enjoy, whether that’s exercise and sport, playing an instrument, in your workplace or whatever. You can feel comfortable in yourself and your environment as you push yourself on a bit.

And whilst usually I feel pretty comfortable in myself within my own routine, especially when it comes to my high intensity training and running, there’s still room for getting comfortable with feeling uncomfortable and room to try new things, experiment, set challenging goals and then put the work in towards them. Yet more recently, an opportunity has come up that has really pushed me outside of my own comfort zone in my training, yet which is bringing rich rewards beyond the ever oscillating mix of nervousness, fear, confidence and excitement.

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