Dan’s Blog

Tame Your Inner Critic – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Dec 27, 2023 | Confidence and Self Esteem

Tame Your Inner Critic – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Every waking moment you have a constant stream of thoughts running through your mind. You have ideas, you make decisions, evaluate things, replay things, imagine things and talk to yourself in an ongoing stream of thought as you go about your day. Much of the time you may not even notice this is particularly happening. Sometimes these thoughts are encouraging, positive and helpful and there may be moments where they are random or unfocused and your thoughts just seem to flow in all sorts of directions.

And, of course, there are those thoughts that cause negativity, low mood and that limit you and hold you back in a variety of ways. Sometimes the things you might say to yourself in your head are not that kind. You can berate yourself, criticise yourself and put yourself down about something you have or haven’t said or done or a mistake you think you’ve made. Long after everyone else has moved on and forgotten about it, you can still find yourself criticising yourself over and over inside your own head.

You may even judge and be harsh about yourself as a person, putting down who you are, what you do and what you are capable of achieving. You wouldn’t let a stranger talk to someone you loved in the same way yet there you are putting yourself down all the time. And it has real life consequences in how you feel and what you do.

This inner critic is that part of you that grabs hold when you put yourself down and criticise yourself. You tell yourself you’re a failure, that you always mess up, that you’re a loser and that you aren’t good enough. And perhaps the worst bit is that this inner voice of yours follow you around all day, reminding you of every little mistake you’ve ever made.

Yet because this all occurs inside your own head it is very possible to tame your inner critic and to learn how to encourage and support yourself in ways that all you to move forward confidently and capably.

Merry Christmas from Dan Regan Hypnotherapy

by Dan Regan | Dec 17, 2023 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Merry Christmas from Dan Regan Hypnotherapy

At this busy time of the year, I just wanted to take a moment to wish you a very Merry Christmas!

It’s been a very busy and successful year here and I’m looking forward to having some time to relax and have fun with the family over the festive period (along with getting out for lots of running and having a bit of time to practice playing the guitar!). I’m already getting booked up and busy for the New Year. And I’m already excited for when I’ll be coming back refreshed and recharged and ready to help many, many more of you to successfully deal with issues such as anxiety, overthinking, weight loss, fears and much, much more.

Thanks so much to everyone who has worked with me this year, and a special thanks for all of the very kind positive reviews that you’ve left about your sessions and about my hypnosis downloads (new titles coming early next year!).

The Ageing Impact of Stress – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

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

The Ageing Impact of Stress – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

In my last article, I wrote all about the stress response and the negative impact of stress on your mood, mindset, thoughts and feelings.

Stress can easily start to negatively effect your thoughts, feelings, emotions and behaviours in ways that make you feel worse and worse. You may feel anxious, depressed, overwhelmed and on edge. You can struggle to think clearly, make decisions and plan things. You may feel like you have no control over your life, or conversely, you may start to try and control every small detail. You struggle to relax and switch off. And there can be impacts upon your motivation, enthusiasm and general energy levels. Your sleep is disrupted, your eating and drinking habits can change and, all in all, you feel burnt out, lost and exhausted. If your stress has been going on along time then it may seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Stress clouds your mood and mindset, you feel like you are carrying a weight on your shoulders and you struggle to take a grip of your own thoughts and feelings. As I mentioned in that article, hypnotherapy can help you to start feeling calmer and to take back control over your thoughts and feelings. You can feel more enthusiastic, stronger and more self assured to tackle the challenges and problems that come your way. You develop the personal resources that will help you to deal with the demands placed upon you.

However, the impact of stress goes beyond the negative thoughts and feelings you experience. Recent research has also investigated the impact upon your biological age in response to stress.

The Stress Response – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Dec 14, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

The Stress Response – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

The stress response can have a massive negative impact upon your thoughts and feelings. When it feels as though the demands upon you are too great to cope with, you can easily start to spiral into a cycle of negativity and stress. And when your stress just seems to run and run, it can impact upon you detrimentally and start to weave into all the other aspects of your life too.

The stress response evolved to help us to navigate immediate and external threats and dangers. Stress hormones mobilise your resources for action. Blood and oxygen is directed to your muscles, adrenaline is released, your heart beats faster and you are ready to deal with the threat through fleeing or fighting. And although this is helpful when there is an immediate danger to deal with and where you need to act quickly, it can be less helpful when seeking to manage your life and to deal with more modern challenges.

And many of these modern challenges can come from things like relationships, other people, employment and other things that can be ongoing over a much longer period than out stress response system was designed to deal with. In many cases, it can be our own thoughts, perceptions, expectations and thinking patterns that stress us out and lead to endless worrying. And dealing with things over the longer term and that continually fire off your stress response can be pretty exhausting (mentally and physically).

The negative effects of stress can lead to a range of physical issues such as exhaustion, burnout, digestive problems and high blood pressure. You might feel overwhelmed, anxious, tense and struggle to think clearly or to make decisions. And, as a result of the physical depletion and mental fog, you will start to struggle with sleeping and healthy eating, and you might feel angry, apathetic and start to avoid things you usually enjoy. And, of course, all of these things just add to your stress load, making you feel even worse.

Yet no matter how much your stress response is negatively impacting right now, it is very possible to take back control over your thoughts and feelings. You can feel calm and more confident as you orchestrate your own internal thinking and feeling patterns and as you deal with whatever external challenges and problems may come your way.

Weight Loss Motivation – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Dec 4, 2023 | Weight Loss

Weight Loss Motivation – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

A lot of people struggle to believe me when I tell them that when I was younger I was very overweight and hated all exercise with a passion. Up until my mid-teens, I considered P.E. to be a form of mental and physical suffering and unpleasantness. And my unhealthy snacking meant I was probably the biggest kid in a school of about a thousand students. I had no interest in sport or being active, I was eating too much rubbish and I was often the brunt of fat jokes, jibes and insults. I probably wasn’t too happy with how I looked and felt but I could go home and forget about it because we didn’t have social media or messaging.

At some point in my mid teens (or thereabouts) I started doing something about it, but mainly just because my mates all played football after school and I didn’t want to be left out. I can also vividly remember at some point being so depressed about my weight that I would bike ten miles on an exercise bike at home most evenings. Then I ditched most of the rubbish and started enjoying football with mates and a little bit of running. For someone with anxiety and low self-esteem, i found that eating a bit healthier and exercising made me feel better in myself. I’ve written elsewhere on my website about the science and evidence for running and exercise benefiting your physical and mental health.

After getting a bit fitter and healthier, running became something enjoyable that I actually wanted to do, a mindset that still continues.

I work with a lot of people seeking help with their weight loss motivation and consistency with exercise. At the heart of all eating is learning how to be in control over your eating habits, rather than food running (and ruining) your life. You increase your weight loss motivation, take control over eating habits and then, feeling healthier and happier, you can continue to tweak and nudge things forward. When you have a healthier relationship with food, everything gets easier.

And sometimes people want help with exercise motivation. Maybe they’ve not done any exercising for years, or they’ve lost their motivation for it and want to enjoy being active again. And that comes from building a little bit of motivation and perseverance and then positive habits set in.

If you are desperately seeking some weight loss motivation then hypnotherapy can certainly help you with your thoughts, feelings, habits and behaviours around food and eating.

Running Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Disorders

by Dan Regan | Dec 4, 2023 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Running Therapy for Depression and Anxiety Disorders – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Recently I wrote all about completing my first marathon for seven or so years when I finished the Ely Marathon. And now I’m very pleased to report that I’ve finished an ultra marathon too!

The St Edmunds Trail Race is a well organised event that takes place around Ickworth Park and surrounding villages, near Bury St Edmunds. It was a cold, wet, icy and muddy affair and I was pretty happy when I finally crossed the finish line. Ickworth Park is a National Trust site and it was lovely to jog around some paths that I’d never been down before. After that it was a case of heading out across some increasingly muddy paths before heading back into the park again. I had some nice chats with other runners on the way around and I’m massively grateful to all of the marshals who stood out for hours in the wet and cold cheering us on (and making sure we didn’t get lost!).

My main goal was to finish the 50km in six hours which, allowing for a few minutes, I successfully did. And, as always with these sort of things, there are plenty of learning points for next time (once my legs recover and I can manage stairs again!).

Many people I work with are runners or do some other form of exercise. This may be to support their weight management, to help with their mental health, or simply because they enjoy it. Sometimes as part of their sessions they want to improve their running, others want to get back started and sometimes they want to get their motivation for running back and to start enjoying it again.

Whether your thing is running or some other form of exercise, there are massive benefits for your physical and mental health from moving. Running and exercise have a wealth of research to support how beneficial they can be if you struggle with anxiety or depression symptoms.

And a recent study, that I’m covering in this article, has examined the effects of anti-depressants versus running therapy on both your mental and physical health.

Evening Positive Meditation – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 29, 2023 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Evening Positive Meditation – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

As humans we have a natural tendency to focus upon the negative and the things that are more difficult and challenging right now in our lives. Sometimes the good stuff in your life can be swamped and cast aside by these automatic negative habitual thinking patterns.

Of course, this made good sense in evolutionary terms. At one time it was a good idea to be alert for threats that could harm or kill you. Those threats used to be things external to us, whereas these days a lot of the negative stuff in our heads comes from perceived threats and from our imagination running wild with potential catastrophes and worst case scenarios.

There will always be good things going on in your life at some level each day and you can have numerous moments of positivity and happiness, or of feeling uplifted in some way. Yet whilst these are good as they happen, they don’t require any fixing, action or solving. And so these moments pass by and your natural negative tendency puts these good things mentally to one side and then brings back all the things that aren’t quite how you want them to be or that are challenges for you. Your mind whirrs away with the negative thoughts, feelings and emotions that come with the real or perceived problems and challenges occurring in your life.

And so if you want to boost your levels of positivity, well-being, gratitude and happiness in your life then you need to not only be aware of this inbuilt negative bias, you need to take action to deliberately counter it and to nurture more encouraging, supporting, balanced and uplifting thoughts and feelings.

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.

Weight Loss Strategies – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 23, 2023 | Weight Loss

Weight Loss Strategies – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

The weight loss strategies that you consistently adopt will determine whether you achieve your weight goals or whether you struggle to lose weight and keep it off.

For many people even the thought of yet another weight loss attempt can feel pretty depressing and defeating. If you’ve lost in the past and then put it all back on, then the idea of doing it all over again after all that wasted previous effort can sap all of your motivation and persistence. You want to lose wight yet you don’t want to have to deprive yourself. You may enjoy food and worry about everything to do with eating becoming boring and pleasure-less. You know what you should be eating and what you should be doing yet somehow you can’t get going or make it a seamless part of your healthy, slim, lifestyle.

Sadly, the fact remains that despite more and more weight loss approaches and diets being available, more people are overweight and the majority of people attempting weight loss struggle to implement effective and workable weight loss strategies for the achievement and maintenance of long-term weight loss.

However, no matter where you are right now with your weight, or what you may have tried before, it is possible to make positive, sustainable changes. You can change your mindset and relationship with food. And, just like my other clients, you can take control over your eating habits, feel healthier and happier and consistently make progress towards being the size, shape and weight that you desire to be.

Sleep, Alcohol and Caffeine – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Nov 20, 2023 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Sleep, Alcohol and Caffeine – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Interrupted and disturbed sleep can have a huge impact upon your well-being and ability to function in the daytime. A few poor nights sleep can grow into an ongoing pattern of struggling to get, or stay, asleep and then feeling tired, foggy and anxious during the day. It can detrimentally impact upon both your physical and mental health.

It may be that your anxiety has led to poor sleep as you overthink and worry at night and struggle to switch off. Or it may be that you have been battling with your sleep and that has led to feeling exhausted, stressed and anxious. You may now find yourself feeling anxious during the evening as bedtime approaches and fearful of not getting enough sleep.

No matter what you are currently struggling with, checking in on how you sleep is always important because of how it can exacerbate unwanted thoughts, feelings and behaviours. This can include your sleep quality and quantity and your habits and routines about switching off and unwinding before you go to bed.

You may have tried all sorts of things to try and get enough sleep, and if the usual sleep hygiene things aren’t cutting it then you can find yourself feeling pretty low and pretty desperate.

Many people turn to alcohol and having a drink or two in the evening to try and help them to mentally calm down and physically relax enough for sleep. And if your sleep is poor, you may also be relying on caffeine to keep you functioning and productive through the day.

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