Dan’s Blog

Health Anxiety Disorder Risks – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Feb 12, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Health Anxiety Disorder Risks – Hypnotherapy in Ely and Newmarket

Health anxiety disorder is one of the common forms of anxiety and can have a massive detrimental impact upon your life. You struggle with your persistent preoccupation that there is something seriously wrong with you. You pay close attention to bodily signs and symptoms and you become convinced that something catastrophic is occurring with you.

You can overthink and ceaseless worry that there is something seriously wrong with you. The fear of how awful that would be continues to drive your imagination as you think of how your life will catastrophically unfold before you into the future. And those health anxiety thoughts drive your anxious feelings. You feel tense, restless, low, agitated and doomed.

Sometimes when I work with health anxiety clients, their anxiety has taken hold to such an extent that they struggle to concentrate upon anything else for any period of time. All that consumes them is their health and the feeling that there is something wrong. The tendency then can be to start looking things up online, and that only leads to more fuel being added to the never ending cycle of anxiety.

Some people find that any mention of an illness by others or in the media starts them on a frenzy of checking and seeing whether how they feel matches that illness. You can easily convince yourself your symptoms match and that you have an undiagnosed serious health condition.

And so after endless checking of your symptoms and how your body feels, you may go and see your doctor. For some with health anxiety disorder the reassurance from a medical professional puts their mind at ease for a time. Yet for others, even after all the tests have been comprehensively done, that feeling of dread and of something being wrong lurks on. You start to think that clearly they’ve missed something and that your serious health issue just hasn’t been found yet.

With all the media channels, campaigns and adverts these days it’s almost impossible to avoid health related content. And each time, you can start to notice how the symptoms described seem similar to those that you are experiencing (especially online where symptoms are described in such vague terms).

You may find yourself fixating on one specific part of your body. You feel anxious, fearful and full of fear and dread. You catastrophise, think the worst and become convinced there is something unknown and bad happening to you. Even if you are able to reassure yourself that you don’t have one thing, any period of calm can easily become unsettled as the focus of your anxiety just moves onto something else health related.

Recording Hypnosis Downloads

by Dan Regan | Feb 9, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Recording Hypnosis Downloads

I love recording hypnosis downloads because of all the positive feedback I get about how helpful they are. Whether it’s anxiety, confidence, self-esteem, weight loss or something else, I’ve probably got a download to help you!

I always give some downloads to my clients to support them in achieving their goals. The feedback is invariably positive. And there are many people who find, buy and download tracks and who message me to let me know how much it has helped them. It really does inspire me to get busy creating more titles for you!

I headed into the recording studio again today to record the latest batch of tracks. These will be available for you very soon. There are new hypnosis downloads to help with positivity, calmness, anxiety, self-esteem and about maximising your strength training.

Hypnotherapy For Vaping

by Dan Regan | Feb 5, 2024 | Quit Smoking Hypnosis

Hypnotherapy For Vaping

Vaping has enjoyed a boom in recent years. It has been recommended as a better alternative to smoking cigarettes, is easily obtainable and comes in a wide variety of strengths and flavours. More than that, it is not regarded as negatively as cigarettes and you can vape in far more places, circumstances and situations than you can smoke.

However, it’s possible that there are now signs that attitudes are changing and that vaping is going down a path where it is regarded less and less favourably. Disposable vapes are being banned, more people are getting fed up of being controlled by their vaping habit and there are growing concerns over the largely vague and still unknown long term health impacts. Vaping may be considered less bad than cigarettes yet that doesn’t mean there are no risks or health costs involved.

There are many overlaps between smoking cigarettes and vaping. Both involve a sense of habit where you smoke or vape in the same sort of places and situations each time. Your habits and nicotine fix gets linked to these environments and you find yourself doing the same old thing in the same old way. Nicotine has an impact yet more often it is the psychological habitual expectations and factors that lead you to reach for your vape (which explains why you can still feel a need to vape even when it is nicotine free). There are potential health impacts, a financial cost, an ongoing need to vape and that knowledge that you are not the master of your own behaviours. Your vaping habit still controls you.

Yet, as with quitting smoking, hypnotherapy for vaping can help you to take back control so that you don’t need your vape in order to get through the day.

Time To Talk Day – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Feb 1, 2024 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Time To Talk Day – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

Time To Talk Day takes place this year on 1st February. It’s a time when we can all join in and have conversations about mental health.

If you are struggling with your mental health, such as anxiety and depression symptoms, then this is your opportunity to talk to someone about how you feel. Rather than trying to hide things and struggle alone, you can find hope and courage from talking about things. It may seem daunting to take a tentative step towards opening up, yet finding the courage to do so can be the first step towards feeling better.

Others may not realise how bad you are feeling and friends and family can be a great source of support. Alternatively, speak to a mental health professional and start moving things forward rather than silently struggling.

When I struggled with mental health years ago, I was too afraid to talk about how I felt. When I opened up a bit, I discovered other people hadn’t even realised because I had hidden it so well. I also then found out how supportive and encouraging other people can be and what a difference it can make to just start with a chat with someone you trust.

For us all, even if your mental health is good right now, this is a time to openly talk about mental health issues, to break down barriers to sharing how we feel. When we talk about mental health, we all benefit. So do check in on your close ones, especially if you haven’t heard from someone for a while. They may be fine or you may find that small act of contact is just what they need right now.

Reducing Wine Drinking – Alcohol Habits Hypnotherapy

by Dan Regan | Jan 28, 2024 | Excessive Drinking and Binge Drinking

Reducing Wine Drinking – Alcohol Habits Hypnotherapy in Ely & Newmarket

Have you been struggling with reducing your wine drinking? What may have started as the odd drink to relax in the evening may have become a habit that has taken over. Rather than just the glass or two on the weekend or on the occasional evening after work, it becomes something that you feel you need and that you struggle to do without.

Instead of something pleasurable, relaxing and enjoyable, you may find yourself reaching for the wine almost as soon as you walk through the door. You can find yourself thinking about the wine during the day, looking forward to that first glass and, despite your best intentions, stopping off at the shop to get a bottle in. The thought of going without a drink may make you feel a bit anxious and you can find yourself easily getting through a bottle a night (or perhaps even more than that).

Your habit may have started during a stressful period where it was a way of seeking to unwind and relax, or it may have just crept up to the point where your wine drinking has taken over. Your evenings can start to be all about the wine. You want to cut down or stop but even the thought of it seems overwhelming.

Your sleep can be impacted, you may feel foggy headed in the morning, you have less energy that you’d like and you know that your wine drinking is not good for your health. You get little from it except a way of letting time pass by yet, despite any positive intentions as you start your day, there you are again struggling with reducing wine drinking by the evening.

As creatures of habit, pattern and repetition it can be tough to try and change any habit simply with willpower. There’s a certain psychological expectation that means the harder you try to reduce wine drinking, the more you crave it and think about it. At some point you give up the struggle and reach for the bottle again.

Successfully reducing wine drinking and taking back control (or stopping completely) involves addressing the thoughts, feelings and behaviours that have been repeating and going on for too long. And hypnotherapy is the perfect way that you can take back control and start feeling healthier and happier again.

Why You Should Get Dancing For Weight Loss

by Dan Regan | Jan 25, 2024 | Weight Loss

Why You Should Get Dancing For Weight Loss – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

You should be dancing, yeah! Dancing, yeah! So sang the Bee Gees, whose songs, alongside those from Showaddywaddy, are guaranteed to get me up on the dance floor at any party. I’ve still got all the moves! You’ll just have to trust me on that one!

And who doesn’t love a good dance to a good song at a party. My moves are nothing like those rehearsed, synchronised things you see on TikTok or the copy and paste my kids sometimes do to a just dance video on You Tube. I know a lot of people love the dancing on Strictly but I’m more of a freestyle type guy!! Or ‘no style’ if you ask my kids!

There’s no doubt that exercise and movement are good for you. Being active supports both your physical and mental health, and there are a whole load of health risks associated with being too sedentary. I’ve written before about the mental health benefits of exercise and how it can help with things such as anxiety, depression and stress. And, as you’ll already know, burning some calories through moving also helps with weight loss. Sure, you need to be eating the right amount and in control over your eating habits (which my hypnotherapy sessions can very much help you with) and exercise certainly helps with weight loss too.

Regardless of the science, I’ve always subscribed to the view that the best form of exercise for weight loss (and your mental health), is to do something you enjoy. If it is fun and enjoyable then you’ll stick with it and get more from it instead of trying to make yourself do something when you heart isn’t in it (and any excuse to not do it starts to seem like a good one). As long as you are moving and your heart rate increases a bit then all is good.

And whilst we already have evidence for the benefits of strength work and cardio, there is now the evidence around whether you can get dancing for weight loss. Now, before we get onto the evidence, of course I think we can all guess the outcome of moving and being active if you want to get fitter and healthier. Yet if you’ve been thinking that to lose weight you have to force yourself to the gym or run a marathon even though you hate running, then this may be the inspiration you need to get dancing more.

And so, is dancing an effective intervention for weight loss?

Exam Room Anxiety

by Dan Regan | Jan 21, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Exam Room Anxiety – Anxiety Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

Do you suffer with exam room anxiety? You revise and know your stuff when you feel calm, yet as the exam gets closer your stress and anxiety levels just rise and rise. And then, on the day, just when you want to perform to your best, your exam room anxiety kicks in and you panic, struggle to think clearly and it’s like all your knowledge has somehow faded away.

Exam anxiety and stress can mess up all your hard work and plans. You may be fine with your subject when the pressure is off. Yet anxiety will block your ability to think clearly and make decisions. In the exam room you struggle to think and focus and you burn up and waste so much energy as your heart races and the panic attacks.

Recently, I’ve been helping several students to manage their thoughts, feelings and emotions around exams. Mocks have been taking place and they’ve gone from believing they can’t do exams successfully to being calm, positive and confident as they head towards their end of year exams in the summer. Exams are not just all about the learning and knowledge. To perform to your capability you need to be in control of your thinking as you revise and in the lead up to exams, and then to calmly manage how you feel from before the exam starts and right through to successful completion.

You don’t want to be wasting your revision time stressing out and letting your anxious imagination run wild. All the anxious thinking, dwelling and catastrophising stops you learning and retaining the subject matter you are covering. You become more focused on thoughts of failing, messing up and going blank in your exam. It can interfere with your eating and sleeping. The worrying, rather than the learning, revising and getting everything covered, starts to dominate your mindset and leaves you feeling stressed, tense and agitated.

Anxiety Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Jan 21, 2024 | Anxiety Stress and Panic Attacks

Anxiety Ely and Newmarket

Anxiety is one of the most prevalent issues right now, and the one that can have the most debilitating and limiting impact on your life. Whether you’ve always had a bit of a tendency for worry and now it has grown out of hand, or it’s something newer, anxiety thoughts and feelings can lead to you feeling lower and lower.

There are all the anxious thoughts that take over your focus and that dominate your awareness. You think the worst, catastrophise, think of the worst case scenario and dwell on things. Your anxious imagination takes over and thoughts accelerate through your mind. Everything seems negative and daunting. You feel that you aren’t in control over what goes on inside of your own head. Even where you know your worries may not happen or aren’t totally logical, that doesn’t stem the tide of ongoing anxiety that rolls on from one thing to another.

Alongside those anxious thoughts, there are all the uncomfortable feelings that you struggle with. You feel hot, tense and restless. Your sleeping and eating can be affected. You lack energy and feel weak. Your heart pounds, your breathing rate increases and you may feel wired all the time, like you can’t switch off. And you can get stomach issues where you feel nauseous and sick, meaning you want to eat less and do less. These are all things your body can cope with in times of stress, yet where they are too much and last too long, you feel awful.

You then get stuck in the habitual anxious cycle. Your anxious thoughts lead to you feeling anxious. And feeling anxious leads to thinking even more worst case scenarios. On top of that, you don’t want to do things because you feel so anxious and so you withdraw from normal activities. And you avoid as much as possible that could cause you anxiety and in doing so strengthen the sense of threat about those things that your mind has somehow learnt.

As a former anxiety sufferer myself, I know how dominating and debilitating it can be. Yet, I also know that you can learn how to master your own thoughts, feelings, actions and reactions. And you can change those thoughts and those feelings and the patterns of anxiety into new habitual ways that leave you feeling calm, confident and in control.

Blood Phobia and Needle Phobia – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Jan 18, 2024 | Phobias and Fears

Blood Phobia and Needle Phobia – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

Blood phobia and needle phobia are two of the main fears that I help people to overcome. And the other day, as I was donating blood again, I was reminded of all the people that I’ve helped over the years to overcome this specific fear, anxiety and phobia.

As with all phobias and fears, if you can avoid anything to do with blood and needles then you very much will. That can mean avoiding anything on TV that is related to it and feeling anxious and uncomfortable if someone mentions the subject. Just the thought of anything to do with blood or needles may be enough to ramp up your anxiety. And with avoidance being the number one strategy for blood phobia and needle phobia, you may have been able to swerve things like blood tests for a a long time. Yet, at some point a need arises for a blood test or injection of some kind and your fear and anxiety quickly escalates.

Before I gave blood for the first time I was very apprehensive. I had no idea then of how easy and straightforward it all is and how, apart from a bit of tiredness afterwards, there are no real impacts. And with your phobia, you may logically know that it’s all a bit harmless and painless yet the overwhelming anxiety, worry and panic still strikes.

No matter how severe your anxiety seems, it is possible to change how your mind perceives blood and injections from something fearful and threatening, to something more calm and comfortable. I’ve helped people at all levels of fear, including those who cancel appointments that they really should attend for their health. There have been those who can’t lift their arm for the nurse to have a blood test. And there have been those who, before hypnotherapy, used to pass out at the sight of blood or a needle.

Your mind works on patterns, habit and repetition and so, once you overcome your phobia, you can calmly and confidently be exposed to anything blood or needle related. You can handle it in the way you would many other straightforward things that you already deal with now with hardly a troublesome thought.

Back in Ultramarathon Training – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

by Dan Regan | Jan 16, 2024 | Hypnotherapy Hypnosis and NLP

Back in Ultramarathon Training – Hypnotherapy Ely and Newmarket

I know many of you share my love of running and I always enjoy sharing stories of races and training with clients I am working with. And I know many more of you, even if not runners, like to know how I’m getting on with my running (even if only to tell me, like my wife regularly does, that I must be mad!).

And so this is just a little update to let you know that I am now back in full ultramarathon training mode! My long runs are already starting to nudge up in distance with a fourteen mile run yesterday and there is lots more mileage to come on top of that in coming weeks. Whilst some runs seem more challenging that others, yesterday was one of those occasions where I just lot myself in my thoughts. It was as much a meditation as a run and one of those occasions where I wish I’d taken a notepad and pen with me to write down some work ideas that came to me.

Those of you who have spoken to me about exercise in the past know that it is one of the primary ways I take care of both my physical and mental health. And there is a lot of evidence and research to support running and exercise to help with anxiety and depression. I’ve included some links about that further on. For those of you who want to improve your running performance and mindset, I’ve also included some links to articles about sports hypnosis and running psychology. When it comes to the mind-body connection and enhancing your well-being, it really is the case that exercise and movement should be right up there on your priority list.

Last year, I came out of some sort of race retirement and managed to complete both a marathon and 50k ultramarathon and, as a result, was able to bag two shiny new medals for my collection. This year I’m aiming to do another one or two 50k ultramarathons and hopefully a bit more fluidly than last time out.

Yesterday, the bulk of my run was along the riverside here in Ely. It’s one of my favourite routes around here. It’s mainly off-road, the paths are pretty quiet and there is so much wildlife and nature to enjoy (to distract from the heavy legs!). As much as I miss the hills of Wales, there is a beauty to be found and appreciated in the landscapes and views around the Fens.

Here’s the view looking back along the fields and river towards Ely, with the Cathedral always present and standing over the town:

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