Stress is the root of all evil! Exorcise it now!
If you've been to one of my talks or follow much of my work you may have heard me say, Stress is the root of all evil!’. The reason I say that is because stress causes so many things to be worse in our lives.
Stress makes us eat more, drink more, smoke more, and maybe even kick the dog - nooooooooooooooooooo don’t do it! But you don’t need to call an Exorcist - just read below and you can banish stress and chillax, chillax, chillax.
Last week I wrote a blog about how to beat holiday stress (tap HERE to read it) I talked about some steps YOU could do to beat stress during the holidays specifically. This week I'll share my thoughts on some of the best ways that I have found, and my hypnotherapy clients have found, to reduce stress in their lives, and by doing so, become successful in reaching whatever goals and outcomes that they desire.
Many of my clients before coming to me, find that it's fairly easy to stick to their ketogenic eating plan, or whatever kind of healthy eating that they're doing in the morning but by the time evening comes they're tearing through carbs like the Cookie Monster.
Smoking clients before coming to me to quit smoking may find that they do okay with not smoking until something stresses them out. Things like work stress, relationship stress, death of a loved one, or just those daily things that stress us out cause them to go back to smoking or smoke more if they're still a smoker.
I find the same thing true with people that come to me to quit drinking alcohol or quit smoking marijuana. As long as things are going smoothly in their lives they can muster the willpower and strength to resist, marijuana, etc. But as soon as a major stressor occurs they turn back to those things that have become crutches for them. (And remember, that crutch is just the one you chose way back when - you're not married to it! And if you are, it's time for a divorce.)
It doesn't have to be this way! When we practice releasing stress on a regular basis we can alter our body's chemistry, increasing endorphins and decreasing stress hormones like cortisol, clear our minds, and focus on living a better life.
Here's a list of some favorite stress release tactics and why they work;
1. Meditation: while meditation is gaining in popularity and is more widespread than in the past it's still greatly understood and held in some sort of mystique for a lot of people who think that meditation is just for hippies and monks. But more and more you'll find everyday people engaging in meditation. No patchouli or prayer beads required.
One of the things that I find intriguing about meditation is that when you read articles about celebrities and other successful individuals, or watch them in interviews many of them will mention that they meditate. While meditation may not be necessary be required for success, many currently successful people and successful people throughout the ages have engaged in some type of meditation.
Often times when I mention meditation to a hypnotherapy client who want to reduce stress so that they can be more successful in releasing weight, quitting smoking, etc they'll reply with something like, 'I can't sit still for 20 minutes!' or 'I've tried before but I just can't clear my mind to meditate'.
The truth is though that it's not necessary to sit still for 20 minutes or even 10 or even 5. I started meditating with just 2 minutes. Even 1 minute could work if you stick to it. Once you get used to it you can increase the amount of time.
Also, you don't necessarily have to sit still to meditate. There are various forms of meditation including moving meditation. For this you could simply walk, rake leaves, or do the dishes and just be mindfully engaged as completely as possible in the task at hand. Doing this will also help your focus and perhaps even increase your attention span which many of us today desperately need.
Alternatively, you may want to try guided meditation because many beginners find that it's easier than simply sitting still without the guidance. Mantra meditation too can be much easier for some. This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to sit and repeat 'Om' over and over again. Choose your own word or sound, I sometimes use 'love' or 'relax' as my mantra word. Using the mantra and saying it over and over can help to sort of push out other thoughts.
Finally, you certainly don't have to 'clear your mind'. Many people meditate for years and still only achieve moments here and there of a clear mind. All that's really necessary is just paying attention to those thoughts that you have and just sort of dismissing them. Try not to let them lead you down a rabbit hole which is likely to happen at first. You will get better at simply letting go of those thoughts.
Stress engages the sympathetic nervous system which increases heart rate, breathing, and a plethora of other body functions that are mostly unwanted - unless you're being chased by a saber toothed tiger. You definitely shouldn't stop to meditate if you are being chased by said, saber toothed tiger. That's a hard pass right there.
Meditation engages the system which does the exact opposite of stress. Heart rate decreases, breathing rate decreases, and the body has time to rest, repose, and repair.
There are a lot of great apps out there that you can use to time and track your meditation sessions. And there are great variety of functions available on the various apps.
I use Meditation Helper Pro because I like that I can have a widget on my home screen that shows me how many days in a row I've meditated. I find that to be very encouraging and motivating. You can give it a try by tapping the link right HERE (Android)
2. Exercise: I love this quote by Bill Phillips, 'FOOD is the most widely abused anti-anxiety drug in America, and EXERCISE is the most potent yet underutilized antidepressant.' (It works for stress too.)
I have absolutely found this to be true 100%! What I've discovered over the years is that when I'm exercising I tend to make better choices about food and I'm even more motivated and focused when I need to be on work and other important tasks.
A lot of clients when wanting to lose weight think that they have to exercise to lose weight because of the calories that they're burning. But really, exercise doesn't burn that many calories. You can certainly burn more if you do a longer or more vigorous workout but overall it can be rather insignificant when you think about the fact that you could run for half an hour and then wipe out all of the advantage there by eating a donut.
Exercise can be important for weight loss, or any of the other things that I've spoken about like quitting smoking, quitting drinking, even relieving anxiety, etc because it helps to, in a sense, burn off the stress hormones and increase the happy, 'feel good' hormones.
One of the problems that I run into when working with clients is that their expectations for themselves have been set to high. I remember one woman in particular who came to me and said that her doctor said that she had to work out for 45 minutes a day 5 days a week. She absolutely had to! She wanted me to hypnotize her to do this.
I asked her how much she was currently exercising. She said 'not at all'. Yikes! We're talking mission impossible right here. I mean there's a good chance that I could get her to do it through hypnosis but lardy I don't want to be responsible for killing someone lol. You simply can't go from zero exercise to 45 minutes a day of vigorous activity. You've got to start small.
I started literally with 5 minutes. A 5-minute walk every day. Or at least most days. Funny enough, I remember in the beginning those 5 minutes seemed like an eternity. And it kind of hurt although that was probably because I was weighing 270 lbs at the time and was terribly out of shape having not exercised in years. I was a lazy slug - no kidding!
I can still remember when a year later I was able to run around Green Lake, which is a popular park in Seattle. This had been a goal of mine for some years. Hooray!
Back when I started I would just do 5 minutes and then every week or two I would add a minute or so until it became easier and then I might add 5 minutes or more. Before long I was pretty easily able to run for 30 minutes or more. Today there are a great many apps available which can help. One that I like is - 5K Runner.
You can find it by tapping right HERE (Android)
3. Hypnosis: Well of course I'm going to mention hypnosis! I mean I am a hypnotist after all. Seriously though, hypnosis works! Whether I hypnotize someone in an office, remotely, with them relaxing in their own home, or even on stage people tend to feel very relaxed afterwards.
I find it so interesting that during a comedy hypnosis show the volunteers will be singing dancing and moving around a lot on stage and yet afterwards they always comment on how relaxed they feel. See what I mean by tapping HERE
Hypnosis for stress relief works in very much the same way as meditation. It engages the parasympathetic nervous system which reduces heart rate, breathing rate, and all of those nasty stress hormones that wreck our bodies and cause us to make poor choices as we try to soothe ourselves with junk food, cigarettes, alcohol, etc.
If you'd like to try hypnosis for yourself and discover just how relaxed you can be I encourage you to check out one of my hypnosis recordings on YouTube. While all of them are likely to help you to relax, I've created one specifically for reducing stress called, 'Relax Now'. Tap HERE to listen to it now.
If you'd like to know more about hypnosis and or want to book an appointment to have a personal session with me to reduce stress or make some change in your life please tap HERE to go to my online calendar.
Don't let stress get in the way of you living your best life!
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