Anxiety is a stress response, a natural and necessary reaction that everyone experiences at times, and it’s there to keep us safe and ensure our survival. Its only human to feel anxious but too much can be a problem and when its gets out of control it can be as disabling as a chronic physical illness.
Anxiety is activated by the primitive emotional part of the brain, which is like a data collector, holding all our previous experiences and patterns of behaviour. This part of the brain has no conscious awareness and works with implicit memory: pattern matching to our past experiences without thinking about them.
An important thing to know is that the primitive part of the brain can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. If, for example, you were to find yourself thinking negatively about an upcoming interview (overplaying, and focusing on, all the things that could go wrong), your anxiety response will start to activate. It might start slowly, but the more you think negatively, the more it will build. And, if the negative “pattern” around that interview becomes embedded in the primitive brain, this anxiety response will kick in at the interview: before you are consciously aware of what is happening, you’re stuck in fight-or-flight mode. When we are experiencing stress and anxiety, our bodies prepare for immediate danger by being constantly on red alert. This can have have an affect on sleep.
Thankfully, we can also use this aspect of the primitive brain to our advantage. Using the power of the imagination, we can lay down positive patterns of thinking to overcome fears and phobias. This is where Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is beneficial, helping you to take control of thinking part of your brain, so you’re in a position to manage your primitive emotional brain better; and it will also work with relaxing the tension and trauma that can get stuck in the body and which is keeping you primed for that fight-or-flight response. It will get your subconscious mind on board with what you want to achieve so that you can take control of unwanted and unhelpful patterns of thinking and behaviour.
At the initial consultation I will explain more about what happens in the brain when we suffer from anxiety.
If you would like to book an initial consultation or would like to know more about how hypnotherapy can help please contact me.