worrying vs control

Worrying about things that are out of your control is mentally draining. What if you focused instead on all the things that really matter to you and that you have some sort of control over? Would you feel more empowered? Would you feel less afraid? Would you feel free to make better choices? If you want to focus on the things that will give you greater freedom to be who you want to be, do get in touch.

See:
angiegiles.co.uk
Twitter: angie_therapist
Facebook: Angie Giles Hypnotherapy

About the Author: Angie works as a hypnotherapist, counsellor and coach at the Norfolk Clinic Complementary Healthcare Clinic, 38-40 Magdalen Road, Norwich, NR3 4AG. 

Call Norfolk Clinic reception on 01603 660792 or call Angie directly on 07773 610816. She loves helping people achieve their potential at work, life and finding greater happiness using a range of therapeutic techniques.

Summer holidays, managers, career and stress

Have you ever thought that going on summer holiday might be more stressful than being at work? A 2010 study by the UK’s Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM), questioned 2,500 of its members about attitudes towards taking a long summer break. It found forty per cent of managers don’t feel relaxed after returning from a holiday. A worrying finding was that many workers came back from a holiday more stressed than when they left. Those in both lower and upper management positions had worked while they are on holiday. Around 80 per cent of those surveyed answer work-related emails, around 50 per cent make and take business-related phone calls and 10 per cent go into the office. Over 90 per cent of managers worried about returning to hundreds of e-mails. 

The study revealed it takes approximately two days and seventeen hours into a holiday for those surveyed to feel totally relaxed. Ten per cent of managers said it took them up to a week to fully get into holiday mode. Do you see yourself taking that long to relax? 

The current economic climate and fear of redundancy encourages people to feel they need to be in touch with what’s going on at work and hitting targets. However, it’s important to allow time to unwind. Only you can do that for yourself, no one else can do it for you! 

Do you deserve a bit of relaxation and time to feel revitalised? I bet you do, but how can you balance work and holiday? If you really believe you cannot stop working entirely, set yourself a limit for checking emails, correspondence or calls. Putting aside one afternoon to focus on just work is a good idea. Discuss with your partner so they know the pressures you are facing too and how they might be able to help. Planning with a partner or a relative to take the children out for an afternoon to enable quiet for work concentration can be one way to ensure you keep to any time limit you set. In the same way you plan work in, make sure you plan in free time with family and switch off your office technology too. 

Plan time for your wellbeing and fun with family and friends. It might be an unfamiliar work ethic, though I know the most capable managers in the long run are those that make time to truly relax and have happy memories of summer holidays to see them through the most demanding career. Those unread emails can wait.   

I can help you with managing stress, insomnia or just feeling more in control. See below links:

angiegiles.co.uk
Twitter: angie_therapist


Facebook: Angie Giles Hypnotherapy

About the Author: Angie works as a hypnotherapist, counsellor and coach at the Norfolk Clinic Complementary Healthcare Clinic, 38-40 Magdalen Road, Norwich. Norfolk Clinic reception on 01603 660792 or directly on 07773 610816. She loves helping other people achieve their potential at work and in life and achieving happiness using a range of therapeutic techniques.

When you dream...

It's been a busy week for me. I know there are times in life when there does not seem enough hours in the day for all the things that we want to do, right? I was sorting out paperwork for the last couple of weeks, in between seeing clients. I learnt a valuable lesson to be more organised in many ways.

I also was pleased to get a day out at a spa (with a company called 'Dream on'), courtesy of a competition win earlier this week. How lucky I felt!  Once this article has been published I will post it here. As part of the day, I was asked why I had become a therapist and about my transition to being self employed after working in the employed world for many years.  There's many reasons of course why we do what we do. What motivates us can sometimes be negativity (surely bad for Karma in the long run?) and there is also good stuff. Things that help us to push through - and way beyond - what we actually thought we were capable of. For me, opening up and saying my reasons and my background was challenging. I know that everyone has their own personal journey and mine is considerably easier than many other people. What I got from doing it, was a sense of pride to look back and see that despite doubting my own abilities over the years, I was following my dream.

It made me think. I suppose I am most of the time what some people call 'glass half full'. In reality a part optimist, part realist. I do have the odd day when the liquid drains right out too. Days when I need a way of recapturing my 'mojo'. I have a few personal ways of doing this. One is to watch a video of myself (a real one) of when I felt really good achieving something I worked hard to do. I feel really positive about it too. I would also encourage you to find a way of respecting your abilities and strengths. One simple way is to keep a photo memory on your desk or with you. Something to make you smile, or play music to lift your mood. A little 'pick me up' that you can dip into at any time.

I give my clients self help techniques, and they like it as they gain control. I hope to share these with you too perhaps, if you are interested? I can be contacted for an initial free consultation on 07773 610816, if you are ready to take a step towards realising your potential and going for your dreams. Just like I did.

Neurons and Obesity - the next big thing?

A recent study on obesity being linked to changes in the brain was published today.
The findings from this study on mice and rats (and human brain structures compared using scans) points toward the neurons in the brain being affected over time. A specific part of the hypothalamus, to be precise, is affected when people have eaten a high fat diet for some time and are obese. The researchers are suggesting that the brain might be 'damaged/changed' and 'control' over weight diminished. This, the researchers think, might then lead to a continued desire to keep eating a high fat diet. More work is to be done to determine if this is factually correct.

The traditional response will most likely be 'give a pill' to re-set that energy balance, and perhaps (ker-ching!) the pharmaceutical companies step in, smiling all the way to the bank! OK, so I may be a little cynical here, though I'm not against this type of intervention.  I just would like there to be at least enquiry into alternative ways of supporting those who suffer with obesity. Also into the sort of interventions that would stop the problem in the first place (and I should introduce HypnoShape® as something I jointly devised with another therapist that tackles obesity as well as those gaining weight worried about their health).  

What I would like to consider is another problem area where brain changes have happened because of the trauma, and yet a non-chemical treatment is on offer and proving successful.  

People with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) given access to 'talking therapy' and 'art therapy' have been shown in studies that even when a part of the brain is affected (hippocampus, affecting memory and learning), they can feel and get better. Art therapy and talking therapy enables them to express their feelings and reduce stress. They adapt, they cope better, but little research is available into how much their neural pathways in their brains have adapted. Perhaps that's where we should be focusing research now, particularly in supporting those with depression? 

Brain medicine, has made great strides in recent years, however it does not yet have all the answers. We know now that the brain has about 100 billion neurons. We know that there is vast processing of information and that the brain is active in controlling our body in every way. The hormones released that deal with weight and gender specific controls, our thinking, our emotions - all controlled by the brain. It is exciting to think we have yet to establish quite just how adaptable our brains are when a part of the brain is changed or damaged. I look forward to seeing additional studies prove how adaptable our brains really are.  

Incidentally, I've met some extremely adaptable-minded people who had weight issues and came to see me either in a HypnoShape group or working one to one with me. The changes some made and stuck with are proof to those people that (even if they had a damaged brain as this latest research suggests!), they were somehow able to focus their attention onto a new lifestyle and make it fit them. Maybe that's why I felt compelled to write about this?  Having one person tell me of their continued weight loss of 18 pounds over 6 months is an example and one where they made small changes that continue to add up month on month.

The feeling of 'little control' is what many clients have when they first come to see me. I empathise with how hard that can be and particularly so if they are feeling in a cycle of despair after dieting. I believe the client chooses, as they walk through my door, if they really want to be in control of their mind and their eating habits. I do sometimes see clients who are not yet ready to make the changes they say they want to, seeming to want me to sometimes make changes for them. (I provide motivation and back up) In their mind they agree with the latest research exactly or they have in their mind 'father/ mother etc was big, so I will be too'.

I'd like to give all my future clients a gift. The challenge of trusting their mind is vastly capable of helping them to make changes!  How else would we be such an amazingly advanced mammal if not for our ability to think and adapt to new situations so well? 

Please do let me know what you think, comments are welcomed. Is this the next big thing to shake up the world of weight management?

Angie Giles Hypnotherapy for Hypnotherapy, Counselling and Personal Coaching
At the Norfolk Clinic (Complementary Healthcare) on 38-40 Magdalen Road, Norwich and 86 St Benedicts Street, Norwich (by appointment only).
Tel: 07773 610816

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sweet dreams

I was talking to a friend who was recently bothered by very noisy neighbours. Their sleep was disturbed for over a week and they had been finding themselves listening out at certain times after having been woken repeatedly. Even a tiny noise would then become a big irritant. My friend said it was challenging being woken and having their body clock forced to fit someone else's. They had tried a few different things to get off to sleep, none which were really having an effect. I've given them some ideas for zoning out and to help them feel more in control of the situation and we'll see how they get on.

Sleep disturbance is one of the areas that I help people with, so if you are interested do give me a call or email for more information.