Try this great Alternative Nostril Breathing tool for alleviating stress, overwhelm or anxiety;
What are the benefits?
With just a few minutes of alternate nostril breathing, you can restore balance and ease in the mind and body. Sometimes when we feel frazzled or find ourselves doing too many things at once, it’s because energetically, we are out of alignment. This breath is great for restoring that necessary balance. In addition to calming the mind and reversing stress, alternate nostril breathing also:
Improves our ability to focus the mind
Supports our lungs and respiratory functions
Restores balance in the left and right hemispheres of the brain, and clears the energetic channels
Rejuvenates the nervous system
Removes toxins
Settles stress
How to do it;
Sit comfortably, making sure your spine is straight and your heart/chest is open, shoulders are down and relaxed.
Relax your left palm comfortably into your lap and bring your right hand just in front of your face.
With your right hand, bring your pointer finger and middle finger to rest between your eyebrows, lightly using them as an anchor. The fingers we’ll be actively using are the thumb and ring finger.
Close your eyes and take a deep breath in and out through your nose.
Close your right nostril with your right thumb. Inhale through the left nostril slowly to count of 5
Close the left nostril with your ring finger so both nostrils are held closed; retain your breath at the top of the inhale for a count of 5.
Open your right nostril and release the breath slowly through the right side to the count of 5. Pause briefly at the bottom of the exhale.
Inhale through the right side to the count of 5.
Hold both nostrils closed (with ring finger and thumb) for a count of 5. Open your left nostril and release breath to the count of 5 through the left side. Pause briefly at the bottom.
Then start the process again repeating steps 5-9. (Repeat 5-10 cycles, allowing your mind to follow your inhales and exhales.)
If you are feeling anxious and stressed at the moment, listening to a hypnotherapy audio MP3 daily will help you to feel calmer and able to cope at this difficult time. Why not try my Relax Now recording! See here for more details and to get your copy.
Watch a video on Tips to Manage Anxiety & Stay Calm on my YouTube channel here.
How can you work with me during the Corona Virus?
Choose an online session!
For the past two years I have done approximately half of my client’s sessions online and the other half face to face in-person.
Being able to offer online sessions means I can work with clients from further a field in the UK and also internationally and make a difference to more people. Working remotely also means that I can help clients who are less able to get out and about. Many people prefer to relax in the comfort of their own home, whilst experiencing a hypnotherapy session to change a particular issue or challenge in their life. With social distancing being vital at the moment to prevent the spread of the Corona Virus, being able to do online sessions is extremely useful.
How do online sessions work?
Hypnotherapy & Rapid Transformational Therapy remote sessions work in exactly the same way that in-person sessions work. I mainly use a system called Zoom as the connection tends to be really stable and reliable. Initially I will send my client a link to easily download Zoom onto their computer (this is free) and then another link to click at the time of our session. Once they have downloaded Zoom, the second link will easily connect my client and myself so that we can see and hear each other in what I like to call the ‘Zoom Room’. I have also done sessions on Skype & Facetime, which work well too.
The first part of any hypnotherapy or RTT session is the consultation and involves an explanation of the techniques and what will happen in the session, discussing what the client wants to focus on and answering any questions the client may have.
The second part of the session is the hypnosis or actual therapy, whereby the client relaxes with eyes closed and listens to my voice. This involves talking my client into a peaceful & pleasant state whereby the conscious part of the mind relaxes. In hypnosis we access the subconscious part of the mind to understand and help the client to let go of the root of their challenge or issue. People are totally aware at all times and can come out of this relaxed state at any time.
A hypnotic state of mind is really just a state of inner focus, a state of mind that we go into many times a day, without really being aware of it. I describe this relaxed state as similar to when you’re engrossed in a book or film or if you’re taking a very familiar route to work and you go into ‘autopilot’ and arrive without really noticing how you got there.
It’s a very safe, natural relaxed state where the subconscious is open to suggestion and positive changes that the client wants can take place.
After the hypnosis part of the session I gently bring my client out of hypnosis and back to a state of full awareness. We will then have a chat and I make sure that he/she feels good and calm before we conclude the session. The mind learns by repetition so an MP3 audio recording is included with every session or package of sessions, this is to be listened to daily for a few weeks and is an important part of the therapy and the positive results.
To have your hypnotherapy or RTT session online there are some considerations to make sure that the session goes smoothly;
You need a quiet room where you won’t be disturbed for the duration of the session.
Turn the phone off and let family members or housemates know that you are not to be disturbed until you come out of the room. If you’re alone at home at the time of your session it’s a good idea to pop a note on the front door to leave parcels etc with a neighbour.
You need to be sitting on something comfortable, where you can rest your head back and your neck is supported, but you’re not laying down totally. If you are sitting on your bed you need to be propped up with pillows/cushions.
You will need a good internet connection, enough battery on your phone or computer and ear/headphones if possible.
During our current crisis with the Corona Virus and social distancing, I am doing all of my sessions online for the foreseeable future. This means that I can still work with you to combat your current challenges or issues whilst still complying with government advice and keeping yourself, me and others safe and healthy.
Book your discovery call with me here and we can discuss further how I can help you.
I used to be proud of my perfectionism, but now I realize that my tendency to want everything exactly ‘just so’ actually made me quite unhappy. It was a massive and quite recent light bulb moment for me to understand that as a perfectionist, what I was really hiding under the surface was insecurity; a feeling that I wasn’t good enough if everything I did wasn’t perfect.
“Insecurity's best cover is perfectionism. That's where it becomes an art form.”
- Beth Moore
This insecurity in disguise is the reason many books don’t get written and published, projects don’t get launched, business ideas don’t come to fruition and new skills or hobbies don’t get learnt and enjoyed. Perfectionism can really hold us back from taking action.
Being a perfectionist involves creating impossibly high standards for yourself and others and becoming disillusioned when, inevitably, these standards are not met. Striving for excellence is a good thing but perfection is not attainable, and this fact is hard for a perfectionist to accept. This means that a perfectionist is often unhappy and dissatisfied with life, noticing the things that are wrong rather than what is right!
I remember this in my previous business. Before becoming a hypnotherapist & Rapid Transformational Therapy Practitioner, I had a beauty & holistic salon for many years. I started this business from scratch and built it into a success, eventually employing fourteen people. Of course the standards of treatments and client care needed to be impeccable, but whilst striving to deliver the best I became a bit disillusioned as I felt that we didn’t always reach my unachievable expectations.
I had to check myself many, many times and train myself to look at the big picture and notice all the good things in my business rather than what I considered to be less than perfect. I remember the first beauty therapist I employed walked out on me on Christmas Eve! Her reason? I was just too difficult to please! A ‘nightmare’ I think were her actual words!! That was a big lesson for me and I learnt to ease off a bit and notice all of the good things my team were doing for the clients and their positive contributions to the business.
Since becoming a hypnotherapist and working with Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT), I have done a lot of deep work on my beliefs around not being enough. RTT really gets to the root of an issue, which allows deep healing to happen. This has impacted me and therefore, the clients I work with in such a profound and positive way.
Because I have personal experience of suffering from perfectionism, I can really help others to see it for what it is and break free of it for good. This allows them to move forward feeling liberated, confident and happy.
Do you recognize any of these common perfectionist traits in yourself?
Are you critical of yourself and others when impossibly high standards are not met?
You find yourself thinking the worst: ‘If I’m not perfect I am worthless.’
Is your self-esteem low and you feel you have to do everything perfectly in order to be loved or accepted?
You suffer from procrastination: ‘I should not make mistakes. If I can’t do this well, even at the beginning, I’m not going to attempt it.’
Perfectionism can cause:
Chronic procrastination by avoiding doing new things in fear of making mistakes.
Wasted time by repeatedly checking over unimportant items such as the wording of low-value email responses or documents.
Depression when things don’t match up to your expectations.
Overcritical behaviour of yourself and others.
Obsession over the small details and not seeing the big picture.
“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”- Anna Quindlen
Ways to tackle perfectionism if it is holding you back or making you unhappy:
In the grand scheme of things in life, ask yourself if the small details in a particular case really matter.
Look at the big picture—the temptation of perfectionism is to focus on the minute details. Okay, so your partner has not done a totally perfect job of cleaning the bathroom but has done it to a fairly good standard and also washed the dishes and done some laundry too.
If you catch yourself noticing the bad aspects of something, immediately ask yourself, ‘What are the good things about this?’
Recognise that you and others are only human. Everyone makes mistakes and that doesn’t mean the world will end, or that if people are not perfect they are not loveable.
Ask yourself, ‘What is the worst thing that can happen if a task is not done perfectly?’ Then ask yourself, ‘If the worst thing did happen, would I handle it?’
Repeat your choice of the following affirmations daily to reprogram your mind to combat perfectionism.
My favourite affirmations to beat perfectionism:
• I forgive myself for my mistakes—I am human.
• My imperfections are part of me. I accept them as a necessary part of life.
• I don’t have to be perfect—just real.
• I am enough, just the way I am.
• I let go of the need to be perfect.
• I let go of perfectionism and I move on with an open heart.
• I truly love and accept myself just as I am.
• I truly love and accept others just as they are.
If you want to know more about RTT and the deep healing that can happen when you release your blocks to success go here.
