Stress

The warmer weather prompts me to repost this article by my good friend Masha Bennett

Having been a horticulturist in my “past life”, I would like to include some leafy and flowery thoughts to contribute to your happiness and well-being. It is well known that gardening can be therapeutic - but no tips on digging or pruning in this article, you may be pleased to know! Instead, I will try to share my ideas on how to get the most enjoyment and pleasure from your own (or someone else’s, for that matter) garden.

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Here’s a stress reduction opportunity for the run up to Christmas that is simple and discrete. All you need is a shop window and enough time to take three breaths. If you’re rushing about trying to get all that shopping done, it’s very easy to get totally caught up in the task in hand, thinking about what you need to do next, where you need to be, what you’ve forgotten to do, or should do next.

With so much stuff rattling around in our system it’s easy to get carried away, infected with urgency. It can be very relaxing just to slow down for a few moments.

• The first step is actually the hardest: realise that you’re rushing around! If you’re rushing it’s very easy not to notice.
• The second step is find a convenient shop window, stand in front of it, and pretend to look at something particularly interesting.
• The third step is take three natural breaths, noticing the flow of the breath in and out of your system. No need to think, plan or remember things, just notice the breath coming and going three times. Just noticing can be quite calming, it can also be quite difficult, the flywheel of the mind just want’s to keep spinning.

That’s all there is to it, no-one will notice, you’re just looking in a shop window. It only takes a few moments to recollect yourself, and you can do this as many times as you like during the course of the day.

Bonus points: If you like a real challenge and find yourself on an escalator, just be aware of your breathing whilst you’re travelling between floors. It’s a little longer than three breaths, but you get that much more benefit.

If you’ve been here from the beginning you will realise that this is a recycled article from December 2005.

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My good friend, and colleague at IntegrityNLP, Nigel Hetherington is running an introduction to hypnosis weekend at the beginning of December here in Newcastle.

This workshop will concentrate on how to use hypnosis for beneficial change work and entering states of relaxation for the purposes of meditation, healing, deep relaxation and stress elimination.

The workshop will run over two days where day one concentrates on the fundamental skills and day two really puts these skills to practical uses.

The two days will be about doing hypnosis so this means the days will mostly consist of practical exercises with short feedback sessions.

Participants will receive a comprehensive set of course notes. This hypnosis workshop take place in Newcastle upon Tyne in early December - just in time to put your new skills into practice over the holiday period!

This introduction is not about stage hypnosis. You wont be able to use this to make someone act like a chicken! However you will learn how to use your other than concious mind for relaxation, stress relief and much more.

Nigel is an excellent trainer and I think you can be guaranteed a very relaxing and rewarding weekend. I think it would make a very pleasant alternative to Christmas shopping.

You can find out more on the Communicating Excellence website.

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This is a collection of some of my earlier articles explaining how to use EFT to reduce the stresses and strains of everyday life.

• TV Therapy - how to use the humble television as a therapeutic aid. By using EFT on whatever emotions arise while watching TV programs you can get extra benefit from what ever you are watching.
• Composting for beginners - simple approach to getting over the stresses of the day. EFT isn’t just for dealing with major traumas you can use it to defuse everyday niggles.
• Bus grumbling - using a trip on public transport to uncover an unhelpful pattern of behaviour. One of many everyday opportunities that point out where we could be happier.
• Fingertip EFT - a simple way to use EFT in public without getting stared at.
• Driving stress - one way of using Fingertip EFT to relieve the stress of big city driving.

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I’ve just finished a 3 session course for carers at the Newcastle Carer’s Centre showing carer’s how to use EFT to reduce the stress of looking after someone else over a long period of time.

There are a huge number of unpaid carers working in this country tending relatives who are disabled, sick or incapacitated in other ways. Some of them have been doing this for years, sometimes sacrificing large parts of their lives to look after someone else.

It can be a huge physical and emotional stress. Anything that reduces the emotional toll on carers is going huge benefit to them and the people the people they care for.
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I’m experimenting with a little process to bring relief from difficult situations you might find yourselves in. The idea is to give you a simple way to change the way you think and feel about any ‘problem situation’. It only takes a few minutes and you don’t need any special equipment or knowledge.

Perhaps you might like to give it a go and let me know what happens.

1. Write a paragraph (or two) about what ever is bothering you. Write it in the first person. That should be quite easy most of our problems are experienced in the first person: I am having a problem, I am feeling bad about etc, etc. Here’s a short example.

“I’m avoiding clearing my inbox”

2. Re-write the paragraph in the third person. That is swap every instance of ‘I’ for ‘he or she’, ‘my’ for ‘his’ or ‘her’ etc.

“He is avoiding clearing his inbox”

3. Re-write the paragraph putting it into the past perfect tense, which indicates completed action in the past. E.g. He had finished his lunch, she had struggled to loose weight, etc

“He had avoided clearing his inbox”

4. Decide what ‘that other you’ would like to do instead of having the problem. How would ‘he’ or ’she’ rather be?

“He would like to clear his inbox joyfully and easily”
(OK, I admit that’s a bit of a stretch, but what the heck)

5. Re-write that aspiration in the present tense (still in third person) as if ‘he’ or ’she’ is already doing that.

“He is clearing his inbox joyfully and easily”

6. Finally step back into that ‘other you’ by re-writing this in the first person present tense.

“I am clearing my inbox joyfully and easily”

Now take a few moments to consider the original ‘problem’ statement.

What is it like now?

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Just a quick reminder that there are still places available on my low-cost introduction to stress reduction with EFT

The workshops are on:

• Saturday 1st September, 10am - 1pm
• Tuesday, 4th September, 6pm - 9pm

Get in touch now to reserve a place on either course.

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