You Are Your Only Limit

Unleash the Power Within

Harnessing Subconscious Thoughts for a Happier Life

This month I want to take you on a journey into the fascinating world of the subconscious mind and how acting from your inner self can transform your life. Do you know that 95% of your actions are done subconsciously?

Understanding the Subconscious Mind

Our mind is like an iceberg; only a small part is visible (the conscious mind), while the vast majority lies beneath the surface (the subconscious mind). The subconscious mind is the powerhouse of our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. It stores our beliefs, memories, and automatic responses.

The Hidden Influence

Most of the decisions we make are guided by our subconscious thoughts. It’s like having an autopilot system that influences our choices without us even realising it. That’s why understanding and working with the subconscious is crucial for positive change.

Otherwise, we continue to practice the same habits day in day out.

Benefits of Acting from the Inner Self

I ask you…Do you ever consider that you even have an inner self?

  • Authenticity: When you act from your inner self, you are true to your core values and beliefs. This authenticity leads to a sense of self-assuredness and confidence.

  • Reduced Anxiety: The subconscious often harbour’s fears and anxieties. By addressing and reprogramming these thoughts, you can significantly reduce anxiety and live a more relaxed life.
  • Improved Self-Esteem: Embracing your inner self helps boost self-esteem. When you believe in yourself, others are more likely to believe in you too.

  • Happiness: Connecting with your inner self often leads to a profound sense of happiness. It’s like finding the missing piece of a jigsaw puzzle that completes the picture of your life.

Quick Tips for Tapping into Your Inner Self

  • Practice Mindfulness: Spend a few minutes daily in quiet reflection to connect with your inner self. Even every other day, just set the intention.

  • Positive Affirmations: Use positive affirmations to reprogram negative beliefs in your subconscious. Even if you’re not believing them to begin with, your brain doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality, so the more you say them the more it listens and the more it believes you.

  • Visualise Success: Visualise your goals as if you’ve already achieved them. This tricks your subconscious into working towards them. Think the thought, in detail, who’s there, where, when, how.

  • Seek Hypnotherapy: Solution-focused hypnotherapy can be a powerful tool in accessing and reshaping your subconscious thoughts. I will be your teacher!

The Neuroscience Behind It

Neuroscience research has shown that our brains are highly adaptable and can rewire themselves through a process called neuroplasticity. This means that we can change our thought patterns and behaviours by working with our subconscious mind. Hypnotherapy, with its focus on the subconscious, can be an effective method for leveraging neuroplasticity to achieve positive change.

Take Action Today

Are you ready to unlock the potential of your subconscious mind and live a happier life? I’m here to help. I offer both in-person and online hypnotherapy sessions. We begin with a call then an initial consultation, to begin embarking on a transformative journey together. 

Your inner self is waiting to be unleashed and I’m here to guide you every step of the way. Remember, you are in control of your life, and with the right guidance and techniques, you can create the change you desire. 

Embrace your inner self, and watch the magic happen. 

Here’s to a happier and more fulfilling life!

Hypnotherapy is fast and effective; you could be feeling like the you you want to be before the end of the year! Message me now.

What better gift can you offer yourself than that.

Best, Karen x

Helping You Take The Path In Overcoming Your Phobia

Hypnotherapy: 

The Magical Wand for Phobias – Science Meets Solutions.

Here we are at the end of another month. This time a new season too. Hello Autumn, what a mild one it’s been so far. 

I’ve been seeing a lot of phobia clients this month so thought it apt that Phobias should be the context of this month’s blog.

Let’s take a delightful journey into the world of hypnotherapy, where we wave our magic wands a hypnotic one, of course, to conquer phobias. 

Prepare to be amazed, amused, and most importantly, informed!

Setting the Stage: The Phobia Tango (quite apt with the return of strictly )

Imagine you’re at a party, and you suddenly spot your arch-nemesis: the dreaded spider, or you find yourself in a really crowded room, or you are due to speak publicly, whatever your phobia might be! 

Cue the heart racing, the sweaty palms, and the primal urge to flee the scene, heightened stress, anxiety, total unease but what if I told you there’s a way to transform this terror into a mere ahhh, it’s just a spider, it’s just people, it’s just a talk, moment!

Enter hypnotherapy, centre stage! 

Hocus Pocus in the Brain: The Neuroscience Behind Hypnotherapy

Now, let’s get a little nerdy… Your brain, as amazing as it is, sometimes gets a little too creative with fears. It’s like your imagination hits a panic button when its faced with a phobia. 

Here’s where hypnotherapy steps in.

Studies have shown that hypnotherapy can help rewire your brain. It’s like a mental renovation project, where we take the old, scary attic (your phobia) and turn it into a cosy reading room a place where you can feel calm and at ease.

Pattern Matching Shenanigans: 

How Hypnotherapy Tricks Your Brain

Our brains love patterns, system, order, routine, almost as much as they love binge-watching Netflix. Phobias are like those annoying auto play suggestions that keep popping up and Hypnotherapy intervenes by showing your brain new, calmer patterns. New stories.

Think of it as a master chef creating a new recipe book for your mind. Suddenly, you have choice and that phobia you’ve been dealing with, is not the only thing on the menu anymore.

The Magic Wand Feeling: 

When the Phobia Vanishes

Picture this: You’re in a hypnotic trance, and suddenly, I wave a wand, metaphorically of course and just like magic your phobia starts to lose its grip, it feels like you now have the power to kick that fear to the curb. You feel as if you’re back in control.

The moment your phobia fades away, it’s like discovering you’re the hero of your own story. And guess what? You have just achieved a real-life magic trick!

Conclusion: Your Hypnotic Adventure Awaits!

Hypnotherapy is not about making you cluck like a chicken, you are not vulnerable, it is not about entertainment, it’s a scientifically backed, solution-focused approach to turn phobias just like yours, into mere memories, left in your past, where they belong.

You are in control!

So, are you ready to conquer your fears and experience that magic wand feeling?  

As a solution-focused hypnotherapist, I’m here to tell you that the magic is real, and the power is within you!

We can work together online or in-person, you choose, the effects and impact of the therapy is just the same. This month alone I’ve worked with clients who have a fear of needles, spiders and sickness. Get in touch now.

If your phobia is restricting you, affecting your every day, YOU can change the patterns in your brain.

Those phobias CAN disappear like they’ve just been bad plot twists in your life’s story!

Are you up for creating a new story?

Best,

Karen 

Navigating The Transition

In this the last few days of August I thought it may be useful to chat about, empty nest syndrome, a common yet often overlooked emotional experience that can lead to feelings of sadness, loss, and loneliness as children leave home to pursue their own lives.

 As a clinical solution-focused hypnotherapist, I offer valuable insights and techniques to parents and carers to help them navigate this transition more smoothly and to embrace this new chapter in their lives with positivity and resilience.

Understanding the Emotional Impact:

You might have feelings such as loneliness, sadness, and a sense of purposelessness. Not knowing who you are or what your purpose is.

These emotions are rooted in brain changes and chemical reactions, so I work with you to understand this so you can create change.

Uncovering Limiting Beliefs: 

These beliefs you may now have might revolve around self-worth, identity, and the fear of being alone. You may believe you’re not capable or courageous to start something new. You may have no idea what that could even be. Hypnotherapy can help reshape these beliefs and foster a healthier mindset.

Building Self-Esteem and Confidence

Through psychotherapy the first part of client sessions I will ask you questions to support you in asking yourself questions about ‘what good looks like’ and how you can rewire neural pathways to promote self-assurance, allowing you to rediscover your sense of purpose beyond your role as a parent or carer.

Cultivating New Interests and Connections:

 We will explore suggestions for new interests and hobbies, which can help fill the void left by your child/children’s departure. We’ll discuss the role of the brain’s neuroplasticity in adapting to new experiences and how to form new neural connections. In each session we will educate you more on all the new opportunities you have. Instead of you feeling this is an end to something, help you see it as a new beginning.

Strengthening Relationships

We will explore the opportunity for you to nurture other relationships, both with your adult children and with your partners and friends. Backed by knowledge of neuroscience I will provide you with strategies for effective communication showing you ways to build deeper connections. 

The Power of Visualisation

I will explain the concept of visualisation and how we use it so frequently in hypnotherapy. How it helps to envision and manifest positive outcomes during the empty nest phase. Our brains. Don’t know the difference between imagination and reality so if we can visualize in detail thoughts that make us feel happy, optimistic, excited and positive our brain will agree with those thoughts, focus on them, enjoy the feeling and want to create more.

Showcasing Success Stories:

 A recent client came to see me as she’d lost her confidence, felt lost, lacking in energy. Her youngest son was leaving home and she said she kept crying and dint know why. We talked about her, her purpose, her needs, her interests and it was like a light bulb. She said she didn’t know anymore, shed stopped asking herself many years ago. I saw this client for six sessions and on the last session she was like a different person, her words, her body language, her confidence, she’d overcome empty nest syndrome through my guidance and her will to change. We can all make neurological changes when we embrace a solution-focused mindset.

Addressing empty nest syndrome with a neuroscience-based approach teaches tool and beliefs for life. No reprimand, no push, just encouragement, understanding and knowledge. Understanding its totally normal to feel this way, that you just need to recognise what it is and be aware of how to feel differently. 

Hypnotherapy is a valuable tool to help navigate this transitional period and emerge stronger, more confident, and happier. Something we all want right?

By combining my expertise in clinical solution-focused hypnotherapy with neuroscience-based evidence, I can provide clients with valuable insights and actionable strategies to overcome empty nest syndrome and embark on a new and fulfilling journey.

Want to know more? 

Book your free discovery call and initial consultation today.

Karen x

Understanding Teenagers

As a parent to two teenagers, I understand some of the challenges they face. Also, as a therapist who works closely with teenagers, I get to support them in facing this beautiful challenging world by adding tools in their tool box to become confident and at ease with the people they are- and want to become.

Gosh how many times have I said to a friend or family member from my generation (I’m late 40’s) I’m so glad ‘I’m not a teenager today’.

Things were simpler in the 80’s, less noise, less stuff, less expectation. 

Yet often, we expect so much of them.

Our teens, they don’t know any other time than their time, this time, they’re doing the best they can with the cards they’re dealt.

Our brains, well they don’t know any difference between the 80’s or the last decade they think the same thoughts now as they did in caveman times.

The primitive mind is the original part of the brain, the centre and influential part of this brain is called the Amygdala, our fight, flight freeze reactions. Its only aware of keeping us safe and alive.

If our primitive mind thinks that for some reason our life is in some sort of crisis or emergency, it will generally step in to help.

Depression, Anger and Anxiety are all primitive feelings.

There’s another part of the brain, the intellectual mind. When we operate from this part of the brain, we generally get things right in life.

It will assess the situation and allow us to come up with generally a positive, solution focused outcome.

I work with teens to help them connect with their intellectual minds. 

No judgement, no advise, no criticism, just awareness.

Some of the conversations I’ve had this week with teen clients has them recognising the language they are using and how it is not helping them achieve their positive outcome. 

When they’re telling me what they don’t want:-

*I don’t want to feel tired

*I don’t want to feel angry

*I don’t want to go to school

*I don’t want to be constantly rowing with my parents

This language cannot let their brain connect with what they ‘do’ want to feel.

You see the brain is like a genie rubbing its bottle, it’s saying yes, I agree, I’ll give you want ever thought you tell me to think. Even if the thought is not supportive.

It doesn’t know to use the word I don’t, it only hears, tired, angry, school, rowing.

Our teens need to know what ‘good’ looks like.

They need guidance, support, recognition.

They also need patience, time and a feeling of empowerment.

My daughter, she’s struggled with social anxiety for years. It got more extreme due to covid restrictions and before my knowledge of Hypnotherapy we would have clashed.

Her anxieties would have made me worry and react, I would have felt she was resistant and as a parent I would have felt frustrated with her not trying, crying, having no push to give it a go. I would have felt sad that she felt this way, finding it hard to support her to feel differently.

Now, I change the way I react to her feelings. I recognise they are just feelings and let her feel them.

I know we both want the same outcome, so I stay calm to support her in finding her solutions. 

We talk about how well she has coped so far and how she will continue to cope.

Our teens need to make changes in small steps. 

Big change is too much.

Computers, phones, video games, lack of being outdoors, not wanting to go to school, these are to name but a few of the thing’s parents and carer’s worry about with our teens today.

Let’s flip that coin on its head:-

Let’s bring it into awareness. 

Do we tell them how we feel?

Do we have relaxed conversations on how we feel and how they feel? 

Is the conversation happening at a relaxed time, are we listening, where they’re talking & we’re quiet.

Do we offer them to tell us more?

Do they feel heard?

Do we have positive alternatives to what we want them to do instead?

Often our teenagers don’t know how they feel.

Do we tell them what they do brilliantly?

Empower them with what they can achieve. 

Listening to the language change in my weekly sessions with a teenager who is finding their confidence and building new neuro pathways in their brains is a fantastic sight to see.

They hold their body differently, they have a solution to their problem and if it’s not resolved yet, they’re working towards achieving it.

Their stress bucket and anxiety is reduced as they feel more in control of what good looks like.

They’re understanding how their brain works to help them be the best person they can be.

For me, that’s priceless.

If your teen would benefit from having Hypnotherapy to support them with their confidence, self-esteem or anxiety, please book them in for a free initial consultation.

If you have any questions on this topic, contact me on [email protected]

Karen x

Procrastination

When I was younger my plan was to be a veterinary nurse. I loved animals (still do) and I always thought of what I’d enjoy much more than I thought about earning a good salary and having a career.

I wasn’t determined or focused on my end goal and was easily deterred so when I couldn’t find the right course, I then moved to do a nursing course for one year and then fell into retail, where I worked my way up from a part time sales role to becoming the Area Manager of the highest turnover area of the UK’s no 1 cosmetics brand.

Looking back, I was definitely determined when the opportunities for promotion presented themselves but I hadn’t set out to go down this path.

I’d moved from N Ireland, to S Ireland to London with my career and felt happy and successful.

Six years in London and now with two small children, made me reflect. Two small children in an expensive city, childcare, tiredness, pressure, my stress bucket was at capacity. I was drowning.

I was no longer enjoying my career, I felt fear of change and had no focus or motivation, I got by day by day.

My son was diagnosed with ASC whilst at nursery and this was my catalyst for the move to Sussex. To create a quieter life, better for the kids.

I commuted to London every day for four months it was tough then I got a transfer with my work to be based in Sussex. It was still too much. I resigned and moved to Part time work in Brighton.

I felt like I was moving backwards.

Do you find when you give up your career you give up a little piece of you?

Whether it’s because you’ve become a parent or carer, maybe you’ve relocated, maybe you’ve been made redundant. The feeling is the same.

I accepted my life was now different, I allowed my primitive mind to comfort and reassure me that it didn’t matter, I’d had my career I was right where I needed to be.

I then began working for a network marketing Company but my heart wasn’t in it. I felt once again things were just ok that I was ok but now I know it was fear. 

Fear of failure, fear of change, fear of starting again.

Each time my husband had a suggestion: start your own consultancy company, email brands/companies you want to work with tell them your career history.

I always said No. It won’t work, they won’t allow me to be flexible, I’ve been out of the lop for too long.

It was Fear!

I then began doing a Personal Assistant role for a lovely disabled lady in her home. It got me out of the house and supporting someone else was rewarding as well as creating structure in my days. 

That day I saw the counselling course online was the day I found my new goal.

How interesting… I could work at my pace, have online support, no time pressure and maybe just maybe it would lead to something… I applied, there and then in the moment.

I made a decision. I parked the Fear. 

No classroom, no worries that I was too old to start, too out of practice to learn, just excitement at the potential.

Positive chemicals flowing from the hypothalamus..

Counselling lead to CBT, lead to Psychotherapy and Hypnotherapy, I woke up early in the mornings I went to bed late at nights, I got the work done, I didn’t procrastinate I knew what I needed to do and Omara Hypnotherapy was born.

Procrastination, Hell Yes, I procrastinate, every day. 

One of the biggest causes is Fear and not having a plan.

Should have done it ten years ago.

Have you ever said that?

Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda!

What good does it bring us. I could reprimand myself daily.

What matters is you ‘choose’ to be solution focused now.

Procrastination can be worked on, overcome, it’s about knowing what you want and getting started.

As someone fairly new in my Industry I could tell myself I’ll never get there, I’ve got so much to learn, I could compare myself to the extremely successful people who’ve been doing this for so many years.

Then I think of the story of the Starfish by Lauren Eiseley, do you know it?

For every client I have supported, encouraged, taught and helped take control of their happiness, I feel grateful and proud, so being at the beginning of this journey is not daunting or pointless. It’s exciting, motivating and optimistic.

If you’re procrastinating and need help to refocus, realign, reignite. 

Book your Free Initial Consultation and let’s chat about how I can help you achieve the best You.

Best,

Karen 

Omara Hypnotherapy.

Get Back To You

With life being so busy and thousands of thoughts coming and going through our minds every day we don’t often focus on bringing ourselves into our own awareness.

Awareness…

A feeling and action I’ve come to use, on a daily basis, for myself as an individual and as a therapist supporting others.

If you don’t think the positive thought, then how can you react in a positive way. If our brain doesn’t know to think the thought it will follow the pattern it’s used to, whether that’s positive or negative, if we want to change it we need to be aware of it

Bringing ourselves into our own awareness can be done through breathing techniques, habit changes and a decision to make positive change.

So, ask yourself:

Who are you?

You are not your past, your culture, your work, your situation. You are not stuck, you are not lost and if you really feel that way, there is always a way back.

You are your feelings your own true self and with practice and awareness you can decide what they will be and how you want to articulate them. 

By using the power of your mind, you can get back to you!

Where are you?

Sometimes we find ourselves in a place in our lives and we’re not quite sure how we’ve got there.

Maybe you’ve come so far, great career, great family, financial security but you just don’t feel connected, at ease, happy.

Maybe you feel you have none of those things, you feel you’ve muddled through, accepted average, procrastinated about everything always.

With the support of hypnotherapy and by using the power of your mind you can find yourself!

Where are you going?

Where do you want to be?

Get clear focus on who you are, where you are and where you’re going by understanding how your subconscious mind works, by guiding it, knowing when to follow current habits and knowing when to replace them. Your subconscious mind will follow the pattern in your thoughts and actions, it’s your comfort zone, it will not advise you to leave your comfort zone as this is what it knows.

Be who you want to be!

Awareness is using your conscious mind, asking yourself the right questions to create positive thoughts. 

Our brain only knows what we tell it. It doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality. 

 Asking ourselves the question allows us to form the thought. 

Using the power of our intellectual mind helps us to make clear decisions and thoughts around what we do want, this causes us to then want to repeat the pattern.

If this blog resonates with you, if you’re nodding your head and saying hmm, ‘this is me’ then come and join me for my in person 4 week course in June. You’ll be working with other like minded individuals in a group environment. It will  be supportive, comforting and rewarding. 

It can also be grounding, clarifying and cathartic.

My first course begins on the 22nd of June at 7.30pm, for 4 consecutive  weeks, in Kingweald Community Centre in Burgess Hill, bring yourself back to your Awareness!

Helping every-day people every day!

Love,

Karen

Omara Hypnotherapy.

Positive Quotes Are Not For Everyone

The month of April has definitely brought with it those April showers, hasn’t it?

Isn’t it funny how the weather is always a topic of conversation?

It can often be the influence of how we begin the day; you look out the window and see the rain and just want to pull the covers back over your head- you get that caveman feeling of not wanting to do today. Just wanting to stay right where you are, under the duvet!

Or maybe you spring out of bed, excited about what the day will bring you- hail, rain or shine?  

Now: I can’t control the weather; but I can control the way I allow it to make me feel- and so can you!

This month, I want to talk about positive quotes and how they resonate with us.

They might cause some of us to roll our eyes at the disingenuousness of it all- whereas for others, they love them.

Maybe some days you read them and they resonate with you and other days they’re just ‘woo woo’ clap-trap, completely disconnected from reality.

Someone sends you a quote on social media and you think “That’s so thoughtful!”- and then you realise they’ve sent the same quote and message to twenty other friends…

You see, it’s not actually about the quote itself, it’s about the connection: the thought it makes you think, the feeling it makes you feel.

When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you do?

Do you get up straight away? Do you maybe snooze the alarm… up to 5 times? Reach for your phone? If so, which platform are you on? Social media, the news, your emails, your bank account?

Do you look at positive affirmations? Do you exercise when you wake? 

Do stretches? Can you truly, hand on heart, tell yourself you are setting yourself up for the best day ahead?

Are you taking in positive information? Talking to yourself in a positive way?

Are you giving your mind and body what it needs?

‘Thinking’ positive thoughts causes us to ‘interact’ positively and ‘act’ positively.

In the world of Hypnotherapy, we call these our 3P’s.

Setting out with the intent to have a good day is helped and supported by our daily actions.

So: you don’t have to wake up to motivational quotes, they don’t need to be on your wall, you don’t need to have one as your daily mantra- but imagine if you consciously decide each morning that ‘Today is going to be a good day.’

Imagine that when you read that quote, whatever it might be, it makes you think good thoughts, thoughts which invigorate positive memories in your past- or exciting times for your future?

Imagine if you read it and smile, allowing it to radiate within rather than drain you…

You see, the quote itself can be a totally rubbish one- the quote itself is not the point, it is the way that it makes you feel that counts!

Me? I do love a good quote; I have a calendar of 365 of them on my desk at home- I have one on my bedroom wall that I see every night before bed and I have a box full of them in my therapy room; I don’t need you to feel the same.

Just do what makes you happy.

Please do feel free to share any favourite quotes with me, I’ll welcome them with open arms. Message me now.

Love,

Karen.

Success Won’t Come To You

Was I nervous to start a new career path in my late 40”s?

Totally!

I’d worked in the same career for 20 years, started as a Saturday girl to being Area Manager of the highest turnover area in the UK.

Then being a mum of two little people I had to make a change.

I loved what I did but the hours and travelling no longer worked around my family’s needs.

I took a career break was a stay at home mum and then deciding to ‘go back’ to whatever that was, became frightening. 

My brain didn’t have the hustle any more, my confidence to attend an interview was shot to pieces and I didn’t want to work hours that would mean I couldn’t see my kids.

I made lots of excuses… We do that don’t we… Make excuses. 

Our brains tell us ‘Stories’ it’s ok, you’re allowed to feel nervous, don’t push yourself, something will turn up, you’re mostly happy. 

You’re right it would be too much for you, anyway you should have made this decision years ago, it’s too late now, no point in starting something new now.

Sound Familiar?

Fear of failing and rejection keeps us trapped. Prevents us from striving. Pushing ourselves. Tells us not to upsent the apple cart. 

Not because our brains are cruel, in fact it’s the opposite, the primitive mind thinks it’s helping us.

 It think’s it’s keeping us safe from disappointment and potential failure.

The brain does not know the difference between imagination and reality, it listens to what you tell it.

So, after years of managing and training in a ‘job’ working for an employer then working in the world of network marketing, (a world that just wasn’t right for me) I found my brave and decided to do a course in counselling.

I then side stepped into Psychotherapy & Hypnotherapy and here I am to stay.

Being self employed is scary. No guarantees, no team, no payment if I’m sick or on holidays. 

I could tell myself lots of ‘excuses’ ‘stories’ about why I shouldn’t do it.

In reality, I ‘had to’ find my brave and make a change, so the stories I told myself were outweighing the risks.

Imagine if I can do it? Imagine if I get that balance with work life home life? Imagine the feeling I will have to know I’m making a difference to people who are just like me?

I want to make a difference to every day people, everyday.

So, I say again, success won’t come to you, you need to go chase it!

Success can be small things:

*Applying for that role you really want to do.

*Asking yourself, what can I do today for only me?

*What direction do I want to go in to reach my next goal?

*Who is a support to me in my life?

*Who is holding me back?

I’m unsure about the future holds but I look at it with positive eyes… I can’t see what it will bring so why shouldn’t I imagine it will be bright and successful!

Omara Hypnotherapy is exactly where it needs to be, for now. I still have fears, I’m sure I always will but they won’t prevent me from success.

I won’t look back, I’m not going that way.

If you suffer with feelings of overwhelm, self sabotage and lack of confidence contact me, I support clients in finding their success every day.

Make the change…

Love,

Karen

Positivity Is A Superpower

So, as I sit on the plane to Tenerife I’m reading a lovely book and it’s got me thinking.

What kind of person are you…
Who you are, isn’t that the most important thing of all. (RJ Palacio, Wonder)

As a solution focused psychotherapist and hypnotherapist I work with clients on each session discussing where they are in life and where they want to get to.
Their reasons for coming to see me will widely vary but the requirement for the end result is always to feel better than they do currently…

The problem with this is often they don’t actually have the answer to what that is!
When you’re feeling lost, it’s those feelings you’re aware of not the ones you want to get to.
So understanding who you are and who you want to be is extremely important, otherwise your brain can’t help you get there…

You see your brain is like a genie 🧞‍♀️ it thinks ‘you’re wish is my command’ it thinks the thought and carry’s out the action that you tell it to…it doesn’t k ow how to do it differently.

💥A parent for example… 
They often base their happiness on the happiness of their children…
When asked to scale their level of happiness 8/10 parents will answer it based on their children’s actions feelings and needs.
Whether the children are young or old they’ve parked their needs as second to their child’s.
💥 Someone in an unhappy relationship, they’ve lived this way for such a long time they’ve lost their voice and resigned themselves to ‘this is what I’m used to, I have no expectations of my needs any more.
💥A person unhappy with their work, they feel afraid to move to another job/career for fear of the unknown.
💥Feeling unhappy with their weight, they’ve felt this way for years and feel that positive change is just so far out of reach what’s the point in trying…

You get the picture… 🖼️ 

So, I ask again…
What type of person are you & now…
What type of person do you want to become?

YOU DECIDE!

It can take courage to recognise you want to make change but when you take that first step and really see the possibilities you’ll be amazed at how much closer you’ll get to becoming that person you really want to be…

Hypnotherapy has helped me understand how to make positive changes in my life, for myself and the people I love…

It can do the same for you. 🙂

Love,
Karen x

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all!

(I can still say that, can’t I?)

I’m pleased to be in the month of January, in a brand new year.

My teenage boy struggled a bit in the Christmas holidays as his routine was all over the place, late waking up, late going to bed, lots of down time, drifting onto his computer every chance he got.

Sounds great doesn’t it- but for a child with autism this can be challenging, and thereby challenging for the family.

We’ve begun the year with him on a social awareness programme in school and us as parents on a six-week parenting course, further research for support on the cards.

Why am I telling you this? Because I made a decision to do something about it.

We needed to make change, to support our boy and our family.

We’re by no means sorted, we’re on a journey but without a head in the sand, solution-focused all the way.

Although to make change for ourselves, this can be more challenging. We can often find it easier to achieve this if it involves someone else, our self-talk can be less encouraging, less proactive, so we can find ourselves just tiddling along as we are and not achieving what we want from our day to day life.

If you yourself struggle with anxiety or low self esteem, making this change can seem like an impossible feat.

So how about if we change the way we think about anxiety?

What if we don’t try to make it go away, but instead begin by recognising it and getting to understand it for what it is.

When I explain to a client how our brain works, I talk to them about how their body would react if they encountered a polar bear in their path. Phew, the mind and body would go straight to the Amygdala (fight/flight/freeze) and quite understandably we’d be off like a shot.

But if we don’t face our polar bears head-on we will find that they seem to get bigger or that there are more of them in our daily lives, problem by problem.

We need to get to know that polar bear!

Now, it’s very important that our Amygdala alerts us in the genuine circumstances of danger but we need it to hush when the situation is just a feeling and not a fact.

So if you are beginning this new year wanting it to be better than the last, how about seeing situations that cause you anxiety as little hurdles to overcome, and striving daily with small steps towards empowering your mind.

I decided my small steps would be to up my running, to be outside in nature whilst I exercise. This makes me feel alive and energised; I won’t allow my primitive mind to feel worried and anxious about how I can support my son, I’m taking steps towards supporting him and taking steps towards supporting myself.

I also joined a choir, something I’d talked about doing for many years but always felt that polar bear feeling, making excuses- how can I go alone?- where would I go?- I wouldn’t have the time. 

I’ve only been to two sessions but I absolutely love it already. It’s quite amazing how singing in a large group makes you feel.

So, this year, you don’t need to make big annual plans for change (although you can if you’re ready to!). Just begin to recognise where you are and decide what the next step is for you to increase your happiness.

Don’t spend time trying to make others recognise your needs. Once you recognise your needs, others will too.

My son is starting a journal. We discussed this after a Zoom I attended on supporting our children with Dr Pooky Knightsmith. I hope it will be a tool for him to brain dump whenever he feels worried, excited about future events, or when he wants to express feelings that he doesn’t want to share.

Awareness allows the Amygdala to re-programme. We don’t want anxiety to go away; sometimes it keeps us safe. We just need to understand its needs.

Enjoy the rest of your January, I’m off to Mallorca at the weekend with my husband, just the two of us for some sunshine, nice food and quality time, planning to increase those levels of serotonin with positive thinking, positive actions and positive interactions.

Enjoy the rest of your month, if you need me, my inbox is always open.

Love,

Karen.