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Stress
Stress
is increasingly becoming recognised as a condition that needs to be
acknowledged and managed. It is accepted internationally that stress
is a primary cause of mental ill-health and physical illness. Too
much stress, that is out of control, or unmanaged, can literally, be
a killer.
Hypnotherapy
can assist the following factors which contribute to stress:
1.Perceptions
/ expectations.
Perception is crucial to the way we feel. From early childhood we
are conditioned to perceive events in a certain way. If the adults
around us are pessimistic, fearful, negative, anxious etc, we tend to
respond in a similar way. Those perceptions can limit our happiness,
and create fear and stress in our lives. Remember the quotation "
A happy person isn't a person who has a certain set of
circumstances, rather a certain set of attitudes". (Anon)
2.
Personal/interpersonal
(a).
Communication
The
meaning of communication is the response it gets, not the response
you hope/expect it should get. There are skills involved in effective
communication, and they can be learned, "deliver your words not
by number but by weight"(Proverb). There are techniques which
can help you influence others. Hypnotherapy not only can teach you
those, but actually build them into your subconscious as automatic responses.
Our
level of assertiveness plays an important role in our communication.
The word assertiveness describes the behaviour which helps us to
communicate clearly and confidently or needs, wants, and feelings to
other people without abusing in any way their rights.
It
is the alternative to passive, aggressive and manipulative
behaviour. The following words are associated with assertiveness:
decisiveness, persistence, fairness, clarity, calmness and
relaxation, open expression, risk taking, giving and taking
compliments and fair criticism. Being assertive means being in
control when communicating, as opposed to one being overcome by
emotion (fear, anger etc).
(b).
Emotional state
Objective
reality is what is out there, subjective reality is the way we
emotionally and perceptually respond to the objective reality.
Therefore, everyone can perceive and feel differently about the same
incoming sensory stimuli. In effect , our reality is as individual as ourselves.
Experience
is not what happens to us, its what we do (perceptually and
emotionally) with what happens. The way we respond depends on our
past, as the past contaminates the present, "the child is father
to the man" (Wordsworth). Low self-esteem, fear of
failure/mistakes, fear of conflict, fear of authority figures, fear
of rejection/criticism etc cloud the way we respond and feel. Dealing
with our emotional state is a necessary aspect of any effective
stress management programme.
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