Anxiety is something that many of us will experience at some point in our lives, it’s a natural and necessary part of our survival response system. We have evolved with this system over hundreds of thousands of years; it is hard wired to keep us safe and most importantly alive!

‘Burn out’ is something that is becoming more and more common with the daily pressures and hectic pace of our lives. Added to that the weight of what we have all faced over the past 18 months with Covid and it is not surprising that so many people are hitting the wall and ‘Burning Out.’

The answer is …. a lot …… but we aren’t often consciously aware of it.

There is a lot to say about this BUT to keep it relatively short and sweet for you:

The years from birth up until the age of 7 are considered to be our most formative developmental years.

Throughout this time we develop our sense of self and the MENTAL MAPS that we will go on to use throughout our lives. The way we do this is in RELATION to our external world i.e how we are treated by our primary caregivers & the experiences that we subsequently have as we grow and develop.

What is self-hypnosis & why is it so beneficial?

Well, it’s very similar to meditation but with intention and a clear focus using specific motivation and suggestions towards a goal. For example before you sit down to practice your self-hypnosis you would write down a resource or feeling that you want to connect more with such as CONFIDENCE, after sitting and centering yourself through connecting to your breath for 5 mins or so you would then repeat the word CONFIDENCE to yourself with every out breath. (I will outline the full steps for this basic self-hypnosis practice at the end of this piece for you along with a link to an IG LIVE I recorded on this topic as well so you can give it a try later.)

Never in recent times has our collective and individual resilience been tested to such an extent. As we head into the shorter, colder days of winter, we’re going to have to dig deep to get through the next six months of bad weather and coughs and colds (I won’t use THE C word), Instead I want to focus on the resilience that we all will need to draw upon and cultivate in order to see us through these darker months and out the other side.

Today is the Samaritans ‘World Suicide Prevention Day’, the Samaritans along with other organisations are doing vital work around raising awareness and campaigning for more action from our Government in improving the services, resources and interventions available to turn the tide of the worrying increase in suicide rates across the UK.