This can be a time of immense stress, overwhelm and depression for many. Find out how hypnosis for anxiety can help you develop phenomenal coping skills to better deal with anxiety symptoms and rapidly transform your life.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is the feeling of worry, nervousness, and fear that can come on so strongly that you find it difficult to concentrate on anything else. The surge of these feelings can cause a physical ‘attack’ of panic and anxiousness.
If you suffer from anxiety, it can often become a self-fulfilling prophecy. How? I hear you ask. The reason is that once you have had your first anxiety or panic attack, you are often fearing the next one might strike at any moment, causing your mind to act in anticipation.
What Causes Anxiety?
Anxiety, stress, and depression can all stem from social situations which include demands at work, conflict with friends and family, childcare, and low self-esteem. Physical ailments can also be triggers of mental disorders, such as lack of sleep, long-term illness, eating badly, plus addictions to drugs, smoking, and alcohol.
Motivational speaker and hypnotherapist Marisa Peer states that everything you feel is the result of the way your mind perceives the world. This is where her very powerful and transformational hypnotherapy for anxiety comes in. She believes that you can train your mind to stop anxiety.
Does Hypnotherapy Really Work for Anxiety?
You may be thinking: can hypnosis really help with anxiety? The simple answer is yes. Marisa is an expert in hypnotherapy and has created Rapid Transformational Therapy™ (RTT), which she is immensely proud of. RTT is a hybrid method that combines the best of traditional hypnosis with unique approaches to create permanent change in people.
Marisa has transformed the lives of thousands of clients who have suffered from stress, depression, obesity, addictions to alcohol, drugs, and smoking, plus couples with unexplained infertility. Her award-winning and life-changing work continue to be a success after more than 30 years.
How Does Hypnosis for Anxiety Work?
Hypnosis is a century-old technique that becomes increasingly popular among therapists. Hypnotherapy can be effective when it comes to helping people resolve multiple issues, including insomnia, quitting smoking, weight loss, depression, and even drinking addiction.
How can hypnosis help you manage anxiety better?
Hypnosis for anxiety helps you get into the trance-like state that allows you to access your subconscious mind and work directly with the root cause of your issues.
The truth is, our mind is hard-wired to look for danger or what might go wrong, which naturally triggers anxiety.
The reason is that it was evolutionarily beneficial for us to do so.
As Oliver Burkeman once wrote in the Guardian: ‘This is what makes bad news especially compelling: In our evolutionary past, it was a very good thing that your attention could be easily seized by negative information, since it might well indicate an imminent risk to your own survival.
(The cave-dweller who always assumed there was a lion behind the next rock would usually be wrong, but he would be much more likely to survive and reproduce than one who always assumed the opposite.)’
That is exactly why it is easier to be negative than positive; once upon a time, we were more likely to survive if we were negative. Even today we could say strapping on a seat belt is ‘negative’, because it means we are expecting to crash. However, the seat belt is making us more likely to survive. The very good news is we no longer need to be negative to survive. We can choose to be positive and choose to have a happier and more productive life as a result.
How the mind works
Here is a secret for you that might just change your life…
Everything you feel, including the anxiety symptoms you might have been experiencing, is the result of just two things:
- The pictures you make in your head
- The words you say to yourself.
What most people do not understand is that you have full power and control to choose better words and pictures – not just sometimes, but all the time. You are already doing it all the time anyway without even realizing it. After all, we all talk to ourselves continually and fill our minds with images.
Your mind does not know, and indeed does not care, if what you tell it is right or wrong, good or bad, true or false, helpful or very unhelpful — it just lets it in.
The best thing you can do is to give your mind much more powerful, descriptive and positive words. Your mind’s job is to act on the words you tell it. Your mind is doing its job, so do your job and give it better instructions all the time.
This is exactly where hypnosis for anxiety comes into play. Hypnotherapy for anxiety can help you become aware of negative self-talk, let go of the past experiences associated with it and rewire your mind to instill empowering thinking. Hypnosis for anxiety helps you fill up your mind with better words and images that could impact how you behave and feel on a daily level.
How to choose hypnosis for anxiety
If you would like to try using hypnosis to tackle the deep-seated mental habits that can cause anxiety, and become anxiety-free, there are a few options you choose from:
Working with a certified hypnotherapist
You might want to consider having your first hypnosis for anxiety sessions with a certified hypnotherapist. This way you will be able to receive a custom-tailored season to assist your specific needs and goals.
Hypnosis for anxiety audio recording
If you would like to try out hypnosis for anxiety sessions in the comfort of your own home, my downloadable audio called Perfect Relaxation is a good place to start. It is created to reach the listener on a hypnotic and subconscious level.
It has helped thousands of people change the part of their brain that is convincing them that they must live with crippling anxiety. Listening to the short audio track every day will retrain your mind from thinking it is in a constant state of fright, to thinking it is in an even-keeled state of contentment and relaxation.
Self-hypnosis
Another way to try out hypnosis for anxiety is to learn how to do self-hypnosis. You can try to do a self-guided session every night before sleep or every morning to get ready for the day. The most important thing when it comes to self-hypnosis is learning how your mind works and using this knowledge to make yourself more peaceful and resilient.
5 Powerful Tools to Better Cope with Anxiety
When dealing with anxiety symptoms, it can be beneficial opting for a more sustainable approach using a combination of mental and physical changes that can help cope with anxiety better. These are some of the techniques I sat
Use an empowering self-talk
I used to have a client who was, quite simply, utterly overwhelmed by her life. Her children were overbearing, her husband unhelpful, and her job left her feeling overstretched and under-appreciated each and every day.
As I sat through our hypnotherapy for anxiety session, I paid very close attention to the language she was using. She repeatedly said: “I cannot cope! I cannot cope with my badly behaved children, I cannot cope with how impossible my job is, I cannot cope with my constantly chaotic household.”
When I pointed out to her that she was frequently using the phrase: “I cannot cope.” she immediately broke down: “Oh my goodness, my mother used to say that constantly.”
This client had inherited that phrase—and by extension, that belief—from her mother. She was not taking responsibility for the words and pictures she was choosing. As a result, she had convinced herself that her life was one she could not cope with.
Every time she began to feel overwhelmed in her life, I instructed her to say out loud or to herself: “I have phenomenal coping skills.” This subtle shift slowly made her believe the phrase was true.
By using different words, she created a different picture.
In a few weeks, she came back feeling far less overwhelmed by her life, succeeding in her job and getting on better with her kids and husband, who had noticed a shift in her. However, her life had not actually changed at all—just her beliefs about it had, which made it all the more bearable. She had learned how to deal with anxiety.
Notice here that I did not instruct my client to say something that was not true. Her job was hard, and her kids were a challenge. However, by changing the overtly negative: “My job is hell, my kids are rude and badly behaved” to a more neutral, realistic version of events: “My job is demanding and my kids can be a challenge, but I have phenomenal coping skills,” you create less emotion-charged feelings towards it.
This is not about the power of positive thinking and pretending everything is rosy.
It is about actively reframing the events of your life to reflect a different, more realistic picture.
So, “I am late again, I have really messed up, everything is going to go wrong today,” turns into: “I prefer to be on time, but I can still do this. I can get through the day in a manageable fashion.” With the latter phrase, you are not pretending you are Superman or Superwoman, but you are encouraging yourself to not expect the worst.
Expect the best
Whether it is a layoff from work, an airplane ride, or an unexpected illness, you largely cannot control the external forces that influence your life, but you can choose the beliefs, words, and mindset that you respond to these factors with.
Here is the thing, we can choose to actively counter our inclination to expect the worst and expect the best instead (or at least a more manageable version of what we are actually going through).
You have probably heard about the placebo effect. If someone thinks their body is being given life-saving or curative medicine, their body will do some of the work of making the patient feel better, even if all they are being given is a sugar pill. This is not fantasy, but a well-documented effect that proves your brain has tremendous power that is dependent on what it believes.
As anxiety and excitement are similar emotions, you can choose the meaning you attribute to those physical feelings. For a woman afraid of flying, she can just as easily convince her mind she is on a roller coaster or at a funfair, and all of a sudden, the prospect of flying goes from being associated with death to being associated with childhood days spent at Disneyland. She still does not have control over what happens, but the terrifying pictures about losing that control are gone.
Having a choice empowers you to change the way you feel, by changing the way you think. When you understand and learn how to work with your mind, I believe that you can achieve anything. That is why I created Rapid Transformational Therapy™ (RTT™), to share simple yet effective techniques for everyone to achieve life-changing transformation.
Be your own best friend
Every time you feel overwhelmed by life and feel like you cannot cope, pay close attention to the words and phrases you are constantly saying to yourself. Once you have identified some repeat offenders, ask yourself:
What would you say to your best friend?
Would you say: “Oh, you are always messing things up.” “You are so hopeless.” “You really have taken on way too much, you will never get it all done.”
Chances are if you are a good friend, you would not dream of saying those things; you would be kind and encouraging and helpful. As a friend, you might say: “Life is not perfect but we all do the best we can,” or “I am sure you will get through it, and I will help you get there.”
So, ask yourself what might happen if you choose to talk to yourself as you might address a friend. Be kind and encouraging and supportive to yourself and you will be amazed at how much easier the world around you seems to become.
Give your mind clear instructions
One of my clients had a phobia that was so extreme she was hospitalized. On her release, as part of her outpatient treatment, she attended group therapy and would sit in a circle with other patients and each had to say something positive.
She would tell me that they all said something along the lines of: “Today I saw some daffodils and I felt better.” At her turn, she would follow their lead and say: “Butterflies make me feel calm,” or something similar.
I told her she was not giving her mind clear directions to curtail her anxiety and at the next therapy meeting, when it was her turn, I asked her to say out loud, “I have phenomenal coping skills.” The following week she was to say, “I have extraordinary coping skills,” then “I have exemplary coping skills,” and then, “I have outstanding coping skills.”
Not only did she report that she felt much better, but she also reported other patients asking if they could share her message. The therapist wrote those words on the board and commented that this group was making the fastest progress in recovering.
This was of course because they gave their mind clear instructions. Saying out loud to themselves and others, “I have extraordinary coping skills,” gives the mind a very clear instruction. Using this technique, you can direct your mind on how to deal with anxiety and have phenomenal coping skills.
You are what you repeatedly think you are
With all these techniques, it is important to note that repetition makes a difference. My former client did not say, “I have phenomenal coping skills” five times and found that her life changed overnight.
She used the phrase as an interruptive tool, each time she felt her mind straying into negative thought patterns. By the time she had improved, she had said the phrase out loud hundreds of times — as well as having it as the screensaver on her phone, written on her mirror, in her car – repeating it constantly until it had become true.
The good news is, the repetition of encouraging phrases is just as powerful as the repetition of negative ones, so make sure you give the former a chance to really sink in before you give up on it. With repetition and mental absorption, it will sink in and nourish you like lotion on dry skin.
Success Story: Overcoming Panic Attacks with Hypnotherapy
It’s one of my favourite kinds of stories because it spans so many years. Mila originally came to see me in the late 90s and years later, aided by Google, she looked up my name, bought my Perfect Relaxation download and found it to be her panic attack treatment.
Mila wrote:
I took my grandmother’s death badly but I hit bottom unexpectedly 3-4 months after by starting to have panic attacks. Worst ever feeling. It took the doctors quite some time to convince me that it was not a physical reason for me being so sick. Then I began reading about it, accepted it and along with a better diet, the panic attacks began to go away quicker and be less severe in general.
However, they would not go away completely. I was angry with myself for not being able to take care of this situation. Always thought that I could control my nerves—but this seemed different! I thought of you unexpectedly and like most people nowadays, Googled you. I read the website and although there was nothing in particular about panic attacks, I downloaded the “Perfect Relaxation.” I just thought of it as temporary solution until I could get in contact with you, take time off work if you agree to see me and so on.
Wow… Marisa… It worked straight away within 2-3-4 days. I learned to listen to my body, not be afraid and just let go. The real surprise for me came after hearing your voice again for a few times. I remembered you “teaching” me confidence during our hypnosis sessions.
Thank you, thank you, and thank you for being there for me once again!
I’m thrilled for Mila and would love to hear more of your success stories like this one.
The secret to phenomenal coping skills and how to deal with anxiety is simple yet true. You do not need years of therapy to get back the perfect confidence and lack of anxiety you were born with. With RTT hypnosis for anxiety Perfect Relaxation, you will be able to eliminate the root cause of anxiety and take responsibility for the words and pictures in your head. Once you do, your life will never be the same.
