Stress and Hypnosis Part 3 - Mindfully living in the Present Moment

Greetings from a wet and windy autumn morning in Waterford, as I sit here to write the third installment in this series I am doing about 'Stress and Hypnosis'. In the first two parts I talked about the dangers of the silent killer we call 'stress' and I explained 'chronic stress', and the effect it can have on us humans living in the 'all-go' modern world. You should now understand the 'stress response' and the effect it has on our 'physiological system' and our overall state of 'well being'. You might even be able to explain the concept of 'Homeostasis' to your friends and family :) I also discussed different ways that you can being to manage stress, which included empowering yourself by taking responsibility for and taking control of your thoughts and emotions.

In this blog post I will be discussing one of the first things I always teach my clients - 'Mindfulness' or sometimes called 'Mindfulness Meditation'. Most people living in the sometimes rat race world we live in are so busy running about that they never take the time to pay attention to their 'breath' or themselves 'in the present moment'. A bit like that gerbil on the wheel, never stopping to take a look around. How many of us are either sad and/or angry about the past or worried and/or anxious about the future? But the truth is all we have is the NOW and mindfulness is the process of living in the NOW, in control of your thoughts and emotions. Once we learn to live in the NOW and enjoy each and every moment, then those moments add up and become our lives. 

Sadly however, very few of us take the time to pay attention to the moment and the now. How many times do we hear people saying on a Monday morning 'oh I wish is was Friday' .... or months before the event saying 'I wish it was Christmas'. There are times when we can wish our lives away. Since I learned about Mindfulness a few years back, I have been able to absorb each and every moment of my life. No more so than when my daughter Emma was born, I made sure to enjoy each and every moment, as I knew at that I might never have this opportunity to enjoy this again, and I was aware of how fast these moments can pass you by, when you are not paying attention.

When we are young, we think we are going to live forever and all that. But two events the last few years have really hit home to me how quickly that can be snatched away. One was when a gentleman suffering from terminal cancer came into see me. The doctors had given him just 6 months to live and by god he really appreciated 'Mindfulness'. He was not going to waste another precious moment of his life. Another event was when a friend of mines partner suddenly died of a brain hemorrhage, her life ending tragically, way too early in her mid thirties. Since that awful heartbreak my friend now tells everyone to be 'mindful' and enjoy each and every moment with your family, because that is what is important. Not worrying about silly everyday stuff like the weather, bills and even what people will think of you.

It is very enlightening for my clients to learn about Mindfulness, because they might not have paid

attention to their breath and/or the moment before. We are breathing since the beginning of our lives and we will breathe each and every day until the end of our lives; so our breath really is the essence of our very existence. When my clients lie relaxed in my comfortable hypnotic chair, I bring their attention to their breath, the texture and temperature of their breaths as they breathe in deeply, as well as getting them to notice the gentle rise and fall of their diaphragm and chest as they relax. I even bring their attention to other things in the 'right here-right now' like the sounds of the music, the clock ticking or my voice, or even the feeling of the chair against their back or the floor underneath their feet.

The last part of 'Mindfulness' is training my clients to 'not follow' their breath' but to learn to always easily return their mind to their breath. Just like a fish swims in water - us humans have thoughts - that's what the mind does. But when we have a thought, we have two choices: 1. To attach meaning to it (the old saying 'take it to heart') - in other words to follow your thoughts and ruminate on it. For example if one of my weight control clients has a thought to 'eat a bar of chocolate'; mindfulness teaches them that that was 'Only/Just a Thought' and does NOT mean they need to go to the shop to buy that bar. Instead they learn to 'let that thought come and let it go (the average thought only last for a few seconds), and gently return their focus to their breath and staying in control. 

The good news is that we always have our breaths, so therefore anyone can learn mindfulness! Sometimes negative or unhealthy thought processes can become cyclical and the more energy (meaning) you give them the more compounded they become. Mindfulness can not only break this pattern, but over time create a new positive and healthy thought pattern. Which as explained in the first two parts of this series, positive thoughts and emotions will have a powerful impact on our bodies health and well being. 

I hope you have enjoyed the third part of this series. Please join me next time around when I will telling you all about Self-Hypnosis and how you can use it to continue to program your mind and body in so many healthy and beneficial ways.

© Trevor Eivers 2014

My name if Trevor Eivers and I am based in Waterford, Ireland. I am a Certified Consulting Hypnotist (since 2010) with the National Guild of Hypnotists (NGH), which is the largest hypnosis body in the world with over 14,000 members in 83 different countries worldwide. I am also a Certified NLP practitioner. I love my job in which I help everyday people with everyday issues. Contact me at 086-8211677 or check me out online at waterford-hypnosis.com or Facebook at : https://www.facebook.com/pages/Trevor-Eivers-Hypnosis/177881245578285