Natural Treatment for Anxiety with NLP and Hypnosis

Posted on August 04, 2013 by Holly Stokes, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Anxiety affects an estimated 2.4 million people. Anxiety and worry causes the body to go into the stress response. When our body goes into stress, we may try to compensate by stress eating or comfort eating which causes us to gain weight.

When we are stressed, the body also releases stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol which can cause weight gain and adrenal fatigue over time. By setting up new mental habits around stress and anxiety in the brain, we can remedy anxiety, relieve stress and experience greater well being in our daily life.

How Stress Affects the Body
There are two parts to the autonomic nervous system (ANS), the sympathetic and the parasympathetic. These systems work opposite each other, so that when one is engaged, the other is at rest. We’ll refer to these as the “fight or flight” mode and the “rest and digest” mode.

When the body is in the “rest and digest” mode, blood flows to the internal organs, the body focuses its energies on digesting food, making antibodies and updating the immune system.

When we experience stress, our body responds by triggering the “fight or flight” response. In this mode, our heart rate is elevated, our blood pressure increases, our respirations increase, and our body prepares for the physical feat of fighting off an attacker or running away. With this fight or flight response, our body also releases the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol, which can cause us to gain weight.

Think of the things that cause us stress – family, coworkers, deadlines, traffic. When we encounter these stressors today, it isn’t appropriate to fight or run away, and so we sit there in our chemical stew as we try to calm down.

How Anxiety Adds to Weight Gain
You may have found yourself eating when stressed, and this is actually one strategy to get ourselves back to rest and digest mode. Remember the responses of the ANS work opposite each other. So, if you eat something, you are triggering your digestion and so activating the rest and digest mode. But, this strategy doesn’t necessarily help you relax, and stress eating can also cause you to consume more calories than needed and thus pack on the extra weight.

Exercise can help relieve stress and rebalance the hormones of adrenaline and cortisol. Having relaxation exercises or down time scheduled throughout your week can also help. Listening to relaxation CDs can also help with the stress response, but it may not take care of the anxiety response.

Now, think of the things that cause us stress: coworkers, your spouse, family, money, work, these things aren’t going to hunt us down and eat us, but the body responds through that pathway of the fight or flight response.
You might know some people who handle stress very well, and then others who don’t handle it well at all. The difference is in our brain, how we interpret these situations in our life, what our brain is sorting for, and the mental habits that we have in response to life’s stressors.

Natural Treatment for Anxiety with Neuro –Linguistic Programming
Because anxiety is a mental habit, we can effectively help the brain set up new mental habits around stress and anxiety. We can do this quickly and effectively through the use of neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) and hypnosis.

In NLP, neuro refers to the neurons in our brain, linguistic refers to our language patterns, and programming refers to our past history, the programs from which our mind operates. NLP is a field of study in the area of applied psychology, and it is also a set of processes designed to help the brain rewire old patterns and create new mental patterns very quickly.
We can have stress patterns around everything in our life, from coworkers, spouse, traffic, money, and from these mental habits, our body can go into the micro stress reactions. By setting up new mental habits around the things that cause us stress, we can engage the brain in making new neuronal pathways, and thus create new positive responses to the old stressors.

By engaging the various processing centers of the brain, we can set up a new mental habit very quickly, in less than a single session. We can quickly teach the brain to respond differently to the stressors in life, thus short circuiting the stress response, and allowing us to feel greater calm and well being.

The simplest example of NLP comes in changing your mental pictures. Just after I had been in a car accident, I found my mind picturing the cars around me crashing. This of course was causing me a mild anxiety reaction, and by the end of the day I was exhausted from witnessing so many imaginary car wrecks. And, I noticed over time, it was getting worse.

So, using the tools of NLP, every time I started to picture the car crashes, I would see soft bubbles around the cars, like marshmallows that would allow them to bounce off. After about 2 days of consciously making the effort, the anxiety about driving went away and I once again felt comfortable in the car.

Hypnosis Can Reduce Anxiety Reactions
One way hypnosis can help is by the relaxing nature of the process. In the first part of a hypnosis session, the practitioner uses relaxation techniques to allow the body to relax and engage the deeper mind or unconscious. This relaxation process can help the body release tension and relax, helping the system rebalance to a greater sense of well being and also engage the rest and digest mode of the ANS.

Then, through the use of guided visualization and imagery, the practitioner helps the brain learn new responses to life stressors.
Part of the anxiety response can be what the mind is sorting for. If the mind is asking, “what is the worst that can happen?” it will run through all the worst case scenarios, and you’ll play these scenarios out in your mind. If you are focusing on the bad that can happen, how does that make you feel?

Hypnosis can help the unconscious mind update these filters and instead of looking for the worst case scenarios, it can learn to look for the best scenarios and best outcomes. If you are picturing in your mind the best outcomes, how does that make you feel? When these programs of the unconscious mind change, it makes all the difference.

What we repeat, the brain turns to habit. Therefore, it’s very useful to have recordings of the sessions or hypnosis style CDs that you can listen to again and again. Each time you listen to the CDs, you are reinforcing the positive mental habits and messages. Ask your hypnotherapist for a recording of the sessions, and as you listen to the sessions several times, your brain will incorporate the positive messages into new mental habits.

With the powerful tools of NLP and Hypnosis, we can set up new mental habits in just a few sessions, allowing you to feel a greater sense of calm and well being, with a greater ability to enjoy your life.

I created, Train your Brain for Stress Relief, designed to change these mental habits, through tools of NLP and guided visualizations. The first part of this CD talks about the stress response and how it affects the body. I’ve included a “mindfulness” and relaxation exercise allowing you to focus on your body and feel comfortable and relaxed. I’ve also included an NLP anchor process which helps your brain set up new mental habits around stressors in your life, short circuiting the stress response, so that you can have greater calm in the face of stress. And finally, I’ve included a hypnosis style meditation called Higher Mind which allows you to find greater insight and put the stress into context so that you can have a greater sense of well being and enjoy life more. Read more details here: http://www.expandingpotentials.net/StressRelief.html

The reasons we experience anxiety can range from simple habits to more complicated programs of the unconscious mind. Working with a qualified NLP and Hypnosis Practitioner can help you address these underlying patterns and rewire the negative mental patterns around stress and anxiety. In just a few sessions, you can train your brain to experience greater calm, greater well being and an expanded sense of okayness in your life.

Holly Stokes, The Brain Trainer, works with busy professionals all across the U.S. by phone, rewiring negative patterns including: old habits, cravings, addictions, fears, anxiety, depression, negative thinking, stress and more.
With positive mental patterns, you can find your life purpose, boost your motivation, radiate confidence, and live your best.
Follow the blog with NLP tools, meditations and more at: www.ExpandingPotentials.net
Anxiety can also cause weight gain, discover secrets for lasting weight loss success at: www.ALighterYouSystem.com