Do you feel like your stress and anxiety is spiralling out of control? You’re definitely not alone! Stress and anxiety are amongst the most common reasons why clients seek support, especially when they’re looking for a natural intervention.
If you don’t want to take medications, there are lots of other ways to manage stress and anxiety and even change how your brain responds to stress. In this blog post, I want to introduce you to the 3Ps, which are so powerful for managing stress and anxiety and why hypnotherapists like me love them so much!
How the 3Ps Can Help You To Manage Stress and Anxiety
We love the 3Ps in hypnotherapy and for good reason! The 3Ps encourage a steady flow of mood-boosting serotonin that helps manage stress and anxiety and can also increase your resilience.
The more you can bring 3Ps into every day, the easier it is to empty your stress bucket so that it’s less likely to overflow. .
Positive Activity/Actions
Positive actions lift your mood, help you to feel good about yourself and break cycles of negativity.
Looking for opportunities to take part in activities that you enjoy and that boost your mood is a fun way to prime your brain for positivity. These are great opportunities for self-care too.
Positive Interactions
Our interactions with other people have a huge influence on our thoughts and behaviours. As humans, we thrive on positive social interactions and the sense of belonging they create. Even introverts need positive social interactions, just to a lesser extent than introverts! These interactions light up reward centres in the brain and increase oxytocin levels.
The more of these positive social interactions you can have, the more you can tap into these benefits. Give someone a call, go for a coffee with a friend, or spend time with a loved one.
Your positive interactions can extend to people you don’t know very well or at all – say “hi” to a neighbour you rarely speak to or start a conversation in the checkout queue, for example. As well as giving yourself a serotonin boost, you might also make someone else’s day.
Positive Thinking
How many times have you been told to “think positive” or “look on the bright side”? It can seem patronising but there’s some truth to it.
Every single thought we have impacts the brain. Negative thoughts cause a spike in cortisol while positive thoughts can reduce stress levels.
But what if you’re a negative thinker and find it almost impossible to think positively? We can train our brains to think positively and this is exactly what we do in Solution Focused Hypnotherapy.
One of the easiest ways to kickstart positive thinking is to highlight at least 3-5 things that have been good each day. You might find it hard to find enough things while you’re training your mind to be more positive but trust me, it’ll get easier!
Breathing Exercises For Stress
Breathing exercises can instantly calm the nervous system and reduce the impact of stress and anxiety. There are lots of breathing exercises that can work great for stress relief, including box breathing.
Box breathing (also known as four-square breathing) is a great choice for reducing stress and anxiety. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds and pause for 4 seconds before you begin the cycle again.
It’s simple but powerful, and it’s used by Navy Seals before heading into a hostile situation. Breathing through the nose lowers blood pressure, boosts your mood and energises you. It’s a great tool to pull out of your toolbox whenever you need to feel calm and relax your mind and body.
Mindfulness Exercises for Stress and Anxiety
No doubt you’ve heard that mindfulness can work wonders for managing stress and anxiety – even more so when you combine it with breathing exercises.
The 5-4-3-2-1 technique is a simple but very effective way to use mindfulness to reduce stress and anxiety. It grounds you through the five senses., which can calm anxiety very quickly.
Start with some simple deep breathing. I love the 5-5-5 method for this. Breathe in for 5 seconds, hold for 5 seconds, and breathe out for 5 seconds. You’ll notice your thoughts slow down and physical tension leave your body as you keep breathing in this way.
When you’re ready, you can bring mindfulness in. Look around you and focus your attention on:
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can feel/touch
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 thing you can taste
Keeping your attention on what’s going on around you occupies your mind and leaves no room for what was making you feel anxious.
Hypnotherapy For Stress and Anxiety
Is hypnotherapy good for anxiety? Absolutely!
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help you/ to manage stress and anxiety without medications. With the toolbox of stress and anxiety management techniques, you can learn how to manage stress and anxiety so that it’s not controlling you.
The great thing about hypnotherapy is that it can get to the root cause(s) of what’s making you feel stressed and anxious.
By allowing access to the unconscious mind, hypnotherapy can create a deep sense of relaxation that promotes change and enables triggers of stress and anxiety to be addressed and resolved. In this state of focused awareness, you’re much more receptive to taking positive suggestions on board.
Discover The Power Of Hypnotherapy for Managing Stress and Anxiety
I would love to help you to harness the incredible benefits of hypnotherapy to manage stress and anxiety and keep your stress bucket from filling up.
You can contact me on 0786 2255131 or e-mail me at adele@hypnotherapyloungeleeds..com to talk more.
Or if you’re ready to book your initial consultation, here’s the link you need- https://hypnotherapyloungeleeds.com/book-now/
