Lets face it we all at sometime face difficulties and challenges, the most important thing is not the challenge itself, but how we cope and deal with it. By incorporating mindfulness techniques, we can more easily face whatever life throws at us in an effective and meaningful way. Being mindful helps you to be more in control of your life and when we are in control of lives, we are in control of our thoughts and feelings.
Using a mindful approach with hypnotherapy means that both the therapist and the client remain ever present in the process, aware of exactly how they are feeling and what it going on. When past issues or trauma are stumbled upon, the client is able to differentiate this as past trauma. The client is more able to look at it with perspective rather than allowing the emotions to surface again as if it were happening in the present moment. It will help you to become more aware of yourself and help you access that true, authentic and intuitive self.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness has a very ancient heritage, rooted in Eastern religion and philosophy and associated in particular with Buddhist ideas. Used within therapeutic contexts, the approach has no religious aspect to it, but is about cultivating a state of mind which can help you to deal calmly with the stresses and strains of modern living. It will increase self-awareness, enhance your emotional intelligence and creates ways to efficiently handle painful thoughts, feelings and emotions.
Mindfulness is increasingly being recognised as an effective way to reduce stress and anxiety and help with depression. Being mindful means living more fully in the present moment rather than worrying about the past or the future. It means learning to experience the world in a more immediate way without being constantly overwhelmed by stressful thoughts and feelings.
Like self-hypnosis, mindfulness techniques help you to access an inner sense of calm, allowing you to find a still centre from which you can deal with the ups and downs of life. A mindful attitude helps you to deal with stressful thoughts, feelings and emotions by acknowledging their existence, but not getting caught up in the moment and learning to let it go. By allowing you to gain new perspectives on the problems of life it helps you to conserve emotional resources and feel better both mentally and physically.
Hard evidence for the beneficial long-term effects of mindfulness is gaining support from the new brain scanning techniques which are leading to major steps forward in the ways scientists understand the brain. Neuro-scientific studies are suggesting that the long-term practice of mindfulness brings about a permanent change in the way the physical brain functions. This means that by changing our habits of thinking we can actually bring about physical changes in the brain which can over time make that change a permanent one, emphasising more than ever the benefits of getting into good habits of thinking and feeling.
These are the habits which can be encouraged by the beneficial ideas and suggestions given to clients in hypnotherapy, and subsequently though the development of self-hypnosis or meditation techniques.
When are mindful techniques used in therapy?
If you are experiencing either depression or anxiety and anxiety related disorders, then I will use mindful techniques to help you get back into your own body, in the present and gain an inner sense of calm and control. With anxiety and depression as an integrative therapist I often combine hypnotherapy, mindfulness & CBT.
Mindful Communication
See my blog on mindful communication tips.
More Resources
Recommended reading:
Mindfulness – A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world Paperback – 5 May 2011 by Prof Mark Williams (Author), Dr Danny Penman (Author).
See their website for more information on what mindfulness is and more resources.