Christmas might be 'the most wonderful time of the year', but for some people it can also be the most stressful time of the year. In fact, I'm willing to bet that almost everyone has experienced some form on holiday stress, even if it was only fleeting! There are a number of reasons someone could find Christmas difficult, whether it’s a strained relationship with their family, struggling with mental health problems like anxiety or depression, feeling the pressure of hosting, cooking, baking and gift-giving, or they may have lost someone dear to them recently. Whatever the reason, not everyone finds it easy to get into the Christmas spirit.
The important thing to remember is that if you feel like this, you aren’t alone. It’s normal to not feel cheerful for the whole holiday, or to even dislike Christmas completely. But since you can’t really escape Christmas in this country, it’s worth trying out some techniques to make the festive season a bit easier to bear. Hypnotherapy is a great tool for getting through the holiday period, and making it a happier, healthier time for you and your mental health. And here’s why.
Relaxation
If you find yourself feeling stressed out by the festive season, you’re not the only one. Studies have proven that stress levels skyrocket at this time of year, with everything from lights and music to festive workload, family, food and even just the expectations placed on you by others (and yourself). So one of the best things you can do for yourself this year is to learn how to truly relax your body and mind. The first and most important stage of hypnotherapy is to get you into a deeply relaxed state, so that you stop fighting tension and trigger your relaxation response. This is the counterpart to the fight or flight response, and it helps move your body to a physiological state of relaxation. Your blood pressure, heart rate, digestive function and hormone levels return to normal, allowing you to think clearly, regulate your emotions properly and reduce the amount of time your body spends in its stress response. Hypnotherapy can teach you techniques to do this at home on your own, including things like meditation, breathing exercises and progressive muscle relaxation. Being able to bring yourself into a relaxed state when you are feeling stressed can make the festive season a happier time for you and everyone around you, and you’ll find yourself enjoying things a little bit more.
Managing Anxiety
Along with all of that stress, Christmas can also cause a lot of anxiety, even if you don’t normally experience anxiety symptoms. There is a lot of pressure involved at Christmas, and for some that becomes too much to bear, while others struggle to keep up with the demands of family, shopping, social engagements, unrealistic expectations, financial worries or even bereavement. It can be a very difficult time of year. Hypnotherapy can be a fantastic tool for anxiety in general, but at Christmas it can help you overcome negative thinking styles in a safe, supportive environment, making significant, positive changes in your life in a relatively short space of time. By retaining your brain to ease off some of those chemical anxiety signals and giving you the tools you need to cope over the festive season, hypnotherapy can give you the gift of an anxiety free Christmas.
Take You Out Of 'Survival' Mode
Thanks to a combination of social conditioning and all of those stress chemicals I talked about above, many of us go into December thinking we need to ‘survive’ Christmas. This kicks our primitive brain into overdrive, which only makes us feel worse at a time of year we should be enjoying. All of that worry strain and panic ruins any chance of a relaxing Christmas, so you need to find a way to put the primitive survival brain back into its box. Because Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is all about retraining your neural pathways and reclaiming control of your thinking, using the techniques and tools you learn in sessions can help you move from ‘survive’ to ‘thrive’ and ensure you aren’t at the mercy of your primitive brain.
Social Anxiety
Christmas is an inherently social time, and most of us will end up spending much more time around other people than we otherwise would. This can cause a heightened level of social anxiety, which this year is set to be a lot worse thanks to COVID. This fear of social situations can cause you to panic when faced with groups of people, or flat out refuse to see people, leading to missing out on valuable interactions. Social anxiety can happen for all sorts of reasons, but it shouldn’t stand in the way of you reconnecting with family and friends or enjoying the festive season. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy techniques can help you focus on the present and develop the tools you need to move forward in a positive way.
So don’t let this Christmas be a stressful time for you. Invest in hypnotherapy as a way to calm your mind and reprogramme your neural pathways and give yourself the gift of truly switching off this Christmas. I work with individuals and business owners to implement hypnotherapy techniques into their daily lives, manage sources of stress in their lives and help them live their happiest lives. If you would like to know more, just get in touch to book your free, no obligation initial chat.
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