Exploring Anxiety and Fear
Every person – and most non-human species – has experienced fear or anxiety a multitude of times in their lives.
People every day and everywhere experience the crippling effects of these two menacing emotions.
The ability to experience these two emotions is necessary for our survival. They actually serve to protect us.
Harnessing the power of these two emotions will actually drive us toward what we want.
Fear and Anxiety are intimately related, rooted in the same physiology and can have similar consequences. To get at the essence of Anxiety, start with the anatomy of Fear.
Fear is the most powerful emotion on the planet.
Fear is a basic instinct. Our very survival depends on it.
When we experience the sense that danger is imminent, we automatically go to the place of Fear or Anxiety. And that danger includes ANYTHING that is an unknown.
The fear system’s command center is located in the middle of the brain in the amygdala. From this almond-shaped place, body-wide responses can be triggered, automatically putting the body into the fight-flight response upon the detection of an oncoming “threat”.
Some of these fight-flight responses, including a change in breathing, pupils dilating, heart pumping faster, blood pressure increasing, digestion shutting down (seen as dryness in the mouth), involuntary tightening or jerking of muscles, coldness in extremities and more happen automatically as the body goes into fight-flight.
In addition to fighting or fleeing, many also go into “freeze” mode. That’s where fear of failure, fear of success and procrastination manifest – as a result of fear.
All of these responses come directly from the subconscious, whose prime directive is to protect you.
In Hypnosis, we can address the subconscious and its natural responses.
Hypnosis for Anxieties and Fears 4
About the Subconscious
The subconscious mind acts on autopilot.
Everything our subconscious does is for the purpose of keeping us alive.
At the moment we make a decision to do something, we are doing it with our survival in mind.
Afterward, we’ll know more about the outcome of that decision and may realize there was a different strategy we could have taken.
o Redirect some of the “right/wrong” “good/bad” “blame/fault” thinking into “strategies that worked...” or “strategies that didn’t work...”
o Frees us from holding onto guilt and shame from past “mistakes,” allowing us to free ourselves from the fear of trying to make better “decisions” in the future.
The subconscious, whose prime directive is our continued perfect health, also has a blueprint of this perfect health.
The subconscious doesn’t know from fantasy or reality. It can be directed to change its “mind” if the alternative behavior presented “makes sense”.
As Hypnotherapists, we can help ourselves and our clients to change our way of thinking – redirecting our subconscious to more effective strategies for living. The trick is: How to feel the Fear and Anxiety and do it anyway. Said another way, harness the feelings of Fear and Anxiety and allow them to work FOR you instead of AGAINST you.
How to Face Them
How to Overcome Them