How Hypnotherapy Can Help You Tackle Anxiety and Face Your Fears
By Desi Ivanova, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist
We’re often led to believe that all anxiety is unwanted and unwarranted, but in fact, some anxiety is normal - even healthy at times. Anxiety is a natural response to danger or stress, but when it becomes all-consuming or interferes with our ability to live the life we want, we need to take action.
Hypnotherapy is a powerful tool to help you deal with anxiety that’s causing you to struggle in your daily life. In this article, we’ll go a little deeper into where anxiety originates from and why hypnosis is so effective in helping you manage it.
Anxiety is our body’s attempt to keep us safe
Anxiety is part of our primitive self-preservation response. You’ve probably heard of the “Fight or Flight Response.” Anxiety is the body going into fight mode to protect you from a perceived predator.
But in today’s world, we’re rarely faced with life-or-death scenarios that warrant such a reaction. The problem is, biologically, we haven’t evolved past that response. So whenever we feel any kind of threat or worry, if we don’t catch ourselves in time, it can escalate and make the body believe that we’re about to fight for our life.
Then BAM!
The body releases a cocktail of chemicals to help us “defeat the enemy,” which are in excess and won’t be used up in a conducive manner. That, in turn, creates all sorts of unwanted effects throughout our nervous system and body.
Where does anxiety come from?
Depending on our upbringing and Subconscious associations, we might have locked into these “fight” responses and be using them far too often.
There are a few reasons this could be happening:
Anxiety can be inherited
If your ancestors lived under threatening or fearful circumstances, then that gene code may have been passed on to protect future generations. You can say that those codes are part of the Subconscious “sacred map” that exists from birth to help you navigate the world. In that case, the message you receive is: “Always be on High ALERT because your life is in danger!”
But if you no longer live under the challenging circumstances (e.g. war or famine) that your ancestors faced, then you don’t need this type of protection.
Anxiety can stem from our life experiences
Anxiety can come from your own experience of living under life-threatening/abusive circumstances either recently or during childhood.
Anxiety can be triggered by how those close to us deal with life
It could be that in childhood, you witnessed your loved ones react anxiously to life or work, and now 88% of you (the percentage of your mind occupied by the Subconscious) has a positive association with anxiety.
Anxiety can arise from a negative association with being calm and relaxed
Let’s say one dominant parent blamed the other for being non-reactive, calling them lazy because they perceived them as being “too calm.” This could cause you, as an observer, to associate anxiety with a productive state you must be in to get things done. Now, the 88% of your mind that represents your Subconscious has a negative association with being calm and slowing down.
How can hypnosis help you with anxiety?
A hypnosis session is always accompanied by a wonderful guided relaxation, just like meditation. This immediately puts your mind and body at ease, creating feel-good chemicals like oxytocin. Oxytocin then triggers the release of two other neurotransmitters in the brain: dopamine and serotonin.
Among other things, serotonin induces feelings of harmony and reciprocity and reduces anxiety. Meanwhile, dopamine increases focus and facilitates the absorption of new suggestions.
Your hypnotherapist then guides you deeper into the hypnotic trance. This initial state of relaxation will already be giving the body space to recover and heal. That’s why daily meditation is crucial because it means a daily dose of feel-good chemicals. The frequency and consistency also teach the brain to produce more of these chemicals all on its own.
Replacing fearful responses with healthy alternatives
Before your hypnotherapy session, you’ll discuss your specific triggers and anxieties with your therapist. Then, once you’re in a hypnotic state with access to your Subconscious, your therapist can change your habitual anxious responses by discharging those triggers/fears one by one and creating brand new healthy associations to replace them with. Your Subconscious Mind is reprogrammed, making shifts inside the sacred map. This can take several sessions to accomplish.
Imagine a life free from anxiety
Once in the hypnotic state, your therapist can also guide you to imagine a brand new, anxiety-free life. The great thing about our Subconscious Mind is that it doesn’t know the difference between fantasy and reality (think about those vivid dreams that often feel so real.) Therefore, it will believe that this amazing version of you living this wonderful calm life that you’re viscerally experiencing through hypnosis, is real.
It then stores this fantasy, along with all its positive emotional and sensory responses, in the Subconscious sacred map for reference. Now that these images have become part of your “knowns”, your Subconscious won’t try to sabotage you the next time you attempt to react calmly to a situation. It’s now familiar and therefore “Safe” to react this way.
Your hypnotherapist will also give you a recording of the session to listen to afterwards, every day for 21 days. This ensures that the new vision of your “desired self” can be etched in your Subconscious, forming a new neural pathway in your brain.
Past-life regression and spirit guides
If you believe in reincarnations and past lives, past-life regression and connecting to spirit guides/ascended masters could be an option for you. For example, we might regress you into the past life that triggered your anxiety and work on releasing it from there while along the way, you can gather great insights and wisdom from your Guides.
Jungian Archetypes
We can also work with imagery (Jungian Archetypes) that are symbolic representations of your anxiety, your triggers and the antidotes to them. This is very effective because the Subconscious Mind mostly communicates symbolically (think about all those “crazy” dreams at night), so it’s an easy way to make subtle changes that go totally unrecognised by the Critical Mind and won’t be interfered with.
Hypnotherapy is a personal journey
The specific way in which hypnotherapy can help you reprogram the mind and deal with anxiety, in the long run, will depend on your personal triggers and Subconscious associations and beliefs. Every session is tailored to the individual.
If you’d like to find out more about hypnotherapy and how it can help you reduce anxiety and challenge your fears, please feel free to book a complimentary 15-minute consultation with me to discuss your specific situation - I’d love to help.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Desi Ivanova
Desi Ivanova is a Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist who specializes in healing people on a deeper mind and soul level.
Her purpose is to help individuals transform their mindsets and change their life so they can impact more people, create their dream life and feel completely fulfilled.
Desi firmly believes that humans are ever-evolving and have the power to transform into versions of themselves that best serve their highest good. She has helped her clients with depression, anxiety, stress, pain management, phobias, post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions, habits, sports performance, irritable bowel syndrome, weight loss, self-esteem and confidence.
Connect with Desi via her website or on Instagram, to find out more about her work and how hypnosis can help transform your life.