Avoid Burnout and Be More Effective
HYPNOSIS IS NOT A REPLACEMENT FOR MEDICAL TREATMENT. IT CAN ENHANCE AND IS COMPLIMENTARY TO MEDICAL AS WELL AS MANY OTHER TYPES OF THERAPY.
The human brain receives messages form several sources, each dealing with separate types of information. Input dealing with everyday matters such as news, music, jobs, relationships, weather, etc. comes from the external environment. Our own bodies provide data concerning movement, digestion, tension, pain etc. all in the form of messages sent to the brain.
The conscious mind deals with reasoning and logic, decisions, goal planning and conscious activity. The unconscious mind, which includes both the subconscious and the super-conscious, wields the greatest influence. It receives all the messages from our social, spiritual and genetic backgrounds and all the conflicts and disturbances entering our consciousness each day. The unconscious mind receives and holds its information, neither accepting nor rejecting the messages. It does not evaluate. That procedure is reserved for the conscious mind.
From primitive times the human mind has possessed an escape mechanism that even today, under severely threatening conditions, can cause regression to primitive behavior. The flight/fight syndrome, a means of dealing with fears, threats, attacks and other disturbances, has gained tolerance through evolution with the addition of reaction vs. action and repression vs. depression. Without these, when the message input volume reached overload conditions, the escape would be toward the denial of reality. However, the desire for social acceptance provides motivation to cope with and adapt to reality.
Nevertheless, when the conscious mind can no longer handle the message units overloading the brain, the subconscious prepares us for fight or flight--the heart pumps harder, blood pressure rises, super-strength can be generated. But sometimes there is nothing to fight. We can’t fight the environment. We can’t fight a job, an accident, a bad decision. What now?
Unable to fight, the reaction turns to the alternative of flight, which in present day life can prove impossible. Often a state of apathy, depression and/or hyper-suggestibility ensues. Negative input finds acceptance. Futility and melancholy develop and an overreaction to the senses develops together with a loss of tolerance. The road turns downhill.
A person experiencing continuing stress may well become subject to such a frenzy, in the process developing any of several forms of stress-related illness. While certain types of stress are even desirable (romantic stress, job promotions, winning a lottery), stresses that produce debilitating depression, excessive smoking, overeating, anger, grief and similar reactions need attention and usually professional help.
Again, causal factors need to be investigated. Not infrequently regression can be helpful in this process. Stress may be a reaction to people, places, events or things. The threats may be real or imagined. Remember, the subconscious mind does not analyze, and usually by the time depression appears the conscious mind has lost its ability to do so. However, there are several common basic causes of stress which can be recognized, defined, and often eliminated.
Why me? Stress victims ask this question quite often. Many factors enter into the picture of possibilities. Overachiever, typical Type A personalities, are hyper-competitive. They can be addicted to stress. They can enjoy it, until it gets out of control. Victims can learn stress early in life from parents, teachers, relatives and others. Through early experience they simply consider stress a normal part of life because they see it all the time.
Fears, valid or otherwise, can lead to the development of symptoms of stress. They can expand into full grown phobias and psychiatric disorders. Unrelenting pain or worries over health situations are factors, as are repressed emotions such as hurt, anger, grief, etc.
Medical conditions, including dietary deficiencies, can lead to stress, as can female experiences such as PMS. External factors, such as continuous or intermittent bothersome noise levels, can create or add to stress levels.
Every individual is different in tolerance levels, coping abilities, reactions and therapeutic needs. Sheer willpower is not the remedy in stress cases. Effective and permanent relief responds to desensitization, which can be brought about through hypnotherapy. Through hypnosis positive new responses can be created to replace devastating reactions of the past. Buried feelings can be brought to the surface and released. And finally, new responses to old disturbances can be induced with major changes in attitudes and reactions.
“Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.” --Thomas Jefferson