It's still changing

You see change is not just in the air, it is everywhere. It is in us and around us, it permeates our cells.

There is a huge shift going on in the universe at the moment. And we have to shift within it. Can't you feel it? Don't you perceive it? Don't dig in your heels and try to resist it - that will hurt. Think you can stop a tidal wave? Go right ahead and try but it won't be pretty.

I can feel the change. I can feel it inside me. My own small world is also changing within the wider shift. And it's pointless to resist it. Is your life shifting? If you sit still for a moment can you feel the winds? Where are they taking us?

I have to mention that I am surprised but people are actually reading my ramblings. The blog tells me that there are no followers but one or two of you are sneakily out there. I hope you are enjoying it so far. Such pressure on me to write something interesting all the time!

Let me tell you about my job today. A client asked how long I had been doing this. She said she could see I loved it. And how? All we had done was to talk about her. I hadn't even put in any huge effort at this stage. Yes I do love it. I miss the Army too, missing it more the further it goes away from me. But how could I not love hypnotherapy? I help people to enjoy their lives.

The people who come to see me are in pain, mental pain. And that pain is preventing them from enjoying their life. Imagine walking a mile with a stone in your shoe. Ouch! The pain in your foot leads to the source of the pain - the stone. Remove the stone and you can enjoy walking again, free from pain. I help you to remove the stone. I help you to enjoy your life.

For those who are wondering, and those who have asked, my dog is improving every day thanks! She is a bouncing bundle of fun again Perhaps she will never be completely well but she is good and happy. And so are we!

Change and change again

What did I say earlier? Change is in the air. But it IS in the air. Change is all around us, for every one of us. It is no coincidence that the financial markets have had their upheaval. It is no surprise that all around us people's lives are changing - repossessions, job losses.

But it is only change. It doesn't have to be disaster. Life might be crap for a while but it won't be terrible for ever unless you let it. And that is the key. Storms come and go, they don't last. And we don't remain in the huddle of shelter after the rain has gone. When we go through a tough time in life, it is natural to curl up, withdraw into ourselves, it is healing, we are tired. The brain needs time to take it all in and change if necessary. But if after the acute stress is over we stay curled up and withdrawn then we are sheltering from a storm that has passed. And we risk never coming out to see the blue sky.

Fire is a natural phenomena and it leaves destruction. But fire also cleanses. It leaves behind clean and open areas, ripe for new growth. The old and diseased and choked up wilderness has gone. Fire in nature is not a mistake, it is a part of the circle of life.

This week, the parents of a friend of mine lost their house to a fire. The farmhouse on their land was burnt to the ground. Nothing remains, not one thing. But they are here, they have their land which they farm and they have each other. I would be desperately upset if I were them, traumatised even. But not for ever.

I have a friend whose husband died on the same day that their second child was born. She doesn't cry every day. She's changed. She has made friends she didn't knew she had. And recently she went on a journey to Australia to see about building a new life over there. And she was surprised to learn about how much she has right here. So she's staying. The fire cleansed, leaving something else growing. Something that my friend was not expecting, had no clue about. But she recognised the need to climb out of the cave, the need to look about and search for the blue sky. Don't think that she is a Pollyanna wonder woman who is now perfectly happy without her husband. Of course she misses him terribly. But to hide herself away from blue skies and sunshine would feel so much worse.

You can stay miserable or you can take steps to look for some tiny good things in life. And as soon as you start looking, you will see them. The couple with the burnt down house have their family around them, no one was harmed and what better thing in life is that? The more you see tiny good things, the more those things expand and grow until they take over your life. And one day you forgetto be sad. And you don't realsie for a short while until you remember that you were supposed to be sad but you weren't today. And it is a surprise, a shock even.

No one knows where or when the better days are. But they are there. If you dare to notice them.

Weight Loss with Hypnosis

I am conscious that this Blog has not explored Hypnotherapy as much as it should so far.

I don't have much time this evening but I will go into more depth later on. But today was a fab day frankly. A client who I am seeing for weight loss came in. She was bemoaning the way she had eaten too much over Christmas and been slobbing in front of the telly. She felt fat and guilty and had put weight on.

But she had cut her alcohol intake, she was following my weight loss rules (it's not a diet, it's a way of living) and her activity level had increased dramatically. And all without her even noticing. She was feeling cheerful and energetic.

And when I probed further, she had lost weight - 12lb in the 5 weeks since she first came to see me. How good is that?! It's not so hard this job, but the rewards, the rewards are pure gold!

Sick as a Dog

My dog!

My poor beautiful labrador has been really ill. In fact she still is a very poorly dog. I took her to the vets thinking she had a urine infection and the vet admitted her immediately, with severe jaundice! Several days later we were driving her down the M1 to a specialist vet hospital in Bedfordshire.

She has had loads of medication, a prescription diet and ultrasound scans etc. She has chronic liver disease! And yet we didn't even know she was ill. Her test results suggest she should be a very sick dog, yet she was bouncing around as usual.

We thought she wasn't coming home ever again. It was terrible. I had no idea what it is like to have a sick animal. She came home on Christmas Eve thank heaven and is doing ok. Not recovered, and never quite will but improving.

I am so attached to her. I don't want to think about her not being here. It's been such a shock.

You know that your pet is going to die before you do. You absolutely know it but to be faced with it suddenly was not funny. I really didn't think she was coming home again. And every moment with her now is a bonus, every walk is precious.

Smoke Free Forever

Sometimes I see clients in my Daventry hypnosis practice who I am not convinced will be successful at stopping smoking. Perhaps they don't give me enough of a conviction that they want to do it. I usually tell them that they may find it more difficult than others might do. If they then launch an attack and tell me that they CAN do it, then I treat them.

Sometimes a client will come who is just "finding out" and sometimes I refuse to treat them. It's not as bad as it sounds. They just don't give me any clues at all that they really WANT to stop. So we have a nice chat and I tell them tactfully that I don't think they are ready for it yet. These people always look relieved at this point and they go away happy.

Last week a mother and daughter passed by the shop who I had treated 6 months ago. They came in for a chat - both were completely smoke free and very happy and enjoying it. They hadn't found it difficult at all. I was ecstatic. I had thought that they both might have trouble. I was so overjoyed for them. And think of the extra money they will have for Christmas - how brilliant is that?!

I've only ever had one person who didn't manage to give up. I was disappointed but I had given her all the treatment I could, and some more. She however was not disappointed, she had enjoyed the reatment and knew that she would have the resources available to her when she did feel ready to quit.

We never know, do we what is going to happen. We might have a good idea but we can't totally predict.

It IS time to change

Well it is for me anyway, and BIG change.

Business is closing! My cherished dream, my dream of owning my own business, which I have had since I was 14, is going up in smoke. I was asked today how I felt about it. I am over the wailing and gnashing of teeth and "poor me" now. I am still sore however because my dreams have not materilaised.

What I do know is things happen for a reason. There is a reason why even though I don't know it. My business was not destined. My partner has pulled out on me, otherwise I would have steadfastly kept on going. In this situation I have no choice however and that is why I believe this path was not ultimately for me. I was very upset but now I going with it, going with the flow.

Strange that that was one thing I advocated in an earlier Blog post! And now I am being forced to live with it. Is that irony? Or fate? I don't know but it IS growth for me. I am really growing right now.

I can feel change. I have a slight unsettledness within me. Change is in the air, it's all around me. The last time I felt this, I was pregnant and I knew that in a few months time my life and my feelings within it would change for ever. It was not a bad feeling, just a knowing within me. And I have it now.

6 weeks ago, a gypsy passed by and was desperate to read my palm. She flattered me, "You have such a lovely face," she said. She told me some things which made no sense - I will be prosperous in business and property next year. And how? Business was not looking good and property did not figure. I kept it to myself. Just a couple of weeks ago we decided to move house. My husband instigated it, not me, it came out of the blue.

And now the business is closing too. Yet today I met someone with whom I may strike up a new business alliance. Didn't I write elsewhere that luck is not luck, it is keeping open to opportunity and taking it when it comes. Is this the prosperous relationship that I need to forge?

So much change in the air. It doesn't feel bad, only neutral. Where will these winds of change take us? I'm keeping open.

The Map is not the Territory

This is a saying that NLP Practitioners like to use. What they are saying is that you draw your own map but the evidence for is it totally subjective, it is your evidence and yours alone. You may describe yourself as shy and lacking in confidence. Yet no one who knows you would say this about you. You are self-assured and engaging in social situations. So what is the truth? Are you shy and lacking in confidence? Well how could that be so? It is certainly not what the evidence suggests, and that evidence is what everyone else sees, a social charmer perhaps, easy in company. So if all your friends see you as confident and you alone think you are shy then the overwhelming evidence is that you are confident.

It is a way of looking at things in another light. Hypnotherapists call this "reframing."

Check out your internal evidence. It may be less persuasive than you at first thought.