Stress, Anxiety, Depression

"Lets empty that internal stress bucket"
Please listen to help those suffering from stress, depression, and anxiety to help get the real you back on track.
I am an Advanced Clinical Hypnotherapist & Solution Focused Psychotherapist.
I am a Certified Stress Management Consultant.
I am a Mindfulness Practitioner.
I am an Integrative Life Coach.
I have trained in both New York, USA, and also the UK.

Transcript

Find somewhere comfortable to sit or lie down and make yourself more comfortable.

Let every muscle,

Every nerve grow so limp and so relaxed.

Focus on your breathing,

Feel and hear your breathing and focus on my voice.

Listen to the sounds you hear around you,

On the sounds you can hear on the sound of my voice.

You can be aware of everything happening around you,

Feeling comfortable in that space and then gradually allowing yourself to relax even deeper at a speed that's comfortable to you.

Feeling safe and comfortable as you drift into a lovely relaxed state and every breath you take takes you deeper and deeper.

Focus on your feet,

On your breathing,

On my voice,

On your arm,

On the top of your head,

On the temperature,

Listening and paying attention,

Wondering what every word means.

Now I want you to think about the top of your head.

Many people don't realize that the tension often starts in the little muscles of the scalp.

So I want you to think about those little muscles and the skin of your scalp and just allow them to let go and relax.

Now all the muscles of your face,

Just let them go slack.

Your forehead and your eyes and eyelids,

The cheeks,

Mouth and jaw muscles.

It's a wonderful feeling when you let your face totally relax because you can actually feel the skin settling,

Smoothing out.

It might mean that your mouth opens slightly but whatever's best for you,

Just let it happen.

Unclenching your teeth and relaxing your tongue because the more you physically relax,

The more you can mentally relax.

Thinking about your neck and shoulder muscles now and into the tops of your arms,

Letting all tensions drain away as you sink on down through your elbows,

Into your forearms,

Down through your wrists and into your hands,

Right the way down into the very tips of your fingers and the tips of your thumbs.

Just letting all those muscles let go and relax.

And now think about your breathing,

Noticing that you're breathing even more steadily,

Even more slowly as you relax more and more.

So you can let any tension in the chest area simply drain away as you think on down to your stomach muscles,

Letting those muscles relax too.

Think down into your back now,

The long muscles either side of the spine,

Just let those muscles relax and your waist and your main thigh muscles as you think on down through your knees,

Down through your shins and calves,

Just allowing all those areas to relax and let go.

As you think on down through your ankles,

Through your feet,

Into the very tips of your toes,

All the muscles of your body beautifully relaxed and easy,

Very lazy.

And now you're so beautifully relaxed.

Nobody wanting anything,

Nobody expecting anything,

Absolutely nothing whatsoever for you to do except to relax.

I want you just to let your mind and your imagination drift,

Feeling lazy,

Easy and comfortable.

And I want you to imagine that you're standing on the terrace of a lovely old house,

A house like a stately home or country mansion.

And you can feel the sun on your head and shoulders,

Not too hot,

Just comfortable.

And there's a gentle breeze playing against your skin.

As you look around you,

You notice an elegant marble flight of steps,

10 broad steps leading down into a beautiful sunken garden,

A garden where you sense peace,

Well-being and comfort.

Make it really vivid in your mind.

In a moment,

I'm going to count down from 10 down to zero.

And as I count all the way down from 10 down to zero,

I want you to imagine that each number is a step down on this beautiful staircase,

A step down towards this beautiful garden.

And each step you take is another step down into deeper and even deeper levels of relaxation so that by the time I get to zero,

You will be as deeply relaxed as you can ever imagine while still being able to hear and respond to the sound of my voice.

10,

Take the first step down now,

Relaxing and letting go,

Feeling more and more relaxed.

No need to hurry,

Plenty of time.

Eight,

Moving down easily now,

Seven,

Deeper and deeper,

Six,

Deeper still,

You're breathing,

Becoming slower and steadier.

Five,

Really relaxing now,

Just let go.

Four,

Becoming calmer and calmer.

Three,

Calmer still now.

Two,

More and more relaxed,

One,

All the way down now to zero.

And now you find yourself in this wonderful garden.

You can feel the softness of the newly cut grass beneath your feet as the scent of masses upon masses of brightly colored flowers seem to envelop you.

And there's the gentle sound of birds singing,

Echoing faintly in the stillness of the air.

It's almost a magical place,

Stretching into the distance as far as the eye can see in all directions with beautiful shrubs,

Tall,

Elegant trees,

And an ornamental fountain which seems to feed into a gently trickling stream.

This fascinates you and you wander to the edge of the stream and gently lower yourself down onto the soft grassy bank and just sit for a while,

Gazing into the cool,

Clear water,

Marveling at the sense of tranquility that sweeps over you and listening to the faint sound of the fountain splashing into the pool that feeds this gentle stream.

For a little while,

You lay back on the grass and gaze up at the clearest of blue skies.

And as you relax more and more,

Your eyes begin to close and you just drift off into a deep and relaxing sleep.

And as you sleep,

You have a dream.

You dream that your whole body is becoming lighter,

Lighter and lighter,

So light that you feel you must surely begin to float on air at any moment.

And then you feel yourself just floating and drifting,

Gently borne aloft and supported by the softest of warm breezes.

And you can somehow see through your closed eyelids that you're floating in a sea of color,

A warm sea of color that relaxes and comforts you as you just drift,

Suspended in warmth and color that seems somehow unreal and yet at the same time has a comfortingly familiar feel to it.

You're aware of misty reds and orange,

Soft muted yellow tones,

Gentle greens and blues that seem somehow like clouds and the deepest,

Softest indigos and violets that you could have ever imagined.

And it begins to dawn on you that you're floating in a rainbow,

A magical rainbow,

Because in this rainbow,

Time and space doesn't exist in the same way that we usually know it.

You might have floated there for just a moment or for a hundred years,

Maybe for a lifetime or just perhaps for the blinking of an eye.

You could have floated forwards in time to a time that could be far beyond our future or maybe back in time,

Back before your own lifetime.

It gradually begins to seem to you that you might even be able to float here for just as long as you wish with this wonderful,

Relaxed feeling,

Just floating and drifting through this magical sea of gentle flowing colors where time seems to be suddenly of so little importance.

You're still pondering on these thoughts when you feel yourself beginning to float gently downwards,

Lower and lower,

Softly sinking down,

Down through this beautiful rainbow,

Becoming even more relaxed,

Even more lazy,

Until eventually you realize that you've stopped floating downward and you find yourself on the shore of a tranquil lake,

A large tranquil lake,

Surrounded by softly rolling hills that are shrouded in a gentle silver mist.

There are trees and sweetly scented flowering shrubs and grasses growing at the water's edge and everything is bathed in a beautiful golden light,

A golden light that seems to bathe everything in its warmth and you find yourself marveling at the sense of deep calmness and comfort that seems to fill your entire being as you stroll lazily along the sandy shore of this wonderful lake,

Noticing with a sort of lazy curiosity that it seems to be constantly changing color,

Subtle changes blending so smoothly that it's difficult for you to know exactly when limpid blue has become a deep soft violet or when that deep violet became a relaxing translucent green.

The changes of color fascinate you and you settle yourself down onto a small smooth rock and just gaze out across the crystal clear waters,

Every so often something,

A fish maybe,

Just something,

Just breaks the surface creating ripples that seem to flow gently and endlessly in all directions,

Ripples that eventually lap against the edges of the rock that you're sitting on.

You smile and lean forward to dabble your hand amongst them and as you do so you create yet more ripples,

Ripples that shimmer in a kaleidoscope of different colors across the lake,

Interacting with the others and making new ever-changing patterns.

You realize that this tranquil place is the pool of all knowledge,

That while you are here you are part of everything and everything a part of you and you find it easy,

So very easy to open your mind to let go of any barriers to memory or learning and now your mind is prepared and receptive to everything I'm going to say to you and everything I say,

If it is for your benefit,

Will be accepted and acted upon by the subconscious.

It will have a steadily increasing effect upon the way you think,

The way you feel and the way you behave and the influence of these suggestions as they are for your benefit will continue to increase over the coming days and weeks and months.

Your subconscious mind has confirmed that it is helping you to relax,

Helping you to cope so much better with life and giving you a confidence within yourself to deal with any situation that life has to offer.

Your subconscious mind has also given you a new understanding of yourself and this understanding gives you the power to make vital changes for your benefit and you know one of the most important things in life is confidence.

We all need a little confidence from time to time to help us deal with whatever life has in store for us.

In fact some of us may even need more confidence than others and that's because we've forgotten just how confident we can naturally be and you know that confidence was always really there in the first place.

We just forgot to look in the right place for it.

We were looking outside instead of inside,

That's right.

Because confidence is the key to success in our lives.

Confidence in our ability to do those things we want to do,

Those things we need to do to enable us to achieve any goal or target we set and you know where that confidence comes from.

That's right,

It comes from within.

There's nothing magical about it although there are times when that's exactly how it seems to work and we can access this almost magical feeling of confidence whenever we want simply by using the power of our mind in a positive and meaningful way and it's what we tell ourselves that really affects us in our daily lives.

What we tell ourselves really does determine how we feel.

So if we tell ourselves that we feel anxious,

Worried,

Fed up,

Then that's exactly how we're going to feel.

Whereas if we tell ourselves that we're going to feel calm,

Relaxed and in control of ourselves and our lives,

Then guess what?

That's how we're going to feel and it's true isn't it?

What we think and say to ourselves affects the way we feel physically.

Those unwanted negative thoughts and feelings generate unwanted emotional and physical responses in our bodies.

So what we tell ourselves really does have a tremendous impact on our lives and determines not only how we feel but ultimately what we can or can't do.

So why not begin by using the power of your mind to tell yourself you can start again from this very moment,

Living your life each day in a full and meaningful way,

Enjoying each and every moment,

Appreciating the wonder of being alive and well,

Here and now,

Realizing that there's no need to worry either about anything that has happened in the past or maybe more importantly what might happen in the future because we both know it might never happen.

The past and the future are only products of our thoughts,

Interpreted by what we tell ourselves moment by moment.

And as our lives consist of all of these moments,

Then life can pass us by very easily.

So if we spend time using our thoughts to worry about the past or the future,

Then we become trapped in that cycle of negative thinking.

It's so much easier to become involved in the moment,

Completely involved in the moment,

Completely involved in everything that's happening around you.

And when you do,

You'll find it so much easier to remain calm,

Comfortable and so relaxed,

At peace with yourself and everything around you.

Why not tell yourself that each and every day is an opportunity to feel relaxed,

Confident and so much more in control of your thoughts and feelings.

And this will happen easily and naturally because you choose to feel these things by using the power of your mind.

And you will begin to notice and enjoy the positive changes in your life as you enjoy every day,

Feeling more alive,

More motivated,

More confident and noticing just how good you feel in your body,

More energized,

More healthy,

Aware of how easily you now function,

Both in body and mind.

As you now tell yourself each and every day how relaxed and comfortable you feel,

Growing in confidence more and more,

Your mind feeling clearer than ever,

Becoming more focused,

Seeing any problems for what they are,

Putting them into perspective and dealing with them so easily,

So effectively and so confidently,

That it comes as a pleasant surprise and you begin to wonder why they ever caused you any problems in the first place.

And then you realize that it really doesn't matter because those things that used to bother you before in the past just don't seem to bother you anymore because you know you can just leave them behind in the past,

Where they will never bother or trouble you again because you've learned the key to success in life.

And that's confidence,

Confidence in your ability to deal with whatever life has in store,

Day by day,

Sure in the knowledge that your confidence is building slowly but surely.

With every breath you breathe and every word I speak,

Until you rapidly become that confident,

Self-assured individual that you always wanted to be,

That you now are and will continue to be,

Today,

Tomorrow and every day for the rest of your life.

Now while you're pondering on those thoughts,

I want to tell you a story.

Once upon a time there were two trees growing by the bank of a river,

A tall tree and a small tree,

And that small young tree,

It knew how to wave and dance in the breeze.

It knew how to be very flexible and when the wind blew,

It enjoyed changing its perspective.

It enjoyed just dancing and moving,

Moving and dancing.

It would see so many things when it changed its perspective and that big tree was so inflexible.

It used to envy the small tree but it was a little bit scared of changing its perspective.

It was a little bit nervous about it.

So one day it asked the small tree,

How do you do that?

How do you change the way you see things,

Change the way you enjoy things?

And the little tree said,

Well,

You must kind of let go and just let it happen.

And so the next time when the wind blew,

The big tree really wanted to let go and the little tree said,

You can do it.

You can make those changes.

No need to be afraid.

Your roots go deep down in the ground and you can have inner stability even though you're moving with the winds of change,

Enjoying the dance,

That inner dance of life,

And you can allow that to happen all by itself and that big tree was so happy feeling its way into a new way of seeing things.

And because it had a new way of seeing things,

It also had a new way of recalling things,

Bringing back images when it wanted to recall the dance.

And that big tree also learned as it got more flexible in its behavior,

In its perceptions,

That what it thought was the horizon was really only a limitation it was placing on itself.

And as it danced and swayed,

Swayed and danced,

It could see further and further,

Fields beyond towns.

It could even see the sea in the distance.

And it was so happy to have a new way of seeing things,

So happy to know that it could recall in a new way pleasant images,

Pleasant memories.

When you're ready to come back to full wakefulness,

Whether that's now or later,

Then you will wake up feeling rested,

Refreshed,

And good in every way.