Welcome to the Winter Blog,
It’s been a busy couple of months and has involved a move of our home, we got there in the end. I’m still based locally in the historic town of Honiton with online sessions still available if needed. Thankfully nearly all the boxes have been unpacked and yes I found the Christmas Decorations which I hope to put up this week. I’ve really enjoyed the recent dry, frosty mornings and the beautiful colours and crispy leaves on the ground and so has our family dog.
As part of my continued practice, learning and development I have regular supervision and I’d like to share an article Jo wrote about obsessional thoughts which could be handy for us to be aware of, what they are and what we can do about them.
Obsessive thoughts are a common symptom of feeling stressed, anxious or depressed. If the primitive, emotional part of our mind feels that we are in danger, it will naturally want to keep drawing our attention back to whatever it perceives to be the problem. So if we are feeling anxious about our overdraft, or a large gas bill, we will probably be continually reminded of it throughout the day.
The primitive part of our mind doesn’t recognise that an electricity bill is not necessarily a danger. It simply responds in the same way it would to a real life-threatening problem, such as a hungry polar bear. (If we were faced with a hungry polar bear, we would definitely not want to forget it was there!)
Worrying is a kind of obsessive thinking. When people worry, they often feel that they can’t help it. The thoughts just keep popping into their heads, even if they are trying to work or concentrate on other things. And in some respects, worrying about something can feel as if we are doing something about it. Unfortunately, when we worry we are adding to the background levels of stress, and in turn making ourselves feel even worse.
Obsessive thoughts can also form part of OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), a condition in which a person is compelled to carry out certain acts or rituals, often repeatedly, in order to feel safe. This behaviour may involve rechecking things (locked doors, windows, electrical sockets, etc), collecting things, hoarding or being unable to throw things away, repeated hand-washing, obsession with germs or dirt, counting or arranging things in sequence, and so on. These rituals often cause great distress and interfere dramatically with a person’s life.
Hypnotherapy can help with obsessive thoughts and OCD by calming down the primitive emotional part of the mind that encourages us into repetitive and obsessive behaviours for our ‘survival’. By gently reducing the stress in your life, we can relax the obsessive part of the mind and teach it that it needn’t respond as if we are in danger. If you feel you’d like some help and support around this or anything else you’d like to address please do get in touch,
For now, I’d like to wish you and those close to you a Happy Christmas and all the very best for 2023,
Best wishes, Louise
