Tag: emotions

3 Quick Ways to Release your Anxiety

Feeling anxious and not sure how to deal with it?

Everyone experiences Anxiety from time to time. Sometimes, it involves both physical and mental symptoms that create even more stress.

Here are 3 quick tips that can give you immediate relief:

FOCUS

When you’re anxious, your mind isn’t focused on NOW. It’s racing back into the past or into the future – to things that haven’t even happened yet.

The instant you realise that you are thinking negative thoughts, intentionally bring your focus back into the present – after all, that’s all that ever exists – this moment. Returning to full the awareness of NOW is really liberating because it allows you to realise that you can choose to control the focus of your thoughts.

So how do you practise mindfulness during anxious moments?

Start by controlling your breathing. Then look down on your body. Notice your clothes, your feet, and the comfort level you are experiencing at the moment. Notice any tension you feel at any part of your body. And slowly, release the tension and allow that part of you to soften.

Lastly, look around you. Notice all the details of your surroundings. When your mind starts to wander again, bring it back to the present. Don’t feel bad. It’s normal.

Here are some more tips on relaxing while anxious.

Laugh a little more

When anxiety-provoking moments strike, having an extra dose of laughter can be really helpful. Laughter is one simple and free tool that alleviates symptoms of anxiety and lifts your mood. When you laugh, the ‘happy hormones’ in your brain activate which gives you positive feelings.

It could be difficult to insert some laughter when you are already stressed out. So just like mindfulness, you want to intentionally make yourself feel better. Rest for a while. Watch a funny video or a comedy film. Chat with an amusing friend. Laughter is a great medicine.

put the past back in the past

Don’t let the past control you. If you hold grudges, you’re holding onto a poisonous feeling, so practice letting go and moving on. It may be a challenge but once you realise that even your worst nightmare was a massive opportunity for growth you instantly change the situation into a powerful lesson.

Healing takes time, letting go allows you to move forward with your own life, without harbouring all that negative energy you’re carrying.

Dealing with anxiety can be challenging, but give these techniques a try. Who knows – one, if not all, may ultimately free you from the unbearable world of anxiety.

If you need help with your anxiety, send me an email or book an absolutely FREE consultation so I can give you more specific advice.

Follow me on instagram for more anxiety release tips and tricks.

Does Size Matter?

Are bigger packages better or not?

Bigger is better (or so I’ve heard), right?

Wrong! There’s an obvious problem with a big package, bigger packets of food make us eat more. Sorry – did you think I was writing about something else?

An increasing body of evidence is proving that our environmental factors affect our mindset and the way we overeat – making you eat and drink greater quantities than just through physiological or emotional hunger alone.

Weight-loss hypnotherapists have been aware of this happening for quite some time.

Simple things like how tall and slim your glasses are, how big the packet of food is that you’re holding, and how small your spoon and plates are, all affect the amount of compulsive eating you do.

size, matters, food, diet, eating, overeating, comfort eating, comfort, hypnosis, hypnotherapy, hypnotherapist, weight, weightloss, fat, obesity

 

Smaller plate, smaller belly

Would you believe that if we take the average size of today’s dinner plates and compare them to the size of dinner plates from the 1950s, we would be looking at a size increase of around 45%. And to top that off, would you believe that over the last 60 years we’re looking at a similar percentage increase in the rate of obesity. Coincidence?

The reason behind all of this confusion is that we often use the size of the package to gauge what we think a ‘normal’ amount to eat is. The food industry is using this phenomenon to trick you into eating more of their product by increasing the size of their packaging. I know – I’ve worked in the industry, it’s and I’m sorry.

Creating a new ‘normal’

It’s the job of a skilled weight-loss hypnotherapist to address this issue by helping you to become much more aware of the many triggers surrounding you and then help you adjust the amount of food you eat by creating a new ‘normal’ for you.

One common suggestion used by many hypnotherapists is to have their clients use smaller plates, packets, jars, glasses and boxes and some clients instantly see up to a 20% decrease in food eaten.

So if you want the odds to be in your favour, I’d suggest that size DOES matter, and what you do with it also counts.

Here’s a healthy Takeaway

A brief selection of some simple mind tricks to help you get the FAT OFF.

  • Downsize all of your bowls, plates and dishes – even cutlery will help. You eat with your eyes first, so when you serve on smaller plates your mind often adjusts its ‘normal’ eating portions.
  • Serve salads and healthy meals on larger plates and the ‘cheat’ meals on smaller plates.
  • Drink water from a wider glass, you will drink more than you realise you’re drinking, and drink any calorific drinks from a tall slim glass. As an average people drink 25-30% more from a wider glass than a taller slim glass.
  • Put down the family sized packs of food, jars, boxes and tins. The bigger the package the more likely it is that you’ll eat more in one serving.

Happy, healthy eating,

Richard Scott
Clinical Hypnotherapist & Mindset Coach

size, matters, food, diet, eating, overeating, comfort eating, comfort, hypnosis, hypnotherapy, hypnotherapist, weight, weightloss, fat, obesity

Save

weightloss, weight, loss, diets, diet, slow, eating, over-eating, metabolism, hypnotherapy, hypnosis, food, speed, slimming, reduction, study

Mind-over-platter-hack: Slow down, eat less

Research suggests that if you eat slower you tend to eat less. Why is that? Maybe it’s supposed to trick you into thinking you’ve eaten more than you actually have. Maybe the process allows your body to digest food a little faster.

Although quite effective for weight management, additional research* has proven how eating at different speeds results in even less over-eating.

The overweight participants in this study were given a lunch-time meal to eat, but were told to eat at different speeds: Normal eating rate; half the normal eating rate, and normal rate changing to half-normal eating rate.

The results showed that eating at half the normal rate affected men – who ate less – but not women. However, this changed when the meals were started at normal pace and then slowed down to half normal pace, with men and women showing significant appetite reduction.

In conclusion, the normal-slow pace of eating was proven much more effective than eating slowly all the time.

So to put this into practice, eat the first half of your next meal at a normal speed and then change to a slower gourmet style, where you enjoy and savour every mouthful (try pretending to be a Master-Chef judge and note the colours, flavours and textures of all the food in your mouth).

*C.K. Martin, S.D. Anton, H. Walden, C. Arnett, F.L. Greenway and D.A. Williamson (2007) ‘Slower Eating Rate Reduces the Food Intake of Men, but not women: Implications for behavioural Weight Control’.