Tag: stress relief

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What is Equanimity? And Why Should I Care?

What is Equanimity?

Equanimity is a practice, most often discussed in Buddhist and Sufi traditions. Equanimity is the base for wisdom and freedom and for compassion and love. Few individuals are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions that differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most individuals are even incapable of forming such opinions.

Philosophy teaches us to bear with equanimity the bad luck of other people.

Merriam-Webster defines equanimity as an evenness of mind under stress – a habit of mind that’s rarely disturbed under great strain; a controlling of emotional or mental agitation through will and habit; a steadiness when facing strain.

What does equanimity look like?

Equanimity is the capacity to stay neutral, to observe from a distance, and be at peace without getting caught up in what we observe. It is the capacity to see the big picture with understanding and without reacting, for instance, to another’s words, ideology, perspective, position, premise, or philosophy. Essentially, we take nothing personally; refuse to be caught up in the drama our own or other peoples.

Equanimity allows us to “stand in the midst,” of conflict or crisis in a way where we are balanced, grounded and centered. Equanimity has the qualities of inner peace, well be-ing, vitality, strength, and steadfastness. Equanimity allows us to remain upright in the face of the strong winds of conflict and crisis, such as: blame, failure, pain, or disrepute – the winds that set us up for suffering when they begin to blow. Equanimity protects us from being “blown over” and helps us stay on an “even keel.”

How do we develop equanimity?

There are numerous mind/body qualities that support the development of equanimity. One is integrity. Do-ing and be-ing in integrity supports our feeling confident when we speak and act. Being in integrity fosters an equanimity that results in “blamelessness,” feeling comfortable in any setting or with any group without the need to find fault or blame. Another quality that supports equanimity is faith (not necessarily a religious or theological faith) – a faith based on wisdom, conviction or confidence. This type of faith allows us to meet challenge, crisis or conflict head on with confidence, with equanimity. A third quality is that of a well-developed mind a mind that reflects stability, balance and strength. We develop such a mind through a conscious and consistent practice of focus, concentration, attention and mindfulness. A well-developed, calm mind keeps us from being blown about by winds of conflict and crisis.

A quality that supports equanimity is seeing reality for what it is, for instance, that change and impermanence are an unpleasant fact. We become detached and less clingy to our attachments. This means letting go of negative judgments about our experience and replacing them with an attitude of loving kindness or acceptance and a compassionate matter-of-factness. The more we become detached, the deeper we experience equanimity.

The final quality is letting go of our need to be reactive so we can witness, watch and observe without needing to get caught up in the fray, the winds – maintaining a consistent relaxed state within our body as sensations move through.

Equanimity, thus, has two aspects: the power of reflection and an inner balance, both of which support one to be mindful, awake, aware and conscious. The greater the degree we are mindful, the greater our capacity for equanimity. The greater our equanimity, the greater our ability to remain steady and balanced as we navigate through the rough waters and gusty winds of change, challenge and conflict.

What happens when we are out of balance lacking equanimity?

In our everyday physical world, when we lose our balance, we fall. In our emotional world, we stuff our feelings and emotions, deny them or contract around them. Or we identify with a particular thought, feeling or emotion, hold on to it rather than allow it to flow through us or pass like a cloud in the sky. The middle ground is equanimity – the state of non-interference.

Equanimity allows for a deeper, more fulfilling experience.

As we develop our capacity for equanimity, we can begin to notice when we drop into a “state of equanimity.” Being aware of our experience, we can explore the state and this practice will lead to more frequent and deeper states of equanimity. What we find with such practice is that people, events, and circumstances that once caused us to be reactive no longer have any “charge” and we are more and more able to let go and feel less “bothered.” We suffer less.

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Yes, You Can Overcome Performance Anxiety In 1 Session. Here Are 6 Things You Must Know First…..

People ask me all the time if they really can completely eliminate their performance anxiety( often referred to as stage fright, or fear of public speaking) and feel confident and in control when they have to express themselves in front of others such as: performing, giving a talk, a presentation or a public opinion at home, at work or in social situations.

It seems hard for people to believe that they can eliminate their performance anxiety so quickly, especially since many people have been suffering with it for so long and have attempted to get help through a variety of programs with little results.

The problem begins to look too big to solve, impossible to eliminate, overwhelming and improbable. Each time you attempt to change something in your life and don’t, the more you believe that you can’t . It’s one of the laws of our mind. “What the subconscious mind perceives to be the truth, becomes the truth.”

When you suffer from performance anxiety, you know it by your immediate physical reactions which can include (but are not limited to) feeling sweaty and faint, fear of losing control, trembling, hyperventilating, shaky voice, diarrhea, weakness in the knees, dry mouth, a desire to flee, difficulty concentrating, pounding heart, and feelings of complete terror, and panic.

These feelings occur every single time you have to express yourself in front of others, they often occur simply in anticipation of expressing yourself in front of others, even though it may be days or weeks in advance.

The truth is, you must come to that point when you are absolutely ready to change, (read that again) then you have to (take action) and then you can become the change you seek. We get positive results by getting the facts, then finding the best solution to resolve it.

Change is possible.  Here are 6 things you must absolutely know before you can completely eliminate your performance anxiety and the negative and debilitating feelings associated with it.

PRACTICE DOES NOT TAKE AWAY ANXIEYT – You can’t practice your performance anxiety away. In other words, getting up in front of people over and over again, isn’t going to resolve performance anxiety regardless of what you may have read or heard to the contrary. The reason is simple. Performance anxiety is not a rational understanding by the conscious mind, it’s created by your subconscious mind to protect you from this imagined danger. ( It’s called a conditioned response) You will continue to respond to this situation exactly the same way you always have until you resolve it.

PERFORMANCE ANXIETY WON’T GO AWAY BY ITSELF OVER TIME. Simply put, you can’t ignore it, or take time off from your career or your social life and then expect your performance anxiety to have disappeared on its own when you get back.

SELF-MEDICATING WITH DRUGS OR ALCOHOL IS NOT SOLVING YOUR PERFORMANCE ANXIETY.  The fact is that self-medicating with drugs or alcohol is actually making your life, your health and your performance worse. If you are self-medicating to get yourself through presentations or performances, you are throwing away your career, your health, and your important relationships and you still will not have resolved your performance anxiety. When you resolve your performance anxiety you’ll feel confident, in control and your performance will dramatically improve naturally, without the need for drugs or alcohol.

PRESCRIPTION DRUGS DON’T ELIMINATE YOUR PERFORMANCE ANXIETY. They simply help you to manage it in return for a variety of side effects that definitely diminish your performance. A lot of performers and presenters, from actors to classical musicians, to lawyers, to salespeople, talk about the use of beta-blockers and anti-anxiety drugs as a method to control their performance anxiety or( stage fright or fear of public speaking ) as it is often called. Again, the bottom line here, is that you must resolve your performance anxiety, when you do, the feelings associated with it will disappear and so will your need for prescription drugs.

AVOIDANCE IS NOT A CURE FOR PERFORMANCE ANXIETY.  More often than not an individual will use avoidance as a means to manage their performance anxiety. The belief is that by avoiding such situations they are managing the problem. The truth is just the opposite, they are actually being managed by their fears and anxiety. For performers and presenters in particular, this choice can be a career ending decision. At the very least, you pay a very high price with your mental and physical well-being, not to mention all the lost opportunities.

HYPNOSIS CAN HELP YOU ACTUALLY CAN OVERCOME AND ELIMINATE YOUR PERFORMANCE ANXIETY, IN ONE SESSION.   Today we use techniques that are simple, fast, relaxing and effective. You don’t have to spend months or years in therapy or thousands of dollars on programs that aren’t right for you. All you need is 1.) to understand the  points I just shared with you, 2.) make your decision to fix the problem and 3.) take action by clicking or tapping this link and contact me now.

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About the Author: 

Marc is an award winning, certified stage and clinical hypnotist, author and motivational speaker with experience entertaining both large and small gatherings.

Marc uses his skills and talents in a variety of areas that include self-improvement or clinical hypnosis, motivational speaking, and comedy stage hypnosis.  He has worked with individuals and corporations throughout the United States to improve outcomes in personal lives and organizations.

As a clinical hypnotist, he has helped people resolve sleep issues, lose weight, stop smoking, deal with long held fears, deal with stress and anxiety, manage pain, improve sports performance, eliminate addictions, and improve sexual function.

His performance resume include international appearances for casinos and resorts, on live shows for Refinery29 Live and Elite Daily’s TrashED.  He regularly performs for major corporations, at comedy clubs, fairs and , and for schools, proms, graduations, conferences and conventions.

Marc’s book, “Staying in the Moment – Helping Students Achieve More Through Mindfulness Meditation” helps educators, parents and students get better results in the classroom through the adoption of mindfulness exercises as part of the curriculum.

For more information about, or to book an appointment with Marc visit his website: www.hypnomarc.com or email info@hypnomarc.com.

Interesting, You Can Fix That

Use Hypnosis and NLP to Overcome Anxiety and Stress

More than ever, scientific surveys are proving the primary role played by stress in causing and aggravating various physical and emotional disorders. In the June 6, 1983 issue of Time Magazine, the cover story labeled stress “The Epidemic of the Eighties.” The article also mentioned that stress is our prominent health issue. Indeed it is unquestionable that the world has become more and more complicated and stressful in the past 25 years since that article was written.

Many surveys indicate that almost everybody perceives themselves as being under a lot of stress. Authorities in the field estimate that around 75 to 90 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are related to stress.

Most people say that their job is the major reason of their stress. And stress levels have also increased in children as well as the elderly population because of several reasons including: Peer pressures that often lead to everything from smoking to drug and alcohol abuse; the dissolution of family and religious values and ties; growing crime rates; threats to personal safety; as well as social isolation and loneliness.

Stress can cause and aggravate problems such as diabetes, ulcers, low back and neck pain, hypertension, strokes and heart attacks and weight gain. This is due to the ever growing sympathetic nervous system activity as well as a flood of cortisol, adrenaline, and other hormones. Chronic stress is corollary of weakened immune system resistance. Stress can contribute to anxiety, depression, and its various effects on the body’s organs.

The American Heritage Dictionary defines “Stress” is defined as: “To subject to physical or mental pressure, tension, or strain”

The same dictionary defines” tension” as: “Mental, emotional, or nervous strain”.  When combined with anxiety (“A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties”) and add in “depression” , we have the ingredients for a significant weakening of the body and interference with day-to-day social and emotional functioning.

There is a distinction between “depression”, “The condition of feeling sad or despondent” and “Clinical Depression” (“A psychiatric disorder characterized by an inability to concentrate, insomnia, loss of appetite, anhedonia, feelings of extreme sadness, guilt, helplessness and hopelessness, and thoughts of death.”)

We can, nonetheless, be sure that our mind is the primary cause of our feelings of stress, anxiety and depression. We could also say that, what we think about, and our attitudes and the way we view our experiences dictate what we feel.  That which you focus on, becomes your reality.   So if we can manage to modify our thoughts, attitudes, and points of view, then we can be relieved of our stress, anxiety, and depression and replace them with a better state of being.

Since the beginning of time, people have tried methods for getting rid of stress. The pharmaceutical industry seems to have a drug for everything. For that the industry has produced a large line of drugs including those that are frequently abused such as Valium, Ativan and Xanax.  If you choose to use drugs for relief, please make sure that you read the fine print and learn about the side effects, which usually are, among others, addiction and dependency. The critical failure of chemically treating the symptoms without addressing the underlying cause is the development of the psychological chemical dependency to the drugs.   The relief is fleeting and requires that the person stay medicated to control their symptoms

A more intelligent method to eliminate tension, stress, anxiety, and depression is to treat its actual cause, which as I said above, is generally our thought processes.   Hypnosis and NLP (Neuro-linguistic Programming) are powerful tools to help in finding safe and lasting resolution to the underlying issues and the symptoms.  The basis of hypnosis is relaxing.  The AMA accepted hypnosis in 1958 as an effective method of treating stress or stress related symptoms.  However unlike benzodiazepines (class of drugs such as Valium, Ativan, Xanax), there are categorically no bad side effects.

Hypnosis is the Alpha level of consciousness. It is the daydream like temporary psychological state which we feel as we are about to fall asleep at night. And we feel it once more when we awaken again. There are several different ways we can guide ourselves into this relaxed mood, from step-by-step relaxation to visual imagery to listening to hypnosis audio programs.

When we enter the hypnotic state, we can communicate with our subconscious mind, which is the seat of our emotions. And one can more easily accept new points of view and ideas which will help us to dissipate anxiety, or even prevent it from occurring in the first place.

NLP provides the suffering person with powerful techniques for releasing stress.  Maybe the technique that works best is called the “swish” pattern – or the “flash” pattern. After using the “flash” pattern, your subconscious will automatically use negative, stress triggering mental images, as triggers for tranquilizing mental images. Otherwise stated, what commonly makes you feel stress will now trigger relaxation!

Tension, stress, anxiety, and depression can be prompted by our thoughts. So by changing our attitude and point of view towards our situation and our experiences, we can dissipate these feelings at the source. Hypnosis and NLP are natural tools that make it possible to change our attitude and point of view to easily dissipate the source of our negative feelings.

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About the Author: 

Hypnotist, Author and Motivational Speaker

Marc is an award winning, certified stage and clinical hypnotist, author and motivational speaker with experience entertaining both large and small gatherings.

Marc uses his skills and talents in a variety of areas that include self-improvement or clinical hypnosis, motivational speaking, and comedy stage hypnosis.  He has worked with individuals and corporations throughout the United States to improve outcomes in personal lives and organizations.

As a clinical hypnotist, he has helped people resolve sleep issues, lose weight, stop smoking, deal with long held fears, deal with stress and anxiety, manage pain, improve sports performance, eliminate addictions, and improve sexual function.

His performance resume include international appearances for casinos and resorts, on live shows for Refinery29 Live and Elite Daily’s TrashED.  He regularly performs for major corporations, at comedy clubs, fairs and , and for schools, proms, graduations, conferences and conventions.

Marc’s book, “Staying in the Moment – Helping Students Achieve More Through Mindfulness Meditation” helps educators, parents and students get better results in the classroom through the adoption of mindfulness exercises as part of the curriculum.

For more information about, or to book an appointment with Marc visit his website: www.hypnomarc.com or email info@hypnomarc.com.

 

 

Interesting, You Can Fix That

5 Stress Reduction Tips To Help You Avoid Holiday Burnout

The festive season is here and for many people, stress, depression and anxiety can make this season anything but merry. Here’s 5 stress reduction tips to help you avoid burnout during the holidays:

 

  1. Lower your expectations. The holidays are so exciting! Being with loved ones, decorations, lights, presents and much feasting! As the holiday approaches, expectations increase as to how the holiday will be only for them to be dashed when the holidays arrive. So, try not to place high expectations on how events will unfold. Always expect the unexpected and remember that humans can react unpredictably and surprisingly. Also, life can throw us the odd curve ball, especially when we least want it, so just have a “what will be will be” attitude and hopefully, the holidays will be perfect. Avoiding high expectations means you won’t become stressed out or upset should things not turn out the way you wanted.

 

  1. Plan ahead. Make a detailed plan for all of the things you need to do. Be thorough and try to do as much in advance as possible. The more you can get done before the holidays the less stressful the season will be. Include shopping, decorations, wrapping, meal preparation, sending cards, visiting family, and a schedule for the big day. This will help you get organized so you’ll get more done and you’ll feel less stressed. Make checklists so you can mark progress as you go. Another great tip is to have a backup plan in case things go awry.

 

  1. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to ensure happy holidays. The holiday dinner alone really can be hard work for the cook! Too much work leads to stress burnout so make sure the whole family share the workload. Delegate by sharing chores among the whole family and get children involved too. It’s true – many hands make light work – and they also reduce stress in doing so.

 

  1. As much as the holidays are about spending time with family, having the family over can be highly stressful. Not all families get along, and stress levels can soar at get-togethers. If you have family members who are unappreciative, argumentative, aggressive, sulky – the kind of people who will spoil the day, then say “no!” and don’t invite them. The holidays are about joy and happiness, so inviting people who will ruin everyone’s day isn’t on. But a sense of duty can lead to inviting someone around against your better judgement. Your only duty is to your immediate family – your spouse and your children – not to any other family members. If your family get along, fine, but if you know there’s going to be fireworks, then make everyone’s day by not having stress as an unwanted holiday guest.

 

  1. Set your budget and stick to it. It’s really tempting to spend money during the holidays and many people will rack up huge debts doing so. The debt then becomes a major stress factor after the holidays have ended. You don’t need to buy people expensive gifts and you don’t need to go into debt to impress people. The Internet is a fantastic source for finding creative and imaginative gifts that will give the receiver a highly valued special surprise because it shows thoughtfulness. Debt is to stress what pizzas are to waistlines and you can pay a heavy price for impressing people with gifts. Stick to your budget and you will reduce stress, not just over the holidays but for many months after.

 

Hypnosis and Mindfulness practice are great tools in helping you cope with and enjoy this holiday season.  A clinical session with me is a great gift to yourself and will help you reach your goal in 2019.  Click or Tap the Contact Tab above to get you feeling amazing.

About the Author:

Marc is an award winning, certified stage and clinical hypnotist, author and motivational speaker with experience entertaining both large and small gatherings.

Marc uses his skills and talents in a variety of areas that include self-improvement or clinical hypnosis, motivational speaking, and comedy stage hypnosis.  He has worked with individuals and corporations throughout the United States to improve outcomes in personal lives and organizations.

As a clinical hypnotist, he has helped people resolve sleep issues, lose weight, stop smoking, deal with long held fears, deal with stress and anxiety, manage pain, improve sports performance, eliminate addictions, and improve sexual function.

His performance resume includes appearances on live shows for Refinery29 Live and Elite Daily’s TrashED.  He has performed internationally for major corporations, at comedy clubs, fairs and , and for schools, proms, graduations, conferences, conventions and corporations.

Marc’s book, “Staying in the Moment – Helping Students Achieve More Through Mindfulness Meditation” helps educators, parents and students get better results in the classroom through the adoption of mindfulness exercises as part of the curriculum.

For more information about, or to book an appointment with Marc visit his website: www.hypnomarc.com or email info@hypnomarc.com.