August 6, 2024August 6, 2024Anxiety & Stress, Depression, Free Gifts, Hypnotherapy, Interesting, Powerful Downloads

The Role of Visualization in Anxiety Management

Do you ever feel like your anxiety is a raging thunderstorm in your brain, complete with thunder, lightning, and torrential downpours of worrying thoughts? Yeah, me too. Anxiety can feel overwhelming and uncontrollable at times. But what if I told you there’s a simple mental technique that may be able to help calm that inner storm? It’s called visualization, and it could be a game-changer for your anxiety management.

Visualization is the practice of creating vivid mental images or scenes in your mind. It’s a skill that’s often used in sports psychology to help athletes perform at their best. But it can be just as powerful for managing anxiety and stress. By imagining calming, peaceful scenarios, you can trigger a relaxation response in your body and interrupt the anxiety feedback loop.

“Visualization is a powerful tool because it allows you to access your subconscious mind and tap into your innate ability to self-soothe,” explains Marc Marshall, a renowned hypnotherapist and anxiety expert. “When you create serene, comforting mental images, it sends signals to your brain that it’s safe to relax.”

So how exactly does visualization work for anxiety?

Well, it goes a little something like this:

Let’s say you’re feeling worried and tense about an upcoming presentation at work. Your heart is racing, your palms are sweaty, and your mind is spinning with anxious thoughts. In that moment, you could close your eyes and imagine yourself in a peaceful, beautiful setting – maybe a sun-dappled forest or a tranquil beach. As you visualize the sights, sounds, and sensations of this calming scene, your body and mind start to respond accordingly. Your heart rate slows, your muscles relax, and your worrying thoughts start to quiet down.

“The key is to engage all of your senses in the visualization,” advises Marshall. “The more vivid and immersive you can make the mental image, the more effective it will be for relieving anxiety.”

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So what should you visualize?

That’s the fun part – you get to be creative! Some popular anxiety-reducing visualization scenarios include:

A serene, secluded beach with gentle waves lapping at the shore
A lush, verdant forest with sunbeams filtering through the trees
A cozy, firelit cabin nestled in the mountains
A grassy meadow dotted with colorful wildflowers
A tranquil lake or pond with calming, reflective water

The key is to choose a scene that feels particularly soothing and restorative to you. It could be a place you’ve been before or a completely imaginary location. The most important thing is that it allows you to feel a sense of peace, safety, and comfort.

And don’t be afraid to get detailed! The more you can engage your senses, the better. Imagine the warm sunshine on your skin, the cool breeze ruffling your hair, the earthy scent of the forest, the soft chirping of birds. The more immersed you can become in the visualization, the more powerful the calming effects will be.

Of course, visualization isn’t a cure-all for anxiety. But it can be a valuable tool in your overall anxiety management toolkit, alongside other strategies like deep breathing, meditation, and talking to a hypnotherapist like Marc Marshall. “Visualization works best when it’s practiced regularly, not just in the heat of the moment,” Marshall advises. “The more you engage in it, the more automatic and effective it will become.”

So the next time you feel that familiar wave of anxiety starting to build, don’t just grit your teeth and bear it. Take a few minutes to close your eyes and transport yourself to your happy place. With a little bit of practice, you may just find that your mental thunderstorm starts to clear up. And who knows, you might even be able to keep your cool during that big presentation after all.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare provider before starting any new treatment plan.

December 28, 2019December 30, 2019Interesting, You Can Fix That

Stop with the New Year’s Resolutions! They DON’T WORK!

Stop with the New Year’s Resolutions!

They DON’T WORK!

The new year is here and like last year, and the year before and the year before that, you’ve decided it is time to take stock of your life. So, let me guess, you’re being bombarded online, on TV, on radio, your family, your doctor… EVERYWHERE, with ads to change your life; to find love; to join this gym, that weight loss program, stop smoking programs, stopping using substances or gambling or internet addiction . Well guess what? IT’S A SCAM! IT’S A FRAUD! It doesn’t work and it never will. Sure, you may change for a short time, but it won’t last. All you will have done is thrown away more money on band-aid fixes and reinforced that voice in your head that has been telling you for years it wouldn’t work. YES… another failure and that voice is right, again!

By now, you are saying to yourself… “This guy’s a real downer!” I’m psyched up to take charge of my life and make a change and here is some clown telling me it is never going to work. THAT’S RIGHT- IT WON’T! Because if it did, you never would be in this position. This is nothing more than doing the same thing over and expecting a different result. The weight loss industry with all their diet programs, gyms with membership come-ons and up-sell programs, all these programs know this one fact to be true; your conscious mind, that rational part of your brain that responds to the slick ads is incapable of sustained change. That means they can simply rinse and repeat their ads, parade out “happy” people and know how you, the vulnerable audience is going to flock to their “new and improved” program.

ARE YOU DOOMED TO LIVING AN UNHAPPY EXISTENCE?

As you guessed, that’s the wrong question. The real question begins with “WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?” Seriously, it comes down to simply that. More importantly it is a two part question – “What’s the problem; “How do you KNOW?” You see, my experience from years as a clinical hypnotist has taught me that the “PROBLEM” is never “THE PROBLEM”. You or your friends, family, therapist or doctor have put this label on a situation, on an experience, that is driving your unhealthy, unwanted behaviors and you continue to play that script over and over. Each time you replay that failed program in your mind or life, you are not only strengthening the negative behaviors, but you are also changing them and your brain.

The issue comes down to breaking the bonds that have ensnared you, probably for a good part of your life. Things like… “I’ve always been overweight . Growing up my family was heavy. That’s just who I am! “ or “I can’t focus, I have ADD/ADHD” or “I always windup with losers and getting hurt.” aren’t set in stone. Just because that is the way it has been, does it mean that is the way it will always be? That is solely up to you. You are the only one who can make that choice. You are the only one who can make this change. Band-aids don’t fix it! Living in the past or worrying about the future can’t change it. Change only happens when you are sick and tired of being sick and tired.

A large number of clients who come to see me for change work, begin by rehashing their stories of failures and pain. They do this because they have been trained by therapists to relive and retell their “stories.” They mistakenly believe that the answer lies in some mistake they made in the past. The problem is that this approach only continues to reinforce the dysfunction and fire up neural pathways that continue to feed the issue and increase the negative states of being. This is why I too often hear new clients telling me what they don’t want. They are focused on the negative behavior, the substance abuse, the sexual trauma, the fear, the pain, the weight and not on what they want to feel like and be.

SO HOW DO YOU WANT IT TO BE?

The subconscious mind is really amazing in its ability to make rapid and dramatic changes. Being that the subconscious mind is the feeling, non-rational mind that operates without you having to think about it. Being that the subconscious mind is literal, it is not being bound by logic. Its purpose is to protect us and keep us safe. Every action has a thought associated with it. Most of the time, we are unaware of the thought. Since behavior is controlled at the cellular level, it becomes important to change the emotional attachment that the subconscious mind holds to the behavior we are looking to change.

The challenge then becomes separating the intention from the behavior. The intention is what our subconscious mind is seeking to protect us from. It is the underlying goal of the behavior. Lasting change is dependent upon getting to a place of accepting the power of the resource state that you have inside of that unwanted behavior. Then reframing and amplifying it to a new and powerful resource state. When this is done, the negative emotions that have previously been associated with the behavior are replaced with new neural pathways, positive feelings and a release.

Since imagination is more powerful then knowledge, just imagine what it would be like to be different. Imagine being present and acting, rather than reacting to situations. What would that feel like? And as you picture your new and improved self, you are already beginning to make that lasting change permanent. And that feels good.

SO WHAT’S DIFFERENT, NOW?

In part, it is the realization that what happened, happened. You are not the same person that experienced that experience which has been driving those unwanted, unnecessary behaviors. You did the best you could with the tools that you had at the time. Those unnecessary and unwanted behaviors have been responsible for pain, both emotional and physical. The false memories have been keeping you stuck and unhappy. But that is how it was. Now, you have a chance to do something different. You have a chance to take all the resources from all your experiences and power them up so they serve to move you forward and finally attain your goals of being a better, healthier and happier you.

The repeated failures to make change were the result of the conflicts between your conscious and subconscious mind. And since it is impossible to hold conflicting ideas at the same time, there must be a winner and loser in our behaviors. The winner will always be the subconscious mind. As a result, it is necessary to bring our two minds into agreement. Once you have eliminated the conflict between the conscious and subconscious minds you are able to eat mindfully, sleep better, love yourself, be more active and present. These are all benefits that come once you are living in a new mindset.

WHAT IS THAT NOT?

This is a strange question. It is not a question that you are going to answer in that gym or therapy session or weight loss program without working through the “problem” state. The answers come when you step outside of the box of usual and move to being ready to accept the change. And even more interesting, is the fact that the change you seek can take place in a single hypnotherapy session. Unlike traditional therapies that focus on the “cause” or “problem” or negative behaviors. Hypnosis restructures the associated emotions and thinking that has been hardwired and amplified by the “stinking thinking.” If trauma takes place in an instant, why should anyone believe that change should take months or years?

What is really interesting is that because you have read down to this point of the article, you know that change has already begun. You now have knowledge that you didn’t have just a few minutes ago and that is different. So knowing what you know now, you are asking yourself “Where do I go now?”

You already know that everything you need to change already exists inside of you. And knowing that, you also know that you are looking for someone who understands that you can love who you were by loving who you can become. Becoming more resourceful is powerful. Hypnosis is the most powerful path forward. So, STOP WITH THE NEW YEAR”S RESOLUTIONS and take the action right now to respect yourself, love yourself and really pay attention to your needs.

SO, WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

Is it that you want to reach out to me but don’t know how much more you want? Or is it that you want more in your life but are not sure how to get it? Does it really matter if you change now or in a couple of days from now, knowing that you are going to change. And isn’t it exciting to know that you are finding that all those new and powerful resources that change you will make you even more amazing.

I guess it comes down to a simple thought, creating an even easier action to reach out and just ask me when that change can happen for you. And because you want to know all of that I want to make it as easy as I can for you to get your answer, now. Just click or tap this link and you too can decide the best day to change your life with hypnosis and without question. Get Started NOW - Click or Tap

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marc Marshall is a certified hypnotist, medical hypnotist and certified mind-body specialist, author and motivational speaker with offices in Summit NJ and Shaftsbury Vt. He specializes in dealing with trauma, sexual trauma, pain and works with clients to empower and teach them how to improve their lives through hypnosis and mindfulness practice. For more information or to schedule an appointment or interview, email info@hypnomarc.com or visit his website – www.hypnomarc.com

June 21, 2019September 25, 2019You Can Fix That

Want to become the most incredible, unstoppable version of yourself?

Imagine becoming the most incredible, unstoppable version of yourself?

I’m not talking about the usual ‘self-help’ stuff. This goes beyond being a little better with the opposite sex or being a little more productive.

Want to take on all new challenges, explore new frontiers, grow and transform yourself?

Then the answer is to overcome your fear. Your fear is what is holding you back. Your fear is what is making you less capable and less formidable. And your fear is what is taking away from your happiness and your fulfillment.

It’s time we destroyed fear once and for all and unlocked our full potential.

THE SAMURAI CODE

If we want to learn how to really conquer fear, then we can turn to some examples from history. Some of the most fearless, formidable warriors of all were the samurai. So how did they achieve this complete lack of fear?

According to legend, there was a technique that the samurai would practice right before battle in order to eliminate their fear. To do this, they would vividly imagine every possible way that they could be killed. They would imagine being impaled, dismembered and decapitated.

Then they would focus on accepting these possibilities and coming to terms with them. They would become okay with a horrific and brutal death.

The samurai were actually a very morbid and fatalistic bunch. The bushido code explained that it was an honor to die in battle and that they should constantly keep their mind on death.

You’d think this would make them more fearful but paradoxically, it empowered them to be the completely ruthless, fearless warriors that they were. This makes sense: if you fear death, then you will fear life.

If the samurai have accepted the worst thing that could happen to them and if they have come to terms with it, then what reason have they to be afraid?

Now imagine fighting someone who has zero fear of death: who is willing to put themselves at risk, to launch 100% into a movement and not be concerned for the potential outcome. They would be devastating.

The good news is that we live in a much less dangerous time and you probably don’t need to come to terms with your death in quite the same way. But we can take this same notion and we can look at ways to apply it to our own lives.

Click this link to get a free checklist of ways you can start today! [contact-form][contact-field label=’Name’ type=’name’ required=’1’/][contact-field label=’Email’ type=’email’ required=’1’/][/contact-form]

January 12, 2019January 12, 2019Interesting, 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:

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.