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Opportunityisnowhere!

Sunday, February 21st, 2010

What did you read when you saw the sentence above?

Depending on whether you are an optimist or a pessimist you may have read it one way, or another.

Opportunity is now here.

Opportunity is nowhere

We tend to notice whatever it is that are mind is primed to see, either the positives in life, or the negatives.

Have you ever been thinking about buying a particular model of car, and noticed that you see that type of car on the streets more and more? It’s not that there are any more of that model of car on the streets, just that your mind is primed to notice them, and so you do.

It may have happened with other things. When I was expecting my first child, I seemed to see pregnant ladies, or young babies everywhere!

If you believe that you might be a little bit of a pessemist, here’s an exercise that you might enjoy doing at the end of the day:

Look back over your day, and note three things that you have seen or have happened in your day that you would consider good things. It could be seeing something of natural beauty; how someone did something for you that was unexpected; it may even just be getting a phone call – you choose what you would consider those 3 good things – your three gifts for the day.

The only rules are that there must be three gifts that you have to note, and that if you can think of more than three, you have to narrow it down to the three best, for that day!

Do this every evening for at least a week, and notice how much easier you find it to start noticing the positive things that are going on around you everyday, if only we take the time to notice them!

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Posted in Cognitive hypnotherapy, NLP, coaching, happiness, health and wellbeing, positive psychology | 1 Comment »

Tapping therapy: curing physical and mental problems

Wednesday, February 17th, 2010

This article was published on the Telegraph website (www.telegraph.co.uk) about Emotional Freedom Technique (also known as ‘tapping’). It’s something that I teach to many of my clients, as it’s such an amazing tooland has so many possible applications. Have a read and see what you think…

Beverley Turner tries out ‘tapping’, a technique designed to cure physical and mental problems by tapping on the body’s invisible energy pathways.

By Beverley Turner
Published: 7:00AM GMT 15 Feb 2010

Singer Michael Ball was seen doing it on a daytime TV chat show. He learnt it from the late singer, Stephen Gately, who used it to calm his own performance nerves. Lily Allen’s weight loss was attributed to its efficacy. American PGA players have been spotted doing it around the golf course. And Norwegian pole-vaulter Rens Blom credited his unexpected 2005 World Championship Gold to its powers. The internet reveals millions of anecdotal accounts of its success on phobias, addictions and anxiety. So nearing the end of my own two-year psychotherapy training, I wanted to discover what this mysterious “tapping” business is all about.

So I signed up for a day course at the EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) Academy in London’s Regent’s College, with Richard Mark, an advanced EFT practitioner and certified trainer, who has worked as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist for 12 years. My fellow students are a mixed bunch of mental health professionals, lawyers, physiotherapists, trainee counsellors and full-time parents. Unafraid to challenge, the students are surprisingly curious and sceptical rather than gullibile. There isn’t a sandal or kaftan among them.

Although it doesn’t rigidly follow his teachings, Mark’s course is based on the EFT therapy developed by American, Gary Craig in 1997. Craig had studied Dr. Callaghan’s Thought Field Therapy in the 1980s, an evolution of John Diamond’s Kinesiology, both of which were rooted in ancient Eastern “meridian energy” theories of acupuncture and Shiatsu, codified since at least 1000BC.

These therapies claimed that our bodies contain invisible energy pathways – meridians – and identified hundreds of acupoints at junctions along these interconnecting highways. They can be disrupted by life’s vicissitudes; in extreme cases, resulting in not only mental but also physical problems.

EFT works by a person tapping on just nine of these acupoints, while speaking aloud. And this is where it becomes a little weird. Working in pairs we identify a minor physical ailment and repeat the phrase, “Even though I have this sore knee / headache / lack of energy, I deeply and completely accept myself,” while tapping on the meridian points: the soft part of the hand beneath the little finger, crown of the head, around the eyes, beneath the nose, the chin, near the clavicle and beneath the armpit. I just about resist the urge to “ooh ooh” like a monkey.

A key part of the therapy is calibrating the intensity of either physical or emotional pain, which allows both therapist and patient a tangible scale by which to measure success. Mark explains that EFT is “especially effective in clearing traumatic memories: accidents, abuse, violence, childhood memories; or even clearing persistent negative messages from family or key people in our lives.”

We move onto emotional problems, selecting a memory that is difficult, but manageable in the limited time available, and within a classroom environment. Using the “Movie Technique,” we must make a mental movie of a specific event, giving it a title and running it in our mind’s eye, marking its intensity between 1 – 10, before tapping with the mantra, “Even though I have this playground bullying / car accident / illness diagnosis movie, I deeply and completely accept myself.” In extreme cases of trauma, the patient can merely imagine the units of distress without running the movie in their head, gradually moving towards the scene at a safe pace.

In spite of – or perhaps because of – the adrenaline from feeling like a bit of a wally, when using the “Movie Technique” myself my own memory of witnessing a violent assault twenty years ago, does indeed fade in its intensity. But I’m not a prime candidate. EFT has impressive results on a whole spectrum of emotional issues but is arguably making its biggest impact on those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Treating such patients, Marta Krol, a Polish clinical psychologist who trained under Mark and has returned to Poland, has found EFT’s effects “amazing”. She recounts a 12-year-old Chechnyan girl suffering speech and anxiety problems as a result of witnessing, aged six, her uncle’s dismembered body brought into the family home and laid on the kitchen table by hysterical relatives. The child did not speak at all for the following 12 months.

“We had worked together for six months with little progress,” says Krol, “Then I tried EFT. She pictured herself watching the terrible scene on TV but through another TV and so on until she was five levels removed and even then she saw herself watching from behind the curtains. But after six weeks she was talking fluently and could recount the event with no anxiety. I honestly believe I could not have helped her do that without EFT.”

Emma-Leigh Johnson, a London-based drugs counsellor is unequivocal about its benefits, “By the time clients come to me they have had lots of therapy. They know what to say, the games to play and boxes to tick. EFT is so unusual, they don’t know what you want to hear.”

Few therapies allow a patient to say aloud that they accept themselves despite their rape / abuse / addiction, while dealing with the emotions that arise simultaneously. Johnson explains, “lots of therapy separates the issue and the human being. With this you can change how you feel about something, but accept that you can’t change what happened – that’s the emotional freedom. I see bigger shifts using EFT than any other therapy.”

Some clients prefer to be ‘tapped upon’ by the therapist; others will mirror their actions; but perhaps more than any other therapy, EFT equips the individual to take away the skill to use at any time.

EFT is still ripe for ridicule. Having explained it in broad terms to my husband, he can now be heard muttering, “I may not have unstacked the dishwasher but I deeply and completely accept myself.” But I have no doubt that the sound of tapping is here to stay. And it’s only going to get louder.

Richard Mark 020 8993 3803; info@eft-academy.co.uk; www.eft-academy.co.uk

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Posted in Cognitive hypnotherapy, EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique, NLP, anxiety, health and wellbeing, hypnotherapy, pain control, tapping, weight control, weight loss | 7 Comments »

Reflections on what we control and what we don’t

Monday, February 8th, 2010
Once again my this blog comes from Michael Neill’s weekly email. It is reproduced here with his permission.His emails can be really inspiring and you can sign up to receive them too by using the link at the bottom of the page. I hope you enjoy it … Did you know that “worry” is a verb? That is, “to worry something” is to shake it about – it is an activity, not a thing.

The kind of worrying that most of us do is with our thoughts. We take a particular thought and “worry it about” in our minds, shaking it back and forth and flipping it around until we become absolute experts on everything that could possibly go wrong.  

I myself am an expert “worrier” – I seem to have been granted the ability to pick out the worst-case scenario at a puppy farm, or to imagine all the things that could go wrong at an OSHA convention.  
Which is why I’ve always found it a bit curious that when I’m actually IN a difficult situation, I tend to handle it with remarkable ease and grace. Being stuck in traffic doesn’t upset me, even if I’m running late. If the recording equipment stops working at an event where I’m teaching, as it did recently, I can generally incorporate it into the proceedings without batting an eyelash, even if I had previously been worrying about the possibility.  

The difference, or so it seems to me, is this:  

Once something has actually happened, whether or not it happens is clearly no longer within my control. And if I know that something is not within my control, I see no point in worrying about it, or more accurately, in worrying it about.
Which is why when I woke up a couple of days ago without control over the left side of my face, I was oddly calm. In fact, the only real thought my worrying mind gave me to play with was how it might affect the television pilot we’re working on, and whether or not they will be able to film me exclusively from the right side until whatever it was cleared up.  

When others kindly pointed out to me all the other things I could be worrying about that might be a wee bit more important than how I looked on TV, like a brain tumor or a stroke, it did occur to me to go to the hospital, and they quickly diagnosed it as a mild case of Bell’s Palsy, a strange form of facial paralysis the explanation for which sounded completely made up, even to the doctor who diagnosed me with it.  
The good thing about Bell’s Palsy is that a. Most people recover within 2 – 3 weeks and b. With the exception of a cocktail of drugs that may or may not speed recovery and that I am faithfully taking each day, there’s nothing much which can be done.  

And I find that sort of behavioral helplessness incredibly comforting. Oh sure, I get that if I maintain a relatively positive mind and a relatively relaxed body, that will create an internal environment which promotes healing. And even after only a few days, I’ve discovered that ordering soup for lunch is just a bad idea. But when there’s nothing to be done about something, there’s nothing to be done about it – and that leaves our energy free to enjoy whatever it is we can do.  

Twenty years ago, I remember seeing the quadriplegic motivational speaker W. Mitchell give a talk from his wheelchair. The line which burned into my memory was this:

“Before I was paralyzed there were 10,000 things I could do. Now there are 9,000. I can either dwell on the 1,000 I’ve lost or focus on the 9,000 I have left.”  
 

What we control, in my experience, is not what happens to us and not even which thoughts, positive or negative, come into our head. What we control is what we do and which thoughts we dwell on. And funnily enough, that’s more than enough control to create a magical life, regardless of whatever circumstances you happen to find yourself in.  

Recently, I was watching a video of the spiritual philosopher Syd Banks and he shared an old Irish philosophy: 

There are only two things to worry about – are you sick or are you well?If you’re well, there’s nothing to worry about. And if you’re sick, there are only two things to worry about – will you live or will you die? If you live, there’s nothing to worry about. And if you die, there are only two things to worry about – will you go to heaven or will you go to hell?  If you go to heaven, there’s nothing to worry about. And if you go to hell, you’ll be so busy shaking hands with all your friends that there’s nothing to worry about.   

 

With love,

Michael
Copyright © 2010 Michael Neill. All Rights Reserved
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Adult brains can change within seconds

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

I unashamedly pinched this post from The Quest Institute website because it so nicely illustrates one of the fundamental thoughts from Cognitive Hypnotherapy, namely that changes in the mind can happen quickly – therefore years and years spent in therapy might be put to better use seeing a brief therapy practitioner such as a Cognitive Hypnotherapist like myself.

This from Trevor Silvester, the founder of Cognitive Hypnotherapy:

Jul 16th, 2009 by Trevor Silvester.
A new report about to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience by scientists working at the Institute for Brain Research at MIT has established that our brains can alter in a matter of seconds. “Our study shows the stunning ability of the brain to adapt to moment-to-moment changes in experience even in adulthood.” states one of the authors.

The changes are too quick for the brain to have grown new connections, and the current theory is that the change is the result of dormant short-term cortical connections being ‘booted up’ in response to some changing circumstance in the person’s environment.

I find this particularly interesting because Cognitive Hypnotherapy is a brief therapy model, and we work on the basis that change -even major change, doesn’t have to take a long time to be achieved. My argument has always been that, if a problem can begin as a result of a short experience, why can’t it be remedied within the same time frame?

This meets with resistance from a lot of psychotherapists and counsellors who are wedded to the idea that ‘change takes time’. As Woody Allen once said “I’ve been in psychoanalysis for fifteen years, and I’m starting to see signs of progress.”

I, and the people we’ve trained as Cognitive Hypnotherapists, regularly see rapid change in clients – most phobias disappear in a single session, and it’s heartening that neuroscience is supporting the notion that the architecture for such rapid change exists within the brain.

You can read about the research here.

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Posted in Cognitive hypnotherapy, NLP, brain, health and wellbeing, hypnotherapy, learning, mind, positive psychology | No Comments »

The Five Love Languages

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

I spent a very pleasant evening yesterday in the company of my peers of Cognitive Hypnotherapists at a talk organised by the company I did my training with, The Quest Institute (www.questinstitute.co.uk) listening to a talk by one of the graduates, Russell Davies on The Five Love Languages.

The Five Love Languages talk developed from the ideas of a book by the same name, written by Gary Chapman. The premise is that we all have a preference for the way we show love to others and the way we would want to be shown it by others. By communicating our love in a way that the other person can understand it we are more likely to be successful in getting the meaning of the communication that we want.

The trouble is, we can have a tendency to show love in the way we prefer to receive it. Unfortunately this may not be in the same way as our partner prefers to receive it! By understanding your preferred way, you can begin to understand your partners as well and enhance your relationship.

Of course, when I talk about ‘love’, I’m not merely talking about it from the romantic perspective, but within any relationship that we have with other people. However, I will be referring to ‘partners’ here, purely for simplicity.

WARNING: understanding your partner’s love language can radically effect their behaviour!

So, here they are:

1 Words of Affirmation

Does criticism crush you? Do you feel especially loved when someone expresses his or her gratitude for you?
Some people like to be told they are loved – they need it to be said out loud. This can be done in a number of ways, of course, not just saying those three little words:

 Try simple compliments
 Use encouraging words
 Include kind and humble words (don’t forget the tone of voice should match the words!)
 There should be absence of criticism or judgement

2 Quality Time

Do you feel especially loved when someone gives you his or her undivided attention? With this preference, your partner’s way of knowing they are loved would be to spend good, quality time together. Again, there are many ways to do this, including:

 Giving your undivided attention
 Doing quality activities together (the things they would want to do, not you)
 Having quality conversations (real, honest learning, listening and talking)
 Offering understanding to problems, not necessarily solutions to them
 Demonstrating that understanding (using clarification when necessary)
 Learning to talk by sharing feelings

3 Gifts

Do you feel especially loved when someone gives you a gift or another tangible expression of his or her love? This can be high on some people list of importance. It need not necessarily be expensive, but is seen as an outward sign of the love you share. They can be:

 Symbols of love
 Bought, made or found
 The gift of yourself just by being present

4 Acts of Service

Do you feel especially loved when someone pitches in to help you or helps with the chores? Quite often it is easy to get into the situation within a relationship, where there is almost a demarcation of who does what job. When there is a preference for love to be shown, it may mean doing something that you might not ordinarily do. Make sure:

 You are doing what they want to do, not what you want to do
 Do what’s most important to them

5 Physical Touch

Do you feel especially loved when someone expresses their love through physical contact. A hug can say more than a hundred words to the person whose love language is physical touch. It can be:

 Powerful
 Explicit (massage or holding hands)
 Implicit (a glancing touch when passing)
 Not just about sex

Communicating love to your partner in their preferred love language can transform your relationship, as they will feel emotionally loved and wanted. You might think ‘what’s in it for me?’ Well, they will automatically respond and reflect that love back to you. And if they don’t seem to understand your preferential love language, tell them how you like to feel loved. See if you can identify your partners primary love language and then do something to express your love to them in that way and watch the transformation unfold.

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Posted in Cognitive hypnotherapy, NLP, commuication, happiness, health and wellbeing, lifestyle, marriage/partnerships, relationships | No Comments »

Daydreams may solve complex problems

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

This article published on the website Globe and Mail gives an interesting insight into daydreaming and how it may be useful to us.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/daydreams-may-solve-complex-problems/article1134033/

Letting your mind wander is not a waste of time, according to a new study 

Comments By Marina Jiménez Last updated on Thursday, May. 14, 2009 03:12AM EDT

People spend one third of their waking lives daydreaming. But letting your mind wander is not a waste of time, according to a new study. It’s a chance for the brain to stop focusing on immediate tasks, and subconsciously resolve important life problems.

The study, published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that brain areas associated with complex problem solving, previously thought to go dormant during daydreaming, are in fact highly active.

“A lot of people reject daydreaming as a wasteful activity,” says Kalina Christoff, the study’s lead author and a University of British Columbia psychology professor. “But our study suggests that if you daydream, you might be able to advance some of your current concerns.”

The study put 15 research subjects through a functional MRI for 90 minutes, to examine the metabolic processes of their brains. They completed a simple, routine task of pushing a button when numbers appeared on a screen.

Prof. Christoff tracked the research subjects’ attentiveness through brain scans, subjective reports and by monitoring their performance of the task. She found that two key regions of the brain were active during daydreaming: the “default network,” associated with easy, routine mental activity, and the brain’s “executive network,” associated with high-level, complex problem-solving.

Usually when one network is working, the other isn’t. It is rare to see them working in tandem, the paper concludes. As well, the brain activity was most active when the research subjects weren’t aware they were daydreaming.

“When your mind wanders, a different kind of thinking occurs,” said Prof. Christoff. “When you aren’t trying to solve problems deliberately, it provides more mental space, you make connections and let your mind go wherever it wants.”

She has long been interested in spontaneous thought – but it is difficult to study because it doesn’t occur on cue. But now studies are being designed that permit scientists to look at the quantity and quality of brain activity during “mind wandering.”

Prof. Christoff says that many of her best research ideas have come to her when she is in the car, daydreaming.

“Driving is the perfect activity for letting your mind wander because it is highly automatized and requires only a small part of our attention,” she said. “When you daydream, you may not achieve your immediate goal, say reading a book or paying attention in class. But your mind may be taking that time to address more important questions in your life.”

She compares it to mulling over a life decision and letting it circulate in your brain, as opposed to deliberately weighing the pros and cons. Prof. Christoff runs UBC’s Cognitive Neuroscience of Thought Laboratory, which studies neural and cognitive mechanisms of human thought, reasoning and problem solving. Her research team for the study included members who are now at Stanford University and the University of California at Santa Barbara.

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Posted in NLP, Training, brain, brain fitness, happiness, health and wellbeing, hypnosis, learning, lifestyle, mind, positive psychology, relaxation | No Comments »

Think ahead, live longer

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

This article published in ABC Health and Wellbeing is very much in keeping with thoughts from Cognitive Hypnotherapy – imagine the future you want, and then allow the unconscious mind to guide you towards it (whilst doing a little work along the way to help the process, of course! See my website for details www.anitamitchell.co.uk):

The Pulse

by Peter Lavelle

People who plan ahead and think of the future are often healthier than those living for the here-and-now, argues a prominent US psychologist. Published 12/03/2009 

Do you live for the present, without worrying about tomorrow? Do you view the future through the prism of what’s happened to you in the past? Or do you keep one eye on the future in everything you do? Whichever you do, will impact directly on your health, argues US psychologist Philip Zimbardo. Zimbardo, Emeritus Professor at Stanford University, is the author of a new book The Time Paradox: The New Psychology of Time That Will Change Your Life. In it he argues people tend to make decisions based on whether they are orientated to the past, present or future. Some people are dominated by their past experiences and this influences how they make decisions now. These past experiences may be positive – family or cultural traditions or rewards for good things they’ve done in the past – or they may be negative events – past traumas influencing what they do in the present. People with post-traumatic stress syndrome have been negatively influenced by their past. Other people are orientated towards the present. They seek immediate rewards, without much thought for the future, and are influenced by their body sensations and physiology (hunger, thirst, desire for sex etc) or what their peer group is doing. Rather than plan ahead, these people often rely on luck or fate and they tend to have lower levels of impulse control and emotional stability. Zimbardo says people who have addictions are very often present-thinkers, as are gamblers or those who run up credit card debts. Then there are people who are focused on the future, these people think of the consequences of their actions. They are good at controlling their egos and impulses; are conscientious, consistent, non-aggressive, and have low levels of depression. In reality we all have a bit of past, present and future orientation, but we tend to be skewed to one and underuse the others, says Zimbardo. He argues your time perspective may depend on many things including the climate you live in, your religion, your education (more educated people tend to be more future thinking), your gender (women are more future thinking than men), what income you earn (poorer people tend to be more present-orientated) and your age. In fact, we are all born present-thinkers, but become more focused on the future as we age, often in response to pressure from society. Many of the stories, nursery rhymes and games we play as kids encourage us to be forward-thinking; as does school and higher education. But being totally future-oriented is also unhealthy, says Zimbardo. Excessive emphasis on the future causes anxiety in the here and now, (as to how things might turn out) which can lead to social isolation and performance anxiety (especially anxiety about sexual performance). This is where present-oriented thinkers have some advantages; they make friends easily (being the ‘life of the party’), they are creative thinkers and have plenty of energy to enable them to achieve their goals. Being past-oriented (especially if your past experiences are positive) also has some advantages. Your family or culture may give you a sense of identity and continuity and provide you with positive role models. So what we need is a balance of all three ways of thinking. Healthy future So what does all this have do with your health? Zimbardo suggests there’s a very strong correlation between future orientation and health – the more future-oriented you are, the healthier you’ll be and the longer you’re likely to live. Research published in the British Journal of Health Psychology last month supports Zimbardo’s theory. Studies show people who are future thinkers tend to use drugs less, and adopt safe sex practices, the researchers say. Future thinkers also tend to be less likely to smoke and have healthier body mass indices, they conclude, after studying a group of about 400 people who answered questions about their health and lifestyles and who also underwent psychological testing including the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (ZPTI) – a questionnaire Zimbardo helped develop in 1999 to test how people’s time perspective affects their decision making. (If you’re curious about which orientation you might be, do Zimbardo’s inventory yourself – just follow the link at the bottom of this page). On the other hand, other studies have shown that future-thinking doesn’t have much effect on whether people will get vaccinated, or stick to taking blood pressure or cholesterol medications. So future-thinking seems to be a factor in changing some behaviour but not others, say the British researchers. Getting the message out One of the challenges facing policymakers and health workers in preventative health is how to get people to forego junk food, drugs and alcohol, a sedentary lifestyle, for rewards that may be long into the future. But some public health messages may not be reaching their intended audience, says Zimbardo. Anti-drug campaigns warning of the future health risks of drug taking, for example, may be doomed to failure because their target audience (people inclined to use drugs) often live in the present and won’t listen to messages about the future. Peter Sainsbury, an Adjunct Professor of Public Health at Sydney University, agrees one of the challenges of mounting an effective public health program is to get people to change their behaviour for long-term benefits. “So you may need to give them a reason to change their behaviour in the here-and-now,” says Sainsbury. “For example, smokers may be more likely to quit if they think there’s an immediate benefit – better smelling breath, more success with the opposite sex for example, rather than the promise of better health twenty years from now.”

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Posted in Alzheimer's, Cognitive hypnotherapy, NLP, brain fitness, happiness, health and wellbeing, mind, performance, relaxation | No Comments »

Overthinking 'disrupts golf putt'

Friday, January 30th, 2009

Just ask Tiger, he’s ‘gone’ when he makes a shot. Find out how cognitive hypnotherapy  and NLP can help reduce your handicap www.anitamitchell.co.uk.

Found on the BBC News website:

Golfers who think too much about their technique between shots could be seriously affecting their performance, a study has suggested.

St Andrews University and US scientists said they had established that too much analysis made the golfer’s game worse.

They said thinking too much about the previous shot can disrupt performance.

In total, 80 golfers were given shots to practise until they got it right. Those who discussed their putting between strokes took twice as long.

The study suggested talking could “overshadow” motor skills Golfers who think too much about their technique between shots could be seriously affecting their performance, a study has suggested. St Andrews University and US scientists said they had established that too much analysis made the golfer’s game worse. They said thinking too much about the previous shot can disrupt performance. In total, 80 golfers were given shots to practise until they got it right. Those who discussed their putting between strokes took twice as long. The study found that when the mix of skilled and novice golfers tried again, those who had discussed the shot took longer to get the shots right as those people who had spent a couple of minutes engaged in other, unrelated activities. Simply describing one’s putting skill after it has been executed can be incredibly disruptive to future putting performance Prof Michael Anderson St Andrews University Psychology Professor Michael Anderson, from St Andrews University, said: “This effect was especially dramatic in skilled golfers who were reduced to the level of performance of novices after just five minutes of describing what they did. “Novices, by contrast, were largely unaffected, and perhaps even helped a little, by verbally describing their movements. “It’s a fairly common wisdom in sport that thinking too much hurts performance; during a game it can be an obvious distraction. “However, what we found surprising is that simply describing one’s putting skill after it has been executed can be incredibly disruptive to future putting performance.” He said overthinking did not seem to affect novices because “they probably haven’t developed enough skills to forget in the first place” and claimed that top professionals would be less susceptible as they were very focused in their approach. The researchers think the loss of performance was due to an effect called verbal overshadowing, which makes the brain focus more on language centres rather than on brain systems that support the skills in question. The study, which also involved the University of Michigan, marks the first time researchers have claimed to demonstrate that verbal overshadowing can adversely affect motor skills. Prof Anderson said the findings may have consequences for people who take part in other sports. “This observation may have repercussions for athletes who depend on effective mental techniques to prepare for events,” he added. “Moreover, those who teach golf, or any motor skill, might be undoing their own talent in the process.”

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Posted in Cognitive hypnotherapy, NLP, brain, golf and the mind, golf training, mind, performance, relaxation | No Comments »

What's your New Year's Resolution?

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008

Well, here we are again at a New Year. I know that many people feel it is a time for new beginnings, making resolutions and decisions on how they might like their life to move forward in the year that is to come. Many of us have these good intentions, and why not? It’s as good a time as any to decide to make a change.

So, the question is – What do you want to be doing differently in 2009?

Of course, there are the usual things that many of us want for a new year – lose weight, get fitter, stop smoking – all very admirable things to do. Just think, if you decide now is the time to do something about those extra pounds you may have been carrying around for a while, by the Summer, we might be seeing a lot less of you! And think of the health benefits to quitting the cancer sticks, not to mention the heavier pockets you might have through not having to pay the Chancellor all the excise duty on a packet. These may be the obvious choices of New Year’s Resolutions.

But what other areas of your life might you like to see a difference in? It might be finding ways to reconnect with family or friends; going out into the big wide world and trying new things that you haven’t even contemplated before; or perhaps even a major change like finding a new career path. Only you can answer the question in a way that’s right for you.

Many of us make resolutions or promises to ourselves to do things differently at this time of year, but how many of us see it through? How many will stumble before getting to our goal? I can’t answer that question with any degree of accuracy, but I do know that research has shown that those of us that set ourselves goals, and then share them with others close to us (friends, family and work colleagues) are significantly more likely to succeed than those that keep their goals to themselves. Others may simply find the whole process more of a challenge because of their past somehow getting in the way and stopping them from succeeding in their future. The unconscious mind is a powerful thing, and if it feels that something you are trying to do is not right for you, it will make every attempt to stop you from doing it, no matter how much your logical mind seems to want it to happen. Your unconscious is trying to protect you; no matter how misguided it is in the way it is doing it. It really does mean well, bless it!

So, my advice to those setting themselves New Year’s Resolutions over the next few days would be to tell as many people about your goal as you are comfortable with. Their encouragement along the way may be exactly what you need to see you to the successful outcome of your goal. And if at some point you find you need some extra help because your unconscious is getting in the way, give me a call. Using cognitive hypnotherapy and NLP (neuro linguistic programming) I help people to find a way with the unconscious so that both it, and the conscious mind can be working towards the same goal. Just think how powerful your mind could be, if both the conscious and the unconscious mind are working together. Together, we can find the life you want.

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND BEST WISHES FOR 2009

Anita Mitchell Cognitive Hypnotherapist and NLP Master Practitioner
DipCHyp, HPD, MPNLP MNCH(reg)
Tel: 01753 544014 Mob: 07813 126048 www.anitamitchell.co.uk

Posted in Cognitive hypnotherapy, NLP, eating disorders, health and wellbeing, mind, weight control, weight loss | No Comments »

New therapy for eating disorders

Monday, December 15th, 2008
This article  was taken from the AOL Health website, and is very similar to the approach to eating disorders that Cognitive Hypnotherapists such as myself have been adopting for a number of years. It’s good to see that there is more and more research to back up what we already know to be working.
Last Updated: Sunday, 14 December 2008, 19:08 GMT
- Search: Eating disorders therapy
New psychotherapy to help adults suffering from eating disorders
New psychotherapy to help adults suffering from eating disorders

 

 

Eight out of 10 adults suffering from eating disorders could be helped by a new form of psychotherapy, according to research.

The new style of therapy has shown dramatic results in a seven-year research project carried out by an expert from Oxford University.

It focuses on helping people cope with their eating disorder by also tackling a range of common traits, such as low self-esteem and the quest for perfectionism.

The new treatment derives from an earlier form of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for bulimia developed by Professor Christopher Fairburn, from the University of Oxford.

The new enhanced version is suitable for people with bulimia, who account for around 15% of eating disorder sufferers, but also those with “atypical” eating disorders, who account for around 60%.

These people may show traits of both anorexia and bulimia, including vomiting, bingeing, exercising too much, using laxatives or starving themselves. Anorexia sufferers are being examined in a separate study using the therapy.

The latest version of the treatment, called CBT-E, has two elements, with the first part focusing on the eating disorder itself and associated body image.

For example, a patient will be equipped with new coping mechanisms so they can stop checking themselves in mirrors or measuring and weighing themselves.

The second part of the treatment looks at tackling related issues, such as low self-esteem and perfectionism. Patients may be helped to adjust the standards they hold for themselves and others, or deal with changes in their mood.

The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, involved 154 people recruited from eating disorder units in Oxfordshire and Leicestershire.

Posted in Cognitive hypnotherapy, NLP, anorexia, brain, eating disorders, health and wellbeing | No Comments »

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