Stress: The 21st Century Killer
By Terry Doherty

There is an entity called the gap. The gap is the space between the life we once imagined living and the life we currently have. This gap is at the heart of the 21st century’s biggest killer, stress. The larger the gap becomes, the more stress we allow to enter our lives. Stress is essentially a perceived state of mind. It is not real, it is not tangible, yet the effects on the body are often one of the most common causes of physical health problems people suffer today. When treating high levels of stress, a return to a more calm state of mind is needed to perceive less stress from the same everyday situations that are causing the negative changes in health. This return to a more calm reactionary style can be achieved with the help of hypnosis and the effects are often immediate.

While stress is often considered a mind altering state, the causes for stress are actually born from a physical response in the body. When a person feels overwhelmed by a situation or series of events, they are thrown into the bodies “fight or flight” response. This response physically increases the heart rate, often to harmful levels, increasing blood pressure and can cause headaches and feelings of physical ailment. The senses of the body are all heighten to extreme levels and the body is literally ready for the worst case scenario, a fight or a flight.

This response by the body can appear faintly at first, but as the response grows, the body tends to react in a more physical manner. As the heart rate increases, the blood flow to muscles and organs increases. This ensures the body will be ready for the fastest of flights and the hardest of fights. The smallest blood vessels grow smaller, readying the body for injury to minimize the effects on the underlying tissues and organs. The pupils of the eyes dilate to increase vision and the blood sugar levels rise suddenly to give the body the extra energy it will need to sustain the flight or fight for long periods of time.

Understanding how stress causes the body to react can make treatment options more understandable as well. In order for the body to best prepare for the fight or flight response, it must cut back on several areas, including the immune system. While you will be able to immediately react to the situation, your body will be effectively in a negative way farther down the road. When stress levels remain high for long periods of time, the lack of immune system response can lead to significant illness and pain.

Treating Stress With Hypnosis

While the effects of stress are clearly physical, the perception of a stressful event can be changed through careful training of the mind. Hypnosis can place a person in touch with their innermost thoughts and perceptions. Once in touch with these feelings, learning how to react in a calmer, more regulated manner to events that once caused immense levels of stress will create an immediate change in the body’s physical reactions to these events in the future.

Hypnosis for stress is all about reconditioning the mind to react differently to events that are clearly not in need of the fight or flight response. Money issues, issues with child rearing, issues with job satisfaction are all stressful events, but in none of them will the body need to be ready for battle. In our society, we often toil over situations that are out of our control. We allow our minds to react immediately and strongly to these perceived stresses and thus cause the physical effects of stress to take control of our lives.

With hypnotic training, changes can happen from the first session. All it takes is a careful look into the life events where the fight or flight response is truly needed and those where the body is simply overreacting to a perceived stress. Once the mind learns to react more calmly to our terms of stress, the response will be shut off and stress will be relieved.

About the Author: Terry works all over the UK working extensively with individual and business clients helping them stop smoking, manage weight, manage stress, become more confident and helping to create generative change. He uses the latest techniques of hypnosis and NLP. Contact him at http://www.mind-works.co.uk

Source: www.isnare.com