Busting stress and anxiety with hypnosis

Hypnosis uses focused attention and deep relaxation to achieve a heightened state of awareness. This state is a natural phenomenon that occurs when you focus intensely on a single object or topic and ignore other distractions. Hypnosis for stress and hypnosis for anxiety are definite approaches to help you ‘bust’ out of a vicious cycle that could be harming your body.

Stress is your body’s reaction to possible danger. Even if it is imagined rather than real, the perceived stressor triggers a flight-or-fight response that leads to a series of physiological changes. Cortisol floods the body and primes all of your organs and muscles to react to the danger or stressor. Although uncomfortable for most people, this reaction can help you perform better in pressure situations at work, school, and everyday life.

In this way, short-term stress---also called acute stress---can be helpful.  Acute stress, can be positive because it helps us gather all our resources so the body and mind can react appropriately to the situation.

The exact physiological response also occurs in life-threatening situations. In these cases, the fight-or-flight response plays a critical role in your survival by preparing your body and mind to flee or stay and fight the threat.

This survival mechanism dates back centuries and has played an essential part in how we deal with stressors. In a stressful situation, a state of alertness is activated through the sympathetic nervous system. When the stressor is removed, this nervous system rests, and the parasympathetic system causes a state of relaxation. In this state of calm, the body can recover and regenerate.

In addition to acute stress, which is sudden and short-lived, you can also suffer from chronic stress. This type of stress is dangerous because it can lead to elevated cortisol levels in the body, causing more inflammation and accelerating biological aging. Additionally, the immune system can become depressed, leading to increased susceptibility to some types of infection. Long-term stress can not only impair brain function but also lead to burnout--- an emotionally and physically exhausted, overwhelmed state.

Hypnosis for stress can help you develop physical and emotional resilience to function better under chronic stress. Hypnosis for self-confidence and anxiety works much the same way. The hypnosis process allows you to adopt better habits and thoughts. It also helps you achieve a more positive perspective. For example, the perception of danger provokes the stress response. Hypnosis for stress relief can help you reexamine the event from a positive approach, creating a shield to protect you from similar stressful events in the future.

Hypnosis is a safe, natural, non-invasive state that you enter easily and has long-lasting benefits that can improve your life quality. The reduction in stress and anxiety ultimately leads to increased joy, higher energy levels, and a new-found positive attitude. But keep in mind that successful hypnotherapy requires your complete motivation to deal with the issues plaguing you and recover from them. If you commit to this process, you will develop more emotional and physical resilience to face future challenges.

It might sound scary when someone says hypnosis reprograms your brain. However, this reprogramming caused by separating the subconscious motivations from your actions can help you create new, healthy habits. It also allows you to reframe past experiences and see them from a whole new perspective. You can even learn new coping skills, so you no longer resort to unhealthy habits or compulsions to manage stress or anxiety.

The benefits of hypnosis and hypnotherapy are boundless. For troubling problems such as stress, anxiety, and self-confidence issues, hypnosis is the perfect form of non-invasive treatment.

With focused attention and deep relaxation, anyone can reach a state of hypnosis by intensely focusing on a single object or topic and block all other distractions. Hypnosis for stress and anxiety is a positive solution that will help you ‘bust’ stress out of your life for good.

Keep up with the top stories from Reader’s Digest by subscribing to our weekly newsletter.