The Mind-Body Connection
The body and mind are intimately connected; our mental states affect many aspects of our physiology and in turn our physical health has a huge impact on how we feel mentally and emotionally. The mind-body connection can be harnessed to greatly enhance your wellbeing irrespective of your current state of health.
How stress affects your body
Many of us have spent much of our lives rushing, under pressure and stressed. Our bodies' stress response, the "fight or flight response" was designed to help us escape from tigers rather than to deal with the sustained stress we experience today! Living in the fight or flight state can affect your mood, suppress both your immune system and your digestion and often leads to feeling wired and unable to sleep. This then leave you vulnerable to infections, with poor absorption of nutrients and often feeling fatigued. Stress is thought to increase the frequency of migraines, epileptic seizures, and even Multiple Sclerosis relapses in some people. Other persistent symptom especially chronic pain but also inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and eczema are worsened by stress.
Stress can affect our general wellbeing as well as aggravating symptoms including:
- Chronic pain
- Muscle tension and stiffness
- Bladder weakness or hyper-reactivity
- Tremors
- Epileptic seizures
- Migraines and headaches
- Joint or Gut Inflammation and Allergy
How chronic illness or stress traps us in a vicious cycle?
Once we develop chronic health problems or experience stress related symptoms this adds to our daily stress. When we are feeling unwell or sleeping badly our brains become incredibly sensitive to the state of our body and as a result we become acutely aware of symptoms. Many people don’t realise that the continued presence of symptoms stimulates a subconscious stress response that actually causes us to feel even worse! This can leave us trapped in an exhausting cycle of unconscious stress and worsening symptoms, which is particularly associated with increasing levels of chronic pain.
How can we find wellbeing despite chronic health problems and daily stress?
Clinical hypnotherapy can be a very powerful tool to allow you to step out of this vicious cycle and dramatically improve your chronic symptoms and reduce or eliminate stress-induced problems. To learn more about the clinical hypnotherapy that I offer click here.
The Empowerment Plan is an exciting new plan designed specifically to help you escape the vicious cycle and more than that, to inspire and enable you to create a life you enjoy. Click here to read about The Empowerment Plan and how it could help you improve your quality of life.