Every year, the same scene replays: well-intentioned people craft ambitious resolutions, bursting with hope and optimism. But as January wanes, so does resolve. By February, many are ditching the resolutions, left with disappointment, broken dreams and a nagging sense of “same old, same old.”

But what if there was a way to break this cycle? Enter hypnotherapy, a powerful tool which can rewire your subconscious mind and pave the way for lasting change.

Why do resolutions fizzle out?

Our deepest beliefs and patterns, often buried in the subconscious, can sabotage our best intentions. These hidden “programs” might whisper fears like “I’m not good enough” or “Change is too hard.” Hypnotherapy helps access these hidden layers and replace them with positive affirmations, empowering suggestions and new behaviours.

How can hypnotherapy help?

Hypnotherapy doesn’t magically implant new habits – it empowers you to make the changes yourself. Here’s how:

• Motivation Boost: Hypnotherapy can tap into your intrinsic desires, making your resolutions feel less like “shoulds” and more like exciting possibilities.
• Craving Control: Hypnotherapy can address subconscious triggers for unhealthy habits, like stress-eating or procrastination. Imagine saying “no” to that extra doughnut with newfound ease!
• Inner Critic Tamer: Those negative self-talk voices? Hypnotherapy can help quiet them down and replace them with supportive, encouraging messages.
• Visualization Power: Hypnotherapy lets you vividly imagine yourself achieving your goals, building confidence and resilience in the face of challenges.

Resolutions Perfect for Hypnotherapy:

• Breaking unwanted habits: Smoking, nail-biting, overspending – you name it!
• Embracing healthy lifestyles: Exercise, healthy eating, mindfulness – get the support you need to make these sustainable.
• Boosting personal development: Building confidence, overcoming fears, improving relationships – unlock your full potential.

Ready to ditch the ditching and truly achieve your resolutions?

Hypnotherapy isn’t a magic wand, but it can be an amazingly powerful tool in your transformation toolbox. Working with me we can customize a program that addresses your specific goals and challenges. Remember, change takes time and effort on your part, but with the right support, you can turn your New Year’s resolutions into lasting victories.

Bonus Tip: Start small and celebrate each step! Hypnotherapy can help you break down your goals into manageable milestones, making the journey towards success feel less overwhelming and more rewarding.

So, this year, ditch the disappointment and embrace the power of your subconscious mind. With hypnotherapy by your side, you can make this New Year the one where your resolutions not only stick but thrive!

Let’s make 2024 the year you become the best version of yourself!  Just call me on 07976 701223 to see how I can help turn your New Year dreams into reality.

To smokers, vaping seems to be a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes (though many both vap and smoke!) but in my view, the truth is that E-cigarettes are just the latest in a long line of products that take advantage of the fact that most smokers are desperate to quit. As a study from the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention showed: 70% of smokers want to quit…….56% tried to quit……But only a paltry 6% managed to quit!

Why is that? I think it’s because the most used options available – going cold turkey, drugs like Champix, For many smokers, vaping appears to be a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes, although some people both vape and smoke. However, I believe that e-cigarettes are simply the latest products designed to exploit the desire of many smokers to quit. A study from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that while 70% of smokers want to quit, only 56% have attempted to do so, and a mere 6% succeed in quitting!

Why is this the case? In my opinion, the most commonly used methods—quitting cold turkey, medications like Champix, nicotine gum, patches, and vaping—share a fundamental flaw. As a hypnotherapist, I recognise that none of these approaches address the root of addiction, which lies in the unconscious mind.

Effective and rapid influence on the unconscious mind is the essence of hypnotherapy. Instead of spending money on expensive and potentially harmful vapes in an effort to quit, smokers could benefit from visiting me, either in person or online. In just two sessions, I can help untangle the desire to smoke from their unconscious mind, allowing them to live a healthier, wealthier, and longer life.

If you want to break free from nicotine addiction, my highly effective two-session stop smoking hypnotherapy service is available for just £200.nicotine gum and patches as well as e-cigarettes – all share the same fundamental flaw, one that, as a hypnotherapist, I am very much aware The problem is none of them address where addiction lies – the unconscious mind!

Influencing the unconscious mind effectively and rapidly is what hypnotherapy is all about. That’s why I know that instead of buying expensive and sometimes explosive Vapes in an attempt to quit, a smoker could visit me in person or online and quickly untangle the desire to smoke from their unconscious, freeing them to live a healthier, wealthier, longer life.

Want to stop being addicted to nicotine? My highly effective 2-session stop smoking hypnotherapy service costs just £200.

Human beings, in common with all mammals, share the same five defensive states that evolved to help us respond to danger and keep us alive. But what are these five defensive states? And how can they feel like such stressful burdens to us today?

You’re probably familiar with the first two—Fight and Flight—but there are three more that you may not be aware of:

1. Fight: Becoming aggressive in the face of a perceived threat (perception is all!)
2. Flight: The urge to flee a stressful—or seemingly stressful—situation
3. Freeze: A reaction that doesn’t feel like a reaction at all; not being able to think or move
4. Submit: Appeasing others when faced with a threatening situation
5. Attach: Forming unhealthy bonds after perceived situations of stress

Typically, people react in a conditioned way and so one of the above states can become their predominant response.

When our brains react to real threats and perceived threats—they can override our regulated state. And being in hijacked emotional states like these can lead to much unhappiness, frustration, confusion, and exhaustion. Not to mention the effects it can have on our relationships.

With effective hypnotherapy, I can help you uncover and learn how to rise above the hold each state can have on you, see things more clearly, and break free of unhelpful and unnecessary conditioned responses such as high anxiety.

If you are interested in finding out more about how hypnotherapy can help rescue you from emotional hijacking, just text or give me a call at 7976 701223

I had a call today from someone who watched the recording of Derren Brown’s brilliant Showman on Channel 4 last night to ask if I could do what he does!  The answer is yes and no! Yes…I can hypnotise people rapidly and it is a wonderfully powerful altered state….and no, I am not an entertainer or illusionist – I am a hypnotherapist!

As I explained to my caller, Hypnotherapy is a therapeutic technique used by trained hypnotherapists like me to help individuals overcome various mental and physical health issues such as anxiety, depression, addiction, phobias and chronic pain. Hypnotherapy aims to help individuals access the subconscious mind and use it to achieve positive change in their lives.

On the other hand, stage hypnosis is a form of entertainment where a hypnotist (and Derren Brown is a master hypnotist) performs on stage to entertain an audience. Stage hypnosis is not a therapeutic intervention, as the focus is on entertainment rather than therapeutic outcomes. The hypnotist’s goal is to get volunteers from the audience to perform amazing comical or bizarre acts under hypnosis.

And so, the main difference between hypnotherapy and stage hypnosis is the purpose and intention behind each practice. Hypnotherapy is a serious therapeutic treatment that requires extensive training and experience, while stage hypnosis is primarily for entertainment purposes only, although it does of course also demonstrate the power of hypnosis.

One of my favourite reads is the daily blog from the Daily Stoic which contains more timeless, practical wisdom than anything else I have come across on the internet. I also like to include suggestions drawn from Stoicism as appropriate when helping people in hypnosis to make useful changes in their thinking, beliefs and lifestyle habits.

So here is a Daily Stoic blog which I thought I should share as a useful “thought for the day”…..

It might seem like the Stoics didn’t have fun, and didn’t experience pleasure. They did write, after all, quite a bit about the emptiness of chasing sex or money or fine wines. But just because they scorned excess luxury and comfort doesn’t mean their lives were empty and joyless.

Quite the contrary.

In his book The Expanding Circle, the philosopher Peter Singer explains that what they were actually doing was trying to avoid the paradox of hedonism. It’s interesting, he writes, that “those who seek their own pleasure do not find it, and those who do not seek it find it anyway. The pleasures of a self-centred life eventually pall and the drive for still higher levels of luxury and delight brings no lasting satisfaction. Real fulfilment is more likely to be found in working for some other end. Hence, these philosophers claim, that if we want to lead a happy life, we should not seek happiness directly, but should find a larger purpose in life, outside ourselves.”

Perfectly said.

It’s not that the Stoics didn’t experience pleasure, it’s that they found pleasure by seeking purpose. Most of the Stoics had huge fortunes or came from powerful political dynasties. They could have coasted, soaked up all that was given to them. But instead of being lazy or entitled playboys, they were of service to others. They worked on their art. They made scientific breakthroughs. They dedicated themselves to their children. They did their duty.

And from all this hard work came pleasure and pride and satisfaction. Was it the same pleasure that would have come from Rome’s famous bacchanals? No…it was better. Because they earned it. Because it was sustainable. Because it wasn’t something that slipped from their grasp or disappeared every time they got close to it. Because they weren’t pursuing the pleasure, they were pleasantly surprised when it ensued.

​As we talked about recently, the best things in life are byproducts of doing the right things. So it goes for pleasure and happiness and joy. You don’t get them by seeking things for yourself, but by the very opposite, by searching for purpose outside yourself.

I believe the answer lies in that they are “forcing” themselves to do it, whatever it is or was, and this “forced” energy is what people often call willpower. And studies show that willpower alone will only work in the short term – which is EXACTLY why resolutions only last a few weeks for most people.

And so the solution lies in making the desired change to be an involuntary, instinctive way of being,  just something that happens naturally without the inner battle and thus quickly becomes an engrained, automatic habit. And hypnosis is of course a very effective and quick way of changing habits for good.

So well done if you made a New Year’s Resolution and are still sticking to it… but if you have given up, yet still would like to make that goal a reality, maybe its time to make a resolution to see a hypnotherapist instead.

It is rare for me to share a post on my website but this one I think should be read by interested in discovering their highest self.  I also have a selfish interste in sharing it of course since hypnosis is a very rapid and powerful way to remove what this article describes as the “reducing valve” – the limiting beliefs and conditioned responses that stop people from discovering greater joy and fulfilment.

60 Seconds to Higher Consciousness

By Deepak Chopra, MD

No matter what spiritual path you choose, it seems to be an axiom that higher consciousness takes dedicated practice over a long time, perhaps a lifetime. There is also the lingering belief that only the select few, the spiritual elite, are going to succeed. Higher consciousness can’t escape seeming exceptional in its demand for intense inner work.

The overall effect of these beliefs is to discourage the average person from even considering that higher consciousness is within reach. For all practical purposes, society sets those apart who have become enlightened, saintly, or spiritually advanced, choose whatever term you want. In an age of faith such figures were revered; today they are more likely to be viewed as beyond normal life, to be admired, shrugged off, or forgotten.

Much of this is a holdover from the merger of religion, spirituality, and consciousness. For centuries there was no separating the three. Most traditional societies developed a priestly class to guard the sanctity—and privileged status—of reaching near to God. But these trappings are now outdated and even work against the truth, which is that higher consciousness is as natural and effortless as consciousness itself. If you are aware, you can become more aware. There is nothing more to higher consciousness than this logical conclusion.

No matter who you are or what level of consciousness you think you are in, two things always apply. The first is that you use your awareness every day in all kinds of ways. You think, feel, wish, perceive, etc. The second thing is that you have constricted your awareness, through a process that the English writer Aldous Huxley called the reducing valve. Instead of finding yourself in a state of expanded awareness, you edit, censor, ignore, and deny many aspects of reality. The reducing valve squeezes “whole mind,” another term favored by Huxley, to a small flow of permissible thoughts, perceptions, and feelings.

The reducing valve takes years to form, and much of what happens consists of social conditioning, which shapes us almost unconsciously. There is the huge influence of negative experiences that give rise to fear, the memory of pain, and the desire to be less open and more closed off for the sake of defending yourself. But positive experiences also can constrict your awareness, because likes and dislikes operate together. “Yes to this” and “No to that” is like a pendulum whose swing we ride for a lifetime. So powerful are our reasons for reducing reality that we grow to fear, dislike, and deny the possibility of whole mind.

Yet by definition whole mind cannot be destroyed, only distorted. A simple example is contained in the word “Hello.” Whenever someone says hello, they open a channel of experience that has little to do with the dictionary definition of the word.

If you aren’t using the reducing valve, this is what “hello” can communicate:

• Tone of voice
• Mood
• State of two people’s relationship
• Memories of past encounters
• Foretelling of what might happen next
• Signals of acceptance or rejection
• Alerts to possible threat or, on the other hand, possible welcome.

Can so much be contained in a single word? Absolutely. The study of linguistics packs all these layered experiences inside everyday language. The next time someone says hello, open yourself to the wider experience you are having. Is the other person feeling friendly or indifferent? Are you reminded of old thoughts of this person? Does your mood suddenly change? What’s the vibe being created between you?

If a traffic cop stops you and walks up to your car, his hello and yours in reply have the same dictionary definition as when someone you are deeply infatuated with says hello. But the two encounters carry vastly different meanings, which our antennae always pick up. They pick up everything unless we use the reducing valve. But 99% of the time we do use it. We don’t want the traffic cop to see that we are angry, scared, annoyed, or guilty. We don’t want the loved one we are infatuated with to see anything but what we think will seem desirable.

In a word, we feel safer and more in control by editing reality, and yet even if such feelings are attained, we pay a high cost. The reducing valve makes every situation a reflection or repetition of an older experience. It enforces routine. It puts other people, and ourselves, into a box. Very little of our everyday experience is appreciated as new and fresh, even though as viewed by whole mind, every moment is unique and unpredictable, open to infinite possibilities. Great painters have looked at the same trees, grass, clouds, and flowers that you pass by without notice and turned them into beautiful visions. Nothing is so mundane that is cannot be a source of wonder, creativity, love, and the deep satisfaction of being alive, here and now.

That last sentence is the key—it opens the door to higher consciousness not just in a minute but instantly. You are naturally nothing less than whole mind; the reducing valve minimizes your potential by an unmeasurable extent. How do you measure the next opportunity to feel wonder after the opportunity has vanished? What value is lost when “hello” is a ritualized word with hardly any meaning once all the possible meanings have been squeezed out of it?

It is in those questions that the motivation lies for expanding your awareness. You can do it here and now, without effort. Just realize, once and for all, that higher consciousness is the most natural, effortless, and fulfilling way to live. From there, infinity follows.

Deepak Chopra MD, FACP, founder of The Chopra Foundation

The Importance Of Quality Sleep

Quality sleep is one of the most important ways to improve your brain function, longevity, and overall performance. If you can sleep better, you’ll see huge gains in almost every area of your life.

Poor sleep, on the other hand, is one of the fastest ways to sabotage your biology. One night of low-quality sleep impairs your brain function as if you had a few drinks –– and if you go a full night without sleep, your mental performance drops as if you had a blood alcohol content which is well over the legal limit for driving. Poor sleep comes with major costs.

Stress is one of the most common causes of low-quality sleep. It can create a frustrating feedback loop where the more stressed you are, the worse you sleep –– which then adds to your stress, continuing the cycle.

How Stress Affects Your Sleep

When you’re sleeping, you enter a deep recovery state. Your brain and body largely shut off so that they can repair and replenish themselves for the coming day.

Sleep is also when you’re least aware of your environment and most vulnerable to threats. In order to relax into deep sleep, your sympathetic nervous system – the “fight or flight” part of your brain that influences cortisol – has to turn off.

The problem is that when you’re chronically stressed, your sympathetic nervous system goes into overdrive. It’s on almost all the time, pumping out cortisol to keep you alert and ready to deal with potential threats.

Not surprisingly, chronic stress is one of the best predictors of insomnia and other sleep issues, as well as overall poor sleep quality.

The good news is that you can break that cycle, get rid of stress, and improve your sleep with hypnotherapy.

I came across this in a post recently and it made me usefully pause for thought and want me to share it with you too….

Many of the ancient wisdom schools hold the same beliefs and principles for living  at their core.

Whether we’re talking about Ayurvedic Medicine, Amazonian Shamanism, or the powerful healing arts of Ancient China, you will find they’re rooted in the same profound observations.

Many of these understandings about the human spirit and the mysterious patterns of nature have been forgotten in our modern age. It’s time to remember.

The passage below, from the Tao Te Ching, is a powerful universal law that transcends culture, space and time. I hope you enjoy this ancient wisdom as much as I do!

Tao Te Ching – Lao Tzu – Verse 8

The supreme good is like water,
which nourishes all things without trying to.
It flows to the low places loathed by all men.
Therefore, it is like the Tao.
Live in accordance with the nature of things.
In dwelling, be close to the land.
In meditation, go deep in the heart.
In dealing with others, be gentle and kind.
In speech, be true.
In ruling be just.
In action, watch the timing.
No fight: No blame.
One who lives in accordance with nature does not go against the way of things.
They move in harmony with the present moment,
always knowing the truth of just what to do.