Seasonal Affective Disorder

male dression silhouette

Light, Exercise, and Diet Help Combat Seasonal Affective Disorder

Transitioning to the long, dark days of winter usually takes a little time. It’s hard reacclimatising to waking up in the dark and returning home from work in the dark. For most people, adjusting to the change of season once again as everyday activities move indoors is just business as usual. However, according to American Family Physician, as much as 6 percent of the population suffers from a form of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which is also known as winter depression.
Fatigue, an unhealthy craving for carbohydrates, and a persistently bad mood are common symptoms of SAD. In the more severe cases, work productivity may suffer and individuals might avoid going outside altogether. Feelings of hopelessness and low motivation often ensue. When SAD impairs your ability to function normally, it’s time to adopt self-help strategies that can help get you reenergised.
Light
Research has shown that a lack of exposure to natural light is a leading cause of seasonal affective disorder. It creates a hormonal imbalance that has a direct effect on mood and motivation. House lamps aren’t strong enough and often use the wrong kind of light (white light is necessary). A light box, one that generates at least 10,000 lux (100 times stronger than a lightbulb), is usually prescribed in such cases. They’re made specifically for the treatment of seasonal affective disorder, and they’re safe because they filter out ultraviolet light. In fact, some people keep a light box at work so they’re exposed to light throughout the day. It’s also important to get as much exposure to natural light as possible. If you can, make a point of taking a walk on your lunch hour or walk (or ride a bicycle) to the store instead of driving.

Balanced Diet
People who struggle with SAD tend to overeat comfort foods that are heavy in carbohydrates, which causes weight gain. Overeating becomes a form of unhealthy emotional compensation, so it’s important to stick with a balanced diet that includes plenty of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and protein. Emphasise foods rich in vitamin D, a byproduct of sunlight which is in short supply late in the year. Salmon, eggs, mushrooms, and foods rich in omega 3 are especially beneficial late in the year.
Find Ways to Stay Active
Exercise is a good way to improve your mental outlook. It activates feel-good hormones in the brain that encourage you to continue exercising. Physical activity gets your blood flowing and heart pumping, a self-invigorating form of care that can help you overcome the effects of fatigue and lethargy. Research has shown that even one hour of exercise a week can mitigate the effects of depression.
Social Interaction
Getting out and about may be the last thing an individual plagued by seasonal affective disorder feels like doing, but it’s important for combatting poor moods and feelings of isolation. Simple acts like going for a walk outdoors with a neighbor or relative can improve your sense of well-being. Or, make a point of having coffee with a friend once a week at your favourite shop. Sometimes, just sharing happy memories with people you care about can have an uplifting effect on your spirits.
Meditate and Contemplate
Sometimes, engaging in contemplative disciplines like meditation and journaling can help you achieve a new perspective, one that helps you overcome depression and keep problems in their proper perspective. Meditation is a good way to strengthen the mind-body connection, whereas keeping a journal helps you make sense of your thoughts and feelings in a way that nothing else can.
Gut Health
It’s very difficult to feel good about things when your digestive health is suffering. Maintaining a balance between good and bad gut bacteria is essential for good digestion and your overall physical well-being.
Caring for your mental and physical needs can help stave off the emotionally debilitating effects of seasonal affective disorder. So, remember to stay physically active and set aside some time to process your thoughts, both of which are important strategies when the long days and lack of sunlight weigh down on you.
With special thanks to guest blogger Kimberly Hayes

If you would like more information about how our service can help with SAD or any other form of generalised anxiety disorder then click here for a FREE exploratory consultation.

Wishing you a peaceful day,
David Faratian





Spider season is approaching!


cartoon-spider

Practically every year as summer waves goodbye and autumn re introduces itself with a hint of cooling and wetter weather, I can get my calendar out and circle some key dates. What dates you ask? The dates in question are during September and reflect the start of spider season and dates which invariably result in people calling up a service like mine and seeking help for this uninvited ‘terror’. Spiders suddenly seem to be crawling out of the woodwork and terrifying the nations many sufferers. The truth is of course that spiders don’t just appear in autumn and are always present throughout the year but just like anything we give focus to, we are more likely to notice them if we choose to and certainly more because we believe autumn is the worst time for spiders. Unfortunately when we have had a wet summer the chance of noticing these little visitors is more likely but you know that already so what’s the point of my blog?

Spider phobia or as you already know it, arachnophobia, affects 55% of women and 18% of men in the UK. It is a real phobia in the sense that it causes all the symptoms of panic and triggers the freeze, flight and fight response in the sufferer which is hard wired for impending danger and a need to defend oneself from attack. Truth is of course that in our country the number of truly ‘dangerous’ spiders amounts to 0.01 % and even then none of those breeds are found in the typical house spider which is what we are talking about here. When it comes to be scared of spiders our irrational minds, also known as our limbic response builds a picture of the spider being a much bigger entity than it actually is, whether that’s the body, movement, legs, we tend to experience a perception of a creature that belongs more in a 60s horror film rather than reflecting the wholly non threatening insect it actually is. So why is a tiny insect that’s only function is to hide and survive and an insect that certainly has no mission for human domination such a perceived problem. Let's not fool ourselves, spiders are not very attractive and certainly wouldn't win any beauty pageants but they are also not the monster our minds tell us they are. Spider phobia, like most phobias is nine times out of ten born out the unfortunate association we make with them at moment in time, usually childhood when a spider may have caught our eye and caused a spontaneous moment of panic which resulted in the release of the threat hormones cortisol and adrenalin. Now as adults our conscious brains may have forgotten that experience, but since that point when we may have been too young and defenceless to rationalise the startled feelings, we therefore get good at over generalising every future experience which involves an encounter with any spider and those old feelings just reinforce the already negative learning and so the phobia around spiders is born.

But it doesn’t end there. Once a person declares themselves a spider phobic, they begin projecting into the future, creating an anticipation of how they are likely to feel when encountering the next spider even though they haven’t even seen one. In other words, they anticipate anxiety before even having any justification for this belief. Then again, why would they feel any other way. Every single experience in spiders has never been a positive one and they have had no way of rationalising or neutralising these thoughts to create a more positive point of reference and so the phobia seems incurable and debilitating. The end result is more often than not an over anxious person, especially around this time of year, who is constantly on guard and worried. When, God forbid, a person actually encounters a spider then they have to get someone else to remove it or they never enter that room again. This of course is all too common for anyone who identifies with this unfortunate limiting belief.

So can it be dealt with. Can you be spider phobia free, and be cured? The simple answer without any doubt whatsoever is YES. That’s where I come in. Here at the Cumbria Hypnosis Clinic we recognise the fact that spider phobia is a construct of the emotional sub conscious brain. That being the case it is also true that is has been programmed through experience and memory to believe spiders are a threat, therefore the emotional, irrational brain can also be re-programmed through a number of psychological processes to recognise new and more empowering feelings around the encounter, whether in reality or just imagined, with a spider. The sub conscious, responsible for the majority of our independent, thoughts, feelings and emotions can be imprinted with a new set of reference points which teach the individual suffering with the phobia to recognise the thought of a spider is simply not resulting in any anxious feelings, no sense of impending doom and there can even be a sense of feeling more and more relaxed around the very thought of the spider and experience which practically wipes clear the old connection and replaces it with thoughts of confidence and being able to function.

"Since seeing David I have been free from my fear around spiders for more than four years. My husband mentioned it was that time of year again the other day and I hadn't even realised nor was I bothered. Anyone thinking about this, all I can say is give it a go, it worked for me" Jane S (Windermere Cumbria)

What I teach you is set of practical, no nonsense skills, which don’t require any effort, to help develop a sense of independence and confidence around thoughts to do with spiders. This process is highly effective and permanent for more than 85% of the population. If you have been a sufferer or you are currently reading this and want to know more, then please click this link for more information and opportunity to have a free phone consultation. As with every treatment offered by Cumbria Hypnosis I offer the guarantee that if I don’t feel you qualify as one of the 85% then you won’t pay a single penny and so there is absolutely no risk for you if you are not completely sure this is is for you. Remember that any limiting belief you weren’t born with can be changed and removed so why continue suffering…..?


I look forward to being able to explain how I can help you.

Regards

David Faratian (NLP Practitioner and Clinical Hypnotherapist)


5 ways to detect if someone is lying

liar-picture



One of the many skills of human survival has been a person’s ability to tell a lie. We often lie to protect ourselves or others from being emotionally injured in some way. Of course lying has also got a darker side where deception is the main goal, whether to commit and cover up inappropriate actions or else to deceive and manipulate. However, there is one thing that will always be true and that is the fact that most people cannot help but give away their lie through the 80% of non verbal communication, which we as human beings are all hard wired for. You see you may be able to deceive through your words but there are always trails of deception communicated through other unconscious cues.

In a study of non-verbal cues that are signs of lying, researchers say rubbing, touching, or blowing the nose are all ways to tell if someone’s lying. When it comes to detecting a lie, scientists believe, stress causes an increase of blood to the extremities which causes tingling in the nose. This explains why people tend to rub their noses when they are feeling uncomfortable in some way. Of course other areas of our bodies are equally able to betray a lie, especially the eyes. Have you ever watched someones eyes? Sometimes people don’t realise how the direction their eyes move when done subconsciously can tell a great deal about whether what they are saying is created or remembered. You can learn more by watching this short video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dNg5gi_-dY

Other common signs that someone could be lying to you:

  • Tripping over words and using ‘um’ or ‘uh’ as filler words
  • Long pauses before answering
  • Evading the question
  • Using ‘well’ at the beginning of a sentence
  • Use of the words ‘no,’ ‘do not,’ or ‘cannot’
  • Higher pitch/tone of voice
  • Keeping eye contact longer than usual
  • Folding arms
  • Touching throat (for women this is a sign of lying)
  • Holding something in front of them, like a piece of paper
  • Clasping hands together
  • Positioning feet towards the exit
  • Hand gestures don’t match what is being said
  • Not using any hand gestures
  • Blinking often
  • Moving the fingers

At the Cumbria Hypnosis Clinic we use some of the eye accessing cues you have just read about to deal with emotional blocks, anxieties and fears. If you would like to find out how an unconscious movement of the eyes which can be used to detect a lie can be equally effective at dealing with emotional problems then please feel free to Contact us following the link on this page.
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Stage Fright Anxiety



fear public speaking

Not so long ago I had a client who came to see me about a lack of confidence standing in front of colleagues. Paul (name changed) from just outside Ulverston in Cumbria had recently been promoted to a position which required him to over see a number of colleagues some of which he had known for a number of years and informally. Even though he had confidence in every area of his job he still felt a subconscious sense of incompetence when it came to this new role. When it comes to self image and confidence, the internal dialogue which is usually quite unhelpful can make someone doubt not only their own validity but their own ability to perform. Public speaking, and in fact, any kind of performance, often triggers the subconscious release of adrenaline into the system in anticipation of being recognised and respected by the audience the person is standing in front of. Stage fright, as any actor will tell you is a very real problem.

People who have a fear of public speaking very often have encountered a sense of embarrassment at some point in their lives, probably when they were made to stand up in front of a group of peers at school and deliver a presentation of one kind or another, which left them feeling nervous and unsuccessful, regardless of whether that was true or not. This core memory then unfortunately gets locked away in the subconscious and becomes a point of reference for all future encounters with any kind of situation involving speeches and/or performing. With Hypnotherapy this core memory can be re-calibrated so that it can be replaced with a much more positive outlook which can then eliminate a person's nerves and lack of self belief

With Paul from Ulverston we were able to furnish him with a set of psychological tools which he was then able to use before and during his contact with his new colleagues. Once he was able to prove to himself that he was no longer feeling the same level of nervousness he in effect created a new core memory for future competent and self assured performances when functioning within his new role. The process was quick and effective and in fact this is what Paul had to say recently.

“Since coming to see you David (Cumbria Hypnosis) I finally feel I have found my feet in this new job. At first I was sceptical whether hypnosis would be the thing for me, but after just a few sessions it became clear that this stuff really works. I now feel so much more in control and just want to thank you again”

Neurolinguistic programming and Hypnosis can be profoundly helpful when it comes to dealing with self-image and confidence. With our clinic helping people from all over Cumbria, including Ulverston, support for this issue has never been more readily available.

If you would like to explore your options when it comes to developing greater self belief and confidence when dealing with any situation involving public performance, whether for your job or for a private reason then follow the link HERE to be re-directed to our dedicated page.



Why hypnotherapy can effectively remove fear


fear-control

Hypnosis can play a powerful role in dealing with most fears and phobias. The reason it is so effective is because when we are scared of something we initially create a picture of that particular fear in our minds. This in turn triggers the fight or flight response which everyone commonly knows as adrenaline. The problem is is that very often any kind of anxiety based fear which can also result in inappropriate panic attacks is based on thousands of years of evolution where we were initially primed to have this fight or flight response facing real danger, like maybe running away from some kind of ferocious predator. Although the time has passed where we are facing man eating monsters on a day to day basis, that fight or flight response is still conditioned through evolution and can trigger unnecessary fear even though there is no immediate danger.

Through hypnosis and neuro-linguistic programming NLP, the subject can be trained to have exactly the same thoughts but without the same emotional response. This means that the person suffering from a fear of flying, or spiders or a fear of needles or dentists can still think about those experiences but the emotional link is broken and once the neurological link is removed so too is the release of adrenaline which then allows the person to have a much more relaxed, comfortable, and controlled response to the initial fear. In effect the phobia, the anxiety and the panic attack can be instantly eradicated. Moreover, once the subject recognises the fact that they are able to have the same thoughts without the same feelings then naturally the new pattern of confidence develops.

Here at the Cumbria Hypnosis Habit Change Clinic we help people to deal with a full range of fears and phobias using a unique blend of different tools including hypnosis. If you are suffering from a similar condition and would like to know more then you can visit our dedicated link on anxiety which will give you a lot more information about the service we provide. 

David Faratian (NLP Practitioner and clinical hypnotherapist)