One of the most common (and often misdiagnosed or dismissed) symptom of Perimenopause is anxiety.
If you are experiencing anxiety it’s likely affecting your social life and relationships. You actively avoid certain people or situations (sound familiar?).
So you’re not going to like the answer that I’m going to offer. Actually, if you are experiencing anxiety in a particular area of your life I can GUARANTEE you won’t like it.
It most likely goes against every natural instinct you have.
What is it?
Simply, you need to face it. You need to expose yourself to the person, place or situation that is causing the anxiety in order for it to subside.
You see, when we experience anxiety, it starts with some negative thoughts
“I can’t do this”,
“the plane will crash”,
“I’ll forget what to say”
…..you fill in the gap with your own negative thoughts.
And is often accompanied by physical sensations…..maybe a knot in your throat or stomach, excessive sweating, flushed cheeks.
Like a wave, they build in intensity, increasing our anxiety and our natural response is avoidance. We do everything we can do avoid these thoughts and feelings. When in fact we need to do the opposite. When we can embrace the discomfort, it reaches a peak and WILL decline. It’s just that we never allow ourselves to hold the anxiety and be IN it.
The more we expose ourselves and embrace the discomfort, the lesser the anxiety becomes and the quicker the recovery time (I promise!).
How hypnosis can bridge the gap
One of the reasons I love hypnosis is that it uses the power of our imagination.
To think and feel as if you are in a situation.
When we harness our imagination so powerfully and imagine ourselves how we want to feel, think or act in a situation we create a new neural pathway in our brain. And like any path, the more it is used, the clearer it becomes.
The magic of this, is that our brain can’t tell the difference between what is imagined and what is real.
This makes it an ideal tool for anxiety. If you’re not ready to rip the band aid off and go head on into the situation that makes you anxious, Hypnosis can bridge the gap helping you to imagine how you want to think, feel and act in a situation. With repetition this becomes your default and helps build confidence to take the first steps in facing the anxiety inducing situation in real life.
If you want to hear more about how I use Hypnosis to install and anchor in new beliefs check out this video.