Thursday 27 September 2007

Get Rid of Phobias with Download Hypnosis MP3

I have set up a website listing a wide variety of fears and phobias with appropriate Hypnosis MP3 Downloads.

Hypnosis helps people to overcome fears and phobias, no matter how minor or limiting they are to the person, in a deeply relaxed and pleasant manner, rather than the head-on way used by Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT).

Instead of being shut away in a box, you can overcome claustrophobia whilst relaxed. Instead of allowing large spiders or rats to crawl over you, you can overcome those phobias whilst relaxed.

Click here to visit Hypnosis 4 Phobias

The fears and phobias are grouped:

1. Social fears
2. Common fears and phobias
3. Medical Fears

Rather than live with a limiting fear, a hypnosis MP3 download can rid you of the problem within 60 minutes.

Click here to visit Hypnosis 4 Phobias

Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium helping people to make positive change.

Wednesday 26 September 2007

Treating Claustrophobia

Claustrophobia is an exagerated fear of closed-in spaces,being in crowds or even in large spaces. We have a natural defence mechanism which seeks to prevent us being crushed, buried, suffocated to the point that we cannot breathe. The fear can lead to fainting and panic attacks. Just being in a crowd can cause panic.

Lifts/elevators are a common problem. A person will feel trapped and worry about every sound or jolt. Even the alternative stairs can feel repressive.

Any phobia leads to the perceived problem being exagerated, that the worst is about to happen. A desire for our own space, air and unfettered movement is normal but lack can cause panic. Classic fight or flight responses include rapid breathing, increased heart rate and shaking.

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) is a popular form of treatment for any phobia but its many techniques involves heading the fear head-on and submitting oneself to the extremes of the fear. This seems like torture.

I watched a programme(1) with American psychologist Dr Michael Telch treating a 20 year old female claustrophobic. The girl said that she had been told that CBT is 100% effective but she doubted how being placed in extreme situations of fear would help. In the second session the girl was placed in an enclosed chamber or box to recreate the idea of a coffin and told that she had to lie there for a couple of minutes without screaming or attempting to escape. She started with a fear level and fear of danger of 85% and after two minutes, this lowered to 75% as her breathing started to slow. The next step was a private guided walk down into a cave, somewhere she had never been before but just a normal tourist walk, no attempt at pot-holing or climbing between cave crevices. Finally, we saw here walking along a river where previously she had fainted due to the crowd. She felt comfortable and enjoyed the walk. The therapist considered her relieved of her phobia.

Personally, I fail to see how exiting from a locked coffin with a high 75% fear level, walking around a large cave and then freely by a river means that the phobia has been eradicated. As someone who has suffered from the claustrophobic effect of being strapped into a MRI scanner, the idea of the closed box was unbearable.

Hypnosis is also very effective at treating claustrophobia but in a gentle, almost detached way. The unconscious mind cannot distinguish between real and imagined and under the deep relaxation experienced in hypnosis, the person seeking help is exposed to fearful situations but without provoking fear. The message is then rewritten direct in the subconscious so that the fear is released, calmly and permanently.

The basis of much hypnosis work is ego-strengthening, ie making the person feel more confident, more "comfortable in their skin" and part of this process is identifying a time when the person felt really good, positive, on top of the world and fully in control. The therapist then locks in that feeling, often with an NLP technique so that the person can recreate that feeling whenever necessary.

The hypnotherapist will then desensitize the person's fear by replacing it with positive emotions. The person may never love what has caused a phobia but the desired outcome is that the person will regain control over the fear and experience a "normal" reaction to the source of fear.

(1) "Phobia" produced by Pangolin Pictures for National Geographic Channel, 2002

Click here for a Hypnosis MP3 Download "Overcoming Claustrophobia"

Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium helping people to make positive change.

Tuesday 25 September 2007

Can Hypnosis Really Help a Variety of Conditions?

Hypnosis links you direct with your subconscious mind. This part of your brain controls every part of your body, both the physical functions and the thoughts. It stores every experience you have ever been through and filters the day-to-day information given to the conscious mind. It is where habits and fears are formed, often for reasons of which we are unaware consciously. Through deep relaxation, first of body, then of mind, you relax the conscious part of your mind thus giving direct access to the subconscious. This focusses your imagination and allows positive change to occur very quickly.

You are always in control. Your hypnotherapist or recorded hypnosis session guides you into relaxation allowing that access and makes positive suggestions to help you. But hypnosis is not something that is done to you. For an effective result, you must use your powers of intelligence, imagination and concentration which sometimes involves imagining scenes or particular experiences. For example, you might be asked to recall a time when you felt on top of the world, extremely happy, unstoppable and a NLP technique can make a trigger for you to use allowing you to summon up that really positive feeling in an instant.

The subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between real and imagined but it will create the image presented. So, if overweight, hypnosis will change the picture you hold of yourself in your mind into one of you after the weight loss you wish to achieve. See how that looks, feel how it feels and keep practising that image so that your subconcious creates that as a new reality.

Hypnosis is very effective and quick at overcoming unwanted habits such as smoking, nail biting, hair pulling. In fact, research has shown hypnosis to be the most effective way to stop smoking.

Hypnosis also helps overcome fears and phobias, lower anxiety, stop panic attacks, build confidence and self-esteem. Public speaking fear, exam nerves, poor sports performance despite many lessons with a trainer in the sport can all be helped by a hypnotherapist.

On the medical side, many illnesses are caused by stress and learning self-hypnosis is a valuable tool to coping with stress. In this way, high blood pressure can be reduced, irritable bowel syndrome can be treated without medication, also skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. In fact, a long list of medical conditions have been helped by hypnosis.

Hypnosis is also used as an alternative to anaesthesia, in such cases as dental patients who are scared of injections. The pains of childbirth can be lessened and specific techniques help pain control in general, even in extreme cases such as terminally ill cancer patients who are already taking high doses of morphine.

Having privately tailored hypnotherapy sessions with a hypnotherapist is always the best way to overcome a particular problem but if this is not possible for whatever reason, hypnosis MP3 downloads are an effective alternative. Hundreds of subjects are available.

Click on this banner for Hypnosis MP3 downloads



Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium helping people making positive change.

Why Does Hypnosis Work for Such a Variety of Conditions?

Hypnosis links you direct with your subconscious mind. Through deep relaxation, first of body, then of mind, you relax the conscious part of your mind thus giving direct access to the subconscious. This focusses your imagination and allows positive change to occur very quickly.

You are always in control. Your hypnotherapist or recorded hypnosis session guides you into relaxation allowing that access and makes positive suggestions to help you. But hypnosis is not something that is done to you. You must use your powers of intelligence, imagination and concentration which sometimes involves imagining scenes or particular experiences. For example, you might be asked to recall a time when you felt on top of the world, extremely happy, unstoppable and a NLP technique can

The subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between real and imagined but it will create the image presented. So, if overweight, hypnosis will change the picture you hold of yourself in your mind into one of you at the weight you wish to be. See how that looks, feel how it feels and keep practising that image so that your subconcious creates that as a new reality.

Hypnosis is very effective and quick at overcoming unwanted habits such as smoking, nail biting, hair pulling.

Hypnosis also helps overcome fears and phobias, lower anxiety, stop panic attacks, build confidence and self-esteem.

On the medical side, many illnesses are caused by stress and learning self-hypnosis is a valuable tool to coping with stress. In this way, high blood pressure can be reduced, irritable bowel syndrome can be treated without medication, also skin conditions such as psoriasis and eczema. In fact, a long list of medical conditions have been helped by hypnosis.

Hypnosis is also used as an alternative to anaesthesia, in such cases as dental patients who are scared of injections. The pains of childbirth can be lessened and specific techniques help pain control in general, even in extreme cases such as terminally ill cancer patients who are already taking high doses of morphine.

© Antonia Stuart-James 2007 - English Hypnotherapist in Belgium helping people to make positive change.

Tuesday 18 September 2007

Read This if You Are a Smoker

If you smoke:
• You will be 12x more likely to die from lung cancer.
• You will be 10x more likely to die from some form of lung disease.
• You will be 10x more likely to die from cancer of the larynx.
• You will be 6x more likely to die of heart disease.
• You will be 2x as likely to die of a stroke.

Stop Smoking today with a Download Hypnosis MP3 session

There are 4000 chemical compounds present in the inhaled smoke, 43 of which are known carcinogens. One ingredient is acetone, an ingredient in nail polish remover. Arsenic - the ingredient that is used to kill rats!

Heart disease is the biggest killer relating to smoking. Worldwide, there were 1,690,000 premature deaths from cardiovascular disease among smokers in the year 2000. In contrast, there were “only” 850,000 lung cancer deaths from smoking in the same year.

Smoking whilst pregnant can cause: Spontaneous abortion/miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, Abruptio placentae, placenta previa, Premature rupture of the membranes, premature birth and stillbirth. Plus there are risks to the fetus: underweight infant, birth defects, e.g. congenital limb reduction, increased nicotine receptors in baby's brain, increased likelihood of child smoking as a teenager, possible physical and mental long-term effects.

Smoking affects every part of the body:

- Hair: Smell and staining
- Brain and Mental Effects: Stroke(cerebrovascular accidents), Addiction/withdrawal, Altered brain chemistry, Anxiety about harm caused by smoking
- Eyes: Eyes sting, water and blink more, potential blindness through macular degeneration and cataracts.
- Nose: Less sense of smell
- Skin: wrinkles and Premature aging
- Teeth: Discoloration and stains, Plaque, Loose teeth and gingivitis/gum disease.
- Mouth and Throat: cancer of lips, mouth, throat and larynx, sore throat, reduced sense of taste and Breath smells of smoke
- Hands: Poor circulation(cold fingers), peripheral vascular disease, tar stained fingers.
- Respiration and Lungs: lung cancer, cough, shortness of breath, asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema
- Heart: blocks and weakens arteries, heart attack.
- Chest: cancer of the aesophagus.
- Liver: cancer
- Abdomen: stomach and duodenal ulcers, cancer of stomach, pancreas and colon, aortic aneurysm.
- Kidneys and bladder: cancer
- Bones: osteoporosis, spine and hip fractures
- Spine: degenerative disc disease
- Male reproduction: Sperm: deformity,loss of motility, reduced number, infertility, impotence
- Female reproduction: early menopause, cancer of cervix, Infertility and delay in conception
- Blood: leukaemia
- Legs and Feet: Increased leg pain and gangrene: peripheral vascular disease, Beurger’s Disease
- Immune System: Weakened

What Happens When You Quit
This is what happens to your lungs after you quit smoking.
* Within 20 minutes of quitting your heart rate begins to drop.
* Twelve hours off the smokes brings your carbon monoxide levels to normal.
* Between two weeks and three months smoke free you begin to lower your risk of heart attacks and your lung function improves.
* Within one to nine months, you will find that your coughing level is lowered and your lung capacity increases.
* One year and you have already cut your risk of a coronary heart disease to half of what it was when you were smoking.
* Fifteen years and you now have the same risk as a non smoker of having a coronary heart attack.

Don't waste any more of your life on cigarettes. They offer you absolutely nothing of value. Take back your life! You deserve to be free!

Four million people die every year due to tobacco use around the world. A smoking-related death occurs somewhere in the world every eight seconds, 365 days a year.

5 Reasons to Quit Smoking
1) Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and the leading cause of death caused by smoking. The toxins in cigarette smoke cause plaques to form in the arteries, which leads to atherosclerosis, otherwise known as hardening of the arteries. Smoking is hard on the heart.
2) Stroke
According to the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States, killing upwards of 150,000 people each year. For smokers, the risk of stroke is nearly 2-1/2 times that of nonsmokers.
3) Lung Cancer
According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 213,380 new cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed - and 160,390 deaths will occur - in 2007 from lung cancer in the United States alone. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death for both men and women, and with 87% of all lung cancer cases involving tobacco, it is one form of cancer that is preventable.
4) Emphysema/COPD
Tobacco use is the number one cause of COPD, and quitting smoking is the best way to halt further damage. It is estimated that as many as 10 million Americans suffer from COPD, with upwards of 14 million others who may have it but are undiagnosed. In the US, it was the fourth leading cause of death in 2000 and projections place it as the third leading cause by the year 2020.
5) Oral Cancer
Oral cancer (mouth cancer) is included in a specific group of cancers called oral and head and neck cancer. It's estimated that 70 to 80 percent of all cases of OHNC are due to tobacco use and heavy alcohol consumption.

There's No Time Like The Present...
If you are thinking about quitting, a good place to start is exactly where you avoided going in the past. Delve into the facts and figures about how destructive tobacco is. Learn exactly what you risk when you light up, day after day, year after year.

Realise that nicotine causes addiction. Using nicotine patches or chewing gum to stop smoking just keeps you addicted to smoking.

Sources:
1."What are the Key Statistics About Lung Cancer?" 25 October 2006. American Cancer Society.
2. "Cancer Facts and Figures 2007." 2007 American Cancer Society.
3. "Facts About Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease." 2004. U.S. COPD Coalition.
4. "NCHS - FASTATS - Leading Causes of Death." 06 October 2006. National Center for Health Statistics
5. QuitSmoking.about.com

"Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. Willpower, it turns out, counts for very little". New Scientist, Volume 136 issue 1845 31 Oct 1992, page 6)

You can choose to stop smoking today if you download a hypnosis MP3 session. Within 60 minutes from downloading, you can be a non-smoker, an ex-smoker, a healthy new person.

Download a Hypnosis MP3 session to stop smoking

The decision is yours.

"If we see you smoking we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action." ~Douglas Adams

Thursday 13 September 2007

7 Public Speaking Survival Tips

I used to be terrified of public speaking - now it's natural and fun. Dry mouth, fast heart, sweaty palms, blank mind - yes I've been there! It's easy to fear public speaking. But I was never just content with overcoming fear. I wanted to be a great speaker. What I needed was a way of calming down and applying simple techniques and strategies to talk like a pro. When I'd learned to relax (more of that later) I learned and applied the following four steps:

1. Reassure your audience - they need to know you know your stuff and you are human!
2. Hook them by being interesting and relevant. Tell them why what you are saying is relevant to them.
2. Inspire them by giving them information and ways of seeing that are new and applicable.
3. Leave them on a high by telling a story them encapsulates your central message.

How do you become confident enough to apply the four steps? Here's some tips some of which are practical some of which are to do with the way you think about your public presentations and also how you can start to change the way you feel about them.

Tip One
Breathe your way to calm. When you breathe out you relax that's why people sigh when they're stressed. Breathing in without breathing out causes hyperventilation and worsens anxiety. Just before your speech take five minutes breathing in to the count of seven and out to the count of eleven (quick count-not seconds!). On the out breath hold it a second before breathing in again. This will produce quick and lasting calm. Remember extending the out breath calms you down

Tip Two
You have a responsibility as the presenter but relax you don't carry all the responsibility. Presenting is a team effort. Audiences are responsible for politeness, extending their attention and attempting to learn. It's not all you-it's a meeting of two halves. Never mind how they judge you. How do you judge them?

Tip Three
Use metaphor and stories. We all experience life metaphorically. The most technical logical person spends at least two hours a night dreaming! Talk detail if necessary but present patterns with metaphors. Folk from 4 to 104 love stories so use them.

Tip four
Captivate attention by using words that evoke all the senses. Describe how things look, sound, feel, smell and taste. Paint pictures and sensations in their minds with your words

Tip Five
Vary your voice tonality and speed of delivery. Keep them alert and engaged. Convey energy when need be and slow down when you need to 'draw them in close.' You are the conductor to their orchestra. And pepper your talk with humour. Your willingness to be funny shows personal confidence and confidence is contagious.

Tip Six
Tell them what they are going to get. What they are currently getting and then what they have got from you. Sell your sizzle!

Tip Seven
Watch and learn from other great speakers until compelling, relaxed speaking is a part of you. Rehearse positively. You need to rehearse how your going to feel as well as what you are going to present. Don't think about your forthcoming presentation whilst feeling nervous as this creates an instinctive association between fear and presenting. This natural negative self-hypnosis is very common with nervous speakers. Hypnotically rehearse your speech whilst feeling relaxed. This produces the right 'blueprint' in your mind. In fact when you do this enough times it actually becomes hard to be nervous! All great speakers know how to use great self-hypnotic rehearsal. Hypnosis changes attitudes and can bring emotion under control. I used hypnosis, to change my instincts around public speaking. Now I just can't get nervous whether it's 50 or 500 people. The world needs great communicators. Go for it!

Cure your fear of public speaking at HypnosisDownloads.com

Article by Mark Tyrrell of Hypnosis Downloads.com.

Wednesday 12 September 2007

Psychological Aspects of Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic, relapsing and usually lifelong condition. Patients with psoriasis often lose hope that their condition can be managed. This may lead to poor treatment compliance. It is a well established fact that in addition to physical discomfort and disability, psoriasis can produce anxiety, depression and other psychological problems, which in turn can aggravate the disease.

A number of studies have shown that psychological stress is often caused by psoriasis and can be a factor in flare-ups of psoriasis. Pruritis in psoriasis contributes to stress and the stress in turn can lead to more pruritis. This vicious cycle can contribute to psychological problems including depression, anxiety, aggressive behaviors, obsessional behavior, and alcoholism. The other psychological problems can include poor self-esteem, sexual dysfunction, and suicidal ideation. The mechanisms by which psychological stress can make pruritis worse are not clearly understood.

Psychological counseling may be helpful in some patients with psychosocial problems. A family counseling session may also help the family members to understand the nature of the disease better and realize the role that family members can play in reducing psychosocial stress.

Traditional psoriasis treatment regimens may be augmented with stress-reduction strategies. Biofeedback training, psychotherapy and hypnosis are examples of adjuncts to traditional medical treatment.

Hypnosis may improve or resolve numerous dermatoses, including psoriasis. In addition, hypnosis can facilitate aversive therapy and enhance desensitization and other cognitive-behavioural methods.

Cognitive behaviour therapy combines two kinds of psychotherapy, cognitive therapy and behaviour therapy. CBT has been very thoroughly researched. Numerous studies have shown CBT to be as effective as drugs in treating both depression and anxiety.

Tuesday 11 September 2007

Smoking Quotes

"One thousand Americans stop smoking every day - by dying". ~Author Unknown

"If we see you smoking we will assume you are on fire and take appropriate action." ~Douglas Adams

"The best way to stop smoking is to just stop - no ifs, ands or butts." ~Edith Zittler

"The public health authorities never mention the main reason many Americans have for smoking heavily, which is that smoking is a fairly sure, fairly honorable form of suicide." ~Kurt Vonnegut

"I'd rather kiss a mad cow on the muzzle than a smoker on the mouth." ~Paul Carvel

"A cigarette is a pipe with a fire at one end and a fool at the other." ~Author Unknown

"Cigarettes are killers that travel in packs." ~Author Unknown

Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium who helps people to stop smoking and remove other unwanted habits.

Thursday 6 September 2007

Fear of Moths

Hypnosis can have an advantage over traditional psychotherapy as it usually works far more quickly and allows the subject to 'root out' the unconscious fears that are responsible for phobic conditions..

Julie had been afraid of moths for as long as she could remember to the point where she could not stand to even look at one. She told me that she had been seeing a psychiatrist for about five years to try to resolve her problem which was no nearer to resolution than when she first attended.

During the first session Julie was helped to relax, something which she said she always had great difficulty in doing. She was given some post-hypnotic suggestions to feel better and go even deeper into trance next time.

On Julie’s second visit she said that she had been feeling better than she could ever remember. Using ideomotor signals it was discovered that her fear originated from the age of about a year. She was regressed her back to that age and after a few moments she began making brushing movements across her nose, which was followed by a long series of wails. Julie’s husband, Mark, who had accompanied his wife, was most alarmed, especially as Julie quite incoherent. She was reassured that everything was alright, she would not be afraid of moths or any other insects any more and that when she awoke she would remember in detail everything she had experienced.

When brought out of trance Julie was smiling. She recalled standing up in her cot as a baby, having woken in the night and was crying for her mother when she felt something fluttering around her nose. This incident had intensified her anxiety and made her cry even louder. Even so, Julie was relieved to be closer to the origin of her phobia and on her third visit she told me that she felt her fear had dissipated completely.

Using ideomotor techniques again to discover whether any other incidents were involved with this fear another occurrence was discovered at the age of six. She regressed back to a time when she had been left alone in the house for a short period whilst her mother was out shopping. Deciding to explore the house she went into the attic where she found an old box. When she opened the box a moth flew out and straight into her face. From that point on moths were anchored to that original traumatic experience and her phobia commenced.

On Julie’s fourth visit she said that she had, a couple of evenings previously, been sitting out in the garden with Mark when a very large moth flew very close to her face. Both Mark and Julie were extremely pleased with her calm reaction and she felt she had no need of any further sessions.

A year later Julie telephoned to say that she had not only been completely free from her phobia, but also that she had become much more relaxed in general and her confidence had improved greatly.

Source: Hypnotic World

Hypnotherapy can be used to treat various other phobias such as agoraphobia, claustrophobia, spiders, snakes, birds, dogs, needles, lifts and fears such as flying, public speaking, exam nerves, water, the dark, childbirth, dentists, illness and social fears such as using the telephone, interview nerves, rejection, failure, success, confrontation and sexual performance anxiety.

Hypnosis for Fear & Phobias MP3 Downloads

Stop Smoking with Hypnosis

At the University of Iowa, Frank Schmidt and research student Chockalingham Viswesvaran published a study in 1992 on the most effective method for stopping smoking. They used meta-analysis, utilising the results of more than 600 studies totalling nearly 72,000 people.

The amazing results, which included 48 studies of hypnosis covering 6000 smokers, were published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The result? Hypnosis was the hands down winner, beating aversion therapy, acupuncture, nicotine gum and nicotine patches. Hypnosis was three times more effective than Nicotine Replacement.

"Hypnosis is the most effective way of giving up smoking, according to the largest ever scientific comparison of ways of breaking the habit. Willpower, it turns out, counts for very little". (New Scientist, Volume 136 issue 1845 31 Oct 1992, page 6)

What are the other options for stopping smoking?
- Champix (Drug) up to 22% (with side effects)
- Acupuncture up to 25% success rate
- Zyban (Drug) with its side effects, up to 21% success rate
- Nicotine patches (with their side effects) up to 13%
- Nicotine Gum (with side effects) up to 11%
- Self-help books, 9%
- Willpower alone 6%

One organisation not surprised by the results is the British Society of Medical & Dental Hypnosis. Christopher Pattinson, the society's academic chairman, said, "Current hypnosis techniques are a far cry from their popular image of music-hall tricks involving swinging fob watches. The latest relaxation techniques achieve success rates of up to 60 per cent from a single session".

The advantage of hypnosis is that it removes the dependency and craving of quitting without risking the side effects of rashes and potential long term damage that has been associated with Zyban. Those using Nicotine replacement are known to have to try to quit on average six times before succeeding, thereby investing heavily in substitute products and addictive chemicals, before developing a stronger will or abandoning any belief in quitting altogether.

The American Journal of Clinical Hypnotherapy published a report which showed that "94% of patients that stopped smoking through hypnosis were still not smoking 18 months later".

"..93% of Niotine patch users fail within a half year..." (Freedom From Tobacco - Quit Smoking Now).

Stop smoking with a Hypnosis MP3 Download

Antonia Stuart-James is an English Hypnotherapist in Belgium helping people to stop smoking and overcome other unwanted habits.