Changing habits - the big ones and the small ones
As I looked out of my bedroom window this morning, at the grey sky and the horizontal rain, I lay back down again and closed my eyes. The morning wasn’t calling to me today; there was no great big, blue sky, no golden rays of the sunrise visible above the farm buildings next door. I live in an old house and actually sometimes when it rains, there is puddle of water on my bedroom windowsill - and I mean not on the outside! This was one of those mornings and I really did not want to get up! I certainly did not want to go outside. Alas, I dragged myself out of bed, put on some clothes and went downstairs to make a cup of tea. It helped of course, to have my two children giving me no other choice than to get up and make them breakfast and get them to school. As I was getting dressed, I looked longingly at my thick cord trousers and a big wooly, warm jumper. But no, I put on my running leggings and my sports bra (and then my wooly jumper)! It wasn’t the weather for running but that is just what I do in the mornings! After school drop off, (and now the rain is coming in thick and fast), I deliberate once more, and then go for it.
Oh the joy! The cold rain on my face (no really - I love it), the fresh air, the beautiful countryside! What had I been thinking, trying to get myself out of this?! As I ran, work ideas sprang into my mind, my body felt revitalised, I got wet and hot and my heart rate got going and when I got back, boy did I feel good! Not only because of the exercise, but also because I’d pushed myself to retain my healthy habit, even if it meant getting soaking wet in the pouring rain. It made me think of something the psychotherapist Donna Lancaster said in a podcast I once listened to. She said, “If we stick to small rituals, we can then learn to trust ourselves and we know we can rely on ourselves.” This has stayed with me, and I try to maintain some small, daily rituals that I know make me feel good.
“So, what does this have to do with hypnotherapy?” I hear you ask. Well, hypnotherapy is a way to change habits from bad ones, into good ones. Sometimes, by doing something small everyday, it becomes part of our life and without us realising it, it becomes a habit. But what about the big ones? The ones that seem much harder to change? These are the one that we do unconsciously, without thinking. They can be habit, or a negative thought process, and although we may dislike what we are doing, it can seem very difficult to change it. Hypnotherapy gives us the opportunity to access these unconscious habits; when we are in a sate of hypnosis, we have access to our subconscious minds, and with the use of suggestive language and imagery, we can actually invoke lasting change. It is possible to change negative, unconscious behaviours in a way that is much harder to do when we are only using our conscious mind. Many of these behaviours have been with us for a very long time and therefore are deeply embedded in our psyches. This means that by just trying to behave or think in a different way, may work in the short term, but will not have a lasting impact on us. Hypnotherapy however, makes lasting changes, however the big the bad habit.
It can be an overwhelming thought, trying to change something that, albeit negative, has been a part of us for a long time, but with the power of hypnotherapy it is possible! And don’t forget either the power of those daily rituals that can help us to rely on ourselves - although they may seem small, they definitely matter!