#46 Relaxation Hypnosis for Stress, Anxiety & Panic Attacks

Hello and welcome to stressanxietyhypnosis.com. My name is Jason Newland and this is the podcast Relaxation Hypnosis for Stress, Anxiety and Panic Attacks. Please only ever listen to this as it is when you can safely close your eyes. You can support this free service that I offer in quite a few different ways.

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So as I was walking into my bedroom to make this recording, because I'm sitting on the edge of my bed, probably more information than you need, but Andre's asleep in the living room. So I'm kind of in here so that I don't disturb him. Because when sometimes when he's awake, he is wide awake.

And sounds like the ending of a hypnosis session, doesn't it? Wide awake, wide awake. So I was thinking, what about practical ideas to help with situations of stress? What about practical ideas, not just all this hypnosis-y ideas of relaxation and ways that you can prepare yourself or how to change the way you felt about something that happened in the past or, you know, things like that, which is what I usually do.

So mainly, obviously not to put that down, because it's what I do.

And it's what I believe, if you listen to these this podcast every day, maybe even if you listen to this particular recording that you like, then I mean, what I do in those situations is I listen to it every day, as well as listening to the next day's recording, or the new one. There's a particular recording that I listen to every day at the moment by Earl Nightingale.

And it's called The Secret That Nobody Ever Told You or something like that.

It lasts for 33 minutes. And I listen to it while I, well, basically, sometimes I'll close my eyes and listen to it. Sometimes I'll be doing stuff on the internet and going through my stats and stuff.

But it sinks in. It sinks in. And it's transformational.

So what I would say is, this recording is going to be based on practical stuff. And I invite you in the comments of wherever you watching this or listening to this, maybe put in your own experience and your own suggestions, something that you found that works for you, and share that with the others. So if you go to the website, that's probably one of the best places to do it.

Under each recording, there's a comment box, you can leave a comment. This will also be on YouTube and various different podcasts. It just lets you share with others, but also other people can share with you the way I am.

So I'm going to talk mainly from my own personal experience. So there's no relaxation involved in this session. There's no anything like that.

It's really just me talking. Although it should probably still be fairly relaxing. Because I'm not shouting.

I'm not, you know, I'm not, not asking you to do anything. Although I will be making some recordings in the future, where I will ask you to do some stuff that might even involve standing up and moving around. But not in this recording.

And of course, if you do, when you do listen to those recordings, you know, you can obviously open your eyes, otherwise you'll end up banging into things. And, but even those still keep your eyes closed. No, that's not, make sure you only listen when you can safely close your eyes.

So don't listen to anything that I do when you're driving. So where do we start? Where to start? How to practically help to, you can say reduce the stress level or you could say, what do you do to prevent the stress level from rising in the first place? So there's one thing that I've been doing lately, and I might have mentioned it, is I've got some headphones for, I've got an iPhone, I had it on a contract and that's all paid off now, so that's done.

But the headphones that came with it had wires.

And I think my ears, I think I've got abnormally large, not areolas, that's the nipples in it, you know, the hole in your ear, not the hole that if you've obviously got piercings, you can say, which hole? I've got 17 piercings. I mean the big hole, the one where the hearing happens. The hairy bit as you get older.

And I think they're a little bit too big for normal earbuds. But anyway, what I did, I've got myself some better earbuds. And I was going to get headphones.

But the point behind this is it takes away background sounds. It's a twofold thing. Firstly, it's focus, gives a focus.

And it takes away background sounds. The main warning for this is to be careful what you're doing when you're wearing them. So I wouldn't advise wearing them if you were driving.

I wouldn't wear advise wearing headphones. And necessarily, if you were crossing the road or anything like that, any situation where you need to be aware of what's going around, what's going on around you, then perhaps don't wear headphones. But things like sitting on a bus or sitting on a train, waiting for a bus, waiting for a train.

It can be quite relaxing in a situation that may not normally be so. And then there's little benefits. And you probably get more of a benefit if you have big headphones that go over your ears is nobody's going to talk to you.

And that's obviously it's not going to be a benefit for everybody. But I don't always necessarily want a stranger to start talking to me. Especially if I've got 40 minutes to the next bus.

I mean, that's just you know, not my thing. I mean, some people would love that but I don't, not really for me. So if you've got headphones in, chances are they're not going to start talking to you.

And I seem to attract really drunk people when I'm waiting for buses. And that's drunk people are annoying enough anytime but just in a pub, you know, waiting for a bus. But the only time I don't mind drunk people is when I'm drunk.

And that's it. That's the only time. And I don't really drink much.

Apart from that, drunk people are lovely. But having headphones is a distraction. It's a focus because you're focusing on the music.

Or I like to listen to motivational talks. I've, I was a member of Audible, that's it. So I've got some talking books there from some motivational speakers like Zig Ziglar, Jim Rohn, and it's Les Brown's another one.

It's really, really good. Sometimes I listen to the radio. I personally listen to LBC, which again is talk, talking.

Sometimes I listen to music. I've got Amazon Prime. So I've got the music thing.

And then you can download stuff onto your phone, or your iPod or whatever, whatever it is you've got. So you don't use up data. But this is one thing that I've found actually relaxes me.

And I forgot about it. I used to use this technique back in the 90s, the early 90s. And I forgot all about it.

Because I'll tell you why. I got into Buddhism. And I was so convinced that I should be aware of everything that's going on around me, and to not try and block stuff out, and to be open to all the sounds and to open to everything and not be trying to distract myself.

But actually, sometimes distraction is a really helpful thing. Not all the time, but sometimes. And listening to when I used to walk to work in the early 90s, I'd listen to LBC radio, even back then.

And it gave me an uplift. And it's sort of, yeah, it just it was kind of mentally stimulating, more so than listening to music. Because with music, if you listen to the same song, which I got a habit of doing, if I got an album that I like, I listen to it over and over again.

But it's the same over and over again. With speech radio, every second is different. Of course, there's repetition, but it's still different words, different people talking.

But it's a distraction. And it can also feel a bit like company. Listening to a conversation can be stimulating, but not in a stressful or anxiety kind of a way.

Because that's not something that would be at all useful. So having headphones, listening to some music, listening to anything you want, really, as long as it's safe to listen to when you're walking down the street. So other ways, practical, practical ways, can you increase your sense of relaxation, decrease the potential of stress or panic? Well, what you wear can have an effect.

Are you comfortable with the clothes that you're in? It might sound like a kind of strange question. But how relaxed can you be when you're wearing trousers that are just a bit too tight? Or you're wearing shoes, maybe high heeled shoes that are nipping into your ankles or to your heels? Maybe you've got blisters? How comfortable can you be? Maybe if you've got your hair tied back?

How comfortable can you be with a tight top on? So it's things like that that can actually make a big difference. Something as simple as making sure you've got the right size bra, the right fitted bra so that actually you're supported.

And I'm not an expert on bra fittings. But your waist, your stomach, you think about if you were doing yoga, or if you're going to the gym, you'd make sure that you had stretch, you had the ability for your clothes to stretch so that you were able to relax doing it. And you may say, yeah, but JJ, we can't all can't go to work or go to a wedding in my yoga outfit.

Which is a good point. Of course, you can do whatever you want to do. But you'd get some very funny looks, no doubt.

Unless it was a yoga wedding, if there is such a thing. And then it's like, okay, what can you do? It's the little things. If you've got shoes that are too tight, change them, get some better shoes, get some more comfortable shoes, even.

I'm not the most fashionable person. And I know that some people are very fashion conscious, like to the point of willing to suffer physically, in order to look the way they want to look. And I respect that as that's everyone's choice.

But the more comfortable you feel physically, the more comfortable you feel inside. So if you can find some shoes that fit your criteria of fashionability, yet to still be nice and fit in nicely and comfortable, then you're going to feel different. It's the little things.

Things like cutting your toenails. I know this is it might seem what the hell you I didn't expect him to talk about cutting toenails. This is a podcast about panic attacks.

But it makes a difference just to to make sure you feel comfortable. I've gone out in the past and had one time now there was a little bit too long digging into the other foot. Like not the other foot that we read wasn't that long.

I've got my feet stuck together, but digging into the other toe the whole day was uncomfortable. And it did stress me out. Because there was nowhere that I could go.

I mean, you know, but that's just some people really do keep their toenails short. And it's the little things. I know this is probably a bit weird, but it's the little things that can make a difference to your sense of comfort that physically that lead to your emotional well being in that moment.

Preparation, you know, making sure that things are all sorted. So if you do, I want to keep coming back to weddings, but that's one of my like a public situation with lots of people. Not my favourite thing.

Really, you know, it's, it's really down there with the things that are really, for me, stress inducing. And I went to a wedding. And all I had was a suit.

I don't mean I did have underpants and a shirt and a tie and socks and shoes and hair. But I mean, all I had that one suit. And I had a shirt that I hadn't worn for ages.

It was a white shirt. And it was too tight on my belly. And the suit was okay.

As far as it fitted me fine and the shoes. I think the shoes are okay, I think. But the shirt was too tight.

Which meant I was uncomfortable when I was sitting down. Standing up wasn't so bad, but sitting down uncomfortable. And it was really hot in the evening when we had the dinner and everything.

Late afternoon, it was really hot in there. And I couldn't take the jacket off because my belly. I was because it looked like I was pregnant.

So had I planned that a little bit better, I could have prepared myself and gotten myself a shirt that was a lot baggier. So that I could have taken the jacket off and just had the shirt outside of my trousers. And I felt a bit more relaxed within myself, which would have reduced the stress levels that I had.

Practical things, even travelling, you know, not leaving things to the last minute. So that you have to run for the train, or run for the bus. This is so obvious and so simple.

And I realise that. But you know, some of the most obvious and simple stuff is the stuff that actually can make a difference. The amount of times that I've got up, I've left things to the last minute.

And I've had a bath or breakfast, got dressed in 15 minutes, and then run to get the bus. And then run to get the train, and just made it. Which is a really horrible way to start the day, for me.

And you know, instead of just starting an hour earlier, I could have had a slow bath, relaxing breakfast, walked up slowly to the, well got dressed, then walked up slowly to the bus, maybe got the earlier bus, so I didn't have to run for the train. Which meant there'd have been no stress. Which meant I wouldn't be getting onto the train sweating, and panting.

I don't always pant, but you know what I mean, like having run a bit too much. Not like a dog that's gone off, needs to have a drink, but probably similar. So planning, a little bit of planning.

And planning is boring. Let's face it, it's not the most exciting thing. Some people like to plan, so I'm not being derogative towards people that enjoy it, but it's a little bit, it can be a little bit tedious.

But it's definitely worthwhile if, if you can foresee you're doing something, and you know that in the past, that situation has caused a lot of anxiety and stress in the past. It's a case of looking at that situation, what would have made it easier? What would have taken the stress away, or reduced the stress? And then doing something about it and changing it for next time. It's about learning.

And I've, I've repeated loads of pointless behaviours in my life. Loads of times, probably thousands and thousands of times that I've not learnt. So I'm not kind of, I'm not coming from an angle of Mr Perfection, because I'm far from it.

But these are ideas of ways to make things a little bit easier. So that, because sometimes that anxiety can be triggered by a stressful situation. I know with panic attacks, sometimes it can feel like it's just come from nowhere.

Although often if you were able to trace back your thought patterning, your thoughts, before that first anxiety feeling occurred, you may have been thinking about something that triggered that feeling, that initial feeling. That led to that anxiety. So in a sense, it's taking those triggers away.

Reducing the chances of those triggers being triggered, I guess, pushed, those buttons being pushed. So if you reduce the ones that you know about, at least there's less chance of that leading to the, maybe the triggers that you don't know about being activated. You know, because I might get on a train, or I'm running for the bus because I've left everything to the last minute.

I get on, I'm all sweaty, maybe it's summer. And then perhaps someone will get some deodorant or perfume and start spraying it, not at me, but in a way that I'm thinking, oh, so they're saying I stink. Or, I'll just be in a bad mood.

And then my bad mood perhaps leads to me being oversensitive, or rude even, to other people. Not like horribly rude, but just not particularly pleasant. And then another person may react to me not being particularly pleasant, and their reaction could trigger my anxiety.

It's like a roll-on effect. So it could be a case of looking at your day and just like, okay, what can you do to make things easier for yourself? Because that's all part of the being kind to yourself, being gentle to yourself. What can you do different? If you've got shoes that are uncomfortable, can you wear more comfortable shoes? If you've got a car that won't start, and you have to spend, you know, 40 minutes every morning trying to get the thing started.

Perhaps get in a different car. I know there can be all issues, financial, but I'm not interested in that because it's not my business. There's always going to be excuses why we can't do things.

I don't have any money either, but the amount of stress that you might be putting yourself through every day, trying to get that car started. I mean, possibly you'd be in a better position just to get the bus or the train. As far as emotionally.

Imagine if every day you got woken up by a bucket of cold water just poured over your face. You're in bed asleep and someone chucks a bucket of cold water over you. And that's the way you wake up every day.

How many good days are you going to have? How many really pleasant starts? You know, how often are you going to feel really good at the beginning of the day? I can say in my situation it'd be zero. Apart from the fact that I'd end up in prison if someone did that to me. But, you know, without going all that way, it'd be a horrible way to wake up.

But in some ways we do that to ourselves in perhaps not as a drastic way. But in other ways, like maybe leaving it too late for the alarm. Staying up too late in the evening maybe.

Or maybe leaving things to the last minute, which I am very capable of doing. So what can you do practically to change or prepare your day ahead or your week ahead? Or some specific event? What can you do to change your experience of that event? And I realise that's a question that only you can answer because your life is specific to you. But they're those practical things.

It's like I live in this flat and I had one incident where the lightbulb went out. Sounds like a really interesting story, doesn't it? Remember that story Jason told about the lightbulb when it went out? Well that was interesting, that was life transforming. No, the light went out.

And then my friend, because I'm not very tall, so he just couldn't put it in without standing on a chair. And I don't trust my chairs to take my weight, not standing on them. So he put the lightbulb in and it broke.

I don't know what he did, I think he took it out and he handed it to me and it was hot and I broke it, something like that. I didn't have a lightbulb. And... Anyway, I kind of got very... My stress levels really went up because I didn't have any light in the living room.

And you could say it's such a small thing but at the time it was bigger than it needed to be. Not the living room, it's the same size, it just got to me for some reason. So I thought afterwards, what can I do to prevent this happening again? So that weekend I ordered a big pack of lightbulbs.

And I admit that is probably the most boring story you'll probably ever hear. Yeah, I'm not pretending, that is definitely not a wedding speech. I'm stuck on the idea of weddings today.

But now, a lightbulb goes out, I just change it. The same as with batteries, I've got a supply of batteries that I can use. In fact, I stock up on quite a few things.

I've got stock up on deodorant, soap, toothpaste. Sometimes I've literally got a storage cupboard full of all kinds of stuff that would last for six months. Like washing up liquid and that kind of stuff.

And that's learning from the experience of running out of stuff, running out of breakfast cereal, and no shops being open near where I live, and being hungry. So that's not going to happen again. And that's another thing, eating.

You need to make sure you eat. And you may say, well of course I eat, otherwise I'd be dead. I don't mean make sure you've eaten in your life.

I mean, you need to have that energy. I know that too much sugar and excess salt and stuff can lead to a bit of heart pumping a bit too much. It could lead to anxiety, or the feeling of anxiety, even when it's not.

Which could then lead to anxiety. But you need to eat. You need to make sure that you've had your food before you leave the house, if you're going in the morning.

Make sure you have your breakfast. Don't go too long without eating. Don't go the whole day without eating.

You need to eat. Because I know that I get grumpy if I haven't eaten. I know that I feel a bit ill if I go too long without eating.

And I'm not talking just a few hours, I'm talking, you know, if I go sort of eight, nine hours, that's kind of too long. And I was at my brother's wedding. See, I'm stuck on weddings, going back there again.

And I remember saying to the priest or the lady who was doing the ceremony, I said, how long is this going to last before we started? And she said, why? I said, I'm hungry. She said, she thought I was joking. She said, oh, not long, about 20 minutes.

I said, can you speed it up a bit? She said, what? I said, I'll give you a pound if you can do it in 10 minutes. She thought I was joking again. But I was hungry.

I needed to eat. Because I hadn't eaten since the morning. And this was now getting on to probably about four o'clock, three o'clock.

It's about taking care of yourself physically as well as emotionally. But the physical side is really important as well. Making sure that you're comfortable, that your clothes fit in a way that it's not causing you discomfort.

It's not about feeling a million dollars. Although that's probably useful for feeling quite good about yourself. It's about comfort.

You know, the opposite to discomfort. So whatever that entails, even if it means if you've got a journey to go on a train, travel when it's quieter. Travel when you know that the train's going to be less full so you can get yourself a seat.

So there's less people, less sound. You know, little things. Make sure you've got your ticket with you when you get off the train.

Or easy access to the ticket when the ticket inspector comes. So you haven't got to spend five minutes getting stressed looking for it in your handbag or your bag or your coat or whatever. Just little things that really can make the difference.

It doesn't take much brain power to prepare. It doesn't take a lot of energy to prepare. It's just perhaps a little bit tedious doing it.

Making sure that you've got enough money in your wallet or your purse or your pocket or wherever you keep your money. In your bra or in your socks, I don't know, people keep their money in all different places. Instead of relying on the cash machine, the ATM.

Instead of relying on that to be open the other side of the train or the place you're going to. What if it's closed? What if it's out of order? What are you going to do then if you need cash? It's just those little things that really reduce the stress. And you know, I realise we can't be prepared for everything.

But it's like sometimes it can be useful to write down a list. You know, like a shopping list, but without groceries on it. A list of things that you need to make sure, for you.

It's not for anyone else, it's for you. To make sure that you're a bit prepared so that you can relax your mind. And once it's done, once you've done those things and ticked off those things, then you can relax.

Because in the case of a train journey, the ticket person comes along. Your ticket's there, you've got it in your top left pocket, where you always keep it. You hand it over, there you go, done.

You get to your destination, you go to the credit card, you know, the ATM, cash machine. Oh, it's not working, don't matter. I've got cash in my wallet, or my purse, or my backpack, or my hat.

So you know, it's like one less thing that you need to think about. So it's like a bit of preparation. Instead of preparation H, preparation R. Preparation relaxation.

Preparation relax. So that's just a few little ideas, a few little practical thoughts. And I realise I've not even really, not even touched the sides on this one.

There's so many different things that you could make changes for yourself. And because I don't live your life, I don't know what your circumstances are. As far as work, socially, family.

So you can start maybe looking and noticing when you feel uncomfortable. And then think, well, why am I feeling uncomfortable? Is it because of how you physically feel? Is it because you're hungry? Is it because you've eaten too much? Is it because the clothes you're wearing are too tight or too loose? When I was younger, a lot of things happened when I was younger. I used to be really, really skinny.

Now I'm the opposite to that now. But my trousers used to fall down. I don't mean literally down to the ankles, but I used to be constantly pulling my trousers up.

All I needed to do was get a belt. That was it. Which entailed going to the shop and buying a belt.

I kept putting it off. And I'd be getting so frustrated with the trousers, having to keep pulling them up. Even when I was walking down the street, keep pulling them up every 10 minutes.

Then I got the belt, eventually. No longer had to pull my trousers up. It was sorted.

Done. Instantly. Just for the sake of a little bit of effort.

And, I don't know, probably £5.99 to buy the belt. And that's another really boring story. Is it as boring as the other one? I don't know.

Yeah. I'm sure I've got more boring stories than that. So just have a think, maybe, of the things that you find you get uncomfortable.

The places when you get uncomfortable. Just with the reasoning behind thinking of that, the intention is to correct it. To make a change.

So that it's one less time where you feel uncomfortable. One more time where you can feel relaxed. Like a tick that can be gone.

And you don't have to think about it again. You know, if you, and I've done this myself, if you tread on an upturned plug that's on the floor, and you've got no shoes or anything on, it's one of the worst pains ever. It's really so painful.

Those pins digging into your foot. Now, if you leave that plug where it is, and continue to walk around without any shoes on, then that means you've not learnt from it. And there's a good chance it's going to happen again.

But if you have one trial learning, and that happens once, and you never allow it to happen again, whenever you see a plug, first of all you don't leave plugs on the floor, but if you had a plug and you see it, you move it. And my boy Andre, he's a ferret, one trial learning. Once he discovers how to do something, that's it.

He can do it over and over again. He discovered how to get onto the window sill. Once he'd done that, he was up there all the time.

He discovered how to get up to the bookcase and knock all the books off of the bookcase. I pulled the books up back again and got him off. And he kept doing it.

One trial learning for him. So, I think we're capable of doing what a little ferret can do. He's very intelligent.

But, you know, he licks his own bum. So I think we can perhaps learn something from that. Not the bum bit, but the one trial learning.

So if something causes stress and anxiety, it doesn't mean you don't do it again necessarily. But it might mean that. But maybe you can make changes so that it doesn't cause the same level of emotional distress that it did.

So that's all I've got to say on this. It's not all I've got to say. There's always more to say.

But I'll leave you just with that. To look at your own situation. And what changes can you make? You know, I've got a million different examples probably that I could give, but then that would be a really long recording.

And they'd just be my experiences. And I know that my experience in my life is not the same as your experiences in your life. Because we're all different.

So I wish you well. And I shall see you next time. Or speak to you next time.

Take care. And remember to be gentle with yourself. Lots of love.

Bye.