Beyond The Swinging Watch - Hypnosis and Psychology in Everyday Life

Being "triggered" refers to experiencing an intense emotional or physical reaction, often linked to past trauma, when exposed to certain stimuli. These stimuli, known as "triggers," can vary widely and may include specific sounds, smells, places, or even words that remind a person of their previous painful experiences.  When someone is triggered, their mind and body react as if they are re-experiencing that trauma, even if they are not consciously aware of the connection. This can manifest as anxiety, panic attacks, anger, or other intense emotional responses. How Triggers Develop When someone experiences trauma, their brain sometimes stores the memory of the event in an altered way, especially if it wasn't properly processed at the time. The brain remains hyper-vigilant, scanning the environment for any sign of danger that resembles a traumatic event. This leads to seemingly innocuous stimuli becoming triggers, bringing back the emotions, thoughts, and physical

  An individual’s mental health is experienced in the present but is influenced by the past, and informs future behaviour. Analytical approaches to psychotherapy view the symptoms as an outward expression of past behaviour. The symptoms are what is happening in the present, but are reflections of past experiences and the effect they had on the individual. When we approach understanding mental health in this way, we accept that symptoms are not the root cause of the problem. They are a response to difficulties that mirror their experience. It Works For Both Positive And Negative Causes and Effects The person who experienced disrupted caregiving during their early years may not have had the opportunity to learn what stable and consistent care/love looks and feels like. In later life, they may find it difficult to form long-lasting and meaningful relationships or develop anxiety in social settings. These symptoms are a reaction to those early years. Alternatively, imagine if a child'

  What Is Meant By The Term Psychological Resilience? There are many definitions of reliance, but we could settle for the ability to be able to cope, adapt, recover and learn from life’s challenges. Coping usually refers to being able to ‘sit with’ unpleasantness/distress with the knowledge that you can weather that storm and things will improve. This particular interpretation and response to difficult circumstances makes us less likely to become overwhelmed. Adapting to stresses is a helpful aspect of resilience. It refers to altering your behaviour (and interpretation of events) about the demands of the circumstances. A lack of resilience leads us to respond in the same way: “Because that’s what I always do”. Linked to this is the ability to learn from events which of course informs how you adapt to future stressful experiences. That knowledge will also strengthen your ability to cope with further unpleasantness. Once all these elements are in play, your ability to recover from signi

  Your heart is beating alarmingly quickly, and you become aware that you are breathing more rapidly. It’s like you are struggling for air. You can feel a tightness in the chest with hot or cold flushes; feeling rooted to the spot.  Sound familiar? These symptoms are what we commonly call an anxiety attack. Anxiety can appear in many different forms and situations, and in most cases, it is very difficult for the sufferer to explain. What's The Difference Between Stress and Anxiety Stress and anxiety are different. Stress is a response to external pressures. We feel agitated and unhappy and can attribute it to external things: work, relationships and financial issues. We know they cause stress (rather than anxiety) because when our external circumstances change, stress symptoms change also.  Anxiety creates the same symptoms, but the stress comes from within a person’s mind. They feel the same nervousness, anger and agitation, but it remains even when external circumstances change.

  A problem shared is a problem halved, isn’t that how the saying goes?  When something is on your mind and you're struggling to figure out which direction to take, talking it through with someone often helps you find a way out of the dilemma. What appeared to be an obstacle shrinks when you have put it into words. Why? When we talk about something, we adapt our understanding of it. Talking about something out loud means we have to slow down and think about it differently rather than having thoughts racing around our mind. Speaking about something forces us to think things through so we understand things differently; we have processed them. Processing means understanding. We understand something about the circumstances and ourselves. Something happens, and we have to understand what happened and the effect it did or did not have on us. When a person has experienced a significant event, particularly a life change, they will have to process what happened or is still happening and

The demands of the situation are greater than our perceived ability to cope   What does this tell us? Stress is not simply about the demands of the circumstances it's about whether we believe we can cope with those demands. This helps to explain why one person may find it difficult to deal with stressful events while another copes with the same circumstances comparatively easy. They perceive their ability to cope differently. How we think about stressful events influences how we cope. The way we think about stress is influenced by several factors: 1: Our previous experience dealing with stress - If you are used to dealing with stress and have found it easy to manage the psychological and physical effects in the past, you are more likely to have a positive expectation of your ability to cope with current stress. 2: The stressful situation is predictable - If you expected that stressful events were imminent, you are more able to prepare both psychologically and practically to d