Thoughts are more often a reflection of how we are feeling than the cause of the feelings, however, our thoughts can become more intense the more we think, it will inevitably increase the intensity of what we are feeling.
What the mind projects, reflect back.
So maybe we should be focusing on changing our feelings than the other way around.
Focusing on changing how we feel about a certain situation in our life, or specific people in our life, that seem to be connected to the source of the discomfort, surely would help us to perceive the situation or people differently and would help to ease the discomfort.
That’s not to say that changing thoughts can’t alleviate feelings, but when the emotions are overwhelming. It can be hard to think of anything else other than the discomfort felt.
When the mind is calm, that is the optimum timeto examine and broaden the context of thinking.
Hypnotherapy quietens and calms the mind, those hazarded waves of painful thoughts, it allows that internal system to experience the calm and comfort before the storm that triggered off the symptoms.
It supports more nurturing feelings to be remembered when our internal reference experienced better feelings of being in control and at ease in our internal and external world.
Imagine for me if you will, your mind being a huge recording room, every sound, smell, image, taste and touch and how you felt about every sensation being logged and recorded.
From the moment of conception and throughout your life, all of life’s experiences are interpreted through your unique internal system.
Now if in your early development there was a lot of trauma or lack of care and nurturing your mind would devise a way of accepting this as being the norm, so when you grow and begin to integrate with other individuals and experience their lifestyles it will feel different to yours, so then your mind has to delete, distort and generalise, the information coming in to make new experiences feel more comfortable in your discomfort of not feeling you belong.
So you need to be shown how to be able to accept that we are all different and that how you perceive others is not how they may be and that this is ok or not, which helps you to define your rule structure and set some healthy boundaries in your life, that will create better feelings and thoughts.
You and your experiences are unique to you. Your mind is navigating
It is important to remember, when feelings are overwhelming, as they certainly are in a depression, we as therapists need to work to calm those feelings first and foremost.
When the mind is sufficiently calm, then we have a chance to help the depressed client widen their context by experiencing reality above and beyond how their mind has interpreted it and accept that it just is and let go of the feelings that are fuelling the thoughts that are intensifying the feelings thus releasing the pain.
Then we can help the client get into the habit of generating better feelings of belonging and accepting we are all different and that is ok.
To learn more or see what we can actively work with check out our homepage. If you want to learn more about more benefits of hypnotherapy then check out our benefits page.