Category: Addictions

Want to be happy? You need to know about these brain chemicals

The 4 brain chemicals that will help you feel happy.

To have a “feel good experience” we need to trigger our “feel good” brain chemicals. Being able to recognise them when triggered within our body helps us develop and strengthen them, encouraging the good feelings we would like to experience in our lives.

The four main happy brain chemicals are Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin, and Endorphins. These are all working in connection with each other but one or two will be taking the lead depending on what we are experiencing at the time.

Dopamine helps us move forward in life and “climb to the top of the tree”. It is the brain chemical that helps push us forward to reach the best fruit at the top of the tree. Otherwise, we could be left sitting at the bottom of the tree looking for leftovers.

The actual climb to the top is what triggers dopamine helping push us onward and upwards toward our goals. When you experience a feeling of pride and satisfaction whether it is winning an Olympic medal or finishing constructing a piece of flat-pack furniture you will be enjoying the pleasant and satisfying hit of dopamine you have just built up.

However, it is very important we actually “earn” our dopamine. Addictions and bad habits such as gambling and drugs can also trigger dopamine, dopamine that we haven’t actually “earned”. This in time leads to stress and disappointment triggering our unhappy chemicals such as Cortisol.

Oytocin is called the “love” or “cuddle chemical”. This helps trigger the safe and relaxed pathways in your body and mind and is connected with the vagus nerve. As you generate more oxytocin in your physical body this will help you feel calmer and more comfortable with yourself, others, and your life.

For more information please email rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com or call +44 (0)7970218451

Letting go of anger

Most of us have heard of Fight, Flight, or Freeze. This is our primal response that automatically kicks in whenever we sense danger. This part of our autonomic (automatic) nervous system will always strive to keep us safe if we feel threatened in any situation. It’s job is to keep us alive and to respond, immediately bypassing our thinking mind and filling the body with adrenaline and cortisol.

When we are angry we are not in logical control of our own thoughts and feelings and have been literally “taken over” by our fight instinct which will do (and say) anything to prevent us from being overwhelmed by a “deadly enemy”.

Of course, it is unlikely that we are actually being overwhelmed by a deadly enemy if we are just angry that no none has done the washing up or we have lost our own car keys!

Anger is an extremely damaging habit not only for the recipients of one’s anger but for the person dealing it out. So it is of prime importance that we take steps to control our anger or it will be detrimentally affecting our life and everyone around us. It must be curbed and quietened before it is too late. Once again the vagus nerve holds the key to keeping us from tipping over to boiling point on a regular basis.

However, the big problem is that as much as we wish to remain cool and relaxed this is not possible because in Fight or Flight, the only job our brain and nervous system has is to “keep us alive”! Unfortunately, we can’t be in two places at once so the only chance we have is to move into our ventral vagus place of safety if we are to heal physically and emotionally.

What we need are the best mental tools that help us construct simple changes that strengthen our connection with relaxation, calm, and safety. This is in fact our safe place.

Using hypnosis, Emotional Freedom Technique, and Eye Movement Sequencing I have built a series of simple yet extremely effective ways that help clients train their own minds and physiology to achieve rapid and lasting results.. This not only helps resolve old behavior patterns but also builds powerful positive change with everyone they communicate with. When this happens the quality of improvement in everyone’s lives becomes enormous

For more information or to book an online or face-to-face appointment please visit my website www.rogerfoxwell.co.uk Email or call:+44(0)7970218451

rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com

What is an ACE score and what it can tell you about your health and stress levels

A.C.E. stands for Adverse Childhood Experiences and is used as a guide to the chances of developing a chronic disease or mental disorder later in life.

Growing up one may have experienced psychological or physical trauma in the family or elsewhere but there are also traumas such as hospital visits, accidents, operations, and losing a loved one that could also be triggering psychological or physical distress long after the event.

This could lead to a reliance on alcohol or drugs to manage the emotional pain and anxiety.

The problem is that the fight or flight mechanism will have been switched on permanently and is looking out for danger virtually 24 hours a day.

Methods and strategies such as Hypnosis, Meditation, Eye Movement Sequencing, and Emotional Freedom Technique can literally help clients “Feel Safe” again. They are very effective in helping relieve stress whilst quietening intrusive thoughts and feelings. This allows the vagus nerve to effectively continue the healing process.

One problem is that, understandably, clients may feel uncomfortable talking through past emotional traumas. It can be so deeply imprinted in the psyche that just thinking of distressing past events can feel as if we are reliving them.

However, by using Eye Movement Therapy, Hypnotherapy, and EFT I have found it is actually possible to gain a level of relaxation that safely allows the unconscious to do a lot of the work for us.

For more information please email me at rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com or call +447970218451 and I will be very happy to help you.

Anger is stress for ourselves and everyone around us

Let’s make this simple. Anger is an unconscious sense of insecurity that we have probably learned from experiences when we were young and from life’s disappointments.

There are 3 words I write on virtually all my client’s notes at the start of the first session. “Am I Safe?”

In my experience, these three words cover virtually every difficult situation we have experienced in our lives whether it be anger, lack of confidence, addictions, performance stress, trauma, etc.

To protect us in uncomfortable situations our primal brain triggers fear sending body and mind into a fight-flight or freeze response. At that moment in time, our primal brain has just one job to do and that is to keep us alive. These automatic responses may be triggered by childhood events, disappointments growing up, lack of self-confidence, and any number of large and small traumas that we may have experienced throughout our lives.

However to give ourselves, and all those around us who will be affected by our behavior, some peace of mind, we must learn how to better control our own autonomic (automatic) nervous system. Trying to make everyone else dance to our tune will not cut it. This is all about working on ourselves.

Unconsciously we are all looking for control.

In the past, we may have felt insecure and desperately needed to control events in our lives. By hoping to control other people we also hoped we would feel safe. This gives us a hit of the brain chemical dopamine but that pleasure does not last long and only leaves us locked in a circuit of mental and physical stress affecting our own life and the lives of others around us.

Every week I am helping clients work positively on their our own nervous systems. This helps give them the opportunity to reclaim the experiences of safety and pleasure in their lives that we all need. Using simple and powerfully effective strategies and techniques you can do the same.

Please contact me on rogerfoxwell.therapy.co.uk or call 07970218451 and I will be very happy to help

How to deal with chronic pain and anxiety?

Chronic Pain and how you can relieve it

Chronic pain can be a really debilitating experience affecting virtually every part of our life. The constant background distress distracts our awareness from anything else around us and understandably can leave us totally focused on our discomfort.

Of course, it is of primary importance that initially any pain in the body should be referred to a medical practitioner and/or a skilled professional bodywork therapist.

However, it is not unusual, even when scans and medical interventions have taken place, that the pain will not go away. This may be a body-brain loop that has become stuck and keeps repeating. This repeating signal may continue to automatically sequence between the neurons in the body and brain, strengthening its own circular message. So everything is becoming more highly sensitised and we were hoping for desensitisation.

It is not unusual for a client to come into my office and tell me that scans and doctor’s visits have revealed nothing physically out of order but IT STILL HURTS!

To help clients with this type of issue I will begin with hypnosis to help relax the body and mind. This really can help release some of the mental and physical stress very effectively.

EFT “tapping” is also an invaluable technique helping clear the faulty over-sensitised messages connecting the neural pathways. Now our body and mind can begin to return to healing mode and help quieten this highly charged loop. Pain and distress trigger our Fight or Flight mechanism and then our only task is “to keep ourselves alive”.

Another very simple change to make is in our language. Using the word pain will invariably “grow” more pain. Our body is programmed to respond before our conscious awareness can kick in. This means that by using the word pain we are continuing unconsciously to strengthen this connection, surprise, surprise, we get more pain. The aim is to quieten, and whenever safe and possible disconnect this loop and give the body a chance to heal.

However, I am not discounting the word pain but even replacing it with a word such as discomfort we are sending a healthier healing message to body and mind. This takes some of the “sting” out of it and helps us get out of “Fight or Flight” and back into a state of healing.

Pain is usually there for a reason so is not to be ignored. However, if there is nothing physical to be found then it is worth checking whether this pain is actually a residual discomfort loop still circulating unchecked.

For more information or to book an online or face-to-face appointment please visit my website www.rogerfoxwell.co.uk Email or call:

+44(0)7970218451

rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com

Cigarettes. Health or Wealth?

Still, smoking? You may well have been thinking about it for a long time but just can’t bring yourself to make that change. However, now circumstances have overtaken most of us and we are having to look carefully at our finances. What better place to start than with cigarettes?

It’s interesting how we generally put our health behind our “need” to continue smoking but for most, there comes a time when we will be forced to make that choice – cigarettes and illness, or no cigarettes and healthier future life.

I used to smoke decades ago but now we all know better. Everyone used to smoke then but when my eldest son, who was just a toddler at the time walked up to me holding a full ashtray saying “dirty, dirty”. I immediately knew it really was time to stop, and I did.

No regrets, no worries it was a strong enough message to my conscious and unconscious and I knew I had no answer that would stand up to even a moment’s scrutiny. My eldest is now grown up. He’s a nonsmoker and I’ve had no interest whatsoever in even trying one throughout all these decades.

However 25 years ago when I began seeing clients to help them stop smoking it probably took a month or so to recoup the fee. Now, with inflation, you’ve probably already worked out that a £95 hypnotherapy session is a bit of a bargain. And if you smoke 20 a day you could recoup it in just 9 days! After that, it’s all profit and you could be saving up for your next holiday.

So far we’ve ignored the “elephant in the room” ( it’s OK it’s used to being ignored!) We haven’t talked about health. Well I remember a letter in a local newspaper when this gentleman talked about how his father was a heavy smoker. His father used to say to him “Son, I’d love to stop but I just can’t”.

Soon after that conversation he coughed up a little blood on his handkerchief and from that day on his father never touched a cigarette again.

You won’t leave it too late will you?

For more information just call 07970218451 or email rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com

And I will be happy to help you

Do you think you might have an alcohol addiction?

Check this out – it will surprise you!

Did you know that even one or two glasses of wine on a daily basis, or 5 or 6 beers every Saturday could be having a profound negative impact on your health and well being?

If you are not sure whether to believe this just click on the link below for an excellent scientific explanation of what exactly happens.

(https://www.google.com/search?q=huberman+lab+podcast+alcohol&oq) (3.19 min and 24.23min.)

When clients call me for help stopping or curtailing their bad habits or addictions I always say that a few sessions will be required to help resolve this. We all hope that by using hypnotherapy a quick flick of the hand and the words “SLEEP” will “cure” us in just one session. Well this does happen but for the majority of clients I suggest 3 or 4 sessions will give them the tools and strategies to help them make and keep the changes they are looking for.

Many of us are using some addictive habits to help us feel safe and comfortable in our world. This is only natural but becoming addicted to habits such as smoking, drinking, drugs and gambling can only support us for so long without having major detrimental effects on our mental and physical health.

I use Hypnosis, Emotional Freedom Technique and Eye Movement sequencing. These simple but powerful strategies coupled with remarkably easy changes you can use on a daily basis really help clients achieve rapid and major turnarounds in their daily lives.

This can all be done very effectively online and also in my office. To book an appointment or for more information please call me on +44 7970218451 or email rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com and I will be happy to help.

www.rogerfoxwell.co.uk

How to “Stay out of the Jungle” folks!

It’s tough living in the jungle isn’t it!

Well OK we don’t live in the actual jungle but we certainly seem to spend a lot of time in what feels like the jungle. So why, so often does it feel this way?

Anytime we experience a perception of danger our brain will respond in a primal way as if we are being chased by tigers. This is what it was designed to do. The words “fight and flight” are used these days to describe this experience but from a biochemical perspective we are being triggered into something closer to “life or death”.

We are all in effect still living in the jungle but in a different jungle. Whereas in the real jungle there is instant and present danger, in our modern jungle we are being constantly exposed to a “drip feed” of knocks, disappointments and worries that gradually build up until we are locked in full “fight and flight” mode.

Now fortunately if something really dangerous happens our brain knows how to instantly switch on everything needed to protect ourselves. The problem comes when we become “locked” into full “fight and flight” virtually every moment of our lives.

To find our way out of this self imposed jungle we need the tools to be able to regulate our own autonomic (automatic) nervous system in our everyday life. We also need the skills to upgrade our thinking and perceptions to help support us rather than frighten us.

Hypnosis to relax the body and mind, Emotional Freedom Technique to help release past build up of negative experiences and feelings, plus simple yet extremely powerful strategies to help build a truly positive and pleasurable future are just some of the very effective techniques I offer my clients on a daily basis.

For more information please email rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com and I will be very happy to help.

Breathing into our healing body // Addictions, Stress, Trauma, Confidence, IBS etc.

When we hang on to stressful feelings and experiences they become “stored” in our body. They become a primal reminder to keep us safe from similar future events.

To help quieten and heal these feelings place your hands on the area that is experiencing the stress response. It may feel like “butterflies”, tingly, or over excited. It may be tight, cold, hot, locked or vulnerable.

Begin to imagine generating warmth within your mind to spread with your hands over that area. As you place your hands over that area take your time and be patient and as relaxed as you can. Just continue to focus and wait until you notice a sigh, a letting go signal from that stressed part of the mind and/or body.

Become aware of not only the surface but also beneath the skin and deeper as your hand sends “infra red warmth” right through your body to the stressed area.

We must make friends and help that part to heal rather than feeling it is just a part of us that is misbehaving. Otherwise we are sending messages of cortisol and adrenaline to the area rather than the body’s natural healing chemicals.

You can do this any time, any place.

Why you should address your stress and anxiety now?

Hypnosis and EFT are very effective ways you can release stress and worry

We may think stress is “all in the mind”. Even though it may appear to start in our mind there is no separating it from our body. That frightened feeling you experience in your stomach is cortisol and the fact your heart is racing so fast is adrenaline.

However these experiences are in fact designed to keep you safe. This means you can physically run for your life if you need to. But in our modern everyday life we are usually “imprisoned” in our experience when the brain signals to the body to produce a whole raft of “Fight and Flight” chemicals. This reaction to stress is part of our limbic system’s response to danger. However that response is primed for the jungle and in effect only has an “on/off” button. This means that once it switches on we have very few options to “turn it down” to a more realistic level.

Experiencing “happy” body and mind chemicals is great but they don’t last very long. So these feelings quickly become stored in the body. Recent scientific research has shown that physical issues can be exacerbated and even triggered by stress. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120402162546.htm And stress has been cited as a possible trigger in Autoimmune diseases such as Chronic Fatigue, Fybromalgia and more.

Ongoing tension and chronic anxiety can lead to structural changes in the brain as well as physical issues such as headaches, IBS, rises in blood pressure and sleep problems. According to the research as the tension rises the body’s inflammation response finds it harder to heal our body in the way it would normally do.

However if you do want to be able to release and resolve stress levels in your life (wherever they come from) Hypnosis and EFT can make rapid positive changes in your daily experiences and help get you back on track for a healthier and more enjoyable future.

More and more professional mental health practitioners are now bringing physical and mental programmes together to help both body and mind heal. Using both body and mind we can start to engage in new patterns of thinking and healing. With tried and tested tools such as Hypnotherapy and Emotional Freedom Technique we have an effective and powerful opportunity to help match up the body responses together with the mind. This I know from my experience as a qualified hypnotherapist really helps bring about change that lasts.

If you would like to know more about the work I offer clients online all over the world and face to face in my office please visit www.rogerfoxwell.co.uk