Depression is common but are we talking about it

Depression is common but are we talking about it?

There was an interesting documentary on BBC3 this week (09/07/13) about professional football and how even the top paid superstars can be at risk from depression. It was presented by former Premiership player Clarke Carlisle who has first hand experience of the emotional up and downs and highs and lows top sports people can experience. At one point he had attempted to take his own life and is now very much involved in helping maintain and improve the best support systems for professionals in any sport who are having difficulties in their lives with depression and dealing with the pressures that a high profile sporting career can bring.

The most important message to come out of this documentary was that depression is still something that many of us find hard to talk about and even harder to discuss with anyone if we have it. When Gary Speed the Wales National Football Team manager and celebrated footballer took his own life in 2011 not even the closest members of his family knew of his depression and state of mind.

Depression can be triggered by many things including loss and bereavement, anger or loss of a relationship, childhood experiences, drugs and other issues. For sports people and those in the public eye the pressure can be absolutely intense and belief in one’s own value, loneliness (even with so many people around) and isolation are just a few of the cocktail of doubts and insecurities that can begin to eat into an otherwise confident person’s internal thinking.

But neither do we do have to be a mega star to suffer from depression. It can hit anyone at any time in their life or career. If you think you or someone you know may be suffering from depressive symptoms a quick search on Google will find a lot of information from reputable sources to help find out more about it. Depression is an illness that can afflict anyone whatever their role in society but the message is always the same, don’t keep it to yourself and speak to someone you can trust. There is help out there and one phone call could make all the difference.

Roger Foxwell is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, EFT and NLP practitioner dealing in many areas including helping clients with depression get their lives back on track. For more information call 07970218451 email roger@rogerfoxwell.co.uk or visit www.rogerfoxwell.co.uk 

Musicians and Golfers do you need 10,000 hours practice

Musician

It has been accapted for a while now through research by best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell that to achieve mastery in a subject or discipline 10,000 hours of study or practise is the magic number that will help bring the requisite rewards. However a recent study as outlined in Time has come up with new research that doubts whether this is the whole picture. Of course even if we take the 10,000 hours as read then there are obviously factors such as physical and practical suitability and genetics that would be taken onto account.

However further research by Zach Hambrick and colleagues at Michigan State University have found that the10,000 hour rule really only applied to between 30% and 34% of musicians and chess masters that they studied. In fact they found that two thirds of the difference was unrelated to practice with massive differences in the time it would take one person to reach an elevated level in their field as against another in the same area of expertise.

So, as most professional musicians, golfers or anyone developing high level skills will know the whole issue is extremely complex as the researchers testified.

As someone who has trained to a high professional level in music (violin) with copious amounts of practise I have always taken a great interest in what is the difference that makes the difference in successfully achieving goals? Since I work helping professional golfers, sports persons and musicians get closer to discovering their own personal formula that will help bring out their best potential it is fascinating to actually be using my insider knowledge to help develop my own skill sets and pass that information on to my clients.

Some of the key strategies include:

• An intense desire to achieve a successful outcome
• A discipline ethic that will carry one through even when things are tough
• An ability to convert that work ethic into a pleasure so that it no longer becomes work but something you just can’t stop doing
• A linking of the creative mind with the analytical that produces a synthesis of artistic and technical skills.

Now there is much more to this but knowing how to take our skills to the next creative level is a skill in itself. However once we can tap into this whole process it can hugely accelerate our progress and maybe we won’t need 10,00 hours after all? Or maybe we will use much more than 10,000 hours because nobody can stop us since we enjoy developing our skill so much.

If you are ready to move to the next level I can help you. Using Hypnosis, EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) plus a fascinating range of techniques that my own knowledge in this area has helped me develop you really could find yourself in another level of expertise and pleasure in your chosen skillset.

For more information just call me on 07970218451 or email rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com or visit www.rogerfoxwell.co.uk

Suffering from insomnia? Hypnosis can help you sleep and so can these 3 tips

Suffering from insomnia

Suffering from insomnia? Hypnosis can help you sleep and so can these 3 tips.

I work regularly with clients who suffer from poor sleep patterns and as anyone who is in this situation knows it can have a devastating effect on the day when you don’t get at least a reasonable night’s sleep.

Just last week someone came to my office with chronic insomnia and he really could not remember when he last got any sleep at all apart from the occasions when he became so exhausted that his body and mind could just not stay awake any longer. This seemed to cycle in four to five day patterns of no sleep then one night’s sleep due to sheer exhaustion.

If you are struggling getting to sleep or you are waking in the middle of the night try these three tips:

• Avoid checking your clock to see what time it is when you are in bed. If each time you wake up and check the clock this can set up a trigger to awake at the same time every night.

• Lie on your back in bed and try tensing your body for 30 seconds then completely relaxing for 60 seconds. Do this three or four times in a row. It can be pretty effective.

• While lying quietly close your eyes and then visualise yourself relaxing every part of your body very slowly and in order. Start at the toes and go methodically through each toe and each leg focusing on each part and each muscle relaxing individually. You may find yourself falling asleep before you get very far.

My client used these techniques, and along with the work we did in the session was soon sleeping right through. I hope they help you. To find out more just contact me for help.

Roger Foxwell is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, Personal Change Coach and NLP and EFT practitioner. For more information email rogerfoxwell.therapy@gmail.com or visit https://www.rogerfoxwell.co.uk

Flying Phobia

Flying Phobia

One of my posts deals with Flying Phobia so it is always nice to get a text back from a recent client when they arrive home from their holiday and no phobia. A recent client wanted to go to Spain with her friends but was absolutely terrified of flying and had already backed out of a previous holiday for that reason.

We had one initial session a few weeks before she was due to fly and she immediately found that she really was not worrying about it anymore at all. However as the date got closer she began to experience some of the old feelings so thought she had better come and see me for a back up session.

It is interesting working with something such as flying since the conscious mind is often not quite sure whether any change has occurred. Until you experience stepping onto the plane you don’t know consciously if the therapy has worked. Although our conscious mind knows that our fear is irrational and unfounded it is interesting that when our unconscious allows us to let go of the fear the conscious often still needs proof and is still not always totally convinced. This is where we need to trust this creative part of ourselves and avoid too many internal questions as the positive change becomes a natural experience.

Hypnosis allows us to bypass our conscious questioning and that is exactly what we did in the session just a couple of days before her holiday. It also allows us to visualise a sequence of events in such a way that they become, in a sense, real. Visualising the flight and other important details whilst connecting it to feelings of relaxation and calm can, according to research, be as powerfully compelling as experiencing the real thing.

Oh yes, and here is the text she sent me when she got home:

“Hi Roger just bk my hol was absolutely fab i was gr8 on plane was a bit nervous at 1st then completely went away quite enjoyed it defo do it again i even fell asleep on the way back … thanks very much”

The initial “bit nervous at 1st” is an example of the conscious mind still not quite believing that it really can feel safe. However when the unconscious has been reprogrammed powerfully enough the conscious mind is then able to take a back seat and just relax.  Somewhere within us we really do know how to make these changes and by allowing that part to do what it needs to do and change what it needs to change  the new feelings will naturally become fully integrated into our actual live experience.