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News

Aurora hits the news!

Written by Nat Young – Yoga Teacher and Clinical Hypno-Psychotherapist.

Read the Aurora Mind and Body story in The Accountancy newsletter.

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Mindfulness Yoga

A word on personal yoga practice

Written by Nat Young – Yoga Teacher and Clinical Hypno-Psychotherapist.

As a yoga teacher in Swindon, I’m always focussing on lesson plans for my Swindon yoga classes. I ask for feedback at the end of my classes and during class I tune in on the body language of my students to see which poses they enjoy and which ones they’re less keen on. This gives me ideas for upcoming lesson plans and also helps me to adapt my teaching style to my students. While I’m lesson planning I also practice my plans to make sure they feel right. I know if a practice feels right because my mind and body will feel balanced and satisfied afterwards.

Lesson planning aside, I’m struggling with my back at the moment. My thoracic spine is less bendy than it should be and I’ve always had a larger lordotic curve in my lower back than most people. This means the muscles from my lower back downwards get really tight. (Yes, even yoga teachers have inflexible bits!) I’m currently seeing a physiotherapist to sort out my spine and I’ve also got some exercises to help at home.

swindon yoga classes

While going through the motions of questioning why my spine has ‘failed me’, I’ve realised that I’ve tended to forego my own personal yoga practice as teaching has become more important to me. This has probably contributed to my current issue because I’ve neglected my own needs. This has to change if I’m to keep my body in tip-top condition for teaching. To help with this I’ve put my physio exercises into a personal yoga practice tailored specifically to the needs of my body. This is good for me physically as it means I’ll be working on my own physical imbalance. It’s also good for me mentally as I’m doing something good for myself.

A personal yoga practice outside of class can be beneficial

Whether you’re a teacher yourself or an experienced student, a home practice can be incredibly beneficial. Bodies become tight, inflexible or weak in different places and no body is exactly the same as another. By ‘tuning in’ on your body during classes you begin to learn which poses your body loves and which stretches feel gorgeous. Some poses might also feel difficult but they feel good afterwards. You know the poses I mean, I’m sure!

A home yoga practice should be tailored to your body’s needs

That gorgeous post-yoga feeling you get when your body has lapped up a yoga practice occurs because the poses you’ve practiced are what your mind and body needs. A personal yoga practice enables you to experience specific poses and explore areas of physical and emotional tension in your own time and at your own pace, something that’s difficult to do in a class environment. Practicing at home can also help your progress in class too.

So while I work through the current issues I have with my back, I’ll be complementing my class teaching with my own daily practice which I’ll change as the needs of my body change. If you haven’t already tried practicing yoga at home, why not give it a try?

Note:If you’re not sure where to begin with a home yoga practice, please consult an experienced yoga teacher.

Categories
Goal setting Life coaching Personal Training

Hypnotherapy for goals: Dream big, step small!

There’s a fantastic video to watch below showing the process of making small changes to reach a fitness goal.

Note: This process can be applied to other goals too!

Here’s the process:

  • First identify where you are (and accept it). This is your benchmark.
  • Think about what you like/dislike about being where you are and why you want to change it. This is very important!
  • Decide where you want to be. This is your ultimate fitness goal. Make it realistic and achievable.
  • Think about what small steps you can take to start moving yourself towards that fitness goal. These are ‘mini goals’.
  • As hard as it may be, start telling yourself “I can”.
  • Start taking small steps towards your goal – you’re now making changes!
  • Accept that there will be setbacks and persevere. Change takes time.
  • Take the time to look back on the progress you’ve made regularly. You’ll soon see how far you’ve come!

Why not try adopting this mindset before your next fitness session?

Just watch this amazing lady conquer box jumps in the gym using this process:

Need help with your goal?

If you would like an extra helping hand, we provide hypnotherapy and life coaching to help you reach goals. The goal could be personal or professional.

Contact us to see how we can help.

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Anxiety Sports Performance Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy for performance anxiety: Feel the fear and do it anyway!

This article is focused on start-line anxiety in runners, however, the explanation applies to all types of performance anxiety.

Imagine this: you’re getting ready for your first race. Your heart is racing and you’re sweating as you watch everyone line up at the start line. Are you going to be able to face your fear and race your heart out? Or are you going to sit this one out and miss out on what could be a personal best? Many people will turn the other way, missing out on a wonderful experience. The same sequence of events can also come up in other areas of life from work to relationships. You then have a choice to make: overcome your anxiety, or let it control everything you do (or don’t do).

One of the most common feelings in life is that of feeling uneasy when in unknown situations. Indeed, one of the most common reactions to anxiety is avoidance of situations where you find yourself feeling this way. This avoidance is a form of self-sabotage. Have you ever walked away from something important because it just felt ‘too hard’? This is what we’re talking about.

Although understanding the cause of your anxiety is important, the best way to overcome it is to look at how you respond to your fears. Sometimes the way we respond to fears can even feed fears and make them worse! By identifying how you respond to anxiety and working to change your counterproductive responses, you can overcome your anxiety and accomplish your goals.

The psychological explanation

An important element of psychology when it comes to fear and avoidance is something called ‘negative reinforcement’. This refers to behaviours which are rewarded because they remove unwanted feelings or stimuli. For example, when I have my car headlights on at night, an alarm goes off when I open my door to remind me to turn the lights off. That beeping is so annoying so to get it to stop, I turn off the lights. Doing so ends the beeping and peace is restored. In this situation the beeping is negatively reinforcing me to turn the lights off. It is rewarding me by removing the annoying noise, and the next time I use my headlights I’m more likely to turn the lights off before I open my door to avoid it.

Negative reinforcement in anxiety is avoidance. Each time you attempt to accomplish a goal but let fear stop you from achieving it, you are negatively reinforcing yourself and sabotaging your goals so you don’t have to feel fearful anymore! The more you avoid anxious situations, the more likely you are to avoid future anxiety-inducing situations and this becomes a vicious circle.

So what can you do to help yourself?

So how do you overcome avoidance behaviour and accomplish your goals? The answer is to catch yourself in the moment. Once you realise that you are avoiding anxiety, the next step is to force yourself to face your fear and see the situation through. Even if the situation doesn’t quite work out the way you hoped, mistakes can provide a valuable learning experience. It’s also important to remember that overcoming avoidance takes practice but with perseverance your anxiety may disappear altogether. The more you face those fears, the easier it will be to handle new ones, and the more goals you will accomplish!

Need help with performance anxiety? 

We offer hypnotherapy and psychotherapy for anxiety. If you would like some help, why not get in touch?

Categories
Goal setting Self esteem Sports Performance Hypnotherapy

Hypnotherapy for confidence and self-esteem

Acceptance of where you are at a moment in time is important for mind fitness. However, you also need to challenge yourself for change to happen. Many people benchmark themselves against other people rather than looking inwards to identify what needs to change to be more successful. This mindset can be troublesome as we then become reliant on other people to validate our self-worth. This can leads to issues with confidence and self-esteem.

Why comparing yourself with others can be counterproductive

There’s certainly nothing wrong with looking to other people to inspire you. If you’re a competitive athlete or working towards a particularly challenging goal, having a role model to look at is often useful. However, solely focusing on being better than someone else isn’t always helpful to your self-esteem. Perhaps you’ve begun to think you’re falling short? Instead, let’s reframe the situation – why not focus on you?

Set a ‘stretch’ goal

Here’s a fitness-related example of how you could focus on yourself rather than comparing yourself to others.

Set small, achievable goals focusing on what you want to change. It could be as simple as aiming to run an extra 30 seconds, cycling your usual route a minute faster, or maybe swimming an extra length. Secondly, when taking part in an activity you want to improve, practice positive ‘self-talk’. For example, you could say “C’mon, you can do it!” The more this is practiced, the easier it becomes. Your brain is like a muscle and it needs to practice a different way of thinking to get better at it. Your changes might not be achieved overnight but sometimes the smallest changes in your thought patterns can yield the biggest results. Especially when you look back and see where you’ve come from!

Challenging yourself to be better than you rather than other people puts the control of your destiny back into your own hands. The problem with always comparing yourself to others is that you can start to believe you are not good enough. You are good enough. So why not focus on identifying some of your strengths and reframe how you’re going to achieve your goals?

“When taking part in an activity you want to improve, practice positive self-talk”


Need a break?

It’s also helpful to recognise when you’re feeling tired and need to give yourself a break! How you handle setbacks is also important when it comes to improving your self-esteem.

Get in touch

If you would like some help with confidence and self-esteem issues, get in touch.