Diary of a Hypnotherapist, Episode 8 | A word on suicide | @caroline-cavanagh

Hi there and welcome to the next edition of Diary of a Hypnotherapist. And I think this may even be number 8, which means I've been doing this for 2 months now. And it's a new practice that I started because something that's really important to me as a therapist is I practice what I preach, and I ask a lot of my clients to reflect on things that have happened in the past as a way of creating different choices in the future. And that doesn't mean always changing, it means building on the successes but also recognizing what didn't work so you can choose to do something differently. Because everything that we experience goes into an infinitely sized database that sits in the back of the mind, and when we do things consistently without any reflection, they become habits. And then habits are things that run without us really putting any active choice into it. So by actively choosing to do these videos, it's starting to create a habit. But also I'm hoping that through them I can share some tips and techniques that may help people understand what is accessible to them when they work under hypnosis, and maybe some tips and techniques that can help you make some different choices too. And in the week that's just gone by, it was National Suicide Prevention Day. In fact, it might even have been World Prevention— Suicide Prevention Day. Too many words in that. Um, a really important awareness day, and something that I would love to not just be a day, but something that we're aware of regularly. And in a social media post that I created, I shared 3 techniques because suicide is increasingly common. And I wonder, are you aware that actually 3 times more men create suicide or commit suicide than women. And the most common age groups— and this surprised me a little bit— is that for men, more men commit suicide between the age of 45 and 49, and for women it's 50 and 54. We often think of suicide being a younger person issue, but it's absolutely not. So the 3 techniques that I shared that we can all do to help start making a difference. Firstly, loneliness is a huge cause of suicide, and the antidote to that is feeling connected. And simple things like just smiling at a stranger, opening a door for someone, or just saying a kind word to a person standing in the queue behind you whilst you're waiting to pay for something make a difference. It makes that person feel seen, and it's so easy to do. The second thing is when you ask someone, how are you? Don't just take, I'm fine, as an answer. Ask again, how are you? I'm fine. No, how are you? Because often it might take 3, 4, 5, actually, I'm not fine. Keep going, because if someone generally is fine, you'll pick that up anyway. And the third tip, and the one that I really think is the most important, is let people know you value them. Doing it by text, great, but looking someone in the eye and go, I really appreciate you doing that. And it may be saying thank you for a job well done, or appreciating a kind gesture, letting people know that their presence, their behaviour makes a difference on someone else is really important. And so on World Suicide Prevention Day— I think I got it right that time— I challenge people to reach out to 5 others and express to them the value that they felt in having them in their life And maybe today, even though it's not an Awareness Day, do the same because you just may make a difference to that person. And reflecting on some of the clients that I saw this week, there were 2 that, uh, slightly different orientations but combined really continues to highlight for me just the power of the subconscious mind. One of them was a lady who had created a facial tic. The muscles in her cheek and eye would just keep flexing, creating her to feel really uncomfortable. And the other was a student, someone at secondary school, who perceived that every time their tummy griped, that they were about to be sick, and got to a point where they could hardly go to school anymore, even though they never have been been sick. And in both those instances, it's the power of the mind, a belief. If my tummy is crunching, then I'm about to vomit, and that would be catastrophizing it. That would be, you know, a disaster. So I can't go to school in case I am. Or someone that had, um, the tic was because they were about to get married, and their parents' marriage wasn't a very harmonious one. In fact, it was quite a dysfunctional one. And she had perceived that because she was quite like her mum, that she was going to end up in the same sort of marriage. And her mind had started creating a reaction to that because she was going to get married and there was no way for that energy to be dissipated. But under hypnosis, the muscles completely relaxed, she didn't have that tic at all, and we could work through the that underlying belief that would never, well, unlikely to have ever come out just by talking about it consciously. The mind is a very, very powerful resource, and when you learn to use the power of the mind, phenomenal things can happen, through from changing how your body is behaving through to changing core beliefs. And that's what I love doing. It's why I love working with people under hypnosis, because the differences can change lives. And so next week, as I go forward with quite a full diary next week, I'm looking forward to changing more lives. And if I can help you, please do reach out to me. We can have a really quick informal chat. And see where that takes us. But for now, I wish you a wonderful weekend. Bye-bye. Bye.