The beautiful, orange and reds of the changing leaves signals winter is around soon approaching. This can be a source of pleasure and joy for many people. Except for those who suffer from seasonal depression. Then the change of season can lead to a sense of dread, sadness and even depression. Many call this winter blues, yet it’s more than just feeling blue, it truly feels like something terrible is happening and you have no control over it. For those suffering with seasonal depression it seems impossible to find pleasure in the change of seasons, no matter how much the wish they could.
There is a reason that people have different reactions.
If your mind goes into a downward spiral as the winter season approaches, it’s important to understand that your reaction is not actually about the cold, snowy, grey days of winter. If it were, all people would have the same reaction. What is actually taking place as the season changes is that old memories are being triggered. But because these triggers are hidden in the background of the mind it feels like the feeling come out of the blue.
What is causing unwanted reactions.
To understand this just for a moment let’s think about how the computer works. We have the screen, that you see and work on. And behind the scenes hidden from view are the internal programs and the memory storage that actually runs the computer. This is very non-techie language, but you get the idea. To continue with this computer example, an easy way to think of the conscious part of mind is similar to the computer screen, with limited amount of things you can be aware of at any one time. Yet, your unconscious has all the information about your life, what you’ve learned, all your memories, even the ones you forgot on a conscious level. And the unconscious is also where the programs are stored that will determine how you react to things. The unconscious has something like a video recording of everything that ever happened in your life, the upsets, anger, traumas, hurts, and fear.. And this is the part we need to go to in order to change unwanted triggers that cause, anxiety, depression and dread.
The great thing about the unconscious is it also holds a memory of the good, happy times, and your successes. It has a vast amount creative power, and it also hold the solutions, if you know how to access them. Lucky for us, we can learn to change faulty programs that are triggering unwanted reactions. I do this every day with my clients so I know it is possible. You can even re-program the hidden triggers causing seasonal blues.
To do this we need a way that we can communicate with the part of the unconscious part of the mind. A specific type of hypnosis gives us the way to do this. It’s one of the most powerful tools I use in helping people to freedom from seasonal blues, depression and dread. Once you access the programs they can be changed, and when that is done – dread, sadness and winter blues simply disappears.
You might be thinking that you don’t know what is triggering your reactions, or that you don’t remember any upsets causing winter blues. And you are correct, because deeply rooted triggers are repressed and stored on the unconscious level. It is very difficult to get to the deeply rooted programs using just the conscious part of the mind. That’s why it’s important to have the hypnotic tools that make it easy to access the unconscious information needed and then to have the skill to reprogram the hidden tiggers that are causing distress. Talking to the unconscious is almost like learning another language, one the unconscious part of the mind understands.
Changing inner triggers. Overview
Learn how to to talk the language of the unconscious. Talking the language of the unconscious is very different from the just changing your thoughts on a cognitive level. If you’ve ever thought: I won’t get sad, anxious, or depressed this winter. You already know that as the cold wind blows the mind seems to have a different idea and all of a sudden there is the depression again. Talking to yourself, saying mantra’s is a completely different skill, because it works only on the conscious level, instead of changing the unconscious programming that is causing the problem. Cognitive skills are helpful, they help for a while, but since the program is still running, the unwanted feelings come back, no matter how much you tell yourself this year will be different.
Feelings don’t come out of the blue. The programs that are causing the reaction were set inside early in life. That is why it is so difficult to change unwanted reactions on the logical/cognitive level. If an unwanted program is running in the background, we use the language the unconscious mind will follow, to reprogram it.
Changing unwanted triggers: The first 3 secrets
Secret 1: Know which part of the mind is triggering the emotion.
The mind is made up of two different parts.
1. The conscious part: What you are aware of and your thoughts.
2. The unconscious part: This is the part that holds all your memories, the programs and your stuffed or repressed memories.
Secret 2: Talk the language of the unconscious:
1. To first way get in touch with unconscious information is to notice where you feel each emotion in your body.
2. The next time you feel sad, angry, depressed or anxious,
a. Close your eyes and take a deep breath and release. Do this three times.
b. Next take a moment to scan your body scan from the top of your hear to the bottom of your feet.
c. As you scan your body simply notice where you feel tension, anger, dread or what ever emotion you are feeling.
This step is really important because your emotions give us vital information. Knowing where you hold each emotion is important. It is like you are creating a body dictionary of where your different emotions are held (in the body).
Secret 3: Become aware of your thoughts.
1. Become aware of the thoughts, and images that are moving through your mind.
2. Many times our thoughts move so quickly that we aren’t aware of them.
3. One way you can know that a thought might be at the root of an emotion is by doing the body scan in step 2.
4. When you feel an emotion, it might be that a thought passed through the mind so quickly that your weren’t aware of it. Its important to stop when you feel an emotion and look for the thoughts that might have triggered the feeling.
5. Once you find the thought it is possible to track it back to earlier events that caused similar feelings. This is a more advanced skill, for now start with the first 3 steps and notice how it puts you back in control.
Bonus step in changing internal triggers.
The unconscious part of the mind reacts to your thoughts. Thoughts trigger emotions because the unconscious responds to your thoughts as if they are true, as if the terrible thing you just imagined actually is happening. The brain then sends out the chemicals you’ll need to either fight or flee. The unconscious part is constantly working in the background of the mind, managing all the information coming from all your senses. It takes care of sending the chemicals needed to get you ready to fight or flee in a fearful situation. And it is the changes in the body chemistry that causes the jittery, nervous and anxious feeling. When your body reacts it can can lead to more fear and dread about the imagined upcoming event.
When a future image (or thoughts about the terrible things that might happen) are causing a problem experiment with this little trick.
1. Since the future hasn’t happened yet, and it is your mind – instead of seeing what you don’t want change what you are imagining.
2. Experiment with creating a positive future image. Create something you want to see happen.
3. These new images will set up the unconscious for a much more positive outcome.
If after experimenting you find that you are still suffering with unsettling, upsetting images and emotions that you can’t shake, it just means there is something deeper that needs to be released.
It is possible to release the whole chain of stuffed emotions & it doesn’t need to take years to do it.
The unconscious mind reacts to your thoughts. Thoughts trigger emotions because the unconscious responds to your thoughts and messages. Your unconscious part is constantly working in the background to manage all the information coming in from all your senses. It takes care of sending the chemicals needed to get you ready to fight or flee in a fearful situation. The changes in our body chemistry is what causes you to feel jittery, nervous and anxious as the body is getting ready to flight or flee. This can lead to more fear and dread of the imagined, upcoming event.
Two types of thoughts that create anxiety:
1. Past events thoughts:
When you have an unwanted emotion, take a moment to notice your thoughts. Go to the moment right before you felt the emotion in your body. Were you thinking about something from the past, an upsetting situation that happened and that still triggers upset when you think about it.
2. Future Worry type thoughts and images:
These are thoughts about possible scary, upsetting, embarrassing things that might happen in the future. When thoughts get stuck on upsetting things that might happen in the future, it creates a negative image about the future event. These images usually contain images of being rejected, embarrassed, or being flooded with anxiety. It is understandable that these images and thoughts increase the worry, dread, sadness, overwhelm and fear about the future situation.
The unconscious is also the storehouse for all of your stuffed emotions, and the images that go with them. In order to release emotions it helps to have a guide. . This is the area where I can help. I have a great track record of helping people to get free of anxiety, panic, fear, worry, pain and overwhelm. It is possible to start feeling the positive changes in just sessions. And after releasing stuffed emotions, automatically new life enhancing programs replace the old faulty ones, and you then react with calm and serenity, in events that used to trigger unwanted anxiety.
A good example of how talking the language of the unconscious change winter depression for one of my clients follows. Although she came to see me for a completely different problem, it turned out that Marcie got a huge bonus of getting free of her winter depression. Marcie (name changed) came for help because migraines were destroying her happy life. Medicine was no longer working, and the pain was so awful it was effecting her vision. She was angry that she had no control over her bodily reaction and she was scared since it was getting worse as winter approached. Adding to her misery was the fear of not knowing when the next migraine might hit. Each day as she got ready for work she didn’t know if she’d be able to complete her day without asking for a ride home.
As I was getting information in our first session she happened to mention that each autumn the migraines would get worse, and in addition she started to feel dread of the cold, grey days of winter. No matter how hard she tried to stay up and to be her normal happy self, as the trees lost their leaves she just couldn’t stop the downward spiral. At this point she believed that she just didn’t like winter. She image of winter was dead trees, a dark and dismal sky, and feeling empty and dull inside her chest.
For years, she dreaded winter, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t stop the emptiness and depression that would overtake her. In the last few years she realized that the migraines also increased as winter approached. What she didn’t realize was all of this could change. As we worked together it changed so much that winter no longer caused any reaction. She still preferred the warmth of summer, but the migraines disappeared, and she no longer felt dread and the downward spiral as winter approached.
It is always interesting to me what brings people to see me. In Marcie’s case she was hoping to get relief from migraines. A friend had giving her my card and it took her two years to finally get to the point where she was ready to try my program. Even after she signed up she was skeptical that anything would help. She said I was her last hope because the medical approaches stopped working and she was told she have to learn to live with the pain. After completing the program she was migraine free, and she had a bonus she hadn’t imagined when we started. She called me a year later. What she was actually calling about was to say it’s Spring and she had gone through fall and winter without migraines, but even more surprising she didn’t have the dread and emptiness. Best of all she didn’t have to try to change it, her feelings about autumn and winter were just different. It seemed like a miracle to her, but in reality once you know how to speak the language of the unconscious it is easy to get to the root of unwanted emotions and to change the reactions that you don’t want.
If the cold winds of winter bring on dread, sadness, depression or anxiety, you are not alone, I get calls from people suffering from melancholy, loneliness, sadness, dread and anxiety every day, and, I’d love to guide you to change. I offer a consultation where you can get your questions answered.
If you want to experiment on your own there are a number of things you can start with to change unwanted reactions. It might surprise you to learn that it is possible to get total relief from even the most devastating feelings and reactions.
RECAP: It is possible to release the whole chain of stuffed emotions & it doesn’t need to take years to do it.
The unconscious mind reacts to your thoughts. Thoughts trigger emotions because the unconscious responds to your thoughts and messages. Your unconscious part is constantly working in the background to manage all the information coming in from all your senses. It takes care of sending the chemicals needed to get you ready to fight or flee in a fearful situation. The changes in our body chemistry is what causes you to feel jittery, nervous and anxious as the body is getting ready to flight or flee. This can lead to more fear and dread of the imagined, upcoming event.
The unconscious is also the storehouse for all of your stuffed emotions, and the images that go with them. In order to release emotions it helps to have a guide. . This is the area where I can help. I have a great track record of helping people to get free of anxiety, panic, fear, worry, pain and overwhelm. It is possible to start feeling the positive changes in just sessions. And after releasing stuffed emotions, automatically new life enhancing programs replace the old faulty ones, and you then react with calm and serenity, in events that used to trigger unwanted anxiety.
About the author: Audrey Sussman PhD is a hypnotherapist and the Director of the Anxiety Control Center. Thirty years ago she began her quest to find a way to help her clients to break free from anxiety, phobias, worry and panic. Years of study and practice went into the development of her life changing program. Now it is possible to get relief from panic, anxiety, fear, depression, phobias, migraines as well as stomach and bowel distress. You can learn to use this step-by-step system, by joining her in her coaching workshops, in home study courses, ebook and in private sessions.
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