Luckily, there is great news.  By incorporating some fun and interesting changes to your daily life, you CAN change how you feel by the chemicals your brain can naturally create.  The brain reacts to the emotions we feel, and some of these emotions are hard wired to the physiological changes we go through.  For example, it is very challenging to think sad thoughts while our posture is upright, or when we put on a huge fake smile.  I won’t be the first to tell you that the mind and body work as one.  Just recall the last time you went for a long walk, a swim or a jog – did you feel down and depressed afterwards ?  Of course not, the simple reason is that your brain produced endorphins during your exercise (endorphins are the bodies natural opiates that make you feel good).

One of the reasons we love eating chocolate or indulge in retail therapy is because such behaviour automatically signals to the brain that you are enjoying yourself, so the brain starts to release serotonin – also known as the happy hormone.  This is precisely why we become chocoholics and shopaholics – our brains create a link to behaviours that make it feel good resulting in a habit that is not always in our best interest.

So here’s what you CAN do in order to improve your life, create better moods and most importantly, manage and perhaps successfully overcome those times when you are in the doldrums.

1)     Start exercising for at least 20 minutes a day.  Exercise does not have to be painful and strenuous, it can be anything from a nice swim, a morning walk to work, using the stairs in stead of the elevator and even making love to your beloved is a form of exercise.   This way you kick start your body and your brain into producing endorphins.  Look at the bright side, you’ll also lose some weight and get fit.

2)     Deliberately force yourself to smile and laugh as often as you can, even if it feels artificial.  You can try sticking smiley faces all around your house, car and work place, so that you’ll remember to smile every time your eye meets these stickers.

3)     Go on a negativity fast by only watching comedy films and sitcoms.  Fish for programs, people, magazine articles and situations that force you to laugh.

4)      Look into your nutrition.  There have been lots of research that link bad nutrition to mood swings and depression.  The latest research shows that a diet with increased fatty acids such as Omega 3 and 6 can contribute to better brain functioning and moods. Do your homework and improve your diet.

By incorporating the above 5 steps into your life for at least 2-3 weeks, you may begin to notice some powerful shifts and changes in how you feel.  In order for the brain to function well, be alert, think fast and connect thoughts more efficiently – it needs the necessary chemicals to help it.  The human body is a magnificent entity that can heal itself though its own ingrained programming.  The key is to use it well by adjusting our lives in order to allow nature to do its magic.

Until Next Time……Live Don’t Just Exist.

Call now to book an appointment

Tel:  +44 (0)207 602 5477

taymour@guiding-light.net

In his book, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be, he not only covers areas that are compatible with advertising, self help, attitude improvement and general motivation; he writes and illustrates in a way that is engaging and fun to read – two ingredients any NLPer out there can appreciate.  It’s a manual on maximising what you have and aiming for what you can achieve.  Its size allows you to keep it in your briefcase and handbag with ease, so that you can come back to it time and time again.  This is not a book you read once and leave aside to mature on a shelf.  It’s a companion that reminds you of the simplicity, logic and creativity that we can use to answer everyday questions and dilemmas.

If you’re a graduate, or a CEO, a coach or just a person who’s lost the wind in their sail – this book can add life changing insight to your perspective.  At an easy 125 pocket sized pages, this is a small gem of a book of priceless value.  Get it !

Until Next Time……Live Don’t Just Exist.

Call now to book an appointment

Tel:  +44 (0)207 602 5477

taymour@guiding-light.net

By definition, a phobia is an irrational and excessive fear of something or a situation.  As I’ve mentioned before, there are only two instincts that we are born with: 1) Our sudden reaction to a loud BANG, or sound; and 2) Our immediate effort to regain balance when we fall or stumble.  Everything else is learned from our environment, and naturally this includes phobias.

Something that truly amazed me years ago, is when I found out that when the movie Jaws came out in 1975, people who were hundreds of miles away from the ocean were suddenly afraid of taking a bath.  Though it sounds ridiculous, when our unconscious (or imagination) gets infected with overwhelming fear, it generalises that fear and generates it into a phobia as a defence mechanism.  This results in extreme irrational and life altering phobias.  They are considered to be irrational because it all happens in our very creative imagination which is irrelevant to actual reality.  As the old saying goes, imagination is far more powerful than will power.

The great news is that since phobias are learned, they can be unlearned.  Thanks to Neuro Linguistic Programming and Thought Field Therapy, most phobias can be cured today within an hour.  These are two mind technologies that I regularly use, which have had positive life altering results for many of my Clients.  In fact, I recently helped a Client who had a terrible fear of flying and here are her words after her flights:

“Just landed Taymour, the flight was much more pleasurable than usual.  What a difference, thank you !”  [Flying Phobia - outbound]

“Another enjoyable flight, can’t believe it ! Thanks again” [Flying Phobia - inbound]

All that shift in less than an hour.  Here’s what another Client with severe Claustrophobia said after a 20 minute session:

“I was so completely overwhelmed that a problem I had suffered from on a daily basis for 17 years could be cured in 10 minutes.  After leaving you my children had 4 rides in the lift with their mum, something they had never done before Saturday, in their lives!!! I can not thank you enough.”

Times have surely changed, and severe phobias that have held us back from progress and happiness can be cured in an hour.  As recently demonstrated by Paul McKenna on GMTV (whom I assist on his seminars).

Until Next Time……Live Don’t Just Exist.

Call now and free yourself, or a loved one from their phobias.

Tel:  +44 (0)207 602 5477

taymour@guiding-light.net

“Love pain” is the commonest psychological trauma and probably affects millions of people in the UK at any given time. It is a universal experience . Listen to the lyrics of  most popular songs and you will find that this distressing condition is one of the most common topics. It has also inspired numerous plays, books and films.

“Love pain” is really just the same as any other trauma in terms of its symptoms . In fact it can be  considered as a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The symptoms are anxiety, depression, insomnia and constant rumination about what went wrong in the relationship.   Some sufferers find they think constantly about the person they have lost while others discover  that they cannot imagine what their lost lover looks like – a phenomenon which is due to repression of the mental pain.

Many  sufferers, especially females,  turn to  “comfort eating” while others lose their appetite. In the worst cases sufferers commit suicide in an attempt to relieve their mental anguish.

Although losing a lover may not appear to be objectively the worst thing that can happen to an individual, the level of mental pain can actually be worse than following a bereavement.

Most people get over their symptoms in a few weeks while others take months or even years. There are even cases in which people never really get over the trauma and are still having symptoms 30 years later. Love pain can sometimes be the catalyst which triggers more serious mental illness such as agoraphobia and chronic depression.

Until the advent of Thought Field Therapy (TFT) there was no effective treatment for love pain and sufferers simply had to grin and bear it. However TFT can relieve symptoms in minutes. In some cases only a single treatment is required but if the relationship is not totally over and the patient is being continually re-traumatized then the treatment sequence may have to be repeated.

Dr Roger Callahan ,inventor of TFT. is also an expert on relationships and love pain and has written books on this subject. He also believes that untreated love pain can lead to a condition called amourophobia – literally a phobia or fear of further relationships. According to Callahan amourophobia is actually the commonest phobia. Amourophobia sufferers – usually female – will often sabotage their own relationships when they start to get serious in an attempt to avoid the pain and hurt of a future rejection.

CASE HISTORY No 1

Helen, a 29 year old single parent from Edinburgh, broke up with her boyfriend Tom three years ago. Since then her weight has ballooned  due to comfort eating and is she is now 5 stone overweight. Recently Helen attended a lecture / demonstration on Thought Field Therapy by Dr Colin Barron,who works at Glasgow’s Nuffield Hospital.

Towards the end of the evening Dr Barron asked for volunteers from the audience to come forward  for treatment and Helen put up her hand. She explained that she could not stop eating and even ate when she wasn’t hungry. Dr Barron immediately asked her if she had suffered a trauma in the past few years. She broke down sobbing as she explained how she had split up with her boyfriend and could not get him out of her mind.

Dr Barron then asked her to rate her level of mental  distress on a scale of 1 to 10. It was a 10.  Dr Barron then took Helen through a tapping sequence designed to relieve trauma symptoms. Within 7 minutes Helen’s anxiety had vanished and she was down to a  1 on the 1-10 scale. At this point she broke into a smile and laughed ,”I  am not thinking about him any more. I can’t believe it,” she said as the astonished audience broke into applause. Dr Barron then treated her comfort eating with another tapping sequence.

Helen is now eating normally and the pounds are coming off.

CASE HISTORY No 2

Alison, a 37 year old businesswoman from  Falkirk, was devastated when her husband left her for a younger woman recently.  She found it hard to sleep at night and when she did she had nightmares She  couldn’t concentrate at  work and she felt anxious and depressed. One day she even had a panic attack while driving .

She went to her G. P.  who put her on a 2 week course of sleeping tablets and  was referred to a clinical psychologist – but there was a 2 month waiting time for an appointment.

One day ,in desperation, she made an appointment to see Dr Colin Barron who works as a medically qualified hypnotherapist at Glasgow’s Nuffield Hospital. When she arrived for her appointment Dr Barron explained that she would be treated with a technique called Thought Field Therapy which is faster and more effective than hypnosis.

Within 10 minutes of starting treatment Alison felt much calmer. After treating the trauma of the break up, Dr Barron then gave her a treatment for depression which worked in minutes.

At the next appointment Alison was symptom – free. She was sleeping well and was no longer plagued by nightmares and panic attacks. She also reported that she had started dating again.

“ It is hard to believe that such a dramatic change could occur so quickly,” she said. “My G.P. was very sympathetic but there was really nothing he could do to help me. Thought Field Therapy has given me my life back!”.

Contact Details for Dr Barron

Website : www.colinbarron.co.uk

E Mail : colin.barron@ukonline.co.uk

Telephone : 01786 821019

”A problem well stated is a problem half solved”. Charles Kettering.

One of the quickest and most powerful ways to change a negative pattern of thinking is to change its context in such a way that it becomes comical or even positive. This NLP concept is called Re-Framing. In other words, change the frame and the picture will also change. We hear this all the time in everyday conversation – “Look at the bright side….” Or “Well, at least you don’t have to…..” and “…I know, just bare in mind that it could have been worse.”

The best way I can explain this is to ask you to think of a situation or something that discomforts you slightly. Now, take a few moments and challenge yourself gently to focus on another facet of the situation. A facet that may direct your mind in new avenues that can change your state for the better. A great reminder is the old debate whether the glass is half full or half empty.

I recently had a Client who absolutely and utterly despised her son-in-law. She feels that he is a square peg in the round hole that is her small and close knit family. She passionately expressed her anger at the fact that whenever he comes over for a visit, he eats the meal he is cooked and then he plants himself into her (my Client’s) favourite chair and naps. She then went on and on at her dismay and anxiety about the upcoming Christmas dinner. She was so focused and tense that I immediately resorted to re-framing to change her hard wired thinking.

I smiled and replied: “…..he may sit in your favourite chair and doze off, but at least you don’t have to talk to him which I’m sure is a nice thought for you. Better still, you can hang out with your daughter and your grandchildren by the fire place and have some laughs and have them all to yourself without him interrupting.” Not only did her overall state improve, but she started giggling from the belly and appreciated my point.

It’s very easy to get tangled up into a one way stream of thinking that can ruin your day and prevent you from taking notice of the positive angles, however small, that the situation presents. I can go on and turn this article into an academic and frankly boring explanation, but I’d rather not. Let me finish off with some examples that can help you appreciate what re-framing can do.

1)“I got laid off from work last week.”

“Well, at least you can add the experience to your CV which can make it easier getting a better job.”

2) “Winter’s here and it’s getting cold again”.

“Yeah, it gives us a great change to dress up and look smarter.”

3) “My boss has given me so much work to do this week…”

“Well, he must have a lot of faith in you.”

Thought is energy, and it’s best to change your negative thoughts right away before they turn into words and then actions. You may begin to realise that by re-framing some thoughts in the coming days, you can change your outlook and feel better.

“Birthdays are good for you; the more you have, the longer you live.”

Until Next Time……Live Don’t Just Exist.

Call now to book an appointment

Tel:  +44 (0)207 602 5477

taymour@guiding-light.net

A wonderful visual trick I have used in a few of my talks and seminars is the “coffee jar test” – have you heard of it?  I start by emptying all the coffee granules out of the jar. Then I fill the jar with “rocks” by which I mean decent sized stones, right up to the top.

Most people agree at this point that the jar is full. But then out comes a bag of tiny little stones, which can be dropped in and around the “rocks”, right up to the top.

Most people agree again now that the jar is full But then the fun part involves putting most of the coffee granules back in the jar. It’s amazing how many of them fit in. Just when you thought the jar was full, you can fit in more tiny little “bits” – sometimes I use sand to make it less messy!

The fascinating thing is that this is a very good illustration of how we fill our lives. Far too often we fill our lives with “sand” – you know the everyday “stuff” we all have to do, like checking our e-mails, the dash into town for something we forgot last week, laundry, washing up, fixing the car, grocery shopping, cleaning the windows.

And we don’t manage to fit in the “rocks” or the things that really matter to us, satisfy us, fulfil us in life and make us really feel we’re living a life of purpose but with fun and freedom too.

But if we prioritise the “rocks” and ensure they are allocated time in our busy schedules, and that time is protected for the truly important things in our lives, quality time with loved ones, learning a new skill, creating something new or whatever it is that feeds and nourishes us, then the smaller stones and the “sand” still somehow fits around them.

So how about spending 10 minutes flicking through your diary and thinking about whether you would “pass the coffee jar test”?

Do you generally find space for your “rocks” or do you allow your life to be filled with “sand”?

If you’d like help with this or with any other aspect of looking after your personal and professional life, and ensuring you’re living a life that is “true to you” please contact me for a free 20 minute consultation on how we can work together.

That can include working out how you can find the time in your schedule to work out a strategy to improve your life.

Wouldn’t that be a great “rock” to put in your jar?

Amanda Wise can be contacted on:

Tel:0845 226 2816

Email: Amanda@WiseLifeCoaching.com

Website: www.WiseLifeCoaching.com

How many times have you heard the term “panic attack”? Over the years the term has increased in usage as more and more people are suffering from overwhelming panic and are being driven to despair. In my client work, I’m often asked “When panic attacks, what’s the defence?”

So what is a panic attack?

Although there are lots of clinical definitions, in client work I’ve heard the term used to describe symptoms ranging from mild anxiety to nauseous hyperventilation. Sometimes leaving the client struggling to breathe, the symptoms spiral on top of themselves creating even more panic.

Often the symptoms cause clients to stay at home, unwilling to leave the house “just in case” they have a panic attack. In their attempt to reduce their symptoms, clients often make things worse by staying within the comfort zone of their home. The thought of going outside becomes fraught with the danger that an episode of panic will overwhelm them.

When I see a client, they often describe me as their last resort, at the end of their tether not knowing what else to do.

So what triggers the panic?

I’ve had clients reporting a diverse spectrum of situations ranging from supermarket queues to traffic lights, all causing panic in one form or another.

Underneath the panic there are many neurological and physiological processes going on, few of which I’m knowledgeable enough or qualified to mention.

The basic flight or flight response comes into play with the body releasing adrenaline in copious amounts to deal with a perceived threat, this overload being the cause of the nauseousness or shaking.

My interest is in the client’s perception of the threat. What is it that causes the release of adrenaline in the first place?

In my approach to the treatment of panic attacks, I often use the NLP technique of eliciting the internal strategy, finding the mental process that the client goes through to produce their panic.

After asking the client what I have to do in my mind to produce the feelings of panic, I am often told exactly what process to go through to produce panic. When I run this strategy through my own head I can usually  get some anxiety going and the whole problem becomes very obvious.

For example, I am often told that in order for the panic to start I would have to ask myself a question like “what would happen if I was suddenly to take ill right now?”.

Since the brain has a very useful habit of answering every question put to it, scary pictures often pop up in the client’s head, followed by bad feelings, which are then reinforced by even scarier questions. This process loops around and around until the client either makes the questions so ridiculous that they stop, or they are distracted by something else. Throughout this process, adrenaline is building up and producing the feelings of panic.

This by no means is the only way people can produce panic but I’ve found it’s a very common one. Merely making a client aware of this process that they often perform in microseconds often results in them getting control of the process. Altering the tone of their questioning internal voice can also short circuit the process well before the adrenaline has flooded the system and the panic is unleashed.

Adding a bit of humour also works a treat, you can’t panic while you’re laughing.

My own personal favourite, which I use when I find myself becoming anxious, is to remember Dad’s Army’s Corporal Jones shouting “Don’t panic Mr. Mainwaring, they don’t like it up em!”. That tends to shift my state!

So you may be reading this thinking well that’s all well and good for other people but that doesn’t sound like me. How true, this doesn’t apply to everyone but we haven’t finished yet.

Meridian Energy Therapy in whatever form its presented can also relieve panic attacks. Thought Field Therapy (TFT) has very high success rates with clients, often used as the first line of approach by therapists. Simply tapping points on energy meridians in a specific sequence can eliminate the panic symptoms and deal with the cause. Any good TFT practitioner is able to quickly and easily run clients through this process.

So there’s hope yet for the panic attack sufferer. If you are presently having any sort of problem with anxiety I highly recommend finding an experienced practitioner of NLP or Meridian Energy Therapy and release yourself from the grip of this very irrational but very real condition.

Copyright : Adrian Brown © 2007

Contact Details:

Adrian Brown ACMA C.P.AMT C.Hyp

www.beyondlimits.co.uk

Tel: 0870 478 9145 or 07908 465772

Email: info@beyondlimits.co.uk

This momentous occasion also provides us humans with another chance to go into our mental closets and filter out accumulated and unwanted junk from the past.  Past demons, bad habits, limiting beliefs that keep governing our actions, anxieties and insecurities are all acquired through our life experiences; we’re not born with them.  And, since our mind is no different to a computer that has been programmed with the software of life experiences, it can be re-programmed to think differently and consequently behave differently also.  Remember: Your Past Does NOT Equal Your Future.

Sometimes all that is needed is a tiny shift in our attitude, our outlook or our strategies to yield the biggest positive change that we’ve been longing for.  What we visualize in our mind, what we repeatedly say to ourselves and even our body language are all contributing factors to the subjective understanding of our lives.  Our reality is always subjective and can be unjust to the actuality that we neglect to appreciate.  As the famous NLP presupposition goes, the map is not the territory.  How you’ve unconsciously programmed yourself to understand the world around you is not always an accurate perspective - there are other facets to see the world through!  There’s a wonderful saying that I read the other day, it said: “We don’t see the world the way it is, but rather the way we are.”

Let me just finish off by saying that sometimes, it’s not just a spring clean that our internal and external lives require; but a careful and honest re-evaluation of where we’re going with our lives and the goals we’ve set.

“Carefully watch your thoughts, for they become your words. Manage and watch your words, for they will become your actions. Consider and judge your actions, for they have become your habits.  Acknowledge and watch your habits, for they shall become your values. Understand and embrace your values, for they become your destiny.”  Mahatma Gandhi

Until Next Time…….­Live Don’t Just Exist.

Call now and book an appointment to kick start your Spring Clean.

Tel:  +44 (0)207 602 5477

taymour@guiding-light.net

For those of you who know me, I never brag about anything unless it’s truly worth it.  Paul McKenna’s weight loss system is the finest in the world because it is NOT a diet, but an attitude to food and weight loss.  I’m not just saying this because I’m one of Paul’s assistants, but I’ve genuinely seen the positive shifts it creates in attendees.  We have success case after success case, because it simply works.

It’s a system that I always use with my clients (and of course give credit where credit is due), and it’s incredibly effective because of its simplicity and effectiveness.  So check it out today.

Regards,

Taymour

http://www.paulmckenna.com

* 7 X more effective than any diet.

* Change your relationship with food forever.

* Free yourself from guilt.

* Take control of the way you eat once and for all.

* Eat what you want and when you want it, and still lose weight.

Honesty has always been a policy that I’ve relied on when making a difference with my clients. I’ve been a personal coach for almost five years now and time and time again, I’ve helped my clients by teaching them powerful and life changing techniques that have contributed to their growth and success. This is not to say that I don’t use such tools and techniques myself; they are always there in the background helping me cope and overcome my own challenges. Reframing a situation for the positive, adjusting my own internal dialogue and even being aware of what I visualise with my overactive mind.

Like all of you out there, life has tested me with its challenges and hurdles; and it continues to do so on a regular basis. I suppose every challenge has helped me become a stronger person and better at my work, as I can understand and empathise with my clients more easily. I am writing this article because of an experience that I went through recently that truly tested my attitude, mental discipline and the many mind techniques that I regularly recommend to my clients. I suppose you could say that I was caught off guard and life pitched me a curve ball (pardon the Baseball expression) that I had to deal with.

Without boring you with the details, I came to realise that:

a) The TFT Algorithms I use are extremely effective. They calmed me enough to think straight and take necessary action.

b) I (and many of you out there) can be highly resourceful when it’s necessary. It’s all in the attitude. I kept thinking that: “I need to fix this, no matter what.” Rather than: Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God…

And c) I was uncomfortably reminded of the fact that imagination is far more powerful than intellect or common sense. So I had to be extra mindful of the power of my thoughts and their impact on my body and mind. .

My logical/sensible mind was very calm and collected. It knew that this problem in its core could be remedied easily. On the other hand, my creative mind was super-active with terrifying thoughts of “What if!”. My breathing became shallow, my heart began to palpitate, I was sweating and feeling horrid with fear. My emotional and physical state was being overtaken with daunting thoughts that were not happening in actuality – they were just thoughts that I was beginning to unfortunately believe. All this in a matter of just one to two minutes. As this unpleasant drama unfolded, a voice somewhere in my head whispered gently: “BREATHE…You can handle this. Just do what you usually ask your clients when they’re faced with a similar challenge”. Luckily I listened to that voice of higher wisdom and began to walk my talk once again. I did what works. I first became aware of my thoughts in detail, and changed them for the better by visualising myself taking the steps needed to fix my problem and see it through. I went over that empowering movie in my mind repeatedly and acted right away. In stead of giving into my fears (which we all have and I’m no exception), I collapsed them with cleaner thoughts. Thoughts that were a cocktail of positive and helpful internal dialogue coupled with better pictures and film clips in my mind. After all, you are what you think; and what you systematically think will result in what you believe and act on a daily basis. Remember, for something to happen in your reality, it must first happen in your imagination.

Although the above experience has been simplified to make some focal points; it was also very humbling to go through. I was reminded of my own fragility and the importance of being the master of your own mind (thoughts and imaginations), rather than its slave. It is terribly easy to give into bad thoughts and follow their deceitful trail only to be left emotionally wrecked and physically drained. I can even appreciate the effects of anxiety and panic more than ever when clients describe them to me, as I’ve gone to the edge and stared into the abyss except I didn’t wait for the abyss to stare back at me. Nevertheless, as the old saying goes: “Life throws you only what it knows you can handle”, and in hind sight, things turned out for the best. Just look at this article as one the positive outcomes of a lesson learned.

The ancient Zoroastrian religion is based on three principals: Good Thought, Good Words and Good Deeds – in that order. Reiterating the importance and power of thoughts, this experience educated me once more to monitor and control my own in order to better my words (internal as well as external) and to alter my actions for the better.

The fundamental key is to discipline our fertile minds to exercise constructive thoughts that can be mastered through repetition and habit. I believe it’s all about realising what doesn’t work and letting it go; to discover what does and embrace it. In essence, it’s quite easy and simple to do. The conscious and positive conditioning of our minds is the keystone that can hold it all together as we carry on building our lives into edifices of pride and happiness.

Until Next Time……….Live, Don’t Just Exist!

Call now to book an appointment

Tel:  +44 (0)207 602 5477  taymour@guiding-light.net