Huge numbers of people are afraid when they go to the dentist. In Britain 40% of the population is so afraid that they just don’t go and in the United States 30-40 million people either receive inadequate dental care or avoid going to the dentist altogether because of the fear of dental procedures. This is clearly a massive problem.
A person in the grip of a terrible fear or phobia is suffering and it may ruin their whole life. My own terror of the dentist was so extreme that it was almost painful. I couldn’t look at the outside of a dental surgery or at pictures of them in newspapers, magazines or on the television and if someone suggested I should go to the dentist it could result in a huge row.
When one of my front teeth broke and looked really horrible I was finally forced to go to the dentist. I was lucky because I had trained in Hypnotherapy and self-hypnosis. Using the techniques I had learned I was able to overcome my fear to the point where I actually liked my dentist. In the past I would never have thought it possible that I could ‘like’ a dentist. I wrote the techniques I used down in a small book so that others may use them too. The techniques I used are simple and very effective.
There are various techniques and treatments available to help you overcome the fear of going to the dentist and other phobias. The unorthodox ones that I recommend include: Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) and Hypnotherapy, either from a qualified therapist or using self-hypnosis.
Neuro Linguistic Programming works on the supposition that our brains run programmes and that a phobia is simply one of these programmes. Other programmes you will have include a programme for driving a car, riding a bicycle, brushing your teeth and so on. By changing the programme, either with help from a NLP practitioner or by using the techniques in a book, you can overcome your phobia.
The Emotional Freedom Technique is one of the Meridian Therapies and is also known as psychological acupuncture. By tapping on certain acupuncture points whilst using a set up phrase and repeating affirmations you can create great beneficial changes for all sorts of problems including trauma, phobias and addictions, etc.
A Hypnotherapist may use various techniques and also, whilst you are in trance, NLP to help you overcome your phobia. With self-hypnosis you can use the power of suggestion and visualisation to help free you from your phobia.
So don't suffer unnecessarily. Find out what therapies are available in your area or buy a suitable book and help yourself. Very soon your fear or phobia could be a thing of the past and you can look forward to a happier, less fearful future. You can do it so just go for it!
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Thursday, 20 October 2011
The Power of Thought
As Napoleon Hill, the father of the modern Self-improvement / Personal Development movement said, “The creator gave us power over but one thing and one thing only, our own conscious minds”. Everything we ever do in this world begins with a thought and our thoughts can be either positive or negative. For some reason the vast majority of people are thinking negatively about themselves or the world around them most of the time. It is said that about 90% of the thoughts we think in the course of a day will be negative. We must turn that around because such negativity can be terribly destructive. You only have to look at the fact that suicide is on the increase to realise that. It all comes about because of our thoughts and how we mentally process things, how we perceive things. It is not what happens to us in our lives that can make us happy or unhappy it is how we perceive those events, how we process them.
Suppose a group of people were made redundant from their place of work. At one extreme some people will be thinking, “Oh no. That’s it, I’ve had it. No one will employ me now. I’m on the scrap heap, finished”. At the other extreme there will be other people thinking, “Wow! That’s great! I hated that job anyway so now I can get the sort of job I really want/start my own business/re-train/travel” or whatever. Of course there will be a variety of other reactions in between. The same event can happen to a number of people and they will all perceive it differently. Some will perceive it positively and some negatively. If those that perceive it negatively are not careful they could be totally destroyed by it yet that same event can spur others on to achieve great things. All of this is brought about by our thoughts. If we can change our thoughts from negative to positive our possibilities may be limitless. If we can’t then we may end up as another statistic on the list of suicides. If we can change our thoughts to positive we can change our whole lives for the better!
The brain is said to function like a highly sophisticated computer and negative thinking can be likened to negative programming. We must reverse any negative programming by constantly putting in positive programming. Positive or negative the mind can only hold one thought at a time. We must replace our negative thoughts with positive ones. As David J. Schwartz said, “The person who achieves controls his thinking. He doesn’t let his thinking control him”. Or, as Robert Holden said, “Unless we are prepared to think differently we will experience no difference. Thought is creative”.
So how can we improve upon our thoughts? The first way I want to talk about is to do as Brian Tracy says and to go on a positive attitude diet for 21 days. Every time we catch ourselves thinking negatively we must immediately stop that thought and change it for a positive one. Behavioural psychologists say that we should actually say “STOP!” inside our head and then think a positive thought instead. The reason we must do this for 21 days is that it takes that amount of time to form a habit so if we keep it up we will form the habit of constantly thinking positive.
The second method is my favourite. We have to RAPP.
“When you’re down and feeling blue
just remember what to do
you can RAPP, you can RAPP
you can RAPP now!!!”
So what is RAPP? R.A.P.P. stands for ‘Run A Positive Programme’, i.e. in your mind, your bio-computer. There are two types of positive programme you can use. The first is to recall the memory of a pleasant, happy and positive experience from your past. Think of several such experiences and then choose the best one. Once you have chosen one play the ‘video’, if you like, of that memory over and over several times to fix it in your mind so that you can easily bring it into consciousness whenever you need to. Make sure you really highlight all the positive aspects by bringing it closer, brightening up the colour, sharpening the focus and enhancing the sound or even add some appropriate music if it helps. Make sure you really feel the happy, positive emotions that go with your memory/video. Then whenever you are feeling depressed or stuck in any kind of negative thinking run your positive programme and really see it, hear it and feel the emotion of it. Within a few seconds you will be feeling happier and more positive!
The second, and I think, best technique is to run a positive future programme. In this method you run a programme of one of your goals. Decide which goal you want to use and create a video or visualisation of yourself having achieved it. See what you will see, hear what you will hear and feel what you will feel. Make a complete mind video of your goal from beginning to end making sure that you really feel the happy, positive emotions that go with it. Once again you run this video in place of any negative thinking. Using this method not only will you feel the positive benefits but you will help to bring your goals into reality more rapidly.
I shall leave you with a final quotation from Jack Black, another leader in the field of Self-improvement / Personal Development: “Your thinking determines all things. In other words, think negatively and you will attract negative realities. Think positively and the benefits you desire in life will come to you. It’s that simple. Whatever we choose to think we choose to have in our lives”.
Suppose a group of people were made redundant from their place of work. At one extreme some people will be thinking, “Oh no. That’s it, I’ve had it. No one will employ me now. I’m on the scrap heap, finished”. At the other extreme there will be other people thinking, “Wow! That’s great! I hated that job anyway so now I can get the sort of job I really want/start my own business/re-train/travel” or whatever. Of course there will be a variety of other reactions in between. The same event can happen to a number of people and they will all perceive it differently. Some will perceive it positively and some negatively. If those that perceive it negatively are not careful they could be totally destroyed by it yet that same event can spur others on to achieve great things. All of this is brought about by our thoughts. If we can change our thoughts from negative to positive our possibilities may be limitless. If we can’t then we may end up as another statistic on the list of suicides. If we can change our thoughts to positive we can change our whole lives for the better!
The brain is said to function like a highly sophisticated computer and negative thinking can be likened to negative programming. We must reverse any negative programming by constantly putting in positive programming. Positive or negative the mind can only hold one thought at a time. We must replace our negative thoughts with positive ones. As David J. Schwartz said, “The person who achieves controls his thinking. He doesn’t let his thinking control him”. Or, as Robert Holden said, “Unless we are prepared to think differently we will experience no difference. Thought is creative”.
So how can we improve upon our thoughts? The first way I want to talk about is to do as Brian Tracy says and to go on a positive attitude diet for 21 days. Every time we catch ourselves thinking negatively we must immediately stop that thought and change it for a positive one. Behavioural psychologists say that we should actually say “STOP!” inside our head and then think a positive thought instead. The reason we must do this for 21 days is that it takes that amount of time to form a habit so if we keep it up we will form the habit of constantly thinking positive.
The second method is my favourite. We have to RAPP.
“When you’re down and feeling blue
just remember what to do
you can RAPP, you can RAPP
you can RAPP now!!!”
So what is RAPP? R.A.P.P. stands for ‘Run A Positive Programme’, i.e. in your mind, your bio-computer. There are two types of positive programme you can use. The first is to recall the memory of a pleasant, happy and positive experience from your past. Think of several such experiences and then choose the best one. Once you have chosen one play the ‘video’, if you like, of that memory over and over several times to fix it in your mind so that you can easily bring it into consciousness whenever you need to. Make sure you really highlight all the positive aspects by bringing it closer, brightening up the colour, sharpening the focus and enhancing the sound or even add some appropriate music if it helps. Make sure you really feel the happy, positive emotions that go with your memory/video. Then whenever you are feeling depressed or stuck in any kind of negative thinking run your positive programme and really see it, hear it and feel the emotion of it. Within a few seconds you will be feeling happier and more positive!
The second, and I think, best technique is to run a positive future programme. In this method you run a programme of one of your goals. Decide which goal you want to use and create a video or visualisation of yourself having achieved it. See what you will see, hear what you will hear and feel what you will feel. Make a complete mind video of your goal from beginning to end making sure that you really feel the happy, positive emotions that go with it. Once again you run this video in place of any negative thinking. Using this method not only will you feel the positive benefits but you will help to bring your goals into reality more rapidly.
I shall leave you with a final quotation from Jack Black, another leader in the field of Self-improvement / Personal Development: “Your thinking determines all things. In other words, think negatively and you will attract negative realities. Think positively and the benefits you desire in life will come to you. It’s that simple. Whatever we choose to think we choose to have in our lives”.
Sunday, 27 June 2010
Jab Away Your Phobia
It was reported in the press recently that scientists in Japan have developed an injection that will cure people of their phobias. They had trained some goldfish to connect a strong flashing light with receiving a mild electric shock. They were given a dose of a local anaesthetic called lidocaine and after this the fish no longer feared the flashing light. Apparently, the injection switches off the part of the brain that "learns" how to fear. The scientist in charge of the experiments, Dr Masayuki Yoshida of the University of Hiroshima, reportedly said that the fish had stable heart rates and were unable to learn to become afraid.
On the one hand it seems to me that if you just switch off the brain's ability to learn what to be afraid of then people will keep putting themselves into potentially deadly situations, like walking in front of cars. On the other hand what about if you have a phobia of needles? You will still need a therapist or other treatments to cure that first so what's the point?
On the one hand it seems to me that if you just switch off the brain's ability to learn what to be afraid of then people will keep putting themselves into potentially deadly situations, like walking in front of cars. On the other hand what about if you have a phobia of needles? You will still need a therapist or other treatments to cure that first so what's the point?
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Driving Phobia
Driving phobia is one of the most common phobias. people are surprised to hear that though as it's one of the 'hidden' phobias. This is because sufferers are too embarrassed to admit to having it and thus go to great lengths to conceal it. Like other hidden or silent phobias driving phobia is well known to phobia specialists and the avoidance patterns, symptoms and responses are very similar to other silent phobias.
Driving phobia is an irrational fear of driving or being out of control whilst driving and can cause dread, panic and avoidance. It rarely has any relation to how good a driver the sufferer is. Many of them are good competent drivers and normal, well balanced people who once drove quite happily but are now anxious or panicky when they drive or don't drive at all. A driving phobia can happen to lots of people and it can happen to anyone making driving very difficult or even impossible. The conscious, rational thinking part of the sufferer knows that they are a good driver and so it can be very frustrating. Sometimes though, when in certain driving situations or on certain roads, the irrational, unconscious part of them can push out rational thought and fear will rapidly take its place. It has been shown that it is the more creative, imaginative and artistic people that develop phobias such as driving phobia. Developing a phobia can have a lot do with misuse of the imagination so anyone can develop a phobia of driving, no matter what their level of competence.
Driving phobia can be caused by an upsetting or traumatic event, such as an accident, or something apparently insignificant like being stuck in a traffic jam, overtaking or going over a very high bridge. Things such as tiredness, stress or worry can cause the irrational mind to blow these events out of all proportion and a mild panic attack may be experienced. This can create a pattern where similar events in the future may be experienced in the same way and thus a phobia is created. Sufferers may use various strategies to control their panic and embarrassment. They may only drive at certain quiet times, avoid certain routes and places and make excuses so as to avoid giving lifts to friends and colleagues. Over time these 'solutions' can restrict and interfere with the sufferers quality of life and become a part of the problem. Eventually the sufferer must admit that they cannot change the situation themselves and seek professional help.
Like most phobias driving phobia can be treated with hypnotherapy, the NLP fast phobia cure, EFT and cognitive therapy.
Driving phobia is an irrational fear of driving or being out of control whilst driving and can cause dread, panic and avoidance. It rarely has any relation to how good a driver the sufferer is. Many of them are good competent drivers and normal, well balanced people who once drove quite happily but are now anxious or panicky when they drive or don't drive at all. A driving phobia can happen to lots of people and it can happen to anyone making driving very difficult or even impossible. The conscious, rational thinking part of the sufferer knows that they are a good driver and so it can be very frustrating. Sometimes though, when in certain driving situations or on certain roads, the irrational, unconscious part of them can push out rational thought and fear will rapidly take its place. It has been shown that it is the more creative, imaginative and artistic people that develop phobias such as driving phobia. Developing a phobia can have a lot do with misuse of the imagination so anyone can develop a phobia of driving, no matter what their level of competence.
Driving phobia can be caused by an upsetting or traumatic event, such as an accident, or something apparently insignificant like being stuck in a traffic jam, overtaking or going over a very high bridge. Things such as tiredness, stress or worry can cause the irrational mind to blow these events out of all proportion and a mild panic attack may be experienced. This can create a pattern where similar events in the future may be experienced in the same way and thus a phobia is created. Sufferers may use various strategies to control their panic and embarrassment. They may only drive at certain quiet times, avoid certain routes and places and make excuses so as to avoid giving lifts to friends and colleagues. Over time these 'solutions' can restrict and interfere with the sufferers quality of life and become a part of the problem. Eventually the sufferer must admit that they cannot change the situation themselves and seek professional help.
Like most phobias driving phobia can be treated with hypnotherapy, the NLP fast phobia cure, EFT and cognitive therapy.
Friday, 18 September 2009
Rare Phobia
I read an item in the newspaper the other day about a young lady who was suffering from a rare phobia - a phobia of knees. This goes to show how you can be phobic of just about anything, even something such as knees which most people would feel are totally harmless. It seems this young lady's phobia started when she was a child of 11 and saw her Father fall and dislocate his knee.
The phobia is spoiling her quality of life. She said that it was worse in summer and that she didn't feel she could go to the beach or the pub. She thought she would freak out if she saw someone in a bathing costume or a short skirt and quivers in fear if someone tries to touch her knees or accidently bumps them. She is fine with her family and friends but strangers knees still hold a lot of fear for her. She is getting married next May and hopes to be free of the phobia by then.
She has tried several therapies including Hypnotherapy but nothing has worked for her. She should try my book "Stress Free Dentistry. The easy way to overcome your fear of going to the dentist". It is available at www.lulu.com and the techniques can easily be adapted to overcome any phobia. The phobia of knees is called Genuphobia. I put this into Google and came up with a site that talked about a therapist who was having an 85% success rate in treating this and other phobias. He says it is caused by an energy imbalance and recommends Energy Psychotherapy. It doesn't explain but he may be using something like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) of Thought Field Therapy (TFT). The site is www.phobia-fear-release.com/genuphobia.html. It clicks through to a site from where you can buy DVD's, audio CD's and books to help yourself.
The phobia is spoiling her quality of life. She said that it was worse in summer and that she didn't feel she could go to the beach or the pub. She thought she would freak out if she saw someone in a bathing costume or a short skirt and quivers in fear if someone tries to touch her knees or accidently bumps them. She is fine with her family and friends but strangers knees still hold a lot of fear for her. She is getting married next May and hopes to be free of the phobia by then.
She has tried several therapies including Hypnotherapy but nothing has worked for her. She should try my book "Stress Free Dentistry. The easy way to overcome your fear of going to the dentist". It is available at www.lulu.com and the techniques can easily be adapted to overcome any phobia. The phobia of knees is called Genuphobia. I put this into Google and came up with a site that talked about a therapist who was having an 85% success rate in treating this and other phobias. He says it is caused by an energy imbalance and recommends Energy Psychotherapy. It doesn't explain but he may be using something like the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) of Thought Field Therapy (TFT). The site is www.phobia-fear-release.com/genuphobia.html. It clicks through to a site from where you can buy DVD's, audio CD's and books to help yourself.
Saturday, 12 September 2009
Seven Success Tips.
I said in a previous post that I would be publishing some articles on personal development/self-help. As promised, here is the first of them.
Every day it seems that life can get that little bit tougher. The faster pace of modern life with its increasing reliance on more and more technology can be difficault to keep up with. Sadly some people fall by the wayside and end up using excess alcohol or drugs in order to cope or end up with a stress related illness. The field of self-help is now massive with hundreds of books, magazines, CD's and DVD's available. The reason for this is that it works! There will always be people who knock the field of self-help but the old adage is true, "If you want a job done right do it yourself!" Whilst there are plenty of people out there who are trained to help you such as counsellors, psychotherapists and life coaches it all has to start with you. You are the one who has to take action and read the book, listen to the CD or make the appointment with the life coach or therapist. It is also you who has to do most of the work in order to truly succeed. Here are seven tips to help you along your way:
1. Have faith in yourself. This is very important You must have faith and belief in yourself that you have the ability to achieve your goals and your dreams. When you have faith and believe in yourself you release the strength to overcome the obstacles in life.
2. Recognize and develop your strengths. We are all totally unique individuals with our own strengths and abilities. Work on those strenths and develop them. Don't dwell on anything that you feel you lack in yourself. Work on your strengths, use them to the upmost and who knows where they might take you.
3. Judge yourself by your own opinions. People are often put down or depressed by a negative remark about them from someone else. Be proud of all your good qualities and judge yourself based on what you know about yourself. As long as you are good person being good to others as best you can then that's all that matters. Who are they to judge anyway? Nobody is perfect we are all doing the best we can with what we have.
4. Do the things you love to do. Spend as much time as possible doing the the things that you really enjoy. By this I mean preferably constructive things that increase your self-esteem and self-development. This kind of self-help will make you feel better and bring you closer to success.
5. Select your friends carefully. It really matters who you spend time with because people are either building you up or tearing you down so make sure you spend your time with good, positive people who encourage you in the good things you want to do and genuinely want you to be successful. Make sure you giving them back the same encouragement. As Brian Tracy says:
"If you want to soar with the Eagles, don't scratch around in the barnyard with the Turkeys!"
6. Have a mastermind group. It was Napoleon Hill, the Father of the field of personal development, who originated the idea of a mastermind group. Basically a mastermind group is a group of people/friends who come together on a regular basis to help each other achieve their goals. If you're in business this might include your accountant, solicitor, life coach and other business people with similar ambitions. All these people would work together to help each other succeed.
7. Think positively. Positive thoughts bring positive results. This is because the law of attraction says that like attracts like. Think positively about your goals and focus on them to bring your dreams into reality.
Whether you are a success in life will be mostly due to your own efforts. Life is too short to waste time. Take action NOW to achieve the life you dream of and good luck.
Every day it seems that life can get that little bit tougher. The faster pace of modern life with its increasing reliance on more and more technology can be difficault to keep up with. Sadly some people fall by the wayside and end up using excess alcohol or drugs in order to cope or end up with a stress related illness. The field of self-help is now massive with hundreds of books, magazines, CD's and DVD's available. The reason for this is that it works! There will always be people who knock the field of self-help but the old adage is true, "If you want a job done right do it yourself!" Whilst there are plenty of people out there who are trained to help you such as counsellors, psychotherapists and life coaches it all has to start with you. You are the one who has to take action and read the book, listen to the CD or make the appointment with the life coach or therapist. It is also you who has to do most of the work in order to truly succeed. Here are seven tips to help you along your way:
1. Have faith in yourself. This is very important You must have faith and belief in yourself that you have the ability to achieve your goals and your dreams. When you have faith and believe in yourself you release the strength to overcome the obstacles in life.
2. Recognize and develop your strengths. We are all totally unique individuals with our own strengths and abilities. Work on those strenths and develop them. Don't dwell on anything that you feel you lack in yourself. Work on your strengths, use them to the upmost and who knows where they might take you.
3. Judge yourself by your own opinions. People are often put down or depressed by a negative remark about them from someone else. Be proud of all your good qualities and judge yourself based on what you know about yourself. As long as you are good person being good to others as best you can then that's all that matters. Who are they to judge anyway? Nobody is perfect we are all doing the best we can with what we have.
4. Do the things you love to do. Spend as much time as possible doing the the things that you really enjoy. By this I mean preferably constructive things that increase your self-esteem and self-development. This kind of self-help will make you feel better and bring you closer to success.
5. Select your friends carefully. It really matters who you spend time with because people are either building you up or tearing you down so make sure you spend your time with good, positive people who encourage you in the good things you want to do and genuinely want you to be successful. Make sure you giving them back the same encouragement. As Brian Tracy says:
"If you want to soar with the Eagles, don't scratch around in the barnyard with the Turkeys!"
6. Have a mastermind group. It was Napoleon Hill, the Father of the field of personal development, who originated the idea of a mastermind group. Basically a mastermind group is a group of people/friends who come together on a regular basis to help each other achieve their goals. If you're in business this might include your accountant, solicitor, life coach and other business people with similar ambitions. All these people would work together to help each other succeed.
7. Think positively. Positive thoughts bring positive results. This is because the law of attraction says that like attracts like. Think positively about your goals and focus on them to bring your dreams into reality.
Whether you are a success in life will be mostly due to your own efforts. Life is too short to waste time. Take action NOW to achieve the life you dream of and good luck.
Friday, 4 September 2009
Treatments for Phobias
For someone with a phobia life can be very difficult, depending on the phobia they have and its severity. They may spend hours of their day anxiously worrying about being in a situation that causes them so much fear. Someone with a phobia of birds may fear leaving their house and when they are outside they may have to plan their route to avoid places where birds, such as pigeons, congregate. If they do come close to birds the encounter may trigger a full blown panic attack. So people with phobias are genuinely suffering and about 10% of the population has one.
Their are many treatments available and some are more effective than others. If you go to your doctor you may be given drugs which just mask the symptoms but don't cure the problem. You may also be offered some form of counselling or talking therapy. This can can be helpful to a degree as can Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). I have, in a previous post, discussed how really effective Hypnotherapy can be. I cured myself of my own phobia of going to the dentist by using self-hypnosis suggestion therapy.
Eye Movement De-sensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is another effective therapy. It works by scrambling the programme that runs the phobia and replacing it with another, more positive one. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is another very effective therapy and one of my favourites.
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is perhaps the most effective therapy and has a specific technique, the Fast Phobia Cure, for treating phobias. Other NLP techniques can be effective
too.
In my book "Stress Free Dentistry. The easy way to overcome your fear of going to the dentist" I explain the NLP Fast Phobia Cure as well as hypnosis suggestion therapy, the technique I used to treat myself. For a copy go to www.lulu.com and put "Stress Free Dentistry" into search. the techniques can easily be adapted to treat any phobia.
Their are many treatments available and some are more effective than others. If you go to your doctor you may be given drugs which just mask the symptoms but don't cure the problem. You may also be offered some form of counselling or talking therapy. This can can be helpful to a degree as can Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). I have, in a previous post, discussed how really effective Hypnotherapy can be. I cured myself of my own phobia of going to the dentist by using self-hypnosis suggestion therapy.
Eye Movement De-sensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is another effective therapy. It works by scrambling the programme that runs the phobia and replacing it with another, more positive one. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) is another very effective therapy and one of my favourites.
Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) is perhaps the most effective therapy and has a specific technique, the Fast Phobia Cure, for treating phobias. Other NLP techniques can be effective
too.
In my book "Stress Free Dentistry. The easy way to overcome your fear of going to the dentist" I explain the NLP Fast Phobia Cure as well as hypnosis suggestion therapy, the technique I used to treat myself. For a copy go to www.lulu.com and put "Stress Free Dentistry" into search. the techniques can easily be adapted to treat any phobia.
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