Keep breathing. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? And yet, so profound. Last summer we were blessed with the opportunity to spend six weeks in our travel trailer visiting family and friends in Washington State. In an RV park near Seattle, I noticed a gentleman sitting on a rock wall every morning as I walked our… Read more »
As we head into summer, my phone rings off the hook from people who made New Year’s resolutions to lose weight. They joined a gym and went for a few weeks but haven’t been back for a couple of months. Now, warm weather is upon us, and coats and sweaters are making way for shorts… Read more »
We all want to be seen and experienced as good people. We want to be liked and appreciated. We hope our best intentions are usually on display. But we’re also human, and humans have “shadow selves.” Maybe your temper flares in traffic and your horn makes you heard. Or, maybe you snap at your spouse… Read more »
It’s a fact of modern life: there will always be external crises ready to overtake you. The trick to happy, healthy living is to learn how to thrive despite the calamities. As this new year dawns, you do have a choice: You can focus on fear, division, and polarization, or you can choose to make… Read more »
As any of my clients will tell you, one of my favorite topics is joy. Why joy? Think for a moment about a stressful or upsetting event in your life. Notice your thoughts and emotions. Do a quick body scan and take note of the physical sensations in your body. Observe where you feel those… Read more »
Can you guess the latest hazard to your mental health? The American Psychiatric Association now recognizes climate change as a growing threat to mental health. Climate change anxiety is associated with increases in aggressive behavior and domestic violence, increased use of alcohol to cope with stress, rises in hospital admissions for people with mental health… Read more »
We all want to leave COVID-19 behind in its malicious tracks and return to normal. But what will normal be like for you? I’ve talked to people who are making a jailbreak full speed ahead to life prior to March 2020, only to be disappointed because it no longer exists as they knew it. Sadly,… Read more »
First, you fall in love. Then you decide to adopt that adorable cat, dog, parrot, rabbit. So you set off together, learning to adapt to each other’s expectations. Life is fun. Life is fuller. Your pet cheers you up in ways you never imagined possible. You catch yourself speaking in funny voices. You both grow… Read more »
Do you want to feel better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually? Then give thanks in the morning. When you give thanks for a great day as soon as you wake, your subconscious mind primes you to actually have a great day. When you thank your body for healing from disease or injury while sick, your… Read more »
I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to 2021 being a better year – because I choose to focus on self-care and to live in hope. Let me be clear: hope is not optimism or the belief that everything will turn out well, and hope doesn’t mean denying our realities. Hope means facing… Read more »
Since Labor Day, inflatable Santas have been pestering us, signaling that the holidays are rapidly approaching. Trees, lights and decorations have been rushing the season back into summer. But now, it really is time to focus on them. For some, the holidays are a joyful and magical time of year. We decorate our homes, celebrate… Read more »
In mid-July, I had rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder. Leading up to the surgery, I was fascinated by how the surgeon cautioned me about managing the pain, and he gave me three different pain prescriptions. Everyone I talked to said, “Oh, that’s going to hurt!” And since the surgery, people frequently ask about… Read more »
My phone is ringing and emails are pouring in from people worldwide who are exhausted from living with the fear, stress, anxiety, boredom, depression, uncertainty and fatigue of COVID-19. We’ve all spent months in our homes. We’re sick of social distancing with a mask. We stand in line to get into the store, try to… Read more »
Every human on our planet is struggling right now. For some, it’s simply getting through the day; for others, it’s coping with mortality in unimaginable circumstances. If the challenges we are facing are taking their toll mentally, you are not alone. Many psychologists agree that the ability to comprehend the magnitude of what is going… Read more »
Now more than ever, we all need to protect our health. You have a powerful force within you that can support your wellness: your unconscious mind. Besides strengthening your immune system, your subconscious mind can fight off disease; it controls all the vital processes of your body and it knows how to heal you. In… Read more »
We men seldom talk about our health and are even more reluctant to seek medical assistance. In fact, studies show that 61 percent of men do not engage in regular health checkups, representing a missed opportunity for preventive health care discussions.1 Growing up on a dairy farm in Southeast Minnesota, for me, medical doctors were… Read more »
I know firsthand that weight loss hypnosis works. Twenty-five years ago, I lugged around 260 pounds. Thanks to hypnosis, healthy eating and exercise, I ditched 120 pounds and have kept it off for twenty-four years. As we are in the midst of a global obesity pandemic, I am more passionate now than ever about helping… Read more »
Clients with Parkinson’s disease share the stiffness, shakiness, slowness, pain, fear, anxiety, dementia and sleeplessness that they experience with the disease. As part of integrated medical care, clinical hypnosis is a safe and drug-free approach for treatment that has shown to be effective in reducing these and other symptoms of Parkinson’s. In one National Institutes… Read more »
Really? Hypnosis for dementia? That’s the usual response I get when people first learn I’ve been using hypnosis for people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease since 1997. In 2007, a lengthy study conducted in the U.K. by Simon Duff, PhD, and Daniel Nightingale, PhD, found that people living with dementia who received hypnosis therapy showed… Read more »
Cancer patients and survivors often experience significant problems with pain, fatigue, sleep, stress, anxiety, trauma and grief associated both with the cancer diagnosis and side effects of treatments. Hypnosis can be powerfully effective for the physical, mental and emotional fallout that comes with the disease – and after, when life is often profoundly different. Cancer… Read more »