If you’ve ever struggled with an addiction or behaviour you wanted to change, but no matter what you’ve tried, you can’t seem to overcome it, you’re not alone.

Addictions such as social media or TV binging, pornography, smoking, drinking, overeating, sugar addictions or using drugs are extremely common and often overlooked.

These behaviours are difficult to overcome because we learn them so well, we do them without thinking. It’s similar to learning how to read, write, walk and breathe. These become automatic functions that we do without thinking as if we create a part of us that runs the process for us. They become subconscious actions that we’re not even aware of.

Hypnosis allows you to not only get to the root of what has caused the behaviour in the first place, it allows you to communicate with the part of you that automatically runs that process and get it to do something else that is more beneficial.

Unresolved emotions are like a volcano, where these emotions can bubble and boil until they finally need to release and explode.

And for many people, these unresolved feelings from experiences in the past, present or future can crop up when least expected. Since these emotions sit with us subconsciously, we can be unaware when present state triggers cause these emotions to bubble back up inside us. These triggers can include changes we didn’t anticipate, losing a loved one or perceived failures.

These unresolved emotions, in turn, will continue to bubble and boil, and we often try to suppress these emotions by distracting behaviours that temporarily help but never make a lasting difference in how we feel.

Hypnosis helps address these unresolved emotions, getting to the root of what caused the feelings in the first place and learning how to satisfy them so they are no longer triggered. This can have a profound impact and lasting change, allowing you to begin living a stress and anxiety-free life.

The link between stress and unresolved memories and emotions from the past

Stress is often connected to deep-seated emotions, usually rooted in past experiences. And when stress strikes, it can manifest in many ways, ranging from headaches and upset stomachs to emotional turmoil.

If the stress is temporary, the symptoms will also likely be temporary. But if the stress is chronic, it can lead to much more serious health issues. That’s why it’s so important to understand what underlying issues are triggering your stress.

Through hypnosis, we can explore and address these unresolved emotions from the past. By reframing and satisfying those emotional wounds, we can detach ourselves from their triggers. So what once used to stress us and cause physical and emotional symptoms no longer have the same hold over our well-being.

Unsatisfied emotions are like landmines. When we suppress them, they may be triggered and activated. When we address them, they are diffused and deactivated.

When emotions from our past are not dealt with, they are like landmines waiting to go off, and one wrong step activates the explosion. When we suppress our emotions from the past, they cascade into the present carrying with them behaviours associated with an earlier event when we were children. When suppressed emotions from childhood are activated in adulthood, we end up acting like children and being reactive vs responsive.

When we tell people we are fine, that we are okay, that there's nothing wrong. But then, turn around and find ourselves overworking, overeating or drinking (and normalizing how much of this we do); it begs the question… "is there really something wrong?". For some of us we're aware of where this pattern began. But for others, we are unaware of where we picked up these coping mechanisms.

At a subconscious level, we have also forgotten the events that caused the emotions that activated those coping mechanisms. Many feel a form of temporary relief when they forget about past experiences and train themselves to be okay. What's out of sight is out of mind because if I can't see the problem, the problem must not exist.

The truth is this method of approach will only result in more pain and suffering. As adults, we aren't meant to deal with our problems the way we deal with them as children. As adults, we need to create coping strategies more effective than the child's 'pretending and forgetting' strategies.

We inflict pain upon ourselves when we deal with our challenges through pretending and forgetting. One who distracts, drinks, overworks, ignores and suppresses their emotions to cope is no different than an animal that devours its tail out of hunger.

Through hypnosis, we learn to satisfy our emotions and release the behaviours causing us pain. We pierce through the veil and begin to see the abnormal behaviour in what we once thought was normal.

It's easy to feel frustrated and overwhelmed when we don't understand our feelings. You can start feeling trapped in a dark place with no light.

However, when you understand that your feelings are an internal GPS, you see them as a guidance system that shines a light on your darkness. But when feelings of stress, anger, sadness, loneliness, frustration and depression go unaddressed for too long, they manifest into unwanted behaviours that limit your ability in work, life and relationships.

Some of us have grown up in environments where expressing sadness, fear and hurt were not allowed. Being told to"stop crying”, “you have nothing to cry about”, “get over it "," be a man” trains children to not express their feelings to avoid disapproval. And as a result, the child may deny this pain or anything that remotely resembles it.

This type of denial can lead to suppression or repression, resulting in emotional pressure that will eventually find a way to surface, usually in the form of addiction, overwhelm, stress, low self-worth or feelings of lack.

One of the primary benefits of hypnosis is its ability to help uncover repressed emotions while overcoming negative thought patterns and behaviours.

During hypnosis, a therapist can suggest new ways of thinking and behaving to reframe past experiences in a more positive light.

Many people have a hard time forgiving others. It’s easy to hold onto anger, sadness, resentment and grudges as people often feel that if they forgive, it means they’re letting the other person “get away” with something.

But the more you hold onto these feelings, the more damage it does to yourself.

These feelings and emotions that stay with you often manifest into other behaviours and, in the end, cause you more harm than good. And these behaviours are often a result of holding onto unresolved emotions and are often linked to an incident, person or experience that occurred in the past.

Part of healing from the past is learning to forgive others, and hypnosis teaches you how to forgive others and yourself so that you can release these harboured feelings and move past situations that are only holding you back.

We all have moments when we feel down - sad, mad, stressed, overwhelmed or lonely. And what do we often do? We look for something that makes us feel good temporarily. Maybe it’s social media, food, spending money or overworking. These behaviours act as distractors, taking our minds off what’s bothering us and focusing on something more neutral.

But these distractions create a vicious cycle and become ingrained habits. We feel bad, so we distract ourselves. But distractions don’t address the root of the problem; they merely cover it up, and so we invariably feel bad again. And if we continue these behaviours with no success, it just creates a new feeling of frustration, as their original issue still hasn’t been solved.

That’s where hypnosis comes in. It helps us to break free from these distracting behaviours by getting to the root of what's truly making us feel bad. Hypnosis can create lasting change by eliminating the distractions and helping you find true healing and relief.

How many times have you been told to ignore, push down, bury or deny your feelings?

Feelings act as our internal guidance system, helping us understand what needs and emotions are not being fulfilled.

So instead of trying to bury our feelings, it’s important to understand what they are trying to tell us. By understanding the language of feelings, we can start to see areas in our lives where change is needed.

Many of us have grown up being taught to suppress our emotions.

Children are often told to “stop crying”. Men are often chastised for showing emotion other than anger (especially if they cry). Women are often told to “stop being so emotional”.

So we learn to deny our emotions, tamping them deep down inside us, so we don’t suffer from criticism or shame. But like a volcano, the emotions will come bubbling to the surface at some point.

When many think of Hypnosis, they picture someone under a “spell,” completely unaware of what they are doing or have done.

Although this misconception is spawned from how Hollywood portrays Hypnosis, it couldn’t be further from the truth.

Hypnotherapy or Hypnosis is a tool to help change behaviours without using traditional treatments, medicine or pills. Through relaxation, you enter into a state of concentrated awareness, accessing the deepest areas of your mind, and changing how you think, feel and behave.

How do you cope with your feelings?

Do you try to numb your feelings by turning to food, drugs or alcohol or staying busy with work? Well, you’re not alone.

By not properly dealing with emotions as a child, we can grow up pretending that there is nothing wrong, burying the “bad” feelings as a way to cope with them.

But this will only work for so long.

Feelings are our guides, urging us to make positive changes and take action. However, societal conditioning often teaches us to ignore or find temporary coping mechanisms like food, alcohol, or drugs to numb our emotions.

This avoidance prevents us from addressing the root cause, leading to bigger issues down the line. We're left dealing with unsatisfied emotions, coupled with behaviours and coping strategies that don't serve us.