Hypnosis Works Website Newsletter
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Virtually everyone experiences major chronic or acute pain sometime during their lifetime. Once the source of the pain is known and you are working with your health practitioner to remedy the problem, the pain no longer serves its purpose and can safely be controlled.
“Generally people turn to various pain control medications, whether over-the-counter or a prescription, to relieve unnecessary pain. But sometimes the side effects of medication are almost as bad as the pain itself... Or perhaps you simply prefer not to use drugs of any sort.
Hypnosis and Pain
“Hypnosis is one of the most natural alternatives…. It works because the mind and body are connected: what is done to one affects the other. Here's an example. Think about biting into a slice of lemon. Really imagine the tart taste as the cool juice squirts onto your tongue. What happened? Did your saliva start to flow? Your thoughts caused your body's reaction.
“Similarly your expectation determines the extent of your pain. If you expect pain with a certain procedure - like dental treatment - you will be prepared for pain and will experience it strongly, no matter how careful your dentist is. In other words it is your brain - your mind - that gives meaning to pain.
How to Reprogram Pain
“Just as expectation can strengthen your experience of pain, your mind can moderate pain. Using hypnosis, you can reprogram how your body reacts to a painful situation...
“Imagery can help stimulate the release of endorphins into your body….Under hypnosis you can visualize soothing, healing endorphins reducing the pain. As you do so your pain will lessen and may even completely disappear.
“Deep relaxation can help relieve pain. Some painful conditions, such as headaches or IBS, are aggravated by stress and therefore can be eased by relaxation alone. Even those conditions that are not directly stress-related can be helped with relaxation. Pain causes your muscles to tense up, and the tension makes the pain worse ….
“Since anticipation of pain makes it worse, hypnosis can help relieve your fear of pain if you are facing a situation that could be painful…. If you go into the procedure relaxed, without fear, and with confidence in your ability to handle the situation, it will be much less painful …
Know Yourself to Avoid Pain
“Pain is best controlled when it begins, not when it is in full force. To avoid flare-ups of a chronic condition you must know your own body, its areas of tension, its needs, its sensitivities, how it feels when it is relaxed, and what the beginnings of a painful episode…feel like. Hypnosis can help you become familiar with your own sensitivities by remembering previous flare-ups….
“You should not try to relieve your pain through hypnosis until you know what is causing it. A suddenly occurring back pain may be due only to a muscle spasm, but it might also be a herniated disc, so you should get it diagnosed and physical treatment started before going to a hypnotherapist to control your pain.
“If you suffer from chronic or acute pain, are facing a potentially painful procedure, or are especially fearful of or sensitive to pain, consider hypnotherapy as a complement to your standard medical treatment. You will be glad you did.” -Jenny Sill-Holeman, CHT, CtHA; Menlo Park, CA
Hypnosis Works
52 Liberty Street, Dept. Z, Newsletter
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My Ladies First representative called last week and asked if I’d had a mammogram recently. It continues to dismay me that mammograms are considered the best preventative measure women have against breast cancer. So I passed along the little gem I’m printing here to Ladies First, along with information about real prevention through nutrition and maintaining a body chemistry that’s alkaline.
This is excerpted from “Is There a Link between Bras and Breast Cancer” in Bill Gottlieb’s Alternative Cures (Rodale: 2000) p.108-09.:
“A study has revealed a causative factor for breast cancer that can increase your risk of getting the disease by 100 times: Wearing a bra for more than 12 hours a day. “That’s the remarkable finding of Sydney Ross Singer, an applied medical anthropologist who….wrote Dressed to Kill: The Link between Breast Cancer and Bras. …Here’s what [the study] found.’
“A woman who wears a bra 24 hrs a day is 113 times more likely to get breast cancer than a woman who wears a bra less than 12 hrs a day. (That link is stronger than the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, Singer says.)
“A woman who never wears a bra is 21 times less likely to get breast cancer than a women in the general population.”
Singer suggests that all the straps, panels, underwires, etc., cut off “drainage from the lymphatic system, which helps remove toxins and waste products from the cells.” Nan Lu’s excellent A Woman’s Guide to Healing from Breast Cancer addresses very similar questions for recovery.
“A woman who wears a bra 24 hrs a day is 113 times more likely to get breast cancer than a woman who wears a bra less than 12 hrs a day. (That link is stronger than the link between cigarette smoking and lung cancer, Singer says.)
“A woman who never wears a bra is 21 times less likely to get breast cancer than a women in the general population.”
Singer suggests that all the straps, panels, underwires, etc., cut off “drainage from the lymphatic system, which helps remove toxins and waste products from the cells.” Nan Lu’s excellent A Woman’s Guide to Healing from Breast Cancer addresses very similar questions for recovery.
There’s more, both in the selection quoted here and the books themselves. As for me, I’m on my way to the bookstore to order my own copy of Dressed To Kill. Singer’s training, like mine, is in medical anthropology, where the data is real people leading everyday lives, not clinicians counting statistical human beings. It is time, I think, to look at other kinds of studies than those of the biomedical community, who can only offer us the not-really-preventive option of mammograms.
There’s more, both in the selection quoted here and the books themselves. As for me, I’m on my way to the bookstore to order my own copy of Dressed To Kill. Singer’s training, like mine, is in medical anthropology, where the data is real people leading everyday lives, not clinicians counting statistical human beings. It is time, I think, to look at other kinds of studies than those of the biomedical community, who can only offer us the not-really-preventive option of mammograms. Use hypnosis to remove your internal barriers to intimacy and release old emotional garbage. Move on. Maybe it’s just a matter of finding that self confidence to move out of isolation. Maybe it’s just revising your self-image to realize your own magnetism. Maybe it’s just kicking yourself in the pants and getting out there. Whatever it is, Hypnosis Works can help. This can be the time to remember how to love yourself as much as anyone. If you will be spending the summer on your own, make it because you choose to! Or dedicate yourself to getting out and partying. Your choice; I’ll help you make it.
Attract Your Soul Mate
Looking for the love of your life? Searching for a soul mate? Or are you looking for love –as the song goes- in all the wrong places? Maybe you are you facing the summer trying to get past the loss of a love or to emotionally separate from a previous relationship? Do you even know what's stopping you?
