Jackie Hofmann | Life Skills Consultant Certified Hypnotist

*There are 177 products in 17 categories available to you!

Shopping Cart

You have 0 item(s) in your basket.

Releasing Your Tiger

Did you know that it has been only recently that the human race has been dealing with a pandemic called stress??? The word stress was first coined in its present usage by Dr. Hans Selye as “a biological process, a wide-ranging set of events in the body, irrespective of cause or of subjective awareness. Stress consists of the internal alterations – visible or not – that occur when the organism perceives a threat to its existence or well-being.” This is commonly referred to as the fight or flight reaction. It is an instinctive reaction to what originally might have been an attack by a wild animal (saber tooth tiger for example) that threatened our very survival. Our brain’s cognitive functions are put on hold while the blood rushes to our extremities to allow for fight or flight action. If the tiger is coming at you, you don’t want to stand there analyzing the situation…you want to fight or flee. The problem with modern society is that with the incredible advances in technology, information and demands upon our time; with the constant barrage of negativity from TV, the internet and other sources; and with our increased global awareness and bombardment of environmental, political and other issues, we have become a species of chronic stress. We are confronted on so many levels with issues that overwhelm us mentally and physically and put us into the fight or flight response. Our brains become overactive to the point we have difficulty shutting them down. When a polar bear is chased down in the wild by a helicopter to be tranquilized and tagged for monitoring, the bear will attempt to escape by running in all directions. When it realizes it is trapped, it will freeze. After it has been tranquilized, it will appear to be in a convulsive state with the legs continuing to move as if running. This is actually a good thing. In point of fact, the bear is allowing the pent-up energy of the fight or flight response to be released, as it should. Modern society does not often allow for this in humans. It becomes a cumulative effect of fight or flight build-up without time being taken to do the necessary release. We are now into excessive stress which occurs when the demands made on us exceed our reasonable capacities to fulfill them. The tiger within is trapped; setting off physical damage like infection or injury or emotional trauma and just by the threat of such trauma, even if purely imaginary. An example of this would be PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, something we are hearing about regularly as troops return from war zones but more alarmingly within the general population. One step to helping defuse stress and ‘release the tiger’ is conscious mindfulness. Being consciously aware of your own languaging…how negative are your thoughts and words? The next time you think or say something negative…STOP…take a deep breath, and immediately turn it into a positive, or at the very least, focus on something positive and away from the negative. Did you realize that a human being’s primary instinct is NOT for survival, but rather to resist change? Your negative thoughts and words have a deeply burned neural pathway within your brain that is well established over time. Conscious positive mindfulness…changing your negative language, thoughts and actions immediately, will begin to burn a new, more positive neural pathway in the brain by repetition that will become your newer healthier program. Lack of use of the ‘old’ neural pathways in your brain will cause them to disappear. Remember your thoughts, languaging and actions create energy, so why not become more positive in all of these areas and bring more positive energy back into your life. Visualizations and positive affirmations will also cause the mind chatter and feelings of being overwhelmed to calm and give you back more control in your life. Just stop for a minute or two and focus on your breathing. With each breath in, think “RELAX”, and each breath out think “RELEASE”. Become proactive instead of always being reactive. Break down the chatter into its smaller components and prioritize. Often things really are more manageable when we write them down and see the details of what is stressing us rather than letting it build in our minds as an unconquerable beast. Perform a daily emotional cleanse by acknowledging what we are feeling and then also releasing it. A favourite of mine is the pond visualization where you sit at the bottom of a pond (feel it, hear it, see it) breathing comfortably and each negative thought you exhale into a bubble that floats to the top and is released away from you as it bursts at the surface. Some clients of mine have been known to write down their stressors onto individual pieces of paper which they then burn, allowing themselves to feel the release. Hypnosis is a superior way to ‘reprogram’ yourself away from negative thoughts and stressors so that your perception of reality changes and things that used to stress you no longer will…in fact you will actually wonder why you allowed them to stress you in the first place. Change your thoughts and you can change your reality. EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) does this with energy which is blocked within your body due to stress. Simple, powerful and incredibly easy to learn it will release and replace the negative with more positive, beneficial and effective strategies for a healthier and happier life. I use these and other techniques with my clients, to keep thoughts and emotions at ease, released from cellular imprint, overwhelm and possible subsequent physical manifestation. The tiger is released and your attention and intention remains focused on the positive!

Releasing Your Tiger

Leave a Reply