Perma Hypnotherapy – AD – long-term collaboration/series of blog posts
Now we are coming to the end of my hypnotherapy journey, it’s fascinating to look back at the process and how the mechanics of the Perma Hypnotherapy model work. And how my life has drastically improved. I completed the journey without having the roadmap to hand. But I have naturally improved each of these areas of my life. And it’s only at the end of the journey, that the full picture of the work we completed is revealed.
I finally feel ready to take on this role. Like I am recovered from my mental breakdown fully, and it’s time to grab these opportunities with both hands. And it’s exactly what I recently did.
Sam – Mummy Conqering Anxiety
Why not finally use my experiences to do some good in the world and help other people? It doesn’t feel like work! It feels like I am finally thriving.
Stay tuned for a final, collaborative blog post from Kevin and me – to follow within the next month
The areas of my life which have drastically improved…
Finance
Career
Development
Home
Relationships
Health
PLEASE NOTE: This post contains some affiliate links. If you go through affiliate links to make a purchase, I will earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I use myself and think would be helpful for other people
“The optimists believe defeat is just a temporary setback.”
Martin E.P. Seligman, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life
How I implemented change
There were many techniques and processes we used throughout our hypnotherapy sessions. But one, in particular, stuck with me. The way Kevin explained this process during our sessions, was by giving a certain part of the brain an instruction to improve or change things. Then the worker or factory makes it happen, behind the scenes. This is the reason that people who complete hypnotherapy courses often see drastic changes, seemingly out of nowhere. Changes are happening on a sunconcious level and this is definitely something I experienced.
Let’s take a look at how each of the areas of my life has dramatically improved as a result of completing this Perma Hypnotherapy course
Finance
My finances before hypnotherapy
I didn’t always have a good relationship with my finances. Back in the anxiety filled days, I would impulse buy things to make myself feel better. Unsurprisingly it never worked and usually made me feel worse. Lately, we’ve had a tough time financially as a family, due to the life-changing circumstances we’ve experienced.
My finances right now and looking to the future
It’s only now I am taking more control of my life and the direction I want to go in, that I am prioritising financial health. Because of this, I feel less fearful about my financial future and a lot more optimistic. As a family, we have financial goals and we have actually started to tackle some of them.
I think the main feeling I have is EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY – I no longer live in fear that we might have a lack of money or one of us will be made redundant. I am safe in the knowledge that if that happens, we are resilient enough to get through it.
“Optimists recover from their momentary helplessness immediately. Very soon after failing, they pick themselves up, shrug, and start trying again.”
― Martin E.P. Seligman, Learned Optimism: How to Change Your Mind and Your Life
Career
The last 10-15 years of career history
I spent years in a high-paid career that I kind of fell into. Don’t get me wrong, at times I enjoyed it, but ultimately it wasn’t in line with my values, or what I wanted to do with my life.
It is unsurprising that when I did the character strength test, helping other people came top of the list. It seems I wasn’t going to find my calling until I was fulfilling this need. Not only did my mental breakdown allow me to help other people via a blog, (a communication channel I love – writing and getting great feedback, from an amazing online community – who helped me during my darkest days) but it also allowed me to make career changes.
The significant changes I recently made
It was time to finally use the skills and confidence I had gained from the hypnotherapy course to change my situation. I spent a lot of time putting together a fresh CV, using my transferable skills and essentially selling myself. The old me would have come up with an excuse not to apply for the job. The new me just went for it and threw myself into the challenge. Despite still feeling anxiety.
You want to know the main thing I did during my two career change interviews? I was honest. About my mental health, and my reasons for wanting to help people. It’s as if I connected on a human level and feedback from the first job role, after my redundancy, was that my lived experience was taken into consideration. And valued. It was amazing to hear this.
Where am I now?
Because of funding, it was unlikely I could stay in my current role past the new year. Therefore I made a recent decision to apply for another job in the charity sector, doing something I absolutely love. This role involves slightly more hours as well, which will help our financial family goals.
I finally feel ready to take on this role. Like I am recovered from my mental breakdown fully, and it’s time to grab these opportunities with both hands. And it’s exactly what I recently did.
Why not finally use my experiences to do some good in the world and help other people? It doesn’t feel like work! It feels like I am finally thriving.
“Here is the exercise: find one wholly unexpected kind thing to do tomorrow and just do it. Notice what happens to your mood.”
― Martin E.P. Seligman, Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being
Development
Constantly changing beings
Human beings are constantly changing and we should always want to update and improve ourselves. This is exactly what the Perma model does. It asks you to reevaluate your character strengths and values based on your current life situation. In giving your brain new instructions, related to the life goals you have, you naturally ditch old behaviours that don’t serve you anymore.
How life circumstances can and will change your values
We’ve all heard people talk about ‘life-changing events’ and until you’ve gone through this process yourself, it doesn’t make much sense. Over the last four years, here are some of the life changing events I have experienced: Pregnancy, antenatal depression during pregnancy, started taking anti-depressents when pregnant, severe anxiety about the pregnancy process, a traumatic birth, mental health problems for two years following pregnancy. Returning to work following maternity leave, for the pandemic to hit less than one month later. Adjustment to working from home. Financial impact on our family. Change of routine (partner off work for 12 weeks as vulnerable and nursery closing). Followed by a mental breakdown due to work pressure (literally being afraid to return to my own home and open my laptop). Returning to work, reluctantly. Redundancy a few months later. A further five months off work, which I had to use to recover and financially funded myself. Changing careers and slowly putting my life back together using self improvement techniques.
Motherhood
Motherhood is a great example of how my values completely changed. Subconsciously, my full-time, demanding job was no longer fit for purpose. But I didn’t realise this until things went horribly wrong. The day I sat down to do the character strengths test, it was apparent that some of my values had changed. Motherhood was now my priority and I needed a career to fit around this, to create a work-life balance. Working with my current life situation, instead of against it.
Home life
Home life during my demanding career
Based on everything I’ve described above, you can imagine our home life wasn’t previously very happy. In my most demanding career days, working 12 hours (not including travel time), I was completely exhausted. I would ask my now-hubby not to talk to me all evening. I was beyond tired, pretty much all the time and this was no life for each of us. Yes, I earned a lot of money, but I never had the time or energy to spend it. When I did, we would splash out to “reduce the stress”.
We are not always conscious of our decisions
However, at the point of giving birth to my little one, I didn’t consciously realise this job wouldn’t fit my circumstances anymore. Let alone decide it wasn’t even something I wanted to do. As human beings, we plod along on autopilot, and it’s completely okay if you’re doing this. The key factor is that you need to be happy, not stressed out and mostly content with your actions.
If there is something missing, as there was with me, it might be time to look into a Perma Hypnotherapy course.
Relationships
Our family life
My hubby and I are both strong-minded. We have some communication problems, due to our brains being rewired completely differently. It’s taken us time, patience and hard work to understand each other. As you can imagine, during my mental breakdown and the aftermath, I wasn’t a very happy or easy person to be around,
When I started this hypnotherapy course, I felt like I could make some changes on my own. But I had an overwhelming feeling that something was still missing. I knew I needed help or guidance of some sort, and I am so glad Kevin arrived and posed the opportunity for working together.
Because it’s been so vastly life-changing – it is truly one of the best experiences of my life.
Our relationship communication following my hypnotherapy course
I am not going to tell you our communication is perfect. We will always face the same barriers as before. The significant difference is now, I am more open, honest and in control. By in control, I mean I often walk away when communication isn’t going well. I understand that the brain reacts automatically to stressful situations. A bit like when there is no point talking to a toddler mid-meltdown. Well, the same applies to us as adults. Our primitive automatic response kicks in and it’s best to calmy compose yourself before entering into the discussion, if you can.
What hypnotherapy has helped me do is be more in control of this response. I’ve spent time, meditating, and working on myself, and I am now able to realise when a situation will become heated, or when I am about to react badly myself. Something I never mastered in my life before now.
A little mention for the parents
It’s important to mention the role of parents. Our communication was poor before we had children. Any parent out there will be aware children bring with them new challenges. We are lucky these days if we can fit in any adult conversation, with a loud toddler running around. It’s therefore important to make time to discuss adult matters or reconnect with one another. We now make time. Yes, every day is far from perfect and it’s sometimes a while until our next reconnecting time. But I am confident and assured it will happen. More importantly, I now realise that spending time doing reconnecting has huge benefits for our family. And it’s, therefore, a must!
Health
Because of the significant link between physical and mental health, I have struggled physically for a number of years. Mainly with symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. My health is still not perfect, but I do now understand when my anxiety symptoms are causing a physical reaction in my body. And I can tell the difference between a food related or mind related reaction.
In moments where I am suffering physically, I try my best to overcome whatever is causing me stress or anxiety, in order to alleviate the symptoms.
Final thoughts
I now have a toolbox I can use to maintain a great standard of wellbeing. Mastering trance sessions has helped me access a place of calm within myself and talk to myself on a sunconsious level. To reevaluate where I am in life and make any nessecery changes.
Kevin provides practical guidance and support – as well as a vast amount of accessible resources which you have for life! I am thankful for this journey and looking forward to the bright future I have ahead of me.
If you’re ready to start your self improvement journey, get in contact with Kevin. You wont be disappointed.
“The takeaway lesson from positive psychology is that positive mental health is not just the absence of mental illness.”
― Martin E.P. Seligman, Flourish: A New Understanding of Happiness and Wellbeing
Check out all the previous posts in this hypnotherapy series
Achieving Personal Development – My Journey With Solution-Focused Hypnotherapy
A Powerful Concept – The Ability To Change Our Brain
Life Won’t Stop Throwing Challenges Our Way So The Key Is Mental Strength
Let’s Talk About Character Strengths And How They Can Be Used To Our Advantage
The Reward of Transformation Is Worth the Struggle
Using Self Hypnosis To Achieve Life Goals
