Tinnitus Coping Tip #2

Tinnitus Help NJ

In our previous coping tip, we mentioned how there is the neurological signal that is producing the sensory experience of tinnitus and then there is the emotional response to it and that most therapies address the latter since there is no known "cure" for most cases.

Its interesting to note that tinnitus and chronic pain do share some similarities. In particular, it is believed that a gatekeeper function of the nervous system that normally blocks sensory experiences is malfunctioning, something that is called Central Sensitivity Syndrome or C.S.S..

Stress, anxiety and sleep deprivation are all thought to contribute to the development of C.S.S, which is why mind/body healing methods such as hypnosis, mindfulness meditation, acupuncture and yoga are often helpful with tinnitus and chronic pain even though they really aren't doing anything about the initial neurological signal. Rather they help tame the negative response.

However, there is one pitfall that you should be aware of, which leads to to:

Tip #2-Avoid black and white thinking- over the years in my capacity as a professional hypnotist, I have noticed a difference between people learn to cope successfully with tinnitus versus those who don't-actually this idea applies to virtually everyone I see.

The person who insists that anything other than a complete and absolute removal of their symptoms is a waste of time will usually remain stuck and miserable.

The successful clients have been those who appreciate that an initial reduction in their distress of say 20 or 30% is worthwhile progress and they build on that, having progressively more good days as time goes by.

While its understandable why someone would wish for an instant and complete cure, expecting or demanding one is only going to set you up for failure.

As the Buddha was quoted as saying, "our suffering arises from resisting what is."

Now this does not meant to suggest anyone would want tinnitus or chronic pain. But an odd thing is that acceptance often leads to greater comfort.

You don't have to have a complete remission (although that would be wonderful) to benefit from taking proactive steps to increase your comfort level.

Do please feel free to connect if you have any questions, I am here to help! A free, confidential phone consultation is available, call (732) 714-7040.

Tinnitus Coping Tip #1

Tinnitus Help NJ Info

Tinnitus, a chronic ringing, buzzing or hissing in the ears, can be a challenging and stressful condition to have. The medical community has little to offer in the way of a treatment and quite frequently patients are told to, "go home and learn to live with it," without receiving any specific guidance on how to do that-which causes many people to panic.

In this and comings posts I am going to share some observations regarding effective coping tips that I have come across in my experience as both a professional hypnotist who teaches stress reduction skills as well as someone who has facilitated support groups for people learning to adjust to tinnitus.

First of all its important to note that the experience of tinnitus is comprised of two basic components: the sensory signal and your response to it.

Since tinnitus is not truly sound (a vibration carried on airwaves) logic tells us that it is generated somewhere within the sensory apparatus that processes sound: the ears, otic nerve and the brain.

At the risk of oversimplification, somewhere along that chain, a nerve is misfiring and that is being misinterpreted by your consciousness as being a sound.

At the present moment, the medical community does not have a way of mitigating those unwanted signals.

So for now it is important to focus on what you can control-your response to the signal. Which brings us to:

Tip # 1 Using sound to your advantage: its a known that the human mind can only attend to a certain amount of stimuli at one time.

For example, if you had a pounding headache and all of a sudden a hungry looking tiger walked into the room, trust me you would completely forget about the headache for the time being!

A more commonplace example is when someone is enjoying herself and forgets all about her aches and pains for the time being.

Many people with tinnitus report that the sounds seem to become louder when they have nothing to do or when they try to fall asleep. This is probably because there has been a reduction in competing stimuli-rather than an increase in the actual volume of the tinnitus. Sort of how a candle can seem very bright in a dark room, yet it would be hard to tell if that candle were even lit if it were outside on a bright day.

Experiment with a variety of background sounds you find soothing and/or interesting, having them play at around 90% of the perceived volume of the tinnitus. This can give your attention somewhere else to go.

I've heard of a DIY version of a "sound pillow" where you put the earbuds from an iPod type device between the pillow and the case to help the transition from sleep to waking.

That's it for this time. Make sure you be on the lookout for future tips in future editions of the Creative Calm Newsletter. Also please feel free to connect with your questions as I'm here to help! A free, confidential phone consultation is available, call (732) 714-7040.

Do Hypnotists Have Special Powers?

Do hypnotists have a secret and special power that allows them to powerfully and magically influence others? There is a certain mystique surrounding the profession that seems to suggest that, however the truth is far different and really quite empowering.

Chances are you have heard about the many well documented cases where an ordinary person demonstrated what seems to be superhuman strength during an emergency situation.

For example, a man is working beneath his car when the jack slips, pinning him beneath thousands of pounds of steel.

Acting quickly, his mother rushes over and lifts the car, allowing him to escape and saving his life.

Now would it be accurate to say the emergency endowed her with abnormal strength? From a scientific viewpoint the answer is no. If her nerves, muscles, bones and connective tissue were not capable of generating sufficient force in the first place, her son would have remained trapped.

What happened was that the dire circumstance allowed her to bypass the belief, “there is no way I could ever lift a car!”

Now let’s imagine a stage hypnotist is putting on a show in a local comedy club.  One of his volunteers is a well-built young man. The suggestion is offered to him, “in a moment when I count to three and snap my fingers, your right foot will feel too heavy lift off the floor, the harder you try to lift it, the more stuck, the more glued town it becomes.”

1-2-3 SNAP! and in short order his friends in the audience have their  jaws hanging open. The strongest guy they know is now too weak to lift his own foot!

Now did the hypnotist actually remove someone’s strength in this case? No, the young man’s body still had the potential to carry out the easy act of lifting his foot. However his belief in his ability to do so had changed for the time being and his unconscious mind made the nervous and muscular adjustments needed to follow the suggestion and keep his foot stuck.

One more example. Half the volunteers in a clinical trial for a new pain killing drug are given a placebo, a pill that contains nothing more than powdered sugar. Yet a significant number of them report they feel much better.

What has been discovered is that the belief the placebo effect can actually result in a person to increase the manufacture of their bodies own pain-killing substances known as endorphins.

In all of these examples what we have seen is how changes in perception and perception can increase or decrease our ability to express our true potential.

So to answer the original question as to whether a professional hypnotist has special or magical powers, the answer is no. Rather he or she is more like a catalyst that enables you to more fully access your true inner potential-which I suspect is far greater than you may realize!

Stress and the Hypnotic I

"Yes folks, this is actually my coffee mug!"

When someone comes to my office for professional hypnosis services, they first fill out a brief personal information form. It contains basic questions regarding contact information, current health status, why they want my help and so on.

The form also asks the person to rate their current stress level as either low, moderate, high or extreme-and the response is always of great interest to me.

Of course if they state it is high or extreme, we will want to explore what is going on in their lives and customize their program accordingly.

But I also get a fair amount of responses where the person states that their stress level is low, even though they are clearly upset.

What I have found in those situations is that usually the individual will state they currently do have any major stress because they are not facing financial difficulties, relationship problems or the like. They are equating stress with external factors.

Yet a basic tenet of stress management is that stress is the individual response/experience that a person is having, not the external circumstance.

An example I frequently share with my clients is that of a roller coaster. To some it is an exciting thrill ride they enjoy. Others see it as one of the scariest things on earth that they want absolutely nothing to do with. Then there are those who are pretty much neutral about roller coasters.

But you know what? Its the same roller coaster no matter who is looking at it. Only the perceptions are different.

This also accounts for why individual responses to the same challenging situation can vary so much, from thriving to barely surviving. Perception governs response.

Now the perceptions we hold of ourselves and the world around us are generally habitual and automatic, part of what would be described as subconscious responses.

The subconscious mind is not analytical, rather it is emotional and imaginative-what I like to describe as the "Hypnotic I." It acts out patterns, images and beliefs whether they are good, bad or neutral.

The Hypnotic I can make the same set of circumstances seem difficult or easy, bad or good. As Shakespeare put so eloquently, "there is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

Hypnosis addresses the fascinating and powerful Hypnotic I by the use of specialized techniques of persuasive communication since it seldom responds to what might be called the "logical approach." You have to "speak its language," which is what a professional hypnotist is trained to do.

Hypnosis and self-hypnosis are awesome tools for transforming your perceptions in a healthy way. There will always be problems in the world we cannot do much about, but we do have a large measure of control over the Hypnotic I and its response to them.

P.S. My free Dealing With Difficulty E-Course shares some amazing ideas on how to become more resilient and confident.

Physical Interventions for Stress Relief

Professional hypnotists have long known about the mind/body connection and modern neuroscience is providing proof that your thoughts and emotions have a tangible effect on the body.

If you are a drawn into a book or movie where the main character has a twitchy fly land on their nose, chance are your nose may begin to itch too. (strange I just had to itch my nose right now as I am writing this).

This is because the subconscious mind (which controls our automatic responses) does not distinguish between a real and a vividly imagined experience.

So when we dwell on negative events from the past or project worries about the future, the body undergoes the same physical responses as if the problem was happening right now. This response is called “fight or flight” where the body releases adrenaline and other stress hormones to prepare for a do or die situation.

The problem is that if you don’t engage in vigorous physical activity at that time, the stress hormones don’t get discharged and can cause significant physical and emotional problems over time. 

Also, the short-term negative sensations they create (tight muscles, stomach upset, racing heart, etc.) can become a feedback loop that reinforces the perception that you are a naturally anxious person.

So what can be done on the physical plane to mitigate stress.

• Regular exercise within the limits of your current physical condition-consult with a physician to find out what this is, especially if you are older and/or have health challenges.
• Slow rhythmic breathing, I demonstrate the 4-7-8 breath in this video.
• Practice good posture. Slouching promotes a negative mental outlook as I describe in this article Is This Everyday Activity Getting You Down.
• Eat well:  veggies, fruits and whole grains are rich in the minerals that are needed to keep to keep your nervous system operating well. Take it easy on processed sugar and alcohol as they deplete your b-vitamins.

In addition, learning mindfulness and self-hypnosis can help as well. If you have any questions, I am here to help. A free, confidential phone consultation is available by calling (732) 714-7040.

Ch-Ch-Changes

You would have to be living under a rock this week to have not heard of the passing of musical and cultural icon David Bowie.

Like many other people in my age group, I was longtime fan of his impressive body of work, musical and otherwise. As a teenager I even got to see him on Broadway in the lead role of the Elephant Man!

Over the years the term, "chameleon-like" was often used to describe the way he regularly shifted his approach to music, fashion and persona. He truly ran the gamut, often bringing styles and influences from what was considered the fringes of society and introducing them to a more mainstream audience.

Couldn't it be said these continual transformations reflect the age we live in? Technological changes and cultural upheaval are happening at an ever increasing rate which are causing many of us to feel alienated-a frequent theme in Bowie's music.

Now there will always be some who stubbornly cling to the past, though history tells us that this is seldom wise or productive-time only moves in one direction.

A future historian may very well say we are living in  the "Age of Reinvention," where the ability to quickly adapt and change was no longer an option but became a necessity. Or as David put it in one of his earlier hits, "just going to have to be a different man. And remember, "we can be heroes, if just for one day."

Is This Everyday Activity Getting You Down?

There is an excellent chance that you are doing it right now. In fact, I would bet on it. It is an everyday activity that may be aggravating your levels of stress and pessimism. Have you guessed what it is?

In the late 1800's pioneering psychologist William James put forth the idea that if you assume the physical posture associated with a particular mental state, you will begin to experience it.

For example, if you stand or sit tall with your shoulders back and put a grin on your face, your mood will most likely brighten.

The posture associated with pessimism and sadness is best illustrated by Rodin's sculpture The Thinker (see below)

Hunched over, eyes cast downward, this is the body language of defeatism. As the body slumps forward the breathing becomes restricted and shallow, which does your health no favors.

Your body may naturally assume this pose when you are troubled. However as Dr. James pointed out over 100 years ago, its a two-way street. The posture can create the mood as well.

As you may now have guessed, the common activity I mentioned at the beginning is the time we spend looking down at our smart phones and computers.

Professionals who deal with muscular and skeletal problems such a chiropractors and physical therapists use a new term, "text neck," to describe the effect excessive slumping and a forward head posture has on the body. 

So in addition to any physical problems excessive computer and smart phone use can cause, be aware too it may be having a negative effect on your mood and mind as well.

What can be done?

• Observe good posture habits when using your phone or computer. Make sure you are not having to hunch over and have the screen closer to eye level to keep your head and neck in good alignment. Make sure your chairs and desks are "ergonomically" correct. 
• Take frequent breaks to walk around. 
• Explore yoga type exercises that involve back bending to improve your posture.

Remember that the division between mind and body is for the most part an arbitrary one, you have to care for all aspects of your being.