I don’t believe that anyone would argue against the notion that a holiday is good for your health; to get away from the stress balls that you rely on to get through the day. It is all a wonderful way to relax, refocus and put your life into perspective. The problem arrives when to realize this state we must subject ourselves to a seemingly endless ritual of stressful and testing rigors; our holiday can become a break from the act of holiday planning itself rather than from the tumults of life.

This is a phenomenon that all too many people seem to fall victim to, especially when we consider that it is an entirely unnecessary inconvenience. With a little preparation and forethought planning a holiday can be a relatively straightforward and stress free exercise, allowing you to appreciate the experience for what it should be- a truly relaxing and healing process.

When it comes to expelling anxiety and fear the greatest weapon we have at our disposal is of course education. Some people become extremely apprehensive about choosing their holiday destination, particularly if they have not travelled much before or are travelling to a more distant or ‘alien’ culture. One of the most important steps towards a stress free holiday is taking your time and moving at your own speed; try not  to feel under pressures to make your experience ‘the holiday of a lifetime’ as this anxiety will probably do the very opposite. Don’t be rushed into making decisions by a hard-sell travel agent who would as soon send you to Toronto as Timbuktu; organise your vacation on your terms, make a list of the things that you, your partner or the group you are travelling with would like from the holiday and research your proposed destinations. If there is a particular climate that you prefer, activities that you would like to take part in or a landmark that you have always wanted to see then all of these factors can help narrow down your criteria.

The saying goes that money makes the world go round, but make sure that it doesn’t leave your head in a spin too; when it comes to arranging a budget it is always important to underline the amount that you want to spend and stick to it. If you are planning a grand or celebratory holiday then you may decide to spend a little more, but the same sentiment still applies. If you do have certain things in mind that you’d like to do when you are on holiday then you can always conceive a small ‘contingency budget’ for occasions when you want to splash out or pay for something you had not originally considered in the plan. The thing about travel is that it is predictably unpredictable so having a small amount that is saved specifically for use in unforeseen circumstances can be a helpful thing.

If you are the type of person that appreciates structure in your life, then being left to your own devices on holiday may be somewhat testing. A good way to pack in as much, or indeed as little, into your holiday as you would like is to form a daily itinerary. Not only will this aid you in the plotting of your budget but will give a sense of purpose and organisation to your holiday. It is perhaps better to keep these itineraries fairly general and flexible, functioning more as a guide rather than a strict regime.

One of the main stresses many people face when on holiday is the task of tearing themselves away from the office. If you have planned your holiday well in advance then take this time to delegate the work you will not be able to perform to other members of your team or other individuals in the office/workplace. Knowing that any problems and tasks are being handled by a trusted member of the organisation should help put your mind at ease and allow you to relax. If you legitimately do need to stay in contact with your employer or business whilst on holiday then try not to remain glued to the computer screen or smart phone, arrange a time of day that you will check your emails and stick to it; if your office needs to contact you then they will be able to or at the very least leave a message with the reception at your resort.

Everyone has different coping skills for tackling stress and in the run up to your holiday involve yourself in an activity that your have found relaxing in the past. Whether it is yoga or cooking, working out or retail therapy, indulge in a little ‘me’ time and go away in an appropriately soothed state of mind. Remember that along the way you may encounter a few minor problems, the airport transfer is late or the room isn’t quite ready when you arrive at the hotel, but try to take these inconveniences in your stride. In the grand scheme of things they are trivial matters and should not disrupt what ought to be a joyous and memorable occasion.

Finally, after all the organising and arranging, whatever you do and wherever you go, don’t forget to embrace your holiday and have fun!

This article has been kindly written for us by Mark Preston.

Mark is an experienced travel writer and an associate of The Turquoise Holiday Company, experts in tailor made and luxury holidays.

Thank you to Kemila Zsange, C.Ht, RCH for providing us with this exclusive article

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When some clients tell me, “I just can’t relax. No matter what I do, even under hypnosis.” I would recommend to them the book Relaxation Response, written by a very mainstream medical doctor, Herbert Benson from Harvard Medical School, in 1975. It became national bestseller and was updated and reprinted in 2001. For those who like “scientific measurements”, this book is full of diagrams and charts.

www.deepdown.starsouls.net

This book is especially helpful for people with chronic stress and high blood pressure.

People can’t relax because our usual thinking is concerned with events outside ourselves. Through emotional attachment, social feelings, ideological beliefs and sensory contacts, we are constantly diverting our thinking toward external factors. Any attempt to redirect this outwardly directed consciousness requires a different mental process.

The book explains “Fight or Flight Response” in details. This term was fist described by Dr. Walter B. Cannon at the turn of the twentieth century, as an “emergency reaction”, in the same institute as Benson – Harvard Medical School.

Fight or flight response is the inborn mind mechanism. In the past, it had considerable evolutionary significance. Individuals with this response could survive more effectively, passing it on to their offspring. However, we are living in a very different world now than our ancestors.  Nowadays, this mechanism is activated when we face stressful events. We may differ in what is stressful to us individually, depending on our own value systems, but our society poses enough stressful circumstances to affect all of us. When this happens, blood pressure increases, including heart rate, increased rate of breathing, increased body metabolism, or rate of burning fuel, and marked increase in the flow of blood to the muscles of the arms and legs.

People then start to have associations, and develop fear, or phobia. And chronic elicitation of the fight-or-flight response leads from the transient elevations in blood pressure to a permanent state of hypertension. In the brain, it is hypothalamus that controls the evocation of he fight-or-flight response. When a single situation requiring behavioral adjustment occurs again and again, the fight-or-flight response is repeatedly activated.

When the fight-or-flight response is evoked, a part of the involuntary nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system becomes highly active. It deals with the everyday bodily functions that normally do not come into consciousness, such as the maintenance of heartbeat and blood pressure, regular breathing, the digestion of food. The sympathetic nervous system acts by secreting specific hormones: adrenalin or epinephrine and noradrenalin or norepinephrine. These hormones, epinephrine and its related substances, bring about the physiologic changes of increased blood pressure, heart rate, and body metabolism.

The fight-or-flight response happens in an integrated fashion, as it’s controlled by a part of an area in the brain called hypothalamus. And as it’s involuntary, we think we don’t have control over it.

We don’t need to give examples of monks who meditate years to show you it is absolutely possible to control and change your blood pressure, heart rate, breathing or metabolism. We as hypnotherapists, can show you, and guide you, to use the power of your mind to achieve this by hypnosis and self-hypnosis, because there is another response in us that we can activate and it can lead to a quieting of the sympathetic nervous system. This is Relaxation Response.

Your hypnotherapist can help you activate this involuntary response anytime you want. So that we don’t have to change your environment to avoid fear, phobia or stress, we can train ourselves to have a different response.

Think of those surgeries without anesthesia. Your mind has greater power than you want to give credit for. Needless to say all my clients may feel hot, warm, or cold, raise one of the arms… and last but not lest, feel relaxed by simply accepting the suggestions. By the way, hypnosis is mentioned in this little book and is described as “a widely known but still poorly understood technique”.

Just in case that you are curious. The way to bring forth the Relaxation Response is to have the following four components:

1. a quiet environment
2. a mental device – a mantra or sound, or a fixed gaze
3. a passive attitude
4. a comfortable position

Emotional Freedom Technique or EFT as it is commonly known provides a quick and effective method to release negative emotions.  Negative emotions affect not only the mind but also the body.  Based on the meridian pathways and acupressure points EFT allows the release of those emotions that are barriers to change and positive outcomes.

Don't let negative emotions overcome you.

Quick Release Technique:

Karate Chop

1. Follow the bone from the tip of your little finger to its end on the distal side of your hand. As a reference, the end of the little finger is at the edge of the knuckle point.  Make sure you have followed this on the side of hand and not on the palm or the top of your hand.  This is called the Karate Chop point.

2.  Find this point on each hand.

3.  Assess from a scale of 0-10 (10 being highest) where you feel the issue at hand would fall.

4.  Now gently tap these points against each other. (the karate chop points need to be touching each other, so put them together first and then start tapping gently).

5.  As you tap these points against each other make a statement about the emotions you wish to release.  Start with the negative and end in the positive.  Here is an example:
“even though I feel anxious at this time I completely, totally and deeply love and accept myself’.  (change this to suite your situation).

6.  Assess on a scale of 0-10 (10 being highest) where you are now.

7.  Repeat until you feel you are now at 0.

PS you can even use it with cravings!

Enjoy.

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This article has kindly been provided for us by,

Chiara Marrapodi
C.Ht
Dance of the Soul Hypnotherapy.

www.dancesoulhypnotherapy.com