Each year on October 10th, the world comes together to observe World Mental Health Day, a global initiative aimed at raising awareness, breaking stigma, and fostering mental well-being for all. In an era where mental health challenges affect millions, this day serves as a reminder that mental health is just as important as physical health.

Why Mental Health Matters More Than Ever

In today’s fast-paced world, mental health is a growing concern. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that approximately one in four people will be affected by a mental health issue at some point in their lives. Conditions such as depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders have become alarmingly common, but they are often overlooked.

The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated mental health challenges. Isolation, uncertainty, and loss have increased anxiety, depression, and stress levels for many. As we continue to face these challenges, conversations about mental health have become more urgent than ever.

Simple Ways to Boost Mental Health

While mental health care often requires professional support, there are also small, everyday actions we can take to boost our well-being:

• Stay Active: Physical activity has been shown to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression.
• Stay Connected: Maintaining social connections, whether with family, friends, or support groups, helps foster a sense of belonging.
• Practice Mindfulness: Mindfulness, meditation, and deep-breathing exercises can reduce stress and improve overall mental clarity.
• Sleep and Nutrition: A balanced diet and good sleep hygiene play a critical role in mental health.
• Seek Help Early: If you’re struggling, don’t hesitate to reach out for professional help. Early intervention can make a significant difference in outcomes.

Houseplant Week UK

8th – 14th January 2024

Happy Houseplant Week! This week, according to horticulturist David Domoney, is a week to celebrate house plants, indoor gardening and all the benefits we can gain from allowing nature into our homes and our lives.

According to an article by the University of Reading, research has shown a link between houseplants and lowered stress and blood pressure. Offices with houseplants has even been shown to have higher job satisfaction and increased productivity. Even the colour green is said to be calming!

In order to produce serotonin – our happy hormone, we need to be active in a positive way. Caring for our houseplants can help us to be physically active even when we are indoors on a cold night.

If you would like to know more about how hypnotherapy can help with reducing stress and improving your mental health, please do get in touch.

Also, if you would like to read more about the benefits of houseplants, below is a link to the articles mentioned above:

http://www.daviddomoney.com/houseplant-week-uk

https://research.reading.ac.uk/research-blog/owning-houseplants-can-boost-your-mental-health-heres-how-to-pick-the-right-one/#:~:text=Research%20has%20linked%20houseplants%20to,satisfaction%20and%20reduced%20health%20complaints.

2022 seems as though it came and went in a flash. It feels like a long time since my last blog post (because it is!) so I wanted to write a happy new year message to you all and also provide some tips and hints for staying relaxed in the long month of January.

The festive period is a joyous time but it can also bring some huge challenges for many of us. For those who are grieving, it can feel incredibly lonely and can sometimes feel as though this season will never be the same again.

The new year brings many possibilities. A fresh start full of hope is my favourite thing about this time of year. I love tidying, clearing out and starting anew (most of all, I love a new diary/notebook!).

As 2023 dawns, why not make a resolution to find some time to spend on yourself. We know how much positive activity, interaction and a good night’s sleep can benefit our mental health. When we make a decision to keep our thoughts positive, suddenly the world opens up to us and the possibilities are endless.

Here are some ways in which you can improve your mental health:

• Write down three good things that have happened each day
• Get 8-9 hours sleep per night
• Practise some simple breathing exercises regularly (not just when things feel overwhelming)
• Think about what you do want instead of what you don’t want
• Find a hobby (reading, knitting, baking and crafting are all great examples)
• Spend time laughing with loved ones

When we are struggling with our mental health, it can be hard to find the motivation to do the above. These are exactly the times when we need to make sure that we are trying to find ways to relax and stay positive. Prevention is better than cure, so the more we can try to embed positive activity/thoughts/interaction into our every-day lives, the bigger the impact.

Hello Autumn!

I am sorry it has taken so long to get back on here and update my blog. Time seems to be whizzing by at the moment. After a lovely warm summer, the autumn weather and dark nights can come as a shock for many of us. When our mood is low, we often find that our sleep is affected. We can struggle to fall asleep, wake up in the night, and sometimes struggle to get up in the morning. Sleep plays such an important role in our mental health. We need sleep for so many reasons, but during our REM cycle, the brain processes the events of the day. During this tidy up at night, our experiences become narrative memories instead of emotional memories.

This why we often wake up feeling better about the problem than the night before. We have ‘slept on it’.

Because REM is such an exhausting process, we cannot spent our entire sleep doing this. Therefore, if we have a lot of negative thoughts to process, the chances are we aren’t going to be able to process all of them in the allocated time (20% of our sleep pattern). This is when we might wake up in the night – because our brain has sneakily tried to overdo it.

In a nutshell, the less negative thoughts we are having, the better we can sleep. The better we sleep, the less negative thoughts we have.

The start of a new year brings hope, fresh starts and promises. We make promises to ourselves that we are going to make changes to our lives. Sometimes big changes and this can feel overwhelming as the winter months continue. The pressure that comes with making new year’s resolutions, along with the fact that we can sometimes make too many, means that it doesn’t take much for the habits from the previous year to return. Why does this happen?

Our brain is a wonderful thing. It has evolved over time and continues to adapt but our factory settings remain the same. The key survival part of our brain is the same as it was when we were cavemen and women. While the dangers and threats to our lives are somewhat different now, our brain responds in the same way as if we had been greeted by a big grizzly polar bear. This is known as fight or flight.

In order to survive, our brains pattern match with previous experiences in order to find the appropriate response. Our brain will look at the gym kit by the front door and think ‘what did I do yesterday in order to survive?’ If the answer was to order a pizza and watch tv, then you will be encouraged to do the same sort of thing the next day. This is why those resolutions might not make it past Burn’s Night.

Hypnotherapy helps by creating new Neuro-pathways and ways of thinking so that we no longer need to repeat the negative behaviours that are making us unhappy. We achieve this by spending more time in the Left Pre-frontal Cortex. A much more updated system which is more compatible with modern life. It’s also very positive.

Yes. Hypnotherapy can help with a wide range of issues.

As we find ourselves in the middle of winter and facing more uncertainty regarding the pandemic, it’s no wonder some of us struggle with Health Anxiety.

Health Anxiety is a challenge that more and more of us are facing in recent times. The ongoing pandemic has brought out a level of anxiety in many of us and for those already struggling with anxiety of any kind, these times have been even more challenging.

Health Anxiety is an issue very close to my heart, having suffered with this myself. Solution Focused Hypnotherapy has helped me to rationalise and enjoy the here and now.

Hypnotherapy can help by reducing anxiety by giving an understanding of why we suffer in this way and teaching us to rationalise and ask ourselves ‘is it true?’ Through our sessions together, we will explore how the brain works and learn tools to help you to recognise what’s true and what is imagination. This piece of information is so vital as health anxiety really does rely on us catastrophising about the future. Once we learn to live in the moment and take control, health anxiety no longer consumes us.

As always, please do get in touch if you or anyone you know is struggling.

Have a lovely Christmas.

Sophie Price Hypnotherapy is officially up and running!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you to my website and to give you a little more information on what it is that I do.

In March 2020, when the pandemic hit, I was 20 weeks pregnant and working as a teacher in London. I, like so many others, was scared and did not know what any of this was going to mean for me or my loved ones. I was teaching online and learning every day through friends and family, the media and my work that the mental health of the nation had plummeted. I already knew that many people in my life were struggling with their own mental health and I wanted to do more. It was at this time that I received hypnotherapy myself for childbirth. I was extremely nervous about giving birth and I wanted to feel as though I had all the tools I needed to keep calm and relaxed. I absolutely loved my experience both of hypnotherapy and childbirth and this period of time has changed the course of my life and career. My beautiful baby boy has inspired me to make the changes necessary for my own mental health but also to help others who are struggling.

I trained with the prestigious Clifton Practice in Bristol, where I was lucky enough to practice Solution Focused Hypnotherapy – a relatively modern, holistic approach developed by David Newton. This style of therapy takes the best bits from CBT, NLP and other humanistic approaches and combines it with hypnosis. The solution focused nature means that we won’t spend much time discussing the problem at all. We will focus on how you want to move forward instead of dwelling on what is holding you back. We will use positive thinking to reframe the future as you want it to be.

I myself have benefited from Hypnotherapy and know first hand how life changing it can be. If you are ready to take the next step, please do get in touch. You can also sign up to receive updates and future blogs so that you can learn little tips and hints with regards to relaxation and self care.