“I’m very grateful for your help, Ellen. These days, I fall asleep when my head hits the pillow.” -JC
JC couldn’t fall asleep anymore.
With pressures and problems piling up at work, he needed a good night's sleep, every night. Ever since Covid, there were problems with shipping, deadlines, finances and travel restrictions. His stress was at an all time high. Poor judgment, sloppy mistakes and impatience with his staff were creeping in.
The only way to keep up was to bring work home. After dinner with his family, he would get back to work.
The unconscious is very adaptable. If sleep is getting in the way of something that is seemingly very important, the mind will get that message, and will do the right thing: JC's mind kept him awake so he could tend to his priorities.
When JC finally walks away from his computer at night, his mind is still alert, He continues thinking about deadlines and pressures. There is always a lot on his mind.
Unfortunately, over time, his mind has learned this new habit. It's so much easier to stay awake now than to fall asleep.
JC also reinforces that pattern with his words. He would often say and repeat to those close to him, "I just can't fall asleep anymore". They say the unconscious mind is always eavesdropping. The more JC's sleeping pattern is reinforced by a strong belief about his (inability to) sleep, the more imbedded the pattern becomes.
When the unconscious mind learns a new belief, it can be very difficult to change.
Hypnotherapy is the mind-body modality that helps the unconscious change patterns of belief.
JC truly believed that he could no longer fall asleep and this is what he came to see me for.
In hypnosis, we taught the unconscious part of his mind to change his belief to one in which he was a good sleeper and can easily fall asleep. We taught his mind to stay asleep, to experience the deepest sleep and to wake up energised and full of energy for the coming day.
Once a pattern of belief and behaviour is established unconsciously, it remains there and becomes easy to access and repeat over and over.
Now his mind allows him to fall asleep as soon as his head hits the pillow.
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