Summer, the season of the great summer getaway. I wonder if it fills you with excitement or dread, or perhaps a bit of both. The thing is travelling can be quite stressful for some people. For some its the pre-holiday organising making sure everything is going to be ok whilst you are away, making sure all the right things are packed. For others it’s being in a new environment – will the bed be comfy? will it be clean? etc. And for others it’s the journey – perhaps there’s the fear of flying, or being in a car for a while causes anxiety or maybe it’s travel sickness. There’s just so many things to consider at a time when you are supposed to be relaxing and feeling calm right?
Whilst this post wont be able to cure your worries I do promise to share with you some tips to help keep the calm. So without further ado here are my top tips to keep calm and holiday on…
1. Breathe….if you find yourself full of overwhelm it’s a good time to stop and bring your attention to the inside. Take some nice steady breaths, close your eyes and re-center yourself. Say the words calm out loud and as if giving yourself a hug move your hands down each arm.
2. Create a list…we often get very stressed about forgetting something. So get yourself a list on the fridge and each time you remember something else add it to the list. That way you can know its already on the to do list and can vacate your mind.
3. Positive Visualisation…rather than buying in to the bad movies in your head that lead to stress and worry, start creating movies of everything going to plan, of yourself enjoying your travels and your holiday. Any time you find yourself catastrophising simple stop what you are doing follow tip number 1 and visualise that positive movie instead.
4. Deal with your concerns. If flying scares you then work with someone who can help. Hypnosis is a very effective tool for phobias and usually you only need one or 2 sessions. If you feel travel sick then look at ways you can manage that (hypnosis is again another suitable application to use here). If it’s travel anxiety consider what it is that you are anxious about, is it the kids bickering, the small enclosed space, the boredom? etc. Then ask yourself what a solution might be to that. Perhaps some great tunes and planning some regular breaks will help. Again, hypnosis can help how you react to the situation and show you some helpful ways of lowering that anxiety.
5. Ground yourself. Quite often the worries can come from feeling a bit off-balance. So have a go at this activity to ground yourself and get that state changed.
Begin by standing straight. Imagine a helium balloon is tied to the top of your head as it helps you to find your balance and alignment. Close your eyes and take some deep breaths, imagining yourself breathing in pure energy and exhaling that old stale energy. Now just begin to imagine/sense/pretend that you have channels of energy moving down through your body, as they move down through the feet notice how they can continue to move down through the earth, going all the way through to the core of the earth, notice how at the end of these channels there are hooks that just help you to ground to the earth. Now invite the earth to share its energy with you and move that energy back up and through your body coming on up to your heart. Now open your eyes and put your arms above your head in a wide v shape, have your palms facing up and imagine a skylight at the top of your head and the suns energy entering you through the skylight (if you are indoors or its cloudy imagine the sun penetrating through those things to reach you). imagine the sun’s energy lighting you up and entering your heart. And just now be present with these 2 energies in your body, merging within you, sending you energy, and perhaps even creating the type of energy you need most right now, whether that’s calm, peace, bliss. Enjoy this feeling and when you are ready continue with your day taking that wonderful feeling with you.
If you would like to discover more about how Hypnosis can help you with a fear of flying or other travel related issues please do book a strategy call with me at www.mindset-for-change.com/call
