I Won’t Ever Get Over It

I’m ashamed to say I have watched very little of the Olympic Games this year whilst keeping abreast of the progress of our teams. As I was looking through the BBC website today, my attention was taken by the headline “GB rider won’t ever get over back-flip crash”.

This was referring to the BMX rider Declan Brooks who at a contest prior to the Olympic Games knocked himself out when performing a particularly tricky manoeuvre. Although he wasn’t badly injured, he experienced some hesitancy about performing the jump again. In the short video interview with him, he says that he realised that he needed to get back to doing that particular jump immediately otherwise he might not attempt it again - the classic “get back on your horse“ approach. This is how he dealt with it.

Sometimes following an unpleasant or frightening event or accident, we are able to “get back on the horse”. Sometimes we are not. Sometimes what happened to us was more than our nervous system was able to deal with at the time or subsequently and we remain on high alert, wanting to avoid a similar event at all costs.

This is of course our nervous system seeking to protect us. What if though that high alert is just stopping us from getting on with our lives or experiencing the life that we want?

Like all hypnotherapists, I have worked with numerous people who were afraid of flying, talking to an audience, mice, spiders and so on. Sometimes the initial cause of the fear is buried in childhood. Sometimes we develop a fear because we witness it in someone else.

Of course, it makes sense to be fearful of certain things such as walking along the edge of a cliff during high winds or walking alone in a park late at night. These activities might pose a threat to our safety. But many fears we hold simply prevent us from fully experiencing life.

These kinds of fears use up an enormous amount of energy. Imagine needing to be vigilant every time you enter a room because a spider might be there. You would be much better off having that energy available to use in a life-enhancing way, not to mention being able to relax more.

The beauty of hypnotherapy is that by using very simple techniques that are very non-threatening, you can be relieved of these unwanted fears very quickly. How would that make your life better?

To watch Declan Brooks’ interview, go here.