Why Are You Here?

Yesterday, I was writing my goals for June. I am involved in a personal development programme which focuses on 4 key areas of life. One of the aims of the programme is to promote balance in life.

Anyone who feels their life is stressful or feels overwhelmed is probably unable to achieve the kind of balance that brings them a sense of well-being and perhaps even pleasure.

We talk about work/life balance and of course the number of hours we spend at work versus the number of hours we can devote to our other activities is important. Sometimes sorting this out can make a big difference, like for the client I had who was a Head of Department at her school and doing large amounts of work at the weekends to the detriment of both herself and her relationship. Determining not to work at weekends made a big difference and actually gave her the mental space to deal with things in a calmer, more effective way at work.

Stress in your life might not come from this however. Perhaps you feel incompetent in some aspect of your work or have difficulties with colleagues. Perhaps you worry about all sorts of things or feel limited in some way. Perhaps you are anxious around other people. Perhaps there are problems in your relationship or dealing with your children. One of my clients regularly got upset by some of his wife‘s behaviour with their children and around the home. They even talked divorce. He came to realise that his own behaviour in large part fed his wife’s and he was then able to adopt new ways of being that helped him bring them closer again.

Sometimes, I think it useful to take the time to ponder why we are here, and remind ourselves what experience we want to have of life. Personally, I think it is good to think in terms of deriving as much pleasure as possible out of life. Getting pleasure out of life doesn’t have to be confined to what we do in our spare time. For many, it might seem unlikely that pleasure can be found in our jobs for instance. But what if you decided that you actually wanted more pleasure out of your work as well as from the rest of your life and decided to make it your June goal to explore this possibility?

Stress dampens pleasure. In my opinion, we are not here to lead stressful lives but rather to grow and develop. Sometimes, we can realise that some of our beliefs and attitudes are causing us the pain we are experiencing. With hypnotherapy, you can adopt new ones and harness resources you already have to diminish stress, In this way, you can relax out of the tension that stress causes so that you can see and experience more of the good things in life and find more pleasure in the things you already have in your life.