Finding Clarity, Motivation and Happiness For

This Holiday Season

By:  Dr. Jacqueline Sidman – Ph.D. and American Institute of Hypnotherapy DCH

Emotions seem intensified around the holidays—everyone’s emotions!!  If you feel happy, chances are you’ll feel happier.  If you’re feeling sad or neglected, chances are that too will be intensified.  Why do we feel things so much more deeply around the holidays?  Well, for one thing, as opposed to the rest of the year, everyone is scrambling around trying to make things “perfect” for that special person, party, or even one’s self, to match the images we see in the media all over and to match our internal messages we’ve set up so long ago, so that it all comes together “just right.”   We also feel pressure to be a part of the perfect family with all the loving feelings that go together with that image.

Perfectionism is the theme of getting it all together, and it often seems we do not have it all together, therefore our inadequacies are pointed out—our imperfections scream out to us that we just can’t make the cut, unless, of course, we do somehow manage to pull it off, and some of us have from time to time.  I’m sure you can recall at least one year when it all came together.  That intensely happy time is etched in my memory, I know.

So, what do we do with all of these intense emotions?  We keep trying, usually.  Sometimes, however, some of us don’t feel like trying; the disappointment seems too much to handle.  What we are discussing is how we are reacting to that ugly word STRESS!  There is little we can do about external stress—the time of year, the media, the seemingly endless list of things to complete piled onto the everyday list of things we have to complete.  But there is a great deal we can do about internal stress, especially in terms of hypnotherapy. 

Believe it or not internal stress comes from the conflict between what the conscious mind wants, and the fixed beliefs the subconscious mind has set up.  For example, the conscious mind wants to sail through the holidays with joy, peace, fun, and companionship, and the subconscious mind says: ‘To do this, you need all these things perfectly in place....all the gifts must be perfectly selected, wrapped gorgeously and delivered on time to everyone; the food must look and taste perfect, having only the best choices; the family must be assembled and happy about everything; the clothes worn must look perfect; the hair must be perfect, and on and on and on.’

These conflicts create stress, not harmony.  In hypnotherapy we can release the emotional baggage as to how and why certain static beliefs were set up, and restructure a freer and more relaxed way of responding to the world.  Mind you, I say respond—not react, a very big distinction.  Reactions, especially over-reactions, come from the subconscious mind and include a whole array of previous programming which may not be useful in today’s world.  Responses are appropriate to current cause, and are much easier to handle and deal with.  Ultimately, we are seeking to be responsible to ourselves and find some joy, especially around the holidays.  To find a more peaceful, joyful response to the stress may have previously prevailed.

Dr. Sidman has just published a dynamic new book – Instant Inner Peace! – offering a revolutionary process through using your own subconscious mind to easily and quickly recapture your authentic self and gain control and direction.  Many clients have used her techniques to make the holidays profoundly enjoyable and rewarding rather than filled with stress and frustration.