HEALTH TIPS
for body and mind 

Often, you hear people say, “I’ve had a stressful day.” Or “That was stressful. I need a drink.” You may experience stress in a different way from someone you know, as we all experience stress differently. Stress can affect your emotions, your behaviour and your physical health. Stress can happen when you face big changes in your life, like a new job, a redundancy, moving house, running a business or the breakdown of a relationship. It can happen when you have exams, driving tests, organising events, you’re worried about something, you feel like you don’t have much control, or your responsibilities are overwhelming, you’re overthinking, or experiencing bullying, loneliness, discrimination, hate or abuse, or financial worries, etc. Sometimes you can tell when you’re feeling stressed, and other times you might not recognise it and keep going, which can be detrimental to your health and lead to mental and physical burnout.

 

Part of managing stress is noticing how you are feeling. Stress can present in different ways for each person. It can feel like you’re under lots of pressure, a tight jaw, grinding teeth, a stiff neck, raised tight shoulders, a lowered head, a sad face, frowning, stomach problems, irritable, difficulty concentrating and sleeping, restless,

short tempered, biting your nails, feeling fatigued, eating, drinking, or smoking too much, etc.

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You are what you eat – sugary foods and drinks, alcoholic drinks, caffeine drinks and foods, some processed foods such as chips, cookies, biscuits, some frozen beige foods, and ready-made meals are high in trans fats, and excessive saturated fats, such as fried foods, can increase cortisol levels. Insulin resistance due to frequent

sugar intake can result in a continuous increase.

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Top 5 Coping Techniques for Stress Management

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1. Fresh air – going for a walk in nature, exercising, grounding, and gardening to connect to nature.

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2. Focusing on your breathing helps stop your negative thought pattern and allows you to feel calm and relaxed.

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3. Reframe your thoughts and practice visualising being calm, relaxed, having a happy memory, and everything working out for you. Picture how you want to be and feel. Instead of saying “I’m stressed”, you could say “I’m coping,” and it adjusts your mindset to feel less stressed.

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4. Avoid watching the news or scrolling online before bed and when you wake up on your phone. To allow your thoughts to be proactive, not reactive, as news and technology blue lights can raise your cortisol and trigger negative thought patterns.

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5. A positive routine for a good night’s sleep to activate your melatonin for sleep and to balance your cortisol hormones. Having an unbalanced level of cortisol can lead to health problems if you produce too much or too little cortisol. I ran a Corporate Group Hypnotherapy talk at Lloyds Banking Group for their employees in 2024 who wanted to manage stress and conducted a poll.

79% of the people (93) looked at their phones at night before going to sleep, and in the morning when they woke up. Only 5% didn’t look at their phones at night or in the morning when they woke up. If you recall when you were a child, you most probably slept through the night continuously, as you had a good routine in place that didn’t include mobile phones at night time or in the morning.

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To effectively manage your stress, it’s important to choose coping techniques that resonate with you. Take time to recognise your stress triggers and observe any changes in your body, emotions or behaviour. Keeping a journal can be helpful; write daily about how you are feeling, your sleep pattern and what you’re eating and drinking. Remember, 80% of what you put in your body affects your mind and gut.

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You can learn I Can Cope The ICC Method hypnotherapy to help identify when you’re stressed, understand how to get calm, cope and stay in control. By practicing The ICC Method you can change how stress affects you and maintains control over your thoughts and reactions. Hypnotherapy can help reduce stress by teaching you how to: control how your reactions and feelings, manage negative thoughts, reset your habits, and develop new habits that align with your goals.

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A Time article by Markham Heid reported “Hypnosis can also be “very helpful” intreating stress, anxiety and PTSD, Spiegel says. Research by Gruzelier 2002 found hypnosis can even alter a person’s immune function in ways that offset stress and reduce susceptibility to viral infections.”

 

If you’re looking to reduce stress and improve your sleep, consider joining the free Good Night’s Sleep Research. You have the option to participate with or without hypnosis. Additionally, I offer free group hypnotherapy videos on YouTube Whatisyourstoryhypnotherapy. This is a wonderful opportunity to enhance your well-being, get comfortable and experience the benefits of hypnotherapy. Why not take this opportunity to reduce your stress and improve your sleep?

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Charlotte Phillips Dip.Hyp NLP Pract. HPD, Clinical Hypnotherapy and NLP

Practitioner, What Is Your Story Hypnotherapy.

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For more information contact charlotte@whatisyourstoryhypnotherapy.co.uk

or www.whatisyourstoryhypnotherapy.co.uk

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Research appendix

Mental Health UK Burnout Report 2025 https://mentalhealth-uk.org/burnout/

Dr Michelle Woolhouse, The connection between stress and sugar https://www.vively.com.au/post/the-connection-between-stress-and-sugar-cravings

Jeremy Appleton, 2018, The Gut-Brain Axis: Influence of Microbiota on Mood and Mental Health https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6469458/

Time https://time.com/5380312/is-hypnosis-real-science/

Gruzelier, J. H. (2002). A Review of the Impact of Hypnosis, Relaxation, Guided Imagery and Individual Differences on Aspects of Immunity and Health. Stress, 5(2), 147–163. https://doi.

org/10.1080/10253890290027877

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10253890290027877