Indulgence Evening

Here's an opportunity to treat yourselves to a well earned night off and unwind in good company. You can treat yourself to a mini beauty treatment or purchase beauty and other products. There will also be stalls to give you inspiration for seasonal gifts.

The committee of the Garden Village Playgroup in Wrexham has organised a Ladies Indulgence Eveving on Monday 24th November 2008, 7.30pm - 10pm. It will be held at the Garden Village Institute, Kenyon Avenue, Wrexham, LL11 2SP.

Tickets are £5 and include a glass of wine or soft drink and cake (yum!). Profits in aid of Garden Village Playgroup (reg charity no. 1035133).

Tickets are available from the playgroup staff at the Young Peoples Centre during playgroup opening times (Mon-Fri 9.15-11.45am), from playgroup committee members, from Claire on 07931 383196 or from me at Cariad Hypnotherapy.

If you live in the area and feel like you need a treat then please do come along - the playgroup needs your support.

Tracy x

Flash Upon That Inward Eye

Yesterday I attended a breakfast meeting at Glyndwr University as part of Wrexham Business Week. It was called "Flash Upon That Inward Eye" and was facilitated by Jan Green of Wrexham Business School.

My knowledge of English poetry is sadly lacking and so I hadn't recognised the title of the session as coming from Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud/The Daffodils". So I learned something there for starters - and it caused me to go home and read the poem. I also had a nice hearty breakfast and met some interesting people.

The purpose of the session was to talk about creativity and to generate our own personal creativity profile. Jan brought a lot more out of the session that I had expected and I came away with several useful insights into myself (always useful!) and creativity in general.

I wanted to share with you a couple of those general points which I thought were interesting.

Myths about creativity

• The smarter you are the more creative you are - FALSE. Above a threshold of around an IQ of 120 there is no correlation between intelligence and creativity.
• The young are more creative than the old - FALSE. Research shows that it takes seven to ten years to build up a deep expertise in a given field - the kind of experience that enables you to perceive patterns or meaning that might not be visible to a novice. HOWEVER, some experts find it difficult to see or think outside established patterns and minds of newcomers are not contaminated by conventional thinking.
• Creativity is reserved for the few flamboyant risk takers - FALSE. A willingness to take calculated risks and the ability to think in untraditional ways do play a role in creativity but it doesn't mean you have to be markedly different to everyone else.
• Creativity is a solitary act - FALSE. A high percentage of the world's most important innovations are products of collaboration among groups of people with complementary skills.
• You can't manage creativity - TRUE & FALSE. A manager can create the conditions that make creativity more likely to occur.

Some useful tips for engaging your own personal creativity include:

• Look after yourself physically and mentally (meditate, relax, eat and drink healthily, take exercise).
• Persue the passion (whether it's work or a hobby).
• Go with your natural rhythms (fighting them will only staunch the flow of creativity).
• Create some space for yourself.
• Do something different for a change!

Thanks Jan for a thought provoking session and thanks also to the organisers and sponsors of Wrexham Business Week for making these events possible (and free!).

Namaste,
Tracy x

Autobiography

I've been carrying this piece of paper around with me in my handbag for 5 years. It's now tatty and dog-eared but it remains special to me.

Let me share the contents with you if I may......

Autobiography in Five Short Steps
by Portia Nelson

Chapter 1

I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost....
I am hopeless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I'm in the same place
but it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it there.
I still fall in.
It's a habit.
My eyes are wide open,
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter 4

I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter 5

I walk down another street.

I was given this piece of paper (in considerably better condition that it is now) by a friend when I was going through a difficult period of my life. As I was reading it I could see that I had already reached Chapter 3 myself. Reading on to Chapter 4 made me smile and realise that walking around "the hole" was indeed was I needed to do.

But blow me, if there wasn't another chapter that I hadn't even considered as a possibility!

I could choose to not even walk down that street anymore. It sounds so simple now, perhaps, but at the time it was a complete and utter revelation to me.

I could choose to walk down another street....

I did.

And here I am now.

Happier and healthier as a result.

I hope that this little autobiography can help someone else to see that change (big change) is possible, sometimes an absolute necessity, if you are to get on with your life.

Namaste,

Tracy x

Positive Habits

I've just heard about a new weekly radio show that's started on Wrexham FM, called Positive Habits, which is being hosted by a fellow hypnotherapist from Wrexham called Mark Darlington.

The show is about health and well-being and the different things that people can put into their lives. The first two shows have been about getting a good nights sleep and stopping smoking and this week's show is about the reality of hypnotherapy with the aim being to dispel some of the myths surrounding it.

I haven't heard the show myself yet, having only learnt about it today, but I will be sure to catch this week's episode. It's on Sunday nights 7-9pm and repeated Wednesdays 1-3pm.

Namaste,
Tracy x

Hypnotherapy & menopause

Here's some interesting news hot off the press of the Nursing Times. "Hypnotic relaxation therapy can reduce the frequency and severity of hot flushes in menopausal women".

In the article, by Tim Downey, the results of a US study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology are revealed. In a study of 51 women, 26 received hypnotherapy. Compared to the group who did not receive hypnotherapy that was a 68% decrease in hot flushes. Not only that but the women who received hypnotherapy also experienced less of the other uncomfortable side effects such as loss of sleep and social interaction difficulties.

On the back of the success of this study there are plans to enlist 180 post-menopausal women for a five year study to further analyse the phsyiological response to hypnotherapy.

The following quote from the lead investgator, Gary Elkins, really strikes a chord with me, and I'm sure with many other people who believe in the philosophy of mind-body healing:

"There is a real need to study emerging mind-body interactions to treating these ailments because many times medications are not an option".

Hurrah for that!

Tracy x

Chiropractic Clinic Open Day

You are invited to attend an Open Day at The Chiropractic Clinic (160 Chester Road, Garden Village, Wrexham) on Saturday 27th September.

Come to the clinic between 9am and 1pm to disucss your aches and pains with qualified professionals and find out more about Chiropractic and other musculoskeletal clinics, acupuncture and remedial massage.

Brief consultations and spinal assessment are available, FREE OF CHARGE, for anyone worried about the state of their backs or other joints.

No appointment is necessary.

FYI this is the clinic where I do my consultations and HypnoBirthing Classes, so you are also welcome to come and have a look around to see what my premises are like.

Tracy x

HypnoBirthing articles

I thought it was time to put the spotlight on HypnoBirthing so I've dug up a couple of articles and a tv interview to do that job for me.

The first article I recommend is from the BBC and is called "Why I chose HypnoBirthing". It dates back to 2002 but is still as relevant today as it was then - although HypnoBirthing is not such a new technique anymore.

As a taster the first line of the article goes:

"Pia Goodman was terrified at the thought of giving birth, but she astonished midwives by having her first baby in just over three hours at home without any painkillers".

Click here to read the full article on the BBC's website.

The second is a quote from an American journal called Midwifery Today. I found this nice quote on the blog of a fellow HypnoBirthing Practitioner, Cindy Unger, who is based in Chicago.

"We must relearn to trust the feminine, to trust women and their bodies as authoritative regarding the children they carry and the way they must birth them. When women and their families make their own decisions during pregnancy, when they realize their own wisdom regarding birth and its place in their lives, they have a foundation of confidence and sensitivity that will not desert them as parents.

There is an inverse relationship between the amount of technology used in a woman's birth and her subsequent self-esteem: The greater the number of interventions, the less well she regards herself postpartum. On the other hand, women happy with themselves in birth eagerly go on to embrace the responsibilities of mothering. The triumph of birthing on their own terms leads to new depths of self-love and self-respect, emotions readily translated to their babies."

— Elizabeth DavisExcerpted from "Autonomy at Work: Woman-Centered Birth and Midwifery," Midwifery Today, Issue 42

Finally, a nice little interview of a HypnoBirthing mother on American TV in May this year.

Click here to view to interview on WCBSTV's website.

I hope you enjoyed these!

Tracy xx