» Listings for September 2021

1. Do you what the average cost of beauty spend is per person?

   Posted on 12:00pm Thursday 23rd Sep 2021

   Could you guess that the average spend on beautification per person in the UK is between £5K and £7K every year.  Compare that to the average income of around £30K.

   

   So when we're talking about the average don't forget that includes all the people who spend next to nothing on beauty enhancing goods and services like children for instance.

   I am not judging, just wondering why we need to focus all our attention on covering up our natural beauty often in extreme ways.   Who are we doing it for?
   The answer to that question is often 'for myself'.

   Not to mention the length of time spent in front of that  piece of disney inspired furniture fixed to the wall.  Eagerly working  to get the right response from said prophetic artifect.

   It's almost like we need to prepare our inferior self with layers of beauty armour in order to face the day.

   Why do we do this if not to impress others?  To give ourselves confidence, to feel superior, to fit in, to hide the shame and on and on! Hiding our vulnerable selves in a coating of  glamour armour.

   So where is all this self doubt, shame, lack of confidence coming from?

   Well it's certainly not coming from out there.  Notwithstanding that outer stimuli might trigger troubling responses the actual negative self-worth certainly comes from within.  

   As a nation we are so used to expecting the doctor to deal with all our ills, whether that is emotional ills or physical ills.  Generally, although things are improving, we  eat what we want, drink what we want take what we want without a thought and expect a magical pill to repair the long term damage once it becomes apparent.  Unfortunately there is a price to pay for that attitude and it's not a financial one, it is an array of side effects that whether slowly or quickly  emerge as a reaction to the coverted and  convenient pills.

   Most people are hiding from themselves througout their lives.  Trying to build up armour to avoid getting to know who they really are.  When transfering a little of the time and finances committed to the outer self for a realtively short period of time could release much of the need for the that commitment as we begin to understand and accept  oursleves for the wonderful people we are.  Understanding our reactions to others and the vulnerability and dependance we feel towards others can remove much of our armour and set us free.

   That takes a different kind of commitment, courage and a belief in yourself.

   Andrea Lowe Hypnotherapist and Trainer

   Andrea has been working on releasing emotional blocks since 1995

    

    

2. Is Demand the new buzz word?

   Posted on 10:00am Wednesday 22nd Sep 2021

   I was loading some new videos into our 'On Demand' collection and it got me thinking.  Demand sounds, to me, verging on aggressive!  For example, I demand that you give me a refund for these faulty goods or I demand that you answer me and so forth....

   So that led me to substituting some other words for demand.  Here are some of them I considered and some from the thesaurus:- command, ask, stipulate, order, dictate, desire, require  ..... and the most obvious REQUEST.  Of course some of these words do not fit the situation, for me request is the closest.  Yet it is not the ideal message.  On request sounds slow, it sounds like you're starting up a process and someone at the other end has to action it for you, whereas ON DEMAND impresses that the power is with you to draw down a video to watch at any time, no waiting, no one else involved just click and collect so to speak.  So at the end of the day On Demand is the right choice in this case as it has become a recognised phrase.  But if you are in an enviroment where you are subjected to aggressive language at home or in the workplace then your inner peace is being contaminated.

   Then I started thinking about the way we use words (again sorry if I'm boring you, it's just a thing I have).  These days the politeness seems to be giving way for personal power and control.   We're all busy empowering and positioning ourselves that we have lost some compassion along the way. We all seem to be staking our position whether outright and up front or under cover and fake. We want everything instantly, when we say and we don't really want to wait around for someone else to do their thing.  I suppose this is one of the side effets from the benefits we get from technological advances where we are more and more self-sufficient with our laptops and mobile phones.  Where in the past we had to be patient whilst waiting for a specialist to process something for us, duplicate, sub contract etc., now we get annoyed with technology if it is making us wait for a few extra minutes as it's running slow and by that I don't mean extending the wait to days or weeks.  It's always fairly instant.

   And with all the extra knowledge we need  to fit into the modern work stream then we can sometimes get overloaded.  We don't always have the time to word things politely, we may start to be more abrupt as nothing except what is inside our heads is important to us.  You could find it referred to as stress which comes with bad temper.  We don't have time to consider others and the effect our words may be having on them.

   As a hypnotherapist working with words all the time I can tell you that the words you choose to use do have an impact, create an initial impression.  Self talk most definitely included.

   Considering the way you word things is very important if you want to offer a caring attitude to others and this is especially relevant with your children and with teenagers going through  confusing changes.  Changes that you have to adjust to as well.  But beware if you're not genuine the fakeness shows.

   And talking of instant gratification, I suppose we should be grateful but something has to give and one of the things that seems to be giving is cooking your own food.  It is now normal to grab a quick meal so normal that it has a name 'fast food'.  What we put into ourselves is one of the most important things we can consider that includes food, drink and words via thoughts. 

   Life is too fast to worry about that though we just rush on.

   COVID has slowed us down and many people are looking at simplifying their lives and slowing down to appreciate the pace of life.  Yipee is all I can say.  Good on yer!

   Just in case you're wondering our  on demand classes are accessed through membership  see more on the website.  We have a range of activities on and off line to introduce some calm and space into your week.  Take a look at the website and whats on for more info.

   Stay calm and carry on but watch your words.

   Andrea Lowe Hypnotherapist and trainer at Mind and Body