Tonight’s class is all about learning how to feel better in your body and calmer in your mind — using simple, practical tools you can actually take into daily life. We’ll be exploring: 🌿 Breath-based meditation to bring the mind out of overwhelm and back into the present moment 🌿 Nine-round breathing — a structured breathing practice that gently clears mental noise and steadies the nervous system 🌿 Body scan relaxation — a deeply soothing practice that helps release physical tension and is especially helpful for sleep This class isn’t about “emptying the mind” or doing meditation perfectly it is about learning how to notice what’s happening in your body, soften where you can, and give your system a chance to reset. When we feel good — even a little bit better — we cope better.We breathe more freely.We think more clearly.We respond rather than react. These practices are: ✔ gentle ✔ accessible ✔ suitable for beginners ✔ and easy to use at home, in bed, or in moments of stress If life has felt busy, heavy, or overstimulating lately, this is a chance to pause, reconnect, and give yourself some proper care — not by adding more effort, but by letting go. All welcome.Come as you are. No experience needed 💛

Last year at the IHA convention I picked up some old journal articles and today I read a case study from Val Walker. Blew my mind, offering a striking illustration of the mind–body connection taken to an exciting biological edge. It quietly challenges the assumption, still dominant in much of mainstream medicine, that healing is purely a mechanical process driven by protein synthesis, cell division, and time. From a hypnotherapeutic perspective, the body does not merely repair itself automatically; it responds to instruction. The subconscious mind, in this view, functions as the blueprint-holder for physical integrity. What makes this case particularly compelling is not simply the speed of recovery from a severe injury, but the quality and completeness of that recovery, and the unexpected secondary healing that followed. At the centre of the case is Bruce, whose finger injury was surgically reconstructed with the clear medical expectation that recovery would be limited. His surgeon was explicit: 95% functionality was the maximum possible outcome, with permanent structural compromise and visible deformity. This prognosis became part of Bruce’s conscious understanding of his body’s future. Hypnotherapy intervened not by contradicting surgery, but by working at a different level of the healing process. In hypnosis, the theoretical foundation of cellular regeneration rests on the role of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS governs digestion, immune response, circulation, and tissue repair, processes that occur outside conscious control. By entering a deep trance state, Bruce bypassed the analytical, critical mind that had absorbed the surgeon’s prognosis as fact. In that state, suggestions could reach the subconscious without being filtered through doubt or perceived biological limits. Rather than focusing on abstract positivity, the hypnotic work likely involved precise, embodied imagery: increased blood flow to the injured area, efficient nutrient delivery, and the gradual “knitting” of bone and tissue at a microscopic level. This form of visualisation I teach at The NCCH as body talk or primal imaging and it is not just symbolic in nature; it operates as a language the nervous system understands sensation, movement, and expectation.

We’ve been sold a very specific, very narrow blueprint for what a “good life” looks like. You know the one: keys to a house by 30, a shiny car in the driveway, and a job title that sounds impressive at dinner parties. And if you don’t have those things right now (or ever), it’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind. It’s easy to look in the mirror and think: Maybe I’m failing. But here’s the reality check you might need today: You’re judging a high-definition soul through a low-resolution lens. Take a breath. You are not behind. You are not broken. You are not failing. You are human—living in a world that rewards appearances more than truth. The Invisible Résumé Society is obsessed with résumé virtues, the stuff that looks good on paper: achievements, milestones, status, shiny proof. But the most “successful” people I know are rich in something quieter and far more lasting: eulogy virtues—the things people will say about you when you’re gone. So if you are kind… if you are loyal… if you are compassionate… if you are someone people feel safe with… You are not failing. You are doing something deeply right. Your worth is not up for debate. You don’t need to earn your right to belong. Here are some truths your mind might need to hear: You haven’t bought a home? You are still worthy. And maybe you’ve built a home inside yourself, a steadiness your friends or children can feel. You are enough. You don’t drive a “smart” car? You are still valuable. Maybe you carry your friends through hard seasons with your loyalty and love. Your presence matters. Your career hasn’t “peaked”? You are not behind. Maybe your character has grown in ways no job title can measure. You are becoming. Read this slowly: You are allowed to have a good life without a perfect timeline. The Parenting “Gold Standard” No One Talks About So many good people carry a quiet shame that sounds like: “I have nothing to show for these years.” Let’s correct that, right now. You are making a meaningful contribution.

Why Emotional Regulation Comes Before Pain Relief, Change, or “Fixing” Anything It took me longer than I’d like to admit to realise this: Most people don’t need fixing.They need safety. For years, I did what many well-intentioned practitioners do. I learned more techniques. I refined my language. I tried to get better at making change happen. And yet, the biggest shifts I ever witnessed didn’t come from doing more. They came from stopping. Stopping the rush.Stopping the correcting.Stopping the subtle pressure to “get better.” That’s when I began to see what was really going on underneath anxiety, emotional overwhelm, and chronic pain. What If Nothing Is Wrong? Somewhere along the line, we absorbed the idea that if we’re struggling, something must be wrong with us. If you feel anxious, you need to control it.If you’re in pain, you need to eliminate it.If you’re emotional, you need to manage yourself better. But what if those experiences aren’t problems at all? What if they’re signals from a nervous system that has been on duty for far too long? When I started explaining this to clients, gently, without jargon, something softened almost immediately. Not the symptoms at first.The shame. That quiet internal voice saying, “Why am I like this?” began to ease. And when shame reduces, the body listens. The Body Doesn’t Heal in an Emergency One metaphor keeps coming back in my work. There’s a difference between an emergency room and a healing room. In an emergency room, the body is alert, tense, scanning for danger.In a healing room, it can finally exhale. Most people living with anxiety, stress, or persistent pain are stuck in emergency mode, not because they’re weak, but because their system learned it had to stay there. You don’t heal by yelling at yourself to calm down.You heal when your nervous system no longer believes it has to brace. This is why regulation comes before insight.Before hypnosis.Before pain relief.Before emotional release. Without safety, nothing sticks.