Is your brain stuck on high alert?

You know the feeling. You have cleared your to-do list, the house is quiet, there is nothing actually wrong — and yet something in you will not settle.

The mind keeps moving. The shoulders stay up near the ears. Sleep, when it comes, is not quite restful enough.

This is not a personality trait. It is not weakness. It is a nervous system that has learned, for very good reasons, to stay ready. The problem is that it has forgotten how to stand down.

Anxiety — even the low-level, everyday variety that does not announce itself as a diagnosis — is exhausting in a way that is hard to explain to people who have not experienced it. You are not doing anything, and yet you are tired.

This month I want to talk about what is actually happening when the brain gets stuck in that pattern, and what can shift it. Not willpower. Not positive thinking. Something that works at a deeper level than either of those.

Hypnosis has one of its strongest evidence bases in anxiety. That surprises people. They expect it to work for habits, perhaps — stopping smoking, that sort of thing. The idea that it can genuinely recalibrate a nervous system that has been running hot for years tends to raise an eyebrow.

I find that satisfying. Raised eyebrows are where interesting conversations start.

If you have been managing anxiety — yours, or for someone you care about — I hope this month's newsletters give you something useful to think about.

More on Wednesday from the LinkedIn side, and back here next Monday with a closer look at what stress actually does to the body.

If you'd like to chat about this or anything you think might be a fit for hypnotherapy book a free call: