How Hypnotherapy and CBT Principles can make sure you have a happy new year
Binge drinking and overeating are issues much discussed during the festive season and are matters clients often seek advice about at Leeds Hypnotherapy Clinic.
There are endless articles about boozing and feasting in newspapers and magazines at this time of year, many of them keen to encourage eating and drinking on an epic scale. And the TV is awash with ads urging us to part with cash.
Colossal consumption at Christmas seems to be not just accepted but expected.
And if the employer is picking up the bill for the office party it’s hard for some not to stuff themselves to bursting point and beyond.
How not to fatten up at Christmas
Of course, there are many who worry about the health consequences of too many drinks and too much food. The fear of gaining extra pounds weighs heavily on many a not-so merry mind.
So to counter all this a lot of people promise to punish themselves with total abstinence come the New Year.
Thus the annual fad has emerged of Dry January. People are prepared to drink themselves into oblivion in December and then deny themselves a drop throughout January. Similarly, there are those who will stuff themselves stupid with enough calories to fire up the next space mission and then starve themselves come the New Year until February.
Why binge behaviour is best avoided
It’s classic binge behaviour, which Britain seems to have signed up for with little thought of the wider picture. It is saying that denial of enjoyment is a penance that has to be paid for over-indulgence, as if one cancels out the other.
It’s an all-or-nothing attitude, which is not a healthy way of thinking as any practitioner of cognitive behavioural therapy will tell you.
The retail world encourages this mindset that now pervades society, where the word moderation seems to have been forgotten. So much has become either positive or negative with no in-between.
I read in The Independent newspaper an article on this matter which featured London clinical psychologist Lauren Callaghan who employs cognitive behavioural therapy at her practice and I’m happy to quote her advice which is encourage people to think: reduction not refusal; moderation over renunciation.
Leeds Hypnotherapy Clinic’s healthy principles
At Leeds Hypnotherapy Clinic, clients are encouraged to adopt such principles. Being healthy and happy is grounded in awareness. Mindfulness is a key word. Nothing is banned and the client recognises he or she always has a choice. Be mindful and be in control. And, of course, don’t make January a month to dread.
