Blog Image

Acorn Health Blog

What we love is great health...

...and we like to write about how we can all achieve better health, naturally. Sometimes tips on how you can DIY to better health and sometimes on the therapies that can make a difference to you, your health and wellbeing.
Thank you for reading, We hope you enjoy :)

How Hypnotherapy Can Help Reduce or Eliminate Anxiety

General Health & Wellbeing, Therapies Posted on Thu, September 28, 2023 10:48AM

Anxiety is a common and sometimes overwhelming feeling that many of us face in our daily lives. Whether it’s the stress of work, personal relationships, or life’s uncertainties, anxiety can creep in and disrupt our peace of mind. Fortunately, there’s a powerful tool called hypnotherapy that can help you take control of your anxiety and lead a more balanced life.

Understanding Anxiety:

Before diving into how hypnotherapy can assist with anxiety, let’s grasp what anxiety really is. Anxiety is essentially your body’s natural response to stress, a fight-or-flight mechanism that can help you in dangerous situations. However, when this response becomes chronic, it can lead to a range of physical and mental health issues.

How Does Hypnotherapy Work?

Hypnotherapy is a therapeutic technique that uses guided relaxation and focused attention to access your subconscious mind. Contrary to what you might have seen in movies, hypnotherapy is not about mind control; it’s about helping you gain more control over your own thoughts and behaviours.

Here’s how it can assist in reducing or eliminating anxiety:

1. Identifying Root Causes:

Hypnotherapy helps you delve into your subconscious to identify the root causes of your anxiety. Often, anxiety is linked to past traumas or unresolved issues that you may not even be consciously aware of. By addressing these underlying factors, you can start to heal and reduce anxiety’s grip on you.

2. Rewiring Negative Thought Patterns:

Anxiety often arises from negative thought patterns and beliefs. Hypnotherapy can help reprogram your subconscious mind, replacing those negative thoughts with positive ones. This process is known as cognitive restructuring and can be a powerful tool for combating anxiety.

3. Stress Reduction:

Through deep relaxation and visualization techniques, hypnotherapy can lower your overall stress levels. This reduction in stress is crucial for managing and ultimately reducing anxiety. When your body is in a relaxed state, it’s harder for anxiety to take hold.

4. Building Confidence and Self-Esteem:

Many people with anxiety struggle with self-doubt and low self-esteem. Hypnotherapy can boost your confidence and self-worth by implanting positive affirmations and self-assured beliefs in your subconscious mind.

5. Developing Coping Strategies:

Hypnotherapy equips you with effective coping strategies for managing anxiety. These strategies can include breathing exercises, self-hypnosis techniques, and mental imagery that can be employed in everyday situations when anxiety strikes.

6. Enhanced Mindfulness:

Hypnotherapy encourages mindfulness, which is the practice of staying present in the moment. This can help you detach from anxious thoughts about the future and ruminations about the past. By staying in the now, you can reduce anxiety’s grip on your mind.

7. Progressive Relaxation:

One of the most immediate benefits of hypnotherapy is the deep relaxation it induces. This state of relaxation can serve as a powerful antidote to the physical symptoms of anxiety, such as racing heart and shallow breathing.

In Conclusion:

Hypnotherapy is a versatile and effective tool for reducing or even eliminating anxiety. By accessing your subconscious mind and rewiring negative thought patterns, it can help you regain control over your mental and emotional state. It’s essential to work with a qualified and experienced hypnotherapist who can tailor the sessions to your specific needs.

If you’re tired of letting anxiety rule your life, consider giving hypnotherapy a try. It’s a safe and empowering way to take charge of your mental well-being and embark on a journey towards a more relaxed and anxiety-free existence. Remember, you have the power to transform your mind and overcome anxiety with the right guidance and techniques.

Would you like to find out if hypnotherapy could help you?



Meditation Musings with Eileen

General Health & Wellbeing, Workshops & Classes Posted on Thu, March 30, 2023 10:38AM

MEDITATION …  Helping you Learn more about Being more You  

By Eileen Strong

Time to Be. 

 We talked in previous blogs about Meditation being a tool you can use to switch yourself from a stressed, anxious, or over-busy mind state, to a state where you can experience a depth of calmness, peace, and relaxation .. simply by developing a little more self awareness of your “state of being” during your busy day, and deciding to Just Do It!  

We also thought about how this needn’t be a lengthy process, and if you can find even just a spare minute or two, there are ways even The Busiest Person In The World could fit it into their day .. if they really want to.  Check back on last month’s blog for some ideas on how you might be able to do that with your own busy schedule.

Potential Blessings and Benefits of Meditation

I use the word  “potential” in this sub title because the word “Meditation” in itself is an umbrella term for a practice that covers a multitude of different techniques and traditions, and even if we had 4 people in a room “doing” the same Meditation technique, each will have their own unique experience of it. 

But to stick to that “umbrella” terms for now, there are Meditations that will help you:

  • Reduce your levels of stress or anxiety;
  • Reduce physical pain and boost the immune system:
  • Help you develop your mental focus and powers of concentration;
  • Enhance your creativity;
  • Help to open your mind up to new ideas and inspirations:
  • Identify and balance emotional disturbances:
  • Help you to connect with and deepen psychic skills;
  • Connect more intimately with your spirituality;
  • Help you develop greater self awareness;
  • Help you deepen your understanding and awareness of other people;
  • Improve performance in business or sport;
  • Help you make grounded decisions
  • Help you create your own day

Wow, we are literally just scratching the surface here of potential blessings and benefits of Meditation.  Did something leap out at You from this list?  What was that? 

And how does it all work anyways? How can it DO all that stuff?   

Well, speaking from my own experience of Meditation, I do not believe that it is some magical “cure-all”. 

Yet there is undoubtedly a science and wealth of research behind it (particularly in the field of neuroscience) that can help to explain some of those what, where’s, why’s and how’s. 

In addition, it’s absolutely true too that some individuals can indeed have a “quick fling” with Meditation, and as a result, get a potentially life-changing “aha!” moment, deep inner insight or practical take-away everyday relaxation skill that will be endear Meditation forever to them.   This does, however, seem to be quite rare.    

What does seem to be true, though, is that most long-term Meditators will be able to tell you about the richness and reward a longer term relationship with your own Meditation Practice  will bring into your life.

So what is it that you would you like more of in your Life?  How could a regular Meditation Practice enhance your life?  What is that would tick more of your self-care, self-nurture, self-growth boxes? 

Maybe it’s time to take a fresh look at Meditation and put a Meditation Me-Time date in your diary .. starting today!  

Want to learn more?

We host regular Monthly Meditation Classes here at Acorn in our Studio, suitable for beginners and re-starters. 

Acorn also has a range of Online Courses too, including our “Learn to Love to Meditate” course;  click the following link to take a look at all of those:  “Learn to Love to Meditate Course

To book a place on our Monthly Class in the Studio, or for more information on anything discussed in this post, simply get in touch with us here at Acorn for more information, or email me direct at Eileen@eileenstrongcoaching.com

We look forward to hearing from you!



Breakfast like a king lunch like peasant and dine like a pauper

General Health & Wellbeing Posted on Thu, February 23, 2023 01:16PM

by Sally Race

Breakfast like a king lunch like peasant and dine like a pauper- you might have heard that before, but is it fact or is it fiction when it comes to helping you lose weight?

In some recent research carried out under study conditions, participants ate exactly what they were given, no more no less. It was done over a period of four weeks and they ate the same amount of calories, they all ate the same nutritional values and same balance of protein, fat and carbs. Some ate the bigger meals in the morning and some in the evening.

The results?

The results showed that there is no difference in how much weight people lost. So you may think that when you eat makes no difference. BUT that’s not true & the reason why was actually in the participant feedback rather than the study results. There was a significant difference that in the real world(so non study conditions)I think will make a major impact and that is that, consistently the people that were having the Big Breakfast in the morning and the light meals later on reported that they weren’t hungry as opposed to the other group where they were eating bigger meals at night were hungry on the exact same calorie controlled diet.

So in the real world what’s going to work?

If you’re going to feel hungry, you’re going to eat more. If you’re not going to feel hungry, you’re going to eat less. So maybe there’s something in it after all. I don’t think there’s any one magic bullet when it comes to weight loss, I think a lot of it is in our heads, how we think and feel. There’s a lot of what we eat that messes with our hormones & hormones are a massive thing on how body stores fat, how our bodies work and function so there’s not just one thing, it’s a multitude of things. If we add in one thing here and one thing there, the whole combination together can make a really big difference in being successful in being a healthier weight and having a healthy body in general, not just that but the impact that has on our minds, because it’s frequently underestimated the amount of difference in what we eat has on our mental health. So it all combines!



SPECIALIST WELLNESS DAYS at Acorn – how can we help you?

General Health & Wellbeing, Therapies Posted on Thu, February 23, 2023 10:47AM

By Eileen Strong 21/2/23

Last  month, we shared with you our idea for hosting specialist “Wellness Days” at Acorn.    Each of our Practitioners has some very specific specialist skills, experience and knowledge that can be combined with a genuine passion to help you, dear reader, enjoy an awesome Wellness Day experience that we know you will love.

This initiative was initially inspired by World Cancer Day .. with a wonderful team of specialists here at Acorn who are super-passionate about helping people on their “cancer wellness journey”.  So whether you (or a loved one) are experiencing treatment now … or, are now fully in remission and have experienced the rigors of cancer treatment in the past .. we CARE! 

Yet we want to find out how we can absolutely create a beautifully supportive, nurturing, and practical  experience for you at Acorn that will help you fill in any gaps that perhaps have been missed so far .. a bit of extra support if you need it, brainstorming, inspiration, motivation, pure TLC … treating you as a whole person, mind body and spirit. 

So once again, may we invite our readers who have any experience of Cancer to participate in our Survey.  Thank you to everyone of you who took the time to do that last month, we really appreciate what you have shared with us so far.  And of course, we’ll be branching out into other specialist areas too !! 

Help us to help you .. and others too – complete our Survey

Please take just 2 minutes out of your busy day to  click below to complete this very short, concise Survey – it will help us to plan and select our Top 3 most  important services that we’ll offer to our clients on the Wellness Day.

Click to Complete Cancer Wellness Day Survey

Just fill in the survey, then click SUBMIT.  You’ll receive a confirmation from JOTFORM to let you know it’s been sent.    Thank you so much for taking the time!  We really appreciate your help.  (Feel free to remain anonymous on the form if you prefer to do so, but if you do share your name and email address, we’re happy to get back to you personally)

Alternatively, please email me direct at eileen@eileenstrongcoaching.com to register your interest and receive the survey direct to your inbox.



Next »