Calm Horizon-Worry Free Me

Over 40% of cancers due to lifestyle, says review

2011-12-07T01:18:00.000-08:00

This is from Michelle Roberts at the BBC

Nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year - over 130,000 in total - are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, a review reveals.

Tobacco is the biggest culprit, causing 23% of cases in men and 15.6% in women, says the Cancer Research UK report.

Next comes a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in men's diets, while for women it is being overweight.

The report is published in the British Journal of Cancer.

Its authors claim it is the most comprehensive analysis to date on the subject.

Lead author Prof Max Parkin said: "Many people believe cancer is down to fate or 'in the genes' and that it is the luck of the draw whether they get it.

"Looking at all the evidence, it's clear that around 40% of all cancers are caused by things we mostly have the power to change."

Weighty matters

“Start Quote

We didn't expect to find that eating fruit and vegetables would prove to be so important in protecting men against cancer”

Prof Max Parkin

For men, the best advice appears to be: stop smoking, eat more fruit and veg and cut down on how much alcohol you drink.

For women, again, the reviews says the best advice is to stop smoking, but also watch your weight.

Prof Parkin said: "We didn't expect to find that eating fruit and vegetables would prove to be so important in protecting men against cancer. And among women we didn't expect being overweight to be more of a risk factor than alcohol."

In total, 14 lifestyle and environmental factors, such as where you live and the job you do, combine to cause 134,000 cancers in the UK each year.

About 100,000 (34%) of the cancers are linked to smoking, diet, alcohol and excess weight.

One in 25 of cancers is linked to a person's job, such as being exposed to chemicals or asbestos.

Some risk factors are well established, such as smoking's link with lung cancer.

But others are less recognised.

For example, for breast cancer, nearly a 10th of the risk comes from being overweight or obese, far outweighing the impact of whether or not the woman breastfeeds or drinks alcohol.

And for oesophageal or gullet cancer, half of the risk comes from eating too little fruit and veg, while only a fifth of the risk is from alcohol, the report shows.

For stomach cancer, a fifth of the risk comes from having too much salt in the diet, data suggests.

Some cancers, like mouth and throat cancer, are caused almost entirely by lifestyle choices.

If you want to stop smoking, please contact me at patrick@calmhorizon.co.uk for your free report into the effectiveness of hypnotherapy as part of a stop smoking programme.

Best wishes

Patrick

Soft drinks Can Mean Soft Teeth Surrey » Cedar Dental, For the very best dental health in the heart of Surrey

2011-09-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

Soft drinks Can Mean Soft Teeth Surrey » Cedar Dental, For the very best dental health in the heart of Surrey

Dieting is a Regime. Healthy Eating is a Life.

2011-09-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14882832

Check out this article. I have worked with many people who wish to lose weight or lead a more healthy lifestyle. I have yet to meet someone who does not know what there are meant to be eating from and quality and quantity perspective. The article talks about habits, conditioned responses that develop through repetition and often familiarity to a situation ( lying down watching a movie). I read that snacking on the sofa whilst watching TV can go unnoticed to the point of actually eating more at mealtime unaware that you have been on a Doritto frenzy a few minutes earlier.

Hypnosis does not make you lose weight. No there is no research to support it at all. However, allowing your beliefs and judgement to subside when relaxed is a great way of clearing your mind of old habits and forming new ones. Hypnosis is just one way to suspend our conscious beliefs. The cognitive behavioural statements and actions of intent we have towards ourselves and food itself are a clearer and more effective way of changing eating habits because there is an acceptance and understanding to change.

Diets are no good, healthy eating is.

Best wishes

Patrick

In The Moment- Strategic Thinking

2010-06-10T02:32:00.000-07:00

What is going on in your life NOW? Much has been written about the power of the present moment. That split second you feel, calm, connected, focussed, accepting, proactive,instinctive. Lets address each of these experiential states one at a time;

1) Calm- Physiologically your mind and body are in an optimum state of function for thought and action.The flight or fight hormones are safely stored away which leads us to

2) Connected- That level of awareness that you can get on holiday, when you meditate or when you are just sitting in your garden watching the Bees pollinate the flowers. This stillness creates a state of

3) Focus- You can take in the minutae of detail, your attention span is comfortable and you absorb information through all of your sensory modalities far more easily. Within your mind you feel

4) Accepting- Being in the here and now requires a degree of comfort within your own skin. Aunt Agnes said you were a failure 30 years ago, somehow this just does not matter. This allows you the freedom to be

5) Proactive- Clear decision making seems to be quicker,in time with events rather than delayed reactive response. From this you can be more

6) Instinctive- Action through feeling rather than thinking. we all have gut feelings,heart felt desires and ideas that just pop into our consciousness without is thinking too much about them, but they are just what we need now.

So the next time you want to make a decision, really allow your body to relax, become aware of all your senses,focus on the decison options, what they are and what they are not. You can then call up your experience, skills and unlimited imagination and make that decision NOW.

Welcome to In the Moment Strategic Thinking. More soon.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Hypnotherapy-BBC.co.uk 18th March 2010

2010-03-18T23:48:00.000-07:00

Hypnotherapy 'can help' irritable bowel syndrome

Irritable bowel syndrome causes abdominal pain and bloating
Greater use of hypnotherapy to ease the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome would help sufferers and might save money, says a gastroenterologist.

Dr Roland Valori, editor of Frontline Gastroenterology, said of the first 100 of his patients treated, symptoms improved significantly for nine in 10.

He said that although previous research has shown hypnotherapy is effective for IBS sufferers, it is not widely used.

This may be because doctors simply do not believe it works.

Widely ignored

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common gut problem which can cause abdominal pain, bloating, and sometimes diarrhoea or constipation.

Dr Valori, of Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, said the research evidence which shows that hypnotherapy could help sufferers of IBS was first published in the 1980s.

He thinks it has been widely ignored because many doctors find it hard to believe that it does work, or to comprehend how it could work.

It is pretty clear to me that it has an amazing effect

Dr Roland Valori, editor of Frontline Gastroenterology
He began referring IBS patients for hypnotherapy in the early 1990s and has found it to be highly effective.

"To be frank, I have never looked back," he said.

He audited the first 100 cases he referred for hypnotherapy and found that the symptoms stopped completely in four in ten cases with typical IBS.

He says in a further five in 10 cases patients reported feeling more in control of their symptoms and were therefore much less troubled by them.

"It is pretty clear to me that it has an amazing effect," he said.

"It seems to work particularly well on younger female patients with typical symptoms, and those who have only had IBS for a relatively short time."

Powerful effect

He believes that it could work partly by helping to relax patients.

"Of the relaxation therapies available, hypnotherapy is the most powerful," he said.

He also says that IBS patients often face difficult situations in their lives, and hypnotherapy can help them respond to these stresses in a less harmful way.

NHS guidelines allow doctors to refer IBS patients for hypnotherapy or other psychological therapies if medication is unsuccessful and the problem persists.

Dr Valori thinks that if hypnotherapy were used more widely it could possibly save the NHS money while improving patient care.

Dr Charlie Murray, Secretary of the British Gastroenterology Society, said: "There is no doubt that hypnotherapy is helpful for some patients, but it depends on the skill and experience of those practising it.

"But the degree to which it is effective is not well defined.

"I would support using it as one therapy, but it is no panacea."

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SEE ALSO
Hypnosis has 'real' brain effect

16 Nov 09 | Health
Children can 'imagine away' pain

12 Oct 09 | Health
Soluble fibre 'effective for IBS'

27 Aug 09 | Health

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We are in The London Evening Standard 3rd March 2010

2010-03-04T06:52:00.000-08:00

The Great Escape: a spring break without travel

Technically speaking March is spring but in most other ways it still feels decidedly wintry and, for many people, their main summer holiday is a long way off.

But don't panic because the secret is to recreate the escape-it-all experience without leaving the country. New treatments on offer in London include the Two-Hour Holiday, the brainchild of wellbeing expert Patrick Lucocq. It is a mix of visualisation techniques and hypnotherapy, which provide the health benefits of time off abroad without the stress of airport travel. Here, we preview what is on offer to recharge your mind and body.

The Two-Hour Holiday
What is it? A mixture of meditation, relaxation and hypnotherapy
What is involved? It's a bone-chilling evening and I'm sitting in a London basement sniffing lemons surrounded by strangers. There's a rug on the floor spread with travel guides and souvenir pebbles. Guitar music plays in the background. A key part of this therapy is to stimulate the senses through touch and smell. Hence the lemons. It also includes storytelling by sharing your memories of a perfect holiday experience. Most of my group just want more space to think and a good night's sleep. And lots of sunshine.
Next, Patrick asks us to select an object we like from the rug. I pick out a pebble with a lizard motif and am transported back to an Australian trip. As I talk, the tension in my shoulders lifts. Then it's meditation time. The lights are switched off, candles lit and we all lie down on cushions with our eyes shut. Wave sounds play in the background as Patrick asks us to imagine ourselves in a tranquil place and focus on our breathing. It's clear from the noises that some people have already fallen asleep.
Holiday factor? It's hard to explain how two hours in a basement chatting and meditating can recreate the holiday experience. But it does. I leave uplifted and inspired.
Contact: Venues include Neal's Yard in Covent Garden and Regent's Park. (07789713876, www.calmhorizon.co.uk)
Cost: £10 a session.
Sophie Goodchild

The Two Hour Holiday is an event run through Happening Weekends www.happening-weekends.co.uk.

More soon

Best wishes

Patrick

Sleep and Teeth

2009-09-14T00:32:00.000-07:00

I have been working with clients who share very similar symptoms, interupted sleep and teeth grinding. So which came first, the interruption or the grinding? Whilst anecdotal, I have found that patients claim that they became aware of their grinding when it started effecting their sleep. Unconscious habits becoming conscious is your body's way of saying 'get this sorted'. It is not the teeth grinding pur se, but the underlying stress and beliefs attached. As many of us know, being stressed can have serious consequences.

Great Success with Dental Anxiety treatments

2009-08-07T06:29:00.000-07:00

Having hypnosis as a therapeutic tool is very useful for getting an emotional shift in your client. Using a combination of cognitive behavioural techniques to rationalise a clients fear and then elliciting an emotional change with hypnosis is both powerful and highly successful. This week I has a second session with a client who could not even sit in a treatment chair 2 weeks ago. Relaxing or even simple eye closure was very difficult for her but by simply allowing her to fully acquaint herself with the dental treatment office she found herself calming and sitting more comfortably in the chair. After much listening she agreed to close her eyes and using a simple Vogts fractination technique I observed her body becoming more comfortable as she allowed the chair to support her. I noticed tears running down her cheeks and then she opened her eyes and said that she had had enough. We continued our discussion and the client was both interested and upset as to why she would cry. I told her it was a healthy release and she smiled.

What I love about the use of hypnosis is that it does not always have to be a deep voyage of discovery and memories. Sometimes just feeling comfortable in the present is enough to get the ball rolling. She is now seeing the hygienist with a smile on her face.

Relaxation and Rejuvenation

2009-03-04T11:34:00.000-08:00

The commonly held belief is that relaxation is best for you when you are exhausted, that being relaxed is switching off and doing nothing. This could not be further from the truth. Whilst recovery from a working week is essential to many of us, our methods seem at odds with the result we wish to attain. Much of our week is routine and is there nothing better to break the shackles of this compliance by blowing a gasket on a Friday night? I know I did this big style. After 5 days of being somebody else I can be me, free and funky.

The thing is this temporary release soon faded, Saturday became Sunday and then Monday was around the corner again. We do what we have to do to keep a roof over our heads and food in our bellies. Sometimes our work is not the dream role we thought it would be and soon we fall into a rut. Wouldn’t things be a little easier and more fluid if we didn’t need this huge build up to a release?

Relaxation is an optimum state of wellbeing. It is responsible for peak performance, increases confidence, gets you smiling more and patient. The chemicals coursing around your body and your perception of being in better times helps your body heal and maintain a healthy outlook and er…inlook. Tired and exhausted muscles look and feel very different to relaxed ones, ask Usain Bolt. Electroencephalograms show clearly that a relaxed brain and therefore body operates at a different electrical wavelength than a stressed one. The relaxed alpha state of your brain waves gives you the sensation of being very much in the now and is often associated with positive feelings and outlook. However, the effect of anxiety and stress on your body over a long period of time exhausts your body as it has no time to heal the parts of your body that need healing. Hence stress related symptoms in people make the ability to relax difficult because of head and neck tension, poor sleep patterns as a consequence they are tired, their skin loses vitality, eyes appear dull and the good feeling hormones in your body are nowhere to be found.

I found that the techniques I used when working with anxiety and stress clients were relevant in not only decreasing these symptoms but would prevent them happening in the first place. This got me thinking.

If I could create an event that allowed busy people to stop and reacquaint themselves with the wellbeing they felt on holiday, I could prove to them that they could relax on weeknight in a large city and that the weekend blown gasket experience was just a release and offered nothing more than letting go of 5 days routine thus leaving you exhausted.

There is another way.

Put This Book Down

2008-10-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

Hi. Thank you for looking at this and please bear with me. If you like it, great, lets have some fun. If you chose to read this through and move on, keep looking there might be something out there that you feel a connection with. Why am I writing ‘Put this Book down’’ I don't know yet. it does feel good and it is helping me develop as a man. Writing has shown me that I, who once thought was a vacuum of experience, has learnt much from life and have accepted that an inquisitive mind, whilst at times frustrating, can be a powerful examiner of yourself and your God given right to be part of this universe. Yes, you are part of my experience although I have not met you, the reader, at all.

You can call me up anytime, but I will not be much wiser to knowing who you are. I don’t really know my daughter even though we have spent much time together. We never truly know each other because there is a sacred part of us that must be for us and us alone. I have no inclination to write such words as ‘This is my gift to you and the world’. If I’d written that I would not be true. You see I don’t need to lie to you. It is up to me what I say, feel and do and it is up to you what you read and how you feel about it. You might get to know the REAL YOU from reading this, I wish for all the love and happiness that is within you and around you . One of the universe’s little jokes is you probably, on some level, know all of this already, All I can say is that this book is from my heart, so it is authentic. What you read into it is your choice. If you want a gift, check out your chimney at Xmas time. Thinking upon this, It isn’t a gift that I give you, but something that you chose to take for yourself.

You make your choices and you take your opportunities as they are everywhere.

‘Our entire life is one subjective experience’, in the words of the great Bill Hicks whilst commentating on life ‘We are only molecules attracted to other molecules, slowed down to form matter, our perception of our world is all an illusion. IS anything real?’ I think this illusion is real enough, the trip of life is one that seems all too real at times, however IF it is an illusion, can’t we let go of some of the fears and pain that we hold on to JUST to see what might happen? It might turn out different if we think of outcomes with less of a fear it will go wrong to a ‘lets enjoy doing this whatever the result’ A clinician can study a client, understand their personality traits at a behavioural level,. We all too easily can judge someone for their actions or ignore all signs of life outside our society norms, but when this all boils down,the only person who can know and love you is you. We all fit into and benefit from our social ties and the consequences.But ultimately, you are born with you and you die with you.

There are 2 voices that speak within us. We can communicate with either, we have and always have a choice. The first is a voice that is as gentle as it is strong, it is a part that is deep within us . It whispers words and feelings that say nothing but the truth of why we exist. It is the bit of us that is still the child, still full of opportunity and full of unconditional love. I smile just writing this sentence, effortless.
Example
What’s this little voice inside? How do I hear it? When do you act on it? It is said that the voice of wisdom whispers within us. I kept asking these questions, waiting for a shout from within. Depending upon faith or outlook it can be a few things. It can be that little bit of God in all of us, the energy of our ancestors or for those who like a bit of control and conscious rationality, emotional imbalance from dissociation. Wherever you are in life, you can either hear and feel it or you and your well formed ego block this gentle loving adviser out. So what is it and why did I do so well at ignoring it?

Well, there is a second, powerful and destructive voice, I had this voice alright, little bastard kept at me day and night. ‘ hey there, , he/she/theywon’t like you, they are so much better than you, whoa if you try everyone will point and laugh, you MUST fit in, everyone is having fun , you MUST!’. This voice lived in my head, sort of front and centre. This second voice had a direct link to my gut. Through listening to this I was judgmental, fearful, had a low self esteem and I attracted rejection, selfishness and frustration like a very powerful magnet. This voice had taken control of me and life.
There was a time when the second voice did everything to mask, shut out or totally ignore this part of me that is true, loving and totally with me from birth through my life. I spent time in a sort of stretched haze,one foot stuck in the past,. one foot frightened of the future. My life was a series of reactions based upon my ability to take everything very personally. I was a walking fear. If I was angry in the past, I still carried that anger in the present. I had no idea how to deal with life. The future was something that I dreaded and guess what, my life reflected it.

You see I could never listen to the loving part of me because I was in such a state of emotional chaos that I wouldn’t have heard it with a PA system that Motorhead would be proud of. To listen and feel this part inside I needed an inner calm and a way of distracting the second voice long enough to let it be heard. To paint a picture, go to a lake on a calm morning. See the lake, still, the reflection of your face, the trees, mountains, houses clear in the pool. Skim a small stone on its glass like surface. As the stone hits the water the ripples will in time expand across the lake, you will see them travel into the distance. I was in the North Sea in a Force 8 gale trying to throw the Eiffel Tower in to get the same effect. Sorry didn’t see a thing. AN added bonus is that skimming a pebble takes a lot less effort and energy than a Parisian tourist attraction.. It is hard at times to listen and feel as Mr ‘useless you are’ second voice wants SO much to be part of the party. HE wants me to judge the slower driver in front, feel unattractive, put crap into my body, do anything that will take me away from well………..me.

Tick,tock,tick,tock. Sweat cooling on a sleeping body. Deep,deep down something is stirring. The musk of the dead of night. Calm,so still, peace and yet unease. Silence and the breeze through the trees. Light is fading between the clouds and then in a moment, the moon lights the street. A man. A man waiting to die. Nothing physically wrong with him. Thing is he has just dreamt with such lucidity, in such clarity the experience of dieing. That moment when there are only a few short breaths left. This hit him hard, that he realised that one day he was going to die. His breath continuing to shorten, as panic rose in him.There was nothing he could do. It was the inevitability of it that shocked him.

‘ It is going to happen one day’. The very concept of dieing is something that we all say in conversation as a fact that we accept and then brush it aside with more important matters such as Big Brother or United’s signings for the new season. To feel, I mean really feel the reality of dieing threw him.

Lieing in his bed staring at the ceiling, the silence and cool scent of the night air created a state of limbo in him. He could think of little else.

‘ It is going to happen. I don’t want to be old, I don’t want to fight for my last breath regretting all the things I never did. The words I never said.

He turned over and gripped the pillows around him. Foetal at 40.

Smiling? At what?

The fear gripped him like a blind panic. Slowly he changed position in his bed lying in a horizontal position staring out of the open window at the night sky. Stars, millions of starts and finishes. Life created and evaporated on a continual basis for all time. in this suburban street in North London the night sky was lit with varying layers of brightness, the moon was lost but the heavens shone down. He felt insignificant and this calmed his heart and the panic in his head.

Falling back to sleep, the sweat on his body cooled him and he soon found a more comfortable position that eased him back into sleep.

What does he do with this knowledge?

Waking the next morning the fear of dieing had receded. He felt like he had had a bit of an emotional spring clean. The Sun was rising above the houses at the end of the street, the air was warming and filled with the scent of opening flowers and he felt alive. Alive to waste the day.

Someone wiser than I said.' If there is an afterlife, I have something to look forward to. If not, I will not be in a place to worry about it.'

Your Tourguide to the Inside

2008-10-01T07:51:00.000-07:00

Hi there

This blog is for anyone interested in 'The Eureka Club' and 'The 2 Hour Holiday'. I thought about these as a way to get people relaxing and creating. I don't train, I don't coach, I am your tourguide to the inside.

We have fun, we create, we build our inner strength and through this our world becomes a little more fluid.

Please check out the website www.calmhorizon.co.uk.

Best wishes

Patrick x