If summer is supposed to be the best time of the year, but you're sitting here feeling
anxious, unsettled, or oddly fat, this session is for you.
Because summer anxiety is real, and the fact that everyone else seems just fine makes
it worse.
In the next 10 minutes, I'm going to explain exactly why your nervous system struggles
in summer, and I'm going to help you bring it back down.
Welcome.
I'm Martin Hewlett, Clinical Hypnotherapist and former frontline paramedic.
Every single day, I'm here offering you a free 10 minute guided session of clinical
hypnotherapy and meditation.
Together to help you understand what's happening in your body and help you let it go.
If this helps you today, please do subscribe.
It keeps this free for everyone who needs it.
Now find your quiet place.
You can sit or lie down somewhere that feels supportive, let your hands rest open in your
lap, palms facing upwards.
It's a small signal, but it tells your nervous system, "I'm not bracing for anything.
I am safe."
And if it's safe to do so, let your eyes gently close.
We're going to start with what I call the vagus nerve reset.
The vagus nerve is the longest nerve in your body.
It runs from your brainstem all the way down to your gut.
It's the main line of your parasympathetic nervous system.
The part that says the emergency is over.
You can rest now.
The fastest way to activate it is through your breath, specifically a longer out breath
than the inhale.
So you'll breathe in for four, hold at the top for two, enjoying the stillness and then
out through your mouth for six.
Three rounds with me.
Ready?
Give in 2, 3, 4, hold 2.
And out 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Again in 2, 3, 4.
Pause 2, release 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
One more in 2, 3, 4, hold 2.
And slowly out 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
That long out breath is biological.
It is not a metaphor.
It is physically lowering your heart rate right now.
The emergency signal is being switched off at the very source.
Allow your breathing to return to its own natural rhythm now.
No effort.
Just let it find its own pace.
And in a moment, I would like you to come with me somewhere.
Imagine it is early evening.
The heat of the day has softened.
That particular golden hour just before the sun begins to lower.
You are standing at the edge of a quiet stretch of coastline.
There is nobody else here.
It is the sound of the water and the wide open sky.
Feel the ground beneath your feet.
If it helps, imagine sand, warm, packed, solid, or rocks smoothed by years of tide, whatever
feels most real to you.
The sea in front of you is calm, not completely still.
There is a gentle movement to it, a rhythm in and out, in and out, just like your breath.
Let your senses land here now.
The warmth through the evening air on your face and arms.
The aroma of the sea, salt and something clean, the sound of the water, that steady,
unhurried movement that has been happening long before your anxiety will continue long
after it passes.
This is your nervous system.
This is what it was designed to return to.
You don't have to fix summer, you don't have to feel this way the adverts say you should
feel.
You just have to be here, in this breath, at the edge of the water.
And the sea doesn't care what month it is, it just keeps moving, and right now, so do
you.
Now I'd like you to stay in that quiet coastal space as we move into the affirmations.
In a moment, I'm going to offer you five statements.
I'd like you to picture each one appearing in front of you, not as words on a screen,
but as letters of light.
Whatever colour feels most calming to you right now, see each one and allow it to settle.
My anxiety and summer does not mean I am broken.
It means my nervous system needs support.
I do not have to perform happiness.
I am allowed to feel exactly as I feel.
The warmth around me is safe.
My body is safe.
This moment is safe.
I release the comparison.
Other people's highlight reels are not my reality.
I am not behind in life.
I am present.
And presence is enough.
Let those words drift into the deeper layers of your mind now.
And pass the thinking, pass the planning into the part of you that simply knows.
Relax now deeply and safely.
Reuniting mind, body and soul.
And learning once more to truly love and respect all that you are.
Deeper and deeper with every out-of-the-art.
Within this moment before I bring you back, take with you these three daily caring tips
to carry with you today, tomorrow and forever.
The cool down anchor.
When summer heat is making your anxiety worse, don't fight it.
Anchor it.
Place a cool damp cloth on the back of your neck for 60 seconds.
This stimulates the vagus nerve through the skin and helps lower your heart rate almost
immediately.
It works and it works fast.
2. Name it to tame it.
If you find yourself feeling anxious, what others seem to be enjoying themselves, see this
quietly to yourself.
This is summer anxiety.
It is a real thing.
It is not a personality flaw.
Naming it removes the shame from it.
And shame is the fuel that keeps the anxiety running.
3. Protect your mornings.
Summer disrupts sleep.
Lighter evenings, earlier sunrises, heat at night.
Your nervous system is starting each day already a little depleted.
Give yourself the first 15 minutes of the morning without a screen.
Sit with the drink.
Look out of the window, let your brain wake up slowly.
That one thing will change your whole day.
Now let's begin to come back into the room.
Whiggle your fingers and toes.
Take a deeper breath in and then as you breathe out, let your arms stretch out but feels
good.
When you are ready, open your eye.
Just give in your nervous system something you really needed.
10 minutes of permission to stop performing.
Stop comparing.
Just being regulated.
If your anxiety has been running the summer for you, I have a resource that can help change
the longer term.
My anxiety circuit breaker course, 5 sessions, builds specifically to help you understand
and rewire the anxiety loop.
It's there at calminganxiety.fm.
It's only $67.
5 beautiful clinical hypnotherapy parts that you can keep forever.
I'll be back again tomorrow.
Same time, same place, always free.
And hopefully when this comes out, the Anchored app is out there, iOS and Android.
I'm going to keep this baked in.
Let's see if I've made it to the app store.
Who knows?
Have a lovely day my friend.
Truly.
Thank you for the emails, the messages, the reviews.
Have a lovely day.
Smile often.
Practice it.
It's amazing.
And then, to your beautiful self.
Be kind.