Imagine if we told you that you can achieve confidence, weight loss and reduce stressed by simply changing the way you think. I doubt you’d believe it.
Two words we’ll introduce you to in this article: mindset and hypnotherapy.
Today, GCT’S Lifestyle Expert Despina Karp breaks this all down with Clinical Hypnotherapist Claire Aristides.
Firstly, who is Claire Aristides?
Apart from being a major girl boss, Claire is a business owner, Certified Hypnotherapist AND founder of the wildly successful ‘Change your mindset’ app, Mindology.
After completing a Bachelor of Arts (Psychology), Claire entered the business world working in IT, then launched successful fine jewellery brand Aristides Fine Jewels.
Hypnosis has had a significant impact on both the business and personal aspects of Claire’s life. It is through this passion for hypnosis that she shares with her clients.
Claire is also a Visualisation & Mindset Consultant and helps people to live their best lives by changing the way they think. This has proven to be very successful and has changed many people’s lives.
Claire’s Story
Claire grew up in Brisbane and when she was 16, she saw a picture of Santorini in a shop, and she said to her friends ‘I am going there, and I will marry a Greek man’.
And that is exactly what she did!
Claire married a Greek-Cypriot man and is proud to call herself ‘an adopted Greek’. She fell in love with Greece and Greek culture. She even named her daughter Cleopatra!
Doesn’t get much Greeker than that.
‘I feel like I am Greek even though I don’t look it’, Claire continues. She worked in the corporate world in the UK, where her husband is also from, and it was around this time that she started her very successful jewellery Brand- Aristides Fine Jewels.
Her journey with Mindology began when her father was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. He was given 6 months to live, but with the help of his friend who was a trained Hypnotherapist; he lived a further 2 years after that diagnosis, simply by working on his mindset.
After witnessing how incredible that experience was, Claire then sought out a hypnotherapist to help her de-stress, work on herself and her inability to relax.
She described herself at that time as a ‘workaholic’. The therapy had such a profound impact on Claire’s life, that she decided to quit the corporate world and train as a Clinical Hypnotherapist. Subsequently, she developed the App, Mindology; that hundreds of people use today.
Claire reminded me of how important it is to deal with stress, as if it’s not dealt with, it can reveal itself in physical ailments such as chronic diseases.
Claire was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease, and she firmly believes it was a result of chronic stress.
When we’re stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is reduced. That is why we are more susceptible to infections. The stress hormone corticosteroid can suppress the effectiveness of the immune system and that’s how people can get sick. Studies show that stress induces chronic immune activation and altered health outcomes that resemble those seen in chronic inflammatory diseases such as Hashimoto’s and IBS.
Claire explained how people can’t seem to relax these days due to the constant pressure of ‘being in touch 24/7’.
We never put our phones down and this is causing a whole generation of people who cannot seem to switch off. Claire says that we ‘work too much’.
Iceland has seen huge success after 4 years of implementation of the ‘four-day work week’ and that productivity actually increased with people working less days per week.
We should learn to delegate our tasks better and be more productive while considering working fewer days a week, if possible. Our jobs are no longer 9-5 because we are always ‘reachable’ and this needs to change. Humans need downtime to relax and rejuvenate.
The same way an athlete doesn’t train 7 days a week without a break, our nervous systems need a break too.
Claire advises people to find out what kind of stress they have, what triggers their stress and then find ways of dealing with it. Not dealing with stress can have lifelong consequences. She suggests building a ‘toolkit’ to deal with stress, such as seeing a psychologist, using Hypnotherapy and changing your Mindset.
Also, another important component is setting a regular sleep schedule and adhering to it. She explained that sleep is crucial for optimal mental health and to think of rest like a ‘reset’ for the body every night.
Using hypnotherapy can be a wonderful way to start healing your stress, past traumas and lack of confidence.
Claire says that you can use your Mindset to change your life. And these are just some of the incredible powers of the brain.
So, What exactly is Hypnotherapy?
Hypnotherapy is an adjunctive technique that utilises hypnosis to aid in the treatment of specific symptoms or health conditions. Hypnotherapy works by inducing a hypnotic state marked by waking awareness that allows people to experience detached external attention and to focus on inner experiences.
Claire describes it as a ‘dreamlike state’, like when you have zoned out binge-watching your favourite Netflix Series. Children are in a dream-like state nearly all the time.
Occasionally, it is used as part of a treatment plan (for example, combined with medication or sessions with a psychologist) for phobias and anxiety disorders.
Most interestingly, hypnotherapy can also be used for pain management, weight loss, IBS control (see the App Nerva), smoking cessation, and a variety of other applications as seen below.
Formal explorations in the therapeutic uses for hypnosis began in the late 1700s but did not gain scientific credibility until much more recently. Modern researchers have further explored how hypnosis can be used, which conditions it can treat, and how effective it may be compared to other treatments.
There are Several More Motives as to why a Person might want to Consider Hypnotherapy.
Studies suggest that some possible applications include:
- Chronic pain conditions
- Dementia symptoms
- Nausea and vomiting related to chemotherapy
- Pain during childbirth, dental procedures, or surgery
- Skin conditions, such as psoriasis and warts
- Symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Hypnotherapy may also be used by licensed physicians and psychologists in the treatment of conditions like anxiety disorders, depression, eating disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Hypnotherapy may also help change or reduce problematic behaviours. Because of this, it is sometimes used to help people quit smoking, lose weight, and sleep better as mentioned above.
Let’s finish with this quote by Mindset Author Carol S. Dweck; “A person with a growth mindset believes that they are always capable of learning and improving, and that intelligence is not static. Unlike someone with a fixed mindset, they see effort as the key to their success and work hard to improve and learn”.
Contact Claire Aristides here for more information.
Download the Mindology app here.
Read these books to help kickstart changing the way you think:
- Dweck, Carol S. (2008) Mindset: The New Psychology of Success New York: Ballantine Books.
- The Arbinger Institute (2016). Outward Mindset: Seeing Beyond Ourselves. Oakland: Berrett-Koehler Publishers.
Note: the advice in this article is not intended to provide medical advice, please seek a medical professional’s advice if this article raises any questions for you.
