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Writer's pictureFaye Lawand

Changing Our Relationship To Stress Through Somatic Work And Hypnotherapy

Updated: Sep 8, 2021


What is Internal conflict?


Internal conflict is anything that limits you from accessing what you want to be, what you want to feel, what you want to do, and what you want to have. These may be past experiences, unresolved memories from the past, irrational fears, outdated programs of thinking, out of line beliefs, misaligned values and other blockages in one's life.


Everyone has internal conflict so that we can grow, learn our lessons and heal to move forward or evolve.


What are the common themes that come up?


Can't sleep, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, can't get over an ex and more. Which are not the real problem and are normally just symptoms. Normally when they come for help, there are also other aspects of life that they are not happy about or not in balance.


What is Faye's back story?


Her own life and health crisis that caused her to do what she does now. She was born in the Middle East and was dislocated from Lebanon when she was about 4 1/2 yrs old. She had health issues, her career and relationships were not in good condition. She went to a hypnotherapist which helps to instruct the subconscious mind to go back to where the very first conflicts are in her life. Her subconscious brought her when they were young where they were traveling with their mom and they were asked to hide in the car to protect them from bombs and snipers which affected her nervous system. She initially did not believe it works but eventually she understood how it works and how helpful it is to understand where the issues are coming from


What is the subconscious mind?


Part of your mind that governs your survival, life and governs your body - beats your heart, breathes your lungs, digest your food, repairs your skin, grows your nails, etc. All your experiences are stored in your subconscious mind. The subconscious mind is not rational but rather emotional, taking everything literally like a 5 or 6 year old when we do not know how to rationalize or make sense of what happens to us.


A lot of the internal conflict was formed in the age when we do not have the capacity to rationalize, that gets stuck in our body and mind as an emotion. If we feel that we are triggered or too emotional at a certain time, our subconscious presents something for resolutions, this happens when you have the time, space, strength and internal resources to handle it.


Our subconscious mind is always working on protecting us to stay safe but also looking for ways for us to handle unresolved issues. Our subconscious mind is responsible for 95% of our operating system - thought, behaviour, beliefs, emotions and actions. Only a very small percentage of the population can handle some issues with their conscious mind or will power but 98% of the population need to address it through the subconscious to make a change.


What is hypnosis and somatic?


Hypnotherapy is using the natural state of hypnosis for therapeutic benefits. Hypnosis is a natural state of going in and out multiple times a day, e.g. daydreaming, doing habitual things, shavasana, watching movies and your body is heavy or feeling the emotions or creating imagination. This is when you are into Alpha or Delta waves. Getting you in a natural state to edit what is registered on the brain to neutralize the image and emotions about it.


Somatic is anything to do with physical sensations - feeling of tightness. For animals, when they are on fight flight mode for survival, where there is a threat to their life when being chased by wild animals for example. When the threat is over, they get to reset their nervous system easily on a regular basis, they retreat, shake and flush the effects of stress hormones out of their body. Unlike humans we tend to override that, where our nervous system is more complex and we tend to store that stress in our body causing us to have chronic stress.


Our body sends us signals/symptoms with pains and feelings which we tend to relieve with pills instead of addressing it.


What is stress transformation?


Stress is not the problem, we need to relate to stress differently. We are not looking at addressing stress properly and working on our nervous system. Most will do meditation, yoga, meditation, use essential oil, and the like which does not work long term.


If we work on stress transformation instead by working on the stress response - fight, flight, freeze that is accessed in an appropriate mindset, it provides a coping mechanism to help us improve focus, performance and more.


What do you wish that more leaders knew?


All stress is not harmful, there are so many appropriate benefits from stress, you need to shift your mindset around it and you need to understand how stress can help. Some examples that stress can be helpful is when athletes need to perform well during competition, singers when they have big performances or even an applicant who is being interviewed.


The good thing is that the new science of stress has been available for the last decade. Knowledge alone though is not enough, the integration and application part will be the one that will help leaders to transform stress into a result.


Faye wishes that she knew the step by step system that she knows now then, so she could have helped more people to understand the benefits of stress, how they can reframe themselves and transform stress in their lives.


Distress vs New Stress


Old paradigm of stress and the 3 New Stress Responses

  1. Challenge response - before deadline or big event

  2. Tend-and-Befriend response

  3. Excite-and-Delight response

Using physiology of stress to channel the psychology to access the state of presence, focus and performance. Having a different mindset to make use of the coping mechanism that comes from the stress hormones that are secreted such as oxytocin, DHEA, and the like, that can be beneficial.



Seven (7) steps or practices :

  1. Assuming responsibility for change and consciously commiting to the results you want

  2. Negativity bias in check

  3. Releasing tensions in the physical body

  4. Reset the nervous system (yoga, tapping, checking in yourself)

  5. Solving internal conflicts

  6. Related to stress differently

  7. Strengthen positive emotions and internal resources

Managing Digital usage or Social Media means connecting more to yourself rather than externalizing how you should feel based on what you see in social media. Focusing your morning to how you would like your day to be.


What is the biggest lesson you learned in 2020?


We can’t really plan ahead and you think that you are in control but rather it is just an illusion. Take each day as it comes and be able to live in the present moment. What can you do today to take care of your life and tomorrow will take care of itself. Take it one day at a time as we don’t know how the pandemic will take us, how it will evolve and until when it will be with us.


Listen to the full interview by The Full Circle Podcast below:



Join us in our Stress Elimination Masterclass on 15 September, Wednesday at 2PM, SGT ideal for busy professionals, just like you, who have a full and demanding life and who want to go beyond the “stress needs management” approach. That mindset is limiting, generic and ineffective. This practical training empowers you with the mindset that allows you to eliminate chronic stress, and not just manage or reduce it. The masterclass is informative, eye-opening and very experiential. You’ll walk away with ground-breaking knowledge and tools which you can apply in your life straight away in order to forever change your relationship with stress. Register at https://www.ctsolutionsglobal.com/stress-elimination-protocol

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