This article is about some of the down sides to the winter months and how using a few mental tools you can not only survive but thrive through the dark, cold winter months. Research shows that there is a general increase in stress levels amongst the western population on the run up to the end of the year and through the first couple of months into the next. This time of year is also associated with increases in financial instability, increases in domestic disputes and mental health problems. There are many factors involved in this including the burden on time and money for the festive season, dark, cold winter months and being the time of year that people re-evaluate there lives. There are several ways a few simple ‘mind tools’ can help to ease this burden. The issue of stress is a complex one and I don’t intend this to be a complete answer all for the issues. I do know that by taking a few minutes a day to clear out the tension and relax can have a significant impact on stress levels. A simple self hypnosis trance induction that takes twenty minutes or less every day will significantly help. Just Google Self Hypnosis scripts and you will find hundreds of good ones along with instructions on how to use them. The net result of spending this time will mean more focus, more energy and drive to get everything you need done. Of course the clever thing here is to use the induction to train the unconscious element of your mind to be more effective. But more of that below. We are significantly impacted by sunlight and shorter daylight hours along with spending more time indoors. Again issues such as SAD and medical conditions are beyond the scope of this article, but by using creative visualization techniques you can have an impact on how you feel. A simple idea like visualizing yourself relaxing on a warm beach somewhere can take a lot of tension out of the day and bring you back to something like normality…but obviously there are some things we can do to increase the benefits still further. One issue that seems to come up regularly at the end of a year is that people re-evaluate what they have achieved and their goals for the coming year. The impact of this for many people is dissatisfaction over the last year and a feeling of nothing changing for the year ahead. Here self hypnosis and NLP techniques can really help. Your unconscious mind is the store house for all of your memories, emotions and habitual behavior. It is also where you keep your beliefs, values and identity. Using self hypnosis and NLP techniques you can draw a lot of these things into your conscious awareness and change them. The implications of this can be huge for example: Changing habits from nail biting, smoking or getting to the gym. Letting go of negative emotions like social anxiety, fear of failure and depressive states. Installing empowering ideas, beliefs and values such as self confidence, abundance thinking, the ability to grow your business / role / relationships By being able to let go of negative emotions around what you don’t want and increasing your motivation for what you do want you are creating a self propelling unconscious guided missile that is always driving you towards a better life. Imagine being able to do this in twenty minutes a day and taking as much effort on it as you would a cat nap. Now for the bad news, generally getting this level of proficiency takes training. Any good self hypnosis course will give you the tools, process and practice to be able to do this quickly and easily. These sorts of courses only take a couple of days and are a great investment of time and money. Think for a moment about all the stress and strain of life generally and consider the implications of not only surviving but thriving, growing and developing a better future just through a daily twenty minute cat nap…