Sage Hypnotherapy

22/03/2026

Contact your local Solution Focused Hypnotherapist: rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk for an in-person / online appointment 🙂

Negative forecasting is when we worry about future possibilities.
Our mind is constantly trying to predict what might happen next. Not all thoughts are true.

Sometimes it’s like gazing into a crystal ball…
Sometimes the anxious inner voice overestimates the possibilities of danger and really underestimates our ability to cope.

One of the interesting things about hypnotherapy is that it gives our mind a chance to practise different, more helpful predictions.
If you’d like to know if hypnotherapy might be useful to you, please feel free to get in touch.

20/03/2026

Find out how to create positive change: contact rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk 🙂

Today is the Spring Equinox… that point of balance where day and night are equal, and from here, each day the light begins to be longer than the dark.

It’s easy to think change has to be big or dramatic… but nature doesn’t work like that. The shift in balance between the day and night is gentle, gradual and almost unnoticed at first…
and the same with taking small steps towards our goal, hardly noticeable at first, easy to do and then one day you realise how far you’ve come.

In solution-focused work, we often look for those small signs of change…
What’s just a little bit better?
What are you pleased to notice?
What small step have you taken that’s beginning to change things for the better?

20/03/2026

If you’d like to know more contact rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk 🙂

Why trying not to think something… makes it stronger?

Try this..Don’t think about an elephant!

Most people find the image of an elephant pops straight into their mind and there’s a really good scientific reason for that.
When we try not to think about something, the brain has to do two things at once
1. Push the thought away
2. Keep checking if it’s still there
It’s that second part, the checking, that’s the problem.
Psychologist Daniel Wegner called this ironic process theory.
Our brain ends up checking in on the one thing we don’t want, and that reminds us all the time.
Do you ever have repeated worry thoughts that seem to pop up into your mind at inconvenient moments?

It might be the same thing, when we think
‘Don’t panic!’ we end up raiding our anxiety
We think
‘Don’t think about it!’ and our brain makes that thought loop around again.
We think ‘I must go to sleep’ and our brain acts like we’ve said ‘we must think about how we need to go to sleep, and stay alert while we think this’

In hypnotherapy we aim to gently shift attention towards something more helpful, more absorbing, more useful.

Because the mind is very good at focusing
it just needs somewhere better to go.
And if this has made you curious about whether Hypnotherapy might help you, please feel free to get in touch.

19/03/2026

19/03/2026

Find out how to make your brain’s neuroplasticity work for you: contact rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk 🙂

When the brain feels safe and supported, it can do what it is innately capable of doing: adapt, reorganize, and heal.

18/03/2026

Want to know more? Contact rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk for an online or in-person consultation 🙂

Hypnosis is the trance state we use in hypnotherapy. Hypnotherapy is the therapeutic session as a whole.

The trance state is a state of focused attention. You might recognise it from being absorbed in a good book… lost in music… or being so absorbed in a hobby that you lose track of time.

In these moments, your attention narrows and the usual mental ‘chatter’ in our minds quietens down.

Neuroscience reflects this too. Studies suggest reduced activity in areas that are linked to self-monitoring, alongside an increased focus and with a stronger connection between attention and imagination. So, in simple terms, in trance our mind becomes more engaged with what it’s focusing on… and less distracted by everything else.

Importantly, you’re not out of control in trance, you’re aware, you can choose what to engage with, and you can stop at any time.

Hypnosis is simply the skill of using this state in a helpful way… to rehearse new patterns, shift perspective, and to support changes you want to make.

So the interesting question is… if your mind can focus like this already… what might you be able to do with it, on purpose?

If you’re curious about how hypnotherapy might help, you’re very welcome to get in touch.

17/03/2026

Need help noticing the glimmers in your life? Contact rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk 🙂🙂

The Enormous Power of Glimmers to Calm Your Anxious Mind https://buff.ly/1I0CYjQ

Glimmers are some kind of internal or external cues—small, positive moments or experiences—that spark feelings of joy, safety, or peace for you. These pleasant instances can ease and relax your nervous system with a feeling of contentment or a sense that everything is OK, even if just for minutes.

It’s the opposite of a trigger, which activates your nervous system and heightens anxiety or negative emotions.

A glimmer can be anything from feeling the sunshine warming your face to cuddling with a furry friend to smelling the aroma of coffee brewing. It’s whatever evokes a good feeling for you.

It almost seems too simple. But it’s true and scientifically proven.

Noticing little positive moments could be one way to help calm and regulate your anxious, overwhelmed nervous system.

17/03/2026

Happy St Patrick’s Day
The cultural symbol is a shamrock, from the Irish seamróg meaning little clover.
People sometimes think four leaf clovers are lucky and to paraphrase Seneca

‘Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity’.

Ask yourself what your best hopes for you are, that’s a first step to being prepared if luck comes your way today.

16/03/2026

Talk to your local / online Clinical Hypnotherapist: rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk 🙂

Maybe you have a goal in mind, maybe you’d like to take more exercise, perhaps add a daily walk to your routine? Creating a new habit can seem a bit daunting, however a first step can be as simple as imagining yourself doing it first.
Our brain is remarkably responsive to mental rehearsal, and when something begins to feel familiar in the mind, it often becomes easier to turn it into a real routine.

Interestingly, behavioural science has found something similar in students. In one study, students who just used their imagination, picturing themselves sitting down, turning on the computer, opening their books, and starting to work on that essay or revising for the exam, and they ended up studying more and achieving higher marks than students who only imagined the getting good marks part.

It seems that when our mind rehearses the steps of an action, we begin to treat that behaviour as something possible… and familiar.

And sometimes change begins in a very simple place… the moment we start to imagine ourselves doing the thing we would like to do.
What would you like to imagine you doing to create your preferred future?
We sometimes use inner mental rehearsal in


Feel free to contact one of us for further details of you’d like?

15/03/2026

Do you ever ask yourself those questions that stop us before we even begin to try to reach our goal?
‘What if I fail?’
‘What if I’m not strong enough?’

How about asking ourselves gentler ones and yet braver too?
‘Maybe I don’t know how to make this change yet?
‘What if I try and I actually succeed?’

So often we imagine change as something that requires extraordinary strength, as though we must feel completely ready before we take the first step.

What if we think most change begins quietly, just with a first thought then a
small decision and we just try?

And sometimes it all begins by adding one small word.
Yet.
‘I can’t do that… yet.’
‘I’m not ready… yet’
‘I haven’t worked it out… yet’

That little word keeps the door to making the change we want, open.

It reminds us that our story is still being written, we can give it a go and maybe we’ll succeed, maybe we’ll gain more confidence along the way.

In a solution focused approach you decide the pace, you’re in charge of the change you want to make. We believe in you, we walk beside you as you decide your first step. Because change rarely arrives all at once.

More often change appears like the first hint of light before sunrise.
A small shift.
A small step.
A small moment when something feels just a little easier than it did before.

And step by step, those small changes can lead somewhere new.

So if there is something in your life you would like to change, perhaps the question
What if I’m not there yet… but I’m on my way?
Maybe your first step might be to contact your local practitioner or
There’s such power in the word ‘yet’

14/03/2026

For more info or an online/in-person appointment contact rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk 🙂

Do you ever ask yourself those questions that stop us before we even begin to try to reach our goal?
‘What if I fail?’
‘What if I’m not strong enough?’

How about asking ourselves gentler ones and yet braver too?
‘Maybe I don’t know how to make this change yet?
‘What if I try and I actually succeed?’

So often we imagine change as something that requires extraordinary strength, as though we must feel completely ready before we take the first step.

What if we think most change begins quietly, just with a first thought then a
small decision and we just try?

And sometimes it all begins by adding one small word.
Yet.
‘I can’t do that… yet.’
‘I’m not ready… yet’
‘I haven’t worked it out… yet’

That little word keeps the door to making the change we want, open.

It reminds us that our story is still being written, we can give it a go and maybe we’ll succeed, maybe we’ll gain more confidence along the way.

In a solution focused approach you decide the pace, you’re in charge of the change you want to make. We believe in you, we walk beside you as you decide your first step. Because change rarely arrives all at once.

More often change appears like the first hint of light before sunrise.
A small shift.
A small step.
A small moment when something feels just a little easier than it did before.

And step by step, those small changes can lead somewhere new.

So if there is something in your life you would like to change, perhaps the question
What if I’m not there yet… but I’m on my way?
Maybe your first step might be to contact your local practitioner or
There’s such power in the word ‘yet’

13/03/2026

To learn more about how Mindfulness and/or Clinical Hypnotherapy can help with a range of emotional disorders, contact rachel@sagehypnotherapy.co.uk 🙂 for an online or North-Devon based in-person appointment.

This tells you what is, how it changes your , and the steps you can take to put it to good use in your own life to improve your . https://buff.ly/41cQ76p