Friday 4 April 2014

Author Lucy Robinson learns the Lightning Process

Best-selling author Lucy Robinson has written an article which appeared in Stylist magazine on April 1st. For the full article go to:

http://www.stylist.co.uk/home/i-choose-happy-because-its-so-much-better-than-the-alternative-one-writer-on-how-a-devastating-illness-changed-her-outlook#image-rotator-1

She says:

"It’s beyond the scope of this article to explain how the Lightning Process works but the basic fact is this: it taught me how to influence physical problems over which I thought I was powerless. .....


 Some of us can influence our mental and physical states naturally, and others simply can’t. I was one of the latter. But all I needed to become someone who can were some simple yet powerful tools, and those were exactly what I got. Equipped thus, I flew. I haven’t looked back. ......

I chose happy. And I’m going to keep on choosing happy, every day, because it’s so much better than any of the alternatives. I learned the hard way how precious my life is and I don’t intend to squander that gift one single day more. "


Stylist magazine, April 1st 2014

Sunday 30 March 2014

A saying from Lao Tzu

A client who has just done the Lightning Process sent me this, written by Lao Tzu:

Watch your thoughts;
They become words. 
Watch your words;
They become actions.
Watch your actions;
They become habits.
Watch your habits;
They become character. 
Watch your character;
It becomes your destiny.

Wednesday 19 March 2014

Horizon programme on placebos

A fascinating Horizon programme on placebos is now available on Youtube to watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKG1lgI4zIk


It says: "Ultimately it is about the link between our minds and our bodies. Whether it is fear or hope, our thoughts and expectations can trigger chemical reactions that change our bodies."

One of the most fascinating bits for me was that even when people were told that they were getting a placebo pill, 62% of people still got adequate relief from Irritable Bowel Syndrome, while only 30% got adequate relief from no pill at all. And the symptoms came back when they finished the pills, even thought they knew they were placebo pills! 


It also looks at the use of hypnosis to create responses in the body: pain relief in a wisdom tooth extraction. Horizon suggests that this shows it is possible to access the body's natural healing mechanisms through the words a practitioner chooses and how those words are used, as well as through placebo pills or operations.

Tuesday 25 February 2014

The Lightning Process is in Independent on Sunday

Laura Mvula is a singer songwriter who has been nominated for two Brit Awards this week: and yet she has suffered from crippling anxiety. She talks in some depth to the Independent on Sunday about this, and about her experience of doing the Lightning Process.

"....For many years now, Mvula has suffered with an asphyxiating anxiety. "It's been difficult," she says quietly. As with most sufferers, she did her best to ignore it, and plough on. But it was in becoming a pop star that she felt she must at last confront it. She came across something called the Lightning Process, a three-day training programme created by a British osteopath called Phil Parker. The process claims to help people retrain "negative brain patterns" by breaking the "adrenaline loop" that keeps the nervous system's stress responses unhealthily high. Though it is not without its critics, the treatment has been successfully used by sufferers of stress, depression and other auto-immune conditions. Esther Rantzen, whose daughter suffered with chronic fatigue, has publicly praised it, as have several athletes.

"Oh, it helped me enormously," Mvula says. "It encouraged me to access a part of my brain that had been very flustered for a long time. I got into the habit of filtering out all the good in my life, focusing on only the negative. I'm not sure why I did it, but it's a pretty depressing state."
Her anxiety led to a condition called monophobia, a fear of being alone. Solitude would only exacerbate her anxiety.

"To be honest with you, I've been pretty secretive about all this," she says hesitantly. "I don't know why. Perhaps I'm embarrassed? But then, no. I've been giving this a lot of thought recently, and I don't think being embarrassed helps. What I learnt with Phil Parker was that my anxiety was my body's way of trying to protect me, to look after me. So the impulse was coming from a good place, but overall it wasn't being helpful."

Until recently, she refused to watch herself on TV or read back any interviews, for fear, she says, "I might find something out about myself that could destroy me." But, mindful of her Lightning Process instruction, she is now challenging this. After singing on The Jonathan Ross Show recently, she forced herself to watch it. And her reaction? "Um, I was pleasantly surprised."
This gradual easing of her anxiety means that she is beginning to enjoy life as a pop star, and perhaps even embrace it. ..... eyes luminous, she says: "The opportunities that have been coming my way are just amazing." "

The full article was published in the Independent on Sunday on 16th February 2014.