Heartbreak, grief, the loss of a loved one, there are all kinds of reasons for a broken heart. A broken heart is mostly linked to being heartbroken, but so that's not the only thing you can get a broken heart from. Therefore, in this blog, I will discuss what a broken heart is, what you can do about it, and how hypnosis can help.
Broken Heart Syndrome
A broken heart is something called Tako-tsubocardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome in medical science.
When you suffer from a broken heart, you suddenly have a weakening in the muscular part of your heart. This causes your heart to behave like a balloon being inflated.
This symptom is triggered by a lot of emotional stress, such as going out of a relationship, divorce, death of a loved one, arguing with your loved one, financial problems and with fear of presentations or other similar intense fears.
Post-menopausal women in particular can suffer from this syndrome, and often at a time of great emotional stress. Usually with negative events (in just over 95% of the cases), but sometimes just with a positive event or emotion (in almost 5% of the cases).
A broken heart is often identified by chest pain, which can resemble the pain associated with a heart attack. The same medication often helps with a broken heart, but for long-term treatment, the focus is on lifestyle changes and coping with stress or emotional events.
Emotions and a broken heart
When you suffer from a broken heart, you often enter a kind of grieving process, as it is usually related to the loss of a loved one. In a grieving process all kinds of negative emotions come to the fore and it depends very much on how you deal with this how your heart will develop. These include, for example:
- Grief
- Anger
- Anxiety
So it's not just the loss of a loved one that causes heartbreak; severe financial problems can also cause you to suffer. This may have to do with the fear of poverty or having to overthrow your lifestyle all at once.
The work you have and stress at work can also cause heartbreak. If you continue to work even during your burnout, it is an unwise choice.
So even positive emotions can lead to broken heart syndrome, which is then referred to precisely as happy heart syndrome. The probability of this happening on your birthday, for example, is 27% higher than on any other day of the year.
Tips Against a Broken Heart
As mentioned, medications help with the acute issue of a broken heart, but in addition, it is important to take a look at your lifestyle and relax a lot.
To do this, you can first apply some practical tips:
Lavender Foot Bath
Research shows that weekly lavender foot baths are relaxing and promote recovery from heartbreak. So treat your feet to the soothing scent of lavender.
Massage
Stress often shoots people in the muscles. That weight pressing down on your shoulders? Nothing but tense muscles in your body. By getting a weekly massage for the first month after a broken heart, you are already creating an incredible amount of relaxation that will benefit recovery.
Healthy Nutrition
Healthy eating is incredibly important for a healthy body. Some people sometimes say you are what you eat, and what would you rather be an apple or a potato French fry? What will benefit your body more to heal itself again?
Hypnosis can help you with a healthy diet if that is very difficult for you right now.
Rest
Sleep is incredibly important, but the emotions that caused the broken heart can make it difficult to sleep. Still, try to catch some sleep. Pay attention to your sleep hygiene and, if necessary, use hypnosis techniques to fall asleep faster.
Hypnosis and a broken heart
The majority of broken heart patients have it due to negative emotions, such as through the loss of a loved one. There are then a number of emotions that go through to process this loss, namely:
- Denial
- Anger
- What if...
- Depression/dip
- Acceptance
Denial
Initially, you may deny the situation as it is. It is difficult to process that something is not going the way you expected and that you need to rearrange your life.
It also protects you from the amount of emotions involved in a sudden change that it is difficult to deal with.
Anger
At some point denial no longer works, and that's when you can get angry. Angry at the partner who somehow left you, angry at the world and angry at the people around you.
What if...
Then come thoughts about how you could have avoided this situation. What if you had done this now or if you had done that. It's incredibly frustrating because you can't do it now anyway.
Lingering in the past only makes the current situation more painful.
Depression/dip
When the what if phase goes on for a long time, you can become incredibly depressed from this. You no longer feel like eating, you cry a lot and it is difficult to sleep.
This phase eats up energy both from your body and mentally because you are often filled with regret. In the process, you can feel incredibly lonely, even if you have family and friends around you.
Acceptance
Over time, you accept that you cannot change the situation and that this is now your new reality. You have to move on with your life, of course you sometimes think back and feel sadness for what was, but what is becomes more important.
These stages are gone through by each person at different speeds, and it is also important to allow yourself to grieve the loss of a loved one, the end of a relationship or going through a divorce.
Hypnosis Against a Broken Heart
Hypnosis against a broken heart is especially important for reducing stress and improving your coping. The loss of a loved one or something dear to your heart can make you feel very insecure at first, which in turn creates additional stress.
Therefore, you will first receive reinforcements of your self-confidence to take home. The most important thing is to impart the belief that one's self-worth does not depend on the relationship they have.
This can be done by first asking questions about what was good about the relationship and what influence the person themselves had on the good aspects of the relationship. Then you can use the answers as hypnotic suggestions that can be repeated during self-hypnosis.
These may include suggestions such as:
"I'm social."
"I am thoughtful."
"I can stand up for myself."
"I get things done."
Back to your power
Another way to boost self-confidence to reduce the stress of suddenly having to do everything alone or differently is to go back in hypnosis to a time when a person achieved success in their life. This is very similar to regression, but it is slightly different.
Indeed, recalling this memory focuses attention on what a person himself did and thought in moments of success. This reinforces the feeling that a person can do something about their situation and face problems themselves.
When you are in hypnosis you say where you were, when it was and how it went. To improve your sense of self-confidence, the hypnotist repeats your phrases and gradually changes them to the present tense.
For example:
Client: "I was in Amsterdam."
Hypnotist: "You were in Amsterdam and then?"
Client: "We walked over the dam."
Hypnotist: "You cross the dam and then what happens?"
Client: "...
Etc. etc.
These two hypnosis techniques work well against a broken heart because it helps a person remember the good from the cause of the broken heart, from the relationship and to remember what influence they themselves had on this good.
Secondly, these techniques help because it helps them to live in the here and now again, moving more quickly to the final step of acceptance. Especially when the what if phase leads to true depression, it is important to reach the acceptance phase so that you can get on with your life again. Hypnosis can offer a helping hand in this.
Want to learn more about how hypnosis works in real life? Then come to an event or enroll ina Hypnosis Institute Netherlands training course.
Sources:
https://search.proquest.com/openview/1e977a829ea254f8608a6a81294621fb/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1036412
https://academic.oup.com/eurheartj/article/37/37/2823/2469928
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1847940/
