Anxiety is a learned response, and as such it can be "un-learned". The symptoms of anxiety are indeed very physical, but the causes are generally psychological. They are the result of the wiring in the circuitry of your mind and somehow, in some way, some wires have become crossed. It's actually very easy for this to happen and so it is unsurprising that so many people these days suffer from anxiety disorders, be it social anxiety, panic attacks or stress in general.

The human mind is an amazing work of art. It is like the most complex painting and sometimes what one sees on the surface is very different from what you may see as you take a closer look. If you were to look at an oil painting by Charles Becker you might very well see a silver chalice, filled with juicy fruit that are so clear to you that you want to reach out and touch them. You may also see a reflection of the fruit in that silver goblet. All of this is seen very clearly...and yet there is no such thing as silver paint. This is an illusion which is created by the artist, and the effect is very real, very true.

Our minds can work in a similar manner. We may be aware of something on the surface of our minds, and it takes all of our attention and focus, but until we look deeper, we do not know what has created the overall picture which we see. In fact, we really do SEE pictures. When afraid of something we have the ability to run full movies in our mind, not just an ability to create still pictures. As we focus on those "things" which are on the surface, we are ever further distracted away from what is going on underneath.

And anxiety comes from within. Yes, there will be an external trigger; it is only a trigger because of a pattern match with something in your inner mind, something which may even be in the dim and distant past or hidden within your subconscious. When Charles Becker paints his silver goblets he mixes together a myriad of colors to create that effect. Our minds mix and blend information and perceptions as a normal day to day task.

Let's take a simple example. As a child you learned that a door was a door. At first you thought that the door which was being pointed to was a door, and then this pattern generalized to encompass all doors. Every time you come across another door your subconscious mind alerts you (in a split second) to the fact that this is a door. A pattern match is found.

This is all well and good. But let's say now that you were bitten by a dog. Now the information which is stored is a pattern which runs along the lines of "dog = getting bitten = that hurts - I don't want to get hurt again"; in this case your subconscious is put on high alert so as to protect you from being hurt. You may consciously think that you know that all dogs don't bite, that it was just that one dog...but your subconscious may still be on high alert, and whenever a dog is perceived a rush of adrenalin is experienced; anxiety ensues.

In such a simple case, you can consciously connect the source of the anxiety which you experience and make sense of it. But often there are a myriad of pattern matches which come together and then it can be very difficult to unhook those tangled wires, just as it is difficult to see how Charles Becker blends different colors to create the effect of silver paint.

Hypnosis is in itself a state of relaxation, and in learning to use this natural art, you learn how to relax whenever you want to or whenever you need to. With hypnosis you can learn to change state in an instant. This is not the only way on which hypnosis can help. Hypnosis allows access to your subconscious mind, allows you to see beneath the surface, and so you can then straighten up those wires and reconnect them in a more orderly fashion. It is like taking a magnifying glass to Charle's Becker's silver goblet and seeing each individual component color.

Hypnosis downloads can be used to retrain your subconscious expectations, reactions and behaviors. You can learn to respond to situations and to triggers in new and more comfortable ways. Simply by listening to and following the suggestions made on hypnosis downloads you can learn to stop worrying, you can retrain your brain to stop thinking about what other people might think, overcome your shyness and feel comfortable in your own skin no matter where you are, who you are with or what you are doing. There's no need to feel embarrassed, to blush or to have sweaty palms. Whatever the anxiety is that you experience, whatever it is that you have until now found stressful, you can learn to deal with in a different way.

Hypnosis downloads can provide you with a tool-kit of mental skills for you to use to treat your anxiety, to show you how to think differently. You really can learn how to see the world in a new light, to look at situations in a different way, to take control of your thoughts and, therefore, your feelings and ultimately overcome your anxiety naturally, easily and quickly. With this basic structure you can find your own unique way of applying these mental skills and fine-tune them to suit your own needs.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis downloads for health and well-being.