Anger can damage relationships and your own peace of mind. Chronic anger is one of the biggest predictors of early death through heart disease — even more than chronic smoking! Anger, jealousy, pessimism, are both generated and made worse by the misuse of the imagination.

In a study conducted at Stanford Medical School, heart patients were asked to recall times when they’d been angry. Although the patients said that the anger they felt on recalling the events was only half as strong as it had been originally, their hearts started pumping 5% less efficiently on average. Cardiologists view a 7% drop in efficiency as serious enough to cause a heart attack.

Imagination and recall are processed in the same parts of the brain. You can generate feelings of anger just by remembering past anger, or even imagining you are angry. Both create very real physical changes. Hypnosis, used constructively can stop anger being triggered too easily or too often.

Hypnotherapy can offer a natural approach to calmness without the side effects of pharmaceutical drugs. Several studies have confirmed that hypnotherapy and progressive hypnotic relaxation exercises can significantly improve quality of life.