Richard Nicholls
Richard Nicholls
Richard Nicholls
The Richard Nicholls Podcast

Free bonus episodes and hypnosis audio when you subscribe to Richard's newsletter!

Subscribe
Forgotten?
Accept Yourself

Episode 177: Accept Yourself

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Despite New Year being a time associated with making changes, today I want to talk about what seems at first like the opposite of change.
Although it might still be a change, and might even be the best one you could ever make. Because there are surprising benefits that come from accepting yourself as you are, in making the decision to not changing and instead enjoying being you in the first place.
Read More...
The Lost Letter

The Lost Letter - By Richard Nicholls

Filed in: podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
It had been 6 weeks since the funeral.
Long enough to get used to the idea that he was an orphan now. Dan had laughed a little when he first used that word, orphan.
How old do we have to be before we no longer describe ourselves as that? He thought to himself. But to him, Dan was an orphan. After all both his parents had died, first his Dad, although that was many years ago and now his Mum.
But, at 57 years old to describe yourself as an orphan seemed odd, hence…
Read More...
Are New Years Resolutions a good idea or not?

Grandads Gift

Filed in: podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
I didn't believe him at first, I looked at him on the playground through squinted, suspicious eyes.
"There's no such thing as Santa Claus!" he'd said and laughed at me. Of course, if he was right then I'd been lied to through all of the 9 years of my life.
But I was a clever boy, and I could understand why, if it was true that there was no such thing as Father Christmas, all parents would collude with each other to create this magical present bringing character.
But I didn't want to hear it from the biggest idiot in the class on the last day of term…
Read More...
What's the meaning of life?

Episode 176: The Meaning Of Life

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Apart from 42, is there actually an answer to "What is the meaning of life?"
In attempting to answer that it often brings up further questions such as "What's my purpose?"
And it's worth separating purpose from meaning. After all, we can have a meaningful life without having any particular purpose can't we? Living a meaningful life can become the purpose.
Read More...
Anxiety Of The Unknown

Episode 175: Anxiety Of The Unknown

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Over the last couple of years I've had a few messages from listeners about their fear of an uncertain future, and it's cropped up in the consulting room quite a lot too.
One thing that has been a big cause of it has been Brexit. Not knowing whether something about your future is going to be easier, more difficult, or exactly the same isn't helpful.
We like routines, our brain loves the idea that tomorrow is going to be the same as yesterday. If we're alive today then yesterday must have been safe and so our instincts want tomorrow to be the same. And life just isn't like that.
Read More...
It's The Thought That Counts

Episode 174: Suicide Prevention

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Over three quarters of a million people each year take their own life. That's one every 40 seconds.
It's one of the biggest causes of death in people under 30 and by not talking about it people can't gain the knowledge needed to help prevent it. But it is preventable!
Read More...
It's The Thought That Counts

Episode 173: Fears & Phobias

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
One question that I get asked quite often is "What's the difference between a fear and a phobia?"
In short, a fear of something is fairly rational, even if we might think that there's no need for us to fear it, the fear still makes some sense. If someone has a fear of public speaking that makes sense, although what they're probably fearing is rejection from their peers but it still makes sense.
Whereas a phobia is...
Read More...
It's The Thought That Counts

Episode 172: External Validation

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Ever heard of The looking-glass self?
The looking-glass self is a concept created by sociologist Charles Horton Cooley back in 1902. It states that rather than a person's sense of self growing out of their own internal perceptions it instead grows out of the interactions with and the perceptions of other people.
In a nutshell it can be summed up with the following phrase “I am not what I think I am and I am not what you think I am; I am what I think that you think I am.”
Read More...
Introversion

Episode 171: Nudge Nudge

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Nudging and avoiding a nudge is quite important. If you've never heard that phrase outside of a Monty Python sketch you will do now. Because to nudge, in psychology, means to subtly influence someones behaviour, often without them being aware of it, by altering the environment slightly and is surprisingly successful.
Read More...
Introversion

Episode 170: Introversion

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Introversion has been on my mind a lot lately as I've had quite a few clients who are introverts but don't fully understand it and think that there's something wrong with them.
So today I want to go into a bit of detail about introversion to help you understand yourself better if you are one, and help you to understand others better if you're not.
Read More...
It's The Thought That Counts

Episode 169: It's The Thought That Counts

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
I've been thinking about this topic for a long time and I've been a bit wary of talking about it because what I mean by "it's the thought that counts" is that it's our own thinking that counts towards whether an experience is a good one a bad one or simply just is. And with some really quite extreme situations too. But I don't want it to come across as if it's our own fault if we feel bad because something happened to us. It belittles someones experiences to say "Oh you're traumatised are you? Try thinking differently about it!" Because that's not quite how the brain works.
Read More...
Dealing With Crazy Thoughts

Episode 168: Dealing With Crazy Thoughts

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Regularly clients will tell me that they've had frightening bizarre thoughts, sometimes about hurting, or even killing, someone that they care about.

Odd as it may seem this is something that everyone experiences, but it doesn't really get talked about for fear of other people thinking we're strange or even dangerous.
So I want to put your mind at rest that if you have thoughts like this, you need to remember that they're just thoughts, they're not reality.
Read More...
How To Get More Done

Episode 167: How To Get More Done

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
If you Google the words "how to be more productive" you get 187 million results. Interestingly that's the same number of results as "how to learn Romanian." And although everyone learns in different ways we all know the answer to both of those questions.
If you want to learn a new language, you need to read it, listen to it and absorb it until you understand it. And the key to that is simply to practise.
And the answer to how to get more things done is simply to "do more things."

But is everything really that easy?
Can it be so black and white?
Read More...
Disappointment & Low Expectations

Episode 166: Disappointment & Low Expectations

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
It's often said that optimism isn't all it's cracked up to be. That expecting the best only leads to disappointment, and I can understand why but I think it's important to see the difference between expectations and goals.
Read More...
Practise Doesn't Make Perfect

Episode 165: Practise Doesn't Make Perfect

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
It's a new year!
And for a hypnotherapist who specialises in helping people to make changes in their life people will often say to me things like "I bet you'll be busy at work in January then, all the New Years resolutions."
Yet, it's nothing like February, when all those that have tried to make some changes are a month in and can feel themselves giving up and need help.
Which raises questions doesn't it? Because if the changes you make are something you actually want, then why would we feel like giving up?
Read More...
Wooden Legs & Excuses

Episode 164: Wooden Legs & Excuses

Filed in: Podcast written by: Richard Nicholls
Have you ever met someone with a wooden leg? Not a real wooden leg, but a metaphorical one?
In the 60’s, a psychiatrist called Eric Berne, turned some common problematic psychological processes into what he called “Games People Play” One of which he called the wooden leg game.

Imagine a man with a wooden leg who has used it as an explanation for why his life is unfulfilled all of his life, he would often say “If it wasn’t for this wooden leg, I could have been an athlete.” Or when he complains that he’s unemployed he says “What do you expect from a guy with one leg?”

The wooden leg game can hold us back from enjoying life and feeling fulfilled, and there are many things that can be your wooden leg. People will say…
Read More...
 Page 1 / 8  >>