Tim Grimwade is a Cognitive Behaviour Hypnotherapist based in Mayfair and Liverpool Street who helps people deal with anxiety, sleep issues, phobias, addictions and other seemingly-involuntary actions. With a former career in banking, Tim understands the impact of anxiety and busyness our society faces. In search for life fulfilment he bravely left his established and comfortable job position to embark on a journey to help hundreds of busy Londoners to change bad behaviours and to find happiness.  

 Tim has a Diploma in Cognitive-Behavioural Hypnotherapy, accredited by the National Council for Hypnotherapy, the General Hypnotherapy Register, the Register for Evidence-Based Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy and approved by the British Psychological Society. His methods are long-established, peer-reviewed interventions and are aligned with the conclusions of, among others, the British Psychological Society, the British Medical Association and the American Medical Association.Tim’s approach to hypnotherapy is that we all have a hidden, undiscovered ability to choose so many of the things that we assume are beyond our control.

Today we asked Tim how to deal with some challenges when the night comes:

Why some of us simply can’t switch off at bedtime? How to stop thinking about all the things that are going on in life?

To try to stop thinking about something is a pretty good way to ensure you will continue to think about it. We have all experienced this exasperating problem. Let's start by agreeing that trying to stop thinking doesn't work. This means we can accept that we are thinking, rather than fighting against it.

Now go one step further; allow yourself to accept what you are thinking. The thoughts don't have to please you, or be convenient to you or be of interest. If you can observe them and accept that they have occurred, soon they will begin to pass and fall out of your mind.

Now, can you relax when you want to? Sounds like a redundant question, and of course it's likely you can relax more than if you were exercising or working flat-out but, unless you have deliberately learned how to practice relaxation, you are unlikely to have the ability to properly physically relax on-cue to any considerable degree. To relax the body is to bring peace to the mind. From here, easy and deep sleep is accessible.

Tim Grimwade is our brand ambassador and author of our #sleephacks and #cognitivetherapy to help us to sleep. Please feel free to contact him on his website.