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Robert Hughes, an art critic was quoted in The Independent recently:

‘The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize.’

So doubt and uncertainty are good for you as an artist, even though it can torture some gifted artists and lead them to self-destruction through drugs and drink. In the same way doubt can torment us all and we all crave control and certainty. So why is this?

In evolutionary terms, if we were confident, we would never have survived as a species or experimented with change which makes us superior to other species. So doubt is hard-wired into the older part of the brain to keep us alive, keep us safe. It’s what the psychologists call the confirmation bias..

How can this be useful? I see a lot of clients who lack confidence and believe they are not good enough and give themselves a really hard time and this can feed anxiety and depression. Cognitive hypnotherapy enables you to transform these negative traits into useful qualities to keep you on your toes and use doubt as a tool to keep you on track.

Can you imagine how useful that could be: transforming that inner critic into a powerful friend who can draw you attention to anything that is not working for you?

Now that’s a gift worth having!

Jill Tonks

Jill Tonks

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