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Nicole Hernandez created the life most New York transplants dream of. A er leaving her native Dallas for the Big Apple, she built a successful career in marketing focusing on hospitality, travel, and tourism. While she never expected to leave her career, a er years of work-induced anxiety, fi nancial stress, and bad drinking habits, she felt she needed a change. In a twist of fate, Hernandez was laid off by her company. Prior to being laid off , Hernandez already contemplated the idea of quitting and received the news with relief. It was as if the universe validated her initial instinct for a new journey, so her next move was to start her own company. Hernandez continued honing her cra as an independent consultant. "I thought that the transition of changing my career was going to be the answer, that all my anxiety was going to go away," she says. But the reality was actually much worse as Hernandez realized the stakes of entrepreneurship were much higher. e added stress manifested itself into health issues. Hernandez was diagnosed with stress-induced alopecia, and her pre-existing, anxiety related, gastrointestinal issues were amplifi ed due to excessive drinking from her PR days along with her new entrepreneurial role. Hernandez now found herself in need of another change and medical help. "As someone with a background in psychology and journalism, hypnosis seemed impractical, along the lines of astrology, and I completely dismissed a colleague who had mentioned she was working with a hypnotist to assist her with anxiety. It wasn't until I was so sick and literally couldn't eat that I just remember sitting in meditation by the water one day and something clicked," she says. At this point, a er visiting a number of doctors, being treated with a laundry list of medications, and in desperate search of relief, she fi nally decided to try hypnosis. Her fi rst experience with hypnosis involved a Google search for "hypnosis for stomach pain." at search led her to a 20-minute YouTube video. A er the video ended, she noticed that it helped her feel lighter and she kept going back. "It's not like it was an instant-cure, because I think a lot of people think that one session is like a light switch, which in some ways it can be but not for anxiety," Hernandez comments. Hernandez explains that hypnosis works in a multitude of ways. It conditions the mind to allow better thoughts and beliefs, which ultimately ladder up to a more resourceful identity or narrative of oneself. Like meditation, the process also quiets the mind and activates the parasympathetic nervous system-allowing the body to heal itself. Hernandez saw improvement in about six weeks and found that holistically treating herself, including cutting out alcohol and caff eine, was helpful. Fairly quickly, she realized she no longer needed the medications that were prescribed to her. All of this progress encouraged Hernandez to join a training program that turned out to be the change she had been searching for, and then is when she had her biggest breakthrough—healing old memories related to her mother's depression that were at the root of her anxiety. A er getting certifi ed, she leaned into the process of practicing on people and onboarding clients. VUE ON | LIFESTYLE VUENJ.COM 53

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