The sight and sound of water is most often associated with feelings of tranquility and peacefulness. Most of us love to sit and watch the gentle ripple of waves on the ocean or the shimmering of light upon water. Similarly the sound of water in a stream tends to have a soothing effect.

Even the sight of towering waves in a storm are generally found to be exciting, providing of course they are viewed from a safe distance. We can spend endless hours in fascinated contemplation of water, enjoying its movement and fluidity. We love to see the range of colors and patterns which water has the ability to reflect in different lights and perspectives.

And when presented with a scorching hot day the thought of taking a cool dip in water is something that is indescribably delicious. Even a person who is afraid of swimming can find the idea of a cool dip extremely appealing. It's just the reality which somehow makes that person’s skin prickle, their stomach churn and keeps them rooted to their spot at the waters edge, or beating a swift retreat in the opposite direction.

Where does that kind of fear come from? For a person who has never been afraid of swimming it's hard to comprehend such fear. But for one who is afraid of getting in the water that fear is both debilitating and annoying. It is totally frustrating.

You know that the human body naturally floats. You know logically that it's pretty difficult to sink. You know you should be able to let go of the edge and that it’s ok to put your face in the water. Yet despite this knowledge, fear has a vice like grip upon your emotions that just won't let you take that risk.

Fear of swimming for many people is something that they choose to live with instead of to confront. But there comes a time in your life when you make up your mind to face your fears and conquer them. It's only once you make that decision that you really begin to look around to see what help might be available.

Then you start to ask yourself where your fear came from. Some people can remember a bad experience with water and can identify that root cause of their fear. Others cannot recall any such event. But even if you can recall a frightening experience, you do still know that there is no reason to be afraid now. So you know that your instinctive emotional reaction is somehow propelled by something other than pure logic.

When you suffer from a fear that is not quite logical, and it just appears instinctively, you know that your subconscious mind is driving your reaction. Thus if you wish to overcome this type of fear you must find a way to break into this subconscious cycle of reaction. Hypnosis allows you to do just this.

With hypnosis you can access your subconscious thoughts and emotions. You can also re-pattern those thoughts and change your instinctive response and expectations. Hypnosis can be effectively used to overcome fear of swimming.

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis downloads to overcome fears and phobias.

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