5 Ways Harry Can Remain Calm When Walking Down The Aisle This Weekend
The Royal wedding is fast approaching and Prince Harry will be tying the knot with Megan Markle on Saturday 19th May.
With millions of people watching around the world and thousands of camera lenses focused in on the happy couple, Prince Harry will undoubtedly feel the strain and pressure that comes with any public display.
Did you know that marriage regularly features in top 10 lists of the most stressful life events a person can experience.
Stress and anxiety can manifest itself in a number of ways, particularly when it feels as if people are watching.
You may begin to feel a lack of self confidence, or want the ground to swallow you up. Physically you may experience sweating, nausea, fatigue, a racing heart or you may even feel as though you're struggling for breath. Below are 5 ways that Harry can remain calm during one of the most important events of his life.
1. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
It's important to rehearse the event prior to the wedding day. Preferably, Harry should attend the wedding venue and walk the aisle so that he can familiarise himself with the environment.
The venue will also likely be much quieter in the week leading up to the event and this will give Harry the opportunity to run through any areas where he may feel more anxious.
Harry can also mentally rehearse the event. Visualisation is a great tool that can provide Harry with an effective means of mapping out his day. Research has proven that visualisation can be as effective as physically rehearsing the event.
2. Remember to breathe
Being able to control your breathing without a moment's notice is a valuable skill because naturally when we experience stress or anxiety we notice changes in our breathing.
It's important to adopt correct breathing at all times as this becomes easier to manage when you encounter stressful situations.
Long, deep, controlled breaths utilising the diaphragm can bring about calmness and provide vital oxygen to your brain, heart and other parts of the body. This will enable Harry to make better decisions and remain calm.
3. Think happy thoughts
Aside from being one of the most stressful life events, your wedding day is supposed to be one of the happiest days of your life.
It's impossible to feel opposing emotions at the same time. Therefore, if Harry were to remain happy and think happy thoughts throughout the day he would find it very difficult to either feel sad or anxious.
I use a few techniques with my clients where we work on creating a negative belief that they'd like to change and then switch that image to a positive one that they would like to have instead. Once we've put the work in it's very difficult for them to bring back the old negative image.
Harry can have some happy thoughts in his head during the walk down the aisle to distract him from what is going on around him, perhaps it'll be times he's spent with Meghan or thinking about the future that they'll have together.
4. Have a positive affirmation
Having a positive phrase or word in your arsenal is a great way of changing your mind set and it is something that can become a self fulfilling prophecy. I've been working with this method for sometime now and I'm enjoying some great results for both myself and my clients.
I used to be a sceptic about the Law of attraction and I still am to a certain degree although I'm coming round to elements of it. You can't ask the universe for a million pounds and then go and eat a sandwich, you do have to put the work in yourself.
However, I do believe that if you allow something to become your part of your being things will align themselves to allow you the opportunities to have that.
Positive affirmations are a great way of changing your perspective and for me I use this phrase when I'm feeling down or annoyed: 'You're only as happy as you choose to be.' This phrase instantly shifts my mindset because I'm going to always have an internal dialogue asking myself why I'm not happy and allowing myself to choose to be happier.
For Prince Harry it may be that he simply says to himself 'I'm going to allow myself to have a great day.' Or it could be something like 'Today is going to go, really smoothly.'
This way he'll be allowing himself to have the opportunity of a positive experience.
5. Enjoy Himself
Above all else, Harry should relax and enjoy the moment, after all it is supposed to be the happiest day of his life and there will be many moments that will pass by in a blur.
Jason Simmons is a hypnotist and mind coach, working with sports professionals and clients to achieve a variety of goals.
Jason is the author of the forthcoming book: The Hypnosis Hand Book - A Spellbindingly Practical Guide