Beyond the Noise – Finding Inner Peace & Self-Therapy

Hey, my friend… ever feel like life is just too loud? Social media, the news, work, responsibilities—it’s like a constant buzz in the background, making it hard to think, let alone find peace.

But here’s the thing: you can create calm amidst the chaos. In this episode, I share my journey to finding inner peace—those little moments of self-therapy that help me recharge and reset. And trust me, it’s not about escaping the world; it’s about taking control of your inner one.

What’s Inside?

🔹 Why noise and distractions lead to anxiety & burnout
🔹 Simple self-therapy techniques to create your own quiet space
🔹 How journaling, mindfulness & reflection can bring clarity
🔹 The power of asking yourself the right questions

This isn’t about being selfish—it’s about becoming the best version of you for yourself and those around you. So, are you ready to step beyond the noise and into a more peaceful, intentional life?

Hit play and let’s do this together.

Listen now and share what you learn by sharing the podcast: https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/434-beyond-the-noise-creating-inner-peace-with-self-therapy

And hey, I’d love to hear from you. What do you do to find peace in the chaos? Leave a comment or send me a message!

Shine brightly,
Paul

Hey there! I’d love to hear from you—questions, feedback, requests—all welcome. Drop me a line or leave a comment. If you’ve enjoyed this episode or any other, please share and subscribe! You can reach me at feedback@personaldevelopmentunplugged.com.

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Special Programs for You

For tools on developing Supreme Inner Confidence, finding Freedom from Anxiety, or specialized Hypnosis Tracks, visit PaulCloughOnline.com.

Free Hypnosis Tracks

Want access to my FREE hypnosis tracks? Head over to paulcloughonline.com/podcast.

Connect with Me

Follow me on Twitter: @pcloughie

Remember: I’m a therapist, but I’m not your therapist. This podcast and any of my online resources are for educational purposes only. Never use the hypnosis tracks or exercises if you’re operating machinery, driving, or if you have epilepsy or psychiatric conditions. Always consult a healthcare provider if you’re unsure.

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Stay tuned, and keep shining brightly. ✨

Music Credits

Music by Wataboi, DreamHeaven, ccjmusic, and others from Pixabay.

And the transcript WARNING if you’re a lover of the written word this may make you frustrated, or angry – you have been warned – is it an ‘ism

I’m a friend. Imagine this. Imagine having a quiet place. I had one and I used to call it my quiet place. It was in. In my garden back in Cambridge and it was by shed. There was a shed in a lean too and the garden was there. There was a barrel which was filled with water which had nothing in it apart from the odd frog would jump in or the toad would jump in now and again a few plants round it. But it was mine. It was my quiet place. I would go in the mornings, early morning in the first cup of coffee. My journal. Everything was quiet with the exception of birds. Yeah, there was a few sounds of the traffic going past but they seemed to block themselves out. And I could just, well just write my journal. But if ever I needed time to think I could just go to my quiet place. And it was like an anchor, an anchor for me to go. You re safe here Cloughie. You can ever think and maybe you’ll find some answers. And that was my like way of creating inner peace. Then there was another way when I first started trainings and I had to get ready to get ready to be on stage as it were. And I knew I wasn’t going to be like in presenter mode because that wasn’t me. I wanted to be me but I wanted to get away from the noise. So what I did, I used to put on my headphones, turn on some wonderful music and just go for a walk. And It literally took everything away from me. The music was inspiring and I could breathe because I was out in the fresh air and I just got into the state of being Cloughie me because I got rid of everything. And again it was like getting out of the noise, beyond the noise, creating some type of inner peace but a different type of inner peace and I just did it. And that’s what we’re going to be talking about today. Or I’m going to be talking about the title beyond the noise. Creating inner peace and self Therapy. So what does that mean? You see there’s so much noise. Isn’t that so much noise all around and you get used to it. I bet if you listened around now you’d hear people talking too much maybe. Maybe there’s a TV going on and there’s so much noise in that tv. Bloody news and things like that or bonky bloody programs. You know these fly in the wal Type things, reality programs, which are no more reality than flying in the bloody air. You got your phone, a phone that used to be there for contacting people, but now it’s on social media and there’s so much in that social media that is basically just noise. Doesn’t do any good. It’s just there banging away and it’s trying to find even more ways to give you more noise. You switch on the radio and there’s someane bloody people there. Some of the things, if you actually listen to what they say, they are actually saying absolutely nothing, just noise. And maybe they’re just people wanting your attention all the time. Now that could be a nice noise, but it’s still noise, it’s still distracting. And, the thing is, there’s a rule. If you let that rule us, that’s the rule. If you let that noise rule us, it will create anxiety, it will create overwhelm because you can’t think of the things that are important because you’ve got that noise going on that can lead to depression because we’re not getting our stuff done what we want to get done, or we feel the world is on top of us, that might even be panic because we’re trying to do something. We’ve got so much interference coming on and then we might take up these weird behavior of ocd and they are just behavurs, by the way. Ocd, you know, attention is taken away. Ah ahdh. But it may not be that because it’s just your attention is being sought for all over the bloody place. Pretty down, eh? Pretty down. So what’s the answer? What’s the answer? You might say cluy and I have the answer. Create inner peace. And that’s all it is, it’s that simple. Create inner peace. And if it was that simple, we’d all do it, wouldn’t we? But the thing is, it’s a wonderful excuse we give ourselves because I know what a lot of people say and they say it when they come to my therapy room. Oh, I can’t give that time, I can’t work on myself, I can’t take time to be with myself. Because that’s bloody selfish, isn’t it? It’s selfish, you know, I’ve got people to look after, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got to do that, I’ve got toa be there, gott be this back into overwhelm, back into anxiety, causing depression, all that stuff, you know. But it’s not, it’s not selfish, not selfish. One bloody bit. You see? Think of this. Think of this. We can think about the people we love first. There’s a circle of people who we love and they love us. Yeah. Now, who would they rather be with? Would they rather be with you when you’re stressed, when you’re anxious, when you’re overwhelmed, when you’re depressed, when you’re rushing around right, left and center and not really giving anybody any attention at all? Or, would they prefer to be around you when you’re feeling a little bit more like yourself because you’ve had a little bit of inner peace, you’ve created time for yourself and you feel better in yourself? And the thing is, when you do that, you feel better in yourself every time you do it. And you gets better and better and better. You deal with things because it’s self therapy. You therapize yourself. I know that’s a not a word, but it is now. And you feel better in yourself and they’re around you and they feel better now because they’re around you. And guess what? That does. It makes you feel better, makes you feel more happy, more cantered, more whatever. And they get to have that too.

It’s selfish if you don’t take time for yourself, I say

So it’s selfish, I think, and this is what I tell my clients, it’s selfish if you don’t work on yourself, if you don’t take time for yourself. That’s the selfish thing. Because you’re not giving those people who you love the best version of yourself at that time. And, you can also apply that to career, to work, to even people who, you know, we call them love, but you like them. But if you’re not centred in your own self, you’re still not given your best version of yourself at that time. It may not be the best of the best of the best, but it’s the best you can get at that time for them. You’re not there listening, you’re not there with them, you’re not there, you know, connecting in the way that is so nice. All because you thought it was selfish.

Self therapy is where you do it yourself, for yourself, on yourself

So what is this concept of self therapy? Let’s go into that. Now. You. How does it differ from normal therapy? Well, it’s a little bit in the title, isn’t it? Ah, old common sense and hiding in plain sight is all there. Self therapy is. You do it yourself, for yourself, on yourself. But it’s not really therapy therapy. It’s time to breathe, maybe time to disengage, disengage from the noise. It’s time to explore. I mean, real therapy is one to One you’ve got someone there who’s gonna maybe push you to explore. But that’s sometimes because you have an issue. It could be one to many. You go to, a therapy group and it gives you support. And I see this podcast and the reason I do it is because not only is it therapy therapy, I think it is because I’m coming from it, from a therapeutic nlp, hypnosis and all that hypnotherapy background, but it’s also giving ways to therapize yourself, self therapy. But it is really just giving yourself a little bit of time, but time away from that noise because you can’t. I find it really difficult if you’re in the noise and you’re trying to explore your thoughts. Because sometimes with the noise you don’t even realize there’s thoughts to explore. And when you sit down quietly and you ask yourself proper questions, you know, what do I want? What do I want? How do I wantn feel? What is troubling me? Ca Because they don’t have to be big issues, do they? But things can trou trouble you and they may not be the things that you would go and see a therapist about. I just need to speak to somebody. So what, how am I feeling? How would I approach it? I wonder what they want. All those wonderful questions. If you then go inside and think you’re creating that inner peace and you’re using inner peace to explore the answers that you need. Because when you give yourself space, it’s either your unconscious mind or the universe or multiverse or whatever it is, they’ll supply the answers to you. Yeah. So that’s sort. I think that’s where we’re going. We want to make use of this inner peace creating inner peace and learning to explore ourselves and in a gentle way, because you have all the answers. You just don’t know you know, but you do know and you give yourself the space to do so. M. so what are the techniques? And I don’t like the word techniques. I did write it down then I wrote the word practices of creating in the priest because I thought that sounded a lot more better. A lot more better, yeah. But it really is what you know. How well, how do we create this inner peace now you could, a bit like me, have that quiet place. Creating your own quiet place, a place to go. A place to go where you know you’ll be undisturbed. It may have the music you want, might be the ambience that, just anchors or triggers off inner piece in yourself and that time and space two to have therapy on yourself to think. Now I’ve done a lot of work on this and hash332 was about going and finding peace in your mind. I’ve talked about my quiet place and I think that might be hash. I think 211 I’m not sure but just search by quiet place. There’s some hypno from fmq82 about going to that quiet place in your mind. So there’s lot of tools you can use already. So you either search the back catalog or go to the hypnosis tracks and you’ll find them. Where do you get that hypnosis? I’ll explain it at the end. Yeah, I’ll just explain it at the end. And we won’t interrupt now. But there’s also On my premium tracks on poolclugonline.com There’s a premium hypnosis track about creating your inner palace. And it’s called inner Sanctuary, your inner sanctuary retreat which is creating that quiet place in your mind where you can then go. So they’ all the tools you can make or have at your disposal. And there’s more. You see the practices of mindfulness. You can get some lovely apps on. On that bloody phone of ours. But some things are really good. You know, guided meditations, books about being mindful, mindful techniques because when you’re mindful of things, you’re aware of the noise may be even more and you re also wear when it’s quiet and you set times to be mindful. You know, along with those guided meditations you’ve got those hypnosis tracks again. They’ll be at the end.

Journaling is great for self therapy and inner peace

What else could you do? Well, I love journaling. Journaling for me first thing in the morning is awesome because it’s. I’m in a quiet place. I’m in my kitchen normally but there’s no one around ca because they’re still asleep most of the time because I get up pretty early, get my cup of coffee, get my journaling and I just do it. And I’ve been doing it for donkey years. Over 25 years I’ve been doing it most mornings miss very few. And I use it for sometimes a mind dump. And the mind dump is very similar to the artist’s way. If you look up that book the artist’s way, can’t remember the author and it’s all about just filling up. They have like four pages of just letting your mind dump every day. And I Did that for a few months. But sometimes in my journaling, it might be a min dump, just getting stuff out. Or I might explore things, how do I feel today? Or I’ve got something I’WRITE and I’ll get a feeling, oh, that’s different. I wonder what this is. And instead of just saying it in my head, I’ll write it down. I wonder what this feeling is. I wonder what it’s trying to say to me. Oh, it’s changed. And I’ll write that down. Or if I want, what do I want to do? What am I not doing this that’s stopp me doing these things? or what am I doing that’s stopping me doing these things? So that is like self therapy and a quiet place all in one go. So it’s not just creating that inner peace. Well, it is creating inner peace, it’s doing everything. Self therapy and inner peace. So journaling is a wonderful thing to do, whether you do it just by writing. Writing is great because writing is thinking, but thinking in a different way. It’s deep thinking, I think. Yeah. What else could you do? There’s so many. By the way, the wonderful thing is go and walk in nature. And you might say, oh, there’s no nature here. Just walk. At worst, just walk. You’ll find a tree. You’ll find a tree to hug or talk. Talk to a tree. It works though. but just go walk. Ca because that is a wonderful place, isn’t it? It’s a wonderful place to walk. You, know, beyond the noise, it creates inner peace. It’s like another quiet place. Yes. There’ll be noise around, there’ll be people there, but they disappear. When you just intend to find that inner peace in a walk, you can do it through exercise. Now, yoga is a wonderful thing because you’re doing a mindful thing as well. Very meditative or meditation. Like if you do yoga. In some ways, some people need to go to the gym because it gets them away from the noise. Now, it gets them away from the noise, but I think sometimes it’s not really that therapy. You’re not really creating inner peace, but you are getting through and beyond the noise. And that could be a great start because it breaks a pattern. Breaks a pattern, gets you away from the noise. And even when, then when you come away from the gym, you sit, and if you’ve gone by car or something, like, however you get there, you could just stop for a moment and start creating that inner peace for yourself. reading, giving your Time to read, but read with intention. Read to maybe learn, read to create something, to be inspired. Set a particular time so you’re creating that, you know, that quiet place to be able to read. So tell people that’s it. This is my time. We’ll go into that in a minute. But reading can be great, even if it is fiction. It gets your mind going from, from other places. It can be so good. Just generally writing, you might want write. So instead of journaling, which is for me, my morning habit, but sometimes just writing, you know, writing my notes for the podcast really gets me to think, really gets me to be in the flow, as it were. It’s an inner piece for me, but it’s also self therapy. All this is self therapy, by the way, if you’ve noticed. These are all the things that either I do and I’ve had to do because of things, or I’m being troubled or I’m going through issues or things are, disturbing my life and I want to make it differently. And as I find different things, I’ll share it with you or, or it’ll make me share it with you because I find the solutions because I want to share it with you. So there’s writing. Let just s get a book to write. You can get creat a, creative book. All different types of books. You know, my little puzzle book and things like that. Just things, but just writing. Maybe writing about your life of the past. Just set a few minutes aside because you’ll create that quiet space and it will be some self therapy. And I guarantee you it’ll be self therapy because you’re learning. What can I learn from this? And the minor one, which is the big one. Put that bloody phone away for a bit. Take the apps off it. Take the apps that you keep clicking and looking or put them on another page so you don’t see them. But put the phone away for a little while. Put it in the other room. Go to that special place, create that quiet place for you. The only time I have my phone in a quiet place is to play music. That’s it. So there’s so many different ways.

Seven ways you can create quiet places into peace and get yourself therapy

That was seven different ways you can create quiet places in a peace and get yourself therapy. Yeah, seven. How many can you come up with? Because if you do, let me know. I like to know the different ways that you practice creating inner peace for yourself and get that CE sell therapy. Please email me personaldevelopmentplug.com. no, it isn’t at all. Is it cluy. No, it isn’t. It’s feedback@personaldevelopmentunplugged.com. and I’ll do another blooming episode of different ways that we can create in a piece and get our own self therapy. I know you’ve got stuff that, that I haven’t thought of things at work, and I’d love to model it and then share it with as many people who listen. Let’s share it with the other four people here. But the thing is, what if. Let’s do the what if obstacles now. Some of the obstacles we get about creating this inner peace and doing self therapy is that bloody’self talk. We have the negative self talk and just change it and change it in so many different ways. Remember, you know, write this down. This is not selfish. This is important. It has value to both you and everyone around you. It is so ecological for you to find inner peace. Creating inner peace. And that self therapy, finding time for yourself. So if you get that, negative self talk, if you really wanted to, with a little NLP trick, change the bloody tone of the voice. If it’s a male voice, change it to a female voice. If it’s a female voice, change it to a male voice. But change it into a different type of voice. Could be Mickey bloody Mouse for all I care. Because that will just change that sel negative self talk into something which it is. Bloody rubbish. And the thing is then, what you can do is create that quiet place where you’ll be free of interruptions. That’s one of the obstacles, isn’t it? It’s interruptions. And if you create that quiet space and you’re in it, people will get to know, you know, set the lighting, get the music, get the right temperature, get the ambience, whatever it is, just for you. Maybe a candle, maybe incense, maybe whatever, a lovely scented canle. Whatever’s right for you. And people will tend to get it. Because what you’re also going to do is set a boundary. Because that’s the other thing about obstacles. If you set boundaries, you tell people, this is my time. Hey, this is my time for me. And it’s only going to be 20 minutes, for Christ’s sake. And this is where I feel good when I come out of this. I’m going to give you all the time you need. But for me, this is me and, my time. So not only am I creating a quiet place, I’m creating inner peace in me. I’m, self therapizing. And when I come out, I’m going to be the best version I could be at that time. And it will just get better and better. So set your boundaries and keep them. Because everyone can give you 20 minutes, everyone can say, yeah, you’ve got 20 minutes. If, I know you’re coming back, you have the time of your life. And you’ll also be where you’ll be being the change you want to see in the world. Because other people really need their time, their inner peace, their time, away from the noise. Because you could be their noise, remember, and give them time to discover what’s going on in their life. That’self therapy. Yeah. So that’s, you know, they’re the what ifs and it’s really just obstacles and making sure that you are disciplined in looking after yourself because no other bugger will do it for you. It’s up to you. You’re responsible for you. End of, responsible for you. So be responsible. And you’ve got my support. You do have my support. Even if you’s 20 minutes. Say, I’m going to have a little bit of self hypnosis. Or I’m going to borrow one of Cloughie hypnosis tracks just to find out more about me. Because in those hypnosis tracks there’s a lot of self discovery as well. Leads you into self discovery. Yeah. So that’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? It’s all about building this into your life, making these routines sacrosanct. And, it’s your time and it’s consistency. That’s what it’s all about. If you read, there’s this wonderful book about routines, I can’t remember it’s called. But it’s like this guy, he, he looked at a hundred people who were really, really good at their work and, and they had a routine and they set time for themselves, but it was sacrosanct. They did this. They made sure they looked after themselves and they did it in a way that they didn’t have to think about it after a while because it became just a habit, a wonderful habit. And it was a habit that they looked forward to. Because this is all about you being compassionate to you. You’d do it for a best friend, you’d say, no, you need a bit of time, you go away, you enjoy. Look after yourself. That’s what you’re doing for you. And, why? Because you’re the only person. As I said, you’re the only person. You can do it. You’re the Only one responsible. It’s called cause and effect. If you want to live at the effect side of, of the noise, go ahead. But you’ll never be happy because you’ll be at the beckon call of everything else.

Once you take responsibility, you become a cause

But once you take responsibility, you become a cause. And when you become a cause, you create the effects in your life and you create that calmness, that feeling of being at one with yourself, aligned, congruent every bloody long word you can think of. That’s what you become because you’re at cause. You are creating the life that you deserve because you can. And I’m going to support you in that in every bloody way. There you go. So let’s summarise, let’s just summarize, put it all together. It’s your responsibility to get beyond the noise, identify the noise. Look at places where you conf. Find time to breathe, to explore, to disengage, to actually think about your life and the things that you want. Think of those practices, you know, creating places for inner peace, quiet places, become mindful, maybe journaling, self exploration, go for walks in nature, go to the gym, maybe yoga, any Tai Chi, all those wonderful things. Maybe find wonderful things to read and make notes of and think about. Maybe just write, write about your life. Put that bloody phone away. And remember, set your boundaries because only you can. And once you set boundaries, your people will understand them because you’ve got that routine, because you are responsible for you. You’re at the course. There you go. I’ve summarized a whole bloody lot in about 30 seconds. There you go. So I do hope you enjoyed that. I hope it’s made you think, I hope it’s made you want to find a place where you can create in a peace and self, but a self therapy, you know, to look inside and explore what you want, find ways just to breathe. Maybe hope it has. Hope it’s motivated you and given yourself permission to look after yourself. I do hope that if there’s anything you want from this, it’s given you something to think about and you think, actually I need. Not I need, but I would like to explore something else. Let me know that same email address applies feedback@personaldevelopmentunplug.com. love to hear the type of things that you want or the type of things you created or what you’ve got from creating quiet places and creating inner peace for yourself and what’s coming out of it. I’d love to hear all those things. So let me know whether there’s anything you need or what you’ve already achieved, let’s celebrate together, that would be awesome. And if you would, and I say it every time, if you just share it to a few people, I’d love you to share it to everyone. But if you just share this podcast, tell everyone about the personal development unplugged. podcast this episode may be to get them to subscribe because I know you have. Because I know I’ve got at least five subscribers now, so I know you’re one of them, aren’t you? So if you would share, subscribe and do all that stuff. And just before we fly, just remember in a moment, there’ll be 90 seconds of hypnosis. Okay? So have fun and I’ll see you on the next one. Bye bye now.

Paul Clough puts 90 seconds of hypnosis tracks on a website

So the 90 seconds of hypnosis tracks. Why have I put hypnosis tracks on a separate website? Well, it’s so simple really. I wanted you to have them all in one place so you can look through them all, you can find the particular one you want. I’ve even made them downloadable so you can put them on any of your playing devices that you prefer. You don’t need wi fi, you don’t need the itunes or whatever. You can put them anywhere you like. You can even burn them ono disc if you want. Where’d you get them? Well, there you go. I told you, it’s poulluonline.com podcast. If you’re worried about your email address, please don’t be because they stay totally safe with me. I only use them to send you out that email and give you access. Simple as that. I ll send you a link, a special link, so you, and only you can access those hypnosis tracks. Because I want them just for you. And the other thing about this is you’ve taken responsibility. I don’t want to make these open to everyone, just random. You have taken responsibility to listen and be part of this community of personal development. And I want to help you. I want to help you personally to get your dreams, your goals. And therefore I’m giving you these tools, these protocols, these paradigms, whatever you want to call them, but in deep hypnosis. So just enjoy, have more fun than you can stand with hypnosis warning, you are now leaving the unplugged mind of Paul Clough. It’s time to fly on your own. Be brave, my friend. Personal development unplugged.