Hypnosis
& Self-Help Articles
GUEST ARTICLE:
by Kenneth McRae
Compulsive
overeating with all of its attendant physical and psychological consequences is
still today one of the most seemingly intractable problems faced by millions of
people in the US and elsewhere. The reasons for this concern the workings of
both the body and the mind.
On
a purely physical level, one of the major drivers behind the dramatic
escalation of weight problems is the widespread use of refined sugar products
in all manner of processed foods and drinks. Couple this with many peoples'
adoption of basically sedentary lifestyles and you have a ticking obesity time
bomb.
Another
important factor which combines elements of both the physical and psychological
relates to the now proven fact that sugar is - in varying degrees with
different people - psychologically habit forming. "Comfort food" is a
sort of euphemism relating to the subtle but significant high derived from
eating sweet food, especially when some form or degree of depression or low
self esteem is affecting a person's outlook.
Many
people with a habit of overeating and a psychological addiction to sweet food
feel that turning this around and losing weight permanently would be an
impossible or at least monumentally difficult task. However virtually no one
actually wants to be significantly overweight so people are forever going on
diets, starting out feeling determined and quite optimistic but within a couple
of weeks or so are back where they started, possibly having ended up gaining
more weight in the process.
This
leads to feelings of depression and low self esteem, which in turn stimulates
the desire for comfort food, which in turn produces even more weight gain. At
some point maybe a couple of months after this the desire to reassert the will
and lose weight returns, another diet is undertaken and the whole cycle begins again.
This
pointless treadmill of endless and ultimately ineffective dieting is a result
of the fact that many people have failed to or are unaware of the need to take
into account the significant role that the subconscious plays in maintaining and
sustaining habitual behaviors and psychological addictions. When a habit or
psychological addiction has become embedded in the subconscious, it's usually
the case that attempting to use willpower alone to defeat it will prove to be
ultimately inadequate.
The
power of the imagination is almost always stronger than the power of the will.
This is why you might start out on a diet feeling determined and positive, but
before long your mind is starting to become filled with thoughts and images of all
those beautiful and delicious cakes, sweets and rich and fatty foods. These
thoughts and images just won't go away, they're always nagging away at the back
of your mind and will sooner or later cause your will to collapse and you will
surrender. The pleasure derived from giving in and abandoning yourself to a
choc fest or pig out session will however be short lived, soon to be replaced
by feelings of self disgust and weakness.
So
how do you break the cycle? You can start by understanding and accepting that
you have a subconscious mind which is real and is also incredibly powerful.
Your subconscious controls and directs all aspects of your body's functioning
and repair, and also has stored within it the memory of every single moment and
incident which has occurred in your whole life. It has also recorded the
feelings and emotions which accompanied each of these moments and incidents.
So
while your subconscious mind is indeed very powerful,
it is nevertheless guided and influenced by the positive or negative thought
energy that it receives from your conscious "everyday" mind. In other
words if you're habitually thinking that you love sweet food and couldn't do
without it no matter how hard you try, your subconscious will help to ensure
that you're continually surrounded by people and circumstances which will
confirm this view.
If
however you were to train your conscious mind to consistently think thoughts
and images relating to yourself as a slim and reasonably active person with a
normal appetite for healthy food, your subconscious would begin to gradually
"encourage" this new you as a reality in your life, whereby your
appetite would begin to diminish, you'd lose interest in sweet and junk food
and you'd lose weight - permanently.
The
subconscious will tend to act on and help to manifest in your life whatever is
habitually suggested and visualized by your conscious thought, whether it's
positive or negative.
Training
your conscious mind in this way isn’t however just quite as easy as it may
sound. While it's not difficult as such, it does require a degree of
persistence and dedication, and above all genuine desire.
If
you're overweight and really want to slim down to an appropriate body mass
index, then start by either locating an experienced hypnotherapist with some
kind of visible track record in helping to resolve weight issues, or use self
hypnosis and dedicate yourself to a daily session of relaxation,
visualization and positive suggestion. Or, of course, do both. Experienced
hypnotherapists understand the link between the power of the subconscious and
success in any endeavor, and many specialize in weight loss programs. If
however you want to start by using self hypnosis, set aside 10-15 minutes once
or better twice a day, when you can comfortably relax and have privacy and
quiet.
When
you're relaxed and comfortable, close your eyes and begin to breathe fairly
slowly, deeply and regularly. Then, after a couple of minutes of this, begin to
visualize in your mind an image of yourself as being slim, active and healthy.
Then, maintaining your relaxed breathing and visualization,
begin to affirm to yourself something like "I'm slim, healthy and
attractive". Repeat the affirmation about 20-30 times, mentally or
verbally, then gently let it fade away and bring yourself back to normal
consciousness.
Note
the use of the present tense in the above affirmation. Affirming and/or visualizing
something as happening in the "now" and not as something that might
hopefully happen in the future has a much more significant and positive effect
on the subconscious. Also invest some feeling and emotion into your visualizing
and affirming. Feel - imagine - how it feels
to be slim, healthy and attractive.
If
you do this once or twice a day every day for a couple of weeks you'll begin to
notice your appetite decreasing, and that you're losing your desire for sweets,
cakes etc. If you keep it up for a couple of months - daily - your subconscious
will have begun the process of accepting and absorbing the new belief system,
whereby the new, slim "you" will have begun to become established in
reality - permanently - and you'll also find yourself with more energy and
wanting to be more active.
You
may at times experience doubts about whether or not you're wasting your time
with this. Don't fall for it. This is just your negative self with its tendency
to self destructiveness trying to persuade you that you can't better yourself.
You CAN. Devote yourself to your hypnotherapy sessions, your daily program or
both and just visualize yourself as you want to be, and your subconscious will
do the rest.
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Kenneth
McRae has studied and written extensively on psychology, hypnosis and the
subconscious and has helped many friends and others to use self hypnosis to
deal with a wide range of problems. For more about achieving “weight loss
through hypnosis, quitting smoking, building confidence and more,” visit:
http://www.self-hypnosis-the-key.com/weight-loss-through-hypnosis.html
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* *
You may
visit Kenneth's website at: http://www.self-hypnosis-the-key.com
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Article
posted: August 24, 2011
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