This is a question I get asked repeatedly, as people look upon me with disbelief, when I tell them that I have used hypnosis to help me shed off the excess 10 kilos in 5 months, which I was unable to achieve with just regular diet and exercise.
Having been overweight throughout my childhood and teen years, I know what being overweight does to your self-esteem and confidence. Going shopping for clothes was a “nightmare” as nothing would fit, so most of my clothes had to be tailor-made. Back then, where I lived, it was difficult for overweight people to find readymade clothes. As a teenager, I remember looking at the mannequins in the shops and telling myself that, when I become slim, I will come back and buy all these lovely clothes. But being slim, just remained a dream.
I lived through my adolescence being labelled by society as “fatso”, “greedy”, “lazy”, “ugly”, “giant”, “humpty dumpty” and many other derogatory terms. These negative labels, oblivious to me, formed my deeply rooted subconscious limiting beliefs that I was not good enough, I was unlovable, I was not pretty enough, I was not deserving enough, I was not worthy enough and that there is something wrong with me. I remember times when I would sit by myself and day dream what it would be like to be that slim, attractive, beautiful girl who was adored, praised and loved by everyone.
I wish I knew then, what I know now, that it wasn’t my fault and there was nothing wrong with me. Just like the girls I admired, I too could be slim, healthy and beautiful, if only I knew that the power to change was not outside but was within me all along. We all have the power to change but we are using the wrong mind to make the changes. We are using the conscious mind which has very limited power to sustain the changes and sooner or later, we very easily succumb back to our old habits.
You see, what no one told me, is that there is a great power within me, my subconscious mind, which when tapped into, could give me whatever I consciously desired. It becomes your partner in successfully creating the reality that you want. All I had to do was to communicate my deepest desire to my subconscious mind and the engines of creation would start acting on turning my dreams into reality. The subconscious can be reprogramed to match our conscious desires. My dream of being that attractive, slim, healthy and beautiful human being, who is lovable and worthy of all the wonderful things can easily become a reality. If all this sounds like magic, let me tell you that; hypnosis is not magic but the results are “magical.”
For the majority of people, when we think of weight loss, the first thing that comes to mind, is to eat less of the fattening foods, cut down on sugar and devote time to exercising. This is such a simple solution to a problem which affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. If there truly is a simple solution, then why are so many people struggling with their weight? In today’s day and age, with the incessant proliferation of the worldwide web, we are all privileged to have access to information on how to lose weight but why aren’t we doing the things we should be doing? We all want to get what we desire most; a healthy, slim and fit body. But somehow, results seem extremely tough to attain.
Well, just like I thought that it is my fault for being obese, before I found out the truth, it’s not your fault either. We all consciously desire to be slim and healthy but why are we are so resistant to making the necessary changes to our lifestyle to achieve what we want? So many people make new year resolutions to lose weight and be healthier and even spend thousands of dollars on gym memberships, but a few months down the road, they go back to their old lifestyle and get frustrated for not seeing results. We end up waiting for the next year to make resolutions again but the story repeats itself. Almost like a vicious cycle that sees no end. Logically we know what is good for us but, there is some greater force within ourselves which ‘hijacks” our ability to do what we know is good for our health and throws our discipline out the window.
What if you knew that there is a greater force within you, the all-powerful subconscious mind, which is actually in charge? What if you knew you were wasting your energy working with the wrong part of your mind, the conscious mind, which only has about 5% power in comparison to your subconscious mind which holds 95% power over the way you think, feel and behave. So, it would make more sense to have the subconscious mind supporting us instead of resisting the changes that we want to make. The only thing that we need to know is how to make the subconscious mind work for us. Once we accomplish this, nothing is impossible. Sounds incredible? The best part is that it truly is. If only you knew how to tap into the limitless power of your subconscious mind so that you can have 100% mind power working in your favor and steering you in the right direction.
Let’s take a closer look at our subconscious mind. The subconscious mind controls all our bodily functions, from breathing, digesting, pumping blood to all parts of our body, our immune system etc. The subconscious mind also keeps a record of all our memories along with the associated emotions. It also holds all our beliefs, values, perceptions and habits. There is no doubt that the subconscious mind is limitless and can handle thousands of activities within the body without us even being aware of it.
During the first 8 to 9 years of childhood, the subconscious is highly suggestible. Children will believe anything and everything they hear and see, as they have not yet developed logical and rational thinking skills. Children give meaning to things without having the maturity to analyze things as they happen. The subconscious is also where the seat of motivation lies. It will motivate you to move towards pleasure and away from pain. The most important function of the subconscious is to keep you safe from physical and emotional threat. The best part is, with hypnosis, we are able to truly unleash the power of our subconscious mind.
So how can we use hypnosis to lose weight? Well, the answer lies in how the subconscious mind learns behaviors, which includes our eating behaviors, exercise regimes or lack thereof.
Association
The subconscious mind learns through Association. When a baby is born, it associates hunger with pain and feeling satiated with comfort. When the mother holds the baby close to her, to feed the baby, food gets associated with love, comfort and security. As the child grows, the child starts to form many other associations to food. The child associates food with celebrations, family gatherings and rewards. In some families, the child learns that if he or she finishes all the food on the plate, he or she is a good boy or good girl. An association is thus formed in the subconscious, whereby finishing all the food on the plate gets associated with being good. In some cultures, children are taught not to waste food and that it’s a cardinal sin to throw food away. This forms another association and children learn that even when they feel full, they continue to eat as they must finish all their food. As a child grows, by the time he/she reaches the age of 10, countless associations to food have been formed and stored in the subconscious mind as “programs” or “patterns” which will continue to unconsciously influence our behaviors throughout our life. Some of the most common associations are listed below:
Food is Love: When one feels lonely, rejected, hurt, undeserving, and unlovable, the subconscious mind will signal you to eat and this will automatically create cravings and without any conscious awareness, emotional hunger signals in the body will make you eat.
Food is Entertainment: When one feels bored, and has nothing to do, the subconscious mind will signal you to eat.
Food is a Distraction: When one is stressed and overwhelmed with the pressures of work, managing finances and managing the home, the subconscious mind will send a signal to eat as this acts as a temporary distraction to alienate yourself from the emotional pain.
Food is a Reward: When a child does what is expected of him/her, very often the child gets rewarded with chocolates, chips, burgers, soft drinks, ice-cream, cakes, pizza or being taken to the child’s favourite restaurant. This association continues to run unconsciously throughout your adult life.
These associations create ‘patterns’ which play out automatically without our conscious awareness. For someone wanting to lose weight, these ‘patterns’ of unhealthy eating behaviors most often lead to regret and guilt which makes us feel frustrated and we give up! Hence, reinforcing the subconscious limiting belief that losing weight is difficult.
With hypnosis, these “old” associations can be re-evaluated and the subconscious mind can relearn new beneficial associations; such as food is not love and food does not love you, food is for nourishment and energy, our body thrives on real food and not on manufactured “edible” products which are not real food.
BELIEFS
The subconscious holds all our beliefs. Beliefs are what we believe to be true for us. Once a belief is held firmly in the subconscious mind, our outer reality will always be a match to our beliefs. Many of our limiting beliefs are unconscious and were formed in childhood. These limiting beliefs were created based upon the child’s level of understanding and not based upon logic and reasoning.
If we were rejected, abandoned, physically or emotionally abused in our childhood, we form limiting beliefs about ourselves and the world around us. We may feel unlovable, unworthy and undeserving. Our limiting beliefs work unconsciously to create uncomfortable feelings within us, such as anger, guilt, shame, sadness, fear, insecurity and self-doubt which triggers emotional eating. Emotional eating is eating not in response to physical hunger but eating to cope with the uncomfortable feelings or to suppress the feelings.
The adult may not be consciously aware of their limiting beliefs, but in hypnosis, we become aware of our unconscious beliefs and we can communicate directly with the subconscious mind to release and let go of the erroneous beliefs.
To get access to the subconscious mind, we have to bypass the “critical mind” which acts like a “gate keeper” to keep the old limiting beliefs intact. So to change any limiting beliefs in the subconscious mind, we need to first go through a very important step which is to bypass the critical mind and this is essentially the fundamental basis of hypnosis.
Critical Mind
The critical mind is like a filtering mechanism; it compares the new information coming in from the conscious mind with the beliefs we already hold within our subconscious mind. When we consciously desire to change to a healthy lifestyle but find it difficult to change or to maintain the changes, it is because this new information gets rejected by the critical mind.
We can use temporary will power to change, but the moment we get stressed, tired and emotionally overwhelmed, our will power will give way to the powerful old patterns of eating. We then blame ourselves for not having the discipline to follow through, which puts additional stress on our mental and emotional health. To get away from the emotional stress we go back to living the old unhealthy lifestyle and just give up. This downward spiral is a common phenomenon that all of us face when we are unable to see our desired results.
With hypnosis, we are able to bypass the critical mind and place the ‘seeds” of new behaviors for healthy eating and living, within the subconscious mind. With self-hypnosis, these new behaviors start to take root and eventually replace the old patterns of associations and beliefs with new ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. You change mentally, physically and emotionally and a new you is created. This new you will be empowered to take charge of your health.
So after understanding the basis of hypnosis, you may ask yourself that if this was truly that powerful, why is it that there are millions of people who still struggle with weight loss? The answer is simple. Skepticism. Many of you may read this article and think to yourself that this can’t be true so you then go back to living your life. But just think for a moment, what if this is really true? What if hypnosis can bring you your fitter, slimmer body? What if hypnosis can truly replace your limiting beliefs and help you shed all that excess weight? Do you really have anything to lose? Aside from weight of course! Trust me, I too was skeptical. I too thought that this can’t be that easy. But, I gave it a shot. I had tried numerous diets and exercise routines without achieving my goal so I thought let’s see if this whole hype about the subconscious mind had some truth in it. It wasn’t just true; it was “magical”.