Weight Management - I

Hypnosis and hypnotherapy have profound benefits. For years they've been touted as a panacea making them unbelievable by most "practical-minded" people. The reality is that hypnosis and hypnotherapy are sound therapies that help a host of issues. They work by empowering the mind to work in a focused manner toward resolving a specific issue.

So what do hypnosis and hypnotherapy have to do with weight loss? Nothing if you think that weight loss is only about diet and exercise. But the reality is that weight loss plenty to do with your conscious and subconscious mind and its power to affect change. Being under hypnosis can help weight loss by providing positive suggestions to the subconscious about your need and desire for food, what food means to you, what full should feel like, your attitude towards exercise and so much more.

Maybe your attitude about exercise is that you hate it. How long will you last forcing yourself to do something you hate? You are right to think that hypnosis can help with that. Like I’ve said before, hypnosis is like affirmations on steroids. It supercharges your efforts and helps facilitate change on a grand scale. But there is more to the therapy part than you might see.

For example, I had a client come in who thought she was overweight and wanted to lose weight. To keep the approach safe and balanced many states require that people enter these programs under the supervision of a medical doctor. Her doctor monitored her progress and watched out for other conditions throughout the process.

Many people think that a hypnotherapist should simply give her the command and she'll shed the pounds. Not true. You see, to instill lasting change therapy requires seeking out the underlying problem first. In her case, her whole family was overweight to one degree or another. She was very close to her family. The love and acceptance of her parents and siblings was very important to her. Being overweight gave her a sense of belonging to the group.

Her fear (real or perceived) was that she would be rejected by her family if she lost weight. Without being aware of it, she would sabotage her diet and exercise plans not really wanting to reach the result. There was a conflict in her desire. She wanted to be thin, but did not want to be alienated from the group that loved and accepted her for who she was now.

So now what? Do we set up appointments for each and everyone of her family member and hypnotize them? We had to work on her changing her image of what losing weight meant. Just putting her on a diet and exercise plan would not work. It didn’t before; many times before. She had to change her change her neediness for love and acceptance at the cost of her desired health and self image. By the use of hypnosis she was able to start seeing things in a different way. Her mind’s eye, no longer saw benefits to being overweight. Her mental image was of a new healthy and vibrant woman.

After this, we were able to very quickly move towards her views and negative images of diet and exercise.

Before you embark on the rocky road of turbulent diet and exercise plan, ask yourself what are some of the negative or false images and thoughts in your mind that would stop you from achieving your desired goal.

Then get going on affirmations on steroids and let the weight loss begin!