Hypnosis, thanks to the movies and TV
shows, the very word conjures up the image of a beady-eyed
hypnotist swinging his pocket watch and chanting the words,
"You are getting sleepy." Do a Google search, and you
will find several million web pages devoted to the subject.
Unfortunately, many websites that sell self-hypnosis
programs make wild, unsubstantiated claims. I've been in
the business since 1978. So I think that I'm more than
qualified to set the record straight on weight loss
hypnosis.
First of all, hypnosis is a tool, just
like a scalpel is a tool. Just as different surgeons have
varying skill levels in the use of a scalpel, different
hypnotists have varying skill levels in the use of hypnosis.
And to complicate the matter, there are
many different
forms and types of hypnosis. Here are just a couple of the wild
claims that I've seen on websites, along with the truth of
the matter:
Hypnosis will speed up your
metabolism.
The truth is, that hypnosis cannot directly speed up your
metabolism. But it can be very effective at helping to
program your unconscious with increased motivation to
exercise, and that exercise can increase your metabolic
rate. Similarly, hypnotherapy to speed up the metabolism for
quick weight loss can be effected by programming the
unconscious to motivate the intake of increased amounts of
protein, because that intake will step up the metabolic
rate.
Hypnosis will make you lose
weight.
This is false. But hypnosis can be used to help eliminate
your appetite, so that you eat less, and eating less can
help you to lose weight.
The average
person's appetite and cravings for food and an urges to
eat are caused by two unconscious programs:
A.
When you pair eating with any other behavior, the other
behavior will trigger cravings for food and a compulsion to
eat. This is called a conditioned response. For
example, if you eat when you watch TV, you will
automatically get an urge to eat each time you sit down to
watch TV.
B. When you feel tense, you feel compelled to put
something into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure. This
is the result of programming that you received as an infant.
When you got cranky, your mom put a bottle in your mouth.
You got distracted, relaxed, and probably fell asleep. Now
when you get cranky (anxious or tense), you feel compelled
to put something into your mouth for relaxation and
pleasure.
C. There is a
third unconscious program that is present for some people.
It's called emotional eating. Emotional eating takes place
when a person is motivated to make him or herself fat,
because by being fat they will protect themselves in some
way. For example, if a person got their heart broken in a
relationship, their unconscious might motivate them into a
behavior that would prevent them from getting their heart
broken again. Example: They are motivated to get fat to keep
them out of another relationship, because that will
eliminate the possibility of another broken heart.
D. I have
written several articles on this complex topic that
available elsewhere. There are some powerful ways to use
hypnosis
for emotional eating.
So just how can
weight loss hypnosis fix the above problems? Let's cover
them one at a time.
In paragraph
'A' above: Conditioned responses can be
"extinguished" quickly and easily using a technique that
I call the "Flash." The Flash trains the mind to setup a
new set of triggers. In the above example, the subject had
unconsciously associated the image of food in the hand, with
the TV. Each time he / she sat down to watch the TV, the
unconscious mind filled in the missing part of the picture,
it "Flashed" the image of the food in the hand, and the
subject felt a craving, and an urge to eat.
The Flash is a
method that allows us to program the unconscious to use the
image of the TV as a trigger for an image of the
self-watching TV without eating. When we lose the image of
the food, we lose the cravings.
When we
momentarily disassociate (see ourselves from the point of
view that someone else would), we are not able to feel our
feelings (cravings and urges).
When we see
ourselves in a behavior (watching TV without eating), we
feel compelled to generate that behavior. So the subject
loses the cravings, and actually gets a compulsion to reject
food.
In paragraph 'B'
above: The subject is eating and
drinking for relaxation and pleasure. We teach the subject
self-hypnosis for weight loss, because the very essence of
the hypnotic state is deep relaxation. And we utilize the
"Flash" to program the unconscious to use the thoughts
and mental images that are triggering feelings of anxiety
and stress, as triggers for secondary thoughts and images
that will trigger relaxation instead. When the subject feels
more relaxed overall, oral cravings are greatly diminished.
In paragraph 'C'
above: We discussed emotional eating
which makes the person overweight. The "behavior" of
being overweight then provides some sort of emotional
protection. So we use a technique called a reframe, which
programs the unconscious to assume responsibility for making
the subject automatically substitute some other more
acceptable behavior that will provide the same emotional
protection, in place of being overweight. And that reframe
will eliminate the compulsion to eat for emotional purposes.
Self-hypnosis for weight loss can be a very effective
method. I can only uncover the tip of the iceberg in this
short article. Please see my website for more comprehensive
information.
© 2007 By
Alan B. Densky, CH. This
document may NOT be re-printed without permission. All Rights Reserved.
Mr. Densky is the
developer of the Neuro-VISION®
Video Hypnosis Technology, which
received a US Patent because of its uniqueness and
effectiveness. Mr. Densky's latest undertaking has
been to make the
Neuro-VISION
Appetite & Smoking
Control Videos, and a long list of his other recorded
hypnosis titles, available to the general public thru his
company's web site.
Stop by the Neuro-VISION
site and download one of our FREE
Hypnotic Power Relaxation
Programs to experience Ericksonian Hypnosis at its
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