Make Positive Changes With Hypnosis
The purpose of hypnosis is not to control your mind, but to guide you in the direction you desire to go that is pertinent to your goal.
Artwork©Sofia Vlasiuk/123rf
Did you set a new year’s resolution only to see it go by the wayside? Maybe you’ve been trying to change some bad habit, like smoking, or nail biting. Would you like to start a new habit, like working out on a regular basis?
The subconscious mind can be your friend or your nemesis in these endeavors. It’s best to have it working in your favor. The subconscious follows patterns — habits — or what I like to say, that it takes the path of least resistance. If you have created a pattern of waking up every morning and slipping into your Nikes and heading out for a run, then this is a pattern that will work in your favor. If your pattern has been one of grabbing fast food every day or dining from the vending machine at the office, these are patterns that are not going to work in your favor.
When you put your shoes on every morning you don’t think about how to tie your shoes, because it has become a pattern that has been repeated over and over. When you were first learning to tie your shoes, it was a struggle, until it became ingrained in your subconscious, and now it happens automatically. It’s a good thing to have that particular function given over to the subconscious mind so that we don’t even have to think about it; it just happens.
On the other hand, those subconscious patterns can work against us. Were you taught to clean your plate as a youngster? It didn’t matter if you were full, the goal was to clean your plate. Often there was a reward involved ,even if was just as simple as being able to leave the table and not have to eat your dinner for breakfast. The worst reward was if you clean your plate — stuff yourself — you can have dessert. Yes, the reward for overeating is yet more food.
Some other patterns that might be working against you are habits like lighting a cigarette every time you get behind the wheel, talk on the phone, or have a drink. Or, maybe you find yourself stopping by your favorite fast-food place on the way home. There are other habits that fall into the category of body-focused repetitive behaviors. These include things like nail biting, teeth grinding, skin picking, and trichotillomania (hair pulling). We can shift some of these things on our own, but hypnosis has been found to be the easiest way to shift the unconscious.
Various myths still persist about hypnosis, such as your mind will be controlled by the hypnotist, or you will come forth with your deepest darkest secrets. A person under hypnosis has and can exert control at any time, although it is advisable to be willing to relax that control for quicker easier results. A professional hypnotist’s goal is not to control your mind, but to guide you in the direction you desire to go that is pertinent to your goal.
Just like tying our shoes or brushing our teeth, we can create better patterns in many areas of our lives even without seeking out a professional. If you find yourself stopping at your favorite fast food place after work every day, then take a different route home. If you tend to light up every time you get behind the wheel then tell yourself that you will wait and see if you really want one. Keep those smokes stashed somewhere (like the glovebox), so they are not as accessible. At social gatherings, stop and check in with your body to see if you are even hungry before you blindly accept food that is offered.
The best and easiest advice in regard to maintaining good weight is to look at those things you’ve been doing that got you overweight, and then don’t do that! This is why diets don’t work. People go on diets and exercise programs, and if they reach their goal, they go right back to doing what got them there in the first place. Establish healthy patterns that will support you in being healthy and fit. You can’t reach a new goal by doing the same things that caused your issues.
How we talk to ourselves can be terribly unproductive. If you tell yourself that you hate being a slug, that statement won’t do anything but allow you to continue being a slug and hating it. There is particular wording that hypnotists use to motivate the subconscious in an effective way to get it working for us. The “away motivation” is that we hate feeling like a slug, or the negative effects of that lifestyle choice, like heart issues are growing. We don’t want to experience these negative possibilities so there is a desire to make positive changes. Positive images that we give the subconscious are our “toward motivation.” Those images of achieving our goal are the more powerful suggestions for the subconscious guiding it in the direction we desire.
The best thing that you can do on your own is to create positive images of your desired goal. If you want to be healthy and fit, maybe you have pictures of yourself from when you liked the way you looked and felt. Put these pictures up where you will see them over and over. Put them on the mirror or refrigerator, or anywhere that you will see them regularly. Each time you see these positive images your subconscious is helping you to achieve your desired results. These are referred to as transformational suggestions. These images will help to achieve your goal.
Drake Eastburn is a board certified hypnotherapist in the Denver, CO area, with over 40 years in the field of hypnotism. The author of eight books on hypnosis, Drake is on a mission to educate people on the reality and impact of hypnosis. Visit www.hypnodenver.com.
