Diet with Hypnotherapy

Mid morning. Roberta stands in front of the refrigerator struggling with herself. Eat the cake. Don't eat the cake. Eat the cake, maybe just a little piece. She gives in and begins eating until half the cake is gone. Thinking she has ruined the whole day anyway, she rationalizes hat she may as well finish the rest and start on her diet tomorrow. Sound familiar?

At this point Roberta is thinking in blocks of time - a day, a week, or even a month. What would happen if we were able to let go of that type of programming? What if we were able to let go of the guilt from the big breakfast we ate as we sit down to lunch? Or the anxiety of anticipation of dinner, seen in the context of a day?

When you consider that you will eat approximately 80,000 meals and 50,000 snacks over the period of a lifetime, this is a staggering number of eating events to cope with.

The good news is that it can be easy when you change your subconscious programming.

Here's a tip on how to start: begin to think of each eating event as unique and separate event on a continuous chain - on a timeline. There is no before and there is no after. Once you have completed a meal, it's over forever. The next one is a brand new opportunity to nourish yourself successfully, both physically and mentally. When you begin to look at your eating in this way, you become free of the emotional burden you may be carrying around that sabotages even your best efforts at control. There is no more waiting for tomorrow to start again.

The same concept works with letting go of pounds. Need to lose 20 pounds? That's a daunting task! But as you let go of one pound, it's gone. Now you need to let go of one pound again. Anyone can let go of just one pound, right? You will repeat this process for the number of times you desire, but the task becomes doable with your new perspective.

How do we knock down the barriers that hold us back? How can we reprogram our internal, subconscious life script that seems to take us in every direction but the one we really want to go in? The ideal way is through hypnotherapy.

Hypnosis allows direct access to the subconscious mind, where your beliefs systems reside. Desired changes are easy when you conscious and subconscious work together. Associations lodged in the subconscious can be altered. This allows or changes in behavior and thinking - often immediate. Food or situation triggers, which might send you off on an eating spree, are desensitized in this manner as well.

Based on the timeline perspective, using hypnosis, your subconscious is being programmed to eat the first and only meal over and over again. It's the only one that counts. When you are able to view eating in this way, and believe it, each meal becomes a pleasant opportunity for success and control.

In addition, hypnotherapy is an excellent tool for relieving fear and phobias, stress, anxiety - all factors affecting health. More reasons one might decide to go to a hypnotherapist include motivation in school or career, performance enhancement in sports and exam taking, and even pain management.

While they are not licensed by the state of California, hypnotherapists often work through referrals by medical health professionals, coordinating treatment for clients.

The actual therapeutic session is a wonderfully relaxing and positive experience as you drift gently into the sate of hypnotic relaxation. People often mistakenly believe that they will be unconscious or out of control. Ever driven home and have no memory of how you got there? Ever been so involved in a movie that you don't hear knocking on the door? Then you've been hypnotized.

In fact, the hypnotic state is one of hyper awareness and a client will never do something they would not willingly do in a conscious state. The best way to think of it is the same state as the transitional moments before falling asleep at night.

Something you can do just before going to sleep is to relax comfortably and visualize a line - a timeline - in front of you with thousands of dots on it equally spread out. See how it is a continuous chain with no beginning and no end. Take in a few deep breaths and concentrate on relaxing all the muscles in your body.

Let your mind clear and now repeat silently to yourself that you are focusing on eating on the timeline, just dealing with one meal at a time. No past, no future. Think about this and what it means to you. You will begin freeing yourself of old perspectives and develop new ones.

Hypnosis : The Explanation of its Power

Hypnosis is an effective means to change bad habits into good ones, negative feelings into positive ones while still being easy and enjoyable. Hypnosis works because of the way the human brain works. All emotion, beliefs and habits are kept in the subconscious mind. Hypnosis provides a direct link to our subconscious thus allowing us to manipulate our habits and replace negatives with positive beliefs.

Many of us think of hypnosis as something similar to "deep sleep", but in reality it is more complex than that. Under hypnosis you are in a comfortable and relaxed state that focuses your concentration and attention, bypassing the filters of your conscious mind. Getting past these filters is what allows the subconscious mind to be receptive to positive suggestions and taps into the powerful mind-body connection. Experiencing a heightened state of awareness is common to most people while hypnotized, while approximately ten percent of people will become so relaxed that they do not remember the session.

Hypnosis is not always the result of one person hypnotizing another, or even someone hypnotizing themselves. Everyone experiences natural hypnotic states at least twice a day, right before falling asleep and immediately after waking. Many people will also enter a natural hypnotic state while driving, often called "highway hypnosis". In fact, natural hypnosis may occur anytime you become complete absorbed in an activity such as reading a book or watching a movie. Everything else seems to get blocked out, even to the point of not hearing people talk to you. Whenever concentration is intense, natural hypnotic states are easy to slip into.

Hypnosis, and hypnotherapy, are not new. Hypnosis is known to have been used by the Egyptians in sleep temples as well as by the Greeks as an important part of the healing treatments. In modern times, the use of hypnosis came back with the work of Franz Mesmer, an Austrian physician in the 1700's. It was later brought to the medical arena in the 1800's by Dr. James Braid working in hypnoanesthesia. Hypnosis and hypnotherapy was also used as an effective and rapid treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders following both World Wars and the Korean War.

Since 1958, the American Medical Association has approved of hypnosis as an effective treatment and recommends that training be included in medical school curriculum. It is also recogized as a Complimentary and Alternative Medicine treatment modality by the National Institute of Health which continues to fund research in the feild of hypnosis.

While hypnosis is publicly best known for helping people break bad habits such as smoking and in the area of weight loss, researchers have also shown dramatic results in other areas. Areas that hypnotherapy has shined is as an adjunct to conventional treatments for cancer and for pain management. It is also known that hypnosis will often help in reducing and managing stress, overcoming insomnia, building self-esteem, and even improving performance on tests or in sports.

There are not many people who do not have habits or feelings that we would like to change. Unfortunately, it generally seems that nothing we do makes a lasting difference. It is not a flaw in our decision making or lack a will power, but rather a result of how our brains work. Hypnosis is the tool that unlocks the subconscious mind so that our conscious decisions to change are carried out in our day to day lives.

Using Hypnosis for Past Life Regression

There are two main beliefs when it comes to past life. According to some people we existed in another human body or another life form before we inherited our current human body. To others this is absurd and not worth considering. The truth is we do not know how we came to inherit our current human body form.

Charles Darwin thought he had found the answer in the Galapagos Islands when he came up with his theory on evolution. The Catholic and Protestant Churches have for centuries led us to believe we came into being via Adam and Eve and a multi-billion pounds industry has been built around that religious belief. White Missionaries left the comfort of their European homes and wondered into the unknown territories of Africa and other sub-continents with the sole aim to “convert the heathens” and in the process some were boiled alive and eaten and some survived and planted the roots of their belief in far away lands.

The religious theories of our origin cannot answer even the basic questions when challenged except to say, “God works in mysterious ways”. The scientific theories of our origin are revised each time a University wants a new grant or justification is sought to spend a few billion dollars on another probe to another distant planet.

The latest scientific theory that we evolved from a fish in the sea and came to live on the land and our body changed to adapt by first walking on four limbs like a dog then standing up to walk upright like an ape has no real proof of evidence. Every theory is flawed with unexplainable questions and inaccuracies.

The truth is we do not know. The limit of our current imagination and acquired knowledge does not allow us to accurately establish how we came to inherit our current human form. It is therefore important to keep an open mind when it comes to past life existence.

Regression during hypnotherapy
Under hypnosis the body relaxes, the conscious mind takes a back seat and the sub-conscious mind takes control of the thought process. Under such a condition it is possible for the mind to concentrate because all external disturbances and distractions are removed. The person can go back into the present life and look at events as far back as the memory can recall. Some people can go as far back as when they were in their mother's womb and recall hearing sounds, which they interpreted then and can vividly recall now many years later.

Now, why is it not possible for some of us to have the ability to go beyond the womb and into another world we lived in before we inherited our current life form. Who is to say this is not possible? If you believe this is not possible then ask yourself how do you know this is not possible? Are you an expert on theories of probabilities and where do you get your reference point for such knowledge? You can say it is as absurd as believing we came from Adam and Eve or from a fish in the sea? We just do not know and perhaps we will destroy ourselves before we have the opportunity to establish our origin.

Case Study
Caroline, like many others I have helped, came to me with a number of thoughts that kept haunting her mind and in many ways kept disturbing her current life. She found it difficult to sleep and do her job properly because so many flashes of past images kept coming to her mind and she felt she had to do something about it. We agreed to keep an open mind and for me to record on paper whatever she said and whatever reaction she experienced during the sessions. We began with present life regression and this lady could recall events as far as the age of one year old when her mother placed her on the settee and she could see her brother Robert playing on the floor. She could see her brother feeding her.

First Past Life – Intelligent life form
When asked to go beyond her present childhood her body curled up slightly as she tried to gather the towel covering her body. When asked what could she see she said she could see lights, whiteness, flames coming from the sun and she is an intelligent life form. She said some old people were there also in the form of lights, there were millions of them and they form the creator, bits of the whole, one light merging into another forming part of the eternal light. She said this world was coming to an end then she released the towels she had clutched tightly and her body relaxed.

Second Past Life - Materialisation
When questioned further she said she could feel her friends around her, she was walking on air, gliding but she was not an angel. She was in material form not spiritual form, she could see people being born and coming out of their mother's womb, new born babies mainly boys, lots of white towers and stones. When asked what was she doing she replied that she was going to be a healer and teach healing. When asked to share some more information she said she was being called back and she must go back. She doesn't want to say any more. Then her body curled into the fetus position.

Third Past Life – Indian Warrior
When asked to move further back beyond her current life there was a pause and then she had an abreaction. Her body became rigid, her face took the appearance of sternness and she turned her head slowly from side to side as if looking for someone. Although her eyes were shut I could see her eyeballs moving vigorously under the closed eyelids. When asked what she was doing she said she was looking for her braves. When asked, “who are you?” she replied “an Indian warrior” and “protector of my people”.

Asked if she was a Red Indian Chief she replied “I will be chief when I have my bride but she has not said yes to marriage yet, she went on to say he (the Warrior) still needs to prove his bravery to his bride then the old chief will step down, he will marry his bride and be chief.
Following further questioning she went on to explain how beautiful her bride-to-be was and that he was out hunting with his braves and none of the other braves were as courageous as he was so he will win her hand in marriage.

Then her body started shaking and when asked what was happening she said, “we are surrounded by the enemy and they are killing my braves, I must protect my people” and tears started to flow from her eyes. She said “I must go now into the desert to save my people” her legs started to shake and then there was silence. When asked what was happening she said she was dying in the desert having failed to save her people. She started sobbing and sighing to such an extent that I wanted to stop the session but then she recovered and just lay there looking fairly pale.

Fourth Past Life – Holding Camp
I asked her to relax and take a few deep breaths which she did then I asked her whether there was another life before this one and she said yes, so I asked her to move further back into the life before this one and tell me what she could see. She had another abreaction. Her body started to curl up and when asked what was happening she said she was in a camp with lots of frightened and dying people dressed in medieval clothes.

She said she was not frightened and when asked why she said because she was the boss's woman and she was allowed to wear a sack of cloth but she was not allowed to see outside.
She said she had a baby by the boss and one of her own before she came to this camp. Her husband ran away from soldiers and left her on her own with the baby. They shot her father and now she only had her mum, baby sister Ria and they were making pots out of metal. Asked how did she managed to get away and she said she died in the camp. Then her body went limp and her eyeballs lowered as if she was closing her eyes and she remained very still.

I touched her neck for sign of pulse and her pulse was remarkably low less than one per second and her skin felt clammy and cold. I let her rest for a while without any further questions.

Fourth Past Life - Baby
After a few minutes I asked her whether there was another life before the one she has just left and she nodded yes. I asked her to take herself to that life in her own time and not to rush. This time she remained calm and after a while she said “I am a baby” and when asked where she said “somewhere in Northern Europe" and when asked what she was doing she said she was left under a pine tree, it was cold and no one cared for her except from time to time her mum would come and look at her and sometimes her sister Ria would come, she said Ria loved her and Ria would pick her up and play with her.

When asked to explain what happened to her she said she died feeling very cold and when asked whether there was any more past life she said no so I brought her back to present day and out of hypnosis.

Conclusion
Another session was arranged to bury the past lives and a third session brought her treatment to a close. She now reports that she is not troubled by past images, she feels like a new CD has been placed in her mind and the old CD has been removed and destroyed. She said she feels happier and now she just want to lose some weight.
I am sure that if you had witnessed this lady under hypnosis you would have concluded that it is best to keep an open mind when it comes to past life existence. At the end of the day the treatment was successful.

The Brief of Hypnosis Course

Hypnosis can dramatically help with improving performance, health, confidence, relationships, sports, concentration, recall and creativity; chronic or acute pain control; overcoming habits, addictions, fears and phobias; self-discovery, stress reduction, healthier self-expression, and therapy for past traumas. Compared with traditional therapeutic modalities, the results of a relatively brief series of hypnotherapy sessions are often faster and more effective and lasting. No wonder why so many professionals already in the healing arts are implementing hypnosis within their practices.

Hypnotic Phenomena

Within a therapeutic setting, hypnosis is often induced through various methods of relaxation. As a result of this process the critical factor of the conscious mind is bypassed, giving the hypnotherapist and subject direct access to the deeper mind, the subconscious, which has been called "the other 90% of the mind."

Generally, the most well known characteristic of hypnosis is increased suggestibility. Though there are varying degrees of this heightened responsiveness to suggestion, the potential power of this direct access to the subconscious should not be underestimated.

For example, I worked with a man named Gino who had been a three-pack a day smoker for over 20 years. He had never been able to quit for even a day since his early years as a smoker. After his first hypnosis session, he called his wife from work later that day. "I can't believe how easy it is. It's like I never smoked," he exclaimed. "I can remember smoking, of course, but there's no desire at all!" While I cautioned him during our follow-up session not to be overconfident, he continued to do fine, including no negative side effects. To the contrary, he was constructively redirecting his energy, and had dramatically increased confidence and vitality.
I remember Gino vividly because after referring many of his friends and acquaintances to me for hypnotherapy, he came back a few years later to take my training to become a hypnotherapist. He introduced himself to the class with a twinkle in his eye, saying, "Randal helped me quit smoking, but I've never been hypnotized." In spite of his results, he had a hard time accepting that he had entered hypnosis, even though he knew he must have, because his hypnotic experiences were so subtle to him. Initial doubts about the hypnotic state are not unusual, and more about the subjective experience of hypnosis will be discussed later in this chapter. What was unusual was the immediate ease of his results, although such a response is not rare in the practice of an attentive, skilled hypnotherapist.

While varying degrees of initial struggle are the norm for addiction or habit cessation through hypnosis sessions, my experience has been that more than ten percent of such clients will achieve the desired results and more, with astonishing ease from the beginning. It is not rare for a skilled hypnotherapist in rapport with a motivated client to produce such profound suggestibility that it can have the effect of an imprint. An imprint is a powerful, emotional, single impact learning experience that can affect a person (or an animal) in many cases for a lifetime. But even when results are not exceptional, responsiveness to suggestion is routinely greatly heightened during hypnosis.

As important as increased suggestibility can be, it is only one of many kinds of value that can result from access to the subconscious. Concentration typically increases dramatically during hypnosis. There are many benefits from this. For example, many indigenous cultures have kept oral records for centuries or millennia. Successive generations of historians would enter hypnotic trances and recite detailed, prolonged ancestral records.

Within the context of therapy, heightened hypnotic concentration has value as an inherent aspect of trance and is a partial explanation of the effectiveness of hypnotic suggestion. In addition, specific issues such as improved study habits and various achievement goals ranging from public speaking to improved sports performance, are addressed directly by this hypnotic phenomenon. The subject can actually re-enter a state of self-hypnosis later while studying or performing, to gain further value from the concentration inherent to the hypnotic state.
While sometimes directly associated with concentration (as in some of the above examples), heightened recall during hypnosis has many functions. Revivification of significant events, whether or not they were previously repressed, can be combined with many therapeutic modalities. Also, many persons have used hypnotic access to buried memories to find missing objects of value. Although the use of hypnosis for solving crimes has been restricted in recent years by the courts, hundreds of crimes have been solved by the use of forensic hypnosis, such as when Ed Ray's hypnotic recall of the license plate after the Chowchilla kidnapping led investigators to the kidnappers. Victims and witnesses to crimes have hypnotically recalled crucial memories, whether buried because of detail or time or trauma.

A person can be taught to re-enter hypnosis to access stored memories while taking examinations or, in certain situations, to improve job effectiveness. Therefore, persons developing memory recall skills are supported by the value of increased suggestibility during the initial hypnosis sessions, as well as by the later heightened concentration and recall natural to the state of self-hypnosis. (Other values of hypnosis will also apply to improved recall, such as various uses of therapy for test anxiety.)

The pain threshold changes dramatically during hypnosis or self-hypnosis. Hypnosis can provide great relief for chronic pain sufferers referred by their physicians for such complaints as back pain, arthritis, headaches or recovery from injury. As with any issue, the good hypnotherapist will work comprehensively and holistically toward lasting results, dealing with life-style, stress, emotions and personality factors, as well as possible secondary gains. self-hypnosis can often provide some immediate benefit, while any underlying emotional and life-style issues are addressed during hypnotherapy sessions.

In deeper levels of hypnosis major surgery can, in many cases, be painlessly performed with no other anesthetic agent. In addition, physiological functions normally controlled by the subconscious can be effected, such as by suggestions from a dentist to a hypnotically anesthetized patient to control salivation and bleeding.

Increased access to the emotions during hypnosis has many uses. Often hypnotized persons later report having experienced feelings of bliss, joy or euphoria, sometimes spontaneously and other times as a response to post-hypnotic suggestions or therapeutic methods. Such feelings can be very meaningful and have substantial therapeutic value. When a person has been struggling with feelings such as fear, grief or anger, there are various therapeutic methods during hypnosis to help him or her access those feelings when appropriate and express, release or transform them.