Have you ever used hypnosis or thought about using it? If you’ve read some of my earlier articles you’ll know that hypnosis is safe, and can be used for a wide variety of problems. Probably the two most common uses of hypnosis are for quitting smoking and losing weight.
Today I would like to talk about using hypnosis for weight loss. Have you ever tried to lose weight and perhaps even succeeded at losing a few pounds, only to gain them back a short while later? This is not at all uncommon. The problem is that we have decided on a conscious level to get rid of the excess weight, but we have not dealt with the subconscious part of our mind.
You are probably aware that many New Year’s resolutions fail. It is for this same reason. The conscious part of our brain wants to make the change, but the subconscious part was not informed about this decision. As a result, the subconscious will not allow you to make any significant improvements.
When you make a decision to lose weight (or change some other habit), there is a critical part of your brain that does not easily accept the new ideas or information. You can keep trying to lose the weight, but it is not very likely that you will be successful if the message doesn’t get into your subconscious. So how does one get the message through to the subconscious? One very effective way is with hypnosis.
When you are hypnotized, it is possible to bypass the critical part of the brain, the part that usually rejects the new information. You can then replace the old messages with healthier positive messages. Once these positive messages get into the subconscious, they can be acted upon as if they were true, and you will then be able to lose the weight and keep it off.
This is similar to the use of affirmations; however, affirmations take much longer to work and you must say them practically every day for several months. Hypnosis works very quickly. With just a few sessions you can be on your way to a new healthier and slimmer you!
Many peer reviewed studies have now been conducted that demonstrate that hypnosis really does work and that it is very helpful for a large number of problems. A study cited in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology showed that a group of individuals who used hypnosis lost an average of 17 pounds, compared to the non-hypnosis group which lost an average of only half a pound. In addition, and perhaps even more importantly, the group that used hypnosis was much more successful at keeping the weight off—in fact, 146% more successful at retaining their new slimmer, healthier shape.
There is another very important benefit of using hypnosis. With hypnosis, you can find out what messages are in the subconscious that are causing you to be overweight and are interfering with your losing the excess weight. As an example, have you ever gotten the message to “clean your plate?” Many of us received this message when we were growing up, and we don’t even realize that it is affecting us at the present time. If you go out to eat often and feel you need to clean your plate, you are going to be consuming a lot more food than is healthy for you.
There is a very good analogy comparing the conscious and subconscious mind to an iceberg. Only a small portion of the iceberg is visible (the conscious part of our mind), while the much larger part of the iceberg (the subconscious part of our brain) is not visible. With hypnosis we can find out what messages are in the subconscious that are sabotaging our dieting plans. Once we find this out, we can challenge the old messages and replace them with much healthier messages.
Phil Rosenbaum
