I Have A Weight Problem, Can Nlp Or Hypnosis Cds Help?

Hypnosis, thanks to spooky TV shows, the very word conjures up the image of a evil-eyed hypnotherapist swinging his pocket watch and chanting, "You are getting sleepy."

Use any search engine and you will find thousands of web pages devoted to the topic. Unfortunately, many websites that sell hypnosis tapes make wild and crazy, unsubstantiated claims. I've been in the business since 1978. So I think that I'm more than experienced enough to set the record straight on weight loss hypnosis.

First of all, post-hypnotic suggestion is a tool, just like a scalpel is a tool. Just as all of the various surgeons have different levels of skill in the use of a scalpel, different hypnotherapists have varying levels of skill in the use of post-hypnotic suggestion. And to complicate the matter, there are different types of post-hypnotic suggestion.

Here are just a couple of the wild claims about weight loss hypnosis that I've read on websites, along with the truth of the matter:

"Hypnotherapy will speed up your metabolism." If you want a dose of reality, the fact is that post-hypnotic suggestion won't directly speed up your metabolism. But it can be very useful at helping to re-program your subconscious with increased motivation to exercise. And that exercise will speed up your metabolic rate. Similarly, post-hypnotic suggestion to speed up the metabolism for quick weight loss can be effected by programming the subconscious to motivate the intake of increased amounts of protein, because that intake will step up your metabolic rate.

"Hypnotherapy will make you lose weight." This is false. But post-hypnotic suggestion 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 urges for food and compulsion to eat are triggered by two unconscious programs:

A. When you pair eating with any other behavior, the other behavior will trigger cravings for food and a strong desire to eat. This is called a conditioned response. For example, if you eat as you watch TV, you will 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 because of programming that you received as a baby. When you got grouchy, your nanny 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 someone is motivated to make him or herself fat, because by being fat they will protect themselves in some way. For example, if someone gets their heart broken in a relationship, their subconscious can motivate them into a behavior that will prevent them from getting their heart broken again. Example: They are motivated to gain weight to keep them out of another relationship, because that will eliminate the possibility of another broken heart.

So just how can self-hypnosis for losing weight remedy the above mentioned 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 subconscious 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 NLP "Flash" is a method that allows us to program the subconscious 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 subconscious 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 subconscious 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.

Hypnotherapy for weight loss can be a very effective method. I can only display the tip of the iceberg in this short article. Please see my website for more comprehensive information.