How Can Hypnosis Help with Weight Loss?

How Can Hypnosis Help You Reach and Maintain a Healthy Weight?

   
       Hypnosis supports weight loss effort in a variety of ways.  First, it can help to change our relationship with food.  Through hypnosis, we can come to see food as an enjoyable way to nourish our bodies. We can be allowed to let go of food as entertainment, comfort, and company.
How can hypnosis do this? Well, our subconscious mind is a creature of habit. When the going gets tough, or we are stressed, lonely, angry, upset or anxious, we fall back on old behavior patterns, because that is what our subconscious mind has learned has worked in the past.

       For some of us, as children, we were offered food as comfort and entertainment.  For some of us, when we were stressed, food was the only comfort available to us.  Or, we learned to use food as entertainment.  Others learned it was the one thing we could control. When we are young, we do not have control over our lives and we cannot think as critically as we can as adults about our circumstances.  What works for us in the moment becomes ingrained in our minds as fall back behavior: the cookie helped distract us from our boredom or loneliness. Getting take out or going out for dinner was a time of fun or relief from stress. Eating might have been one of the most pleasurable times of the day, or, maybe, the time during the day when we felt most connected to others.

Now,  it's not that any of these things are bad things to do, but when they get in the way of our goals, we need to make changes.  Many of us try, over and over again, to make changes. But we find ourselves falling back on old behaviors.  This is not because we are weak minded, gluttonous, or unaware of what we "should" be doing.  It's because we have some powerful underlying beliefs about food and its role in our lives.

    These beliefs and patterns stay with us, working under the surface, and drive our behavior.  This is why we can find ourselves not eating the way we intended; we can lay careful plans for a week of healthy meals, and then as the days roll on and the stress rises, we find ourselves driving through the drive thru or eating ice cream on the couch. This is our subconscious mind's way of taking care of us. This is what it has learned makes us feel better, it thinks it is solving the problem.

                                                       So, how can hypnosis help? 

      The good news is that the subconscious mind can be taught new tricks. Through hypnosis, we can teach the subconscious mind a new way of coping with external factors.  It can be taught that a nice walk, a call to a friend, engaging in a hobby or activity, a cold drink of water, listening to music, or any other positive habit we would like to develop, can help us feel calmer, more connected, less stressed,  happier.

      And once we start this process, it doesn't stop. We start to learn, really learn, how to use true self care to meet our needs, so we can start to put food back into its place: an enjoyable way to nourish our bodies at meal times, and that is all.

        Hypnosis helps us on another level, too. Because many of us fall back on old behaviors when stress rises. When we are anxious, fearful, or stressed the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for fear responses, is activated.  When he amygdala is activated, it overrides other parts of the brain, such as the hippocampus, and we lose the ability to perceive our environment and our situation clearly.  We also lose the ability to come up with creative solutions or new behaviors. When our amygdala is in charge, we go back to what has worked in the past, and can't really see any other options.

         Under hypnosis, because it is such a deep state of relaxation, the amygdala quiets down. Our fear response subsides, and we are able to see all of our options more clearly, think creatively, problem solve and try new things. We can take the risk to reach out to someone or try something new.

       Hypnosis can also help us retrain how we perceive information coming into our senses. A skilled hypnotherapist can help us learn that healthy food is delicious, and also help us notice that junk food makes us feel poorly.  It can help us be aware of fullness and hunger. It can help us remember to take good care of ourselves so that stress and anxiety do not rise.

      These are just some examples of how hypnosis can help us reach our weight and health goals. It's hard to overstate just how powerful of a tool hypnosis can be.  If you would like to learn more, please  don't hesitate to contact me!