Self-Hypnosis - Can It Really Help You To Become Slimmer?

Self-hypnosis, thanks to TV and movies, the very word conjures up the depiction of an evil-eyed hypno-therapist swinging a gold watch repeating the words, "You are getting sleepy."

Do an MSN search, and you will find several million web pages focused on the subject, especially weight loss hypnosis. Unfortunately, many websites that sell pre-recorded hypnosis programs for weight loss make wild, unsubstantiated claims. I've been in the business since 1978. So I think that I'm more than equipped to set the record straight on weight loss hypnosis.

First of all, self-hypnosis is a tool, just like a scalpel is a tool. Just as varying surgeons have noteworthy skill levels in the use of a scalpel, diversified hypnotists have noteworthy skill levels in the use of hypnotism for weight loss. And to complicate the matter, there are many diversified methods of hypnosis.

Here are some of the ridiculous postulations about weight loss hypnosis that I've seen on websites, along with the truth of the matter:

"Hypnosis for weight loss will speed up your metabolism." If you want to know the total truth, the fact of the matter is that weight loss hypnosis won't speed up your metabolism. But it can be very adequate at helping to program your subconscious with increased motivation to exercise, and that can increase your metabolic rate. Similarly, self-hypnosis 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 the metabolism.

"Self-hypnosis will make you slim down." This is false. But weight loss hypnosis can be used to help do away with your appetite, so that you eat less, and eating less can help you to get rid of weight.

The average person's appetite and cravings are caused 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 when you watch TV, you will automatically get an urge to eat each time you sit down to watch TV.

B. When you feel tense, you feel a strong desire to put food into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure. This is because of programming that you received as a baby. When you got temperamental, 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 subconscious program that is present for some people. It's called emotional eating. Emotional eating takes place when an individual is motivated to make him or herself fat, because by being fat they will protect themselves in some way.

For example, if a subject got their heart broken in a relationship, their subconscious can usually motivate them into an action that would prevent them from getting their heart broken again. Example: They are motivated to get fat to keep them out of another relationship, because that will cut out the possibility of another broken heart.

D. I have written several articles on hypnosis for weight loss and emotional eating that are available on my website.

There are some powerful and effective ways to use hypnotherapy to reduce or eliminate emotional eating. So just how can weight loss self-hypnosis fix the above problems? Let's cover them one at a time.

In paragraph "A" above: Conditioned responses can be "erased" without effort using a way of doing things that I call the "Flash." The flash trains the unconscious mind to setup a new set of responses. In the above example, the subject had unconsciously mated the impression of food in the hand, with the TV. Each time he / she sat down to watch the TV, the unconscious mind filled in the missing part of the image: It "Flashed" the visualization of the food in the hand, and the subject felt a compulsion, and an compulsion to eat.

The Flash is a technique that we use to program the unconscious to use the visualization of the TV as a trigger for an image of yourself watching TV without eating. When we lose the visualization of the food, we lose the cravings.

When we momentarily disassociate (see ourselves from the point of view that another individual would), we are not able to sense our feelings (cravings and urges).

When we see ourselves in a behavior (watching TV without eating), we feel a strong compulsion 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 unconscious to use the mental images and thoughts that are triggering feelings of affliction and nervous tension, as triggers for secondary thoughts that will trigger the relaxation response instead. When the subject feels more relaxed overall, oral cravings are drastically reduced.

In paragraph "C" above: We discussed obsessive eating which makes the person overweight. The "behavior" of being overweight then provides some sort of emotional protection. So we use an approach called an NLP reframe, which programs the unconscious to take the 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 cast out the craving to eat for emotional purposes.

Self-hypnosis for weight loss can be a very effective methodology. I can only uncover the tip of the iceberg in this short characterization. Please see my website for more comprehensive articles and information.

© 2007 by Alan B. Densky, CH. This article may be reproduced on your website as long as you retail all clickable links contained within.

Alan B. Densky, CH established his professional hypnosis practice in Feb. 1978. He is the creator of Neuro-VISION Stop smoking & weight control video hypnosis, which garnered a US Patent because of its effectiveness.

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