Last updated 15 days ago
By Robbie Spier Miller, MA, CH
Director, Burlington Hypnosis Centre
Many hypnosis clients begin their program with a habit of getting angry with themselves, or feeling guilty, for exactly the behavior they would like to change. This creates a terrible pattern because often the anger or guilt results in experiencing the problem even more intensely.
A typical example is a person who wants to lose weight and tends to binge eat at night. They will have their binge and then feel totally guilty, which makes them want to eat even more to escape the guilt. Then the next day they wake up figuring why bother ? I already binged so I will just throw the whole thing out the window. Or they convince themselves that the binge proved to them they have failed.
Another example is a person who is having trouble sleeping and looks at the clock every few minutes while worrying about how they are going to cope with the next day if they don't fall asleep. All of the talking in their head and worrying prevents them from falling asleep. Then they wake up the next day feeling terrible and debate in their mind all day about what is going to happen that night when they try to sleep.
And on it goes. I could play out these examples even further, but you can see how the initial problem is compounded by this anger, guilt and worry, and becomes much bigger than it originally was.
So how do you escape being trapped inside a collection of ever bigger Russian dolls?
It is an act of surrender, accepting yourself and learning from your experience, while at the same time making a plan and taking positive action. It is also a matter of perceiving that you have choice, and making the most of your ability to choose.
As you do this, before you know it you are down to the tiniest Russian Doll, which is way easier to escape. In this way you learn how to have true freedom to live your life by design.
If you are interested in learning more about how to use your mind to help you reach your life goals – whether it is weight loss, better sleep, stopping smoking, or getting over fears - call the Burlington Hypnosis Centre at 905-634-4777 for a free hypnotic screening.
Last updated 2 months ago
"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength." --unknown
Last updated 3 months ago
Have you ever noticed how quickly young children change their mood? They can go from a temper tantrum to happily giggling in no time. This is because they spend much of their first 6 years in a hypnosis-like state, where they are mostly in their emotions, their senses and their imaginations. And it is impressive how quickly they are able to learn complex skills like walking and talking. If they fall down, they get up and try again, and they keep observing, experimenting and practicing until they get it. The ingeniousness of babies is a popular research topic with scientists.
When people fail at losing weight and keeping it off, they are doing the polar opposite of what babies do. They talk in their heads, find ways to rationalize giving up, build up stress and overwhelm, look for reasons why it is not possible for them, allow the fear of failure to dominate their spirit, or get angry at themselves for falling off the wagon and then sink into complacency.
So what would happen if you could stop using your conscious mind to rationalize negative emotion and reinforce sabotage? What if negative emotions like fear and anger could just pass through you, and you could continue on your merry way to getting your goal? What if you could associate good feelings with eating healthy and exercising? What if you could learn to use your conscious mind to reinforce positive behaviours?
Hypnosis and NLP teach you how to use your mind to help you stay motivated to reach your weight loss goals.
For expert help with learning how to use your mind to lose weight, stop smoking and reduce stress, call the Burlington Hypnosis Centre for a free screening at 905-634-4777.
Last updated 3 months ago
Most people tend to live their future as if it is an inevitable rehashing of their past, and then they wonder why they are not able to make the changes they claim to so desperately want. I have seen countless people throw their hands to the heavens and exclaim some version of ‘Why can’t I change this?’ I have heard 100’s of excuses for remaining stuck, whether the person thinks their weight problem is genetic and they were born that way (‘I have always been overweight. My mother is fat, my father is fat, my grandparents were fat...’), or a smoker has convinced themselves that they are hopelessly addicted to nicotine.
These people believe that other people succeed because of luck. They do not believe it is possible for them unless they happen to get lucky. So popping a pill or taking a diet product are very seductive solutions. They are some version of ‘If I can’t change this, maybe this pill can do it for me’.
The first step towards a successful change is reclaiming control, and that starts with asking a different question. By shifting the question from ‘Why Can’t I...’ to ‘How Can I...’ a whole world opens up. The truth is that these people are struggling to reach their goals because they have a pattern or strategy that they have been executing for so long that it has become habit, and they have identified themselves with the habit so strongly that it feels like it is part of who they are.
So next time you find yourself asking the question ‘Why can’t I...’, immediately switch it to ‘How Can I...?’ and look around you for new strategies.
For expert help with changing your habits so that you can lose weight, stop smoking and reduce stress, call the Burlington Hypnosis Centre for a free screening at 905-634-4777.
