You’re getting sleepy…
I had the typical thoughts of what hypnosis was and how it worked. That was just a bunch of baloney so someone could charge you a $100 to say things to you while you sleep is what I thought. I didn’t think it would work on me for sure and yet as a natural living guide I couldn’t help but wonder if I was wrong about it. I knew people who had used hypnosis to stop smoking or to sleep better. One of my friends said it only took one session and she has never smoked again. The mere thought of it gives her a bad taste in her mouth years later. Perhaps this was the missing link I needed to put down the junk food and lose weight.
I signed up for a free consultation followed by purchasing a 3 session package hoping I was like my friend and it only took one. The first time I met with the hypnotist she explained how it works. She said she had been practicing it for the last 25 years and had a chiropractor that sent her referrals. As an example she said she often gets kids who have warts and through hypnosis those warts go away. I was disbelieving and asked “really?” She assured me this was true and she hypnosis works in our subconscious to bring out behavioral and physical changes in our body. The mind-body link being so strong that when we align them perfectly we can change our health. There was no swinging watch and the words you’re getting sleepy are just the props of movies.
From my own work personally to live more naturally I knew the mind-body alignment was key to reinforcement of healthy changes. It takes more than just determination and grit to make major changes in our life too. We have to be committed, consistent and empowered through making sure our mind and body are moving in the same direction. It is complicated work that makes achieving our goals often feel like a string of failures sometimes. It is why I believe dieting doesn’t work and punishing ourselves with excessive exercise is just torture. We have to find that connection between mind driven reinforcement through positive support and body movement that leads to action.
In the first session I was hypnotized I felt like I was trying too hard to make it work. My mind was focused on seeing if this was hocus pocus and what I was feeling rather than what she was saying to me. I wanted this to work. I was all over the place with trying to figure out how it worked during my session. Afterwards I didn’t feel any different and went about my day. The next session a week later, I just went with it not expecting anything again. She went through the same process and when I come awake afterwards I had this feeling I just had the best nap in my life! I was happy, energetic and wasn’t hungry most of the day. I remembered everything but yet it was distinctively different than the first time.
The trick she told me is to practice this on my own every day. Usually people do it at night before they go to sleep. It did seem to help me sleep very soundly and I felt deeper in sleep longer. Checking the recordings on my Fitbit showed that was true too. I didn’t weigh myself at all during the first month but rather just gauged how my clothes were fitting. No real difference yet there. When I first noticed the difference though was when I no longer wanted my regular snacks before bed. This consisted usually of ice cream, cookies and your run of the mill junk food. Also I was filling up at dinner without cleaning my plate. This was definitely new for me.
Once my initial 3 sessions were up, I continued practicing daily before I went to sleep. These small signs I was seeing encouraged me that something was shifting and I wanted to see more progress. In addition to slight changes in my eating, I also felt calmer, clear headed and even more focused each day. Maybe my subconscious was shifting and becoming more aligned. I didn’t want to jinx it so I stopped questioning it and just continued practicing. I also reserved another 3 sessions as reinforcement about a month and half later to make sure I was keeping on track.
It was gradual but I finally felt my body becoming more in my control. Eating particularly started to be less about boredom and routine and more when I was hungry. Water tasted the best it ever has and I couldn’t get enough of it. I even looked forward to a walk on my treadmill after work most days. When my waistbands of my jeans started to not dig so much into my waist I knew it was working. I was gaining controls back and making those subconscious decisions was helping me finally. I also started to feel more energetic overall and even happier.
Finding that method that works for you is critical. Finding a method that is natural and listens to what you need is even more critical. I had tried harsh restrictive diets, expensive meal plans and even personal trainers. Nothing was making those pounds drop from my body. What I learned in hypnosis is sometimes those don’t work because we have to first get our mind-body alignment working first. We have to build up our own support system in us to make any other change possible and fruitful. Thinking that losing weight is just about your body is where dieting, exercise and all the cruel things we do to ourselves for being overweight doesn’t work long term. It is why we give up and have to start over so often too.
Our minds are powerful and we don’t tap into their super powers nearly enough to help us sometimes. A big part of living naturally is improving that relationship between our mind, body and spirit. It is where we being to accept ourselves and see our imperfections as blessings. We find that path forward to reaching our goals and improving our health. For me it has been incredibly more impactful than just forcing myself through another health package aimed at restricting my food and punishing my body with exercises that leave me sore and disappointed when the scale doesn’t move.
Once we gain the controls of our being back in our own hands, we find the formula that works best for us individually. We draw more from the things that help us feel our best during the process and not just when results are achieved. That was a powerful lesson for me in hypnosis work. Results matter but so do loving yourself now and throughout the work you are doing to improve. It has made a world of difference in my own work to lose weight. That deeper alignment of who I am has brought out my natural inclination to want to feel my best and have more energy so I can do the things that matter to me in life. Powerful indeed.
I learned a lot about myself in hypnosis. All the negative things I told myself about being in menopause and not being able to lose weight, or the stress of my job resulting in poor eating was controllable. I was in command of my body again and could do it with love and grace. There are tools I can use now to bring myself relaxation in stressful times to align with what is important to me in those moments. It creates this essence of living naturally that we can achieve results and not through conforming to what others call standards but in a unique way that is purely right for ourselves. What a beautiful thing!
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