Self-Hypnosis for Weight Loss

By Joy and Steven Gurgevich, PhD

Conventional diets don’t work. Not surprising, since they lack one essential ingredient for lasting weight loss: the power of the subconscious mind to imagine and create. So what if you could harness that power through self-hypnosis and eliminate whatever it is that’s preventing you from losing weight?

Our body and mind constantly communicate. Sometimes we realize it, but more often this internal dialogue takes place below our awareness in the subconscious—the mind of the body—in what is called the mind-body connection. Every thought affects our body, and every bodily sensation affects our mind. For instance, think of something that makes you very angry. Your central nervous system immediately transmits those thoughts to your body, which is now “thinking” the same thing as your mind. Your anger suddenly “makes your blood boil!” Your heart function, muscle tension, nervous system, and blood vessels undergo changes. So any confusion in the mind can create confusion in the body. You suddenly crave that chocolate cake not because you’re hungry but because you’ve just had a spat with a friend or a deadline you fear you can’t make.

The Self-Hypnosis Diet isn’t about dieting. Instead, it gives you tools to eliminate the confusion in the mind-body that prevents you from losing weight. Using self-hypnosis can quite literally change your subconscious so that your mind-body shares your desired healthy weight. Similar to daydreaming or imagining, self-hypnosis is an inner experience of focused consciousness. Through hypnosis you’ll come to understand that:

•• Beliefs create reality. The power of believing lets you influence your body in astounding ways. A placebo response shows how beliefs are experienced in the body. If you believe you will get well if you take a certain medication, it will happen whether or not the pill contains medicine.

•• Your subconscious hears everything you hear and everything you say, and it believes everything you picture, imagine, or pretend. More importantly, it takes everything literally. So be mindful of your conscious language. Eliminate the word try. Can you try to pick up a pencil? You either pick one up or you don’t. So rather than saying, “I’m trying to lose weight,” which makes no sense to your mind-body, say, “I’m losing weight easily.”

•• Since your subconscious cannot process a “not,” it hears negative statements as positive. Remember, “Never the nots.” Rather than saying, “I won’t eat too much pizza,” which your subconscious hears as “I will eat too much pizza,” make a positive statement: “I’ll have one slice.”

•• The subconscious cannot tell the difference between what we really experience and what we imagine.

For mind-body exercises that can help you achieve your ideal weight, go to www.alternativemedicine.com and click on Web Exclusives.