Losing weight with hypnosis may not be what first comes to mind when you want to lose weight. Most people first think of dieting, exercising, fasting, becoming vegetarian or even vegan and all the steps you need to take to reach your target weight. Sometimes this seems like an impossible task, it doesn't seem doable because that potato French fry beckons to you. "Eat me, eat me that will make you happy." Seems the patty with (or whatever you like) is saying to you.
If you've already tried everything to say "no" to that chocolate bar or that scoop of sugar in the tea, but it just won't work, many people come to the point of looking at the problem in a different way
Losing weight with hypnosis
Scientific research has been conducted since the 1960s on the usefulness of hypnosis for losing weight and for treating diseases such as anorexia and bulimia. These two things may not seem very similar, but ultimately, people with morbid obesity and those with anorexia need to change behavior.
A 2014 meta study [1], a type of summary study based on multiple other studies, found that hypnosis had many benefits for managing obesity. Weight loss then often continued after hypnosis treatment. This indicates a permanent change in the obese patients' doing, doing and thinking.
Hypnosis for losing weight not only provided a healthier lifestyle it also improves self-image and self-confidence.
There are three ways hypnosis can help you lose weight.
First, the hypnotist can give instructions to the person in deep trance. Because the hypnotist assumes a role of authority, the patient can respond obediently. In addition, the hypnotist can also give suggestions about that strengthen your ego, reinforce a healthy lifestyle, change feelings about food and ensure that you exercise regularly.
Second, self-hypnosis can help with weight loss by providing positive beliefs about achieving a healthy weight and body. These can also help change the beliefs you have been given from the media about a healthy body to what is truly healthy. This includes the use of visualization and suggestion.
As a third option, the hypnotist can look for subconscious blockages that cause you to hold on to your weight despite everything. In this case, it looks for traumas that are causing an unhealthy lifestyle to be the reaction to them, and the hypnotist can help you take a different response to those traumas than you have been doing so far.
For example, due to trauma, you may have taught yourself to eat after a moment of great stress. In some cases, patients are unaware of this trauma and the hypnotist helps you find the cause of your current behavior and how to then change this behavior. Usually this is a follow-up step if self-hypnosis or suggestive hypnosis do not work. Surprising results can come from this.
For example, a woman who had just become a mother and then developed weight problems found out that it was because she had to go to the hospital when she was six and her mother could not be there, but her "fat" neighbor had gone with her to the hospital.
As a result, her subconscious got the idea that fat moms are better than slim moms, and because you don't communicate that to the outside world at age six, no one could point out to her that this wasn't true and so it didn't surface until she became a mother herself.
Victimization and obesity
Why am I so addicted to eating sugar, fat and salt? Why do I find it difficult to eat less? What makes it hard for me to exercise? Why don't I exercise more when I know that is one of the steps to losing weight. Why am I actually not taking all the steps to lose weight but choosing only one? What is wrong with me?
These questions can make you feel very insecure which still doesn't solve the problem. Often you start looking for the cause of your problem. Perhaps you used to have few friends and that made you eat, or you experienced something like the woman who got fat after motherhood. As a result, you may think your environment is to blame.
Earlier I wrote about the danger of thinking in cause and effect. Namely, by doing so you give others mental power over your problems. This is not only related to obesity, but by doing so you waste energy that would otherwise go toward solving your problem.
In some cases, it is very important to go to the root cause of the problem if it is something more complex than "I just like French fries." In that case, hypnosis can be a way to go back to the cause to see how you can take a different consequence from this than you have done so far. In this type of solution, hypnosis by a professional is important, but self-hypnosis can also help you lose weight in these cases.
Beliefs about losing weight
If you start asking yourself the questions about why you are not succeeding in taking the steps to lose weight you will find out what beliefs you have about losing weight. Some beliefs about losing weight and why you are not succeeding may be:
- I'm too busy to exercise.
- I don't get a full feeling from healthy eating.
- Healthy eating is too expensive.
- Preparing healthy food takes too long.
- Healthy eating doesn't taste good.
- Losing weight takes too long.
- I'm not worth losing weight over.
Through hypnosis, it is possible to change the beliefs you have about losing weight. Making the right decisions becomes easier through hypnosis, making losing weight easier.
In addition, you may also be so busy trying to lose weight that it causes you additional stress that prevents you from losing weight. Despite your good intentions, you keep grabbing something unhealthy instead of something healthy. This can lead to feelings of guilt and you can end up in a vicious circle.
You may also be busy all day counting calories or what you eat that prevents you from getting to other tasks, such as your work. This, in turn, can cause you additional stress from losing weight. Which will cause you to have a whole cheat weekend instead of a cheat day on the weekend when you want to relax. Then all your healthy behavior during the working days has been for nothing. In that case hypnosis for losing weight helps not only by changing beliefs about losing weight, but also as an aid to relax after work and focus on what is important at that moment. During work the work and during meal times the healthy food.
Tips for losing weight with self-hypnosis
So losing weight with hypnosis is definitely something that can be done. In fact, it has been used for decades and has also been scientifically proven for decades.
Tip #1: Determine what you want to change.
To return to the beginning of this article, self-hypnosis requires that you first determine what thoughts you have about losing weight. What do you run into every time you want to lose weight or if you haven't tried it yet, what are the behaviors you want to change.
Tip #2: Find a quiet place in your home.
A self-hypnosis session can last half an hour To make it as effective as possible, it is important that you are comfortable and in a quiet environment. Find an easy chair or lie down on your bed for the self-hypnosis session. If you like, you can also put on musical soothing music.
Tip 3: Visualize what you want.
Now that you are comfortable, breathe in and out deeply a few times to relax properly and get into a kind of trance. You can compare this to meditating. When you are well relaxed visualize what you want to achieve. For example, conjure up an image of future summer and that you look great in summer clothes. An image in which you are smiling and confident. An image in which you are active without any effort on your part. After all, you are as light as a feather. Visualize your ideal situation that makes losing weight possible.
Tip #4: Replace your negative beliefs with positive beliefs.
Here we return briefly to the negative beliefs you had already found in tip 1. As an example, I used the beliefs at the beginning of this article.
"I'm too busy to exercise." To be replaced by, "There are 24 hours in a day, I can exercise for half an hour of that."
"I don't get a full feeling from healthy eating." Replaced with: "I can eat as much healthy food as I want. There is no maximum on vegetables so I eat as many tomatoes, carrots and the like until I feel full."
"Healthy eating is too expensive." Replaced with: "I am worth investing in my health."
"Preparing healthy food takes too long." Replaced with: "I can also stir-fry a healthy meal in 10 minutes."
"Healthy eating doesn't taste good." To be replaced by: "Healthy food tastes light, sweet and fresh."
"Losing weight takes too long." Replaced with: "I live longer if I live a healthy lifestyle. Living longer takes longer than losing weight."
"I'm not worth losing weight." Replaced with: "I am worth losing weight."
During a self-hypnosis session, you repeat the positive thoughts over and over again so that they are absorbed into your subconscious.
Tip 5: Repeat the self-hypnosis session
Repeating positive thoughts to yourself may seem a little vague at the beginning. That's why you need to keep repeating your self-hypnosis session. Preferably every day. This will give you a visualization each day of how you want your life to be and give yourself a daily reminder that it is not difficult to live healthy and therefore lose weight.
Want to experience self-hypnosis right now?
Watch a video below where I take you through an exercise.
Want to learn more about hypnosis and how you can use it to help yourself or even others lose weight?
Then come to the free online master class on hypnosis.
Or register directly for one of our training courses.
Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:
Sources:
