Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss

If you have been exploring a number of options for losing weight, it may be a good idea to try hypnotherapy weight loss in order to help you meet your fitness goals. Here are a few of the things that you should think about before you engage in hypnotherapy weight loss, as well as some resources for finding the literature and suggestions you need for performing the procedure at home.

First, you should be aware that hypnotherapy weight loss is not the only thing you will need to do in order to lose weight. While achieving your optimum health is a matter of your willpower and determination, you will still need to follow a great exercise program, as well as a healthy diet, to make sure that you are achieving your goal weight. However, hypnosis will definitely help you to make better decisions concerning your health, so if you discover that you are veering from your diet because healthy food is becoming boring, or if you are not motivated to exercise, the treatment may definitely prove to be effective.

During your hypnotherapy weight loss session, your hypnotherapist will most likely ask you why you are overweight. This answer is different for everybody, so be sure to think intently about this question. Most folks may say things like 'because I don't have time to cook' or 'because I have not been able to lose weight since having my baby', but this is not really the answer to the question. Somewhere along the way, you most likely have lost sight of your importance as a person, which is the foundation of the reason for weight loss. Events from your past may also be hindering you from losing weight, or doing the things that are necessary to stay in good health, and your hypnotherapist will help you to find the underlying cause of this as well.

Hypnotherapy weight loss will help you to find the answers to why you may associate food with happiness, stress, sadness, or comfort as well. While you are being hypnotized, your therapist will offer you alternative images to the thoughts that you may negatively associate with food, so that after your session, you will start to think of food differently, and will make better choices. Some folks claim to be cured from being overweight after just one session, but if you find that you are still struggling with certain habits, you may need to go in for another hypnotherapy weight loss session.

If you want to perform hypnosis on yourself, you can also find a number of great reading materials that will help you to do this if you are unable go to a hypnotherapy weight loss session as often as you would like.

Why Learn Self Hypnosis

Perhaps you are wondering if you should try hypnotizing yourself. According to Bruce Goldberg, author of Self Hypnosis: Easy Ways to Hypnotize Your Phobias Away, this procedure can eliminate unwanted habits, get rid of phobias, slow the aging process, enable you to be more creative, improve concentration and memory, eliminate chronic pain and improve your love life. While it may sound unlikely that folks can simply learn self hypnosis, there are a number of books written on the subject and an even larger inventory of self-help audio tapes, downloads and videos aimed at teaching you just that.

A lot of self hypnosis is all in the wording. NLP hypnosis posits the theory that flowery, artful language is better than authoritative commanding. For instance, you might say to yourself,

"I really look forward to learning how to sky dive," rather than the more authoritative "I'm going to learn to sky dive."

Secondly, you will want to use visual imagery. Often successful self-hypnotists will use phrases like,

"I see," "I hear," or "It feels like."

Images from nature work particularly good, such as waterfalls, fields full of flowers, streams, clouds, trees, beaches and auras. You should also try to choose attainable goals. So instead of telling yourself,

"I am never going to eat chocolate chip cookies again," you should instead phrase it, "As I begin to make healthier choices and choose more nutritious foods, I will begin to feel lighter and more at peace with myself."

There are several common mistakes folks make when they first learn self hypnosis and try to hypnotize themselves. You might find that you are trying to force yourself to imagine something that does not come naturally or are over-analyzing the process. Instead, you will want to be sure that you are completely relaxed first, before you allow your mind to wander.

Start by counting backwards while breathing deeply, as this is a classic trick to deepen relaxation. With each count, you are going deeper and deeper, and before you know it, you will be in a state of trance!

Now that you are in a suggestible, emotional state, you can begin using "I" phrases to affirm what you wish to learn.

Some folks prefer to spend this time imagining themselves achieving their goals instead. Others still might want to play a tape with someone else's voice guiding their positive thinking here. To awaken from your trance, tell yourself you will feel refreshed and fully awake at the count of three.

Another commonly practiced form of self hypnosis is done with the help of trance music. This fast-tempo genre inspires folks to dance as a means of letting their inhibitions go, which gets the heart rate pumping so the dancer experiences a dissociative sort of exercise high. At the same time, the progressive trance music inspires the mind to be more imaginative, much as classical music and the dancer will feel a marked spiritual shift toward an overwhelming feeling of connectedness in the presence of others. Practiced at clubs, raves or workshops, trance dance hypnosis has its roots back in ancient shaman rituals and African dance. There is no right way to dance, so it is easy for anyone to do. The important thing is that you close your eyes, focus on the beat of the music and let your mind wander freely.