Tuesday, January 24, 2012

The Power of Words to Make You Overweight

In this article, I will reveal some words that have a power over you and your behavior that you might not even suspect!  As a hypnotherapist, I have learned and witnessed how certain words leverage your power to make a change when you want to be slim and how other words unconciously sabotage your efforts.


The Word 'Diet' is Associated with Deprivation

"DIET" is an unproductive word for most people desring to be slim.   In fact, the majority of us cringe just saying the word!  Why?  A diet is a set of rules you follow in order to achieve a goal weight or size.  Most of us, whether we like it or not, associate dieting with a sense of deprivation which can actually cause a rebound effect described in the Diet-Being Cycle.

The Diet-Binge Cycle
The Diet-Binge Cycle progresses like this:  you diet, you feel deprived, you soothe yourself with comfort food and overeating, you feel guilty that you overate or binged. And then, you go and diet again. ..a never ending cycle. 

Hypnosis and Guided Imagery are very powerful self-help tools that can help you to break the Diet/Binge Cycle.  With their help, you can learn how to change the beliefs that you have about certain foods so that when you make changes in eating patterns, then you don't feel deprived.  The same tools are, also, very powerful in helping you to break patterns of stress induced and emotional eating. 

Say, "Slim Down" Instead!
"LOSE WEIGHT" is another word phrase that sabotages you.  Think about how the word is most often used in the English language. Almost all phrases containing words like "LOSE", "LOSS" or "LOST" convey a negative connotation.  By that I mean, that usually when we lose something, we perceive it to be a bad thing.   Furthermore, whatever you have lost is usually something you desire to recover and own again.

Here are some of the most common examples where LOSING has a negative and oftentimes unwanted effect that will stimulate the unconscious to recover what has been lost:
  • Lose an Object Like Your Car Keys or Cell Phone
  • Lose a Game
  • Lose a Job
  • Lose Sight of the Goal
  • Lose a Loved One
  • Lose Your Patience
  • Lose Your Motivation
    Your Motivation Perhaps?
  • Lose Your Mind!


From a logical standpoint, saying "Lose Weight" to become slim is like saying, "Lose Slowness" to run faster or "Lose Clutter" when you want your house to be clean.  It doesn't make sense. 

Your inner mind tends to take everything you say literally.  It is why I highly recommend that you avoid self-criticism and negative statements that your inner mind will take as an affirmation like "I am so fat."  The inner mind responds to positive suggestions and statements that are clear and make sense.  To be clear with yourself and your subconscious mind, phrase your intention in a positive way by saying you are "shedding weight" or "getting rid of pounds."  Affirm you desired outcome by saying, "I am slimming down" or  "I am getting healthy."  You might be surprised how just the simplest change in how you say something can make the biggest difference in how your inner mind supports you to be successfully slim!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

How I Discovered the Power of Hypnosis

I moved to southern California in the fall of 1991 at the age of 25.  I distinctly remember the gratitude I felt.  What wasn't there to love about my life? I lived a half block from the sand in Newport Beach, drove a cute, and fully paid for Volkswagon Cabriolet convertible, had made many friends, and was earning $65,000 a year working as an environmental engineer.  

Newport Beach, CA Sunset
Despite this idyllic life, I felt bouts of sadness and hopelessness that would roll over me like the morning fog coming off the Pacific Ocean.  I would try to talk myself out of the feelings by reminding myself of how wonderful my life was.  It didn't work and I felt stuck.

It's funny how you know something is really wrong inside when your life is so good that you can't blame your unhappiness on anything or anyone around you. 

My best friend suggested counseling.  I resisted.  Not because I didn't believe in the effectiveness of therapy but because I had been through so much of it already.  Due to my father's alcoholism, I had participated in all kinds of therapeutic counseling including Ala-Teen, family therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and psychotherapy from age 16 to age 24.  It helped immensely and I was able to detach from the dysfunction, stop feeling like a victim, and most of all, gain the powerful understanding that my thoughts create my emotions. 
28th Street, Newport Beach, CA 1992

However, at this point, I asked myself, "What could they tell me that I haven't already heard?  That I don't already know?"  I know how I am supposed to be thinking and feeling to be happy but it's not happening!

Well, back then, southern California was a bit more progressive in complimentary health modalities than Washington, D.C.  I had heard about hypnotherapy and that it could effect deeper levels of change than what we can reach consciously.  Frankly, I always have had the attitude, "I'll try anything once. "  So, I looked in the yellow pages of my local phone book (back before google and the internet) and found a list of certified clinical hypnotherapists.  I remember picking a woman named Laurie Miller because her photograph looked "normal."

I will never forget my first session.   I walked in there desperate for relief and, thus, fearless of the experience.  I didn't know what to expect.  Immediately, she made me feel safe and comfortable.  I told her that I felt depressed and explained that it probably went back to my father and childhood. Then, she began the process of hypnosis with me.


She guided me to the source of my sadness and I found myself remembering a scene from age 10 where I had gotten hurt falling off my bicycle and had not been nurtured in the aftermath despite my cry for help.   In a moment of clarity, while in this state of deeper concentration, the memory seemed to exemplify a pattern I experienced as a child of having to deal with sad or hurt feelings on my own. This, in turn, reminded me of a pervading sense of loneliness and disconnection that I had felt as a child.  Back then,  I learned to stuff the feelings since there was no one to validate them. 

At this point, in the hypnosis session, the hypnotherapist guided me to rewrite the story "how it should have been."  Immediately, I felt a huge flood of emotion as if I was that 10 year old again.  Except this time, I let myself cry and imagined that I was nurtured through the experience.  The session was especially cathartic and, by the end, I felt clearer in some inexplicable way.

That night I felt tired and I slept hard.  Then, I will never forget. Two days later, I felt physically and emotionally lighter!  Like I had literally and figuratively lost 15 pounds!  I had no clue on the conscious level that so much emotion was still being held around that story.  In fact, I imagine that days before, if you had asked me about that memory, I would have remembered it but I don't think I would have known that there was still so much emotion attached to it on a different level within.  The hypnosis session was so powerful and healing for me that I went back several more times to continue the process.

 That was when I realized that there is no such thing as time for an emotional upset or trauma that has not been cleared or healed on the emotional level. 

Years can go by.  We can talk about past hurts and traumas and choose to think about them differently in order to have more peace.   And yet, if we do not clear them on the emotional level, we may have a very hard time feeling better.  

So, it was then, that I knew that HYPNOSIS IS POWERFUL. The process so profoundly transformed me that I quit engineering to help others the way that I was once helped years ago.  It is my mission to help those who know they want to behave or feel differently and need help, like I did, to make those changes happen on the deeper level where it is felt and known mind, body, and soul. 

Saturday, January 7, 2012

To Move Forward, Leave the Baggage Behind



“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” - Andre Gide

Begin Again...It's that time of year. You know which behaviors are no longer serving you and that you sincerely want to overcome them. For most people, New Year Resolutions are our intentions for beginning life anew. Ask yourself:


"What do I want to change or let go of as I move forward in 2012?"

Some of the patterns or habits you'd like to change are probably obvious to you. Most commonly, we think of people who want to eliminate bad habits like smoking or overeating. Others will reveal themselves more subtly. However, when you dig deeper, you realize that the journey to your earthly Nirvana requires you leave your baggage behind - Mind, Body, and Soul.

Take time to go within and honor your truth....

· Is your gut instinct telling you to leave a stressful job, a toxic relationship or move somewhere new?
·Do you want to shed weight or overcome symptoms from a chronic illness?
·Are there negative or fearful beliefs that steal your energy and motivation?
·Is it time to release anger, resentment, or sadness that keep you from being happy?

Once you have identified 'THE LIST', it's time to let your creative mind help to move you forward in the right direction.


Guided Imagery is a tool which engages your creative mind to give you insight and help support a process of self-discovery and personal transformation where you can actively choose and discern which patterns are no longer serving you and which ones you want to change.

You can begin today. Sign up to 'Follow by Email' in the right hand column of this page and you will be sent a coupon code for a complimentary copy of an audio guided imagery called, Leave Your Baggage Behind. This recording is available exclusively at the new Charleston Hypnosis Center Store


Remember that you have the choice and the ability to create positive change in your life. You are not stuck in patterns that are not serving you! Setting the intention to leave the baggage behind is the first step! Using tools like Hypnosis and Guided Imagery give you the power to more fully realize the person you truly are and want to be in the world.

With Love and Gratitude,

Rebecca

Finding Your Way to Cope with Loss and Grief

This is a reprint from a newsletter I wrote in November 2011, a month after my father suddenly died at age 69.

Over the course of 20 years, I have worked with a vast number of clients to heal from the grief of losing a loved one to death. In many cases, the loss came as a shock when the loved one died unexpectedly. In others, the loss is felt just as painfully when the passing was expected to happen due to illness or aging. In either circumstance, when we lose someone close to us, it is evident that on the emotional level, there is no such thing as time. The loss of a loved one can be felt for years, decades or even a lifetime.



To heal from the loss of a loved one, it is helpful to use techniques like hypnosis or guided imagery that go beyond your logical voice and connect with that part of you where true wisdom and healing take place.

Many of the unique imageries, symbols and affirmations that I use with my clients and in my Audio Hypnosis Recordings have been born out of my own journey towards peace and serenity.

"I am standing in a beautiful green meadow. There are shade trees and a brilliant blue sky up above. My father is there and he is young and healthy and smiling at me. I begin to cry. He says, "You don't have to be sad. What is real can never be taken from you." I reply, "Then are you saying that you were never real? Because you are not with me any more." He looks at me with such compassion in his eyes and he speaks with such certainty, "Now, I am always with you."

Then, I hand him my pain and sorrow in the form of a dark ball of energy. He transforms it into orange butterflies that rise above us and spread out over the green meadow. I feel as if a heaviness inside has released and I am ready to face the day with love and hope in my heart."

May you all know this peace. I would be honored to help you on your own journey to heal grief,
Rebecca Shaw, CCH Owner and Director
Charleston Hypnosis Center