I don’t need to tell you about the obesity epidemic in this country. As a result I conduct more weight loss sessions than anything else. These clients range in age from 14 to 65. Simply said, they are trapped by the deeply rooted unhealthy patterns of poor nutritional choices, emotional eating and sedentary living which have been repeated and reinforced for decades.

Time (June 2004) devoted an entire issue to the subject of obesity and I recall two particular studies that summed up just how deeply rooted the problem of obesity really is. One reported that the children of today believe that fast food is healthier than home cooked meals and the other stated that today’s youth is predicted to have a shorter life expectancy than that of their parents which is the first time in American history. What more do we need to know?

In my work as a Clinical Hypnotist I help individuals to enter the state of hypnosis for the purpose of establishing lasting positive change. I describe this state as a unique combination of heightened awareness and deep physical relaxation which is what we all experience everytime we zone out or daydream.

The benefit in visiting this level of thought is gaining access to the subconscious mind which acts as the hard drive, where all of life’s habits, patterns, values and beliefs are stored. Obesity related patterns such as poor nutritional choices, sedentary living and emotional eating become problematic with repetition. We follow the path of our most dominant thoughts, what we think about we bring about.

Like a computer hard drive the subconscious stores whatever information it is given. The good news is that if you want to become a musician the repetition of musical scales enables you to create an automatic connection with your creative goal. The bad news is that if you make the mistake in repeating patterns supporting excess weight the subconscious mind will establish an automatic connection as well. Think of the subconscious as a greenhouse, it will grow roses and poison ivy with equal success.

With access to such a powerful level of thought we have the unique opportunity to unplug or delete unwanted patterns and plant or download new preferred ones. The computer related references regarding how the mind works are helpful to a point.

With hypnosis we plant new seeds supporting an individual’s goals. In order support lasting positive change it is important to repeat these new preferred patterns so they can grow their own roots which is why my clients go home with a cd recording of each session so that they can effectively and powerfully train their brain to embrace new freedom and relief.

Most people think that because they have never sat down with a hypnotist they have never experienced hypnosis. This is not true at all. We ball float in and out of light to medium levels of hypnotic thought. We commonly refer to these moments as daydreaming or zoning out.

The reason I mention this is because there is a strong parallel between the formal process of hypnosis and what also occurs when we are vegging out in front of what my mother used to call the ‘boob tube’. We enter a state of light hypnotic trance everytime we stare at a television screen for more than 15 minutes and a light trance is deep enough.

The important thing to understand is that even during light hypnotic trance the conscious mind is less active and this is the problem. The conscious mind is the gate keeper, it judges, critiques, accepts or denies information for storage into the long term memory or subconscious. During a formal hypnosis session in my office this is our explicit goal, to gently push the conscious mind to the back burner so I can directly offer suggestions and imagery supporting positive change.

When this happens during television viewing, especially for children who have overly active imaginations, viewers are vulnerable to the nonstop bombardment of junk food advertising which blatantly caters to their specific interests. Then if you add up all the hours, months and years of repetition you get an idea of

Advertisers know how the mind works, they know about the subconscious mind and how effective the constant repetition of their message can be. When you consider how television viewing time has increased exponentially over the past 20 years one might begin to understand the problem.

In order to establish positive lasting change with hypnosis individuals need to embrace the process as a lifestyle. If you consider the years of unhealthy repetition invested in creating the problem it makes perfect sense to use the same approach with the solution. Why reinvent the wheel? If we truly are creatures of habit isn’t it just a matter of repeating more positive patterns?

The good news is that with hypnosis we formerly open the vault of deeply powerful levels of thought so that repetition time is weeks to months rather than years to decades which, in my opinion, is a quick fix. On the surface it may still sound like chore to some but the feel good aspect of hypnosis is so enjoyable that it easily becomes a preferred immediate priority.

My primary approach with weight challenged clients is helping them to positively enhance their focus. Traditional dieting focuses on excess weight as the problem and the dieter’s ultimate desired weight as the goal. I believe that excess weight is the symptom not the problem. I also believe that having a target weight as your goal is at the very least shortsighted.

I certainly help my clients to weigh less but that comes more from a hypnotically enhanced ability to live well. In all of my session work clients hear phrases such as “from now on, with the power of hypnosis, your thoughts and actions are directed to consistently serve your highest good.”

With daily home reinforcement individuals not only become wonderfully skilled with the process of hypnosis but they also become more proficient in defining what their highest good truly means to them which influences their actions begin to supporting these new values and beliefs.

Another important part of the refocusing process is to ask my clients to limit their scale usage to once a month. We live in an extremely polarized pass/fail society; everything is either all good or all bad. Since the traditional focus on weight loss is on the number, and most impatient dieters have unrealistic expectations on the number they should see, they set themselves up for daily doses of disappointment and frustration by routinely hopping on the scale.

I suggest that if they focus more on how they feel about their new plan and how well their clothes might fit they will remain more centered and directed to the long term fitness success they desire. Early on in my practice I used to send clients off feeling focused and empowered by their office session only to have them return deflated and discouraged the following week because the number they saw on the scale didn’t match up with their distorted unrealistic. expectations.  It takes a long time to accumulate excess weight, why shouldn’t it take a little while to be healthfully free of it?

I see so many individuals for so many problems, patterns and concerns and the most frequently asked question is whether I think hypnosis will work for them. It doesn’t specifically matter what they come to have me fix as long as they check comply with the three simple keys to success:                                                        1) Be open to the process and able to follow simple instructions                            2) Have a legitimate desire to establish positive change                                          3) Commit to 30 consecutive days of home CD session reinforcement

Occasionally I have a client who winces at the notion of home reinforcement to which I inquire how many years they have invested in repeating the problem patterns they want me to fix. When they compare the 30 day investment in securing lasting success to the 20 years of problem repetition the solution looks and feels more like the quick fix it really is.

The added incentive making it easy to press “play” once a day is how euphorically wonderful the hypnotic experience is. I help my clients connect right away to the feel good aspect of the process which gets better with practice. They leave my office looking foreword to listening to that same session when they get home.

Paul Gustafson, R.N., B.S.N., C.H. runs BurlingtonHypnosis.com in the Greater Boston area, developed the popular self-hypnosis CD resource website HealthyHypnosis.com and hosts the popular TV show Healthy Hypnosis. For more information email info@Burlingtonhypnosi.com or call 888-290-3972

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