Hypnosis for Weight Loss

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, usually achieved with the help of a hypnotherapist using verbal repetition and mental images. When you're under hypnosis, your attention is highly focused and you're more responsive to suggestions, including behavior changes that can help you lose weight. After proper instruction, you can also try self-hypnosis for weight loss. Weight-loss hypnosis is often combined with cognitive behavioral therapy. Historically, hypnotic phenomena have been interpreted in different ways through the tinted glass of each culture's ideology. In Grecian sleep temples, for example, hypnosis was seen as a sleep state facilitating communication with deities (Zilboorg, 1941); in Mesmer's time, it was conceptualized as an agitated condition stemming from the absorption of cosmic forces (Crabtree 1993). According to John Kihlstrom, "The hypnotist does not hypnotize the individual. Rather, the hypnotist serves as a sort of coach or tutor whose job is to help the person become hypnotized" While hypnosis is often described as a sleep-like trance state, it is better described as a state characterized by focused attention, heightened suggestibility and vivid fantasies. Hypnotherapy can help with weight loss and weight management in many ways. Developing a new self image, see yourself in the future after losing weight and make that your desired future outcome. Learn to be more relaxed about weight loss and weight management. Stress is often a serious factor in bad diet and comfort eating. Positive thinking about weight and diet, stop worrying about your weight and about weight loss and start looking forward to losing weight and achieving your goals. Create a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, start to feel better about yourself. This will help you to lose weight and, of course, losing weight will help you to feel even better about who you are and what you can achieve. The whole thing becomes a very positive cycle which goes round and round. Most people expect to have to lose weight in order to feel good about them. Interestingly, when you start to feel good about yourself, weight loss, health and happiness often follow. And relaxation has both physical and psychological components. Parallel with physiological parameters, the experience is one of repose and calm. The experience of hypnosis can vary dramatically from one person to another. Some hypnotized individuals report feeling a sense of detachment or extreme relaxation during the hypnotic state, while others even feel that their actions seem to occur outside of their conscious volition. Other individuals may remain fully aware and able to carry out conversations while under hypnosis. Through the years, numerous studies have evaluated the use of weight-loss hypnosis. Most found positive but modest weight-loss results, with an average weight loss of about 6 pounds (2.72 kilograms). But the quality of some of these studies has been questioned, making it hard to determine the effectiveness of weight-loss hypnosis. If you've tried diet and exercise but are still struggling to meet your weight-loss goal, you may want to try weight-loss hypnosis. Just remember that there are no guaranteed results.