A Weight Loss dillema

A lady who I will call Mary (not her real name) came to see me for weight loss.

During our history taking Mary advised that she suffered from Ulcerated Colitis – every time she went to the toilet, there would be blood in the water.  Mary said that she felt that if she could lose weight then this might help her to heal her ulcerated colitis.

There was no history of traumatic events.  Relationship with her husband and children were good.

The human brain is the most complex organ in any living organism.  It controls the brain-mind-body system through a network of nerves and with a range of chemicals and through its integrated systems, it enables the body constantly to adjust and readjust to changes in the physical, social and emotional environment and to maintain the internal balance that is essential to health.

We contracted that I ask her in hypnosis to look for any happenings that may be at a deeper level and if so that we release any emotions from such an event.  I explained different methods we could use that would allow us to release these.   I also asked if we could look at the ulcerated colitis whilst in hypnosis.  There was an affirmative to both.  We talked about hypnotherapy and expectancies.  We counselled weight prior to hypnosis.

My thoughts on weight after reading numerous articles and books have led me to the conclusion that YOU are the best designed to work out what it is that you need to do.

There are many differing views.  On the one hand you hear that, “You must have breakfast, it is the best meal of the day and starts your metabolism.”… on the other hand you hear “You have just had 8 hours sleep, haven’t done any work – why would you want to put food in your stomach just to start your metabolism?”  There is evidence that we should eat more plant food in ratio to meat for optimum health.

Exercise is another misnomer.  One view is how good it is for you, whilst another view tells us that there are more that die from running marathons that those that don’t exercise… There is new evidence that shows that the benefits of exercise not only in weight reduction but also in helping treat things such as anxiety and depression as well as chronic physical conditions including osteoporosis, obesity, heart disease and, more recently, cancer.  It is important to note that Eastern forms of exercise such as Yoga and Tai Qi are based on the balanced use of the body, whereas some Western exercises can be responsible for musculo-skeletal damage, especially later in life.  Hmm!  I could go on, but that is not the intention of this story.

I heard a story about a clinic that had set itself up with a smell machine and audio system so that when they did hypnosis with the client, they simulated a gastric band surgery – it took 12 session to achieve the result that a band was tightening and was stopping the client from being able to eat too much.  The mind boggles!  Especially when you consider; yes – there are helpful things that the subconscious can do – like put in a full up feeling when it knows that it has had enough to eat to be able to lose weight – but it can do that in 1 session and without having to have a feeling of tension in the stomach.

The sub-conscious can make your metabolism work faster.  It can put in a vision of me saying; STOP IT!”  whenever the client is about to eat for any other reason than for hunger because they need to refuel.  But let’s get on with the story…

After Induction and deepening, having noted that Mary was visual in hypnosis, I asked her to look inside and tell me what she saw when looking at the colon.  She said that it looked all wet and weepy and bloody.  I asked her what needed to be done.

Mary replied: “They are already doing it.”

I said: “Who are they?”

Mary said:  “They look like the dwarfs in Snow White and the 7 dwarfs.”

I said:  “What are they doing?”

Mary said:  “They have a heater and they are drying it up.”

I said:  “Let me know when they have finished.”

Pause…

Mary said:  “They have finished now.”

I said:  “Ask them what we need to do next.”

Mary replied:  They said; “Come back tomorrow to inspect it.”  (Inside myself I had to laugh at that response.)

(I decided to leave that line of questioning  to be continued at the next session.)

I said:   “Mary, ask them to make up a blackboard menu of the food they like that would allow them to lose weight.”

Mary said:  “Done.  But one of them said that he wants it in the filing cupboard.”

I said:  “Ask him if it would it be all right if we make a copy to put that in the filing cupboard.”

Mary replied:  “He said yes.”

So with ego-strengthening suggestions, we finished session 1.

Session 2.

Talking with Mary, it seemed that nothing had changed.  However she said that at our last session one of the dwarfs was in the background with his arms folded.

In hypnosis –  I said:  “Can I talk to the dwarf that had his arms folded.”

Response:  “Yes.”

I said:  “Are you the one that stopped the process?”

Response: “Yes.”

I asked:  “Because?”

Response:  “I wanted to be different.”

I said:  “How are you being different when you are still doing what you did before you came here?”

Mary said:  “He’s got his hands on his tummy laughing and said, “She’s got a point there.”

It was this little one that helped us to create the changes.

We continued the session with looking again at the ulcerated colitis.  The dwarfs felt it was ‘too hard’.  It was like there was a misty-see through gauze that enveloped them that they found too hard to penetrate.  They said they were trying.

We learnt self hypnosis to relax and the dwarfs worked out a healing visualisation that they would use.  All the dwarfs wanted to lose weight, so we negotiated with the ‘folded arms’ dwarf who said he would allow that to happen.  With further ego-strengthening suggestions we ended session 2.

Session 3.

Mary said things were a bit better but not much.  She said that she felt that somehow it had something to do with a past life, and did I deal in past lives?

We counselled around memory, i.e. false memory syndrome, the possibility of having seen something on TV, film or read in a book.  Even having been told things when she was little that left an impression as though it had really happened to her when it hadn’t.  We talked about studies that had been done that proved how unreliable the memory was.  We then spoke about how some people seem to be able to access a past, whereas others are not able to.  Mary still wanted to try to see if she could see if this would shed any light on her current predicament.

So, I guided Mary through the light and asked her what she saw.  She saw herself in a small saloon bar as a dancer on a stage.  She loved what she did but as she got older and lost her looks, she ended up serving drinks at the table.  Whilst everyone liked a dancing girl, no one wanted to marry one.  And so she was never married nor had any children.  It was something that she had regretted in that life.

What eventuated (to cut a long story short), was that Mary had decided to come back into this life to have a husband and children.  However, she really missed her dancing.  So I asked Mary, how she would feel about starting a dancing group to lose weight?  Mary thought that was an excellent idea.

Final Session.

All was going well.  Mary was looking at the dancing aspect and organising it.  The dwarfs were enjoying themselves.  They liked the diet and not being under pressure of having to eat things they didn’t like.  They felt they were making progress with the ulcerative colitis.  Mary felt confident that she could continue this journey on her own.

There is always a reason that weight is a problem.  It may be to be to shield oneself, i.e. if I am not attractive, no one will come and take sexual advantage of me… eating for boredom… eating too much… emotional eating… anxiety… etc. etc.  It seems to me that mostly weight has nothing to do with metabolism other than the fact having got older we no longer do the things that we used to do that ate up the calories and having slowed down, we need to reduce intake.  Research shows us that diets do not work.  Using willpower to do something you don’t like doing does not work.

Having your life in Balance, does.  So fish and chips, pizza, a piece of cake, that glass of wine… once a week is not a problem.  Having take-away, cake and a bottle of wine every day is.

YOU ARE THE BEST TO DESIGN YOUR OWN DIET!  Release any trauma, anxiety and inappropriate behaviour and you change the chemicals in your brain and almost magically your weight takes care of itself.

Bruni Brewin

www.bbbenefits.com.au