by Tim Brunson, PhD
As nutrition is so vital to our body's health, why do so many of us turn this necessity into a problem? Normally, the answer lies in the fact that we have corrupted many of the natural capabilities of our brain. We have learned that eating not only serves as a requirement to provide nutrients to our cells and organs, it has somehow become linked to our stress-fighting defense mechanism. So, how do we transition from eating for stress to once again primarily eating for health?
The essential problem is that there is a tremendously close relationship between the parts of our brain that handle our self-preservation regarding our need for nutrition and our self-preservation regarding our need to safeguard our bodies from external threat. Furthermore, this linkage between our eating habits and our other survival needs makes a whole lot of sense. For instance, if we think that our survival will the threatened by a long, harsh winter, or the possibility of a drought, it makes sense to gain a few pounds. However, that same logic hurts us when the perceived threat is the Internal Revenue Service, your employer, or some totally irrational fear. In those cases, we further our instincts by reinforcing habits that mislead us to believe that ingesting additional calories provides us with additional layers of defensive armor. The problem is that fat and armor are not the same thing. In fact, more fat can make you unhealthy and even possibly shorten your life.
The task then is to reprogram how your mind relates stress and eating. There simply needs to be an alternate way of reacting to the stressors in your life. And, you need to strengthen how your mind associates eating with your long-term health. To do this, the deep relaxation provided by a hypnosis session will be a very big asset. When you get accustomed to this alternate state and make it a daily habit, it is amazing how fast your weight will change – and how you will most likely find other areas of your life improving.
Hypnosis is also a great way of changing how your brain maintains your body image. As a map of your entire brain is maintained in your head – to include every cell and organ, - when you begin changing your mind, your body receives a different set of instructions. This is so powerful that several research institutes have shown that changing how you think – during hypnosis sessions – will actually improve how fast wounds and fractures heal. If that is true, then just imagine what impact you can have on shedding those extra pounds.
Posted: 05/03/2011
