The Christmas decorations have come down and the media is full of suggestions for diets, new exercise routines and health regimes! We are expected to bounce into the new year with vigor and start with a clean slate, like going back to school in September with a different hair cut , new blank exercise books, and if not pencil cases new ipads! It is useful to have incentives for self improvement and it can be helpful to hear that most people are in the same boat, throwing out statements like “I’ve started dry January!” Even if its an artificial start date it can feel good to imagine that we are shedding the skin of 2016 and moving towards a better more positive year. Yet it is important that we don’t feel under too much pressure, nor set goals so high that we will inevitably come crashing down and then give up.
In solution focused hypnotherapy and counselling we encourage working towards goals and moving forward. However these need to be realistic, achievable and measurable. It’s no good saying ‘I am going to loose three stone in a month’, or ‘I am going to get up earlier and go to the gym Every morning’. Work out what you want, and a sensible plan of action. You know that there are going to be days when you cant make it to the gym, so allow for that and don’t beat yourself up when the car windscreen took much longer to scrape clean than you planned, or you had to pick someone up or the children woke you up in the night. It is going to happen so make allowances for ‘life’ happening!
There might be less people stopping smoking and more people loosing weight nowadays but there are people struggling with this and hypnotherapy is a wonderful way to stop. Sometimes people have moved onto the gum or e cigarettes but still need help coming off those.
Loosing weight can initially seem like there is a huge mountain to climb and you can grow despondent about ever making it to the top! Diets can look like prison sentences. So work out a gradual healthy weight loss and exercise plan. Make sure you have some ‘days walking in the yard and looking up at the sky’! It does not have to be a sentence and in fact most dieters will admit that the kick they get out of seeing the pounds drop off on the scales, or their clothes fit better is worth it. We get a rush of the reward chemical dopamine with such things.
Be honest about the type of dieter you are. Are you an emotional eater and could you benefit from team support? There are several groups you can join and you can find the right food plan for you. Are you a constant craver who is always tempted by food – even if you have simply stopped to buy petrol and find yourself grabbing a lion bar on the way to the till? If so you might benefit from a two-day fasting diet. Or are you a feaster who doesn’t have a ‘full’ switch to let you know when you are satisfied after a meal. So learn about the foods that make you feel fuller and add high protein, low GI meals to your diet. Hypnotherapy is not going to wave a magic wand and make you instantly slim – like all good things in life it requires some work and commitment from you. It helps you to work out what you want, set goals and feel positive about them. It can give you the continual motivation you need to stick to your plan and help you overcome any hurdles. It can also put you off the foods you crave. Like chocolate!
As we might go to a trainer to help us in the gym, we deserve to have someone to help us loose weight. In addition SF Hypnotherapy can explain to you the relationship between stress and being over-weight. Did you know that there are reasons by feeling stressed can make us fatter? So working on our anxiety or depression not only helps us to feel more motivated and focused but it also helps us to loose weight.
Need the extra motivation to start or to continue a healthy exercise regime – give yourself a gift of a series of hypnotherapy sessions to give yourself that extra focus and positive boost. Keep yourself on track.
Lowering or stopping your alcohol intake is a common post Christmas resolution. Some people find this easy if they have simply over indulged over the holiday season. But many find this difficult and need help and support. Therapy can help work out not only how this crutch developed but also how to move forward to a healthy lifestyle. Reaching for a bottle can become an ingrained habit and like any habit needs working on. Hypnotherapy can help you regain control, change things in your life that need adjusting and learn how to develop a more healthy internal support system.
Hypnotherapy works with the power of our minds. We can create the lives we want by using our imaginations, changing our unconscious habits and then carrying out our goals. Our brain patterns actually change as we develop new thoughts and in turn new behaviours and new emotions. I explain some of this exciting neuroplasticity in the initial consultation.
There are so many goals we can set ourselves in the new year. It could be starting a new hobby, writing a novel, learning a language, being more patient with your children, leaving a destructive relationship etc. Whatever your hopes and dreams are – start working on them and give yourself a helping hand. Hypnotherapy is a safe, effective and enjoyable way to do this and it can teach you skills that will stay with you for the rest of your life.
WANT IT TO HAPPEN – EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN – WATCH IT HAPPEN!
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