Toe Stubbing

Here we are continuing from the last blog entry.

INNER MOTIVATION

As in all motivational work, read through the exercise and then close your eyes, reviewing what you just read as if a movie were playing on the movie screen right behind your closed eyes. Make certain you will not be disturbed as you read and work with these tools.

Waking up to your life path is good news. However some people do not see it this way. Usually this is because they do not have knowledge hooks or motivational containments. They awaken into a highly stressed time of life with no tools. This can be overwhelming and frightening. No one is born with life-management tools. Few notice they don't have them until a life path wake-up is experienced. People tend to dream-walk until they stub their toe or completely fall down. By reading this book you are awakening and hopefully you haven't stubbed too many toes.

Knowledge and understanding are keys to success. You will come to understand why you binge or have your other problems. You will be able to put down your fear in a containment. As you bring your problems to the light, you will see them clearly. The fog will lift. You will come to understand that managing your problems is not a curse, but a gift. The problem is waking you up. Your food and beverage changes will benefit you through the rest of your life. You will be your future experiences, moving away from medical complications into a healthy life.

Spend a moment imaging your binge, disorderly eating or addictions as a child wearing a tee shirt with it's name on the front. Pay attention, noticing it is only a child, and that you are an adult in charge of it. Locate your containments of knowledge that are growing as you read this material. Invite a sensation representing confidence to arise deeply inside yourself. Your subconscious mind knows where your confidence is located and will play it if you request it. Do so now right in eye view of your disorderly child, and notice it noticing you.

KNOWLEDGE HOOK

In school you began with ABC, and in this work you begin with basics as well. These become your touchstone. This is where you will return if you fall off course. In the next few chapters you will learn about food groups and what your cell managers need to run the cells of your body. Every cell in your body is an expert at what it does. Your heart cells know how to be heart cells. Liver cells follow their own job descriptions. If you were asked to step in and be a heart cell for a day you simply wouldn't have a clue. As we come to understand this rather child-like story, we can see the important reality underneath. We are totally responsible for what the cells receive in the way of nutrition and stress management. So, your job is quite simple. You need to provide that or else live with the negative outcomes that will eventually knock at your door.

You are learning to observe yourself in relation to food "as if" you were under your own microscope. You will get very good at self-observation and this will take you to safety, to higher health, as well as to optimum performance. Sometimes you will have to begin again, returning back to basics. This is not failure, but re-structuring. Whether you come back once, or a hundred times, this is where you come. It helps to know this. This way you won't be left wandering through life not knowing what to do or where to go. After all, you are only human!

Sugar and the body response to it, is the world’s most widespread addiction. This substance is everywhere and is socially accepted. Few people actually recognize the extent of their sugar addiction until becoming more aware of the moments surrounding their eating behaviors. The ability to see moments is key to successful addictions management, especially in relation to sugar as it is the underlying addiction to all addiction.

Managing sugar addiction and bingeing starts with preventive nutrition. It's important to remember that food and beverage are chemicals and react in the body as such. You have already read about your family medical and addictions history that affect your genetic wallpaper. How interesting that few people consider their food intake in relation to the workings of their body, much less their minds. What a gigantic mistake this is!

As strange as this sounds, food intake is seldom a consideration when stress management is needed. The food connection is also missed more than not in relation to addictions management. This is particularly unfortunate as proper nutritional management helps the addicted individual to get back into control. An important resource book on this subject that you might enjoy reading is "Seven Weeks to Sobriety: The Proven Program to Fight Alcoholism through Nutrition" by Joan Mathews Larson, Ph.D.

A visit to the local supermarket turns up tons of sugar choices for every age group. As you follow the exercises in this book, including the practice awareness shopping, you might be stunned by the sheer number of foods that boost sugar addiction. You may think that you are already aware, but hold that thought in abeyance until you complete the work presented here. For those of you who can't wait, a good eye opener is making a list of your favorite foods. If the title of this book appealed to you, I already know what's on your list!

Whether you are looking to improve health or obliterate an addiction, you must always begin your travels with what is placed in your mouth on a regular basis. As you work with the food logs presented in a later chapter you may get some big surprises. How quickly we tend to forget what enters our mouth! How unfortunate that in America our basic nutritional education is very limited, if present at all. This gives opportunity for food industry advertisers to position themselves as reliable sources of what we need to be eating. One doesn't have to look far to know that they are hardly a reliable source.

INNER MOTIVATION

When we find ourselves lost on a road and not knowing where to turn, it is comforting to have information. This book is designed like one of those road maps with lots of informational blocks surrounding the actual map. Relax deeply and see this image as it relates to your road map. You don't even need to close your eyes to do this work. You can image hypnotically with your eyes wide open. Of course if you want to shut them that is fine, but you don't have to. Return to the beginning of the last knowledge hook and re-read the paragraphs. After each paragraph see it as part of your road map. Just read and place the image. Each time you read a knowledge hook in this book, place it on your road map. These motivational areas surrounding your new knowledge will enhance each other. You are now in the process of powerful self-motivation.

KNOWLEDGE HOOK
Few people really know what it is like to feel 100% well. Most of the time when I ask patients when was the last time they really felt healthy, a look of surprise fills their face. The reason for this is that few people eat a well-balanced nutritional program for any length of time, or stay chemical free. Therefore they have not had the opportunity to notice the mind and body under those circumstances. Most people are completely unaware that they could be functioning on a much higher level; physically, mentally or emotionally. One important reason they may not be achieving these goals is that they are not aware, and not working on the nutritional aspects of their self-care program.

While this book is about disorderly eating, it is also about disease prevention. It’s about optimum functioning of both mind and body. Just through the reading, you are already employing powerful tools that slow your brain waves. You are releasing stress in this very moment. However, if your body is responding to food stress of any type, it is very difficult to achieve these results. Remember the mind and body are one. They are connected in every way. To function at a higher level, all cells must be cared for and kept in good physiological balance.

Most people don’t pay attention to what is going on in their body. They are disconnected unless a screamer appears. It is very unlikely a person will connect body sensations with foods they have eaten that particular day. If the change is rapid, such as a stomach ache, or intestinal upset, they may connect it, but if it presents with vague symptoms such as those accompanying tiredness, depression, anxiety, agitation, poor concentration, anger, moodiness, muscle cramping, headache, boredom, or insomnia, it is more than likely that they will place the blame on someone or something else, thereby missing the boat entirely. To complicate matters further, certain foods may cause reactions on one day, and not on another, making it more difficult to make that important connection.

A NOTE TO NEW READERS:

This experiential blog/workshop is based on my new book, "How Many Cookies Will It Take to Make Me Happy?" This book is not published as yet, but you have the opportunity to read it in it's unpublished state. If you are new to my writing, you might want to read the earlier mini-chapters. They are available on FaceBook, The PublishersMarketPlace & at the following link. Remember to scan down to find the earliest chapters & work your way up. http://beyonddisorderlyeating.blogspot.com/
A bit of background.... we are working with creative Interactive Self-Hypnosis imagery, planting suggestions directly into the creative subconscious mind as you read along. What appears like a story is a series of self-hypnotic sessions, designed to bring about desired lifestyle changes. The inner mind is creative & rather child-like, loving to play with images, especially when they are emotionalized. Just like the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words", well-planted mind images, can be worth hours of therapy. We can actually change or motivate in 1/200th of a second. So come along & look forward to some lifestyle-changing events.


Copyright 2009 Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
May not be copied or reproduced without permission of the author.

Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is author of Sugar...the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It. She is also the writer/producer of over 350 mp3/CD programs in the areas of medicine, health, prevention, addictions, self-development & sports for adults & children.

http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.bohorquez
http://www.twitter.com/elizRN

http://www.hypnosis-audio.com
http://www.sugar-addiction.com
http://www.international-medical-health-writers

Inventing Knowledge Hooks

Keys for managing sugar addiction, bingeing, disorderly eating, while building healthy lifestyle changes, include paying attention to details, examining moments in transition, designing and building new disciplines, as well as mind motivations. This chapter is about paying attention to the many aspects of the food connection, while moving in the direction of change. It's not enough to know what to eat and what not to eat. The knowledge alone holds little motivation for the long- haul discipline needed to achieve permanent success.

Self-discipline walks hand in hand with inner motivation. You already have the coupling of these in your subconscious mind in the form of past successful experiences. You practiced this, with interactive self-hypnosis, in an earlier chapter. These tools are now becoming a part of your own subconscious mind library. You are now able to apply them to managing the different aspects of your bingeing, sugar addiction or other addictions. Soon, you will be able to mentor off of these, building new programs with inner creativity tools. Then you will be able to design goals, active them, while continuing to mind- motivate in moments of transition. This book is providing knowledge, some new and some old, but perhaps only forgotten.

Just knowing something is not enough. The world is filled with people who know things, but don’t act. Knowledge must be contained and organized into a plan of action. Then one must step into the action.

MORE ABOUT KNOWLEDGE HOOKS

Throughout this book you are collecting knowledge hooks. Think of these as being similar to coat hooks. After locating or designing your motivations, you will be asked to hang them on the knowledge hooks. There are different kinds of motivations. Some will motivate you towards a positive or reward experience. Others will motivate you away from positive experience and towards negative ones. The levels of positive or negative motivation can be enhanced or diminished. These are interactive self-hypnotic tools that will allow you to take charge of your own mind programming. Both types of motivation can work well, but a balanced approach seems to work best in most people.

OPENING THE FOOD CONNECTION…HYPNOTICALLY

Perhaps you have known about your binge behavior or sugar addiction for awhile, or maybe you just woke up to it. It’s possible that you didn’t know the relationship to other addictions or chronic disease. Patients often tell me its like dream-walking their way up to a particular moment in time. As their eyes opened, they found themselves in the deep, dark place of bingeing or sugar addiction . This is just an illusion, for little happens over-night. More than likely their sugar addiction had been building for years. If you return to the assessment area in this book, I'm sure you can spot the beginnings of food issues in your own life. Remember, knowledge is king. The more you collect, the easier it will be to see even beyond what you can see now. This will allow you to travel further towards high level health and optimum performance.

Students often ask if it possible to be born with a sugar-addiction? They remember their parents telling how cranky they were, and the only way to stop the crying was to give them a bottle of condensed milk that was watered down. Of course that is much sweeter than regular milk. It certainly is possible for a very young child to crave sugar, especially if the family medical history is positive for the diseases and addictions that were mentioned earlier. This is seen in crack babies born to addicted mothers. However, certain babies do need a different type of formula and unfortunately most physicians, in the past, weren’t aware of how to solve these problems. But while the past is useful as a bank of information, you are now living in the present. Your responsibility is to self-manage from where you are now.

In this program you will be working with tools of regression and future pacing. This actual book is written with specialized imagery woven through the fabric of the pages allowing you to go back in time and also forward. If you are unfamiliar with medical hypnosis, or the practice of active imagery let me share a bit with you. For thousands of years the unique powers of these mind and body tools have been well known, but unfortunately found themselves tucked away on a back shelf, out of reach of those who would benefit from them. In this experiential book you are invited to reclaim these tools, dust them off and learn to apply them through different areas of your life. You already have an advanced tool of mine, called interactive self-hypnosis. This type of self-hypnosis allows you to communicate directly with the library of your mind in any moment that ticks on your watch.

Your subconscious , or creative mind loves to learn through stories and metaphors. Whether you are reading this book to stop bingeing, to manage sugar addiction, disorderly eating, chronic disease, or simply to enhance your lifestyle, these images will glue themselves to your specific goals or desires. There is no need to effort, for this is the gift of active imagery.

BUILDING CONTAINMENTS

When working with lifestyle change, it helps to have some inner organization. You will also want to use self-hypnotic organization with other large projects. I like the metaphor of containments. These are simply "mind containers".

Just for a moment image a table with many containers. Locate the labels. Each time I ask you to build a containment for some knowledge, you will mentally come to this table, choose a container and label it. Each and every time you work with this particular area of knowledge, you will take the container off the shelf, and work with it in some self-hypnotic way. When something is contained it is easier to manage, as it no longer sits out in the confusion of the world. You mind and body will not only see it as less stressful, but will find it much easier to send you free floating thoughts or suggestions relating to it.

Now it's time to begin collecting knowledge, locating the hooks and hanging up some motivational mind programs. Then you can place these in labeled containers in the library of your mind.

KNOWLEDGE HOOK

Let's begin with imaging a baseball diamond, a great organizational metaphor for the problems we are focusing on in this book. In fact, you may remember working with this very image earlier in the book. This metaphor works for many different kinds of goals. Remember, you are always the batter. Most of us know there are four bases. In the baseball game of life, first base is the food connection and it is here that you will collect very important knowledge. You will then find out how to apply your motivation to the knowledge.

First off the bat, few people think about what they eat and drink in relation to the needs of their body. Even fewer think about what they put in their mouths in relation to their family and personal medical history. In most people’s minds, it is like these things have no relation to each other. It is actually uncommon for someone to build a connection between what is eaten and the function of the mind or body.

It helps us to think in imagery. We were all born with genetic wallpaper that comes with designs from parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so on. Some of us were born with a tendency towards certain diseases such as heart, diabetes, circulatory diseases and certain cancers. This tendency towards is a biochemical factor that can cause you to either over-produce a hormone called insulin or to develop a resistance to it. You visited this knowledge earlier in the book .

You also learned that through the years you might have developed some of the risk factors such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, obesity or yo-yo weight gain patterns. Perhaps you added a history of smoking, alcohol or drug addiction. How you managed stress over the years also is an important consideration when evaluating where you are in relation to where we want to go and how your food connection hooks up. Now that you know this, it is a good time to work with the knowledge. If not, it will have the tendency to go out with the tide.

INNER MOTIVATION

Many people have difficulty finding a place to begin lifestyle change and so they answer to this by not beginning. They either procrastinate or bury their head in the sand, either way achieving the same negative outcomes. But you are not like most people because you are reading this book, and you can choose to begin right in this moment. There is no need to wait. Let me show you how.

Read through this exercise and then close your eyes . Earlier in the assessment area you learned a simple relaxation response. Employ that now and go a bit further by tilting your eyes up just slightly, allowing your mind screen to appear behind your lightly closed eyes. Notice a movie is in progress and that a hand is being extended to you, offering to pull you forward. Take the offered hand with confidence, knowing you have nothing to lose in learning about yourself and wanting to change. Your subconscious mind is now engaged. You are on the path to first base.

Your past family is waiting for you with their rolls of wallpaper. Walk past each member, even if you don't know them, thanking them for coming. Place all the wallpaper into your cart and go into a quiet place where you can spend time reviewing it. The more you understand and accept where this comes from, the better your self-care will be. There is no room to be upset. Just like anyone else, you received both good and bad from those who came before you. Your work is to do your best with what you have. You can choose to commit to this now through the planting of an inner motivational affirmation:

• I understand and accept my genetic wallpaper.
• My wallpaper serves as a guiding light to the needs of my mind and body.

KNOWLEDGE HOOK

Pinpointing your current location on your life path is important when deciding to change course. Most of us have little idea as to where we are "path-wise" in relation to the chronic disease door, nor have we evaluated how fast we are walking towards it. Moments do count. Everything you put in your mouth counts. Think of your body departments as being bank accounts. Each time you put something in your mouth, a record is made in that particular area. Think about yourself for a moment now. How would you evaluate your inner prosperity?

Waking up is often unpleasant. Just the idea of making a lifestyle change can cause panic. Lifestyle changes can appear monumental, especially in the deciding and early phases because usually no containment has been build. The emotions are in charge and most people have no idea how to get their life back on course. For success, both containment and emotional management must be engaged. In this book you will be learning how to do this and more.

A patient of mine had his first heart attack this year. He was forty-two. While that was really frightening, he was actually more frightened when his doctor told him that if he didn’t make radical changes to his lifestyle, he would die. That meant he had to lose weight, stop smoking, stop drinking and learn to relax. He is a corporate executive, living on a high stress career track. He saw this as his “worst work project to date.”
He is not alone in his boat. I wish I had a dollar for every patient who is given a similar message. Here is a good example of knowledge not being enough. This patient, like all others, needs a containment and a plan of action. Then the plan needs to be fired off, motivated and supported, especially through the early stages.

continued in next blog...

A NOTE TO NEW READERS:

This experiential blog/workshop is based on my new book, "How Many Cookies Will It Take to Make Me Happy?" This book is not published as yet, but you have the opportunity to read it in it's unpublished state. If you are new to my writing, you might want to read the earlier mini-chapters. They are available on FaceBook, The PublishersMarketPlace & at the following link. Remember to scan down to find the earliest chapters & work your way up. http://beyonddisorderlyeating.blogspot.com/
A bit of background.... we are working with creative Interactive Self-Hypnosis imagery, planting suggestions directly into the creative subconscious mind as you read along. What appears like a story is a series of self-hypnotic sessions, designed to bring about desired lifestyle changes. The inner mind is creative & rather child-like, loving to play with images, especially when they are emotionalized. Just like the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words", well-planted mind images, can be worth hours of therapy. We can actually change or motivate in 1/200th of a second. So come along & look forward to some lifestyle-changing events.


Copyright 2009 Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
May not be copied or reproduced without permission of the author.

Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is author of Sugar...the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It. She is also the writer/producer of over 350 mp3/CD programs in the areas of medicine, health, prevention, addictions, self-development & sports for adults & children.

http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.bohorquez
http://www.twitter.com/elizRN

http://www.hypnosis-audio.com
http://www.sugar-addiction.com
http://www.international-medical-health-writers

Inside Sleep

Which comes first....good eating habits or good sleep habits? You may think that they have nothing to do with each other, but this is wrong thinking. Everything is connected & so your addictive behaviors are connected to your sleep behaviors. How you sleep is very important to the management of addictions. The body needs a deep level of rest and to produce dreams. These assist in stress release, as well as problem solving. Some people have bad sleep hygiene. Some is related to food stress & the practice of other addictions, as well as "not releasing stress" during the day. Remember the blog entry on releasing? In addition to our daily stress building, many of us were taught poor sleep hygiene. Go ahead down your past path & notice if anyone mentored these behaviors to you? It's also a good idea to review your sleep history, noticing if it was something you looked forward to or something you fought. It's not uncommon for those of us with addiction histories to have stressful sleep "stories." Of course you already know that you can delete these from your "story book", while planting new, healthy patterns between the pages of your new book.

MIND EXERCISE

Relax deeply into the moment. Utilize your breath to take you deeper down to a place where you can watch your story up on your mind screen. Take a moment to review your current sleep habits, as well as how you prepare for sleep. When you are ready, regress and visit some early areas that signal sleep information available. Trust your subconscious mind to show you the areas. There is no need to effort. Simply elicit your relaxation response and request any information that might be helpful in relation to sleep pattern improvement.

CLAIRE

"I’ve always been a follower from the time I was a child. I’m beginning to get annoyed with in myself. Sometimes I dream that I wake up in a totally different mind and body. The idea of changing seems too big a job, especially with all the other things I have to do in my life. Is it truly possible to make really big changes or should I just settle for who I am and let it go at that?"

It's interesting that Claire is asking questions in a different genre, although "dreaming" is in her question. Reading Claire's question helps us to see how writing helps us to understand thought patterns. When we think the mind is going very quickly, but when we write things down the mind slows and gives us information to work with. Here you can see some of Claire's frames and inner programs. Perhaps you would like your subconscious mind librarian to answer her questions. Relax deeply for a moment and observe the writing that comes off the end of your pen.

LET'S EXPLORE STRENGTHS

Stay deeply relaxed, but turn your attention to yourself now. You have many strengths. They are located in your experiences on your time-line. Early strengths are just as important, if not more so, than current ones. Take ample time to regress and visit past experiences. Ask your subconscious mind to name the strength being presented in the experience you are observing. Sometimes we have difficulty naming them, but they are there. Once you are aware, you can bring these forward and future pace them. That means you can attach them to new goals that haven't been achieved as yet. You will also learn to apply them "in the moment." This is the true power of Interactive Self-Hypnosis.

LET'S EXPLORE WEAKNESSES

While strengths are important, weaknesses are key to improvement. Only those who are willing to identify these short-comings will achieve at high levels. It doesn't matter what the goal. You need to see the flags and get into the pit with them. Every weakness holds the secret for success. Hypnotically you can open them up and engage them in the process of goal achieving. This is called transmuting. Later in the book you will learn many ways to work with these jewels. For now, take this basket and go collecting. The more you bring back the better. You can find them in the past, as well as in already formulated future-paced files.
How do you spend your free time?

How you choose to spend your time speaks volumes about you. It is in this area of detective work that you will find keys to managing your addiction. This is a good train to regress on. Go back and review early years, noticing your play and choice of hobbies. Sport is also important. Truly visit and become involved in the experience. Notice how you feel about yourself during these times. Move forward to the time when you stopped doing certain things, taking time to notice why. You may uncover some hidden de-motivators that are best seen in the light. Check out your current free time and any hobbies, as well as the level of involvement that you allow yourself.

SETTING GOALS HERE & NOW

What would you like to achieve with this work? Be very specific. Sometimes we think we know what we want, until asked to explain or define it. This may be one of those times. Don't just cop out by stating "I'd like to manage my sugar addiction." Write down how it will be when you do this. Truly explore as if writing a letter to someone about your decision to work in this book. This will become part of your blueprint for change.

Aside from the above, write down some of your other goals. Be specific. Review the different areas of your life such as health, relationship with yourself, with others, prosperity, work, home, spiritual, future and anything else that presents itself to you. You might want to relax deeply before writing, taking time for your subconscious mind to connect up with you.

What do you see as problems, obstacles, old beliefs, etc. that might be getting in your way towards your goal achievement? Some of these rocks may be on the surface and so it's a god idea to locate them. Others will be underground and they will pop up as the work continues. If you have difficulty focusing, relax deeply when doing this work and regress a bit. Look to experiences where you didn't achieve what you wanted to and then ask your subconscious mind to show you the problem or obstacle. Make some notes about these. If they weren't properly managed then, they are probably still hanging around.

CLAIRE
]" As I see it, my paths are loaded with rocks thrown all over the place. It’s like there is nothing but rocks. Is it possible that there isn’t anything else there and if so, what can I do?"

It’s not uncommon for individuals with addiction to see as Claire sees, but this only a perception and can be changed. We all have rocks. Claire framed them as negatives, but as we do this work, rocks are seen as powerful tools for change. So in actuality, Claire has a goldmine on his path.


A NOTE TO NEW READERS:

This experiential blog/workshop is based on my new book, "How Many Cookies Will It Take to Make Me Happy?" This book is not published as yet, but you have the opportunity to read it in it's unpublished state. If you are new to my writing, you might want to read the earlier mini-chapters. They are available on FaceBook, The PublishersMarketPlace & at the following link. Remember to scan down to find the earliest chapters & work your way up. http://beyonddisorderlyeating.blogspot.com/
A bit of background.... we are working with creative Interactive Self-Hypnosis imagery, planting suggestions directly into the creative subconscious mind as you read along. What appears like a story is a series of self-hypnotic sessions, designed to bring about desired lifestyle changes. The inner mind is creative & rather child-like, loving to play with images, especially when they are emotionalized. Just like the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words", well-planted mind images, can be worth hours of therapy. We can actually change or motivate in 1/200th of a second. So come along & look forward to some lifestyle-changing events.


Copyright 2009 Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht
May not be copied or reproduced without permission of the author.

Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is author of Sugar...the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It. She is also the writer/producer of over 350 mp3/CD programs in the areas of medicine, health, prevention, addictions, self-development & sports for adults & children.

http://www.facebook.com/elizabeth.bohorquez
http://www.twitter.com/elizRN

http://www.hypnosis-audio.com
http://www.sugar-addiction.com
http://www.international-medical-health-writers