I'm working with Claire who is one of my clients. If you missed this part of the experiential blog/workshop, please go back to the past two entries where Claire introduced herself. This picture in time will allow you to benefit from the work I'm doing with her.
The first area I need to address with Claire is that of her "food stress" because this is a big major life stressor & one that is certainly having a gigantic impact on her life. In fact, probably most of her symptoms are related to this particular stressor. That's not to say that she doesn't have other stress-producers, but when there is a big inner stressor that is out of balance, as there is in Claire's life, then one can naturally assume that is the case. Once her food is back in order, it will be easier to evaluate the symptoms that remain in reference to other stressors. There are two kinds of stressors, internal & external. Food stress is an internal stressor. Another internal stressor is the body reaction to external stress. Both of these are under control of the Self. Outer stressors are those delivered to the Self by others, such as work, family & relationship stress. Some of these can be self-managed, but not all. Some things are simply out of one's control. However, it's important to remember that one cain control the body response to any outer stressor. Reacting rather than responding is always a personal choice.
One cannot go half-way when managing stressors. All of them need to be addressed at the same time & ongoing. This will be the most important part of Claire's new self-discipline. She must become self-responsible to & for herSelf. All co-dependent & self-ignoring behavior need to be put to rest. You may be surprised that I see Claire as being co-dependent, but she is. She has not taken responsibility for her own body & mind, even leaving this up to me because, as she told me, she is paying me for her sessions, just like she paid her physician to examine her. She tends to complain, taking the victim stance, once again, pure co-dependency & it needs to go. On a side note, can you see the difference in her professional behavior versus her self-care behavior? What would happen if she went about her executive workplace position using her self-care behavior as a model? I need to help Claire to see this clearly, not to embarrass her, but to encourage her to use her work model in managing her personal life. That is a very successful area in her subconscious mind & she can bank on that.
NOTE TO NEW READERS:
This experiential blog/workshop is based on my new book, "How Many Cookies Will It Take to Make Me Happy?" 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.
TOOL BOX REVIEW
You already know about these tools & accompanying techniques. However, since they are new to you, it's always a good idea to have an asset list available.
HIGHER POWER OR SELF * THERAPEUTIC SELF * COOPERATIVE UNBALANCED SELF * EMOTIONAL MANAGEMENT * MINDBODY HEALTH GARDEN * HEALTHY EATING TABLE * THEATER OF THE MIND * GOLDEN EGG * CIRCUS OF THE WORLD * THOUGHT MANAGEMENT* REGRESSION & FUTURE PACING * SCHOOL HOUSE LEARNINGS * WORKSHOP LEARNINGS
FOOD STRESS & WEIGHT GAIN
Claire is very unhappy because she is over-weight & while she complains about this, it's apparent that she hasn't made the connection between her scale weight, eating habits, nail biting, hair pulling, fatigue, roller coaster emotions, or anything else. She seems completely in the dark about how her mind & body are connected, as well as their needs. She complains of high stress & the need to release on weekends with excess alcohol, but doesn't connect her weekday habits with those on the weekend. To use her own words, she is just like a messy desk, but it's more than that. Claire needs to be educated about the workings of her own body & mind. Often this is a difficult awakening for someone who is highly educated & successful, mainly because they tend to believe that they know all there is to know, but luckily Claire is already deeply relaxed inside her Golden Egg, where she is very susceptible to self-hypnotic suggestion.
I'm going to talk to her, just as if she were not in a deep state of relaxation, the difference being that she will accept what I have to say & will not present resistance. I want her to know that she has severe food stress & that this is one of the biggest underlying factors for having an unhealthy lean body mass & body fat percentage. Notice I did not say "unhealthy scale weight", as the scale is not the best way to determine a healthy weight. While the scale weight could fall in the "normal" range, that would not mean that the individual is at a healthy weight. I know this to be true for Claire, because it's obvious to me that she is not burning fat. Claire may think that she is 10 or 15 pounds over-weight, but the truth is that her body fat percentage is probably around 38%. The norm for a mature woman would be in the vicinity of around 25%. When the body fat percentage is too high, the lean body mass will be too low. Because Claire is skipping meals & eating low-level nutrition when she is eating, her lean body mass is actually being burned off to support the workings of her body systems. After all, each of her systems needs to continue to work & in order to do so, they need nutrition. Therefore the muscles will break down & be stored as fat for this purpose. Claire needs to know that her goal is to have her body burning fat, not lean body mass & that it is actually a good idea to build a bigger lean body mass, because this will form her permanent fat-burning mechanism.
In order to accomplish the above, Claire needs to obtain more knowledge from her deeply relaxed state & then this knowledge needs to be transmuted into a highly motivated action plan.
( continued in next blog/workshop)
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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.hypnosis-audio.com
http://www.sugar-addiction.com
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