"Accept the challenges, so that you may feel the exhilaration of victory."
....General George S. Patton
Yesterday you took a look at your personal history in making changes. I hope you took the time to work with your time-line and visited your subconscious library. This is a valuable technique, one that will be used frequently in our work. As you work with different areas of focus I will make suggestions for additional ways to enhance the subconscious mind programming. I also call these "containments." When managing sugar addiction or eating disorders you might have several different containments. For example, shopping is an important one, workplace eating, weekend eating, etc. You get the idea. You can image them as inner mind books related to the focus, or containers, or even specific paths with street signs naming the focus.
Here you are in the focus/containment of change.
I would like to suggest that you keep an ongoing list of times when you made a change, as well as the motivator behind that change. You might make some notes on the emotional crayons both for and against. The more awareness you bring to yourself and your actions, the more successful you will be in your current and future endeavors. Don't just focus on large changes. Notice the small changes as well. Since you will have more of these, you will build resilience even faster. Every change is important and can be applied to new possibilities on the time-line.
Sometimes the enormity of the challenge ahead frightens us. This is especially true in managing sugar addiction and eating disorders. You can't imagine being able to succeed. I am often asked the question, "How long does this take?" When you are working on lifestyle changes you must think about working on them forever. In the beginning, this thought is very depressing to many people. I often see the face change, or if I am discussing this in written form, the words create the often down trodden mood.
Yesterday I was having lunch with a business friend. Our eyes met over our salads......."I’m so tired of eating foods that are good for me! I really miss the days when I didn't know any better, and ate whatever I wanted." I asked Carol if she felt better physically now or then. "Of course I feel better now, but how I enjoyed that food!" You can see from this short conversation an interesting truth and this is often the basis of many addictions. You know something is not good for us, yet you crave it and even miss it. Actually it is part of the grieving process. As you look back into our memory bank, you can see other times when this truth presented itself.
MIND EXERCISE:
Take a moment to access your alpha state. Remember it is right at the end of your belly breath. After reading this, close your eyes and tilt them up. Go into your subconscious mind library and look for times when you stopped certain behaviors that were not in your best interest. Notice the emotions surrounding these changes. Make some notes regarding these discoveries: _______________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________
Each time you bring up images from the past with connecting information, it's a good idea to add some extra value through the planting of emotionalized affirmations. While it only takes a moment, the changes can be life-enhancing. Image affirmations as multiplying as they enter your subconscious mind. Notice they enter many different library books on your shelves, as if they knew where they were needed.
• I am aware of my subconscious mind memory bank.
• I welcome challenges.
• I have met many challenges in the past and succeeded.
• My memory bank is filled with success pictures.
NUTRITIONAL INSIGHTS:
Sugar addicted people, as well as those with other eating disorders have lots of questions. Most of these were answered earlier in the book, but sometimes you find ourselves asking them again, as if they were new and no one ever told us the answer. There are many reasons for this needed repetition. Parts of us don't want to know the truth. You are tied to the problem and can't seem to undo the knot. Sometimes you don't want to untie the knot and prefer to stay in the question as if it had no answer.
How much food does your body really need? Why am I hungry soon after eating? Why do I have less hunger if I don't eat at all? Why can't I stop eating certain foods once I start eating them?
The Inner Coach work helps us to place the questions and answers hypnotically right down into the subconscious mind library. Here you will get used to them and be able to accept them with less efforting.
Some facts up for review today include the realization that the body is made up of the lean body mass and fat. The lean body mass is made up of muscles and bone, acting as the engine of the car. It needs gas to run. The amount needed depends on it’s size, total body weight and amount of aerobic exercise. When you are eating sufficiently and in the right balance for your genetic wallpaper you will burn fat. Burning fat is very different from burning sugar for energy. It feels good and looks good. Even if you are not looking to lose weight, you want to stay in the fat burning mode for optimal health reasons including the management of reactive hypoglycemia and optimum brain function.
I see many clients in my practice who exercise strenuously and who do not eat sufficient nutrition to cover these activities. In many cases, the body will store fat, even on a low fat, low calorie diet if the individual is over-exercising in relation to intake. Another scenario is the person who is eating far too many high carbohydrate foods, high glycemic foods and not a sufficient amount of protein, low carbohydrates and fat . There balance is usually way off. In both of these cases, the person may cause an over production of insulin. So, instead of feeling healthy, focused and full of energy, this person might have insatiable hunger, cravings, fatigue, poor concentration, perhaps finding it very difficult to manage body weight. Often as not, motivation is off as well.
While one does not have to measure food, it is important to eyeball your intake and read your body sensations for low level changes. The body scanner and other awareness techniques will help you to become highly proficient at this most important task.
MIND EXERCISE.
As you receive additional information and especially if you have resistance to change that is now opening somewhat, you will want to return to that book in your subconscious library. You might be surprised to notice that you are now able to be more committed to making food changes. Take a moment to enter your alpha state and after reading this close your eyes and tilt them up. You will find your book already in front of you on your mind screen. In fact, it is opened to the page you need. Pick up your mind pen and begin to write. "A positive change I am ready to make now concerning my nutritional intake is:
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
The following affirmation plants will enhance the etching of these new programs. Observe as they enter even more books on the shelves of your subconscious library, as if they knew where they were needed.
• I care for myself at high levels.
• I am aware of my balanced eating.
• I enjoy eating high nutritionally balanced meals.
• I notice my body sensations.
MINDBODY WORK.....
Mind review time! Look back to the past few days and notice if you have been working with the body scanning and observing your breath. Do you have the "B" reminding you? A good idea is to get into the discipline of sitting for 5-10 minutes, at least twice a day, practicing rhythmic breathing at the alpha state. I like to do this either the first thing in the morning, or upon arrival at work. Do what works best for you. I also like to have a short session before lunch, thereby putting my thought processes and work down mentally and emotionally before eating and then another session before starting work again I always have one before leaving the office. This helps to build a containment between work and home. I know this may sound like a lot of work, but remember you are on the quest for optimum body and brain functioning. This is the CHALLENGE! The more you practice, the better you get and the closer you come to your highest level of functioning.
MIND EXERCISE.
Most people are caught up in auto-pilot life, moving from one stressful moment to the next. If the food is not in order, this journey is worsened. Your work is to wake up and to change in small increments. This is at the heart of body scanning. The body sensations can perform all kinds of wake-up calls including not only the lowest levels of stress, but waking you up to the possibilities of building stress. This is why it is so important that you build body scanning skills early in this program. They are at the very heart of interactive self-hypnosis work.
This is a good moment to ask your subconscious mind to assist you in building these skills. Enter your alpha brain wave state and become internally quiet utilizing whatever imagery you enjoy. After reading this tilt your eyes up and begin. "As I look at my day and evening, the times when I choose to practice body scanning and alpha breathing are presented to me." Notice the times and scenarios being shown to you by your inner librarian. Keep in mind that there will be exercises that border on sounding ridiculous. Pay no attention to that arrival of judgment. It will keep you from going forward in new ways, and so, ready to plant living affirmations now.
• I enjoy my breathing exercises.
• I practice rhythmic breathing ongoing throughout the day.
• I remember to breathe from my alpha level.
• I breathe at my desk.
• I breathe in my car.
• I breathe watching television.
• I am aware of my breath.
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
