How You Can Actually Achieve Your
New Year's "Re-Solutions"
By Taylor Kingsley, C.HT.
It's a fresh year again -- a perfect time to review
your life and set new goals. But let's face it. For
most people, willpower alone is not enough to achieve
lasting success with our New Year's resolutions. Does
it have to be so difficult to create positive change
in our lives?
The answer is a resounding "No!" Most people struggle or fail to achieve their goals because they go about it the hard way: with willpower and conscious effort only. To be effective, a resolution needs to be more than just personal resolve -- it needs to be a"re-solution" to an old problem.
In this article, I'm going to show you a new way --the easy way -- to succeed at ANY goal.
WHY MOST PEOPLE FAIL TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS
A myriad of factors may contribute to failure:
1. weak motivation;
2. fear of change/attachment to the old pattern;
3. subconscious tapes that oppose your conscious efforts;
4. social sabotage from others;
5. energetic or spiritual causes;
6. insufficient clarity about what you truly desire, or difficulty focusing your positive intention into physical manifestation.
You will notice that these factors run the gamut from being primarily physical, to psychological, to spiritual, to social. Most of my clients come to me when they already have tried many other methods e.g. traditional psychotherapy, workshops and groups, affirmations, etc., yet still feel "stuck." Each needed to heal one or several blocking factors and, upon clearing the subconscious resistance, succeeded quickly.
Let's look at an example of a composite of several clients, whom we shall call Debbie. Debbie has tried for 15 years to lose 25 pounds -- and to heal her relationship with food and with her body. She has tried every diet and weight-loss program imaginable, sweated in gyms, and swallowed products as well as hype from the multimillion-dollar weight loss industry year after year. Yet she is still overweight, now has physical health problems, and suffers from mild depression and unsatisfying relationships. On the surface, she appears cheerful and is successful in other areas of her life, yet Debbie is still not fulfilled on a very deep level.
Together, we explore "What is really eating you?" and "What benefits have you been getting by being overweight?" (these are known as secondary gains). We communicate with the parts of her that have been keeping her overweight and find out what underlying need they have been trying to satisfy. We also find out "What are you really trying to fill yourself with?"
We discover that what has been driving her overeating is a desire to be safe, to have a thick border of protection around her. The "benefits" -- an avoidance of sexual intimacy, and a distraction from her life's purpose. We go deeper and find that the layer beneath those is a lack of self-love and a fear of success. We find that she has been using food to reward herself, to "fill herself with love" and to feel grounded in her body and in her senses.
Sound complicated? It is, which is why most people are usually unaware of these subconscious blocking factors, or don't know what to do about them except keep battling them with conscious effort. The bad news is, when the subconscious and the conscious butt heads, guess who usually wins? You got it, the subconscious.
THE GOOD NEWS: THERE IS AN EASY WAY!
The good news is that proven techniques exist which can empower you to change yourself and your life the easy way. You can actually heal the subconscious wounds and reprogram your subconscious to be your ally. What a difference!
Albert Einstein said, "The solution to a problem always comes at a level outside that at which the problem was created."
Thus, the healing usually needs to delve a level deeper than the level of symptoms, and ideally will address physical, psychological -- conscious and subconscious -- and spiritual aspects of being, as well as behavior, environment and lifestyle choices.
THE POWER OF HYPNOTHERAPY AND SUBCONSCIOUS HEALING
As you can see in the example above, root causes are usually not at the conscious level. Thus, to reach our goals, we need to align ourselves on all levels to support these goals. Almost miraculously we then find everything flows.
And the most powerful tool for healing and realigning your subconscious is hypnotherapy.
"Hypnosis, the oldest and most natural mode of healing known to man, is considered to be a potent and safe adjunct to medicine, as well as an effective procedure in psychotherapy, " says Masud Ansari, Ph.D., a prominent psychologist and hypnotherapist in Washington, D.C., author of 15 books. Hypnosis has been recognized by the American Medical Association as a viable form of therapy since 1958.
WHAT IS HYPNOSIS?
Hypnosis is "a process which produces relaxation, distraction of the conscious mind, heightened suggestibility and increased awareness, allowing access to the subconscious mind through the imagination," according to Dr. A.M. Krasner, founder and director of the American Institute of Hypnotherapy.
Hypnosis is a form of mind-body healing which utilizes a relaxed trance state combined with positive suggestions and metaphoric imagery to easily access and reprogram your subconsious. It can help you get control of your own thoughts and unlock the power of your own mind to achieve everything you want in life.
Many people think "I'm not hypnotizable." Often this is based on some misunderstanding of the hypnotic process. Everyone goes in and out of trance several times a day, for example when you are awakening or falling asleep, during "highway hypnosis" or a relaxed creative state, in nature, through music, or while daydreaming. You do not need to be completely "out," i.e. in an unaware somnambulistic state, for hypnosis to work. Most people simply feel slightly relaxed and are completely aware -- in fact, have heightened awareness. Anyone who wants to be hypnotized can be. It's your choice.
A HYPNOSIS EXERCISE
Try this exercise. Sitting quietly with your eyes closed, picture a fresh lemon. Imagine yourself holding it, cutting it open, smelling the zesty scent, and squirting it in your mouth. Now notice the saliva in your mouth. It increased, didn't it? Amazing. There was no actual lemon, but your body thought there was because your mind was focusing on it. Just imagine how your body can be healed and your life improved through the incredible power of your mind.
Try this exercise. Sitting quietly with your eyes closed, picture a fresh lemon. Imagine yourself holding it, cutting it open, smelling the zesty scent, and squirting it in your mouth. Now notice the saliva in your mouth. It increased, didn't it? Amazing. There was no actual lemon, but your body thought there was because your mind was focusing on it. Just imagine how your body can be healed and your life improved through the incredible power of your mind.
HEALING YOURSELF ON ALL LEVELS
If you are a disciplined "do-it-yourselfer," you can heal many issues by simply reading some good books on self-hypnosis and making your own hypnosis tapes. The two I recommend highest are Hypnosis for Change by Josie Hadley and Carol Staudacher, and Free Yourself from Fear by Valerie Austin. You can also learn fast, effective self-hypnosis techniques from a hypnotherapist or in a class.
Other self-healing methods include "head-based" self-discovery via journalwork, discussion, and checklists; "body-based" exercise and bodywork; conscious efforts such as creative visualization and affirmations; positive lifestyle changes; "spirit-based" meditation, prayer, and ritual; and dreamwork.
"Heart-based" self-healing includes anything that facilitates your feeling your emotions, releasing and communicating freely -- living from the heart, e.g. crying, laughing, chanting, breathing through your heart center, loving yourself with your feelings.
GETTING SUPPORT
Also evaluate your support system.
True friendship and community can strengthen you, provide objective perspective, teach you, even catalyze your path. Do you have enough kindred spirits who know how and when to listen, who love and accept you unconditionally? Who have wisdom and a track record to prove it? Toxic relationships need to be healed or lovingly released from your life. Reach out. Have a potluck dinner party. Attend a class or spiritual gathering. Volunteer for a cause you believe in, and you'll broaden and deepen your support circle.
Sometimes additional support is essential (even for us healers!). If you feel you have been doing everything you know how to do, or you can't get yourself to do enough, and you still feel stuck, a professional, holistic hypnotherapist can help you really move through your blocks quickly, helping you heal even lifelong challenges and deep traumas --often in just a few sessions.
HYPNOTHERAPY IS TOTALLY SAFE - AND EFFECTIVE
Some people fear that a hypnotist can make them do something against their will. Actually, you are in control the whole time. If a hypnotist could really control someone, don't you think many would be millionaires, having clients rob banks for them? Ha! With stage hypnotism, those people on the stage quacking like a chicken volunteered to go on stage so on some level they must have a hambone (chickenbone?) or two. If anyone suggests that you do something you really don't want to do, you would awaken from trance immediately. Your mind has built-in protective mechanisms.
With a caring, knowledgeable hypnotherapist, you can discuss together in detail the suggestions she or he will be using to help you. The hypnotherapist may also empower you by suggesting: "You will remember everything you need to remember. You will accept those suggestions you hear which are for your highest good and will easily integrate them." Also, often the session can be taped for you, which not only ensures your full safety and awareness, it gives you a very powerful, customized tool to continue to strengthen the healing after your session.
As with any form of therapy, shop around until you find a hypnotherapist you feel a good rapport with, someone who is kind and respectful, who empowers you to heal yourself.
By helping you align subconscious messages with conscious goals, hypnotherapy helps you "get out of your own way" and achieve lasting success.
Now let's look at what hypnotherapy can do for you and your loved ones.
HOW HYPNOTHERAPY CAN HELP YOU
Hypnotherapy can help you:
* Lose weight naturally
* Quit smoking or other unhealthy habits
* Reduce or eliminate pain
* Give birth naturally and without anesthesia
* Improve memory, concentration and study habits
* Prepare for exams & overcome exam anxiety
* Improve health (heal allergies, lower high blood
pressure, etc.)
* Increase self-confidence, sales, success and wealth
* Get rapid relief from fear, stress, anger, grief,
depression, anxiety, and trauma
Certain types of hypnotherapy, such as Integrative Hypnotherapy, that also address spiritual and emotional healing (not just "mind-body") can help you:
* Enhance creativity
* Improve all your relationships
* Deepen your spiritual connection and increase intuition
* Discover your life's purpose
* Manifest everything you desire in life
* Love and heal yourself so completely, you become in love with life!
Remember our composite client example, Debbie? These are TYPICAL RESULTS. Through four integrative hypnotherapy sessions, Debbie deeply healed her lifelong wounds. She reassigned and integrated the saboteur parts of her to become allies toward her goals, and healed her sexual center. She programmed her mind and body to work together to signal her what and how much to eat. She clarified her life's purpose. And, above all, she learned how to fill herself with love, how to feel safe energetically without the extra weight, and how to love and nurture her body (and be "in it") in healthier ways. Now she "automatically" finds herself more full of energy, eating healthier foods, eating out of physical not emotional hunger, and dancing again, a childhood love she had been disconnected from for many years. She says, "It feels so good to move my body again! The weight is just coming off without my even trying. I feel healthier and people are telling me I look radiant!"
The power to create positive change lies within you. The moment of choice -- the moment of change -- is now. I wish you much success on your journey, in 2003, and always.
SPECIAL OFFER FOR INSIGHT READERS:
I am offering a discount of $40 off your first integrative hypnotherapy "Heart & Soul, Mind & Body Healing" session. Call before February 28 to receive this special rate. Call me only if you are ready for positive trance-formation!
Rev. Taylor Kingsley, C.Ht., is a certified hypnotherapist, holistic health educator and intuitive healer. An initiated shaman and ordained interfaith minister, she has studied alternative healing for over 20 years, and has taught a multicultural meditation program, which she developed, at Kaiser Permanente. In her private practice, she blends the mind-body healing power of hypnotherapy with heart-centered counseling, soul and energy healing including chakra balancing and soul retrieval, dreamwork, and past-life regression. She specializes in self-love, sacred partnership and natural weight loss, and teaches workshops on those topics. (See calendar.) Taylor (a.k.a. Sage) can be reached at 530-292-4212 or dreamshaman@yahoo.com.
