Seattle Area Clinical Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapist & Licensed Trainer of NLP ™ shares the truth about hypnosis, NLP and the unconscious mind to create powerful, positive, and lasting life changes. Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP
Sharing the innards of my cookie with you, because it’s so apropos to the work I do and what I know to be true. This fortune cookie writer obviously understands our ability to create new worlds, from the inner mind out. He’s writing about hypnosis.
“One of the greatest discoveries is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.”
True. When you change the way you think, you can change everything including states of mind (emotion) and habits.
If you’re looking for a new approach to personal change and getting your New Year’s Resolutions to happen, look no further. Talk therapies (like counseling) do not successfully maneuver attitude change. We get in there with effective unconscious communication. That’s NLP. Neuro-Linguistic Programming. A high-tech hypnosis.
We have a name for this success. It’s called: get the life you want. Yes, you can. Learn more at MINDWORKS HYPNOSIS & NLP. I’m happy to help you get your 2020 off to a glorious start.
It’s a Weighty Issue – Food Choice, Portion Control, and Motivation to Exercise
Connie Brannan, CHt. & Licensed Trainer of NLP® shares her personal and professional insights into success with weight management. Connie has used the tools of NLP Neuro Linguistic Programming and self hypnosis to transform herself:
From this…To this!
Find your healthy!
It’s a Weighty Issue – Part I: Food Choice
It seems that a large percentage of the population is thinking about their weight and dieting at any given moment, reading about this new diet, that new food plan, purchasing diet products, and/or in the midst of dieting. Our weight truly is a national obsession.
So, why do diets and food plans fail so miserably to help people achieve a healthy weight and stay there? A “diet” is a conscious (thinking) endeavor. It involves analysis, logic, and willpower. That can’t cut it long term.
There’s more power in the mind beyond thinking. We are driven by unconscious (outside of awareness) desires.
We THINK we know why we do what we do. And we’d be wrong. Weight management and issues therein are a complex web beyond conscious choices They involve unconscious patterns of behaviors, and embedded beliefs about ourselves and the world that can limit us. These unconscious drivers are just that, unconscious, beyond our awareness. They get embedded in us and like a program installed on a computer they run and run and run.
What is the benefit of hypnotherapy for weight loss? We can actually get in there and address and change these patterns of unconscious behaviors and limiting beliefs. Update the programs running in us. Change how we feel and what we do. These changes lead to long-term sustained weight loss success and weight management.
Weight loss is a weighty issue. Yes, it is. There’s a lot involved. In my office working with clients we address a variety of changes that may be useful. I’m planning a series of essays which I intend to share here and on my blog, dealing with the issues hypnosis helps such as food choice, portion control, emotional eating, motivation to exercise, self image, negative self talk, limiting beliefs, time management and priorities, and more aspects of the weight management puzzle.
The number one change needed on everybody’s list is food choice — is there a predilection toward sugars and sweets? And/or too many carbs such as pasta, pizza, and potatoes? Not enough vegies? Drinking enough water? I’ve heard it all, uncontrollable attraction to unhealthy choices, such as cookies, chocolate, candy, cake, donuts, sugary sodas, French fries, chips, etc. And the gamut of ho-hum all the way to aversion responses to healthy choices.
Willpower alone can’t cut it! What is willpower? It activates during the “I want it” vs. “No, I’m not going to have it.” struggle. We’re torn between two competing desires. Willpower is the conscious mind taking control and activating a conscious decision. Usually, it’s the “no.” Willpower is weak. Willpower is difficult to maintain long term (yo-yo dieting proves this).
With skilled hypnosis, we erase the need for willpower altogether. Let me say that again. We get rid of any need for willpower. Willpower is forced to the surface when there’s a struggle. What if there were no struggle? What if your brain just said “no” automatically? There’d be no use for willpower and it wouldn’t even come into play. You’d just be doing something different because it feels right.
For example: I have no interest or desire to jump out of an airplane for sport. NONE. In fact, it’s not going to happen. It’s on my “no way” list. Do I obsess about jumping out of an airplane? Of course not. It never enters my mind. Do I struggle to force myself not to jump? Of course not. Do I jump? No. It’s not what I do. What if eating unhealthy became a “no” rather than a struggle? That’s what skilled hypnotherapy achieves. Will power goes back on the shelf. Don’t need it! We move beyond the willpower struggle.
Here are some of my client results/comments regarding activation of this change:
“Hi Connie, Just had to send along this spread of the party I was at last night. All of the things I find the hardest to resist! Meats, cheeses, bread, crackers, nuts. It was so nothing to me! I didn’t have ONE THING! And the best part was I didn’t WANT one thing!
It’s just so amazing to me. I am sure it’s “another day at the office” for you but, for me…oh my goodness it was so awesome to not obsess over having it or not…wow. Thank you!!!” – Lori H., Mercer Island, WA
Is her willpower in play? No. The craving for these particular food choices is gone.
“I’ve lost 40# in 4 months… My sweet tooth and chip obsession disappeared overnight. My self esteem skyrocketed. It’s been months since I’ve seen you and yet I’m still right on track with my goals.” E. – Seattle. Is her willpower in play? No.
“I don’t crave ice cream at all now! Or chocolate. I am in shock!!!”– Saliha B., Issaquah, WA. Is her willpower in play? No.
I hope you get the picture here. These people are not “dieting” to avoid sweets and “temptations” and they’re not struggling, they’re just automatically choosing different in ways that serve their weight management success. That’s what skilled hypnosis can do. Hypnosis creates the positive changes that move people by addressing and changing the unconscious patterns. No diet can do that.
Hypnosis stops overeating
It’s a Weighty Issue – Part II: When to Say When
I love helping people with weight loss. People come into my office and itemize their issues: what they eat, when they eat, why they eat (when they’re not hungry), how fast they eat, and all the accompanying aspects of self image and internal dialog, limiting beliefs, and so on. Many things need tweaking for success.
The topic of the moment is: Portion Control. When to say when. How to become attuned to the right amount of food for your body and energy needs. How to eat less and enjoy it more. Here is part two of my continuing essays on the various aspects of the “Weighty Issue” of weight loss and weight management, and the successes to be had through Neuro Linguistic Hypnotherapy.
Our mind has unconscious strategies for everything we do. How we act, how we think, what we choose, what we perceive as real. We acquire these strategies through learning. They become embedded in us like programs running on a computer, which we then call “habits.” Habits are learned, and they can be unlearned.
Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP–a conversational hypnosis) studies successful unconscious strategies, and we can grab, install, and live those strategies in ourselves. In studies of naturally slender people, we have successfully gathered naturally slender food strategies. Via NLP and hypnosis, we can install these into people who would benefit from them. This is a necessary piece of the work I do with clients! A client can adopt an unconscious new strategy and find themselves engaging in new behaviors without any mental effort.
We get clients in tune with physical hunger vs. emotional hunger. The mind can notice the difference. Emotional hunger is “fed” in new non-caloric ways. Physical hunger leads to a healthy choice strategy in the mind, meaning you’re more likely to reach for an apple rather than a cookie, a salad rather than a cheeseburger and fries. We implant a speed strategy, how fast to eat. Slowing it down is usually helpful. We implant a beverage of choice strategy: water! And then most importantly, we implant an exit strategy. When to STOP EATING. This is set at the point of satisfaction, when the body’s nutritional and energy needs are met in accordance with achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.
There are, sadly, desperate people out in the world who don’t realize the control they have over their own minds and bodies, and they go to bizarre extremes like surgeries that attempt to PHYSICALLY limit food intake. That’s not necessary! Installing new unconscious strategies with hypnosis creates better success, without the expense or health risks.
When it’s all said and done, the weight loss client finds themselves engaging in:
–Less emotional eating
–Healthier choices
–Smaller portions
–More satisfaction.
It’s all good.
If your unconscious strategies (habits around food) need adjustment, it’s so much easier than you think to make healthy changes.
It’s a Weighty Issue, Part III: Let’s Get Moving
Motivation to Exercise with Hypnosis
Beyond food choice and portion control, motivation to exercise is high up on the list of changes desired for weight management. “Let’s get physical, physical! I wanna get physical …” That song with its driving beat makes me think of movement. Working out. Active life. Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapy is a way to make it happen.
Patterns and habits are learned. And, if they don’t serve us, they can be re-learned differently, in ways that help.
The “magic” of NLP is, simply put: We can attach new feelings to any activity. What would it be like to be full of energy and motivation to exercise? What if exercise became something wonderful and pleasurable and eagerly anticipated? What if your mind simply said: “This is who I am and this is what I do”? Do you suppose it would be easier to increase your physical activity level?
Here’s one unwanted pattern that I often see with clients: couch potato. Are you one? That’s a person who has developed a habit of sitting around, watching TV or surfing the web, with a body at rest for hours at a stretch. Oftentimes, this is coupled with mindless eating. That’s a sure fire formula for obesity.
With hypnosis and NLP, we can change “I’m too lazy” and couch-potato habits into a new mindset about exercise. A new mindset leads to new behaviors. In our work, we create and install new, useful mindsets for exercise. Here are some examples:
–I love it. It’s fun.
Or…
–It’s my routine. It’s just who I am and what I do.
Or…
–I have to. (a sense of urgency and necessity)
Or…
A combination of any of the above.
New beliefs go with the new mindset:
–I’m an active person. I’m a healthy person. I have energy. I make the time to be physically active, as this is something wonderful for me. This is “me” time. I deserve healthy.
And new behaviors emerge:
I go to the gym. I go for walks. I find the time. I look for opportunities for movement, taking the stairs rather than the elevator, parking a little further from the store front, and so on.
Hypnosis (and in that word I include NLP) is a way to change your thinking and feeling and behaviors and beliefs to become who you want to be. It really is endlessly fascinating work as every person is different and their desires , beliefs and motivations are different. The game and the fun is finding what will work with each individual and installing those changes. This is why I often say hypnosis is an art form as much as it is a science.
Motivation to be active physically is just one piece of this puzzle, within a larger framework of healthy changes. Everyone on the planet knows how to lose weight. It’s a very simple and well-documented formula. Eat less, make healthy choices, and be more active. What stops you? We find out and we address those things and create new habits. The power of hypnosis and NLP is that they are tools that encourage new healthy behaviors, and help people automate those choices.
Connie Brannan, CHt. & Licensed Trainer of NLP
Warm Regards,
Connie
You can also find out more general information of the successes to be had with these mind technologies of hypnotherapy and Neuro-Linguistic Programming here:
Michael and I wish you all a 2016 filled with health, joy, and success. If those things do not spontaneously generate, create them! NLP and hypnosis are amazing tools to make that happen.
We invite you to experience this mind bending, eye spinning video. Ready for an altered state of consciousness? Write the word “happy” on a piece of paper, and hold it at the ready. Then, focus your attention deeply within the spiral. And, notice what happens. (This video is best viewed as full screen, high definition mode.)
Happy Holidays from Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP. We wish you all a wonderful, joy-filled holiday season and New Year! Make it happy!
If your word “happy” appeared to be shrinking with this exercise, rather than growing, then it’s time for you to hi-tail it to Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP. We’ll turn that around for you. 🙂 We’re the best results-driven hypnotherapy & NLP services in the Pacific Northwest. We specialize in making your all year’s resolutions reality.
Connie and Michael Brannan of Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP
In addition to our hypnotherapy and NLP clinical work in the Seattle area, we also teach through our private career school. And we’ve had some fabulous students over the years. Here is a post for “The Hypnotizer” by a guest blogger, my student, Alexa Ritter. Alexa is an amazing hypnotist and Licensed Master Practitioner of NLP®
Enjoy Alexa’s words of wisdom! All the Best, Connie
Hypnosis for New Year’s Resolutions by Alexa Ritter
How many times have you made a New Year’s Resolution? Maybe 25? 35? 45? 50? 70? And how many times did you stick to your resolution for the entire year? That number, if you are anything like the rest of us, is probably a lot lower.
This is because change can be difficult if one tries to do it through will-power alone. The main reason why anyone is celebrated or praised for adhering to a New Year’s resolution is because they are fighting an uphill battle and “surviving”.
As Albert Einstein once proclaimed, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply decide to make a change in your life, and then sit back and relax as your wish becomes your mind’s command?
With hypnosis, you don’t even have to try to achieve your goals! The struggle fades away, and the battle is won instantly. You can say “goodbye” to that miserable year-long process of attempting to create change, and say “hello” to becoming the boss of your own life!
If your boss told you to do something, you would do it without hesitation. Just like your boss is in charge of you at work, your unconscious mind is in charge of how your life works.
However, your unconscious mind isn’t just some old boss – it is you—the manifestation and accumulation of all that you can be, and all the power you have. It is limitless, expansive, creative, and omnipotent, regardless of any preconceived notion of what you can and cannot do.
The reason why you may have struggled to create change in the past is because your conscious, analytical mind stopped you. It came up with all sorts of excuses, limiting beliefs, bad ideas, and temptations. The funny thing is, that whatever change you wanted to make, was more than likely a conscious idea. And by eventually limiting and contradicting itself, your conscious mind really was unresourceful.
Unlike the conscious mind, the unconscious mind is extremely resourceful. It knows exactly how to make all the changes necessary in order for you to have what you desire. Permanently and easily!
During hypnosis, your unconscious mind is given suggestions, or instructions on what needs to be done. It then finds a healthful and appropriate way to take you there, and demands compliance from your conscious mind. Your conscious mind stops creating the problem, and fully accepts the effective course of action formulated by your unconscious.
So why not make this year different? Why not utilize your unconscious mind to make changes instantly, easily, and permanently?
Not only will you receive praise from your friends and family for sticking to your New Year’s resolutions, you will do it almost effortlessly, and your lasting success will become an inspiration to them. They will want to know your secret!
Did you see the New Year’s fireworks celebration at the Seattle Space Needle? I did! It’s officially here, happy 2015!
“It’s time!”
Those are action activating words for me, and I hope for you as well. It’s time.
It’s the first week of January. Time for assessing the new year ahead and taking stock of healthy goals. It’s time to lose that extra weight you’ve been carrying around. It’s time to stop buying and smoking those ridiculously expensive and unhealthy cigarettes.
It’s time to dump the fear that’s been holding you back from truly experiencing and enjoying life and connecting with others: fear of public speaking, fear of flying, fear of rejection…(you fill in the blank). Fear is often unnecessary, and we can communicate that fact to the mind, on unconscious levels, and choose something different.
People tend to work those New Year’s Resolutions for a a day or two, a week or two, then give up. You don’t have to go it alone when there is skilled help available.
I love what I do. I help activate people’s desires and make them real. My work (hypnosis and NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming® ) is a joy-maker and a success-maker. This time of year, people are very in touch with those desires–we call them New Year’s Resolutions. Let’s make them real. Call me and I’ll set up a free in person consultation in my office in Bellevue to explain the work I do and how your dreams CAN become reality. (425) 564-8608.
Neuro-Linguistic Hypnotherapy is more powerful than “traditional” hypnotherapy alone. NLP is a conversational hypnosis that speaks directly to the mind beyond conscious thought, using the currency of life experience: sights, sounds, smells, taste, emotion, and it’s an amazing success accelerant. NLP is my prime work tool, as I am and Michael is also, a Licensed Trainer of NLP ® through the originator of NLP. There are only a few dozen of us at that skill & certification level working and teaching NLP in the United States.
Tick. Tick. Tick. Time is moving. And life is happening. If you want yours to be different in positive ways that you have resolved, the time is now.
Greetings from Mindworks Hypnosis & NLP for a Happy New Year! Here’s wishing you all a healthy and happy 2014. Yay! And remember, if you’ve got some New Years Resolutions, hypnotherapy will turbo charge their success and accomplishment.
It’s a good time for change. Now. 2014–the year of your fabulous success!
Michael and I would like to wish you a happy holiday season and an ever increasing sense of joy for 2013.
Life is a beautiful adventure, and this is the perfect time of year for reflection on the joys you have and the joys you would like more of. Go get ’em!
Why wait for New Year’s to begin making your life better? Now is good.
The idea has been presented to us: “New Year’s Resolutions” begin on January 1st. So, I’m going to eat that pumpkin pie right now, and start my diet later!! Well, January 1st is an arbitrary marker–life is day to day and today is just as important and you are just as important in your life today and tomorrow and the next day as you are on January 1st.
This is a fantastic time to start that new food and fitness plan. Right now! Why not get past the holiday tables and feasting with a healthy mindset that leads to lean instead of December weight gain? Wouldn’t that put you WAYYYY ahead of the curve come January 1st?
Hypnosis works for weight management. And motivation to exercise. And quitting smoking, and releasing stress, and the oomph to begin new projects, and so much more to improve the quality of your life in so many ways. Discover it! It’s your mind, harnessing your inner resources and power, to move you in any direction you want. That’s hypnosis! It’s super cool, and it’s for everyone.
If you’re ready to begin the journey to healthy changes, I’m ready to help. Call me at (425) 564-8608 and we’ll get going. Now is good!
Congratulations to Jack H. of Renton. He has been selected as winner in our New Year’s Resolution Giveaway. His prize: he selected 3 of Mindworks Hypnosis’ Sensory Enhanced Hypnosis audio CDs. Keep your eyes here and on our main webpage http://www.mindworkshypnosis.net/ for more info. about future winning opportunities for our “Monthly Trance” subscribers.
Happy New Year!! If you need help with your new year, new you resolutions…you know what to do. Call someone who can guide you to your own power of the mind–Mindworks Hypnosis (The Best of Bellevue 2011).
Connie and Michael Brannan 425-564-8608.
We’ll help you quit smoking, lose weight, end fear, and more. Like Nike says: Just do it!
Warm Regards for your fabulous next chapter of your life, Connie
Happy New Year! Are you making some wonderful New Year’s Resolutions for 2011 for your health and success and prosperity? I am!
Yes, I’ve been thinking about New Year’s Resolutions. And the word “resolve.” What does it really mean? If you’re sort of wanting something, thinking about it, but doing little or nothing to achieve it, that equals a lack of resolve. “Gee, that would be nice someday, but…” If you’re half-heartedly doing something towards a goal for only a day or two or three and then the desire drifts away, that’s a wishy-washy resolve. Like a slap with a wet noodle–not much power in it. I believe that half-hearted determination is what most people bring to their New Year’s Resolve. And that’s sad.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way!! 🙂 If weak resolve is not good enough for you, read on! Hypnosis helps you create something absolutely different. Hypnosis reaches into your inner workings and finds, reinforces and activates true resolve. True resolve is a whole-hearted affair. Heart and mind and body affair–every nerve and fiber of your being saying: “YES, I’m going for it!!!” Resolve and determination…think Rocky preparing for his big fight, eating raw eggs, and working out, running up those monument steps, triumphant (in advance) and focusing all his attention and actions on achieving his goal.
That’s real resolve. It’s power, because you KNOW you’re going to get what you want and nothing and no one can deter you. You do everything within your power and energy and creativity, with passion and motivation, to achieve it, that worthy outcome you desire.
Resolve is also a visual term. When things come into focus, they resolve. The blur resolves into a clear image. When you resolve to do something, your goal is FOCUSED. Sharp, sharp, sharp. Clear. Unmistakable. How would you like to be sharply focused and motivated and moving on your goals with true resolve? Yes, me, too.
Hypnosis, baby! If your New Year’s desires already have the force of a pure and clear RESOLUTION, yay! I applaud you! Go for it. However, if you find that clarity of desire unfocused, or the resolve is not there to give you that OOMPH, that go for it power of actual sustained movement forward, then hypnosis is a tool to help you do just that.
It doesn’t matter WHAT you are resolving to do, hypnosis can give you that directed focus and acceleration, like stepping on the gas pedal in your car. You select the destination, hypnosis is both the GPS (how to get there) and the thrust forward of stepping on the gas. Resolve. Rocky was hypnotized. He hypnotized himself into power. We are all capable of this, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to have a professional communicator help it to happen faster and more easily.
Personally, I think it would be a massively wonderful gift to give yourself for the new year: a super powerful hypnotic dose of accelerant for your goals, whatever they may be. Quitting tobacco once and for all, getting in shape, finishing that project, beginning that project, whatever you’re resolving within yourself to do and be for 2011 and beyond. The difference: with hypnosis, the resolve STICKS, long and strong enough to get what you want. How cool is that?
Resolve to make 2011 your best year ever, and begin to realize the control you do have over your life. Over your actions, your habits, your very thoughts.
Warmest Regards,
Connie
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I hope you’re having some happy holidays, and more to come! Wishing you and yours a fun and glorious 2011. Resolve to enjoy life more and more every day. I’m about to share with you all a simple technique that is the backbone and my favorite “magic” of NLP–something which drives home like a jackhammer the idea that you control your own life, mind and body. Specifically, I’m going to share with you a touch of calm, for the holidays!
NLP is Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™, a term coined by my teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler.It’s a way of understanding the world and how we create reality.And can change it.It’s about enhancing communication, inside ourselves and with others.For more info on what it is and the myriad of powerful and wonderful uses of NLP, you can check out my primary NLP website:http://www.seattlenlptraining.com.
How would you like to communicate to your own mind:“It’s time to relax!”And have it actually happen in your body in an instant?(Your wish is my command!)Wouldn’t that be especially useful this time of year, with all the turbulence of wild weather, traffic, ice, work demands, family and extended family, parties, gift shopping, holidays, STRESS?
Here it is!It’s called an “anchor” in NLP parlance.It’s a stimulus-response mechanism, which we can capture and activate at will.With intention.So many times we are stimulated to a response (one we don’t particularly want or enjoy) by living and events.Examples:Your significant other starts using THAT critical tone of voice, and your body temperature rises.You see a chocolate bar and the cravings kick in.You smell popcorn, and you know you NEED a bucket.How nice to create a stimulus-response in ourselves that we like.And use it for…A Touch of Calm.Apply as needed.
Here’s a technique for you.
Begin to remember a time in your life when you felt calm.I mean REALLY calm.Relaxed, with clarity of mind.In that precise moment of time, nothing could ruffle your feathers.Pick a memory from anywhere and anytime in your life, in any context, from childhood, to adulthood. In the hot tub, snuggled in bed, on the beach in Hawaii, in hypnotic trance, jogging, it doesn’t matter.Let your mind remember CALM.Now, put yourself inside that memory, that experience. Be there now!
Experience it. What’s going on?How do you feel? What do you see? What do you hear? What do you smell? Involve all your senses, fully and completely. Let calm grow in you. Feel calm moving in your body. Flow it, grow it.Stronger.When calm is just about at its peak, and you’re feeling really good, touch the tips of your thumb and ring finger of your left hand together and hold for one second.Let go.Think about something else for a moment or two, some neutral thing, and then imagine yourself again inside the calm memory.Feel it.Breathe it.Once again, flow calm through every nerve and fiber of your body.When you feel good and calm, touch the thumb and fingertip again.Hold for a second, and let go.This unique touch is now associated (anchored) with calm.This touch will elicit calm!In your body.Forever.Just that fast, you’ve trained your mind/body to do that!How cool is that?This is why Michael and I call NLP “The Magic of Instant Change.”
Now, whenever you want a dose of calm to flood your body, touch that same thumb and finger together and hold it (for a minute or so) in the way you’ve just anchored, and feel calm return. Automatically!Feeling stressed by Aunt Sue’s conversation at the party?Touch and hold.🙂Stuck in mall traffic and beginning to grit your teeth?Touch and hold.Standing in an endless line at the supermarket and feeling irritated?Touch and hold.Joe at work pushing your buttons?Push your own.You now are armed with “a touch of calm” for the holidays.And any time.Enjoy!
Warm Regards,
Connie
Connie Brannan, Master Hypnotist
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Ok, this question is to the myriad of you (and I’m one as well) who battle with weight. What do you do when you slip up? When you fall off the “being good” wagon? When that holiday treat calls to you, and you listen? Do you beat yourself up? Do you say: “Well, the day is shot, the week is shot, I might as well eat another brownie and/or piece of pizza and I’ll start again Monday!”? Do you say: “Well, I failed, best forget the whole idea of ever getting thin!!” Or do you say: “Well, I did that. It was a choice. I’d rather choose and do something different, starting NOW.”?
The topic is recovery strategies. You’ve got to shift your perception from diets, which tend to be all or nothing mindsets (you’re ON the diet, or you’re OFF the diet) to a lifestyle change orientation. Success does not equal perfection. Hypnosis helps! Even if you make a decision you don’t like, you get to make a new one, and continue from there. This essay is about cutting yourself some slack when you “goof up” (as we all do) and then continue your long term success. I’ve lost 80+ pounds in the past couple years. Is that success? Hell, yes! Was I perfect in my eating choices every moment of every day of that time? Hell, no.
I’m going to tell the story of my own recent slip-up. And recovery! I call this story: “Big ass” cookie. My teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler, encourages us to make large, rich, 3D, vibrant goal pictures in our minds to motivate us to move in those desired directions. He calls those: “big ass pictures.” Somehow, that phrase has embedded itself into my mind. So, I use it, too, even if it’s slightly vulgar. I’m going to tell the story, now, of the “big ass cookie.” It wasn’t just a picture. It was a reality.
We all have triggers in us, unconscious or conscious imprinted motivators which propel us into action. I have an “eat sweets” trigger: it’s called “Halloween.” I have another: it’s called “I’m on vacation, and it’s time to indulge myself.” I have another: it’s called “I’ve been working really hard so I deserve it.” I have another: it’s called “I’m on sale, buy me.” All of these converged a few weeks ago while I was in Chicago.
Our hotel room had a kitchenette, so we went to the store looking for some food to put in there. It was within a day or two of Halloween, and every aisle end display was full of bags of candy. I ignored those. But then…a bakery table. And on this table were Halloween decorated cupcakes, cakes, and cookies, all on sale! I was riveted by the beautiful dinner-plate sized chocolate chip, decorator-iced cookies with witches and goblins and ghosts sugar-smeared on top, the kind that ideally you cut up into about 20 serving slices. Big Ass Cookies!! My triggers converged. The cookie called to me. I bought it. Just the one. Of course, it was bigger than godzilla’s head.
I bought it, but I didn’t eat it. Yet. Then it was time to go home. I should have tossed it. I couldn’t. I put it in my suitcase, at a risk of making my suitcase over the weight limit–because it was already close. I figure this cookie weighed 2 pounds. I crammed it, this giant, hurkin’ cookie into my suitcase. And I brought it home. And I opened it. It had gotten squished. I didn’t care. I ate a piece. A big piece. Probably about two–three servings worth–THEN I tossed it. Nowhere no how is eating sugar-iced chocolate chip cookies on my low carb plan.
But, here’s the key to success. I began again. On my healthy lifestyle eating program. I had gained a few pounds while on vacation in Chicago, that “indulgence” thing kicking in–the last gasp being that cookie. Home again, I didn’t beat myself up, I recovered. Back on track! In the past two weeks I’ve lost 8 pounds.
Here’s the deal. Hypnosis is FANTASTIC for installing in you, me, all of us these recovery strategies. How to keep going, in spite of momentary temptations or lapses or “failings.” To keep focus on the big ass picture of lean and healthy, the goals that drive us. If you find yourself dieting, and giving up, dieting and giving up, hypnosis will help you reframe a new lifestyle and keep it going. Long term success. Which is not necessarily perfection! I know whereof I speak!
I am 2 pounds right now off of my all-time low adult weight, and I know I’ll get there next week. And even lower. That’s right, during the holidays, while most others are packing on the weight, I’m slenderizing. If you’re ready for long term success with your weight, I’ll help! Now is the perfect time. Call me: (425) 564-8608.
My niece is on Facebook. So am I. I noticed her post today: “I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired.” I gave my Auntie Hypnotist unsolicited advice. STOP IT! Stop telling yourself TO be sick. And that’s exactly what she is doing. I told her: “Hypno Hint: stop telling yourself that you’re sick and tired. Your brain hears you focusing on that (sick and tired) and says, “OK, I can do that!” It thinks that’s what you want, and your unconscious mind is VERY accommodating. How would you rather feel? Healthy? Energetic? Focus on that.”
It’s called “organ language.” When you give your body instructions as to how to feel, your unconscious mind is listening attentively. And does what you suggest. Creates what you want. Or, what it thinks you want. Your unconscious mind is super literal. What you focus on expands, or, expressed differently, you get what you think about.
“That makes me sick!” You’re focusing on sick. You’re telling yourself to get sick. Direct language: “make me sick.” Don’t do that!! “He gives me a pain in the neck, he’s a pain in the behind.” You are telling yourself to have pain. Don’t do that!! “She makes me so mad I can’t see straight.” You’re telling yourself to have vision problems. “He makes my blood boil.” You’re asking for high blood pressure. Your mind/body can do that. And will! When you focus on illness “I’m sick and tired” your mind/body says, well, OK, if that’s what you want…I’ll get it for you! Apparently, my niece is a very persuasive hypnotist inside herself. It’s just time to change the hypnotic suggestion.
Hypno tip of the day: Focus on the flip side of illness and physical distress in your language to self. My first hypnosis teacher joked about upsetting situations: “Well, that just UPS my metabolism.” Could be useful! 🙂 What do you want? Focus on healthy. DO NOT tell yourself “it’s cold and flu season.” That’s a suggestion to get ill. “It’s healthy time! I feel so good. I always stay healthy. That’s right!” Listen to yourself and notice if/when you give yourself negative suggestions of pain and discomfort and illness which instructs your body to focus on and manifest more of that. And then stop it, and think of what you’d rather feel. Something good, I mean!
It couldn’t hurt. Just do it!
Warm Regards,
Connie (who has only had one cold in 5 years)
I had a crazy dream last night. My husband, Michael, and I were sitting in a restaurant, going out for dinner. There was a party of several people at a table next to us, engaged in a project, making quite a bit of noise. So we watched.
It was a project of intense thought and concentrated effort. The waitress was waiting to take their order. Instead of ordering, they had a large whiteboard standing on a frame and a person standing beside it writing on it. She was making a list, and checking it more than twice. The items on the list? What each person didn’t want for dinner that night. They would shout it out, randomly, as it occurred to them, and it got added to the communal list. The whiteboard person would write it all down. One girl shouted: “And I don’t want YAMS!” “yams” would appear on the board. The list was getting quite long. “I don’t want scrambled eggs with peanut butter on top.”
It occurred to me (in my dream) that this project was quite stupid. You walk into a restaurant. Rather than order what you do want from the menu, you’re creating your own menu, of what you DON’T want. How useful is that, if your goal is to eat something for dinner right now? I think the waitress wandered away, probably bored.
Crazy, right? Never happen in a million years, right? But this is precisely how so many people’s minds operate in the wide awake, day-to-day, “real world.” They focus on what they don’t want. That’s not going to move you forward. A shift of focus is called for, a shift to the postive. What DO you want? How would you rather feel? What would you rather do?
I had a client come in last night with a plethora of fears. A litany of fears. Being alone, the dark, airplanes, and more, creating panic attacks. I asked her how she would rather feel. She couldn’t answer that, she was so mired in what she currently feels and doesn’t want. Calm is not on the menu. Only fear. We’ve got to put calm and safe and happy on the menu. Then she can order it, and enjoy it!
What hypnosis does is focus your mind on positive change, and a desired outcome, in a way which stirs the magic of the universe (how’s that for technical jargon?) to actually creating that positive change. It IS magic. But you’ve got to know what you DO want in order to get there. I’ll help you make those shifts.
I like words. I like learning them, hearing them, using them. Words are “my thing” (which is terrific for a hypnotist). And they always have been my thing. Soon, I’ll be “honing.” My skills in hypnosis & NLP. My tools, my abililty to HELP. My FUN. Honing. Sharpening. Making better. I also like dictionary.com. 🙂 “To make more acute, intense or effective; improve; perfect: to hone one’s skills.” Absolutely! 🙂 It also means “To move or advance toward a target or goal.” Hone in.
I’m doing both!
Because here’s what I’m honing towards, here’s what I want. To be the absolute best changeworker and hypnotist/hypnotherapist possible. I already am the best in the Pacific Northwest, but the world’s a big place. I want to be one of the absolute best in the universe. So, I’m continuing my education, and studying with and learning from the best of the best. Modeling genius. It’s time intensive, it’s money intensive, it takes committment. But I’m doing it! Michael and I both!
We’re off for a couple weeks of more hypnosis and Neuro-Linguistic Programming trainings. In Orlando, Florida, with the co-originator of NLP, and in my opinion, the best hypnotist living, Dr. Richard Bandler. We go where the geniuses perform/teach and it’s not always nearby. We’re doing it! It’s my joy, my passion, as well as my comittment to honing! It’s also my birthday present to myself! (I’m a July baby!)
A committment to excellence. That’s a good thing! 🙂 I’m on Facebook (you can be my friend), and recently noticed an example of a differing attitude. A fellow hypnotist and NLP-er posted on one of my teachers’ pages whining (or so it appeared to me) that her training certification, the actual certificate she earned from him had an expiration date on it. Why, she asked. The answer is simple. Hypnosis and NLP is not something you learn once, and wham, done. I guess some people do approach a profession this way. “I know how to cut that piece of brick. I’m done.” Not me. No way, Jose. That certificate is only the beginning.
For me, learning is a never-ending unfolding process, and I’m ALWAYS desirous of improving my skills. One can ALWAYS be better. Sharper. More inspired. In the realm of the mind, there’s no hard and fast, “this is it.” There are more things to LEARN! When you bring in native intelligence and a passion for and committment to what you’re doing, and add the continued exposure to excellence, the continued honing (of something absolutely worth honing), you get someone who knows what they’re doing.
I know what I’m doing. And that means I can help you better, faster, more efficiently, more creatively than other people can. If you really want change, I certainly think you should seek out the best for that. Aren’t you worth it? Another wonderful mentor/teacher of mine said to me once: “It ain’t bragging, if it’s true.” I’m not bragging. I am extremely talented at this work, this art, and getting better all the time.
I hope to post here from Orlando and the trainings! Michael and I send warm (upper 90’s) greetings!
This brief, and I mean BRIEF video gives you an overview of everything you need to know if you’d like to come on over to Bellevue and learn something life changing. That, plus this sign up link, of course! :
I’m offering a “taster course” in the power of your mind. 2 evenings, for 3 hours each. To learn self hypnosis from me, to experience hypnosis, to learn how to craft well-formed outcomes, to empower you to change your mind and change your life. The focus of this course is Confidence, but these tools can truly be used for so many things, habit change, weight management, stress release, and more!
The topic today is habits — habitual behaviors that we engage in almost without thinking. Learned behaviors which now flow. Too easily, sometimes. Sometimes habits are good. Like bathing. Like using deodorant. Like brushing your teeth.
Like looking both ways before crossing the street. Sometimes habits are bad. Say, smoking. Or a “cookie addiction.” Or any other kind of addiction, sex, alcohol, spending, gambling, and so on. Or any number of other unhealthy or unwanted or self destructive behaviors, which lead to an outcome we’d rather not come out to. 🙂
Actually, those words, bad and good habits, are misleading. There are NO good habits and there are no bad habits. I use those words for convenience and understanding because they’re out there in the vernacular, out there in common usage. The truth is, there are only useful habits and non-useful habits.
Cool thing is, we get to decide what that is. If a habit is useful, go with it. Enjoy. Live. Love. Be happy. If a habit, however, is not useful, or no longer useful, we can identify that, know that, and change it! Here’s another one of those self-empowering ideas. We can change our habits. Yes, we can. We are not victims in this life–we make the rules. You and me. We can get into the habit of breaking habits, when it’s useful to do so. And I’m going to lead you through a simple process in this essay to do just that!
We’ll take a “simple” unwanted behavior. How about something from my own life. Sugar? Bakery goods? Brownies? Hmmm, I know–candy. Chocolate. Hershey bars.
I used to have a habit. It was called “eat candy bars.” Anytime, all the time, just about every day or so. Primarily, Hershey’s with almonds. I’d get the little bars, and I’d also get those giant sized bars, 8 oz, which I think nowadays cost more and are 4 oz. Still called “giant” sized, however. I guess it’s all in your perspective. And I’d eat the whole thing–eventually. In a day or two. And then I’d buy more. Bad habit, right? Maybe, maybe not. I’m sure the Hershey company, and the Nestle company, and the M&M Mars company, thought it was a GREAT habit, and loved me for it. But for ME, I decided that it was not useful. I decided to shift that habit, as it became a non-useful habit when I decided to get healthy and consume less calories and less sugar and transform my body.
I decided! Eating candy bars: non useful habit. Let’s change it!
Here’s a simple NLP process to do just that. NLP, again, is Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™ which is a “high tech hypnosis.” It’s also been called, aptly, “hypnosis on steroids.” I love my NLP, as taught to me by the Master of Masters, the creator, Dr. Richard Bandler. He taught me, and I’m teaching you. Here and now. Behold! A habit-busting technique that is so simple and straightforward, perhaps it will become a new habit of yours to use it. And bust any non utilitarian habits. Until they invent a Bad-habit-be-gone-spray-in-a-can, this is the next best thing. Psssssst.
But, before I get into the process, one more story. I went to a “weight loss hypnosis” talk the other day and it involved imagining bugs/maggots/disgusting vermin crawling on my donut to get me to change my behavior as regards donuts. This is NOTHING like that. I find THAT suggestion disgusting, the idea that we need to get uncomfortable about things in order to change. False! That’s ill-formed and wrong-directional. You don’t need to do that. Thing is, you may want to enjoy a donut or piece of donut sometime in your life. I don’t believe in taking that opportunity away, or making people feel sick!! We’re not attaching negativity to the thing, which decreases or limits your choices, we’re enlarging your choices so that it’s easier to choose healthy and useful habits.
Ok. The chocolate bar. I used to be able to put myself into a state of desire. Wanting it. Which then led to buying and eating it. Create a picture in your mind that represents a negative habit and your wanting to do it.
We all have desires all the time that we don’t act on. I had a co-worker once who would have benefited by a slap upside the head. I wanted to do that, on occasion. Did I? No. Never.
Sometimes I have a desire to stay in bed beyond an appropriate time. Do I? No. I get up. Sometimes, a scene in a movie is so absurd I want to shout something derogatory out at the screen in the theater. Do I? No. Sometimes, I see a good looking stranger at the gym, and I feel like running up and squeezing his bicep…do I? No. We all have desires which we know perfectly well we will not act on. Create a picture in your mind that represents a temptation or desired behavior that you KNOW you will not act on.
Notice everything about that picture–the thing you will not do, the line in the sand as it were. You won’t cross it. You know you won’t do this thing, even though you’d like to. As you study the picture, notice it’s size, shape, location, color or black and white, movement, focus, brightness, clarity, everything. Memorize those qualities of the picture. Qualities of the picture are like the options in a photo editing software. You’re not looking at the content in any way, you’re noticing the qualities such as focus and color.
Now, take the picture of the unwanted behavior, and match it to those qualities of the “won’t do it” picture. Every one! Size, color, focus, etc. And stick this picture right in the space of the “won’t do it” picture, like two pieces of music on a music stand. Imagine yourself not doing this thing, and the positive outcomes flowing from that change. In my case, not eating the candy leads to a smaller body, more energy, more money in my pocket, and feeling good! Lock in the picture of the unwanted behavior into the “won’t do it” position. Click your teeth, or snap your fingers, or say “that’s right” and tell your mind to keep it there. Sometimes I imagine splashing a bucket of shellac over the top of the picture as a sealant for the new qualities.
Top secret NLP insight: When you change how you represent a situation or problem in your mind, the situation changes! Read that sentence again. Let it seep in.
Now, step back and think of yourself and the unwanted behavior. In this case, you may notice that the temptation to do the thing that USED to be a bad habit has shifted, into something you simply won’t do. Not a struggle. Simply a sense of No! I won’t do that. Freedom! You speak the holy word (for Star Trek officiandos, name that episode!).
Play with this and let me know how you do! And, as always, if you’d like to learn more cool NLP techniques and processes, here’s how: http://www.seattlenlptraining.com. In fact, Michael and I have three 1-day seminars next month, which is a fabulous introduction to the power of NLP. One seminar focuses on life change, one on sales and business success, and one on self hypnosis. C’mon down and learn more. You know you want to!
C’mon and get hypnotized! Once again I’ll be teaching at Bellevue College as part of the Explore! program. This go-round I’m offering two courses. The first begins this month, Monday, January 25th, and it’s on the topic of healing and hypnosis.
I’m quite excited about it, as it’s a topic close to my heart. I had a close family member come very near death, as in coma and on life support and not expected to live, and I believe that hypnosis played a part in her miraculous and thriving recovery. Trust me, I know the power of hypnosis. This is a very personal story I’ll share in more detail at my course:
In this hands-on workshop you will learn about the mind-body connection, and the transformational power of self-hypnosis. You will learn (and experience) what hypnosis is, how your mind works, how to hypnotize yourself, how to craft potent suggestions, how to put it all together in a simple process to use these skills for accessing your power within and enhancing your own health and wellness. This workshop is conducted by Connie Brannan, CHt, Clinical Hypnotherapist, Professional Conversational Hypnotherapist and Licensed Trainer of Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™.
Healing and Hypnosis: Secrets to Wellness
Item: W8955 Connie Brannan
6:30 PM – 9:30 PM North Campus
Sessions: 2 M Address: 10700 Northup Way Bellevue, WA 98004
1/25/2010 – 2/1/2010 Fee: $89.00
Each course is sure to be lots of fun and learning crammed into two 3-hour evening classes. If it fits your schedule, I recommend these as an easy and inexpensive beginner’s taster introduction to hypnosis. Feel free to email me for more info: connie@mindworkshypnosis.net.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. TRUE! But I have some more words to say about this as well. I’m still thinking about weight and body image and self esteem and confidence and health and how hypnosis can improve all those things. Unrecognizably so, in some cases. Hypnosis works. Fantastically well. On so many things. But…especially, weight loss. That’s a topic dear to my heart. And hips. And chin (singular nowadays).
I’ve been having a slew of weight loss clients lately. And, you know, I LOVE THAT! Love it. They’re not waiting until the first of the year and New Year’s Resolutions, they’re moving forward on what they want. NOW! I love that. When you’re ready, you’re ready. Are any of you out there ready to change your life? You can, you know. And it’s not magic, and it’s not voo doo and it’s also not horrifically difficult–it’s simply you doing what you want. Do you want to lose weight? I can help. My tools can help. Those tools are hypnosis and NLP Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™.
I often get together with groups of hypnotists, at trainings and at professional meetings. I’m not mentioning any names, but you know, there are some seriously obese hypnotists out there selling weight loss services. In my book, that’s incongruent. They aren’t “walking the talk.” I am. I do. I wouldn’t go to a chain smoking hypnotist to quit tobacco, either.
If you want serious, passionate, compassionate (I’ve been there, believe it!), dedicated, KNOWLEDGABLE, successful help with this issue, I’m your hypnotist. I know fat. I know all about it. A lifetime of knowing. Until I learned something else. Not fat. I can teach you not fat. Come learn with me! 🙂
Wishing you health and success this holiday season,
Happy New Year’s Eve Eve, Hypnosis Friends!
All the Best,
It doesn’t matter WHAT you are resolving to do, hypnosis can give you that directed focus and acceleration, like stepping on the gas pedal in your car. You select the destination, hypnosis is both the GPS (how to get there) and the thrust forward of stepping on the gas. Resolve. Rocky was hypnotized. He hypnotized himself into power. We are all capable of this, but it’s a heck of a lot easier to have a professional communicator help it to happen faster and more easily.
NLP is Neuro-Linguistic Programming ™, a term coined by my teacher, Dr. Richard Bandler.
I bought it, but I didn’t eat it. Yet. Then it was time to go home. I should have tossed it. I couldn’t. I put it in my suitcase, at a risk of making my suitcase over the weight limit–because it was already close. I figure this cookie weighed 2 pounds. I crammed it, this giant, hurkin’ cookie into my suitcase. And I brought it home. And I opened it. It had gotten squished. I didn’t care. I ate a piece. A big piece. Probably about two–three servings worth–THEN I tossed it. Nowhere no how is eating sugar-iced chocolate chip cookies on my low carb plan.
