Frances Bueno – Clinical Hypnotherapist
The power of emotion can seem like a magical force. I remember as a young woman being down at Circular Quay on Sydney Harbour many moons ago for the Olympic host city announcement.
The raw emotion that was released when Sydney was named as host city that morning was something that I’ll never forget.
People were jumping, hugging and crying with joy. A wave of happiness and togetherness swept across the country and for a day at least the whole country felt as one.
You see the power of feeling can make the impossible possible.
So, what you attach your feelings to is vital to how you live. Which brings us to an issue many people struggle with…
Comfort eating!
Eating by its very nature is critical to your survival. Food and the nutrients you get from it fuel your body. So you eat to live and on occasion also eat to socialise.
But for many, and you might be one of them, eating is a way to try and deal with strong emotions. Which is why we call it “comfort eating or emotional eating.” So today I’m going to give you 5 strategies to help you break the link between food and your emotions.
- Forget ‘losing’ and focus on ‘gaining’. Your brain hates losing and loves gaining because gaining means more of. Whereas losing means less of. This is why ‘diets’ don’t work long term because by their nature they are restrictive and so they trigger feelings of deprivation. So rather than focusing on losing weight focus on gaining health, gaining fitness, gaining a slimmer figure, gaining control of your mind and gaining independence from the tyranny of compulsion.
- Discover the triggers to discover the need. If we aren’t careful we can spend our lives in desperate distraction. We’re told contentment (feeling FULL-filled) comes from having more experiences and having more things. But if the experiences don’t truly meet your needs for connection to others, intimacy, challenge, safety, security or provide a sense of purpose and greater meaning then you’re going to be left ‘hungry’. Comfort eating is often the result of a lull in the distracting noise of the day which triggers a sort of emotional crisis. The not-so-merry-go-round halts and the desire to fill the void erupts. And all you can think about is “I need something”.
- Meet your real needs. The great Persian poet Rumi said… “Fool’s gold exists because there is real gold.” So when you discover the emotions that trigger your comfort eating like fear, anxiety, exhaustion, rejection, loneliness, anger or any other feeling you must find the real need that isn’t being met. You need to develop clarity about what you really need so you can start creating a life that genuinely meets your needs. Once you do, it extinguishes the filling-a-gap behaviour so it’s naturally discarded. But an ingrained habit may still remain.
- Retrain to refrain. If I asked you to imagine the experience of comfort eating (craving the chocolate, going to the fridge and then getting the chocolate out) you’d probably find it easy to do because you’ve done it many times before. However if I asked you to summon up the feeling of craving chocolate. And then immediately after engage the feeling of overwhelming guilt you get after you’ve eaten it, you’d probably find it difficult to do. This is because your mind doesn’t normally associate these two feelings together. But if you bring the unpleasant feeling right up to the front it gives you a chance to feel the reality of where this path leads you.
- You are not the problem. There’s a danger in believing you are the problem. Because getting rid of the problem then means getting rid of you. So you need to defamiliarize yourself from the problem. Rather than think about quitting or stopping, which trigger fear, you need to externalise and reframe your thinking. Think about how ‘it’ (the unhealthy food) tries to trick you into believing you need it. Or think about ‘it’ as ‘conning’ and ‘manipulative’ and tries to take advantage of you when you feel stressed and vulnerable. This kind of reframing triggers a righteous anger in you that helps you stand up to ‘it’ and believe you can handle the stresses of life without it.
Now while the steps I’ve outlined above are pretty straight forward, actually implementing them is where many people struggle.
That’s because it requires you to change. And your subconscious mind can be resistant to change even when it’s going to be good for you.
We’re creatures of habit and you’re locked into your habits.
But the GOOD NEWS is there is a way to break your habits that doesn’t require enormous amounts of willpower and determination. And that way is clinical hypnotherapy.
The secret to clinical hypnotherapy lies in how it taps into your subconscious mind and reprograms the way you think. It erases the feelings that drive you to comfort eat. It instills in you newfound self-belief and self-confidence. And it frees you from guilt.
So if you want to eliminate comfort eating sabotaging your weight loss efforts then my Dream Figure 4 Life hypnotherapy program is your answer.
I have designed it so it quickly removes the negative thoughts and feelings that drive you to comfort eat. And it effortlessly changes your behaviour, without the need for willpower.
FREE 30 Minute Dream Figure 4 Life Consultation
So you can discover how my Dream Figure 4 Life hypnotherapy program works I have a FREE offer for you.
A FREE 30 minute, no-obligation, Dream Figure 4 Life Assessment Consultation.
During your consultation, you’ll have the opportunity to discuss with me the difficulties you’re having losing weight. And I’ll reveal how the Dream Figure 4 Life Program works to free you from comfort eating and other self-sabotaging behaviours.
Contact us now on 02 9524 2471 or at info@healthyremedies.com.au
* If you are not local, or you’re interstate or in another country that’s okay because I also do online consultations.
