"Seeing yourself as healthier is the key to losing weight"
This is the claim made by scientists working at the University of Winona, as reported in the journal Self and Society. They had wanted to see if they could experimentally manipulate people into adopting healthier eating. So, having split their volunteers into three groups – a control group, who made no changes to their lifestyle; an educated group, who were given healthy food advice; and a Self –As-Doer group, who were both educated and concentrated on statements for the length of the experiment – ie “ I am becoming a fruit eater” and “I am becoming a veggie eater”
The Self-As-Doer group each had come up with six statements about the way they wanted to be. Although the experiment ran for six weeks, results were evident after just one month. The Self-As-Doer group had made a significant change in food consumption – decreasing energy dense, high calorie food and drinks, and increasing consumption of fruits, vegetables and whole grains. The other groups did not have significant changes.
This is wonderful news for a hypnotherapist because it is scientific backing for what we do. Hypnotherapy will encourage people to adopt a healthier relationship towards food and the benefits of increasing consumption of water rich foods. But, it goes further than this, taking people into the future, in their minds allowing them to see and experience their future self, having already achieved success. Some hypnotherapists will even encourage people to step inside their own body, in trance, to help them to see the possibilities. Many hypnotherapists will provide a backup cd for people to listen to after the session. Imagine the effect if the positive statements mentioned above were included in a backup cd, and faithfully listened to in trance every day for six weeks.
Hypnotherapy has tremendous power, and the results from Winona University demonstrate how positive change can be achieved.
Matthew Hall, Master in Clinical Hypnosis
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