Archive for the ‘Let Go of Emotional Eating’ Category

When she came in for her first appointment, she said she wanted to wear a bra from Victoria’s Secret. This morning she emailed and said it was hanging in her bedroom. She bought it.  It fits.  And now she wants the constant reminder, ” I am now a woman who can buy and wear a bra from Victoria’s Secret”.

Sometimes, the goal is to walk in the heat of the summer without chafing your legs. After my first pregnancy, my goal was to walk up the steps without my legs touching my belly.

Maybe you want to feel at ease in group of people or during intimacy. Maybe you want to stop being afraid of what is next. Whatever it is you want to feel differently about: you also most certainly want it to happen instantly. And yet, our most delicious victories come with a little more effort.

I have noticed there is an alchemy to changing your mind. I am more relaxed about the how, and the more at ease I am, the better practitioner I become. The first step to changing your mind is for you to be honest about how you want to feel differently.

The second step is to neutralize the negative emotions.  This second step can take a month, a few minutes, or a few years. It is the most important step and it is actually a series of steps. It is like playing a game.

You progress and then something else comes up and you get past the something else, until you get closer to the red bra, or whatever it is you seek.

What is missing for so many of us, is the acknowledgment that we are emotional beings. We love logic and the “just do it” mentality. We beat ourselves up for procrastinating, not being all we can be, and so on and so on. Relying on logic without acknowledging and clearing our emotions keeps us stuck.

We carry around emotional patterns and keep acting the same screen play until we change our emotional being.

Trying to change without clearing emotions  is like planting lettuce seeds over grass. It is like trying to grow blueberries in the wrong kind of soil. It is like trying to make good pesto from bitter- old basil. It is like driving without enough air in your tires.

Once you get the soil right. Once you are open to letting go of old emotional patterns, your experience changes.

Your mind takes a positive affirmation because it can.

The blueberries are sweeter and more prolific.  Picking lettuce is easy;  you can enjoy the best pesto, and your car rolls efficiently.

I hope you can join me in Changing Your Mind.

A new approach

She is beautiful, gracious, insightful, accomplished; the list goes on….

And she comes to see me because she has one hundred extra pounds.

She wants to give it away.

She knows a lot about nutrition.

She knows a lot about a lot of things.

She is fascinating and fascinated as she pulls up the gnarly roots of unwanted behaviors.

Sometimes we can laugh and “ah ah” over what has been hidden.

She goes back into her life, joyously sleuthing for more roots, and what feels like the bloom of power.

As her mind changes, life feels a little easier.

Her heart grows lighter as she fills it with hope.

She says one day, “I am not comfortable in my own kitchen.I have worked so hard to create home and comfort and I realize I sneak in there like a thief, taking things. I don’t feel at home.”

The history of how this came to be unfolds before her like a new sheet. When she realizes that she has no pleasant kitchen memories,we draw mental pictures for growing loving connections in her kitchen.

She came back and is happy at how she stood in her kitchen and cooked for people she loved, and allowed them to be right next to her.

She decided to paint her kitchen a soft color. She called her sisters and discovered they had similar feelings.

She called her mother.

She learned more as she looked back another generation.

She calls it her love room as she is begins to own it as a warm, sunny studio for her creative, nurturing spirit.

Ah, this is much better than the guilt of being a thief. Remember that the answer is not in the kitchen, but underneath why YOU are in the kitchen.

A New Approach

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Thank you for your outstanding generosity to Tent City. WOW! I made my first delivery and yes,I will go back. The person who offered a truck for the delivery, thanked me for the experience.   It is particularly cold, so I know the charcoal is especially appreciated. I am still collecting, so please give me a shout if you would like to contribute.

Some things just click.  Alone they are great, together they are fantastic.  Hypnosis and EFT, the Emotional Freedom Technique are like that.  

One practitioner called it weed whacking, and then mowing to make things smooth. My approach is bit more gentle, I think of it like pulling weeds, so you are free to grow whatever you want or need.

For the past year I have been experimenting  with the format of the Breakthrough Sessions. I like doing groups. Everyone benefits and it is cost effective. 

The last Breakthrough Session was really powerful.  I allow my intuition to start somewhere with someone. I tap on myself and the person I am working with mirrors me, while I talk. I don’t know where the words come from, but things slip out of my mouth and I just keep going. Everyone taps along. 

What I find is that the repetition puts everyone in a bit of a trance, including me, and we get results.

On Monday, we tapped on the fact that Carol had a new kitchen, a new juicer, as well as fruits and vegetables that were going to rot if she didn’t use them soon. But they were more like props for the life she wanted and couldn’t get herself to live. She said, “I don’t deserve to feel good”.

We tapped on all of the reasons why, and this came up as another aspect from being sexually abused, and then not being believed as a child. Letting go of that kind of emotion is powerful. 

As we went around the room, one person’s relief seemed to feed the fire of the next person’s ah!ah! The next participant, who has made real strides, surprised me when I saw tears streaming down her beautifully round face. She sighed and said, “I gave up on myself at eighteen years old”.

I hope you enjoy Nina Simone, and this song, as much as I do. Sugar, more often than not, is a euphemism in music. This is one of my favorites. Her artistry is incredible.

In the past Letting Go of Sugar Hypnosis Hour, attended by “newbies” and “old timers” I was reminded that it is a journey, and not a destination. It is certainly not about never having sugar again, but It is about changing your relationship.

Sugar happens to be a drug, which some of us have or have had a harder time with than others. I began by explaining my own love of sugar.

Sometimes people don’t hear that so I give details, “Back in the day, I would treat myself to a pound of Dilettante chocolate, way too many Snickers bars, and if you want to hear about my love of frosting and cake, pull up a chair.

I had gone to Simply Desserts in Fremont because a new client waxed poetic about their cakes, and I wanted something very tempting for class. As soon as I walked in the door, I was nearly knocked down by the smell of sweetness and then I was in the Dreamland: picture perfect red-headed girls, a beautiful mom, wide planked wooden floors, and cakes from fairy tales. Yes, a real drug den.

I left without a piece of cake. I had to go somewhere less intoxicating.

The first time Catherine came to my one of my Sugar Workshops she confessed that it was either a sugar day or not a sugar day. On a sugar day, she would eat pretty much only sugar.

I would like to say she immediately took the cure after that one class, years ago, but she did not. Catherine is a good example of determination. She came back several times. With the combination of EFT, hypnosis, counseling and her own very stubborn spirit, she changed her mind and has turned her behavior around.

My spirit soared when she said, “I just take care of myself. I eat what I want.” Next up was Patty. She said, “I can’t believe how far I have come. I used to say, “I am going to be bad and have this.” Now it makes me laugh and I cringe a bit when others say it. If I really don’t want something and I feel tempted, I just imagine pickle juice. It is kind of fun and I am almost fifty pounds down, yeah me!”

Did it take each of us some time? Yes. Was it worth it? You betcha!

A newer client talked about how she loves to go out and treat herself. Her affection wanders but is consistent in that all sweets are special, and especially when shared. As we used EFT on her desire for the beautiful and sexy piece of cake I did bring to class, her craving waned and she made the comment, “If you are going to mess with me, I don’t want it.”

We did a couple of EFT rounds of tapping and I slipped in some statements about entitlement. When I finally ask her if I could throw her piece of the cake in the garbage, she did not flinch, but I could feel that going through her mind was, “I can go buy my own piece of cake.”

We saw each other the next day and this is what she said: “When I left class I thought, I can go buy a piece of cake. But then I thought, I am kind of hungry, I want some protein. For some reason I drove by Red Lobster and I wanted to go in. I have never even been to a Red Lobster before. Then I wanted deep fried prawns. I haven’t had deep fried prawns since I was a little kid. It used to be my favorite. I stopped eating them after I ordered prawns a restaurant that was a little more expensive than usual for my family. When I bit into one it was runny, but I knew if I said I didn’t like it, I would get into trouble, so I said it didn’t taste right, because that was the safer thing to say. My step dad immediately said, “You ordered it you have to eat it.” My mom reached over and took a small taste and she said, “They don’t taste right.” My step dad thought she was just siding with me and insisted I eat them. Well, my mom bless her, ate half, and we both got really sick.

He never admitted there was anything wrong with those prawns. We were just sticking together. “ At home her step dad was allowed sweets, but she wasn’t.

That Hypnosis Happy Hour for Sugar was in July. I ran into her yesterday and she said, Yes, I still have my favorite bakeries, but my approach is different, I don’t feel so compelled and sometimes I can take a few bites and leave the rest. I also spoke to Catherine today; she said she made a pumpkin pie, ate one piece, felt satisfied, and someone else ate the rest.

To learn more about how you too can change your mind about sugar, check out Letting Sugar Go, a great way to ease your way into a different relationship with all things sweet.