So here I am in the third session with Michael,  a vet who completed four tours: one in Afghanistan and three in Iraq.

To say he has PTSD is not really strong enough. I want you to understand that he has SERIOUS POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER.

I want to warn you not to threaten him. I have written down a list of his triggers and I promise you, I will not forget any of them while in his presence.

He is sweet and thoughtful and not someone you want to provoke. He tells me about the civilian guy who put a gun in his face and asked for his wallet. Yes, Michael was on crutches, but his body momentarily forgot the shrapnel lodged in his spinal cord. The guy with the gun went down, hard.

He tells me things, horrific things, the kind of things I very intentionally never watch in movies.  And yet, I find that I can listen to what he has experienced and I don’t wince or want to jump from my chair. I am almost as neutral as I would be by the news that you put a banana down the garbage disposal.

Woven between his tales is a tired soldier’s search for his own humanity. How do you reconcile acts of war with who you are?

He ruminates,  “Am I the big soft bear who like to save people or am I Rambo with ice in my guts?”

Healers tell stories and for no reason that I am consciously aware of I find myself telling him about my dear friend Camille’s husband. She says that although he has lived in Seattle for twenty years, he can get lost coming home. When they go somewhere together,to protect their marriage, she drives. And yet, when they visited Rome, this same husband had a GPS in his head. She would be studying a map and he simply seemed to know the lay of the land.

As I tell Michael this story, I feel a chill down my spine. I recognize this as words that have come out of my mouth for reasons I don’t understand and they have landed like a truth that needed to breathe. His relief is palatable. And then some force opens my mouth again, and I say, “Maybe you were a soldier in another life time.”

Michael comes to his appointments prepared. His mind is spilling out torturous thoughts and memories. He will sometimes stop and say, “I know I just laid a lot on you.”

I am not surprised, but he is, when he says,

“The first time I was in a situation where all hell broke loose, I remember looking over and seeing my squadron leader frozen. Shots and soldiers are all around me. It is real mayhem and I am barking commands. I didn’t even know what they meant until years later when I heard them in the movie. I had no rank. I was new and yet, I had an almost 360 degree sense of who was where and who was an immediate threat and who was not.  They were doing what I said. It was the first time I had the feeling I wasn’t driving, and how was it that I knew those things? But I did. So yes, I absolutely know I have been a soldier before.”

Micheal’s PTSD responds phenomenally well to EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique. After three sessions he is sleeping better. A reoccurring nightmare is gone. And he can tell a few of his worst experiences without feeling the adrenalin coursing through his body.  And his reaction to loud sounds has dramatically lessened.

I am grateful for Michael for coming into my world and for teaching me things I didn’t know about war, and myself.

I look forward to sharing more as I venture down this path.

Enjoy your long weekend,
Lisa

Sometimes you just need some one-on-one hypnosis to keep you out of the cookie jar, or stopping at Starbucks.

It is really fun to be hypnotized  to not want to eat cookies, or chocolate, or candy.

However, the associations are usually so strong from years of repetitive experience that an upset like grief, a big change, or even a disturbing conversation, can sometimes send you back to your old comforting stand-by.

This is where EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) is really helpful.

It is an effective way to PLAY with your thinking.

It is as though you have an entrenched stream of thought.

It can go like this: When I need a break, want to treat myself, I grab my favorite>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.

With EFT, you can state the truth as you are tapping on your body, “Even though I say I want to be healthy, and not have this annoying fat on my body, I still want to eat this Snickers Bar, and have a Diet Coke. Even though I know I can’t keep doing this and feel great in my body, I TOTALLY love and accept myself.”

The power is in acknowledging the truth instead of staying in the fight. (Please read that sentence again!)

You have battling parts. One part wants to feel healthy and proud, and the other part wants what she wants, and to be left alone.

This is exhausting!

With hypnosis, you can be powerfully veered from this battle, but in my experience, EFT gives you another very useful tool. I don’t know about you, but I LOVE good tools!

This is my favorite example in my own life, and forgive me if you have heard this story before.

I did not want to pick up my high-school daughter from volleyball practice. She had been gnarly before school that morning and I had had a very busy day and I wanted to go home and not make ONE MORE STOP!

The owner of Husky’s Deli in West Seattle was on the radio, being interviewed about his family’s tradition of making ice cream.   When my girls were little, and we didn’t have a hectic schedule, we would wander in, order an ice cream cone and sit outside and enjoy it. It was fun, and I can see them trying to manage the cones and the ice cream in their little hands.

Well, suddenly all I could think of was ice cream. I could go to QFC and they had Dove bars on a stick and I could be late, and I started laughing.

What I really wanted was the leisure of NO SCHEDULE, thank you very much. The ice cream wasn’t going to change that!

At the next stop light, I did some EFT on myself. I drove right to the high school,  picked up my daughter, and made her a wonderful dinner.  I totally forgot about the ice cream until the following week when I was teaching, and I used it as an example.

Out minds are really interesting,and knowing yours is very useful.

In my practice and in my own life, I have found the combination of hypnosis and EFT to be an absolutely phenomenal combination for change.

Access My Free Hypnosis Library: click here

Cake used to be such a problem for me, I should have worn a sign that said,

“DO NOT LEAVE YOUR CAKE UNATTENDED.”

Now I can laugh and remember that my mind is powerful and that I can use it to stop my sugar cravings. You can too!

When they gave you your first coke,cookie or whatever, they didn’t warn you…..

SUGAR CAN BE ADDICTIVE

Sugar can be  harder than a crack addiction because it is everywhere….and it is socially acceptable.

Many of my clients, and probably you, don’t really want to give up sugar because it feels like you are going to miss some fun.

I know the feeling…….

However, I have discovered with a little hypnosis, you can dramatically decrease your desire for sweets, stop craving sugar, and you can increase your sensitivity so that many things begin to taste too sweet…

Download a free hypnosis to STOP YOUR SUGAR CRAVINGS NOW

She has a big job organizing events, lots of events, and she also has an exceptionally cool demeanor. The kind of person you would happily hand over your “to do” list to and then just not worry.

Underneath her exceptional poise, she was having panic attacks at inopportune times, and having trouble staying asleep at night.

The attacks subsided after her first session. She listened to her recordings at night and was pleased with the positive change in sleeping patterns.

Things were going better, much better, and then she had a panic attack while watching TV.  WHAT?

Her Mom had mental breakdown and been hospitalized when my client was in grade school.

She doesn’t consciously remember much, but she did remember watching TV to pass the time after school, waiting for her Dad to come home.

We brainstormed about what that precious little girl was going through as we did EFT and then followed it up with some powerfully mind-shifting hypnosis.

That was last year. She is still sleeping well and the outside cool demeanor remains true on the inside too.

The combination of EFT and hypnosis is incredibly effective.

Did you know that you can work with me on SKYPE?

E mail me at Lisa @ Lisa Crunick .com  no spaces, and set up a free twenty-minute, no pressure consultation.

A part of me does not want to know, write, or admit, the downside of anything that creates the joy of SWEETNESS in my mouth!

I start every Sugar Workshop with these words, “I really do not want any of what I am about to share with you to be true. I love sugar! and while I eat a LOT LESS than I used to…….. completely give it up! yea, that’s probably not going to happen!”

Another part of me knows what she knows: the habit of jacking up your energy with sugar  can be disastrous.

My battle with sugar was established by my late twenties when I announced that I didn’t want a wedding cake.

The words, “NO wedding cake, MA,” fell into my mother’s right ear and came out her left like a challenge that I was not going to win. She could accept that I wasn’t a virgin, but a wedding without a cake? No Way!

The caterers forgot to serve that cake, and most of it ended up at my mother’s house where YOURS TRULY ate most of it!

My Mother’s Grandfather was a merchant, and when having sugar meant status, he had plenty of it. She says that he even sprinkled sugar on his vegetables, lived to be ninety and that I should just get over myself.

Well, I have. I no longer feel that I come with a warning, “Please do not leave your cake unattended in my presence.”

My own mom used to hide truffles in the china. She knew all about sweet-mouth joy! She would savor the sweet chocolate in her mouth and then spit it out!

We are not alone!

I know of a diabetic who crashes retirement parties as an excuse to have some cake.

I have heard of babies crawling out of their cribs to empty the sugar bowl.

I have worked with people who have days,even whole weeks, when they only eat sweets.

I have seen eczema, aches, fat, and cravings go away when people give up eating too much sugar.

What is it about sweet substances that can be so problematic and what exactly is sugar?
As I explore these questions, and write about them, I would really love to hear your story. (Please write to me: Lisa @ Lisa Crunick. com no spaces with Sugar in the headline).

Have you struggled? Are you struggling?  If you are waiting for a study to prove anything about the negative effects of sugar, please do not hold your breath.

How many times have you heard, read or seen what might be a recommended daily sugar allowance? Exactly!

The  World Health Organization recommends 10 teaspoons of sugar a day.

If you are consuming less than that, you can stop reading.

Everyone else should click here to get  Sweet Wisdom: a free hypnosis and bi-weekly tips to keep you on track.

Do you avoid looking at your body in the mirror?

Recently I stood in front of the video camera and recorded myself with NO makeup!

When I watched it, I realized I really liked me. Yes, I have wrinkles, the camera adds a few pounds, but beyond that, I could see me.

I am wonderfully kind and earnest.

Can you see you?

Growing up I had a beloved, ballsy, and funny Aunt Eleanor.

She loved donuts,Tom Jones, and Pepsi.

She was way too young when she died of liver cancer.

One summer she lost fifty pounds. She ate a fudgesicle every day for lunch.

My aunt could not see herself.

A very funny guy, @TheEntertainer says,

“We are really all here in Human Suits.”

I trained myself to not look at my clients bodies, but rather to really see them. I noticed that as I did this, I began to see myself as well.

I am not my body and neither are you. If we were, we would take it with us when we leave here, and universally, we leave our bodies behind.

I assist you in rediscovering your own magnificence.

It has nothing to do with weight, money, lovers,cars, or the latest handbag (although you can desire and have any of that).

It really has to do with uncovering the magnificence that each of us has within us.

When you are attacking your body as not good enough, YOU ARE WASTING YOUR PRECIOUS ENERGY ON THE WRONG THING!

It is like wanting to go to London from New York and looking for a car to make the trip.

You can try a new kind of tire, a car that floats, a way to get fuel. You can see this is insane and extremely inefficient. We need an airline ticket or a cruise ship.

Going on a diet to lose weight, so you can feel in control, and accept yourself, is like planning to get to London by car.

The airline ticket is changing your mind so you take care of yourself because you can. And you can because you want to. And you want to because you are pretty fricking awesome.

Start your journey today.

I want you to be able to look in the mirror and see that you are lovable.

Get Started Now:

Experience how hypnosis and EFT can stop cravings, end yo yo dieting, and curb emotional eating. Learn to work with your body instead of against it.

Instead of Weight Watching, Try Minding Your Magnificence

Most of us have a few eating personalities.

Do you have an Inner Cereal Monster?

In my next Make Peace with Food and You class we will have a great time calling out our personalities, naming them, and the laughing very hard as we decide how to handle them.

We meet one Friday night a month.   Email Lisa   @ Lisa Crunick .com if you would like to join us.

(BTW, This makes me a David Kessler fan!)

Apparently the restaurant would not hand over the secret ingredients, and Dr. Kessler, author of The End of Overeating, knew that he would find the ingredient list on the outside of the box.

What did he find?

The ingredient list for Southwestern Eggrolls mentioned salt eight different times; sugars showed up five times. The “egg rolls,” which are deep-fried in fat, contain chicken that has been chopped up like meatloaf to give it a “melt in the mouth” quality that also makes it faster to eat. By the time a diner has finished this appetizer, she has consumed 910 calories, 57 grams of fat and 1,960 milligrams of sodium.  Thanks Lindsay Layton, Washington Post. Click for entire article
(For comparison, a little less than a half a cup of peanut butter has 50 grams of fat. )

Instead of satisfying hunger, the salt-fat-sugar combination will stimulate that diner’s brain to crave more, Kessler said.

If sugar has hijacked your brain, get some help

This short video takes a moment to load, but it is worth it. Listen to what he says about sugar!!

Instead of Watching Your Weight, Try Minding Your Magnificence

One of my favorite fairy tales is The Crescent Moon Bear.

A woman is  distraught because her husband has returned from war a different man. He is distant, and grouchy, and she sorely misses the sweetness of the companionship she remembers.

She goes to a healer and is told to journey to the top of the mountain and to get a  white hair from the neck of a black bear.

It is no small quest. She must climb the mountain, find the bear, and coax him with food. Oh, and then get close enough to a bear to pull out a hair.

She succeeds and runs down the mountain only to have the healer  throw her precious prize into the fire.

The woman is told to go home and practice everything she learned from the bear on her husband.

This is really a tale about taking one’s own pain and anger and learning love and trust. Everything she needed to know she learned within her journey.

For people who are ashamed for being overweight, the journey to love and trust oneself, can feel as dangerous as getting a bear’s neck hair.

But ultimately, it is the path to inner peace.

Pick the right journey for you.