Hypnotherapy Update

Have your heart in your life's work, and be stout-hearted. Do something, act always, and do it now. Don't be afraid. Many a man has been defeated by his doubts—lack of confidence. Take your risks—you cannot eliminate them, you cannot escape them. You can diminish them by dominating them.- Batten's Wedge


As posted previously, I quit smoking back in November with the help of a hypnotherapist. Now when I started this whole hypnosis thing it was simply to quit smoking. I read that the success rate is approx 80% and decided it was worth a try. After being successful at quitting smoking, I thought that perhaps the therapist could hypnotize me again for weight loss purposes and put some positive thoughts into my head. I figured it worked for smoking, perhaps it would work for overeating. I did not, however, ever think about this as "real" therapy, dealing with the root causes of my obesity. I figured that I would be hypnotized, the hypnotherapist would put good thoughts and behaviours into my head, I would wake up and start losing weight, and in fact this was true for the first three sessions, (except for the losing weight part, that hasn't started yet lol).

On December 23, I went for my forth and final hypnosis session for weight loss. It started out wonderful as my hypnotherapist is also a certified elite trainer and has offered to show me around the gym she goes to and get me into a certain comfort zone in the gym. She is aware that my weight loss goals have not so much to do with looking good but more about feel strong and healthy and fit and she also understands that I am terrified about joining a gym. My goal is to complete a triathlon (try-a -tri) in the not too distant future. I was, and am still extremely excited and grateful for her help and guidance.

So on to the hypnosis session. It all started as all previous sessions had, her talking to me and putting good weight loss thoughts into my head. Then she did something that she hasn't done before and that is she asked me to pretend the excess fat on my body is sitting across from me. She asked me to imagine what that fat would say to me if I asked it what it's purpose was is in my life, why do I keep this fat on my body. She actually asked me to say, OUT LOUD what I thought the response would be! I had never been asked to speak in any of the sessions so this threw me for a major loop. I lay there, frozen in fear, the fear of talking about all the things I have kept buried deep within my being but she persisted and I finally blurted out "It protects me". She then asked me what it protects me from, and the pain of many many years was brought to the surface, but i couldn't answer. She kept asking me what it was protecting me from and I just kept shaking my head while my mind was screaming NOOOOOOOO, please don't ask me to talk about this. I could feel tears pouring from my eyes. Part of me wanted to talk talk about it but on this day I was not ready to let go of any of the painful memories that I have carried with me for years (I should mention here that there is no big dark secret in my past, no abuse or anything like that, just years and years of being teased and tormented about my weight and being made to feel like I was not good enough because I was fat). I awoke from my hypnotic state feeling disturbed rather than relaxed as I had felt after previous sessions and to be honest that feeling has not fully left me to this point.

When I left her office, I was driving home and it suddenly hit me, that this is in fact THERAPY! I could sugar coat it any way I wanted to, but the fact remained I am going to therapy to deal with my issues surrounding weight. I realized that I cannot rely on someone to "fix" me solely by putting new thoughts into my head, I realize I am going to have to face all of the negative things that I have been buried within me since I was about 10 years old. I am TERRIFIED at this prospect but I am also READY. I have committed to this journey and I am ready to break free of the old me.