HYPNOTRITION™: Thoughts as Food, Foods for Thought For Body, Mind, and Spirit

by Deborah Yaffee

Fall 2008

Part 1: Menus of the Mind

Take a moment and imagine, really imagine, your favorite food. That’s right..close your eyes and really enjoy it…how delicious it is, how good it makes you feel just thinking about the way it tastes, how it feels in your mouth, the way you devour it with your eyes even before you eat it. FEELS good, doesn’t it…just thinking about that favorite food. Mmmmmmmmm.

Now take a moment and imagine..really imagine…the food that you just can’t stomach. The very thought of it is revolting to you. And imagine being made to sit down to a great big bowl of it..and being forced to eat it. UGH! That doesn’t feel very good at all, does it?

And…imagine, really imagine, a time when you ate or drank something that changed your mood, your thinking, your mental clarity or focus. Might it have been an overdose of that turkey and mashed potato last Thanksgiving? A few too many glasses of the special punch at the New Year’s party? Uh oh……

Now…recall a time when you ate that one perfect meal…the one that left you feeling energized , clear, positive…the one that put you in the zone. Remember how it felt to enjoy that level of vitality..how was your mood? Your mind was so clear and quick. You felt so confident..remember?

Whether you call it the body-mind or the mind-body connection, your own experience tells you that what goes into your mind affects your body and what goes into your body affects your mind. Of course, there are numerous scientific studies that demonstrate exactly what parts of the brain are involved and how this all works, but the simple truth is that our thoughts are food and foods fuel our thoughts.

There are many ways to achieve and maintain optimal health, but I have enjoyed phenomenal success for myself and my clients by distilling these ways down into a simple formula that you can apply to the sacred trinity of your being: Body, Mind and Spirit. It is the Life Balancing Formula of Cleanse, Replenish and Tonify. Doing this formula has helped me become much more effective in my professional practice and in my private life. Following this formula has helped me become much more effective in my professional practice and in my private life. It has also become a wonderful framework for my work in guiding clients to better health in mind, body and spirit.

Here in part 1 of this article series, let’s apply the Life Balancing Formula to the mind.

Mind: Thoughts as Food

HypnoCleanse:

Did I mention that some people call hypnosis “brain washing” as if that were a BAD thing? What hypnotists actually do is help people change their minds..in a good way. The truth of the matter is that we are in the DE-PROGRAMMING business! It’s our job, pleasure and privilege to help others cleanse their own minds from the caked on sludge of self-limiting and erroneous beliefs that have been keeping them from manifesting the positive intentions for their lives.

How many of you have “wanted to lose weight” or are “trying to lose weight”? And one week into your diet, you go to that party at a friend’s house and there’s a BIG piece of chocolate cake with the ooey gooey icing on it and, oh my gosh, it has YOUR name on it! At first you bring out your willpower to remind yourself that you are not eating big pieces of cake anymore….but that darn piece of chocolate cake bursts into a siren song that you just can’t resist and …. oops, oh well, tomorrow is another day, and as long as you messed up with the cake, you may as well make a day of it and have the fried chicken, the chips, the dip, the bread, and that high octane punch, right? How did this happen??? Did the devil make you do it? Of course not.. it was the devil’s food cake that made you do it. Hmmmmm….

Or are you one of the thousands of people who watched The Secret, got all fired up and spent days and days affirming that you ARE a millionaire..and then found yourself in even greater debt on the credit card for that purchase of the Next Best Home Business Opportunity. What happened?

What happened was that you didn’t clear out your closets and clean up the house before opening the door to a lifestyle that your subconscious mind considers a very unwanted guest. Your conscious mind may recognize and decide that those extra 35 pounds have put your health and wellbeing at risk, and it is your conscious mind that recognizes and decides that you would like to be financially free. But the conscious mind is only the 10% tip of your beautiful mental iceberg…the other 90% of your mind is operating below the surface. We call it the subconscious mind (SCM).

Most of the database files in the SCM are organized by association. Think of the word “red” and watch how many general and personalized associations arise when you think, picture, or imagine “red”. Once a file has been accepted into the subconscious database, similar information is stored there, too. For example, you may have learned very early on that whenever you screamed from hunger as a baby, someone came and fed you. As time went on, your caregivers may have given you food EVERY time you screamed, whether they knew if you were really hungry or not. What they observed was that you DID stop screaming, usually, when someone stuck some food in your mouth. Years later, as an adult, you consciously may understand that you are not hungry and not needing to eat, but your dear old SCM is feeling downright upset about something and is screaming for the only pacifier it has ever known: food! It is holding to an association between food and comfort that has a very long, reinforced history. If you really want to change your food habits and release the unhealthy pounds, you are going to have to bring the SCM onto the same page as your conscious mind.

As we bump into life, we may unexpectedly, and unconsciously, dislodge some of these old associations. If our mental closets are packed full with old toys, tattered ideas and beliefs that are too small for our grownup lives, the door will open and all the clutter will come spilling out…and we’ll have one awful, unwanted mess to clean up. When our mental database is cluttered and filled with outdated files and programs that are full of bugs, we need to purge the system..clean out those closets so that we can get ourselves a new wardrobe of beliefs that are a perfect fit for the person we have become — and for that person we are “if only…”.

In order to put something new and different into our lives, we need to first make a space. We need to cleanse and de-clutter our minds from all those things that are holding us back from stepping into our greatness. In my experience, hypnosis, NLP, EFT, and Zpoint Process have been the most useful tools for cleansing the mind of those pesky limiting beliefs. Each of these modalities is especially designed to uncover and clear erroneous beliefs and self-defeating habits from the SCM. As experienced practitioners of these arts, you will guide your clients to liberating themselves from the prisons of their own experience and making. I’m sure you will now agree that a little “brain washing” can do a Body-Mind good!

Want a deeper, more immediate mental cleanse? Then get rid of our ANTs as well! I first learned this acronym from Dr. Daniel Amen. ANTs are Automatic Negative Thoughts. The most troublesome ANTs include:

Overgeneralizing with “Always”, “Never”, “Everyone”, “No One”, “Every Time”, “Everything”:

I’ll NEVER get ahead. NOBODY gives a crap about me. It’s ALWAYS been this way.

Emotional Thinking:

Believing negative feelings without questioning them which often leads to giving into F.E.A.R. (False Evidence Appearing Real). I FEEL like a complete failure. I FEEL like no one will ever want to be with me.

“Ought-ism” and “Should-it is”:

Uncreative and unhelpful beating-oneself-up with guilt.
I SHOULD go to pre-med even though I want to be a singer. I HAVE TO clean up my room. I OUGHT TO stay home more.

Labeling / Judgmental:

Clouding your mental clarity and perceptions with negative labels you attach to yourself or others. He’s a JERK. I’m SO STUPID.

Personalizing:

Taking innocuous or unclear events as having personal meaning.
Susie didn’t say hello to me when I walked by her desk this morning..she must be mad at me.

Black and White Thinking:

Things are either good or bad, right or wrong, with no middle ground.

Dr. Daniel Amen notes that the Red ANTs are especially dangerous:

Filtered thinking (magnifiying and minimizing):

Making light of the good in a situation while exaggerating and focusing on the negative.

Fortune Telling:

Predicting the worst possible outcome; often leads to self-fulfilling prophecies and “I told you so”…which of course, leads you right back to the black ANT: “This crap ALWAYS happens to me.”

Mind Reading:

Believing that you know what another person is thinking even though they haven’t told you. Assumptions about another person’s thoughts and feelings can really spoil your picnic with them.

The most poisonous of them all….Blaming:

Blaming someone else for your own problems.

Clearly, ANTs can be annoying or downright destructive, but they don’t have to be difficult to get rid of. All it takes is the Raid Formula of vigilance and clearing. With a little practice, you can become so accurate when you aim that spray of vigilance, that you can hose down and clear an ANT in an instant. Stop feeding your ANTs and enjoy your picnic!

HypnoReplenish:

As we empty the old limiting beliefs and self defeating habits from our minds, we can begin to replenish and renew them with positive thoughts, images, and feelings.

We need to use replenishing language. Words are powerful. Language changes the way we set our intention; it transforms us from “wanting to lose weight” to “releasing unwanted pounds of fat.” Adjusting your language can change your results from “trying to eat better” to “choosing the healthy choice in every moment”.

Our minds create images from words, and images are the first language of the SCM. The SCM responds to images with feelings. Feelings lead to action…and it is the actions we take that build our lives, for better or worse. Therefore, the words and images you give yourself, and the feelings you induce in your being are of the utmost importance for replenishing your mind after you’ve cleansed away unwanted beliefs and habits.

Replenishing the mind is FUN! First determine what you WANT and then imagineer your way back to the future a few minutes every day with self hypnosis. The SCM only knows the present moment, so affirm the future of your desire as if it were already here. How do you FEEL? What do you SEE? Does your new life have a SMELL? What do you HEAR? WHO is there? HOW do they look?

Action follows thought, so put in writing what you WANT. Use affirmations to flex the appropriate subconscious mental muscles by focusing on what you want rather than strengthening the “what you don’t want” muscles. Charge your affirmations with “the attractor factor” by infusing them with the magnetic energy of big excitement. Putting them in writing reinforces the message you are sending and quickens their manifestation. From the comfort and confidence of your REALITY, upgrade your affirmation to the status of decree by proclaiming powerful “I AM” statements.

HypnoTonify:

Like your muscles, the mind needs to be kept exercised and toned for optimal functioning. We want the mind to be alert, strong, quick to respond, adaptable, limber, balanced.

Here are 4 easy ways you can begin today to tonify your mind:

1. One especially effective way to keep your mind resilient to stress is to keep it saturated with positive words and images. Make a list of words and images that inspire and uplift you, words and images that express how you would like to feel. Choose one or more and allow your mind to dwell gently on them. Notice how your whole being relaxes and finds equipoise in the peaceful refuge that words can conjure up. Joy..Tranquil..Softness..Puppy..Heart..Wonder..Innocence..

2. Location! Location! Location! I once heard that “environment is stronger than willpower”. Whether it’s your internal environment of positive thought, or an external environment of the type of positive, energetic, happy, kind, and loving people that make you feel good, put yourself in positive environments. Reduce the time you spend with IMPs (Interminably Morose People). Build up your reservoir of tranquil equanimity by being with positive people in positive environments. If you can’t find one, create one!

3. Practice your ability to freely choose your responses to life. Choice can be conscious or unconscious. You can train your SCM to choose wisely and quickly by taking the time to train it now with conscious effort. Humans get better with practice so start with small choices and work your way up to more important ones. When life gives you lemons, make a martini with a twist.

4. Be mindful of your self-talk. Your body-mind (SCM) hears every word you say ..and takes it seriously, so be careful what you ask for because your dutiful SCM is very likely to manifest it for you. Be kind and tell yourself good things about yourself. Praise your strengths and accomplishments. Give yourself a nicer future by reminding yourself that you are doing better and better every day, in every way. As a hypnosis professional, give yourself and your clients some good post hypnotic suggestions to sound a corrective alarm to any negative declarations that are part of any habitual self conversation.

Next Time…The Body: Foods for Thought

It sometimes happens that a hypnosis client has successfully cleared the past issues that contributed to their excess weight, and they have replaced destructive behavior patterns with positive behaviors of healthy eating and exercise…and yet they are not experiencing significant weight release. What’s going on?

Come back for the next volume of this ezine and read Hypnotrition™, Part 2: Foods for Thought. Till then, sweep away your ANTs and have yourself a big, slurpy serving of Self-Esteem Stew with a Confidence Apperitif. Bon appetit!

© 2008 by Deborah Yaffee