Have you ever had the desire for something, like a craving, and felt like there was a part of you outside your control that made you want something? It could be anything. Another drink. A cigarette. Some delicious looking dessert you would rather not have yet find yourself reaching for.
One way to think of that is that there is an unconscious process going on in your mind. Consciously, you may not want to do that activity, like grabbing another drink from the fridge, or to have that craving. However, your unconscious has that process running automatically. That process likely has or had some purpose that is for your benefit. That benefit may be to have the pleasure of something delicious, or to relieve stress, or just about anything else. And while that may have some intended positive impact, that process may have either outlived its usefulness, or may be more trouble than it is worth.
In the case of cravings, or even addictions in extreme cases, there is an unconscious process running that fires off a craving or desire letting you know it’s time for the behavior. It is an automatic, unconscious response, and they tend to be hardwired in to run automatically. As such, it happens without you needing to do anything, whether you want it to or not. You can think of it like gears. Somewhere inside your mind your have habits wired in. If everything is lined up, once one gear starts turning everything else turns as well. Unless you stop it, eventually you end up succumbing to the craving.
Outside of formal hypnosis, another thing that you can do is what’s called a pattern interrupt. In fact, as you read this, there is a simple yet powerful technique you can do to practice this. If you want to use this to curb a craving or partake less (whether that’s snack food, limiting alcohol, or to quit smoking), revisit this the next time you have a craving. For now, here’s the process:
Self-Hypnosis Step By Step
Step One: Think of something that you want to change, or simply a stressful situation.
Step Two: Locate it (on your body) and give it a number. This may sound weird, however notice where the feeling begins inside your body. If you’re not sure, just guess where it lives, and use your first intuition.* Then give it a number from 1 to 10 where 1 is no discernable craving or emotion and 10 is as strong as you can imagine.
Step Three: Go into Peripheral Vision. For this, get comfortable. Perhaps imagine you’re on a beach and the waves are gently crashing into the shore, like in the picture below. It doesn’t matter so long as you allow your self to get comfortable, really
Step Six: Now, move your attention to where that craving or unwanted emotion was. Try and access it and notice what’s different, and where it is on a scale from 1 to 10.
What tends to happen is this tends to interrupt the unconscious pattern. As such, this can allow you to reset your emotions and can help to quash cravings. This can be useful to allow you to decide, consciously, if you want to partake in the activity you had the urge to do. If you still have any remaining urge (in other words, if you have not gotten it down to a 1 where there is no desire toward the activity), then you can repeat this as needed.
While this is one tool, hypnosis can be used to address a wider range of issues. Hypnosis can help you combat cravings or change your unconscious response. It can resolve underlying issues or triggers that may be contributing to the cravings or urges. Beyond that, it can help you to change the behavior and ultimately achieve your goals.
Interested in learning this and more? Call David at (920) 784-8669 or Schedule Your first Hypnosis session by CLICKING HERE
* Your first intuition is your unconscious’ response, which is what you want. What comes after that is your conscious response, which is what we don’t want for this.F