When someone is having a fearful experience, it is extremely difficult to control their emotions, yet alone stop them, because fear manifests from the subconscious mind. This is why there is little or no success when we try to talk ourselves out of a fearful experience. We lack the ability to control fear because our intellectual or conscious mind is not capable of handling a subconscious reaction of the nervous system.

When you enter a situation that frightens you (or even if you are just thinking about going into that situation) you get a fearful reaction. At that very moment, your subconscious mind is pulling all kinds of memories, ideas, assumptions and negative thoughts from the files of your mind and your nervous system reacts by creating a fearful feeling. A major quality of the subconscious mind is that it cannot tell the difference between imagination and reality.  This is why, for example, a person can be frightened even a week before they go on a flight or someone can react to seeing a snake on television or can be nervous about an upcoming interview. Although they are not in the actual situations, the subconscious mind cannot tell the difference and “believes” that it is already in the scary situation.

Hypnosis is an extremely effective tool to resolve fear because hypnosis works directly with your subconscious mind which is at the root cause of fears, phobias and anxieties.  The idea of hypnosis is to have you enter a trance state and the fear is worked on at that level of consciousness. This is done by giving your mind a more positive frame of reference such as positive thoughts, constructive ideas and pleasant images. By doing this, you will now have a better outlook on yourself and your surroundings. Those fears that used to haunt you will not happen anymore because you will instead be able to enter situations with a newfound optimism, calmness and confidence.

Tweet This Post]]> http://www.positivechangestoronto.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=30 http://www.positivechangestoronto.com/blog/?p=26 http://www.positivechangestoronto.com/blog/?p=26#comments Mon, 23 Mar 2009 03:02:39 +0000 admin http://www.positivechangestoronto.com/blog/?p=26 By Michael Porter, CHT.

More than one out of every five American deaths result from cigarette smoking, and an estimated 300,000 deaths a year may be attributed to obesity. In fact, the US Department of Health and Human Services reports that, “individuals who are obese have a 50-100% increased risk of death from all causes, compared to individuals with a healthy weight.”

With all the advances in modern medicine, you would think doctors would have discovered a way to keep us from killing ourselves with cigarettes and food. But they haven’t.

So it may sound strange to learn there’s a technique as old as mankind becoming rediscovered today to help cure the ills of modern society. What technique is this? If you guessed hypnosis, you’d be right.

While the American Medical Association approved hypnosis as a legitimate treatment tool in 1958 and the National Institutes of Health followed in 1996 when it recognized hypnosis as an effective intervention, the benefits of hypnosis have remained largely unexplored by the medical community until a short time ago. But recently the power of hypnosis has been the focus of increasing attention at prestigious institutions like Harvard, Stanford and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute.

Hypnosis, long misunderstood by the public and misrepresented by the media, is another name for relaxation and visualization techniques that help the subject envision a future outcome for themselves, for example, living tobacco-free. While in your day-to-day life you may battle with your conscious mind about wanting to quit, hypnosis helps you tap the power of your subconscious mind, which rules your decision-making.

In the interest of public health, researchers at University of Iowa set out to determine which treatment program for smoking cessation was the most effective. One way to compare the effectiveness of various programs is to conduct a “meta-analysis.” As described by Irving Kirsh at the University of Connecticut, meta-analyses allow comparisons of outcomes among different studies. In other words, the results of many studies can be combined to determine which method of treatment is the most effective.

What they found was surprising. Analyzing data from 633 studies, only 6.4% of the smokers could be expected to quit without any intervention. And only 15% quit with “self-care,” or using self-help books or mailing campaigns. On the other hand, hypnosis was found to be 3.5 times more effective than self-care, and more than twice as effective as nicotine chewing gum.

A similar research project at the University of Connecticut re-examined studies measuring the impact of hypnosis on weight loss. It was discovered that including hypnosis in the treatment program increased treatment efficacy by 147%. In terms of the amount of weight lost, subjects who had the benefit of hypnosis lost more than twice as many pounds as those without hypnosis, and they kept it off longer. Researchers concluded hypnosis had “a significant and substantial effect on the outcome…and this effect increases over time.” Because of this, “it is especially useful for long term maintenance of weight loss.”

It was also found that the benefits of hypnosis “can be maximized by individualizing the hypnotic component of the treatment,” or giving personal hypnosis sessions as opposed to a group setting.

These findings further support the research of Helen Crawford of Virginia Tech, who told the Wall Street Journal, “The biological impact [of hypnosis] is very real and it can be quantified.” In fact, hypnosis works so well that close to 15,000 doctors today combine hypnotherapy with standard medical treatment. Not only does hypnosis help people quit smoking and lose weight, hypnosis can be used to manage pain, reduce stress and aid with other health issues.

So where does one go to get hypnotized? Positive Changes is one place you might consider. Founded in 1987 by Patrick K. Porter, PhD, North America’s leading provider of hypnosis services is tapping into the power of hypnosis to help people lose weight, quit smoking and more. They say their success is due in large part to their exclusive, comprehensive Six-Point System, which is designed to ensure people safely and successfully achieve their goals. In every program the client receives personal hypnosis sessions to help them target the exact issues they’re facing in order to achieve the changes they desire.

All Positive Changes hypnotists go through extensive professional training and are certified by the Society of Psycho-Linguistics. This training is approved and certified by both the American Board of Hypnotherapy and the National Guild of Hypnotists. With 15 centers, these hypnotists help thousands of clients create lasting positive change each year.

Hypnosis for positive change—it may be exactly what the world’s looking for.

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