Today, obesity is at the highest levels it has ever been in the United States. The land of the free is the first nation in history to have problems not from lack of food, but from having too much food. The mass availability of food in places like fast food restaurants, mega supermarkets, pre-packaged goods and other restaurants creates an incredible number of temptations. When you factor in the chemicals that are added to foods to make them taste amazing and addictive, the consumer is really at a disadvantage in not getting addicted to the food system. High amounts of processed sugar not only make food unappealing and unhealthy, but also increase and promote hunger. The foods you eat can actually make you feel hungrier than before due to the chemicals that are put into processed foods. With so much work to get you back and eating more unhealthy foods, only those with incredible motivation and discipline can stay at healthy levels. Many Americans lack this motivation and don’t know how to get it. The easy answer is to find motivation from within. This is much easier said than done using conventional methods. Telling yourself in a conscious state that you will eat healthier does very little as you drive past a McDonald’s and find yourself hungry for the seventh time that day.

Hypnosis, and specifically for the purpose of this article, self-hypnosis, is an incredible way to seed this motivation and achieve iron discipline and a healthy lifestyle. Most hypnosis experts, if not all, will agree that even going to a hypnotist is still just self-hypnotism. The hypnotist’s voice is simply the vehicle designed to bring you into a state of hypnotic relaxation. There are four levels of brain activity, each with different cycles and so on. Without going into too much detail, hypnotism occurs between the second and third brain states. If you have ever driven a car somewhere and then, at the end of the journey, have forgotten the details of the journey, this is a type of hypnotic trance. You allow your subconscious and unconscious mind to take over and you allow your conscious mind to relax. This relaxation of the conscious mind is incredibly important to self-hypnosis. In your brain there is something called a critical factor. This process removes any information you believe to be false. If you are a smoker you may think every time you get into a because you have to smoke or you will go crazy. In reality, this is not the case for most smokers, but they still feel it to be true. Anyone who tells them it isn’t will be viewed negatively because of the critical factor that blocks the statement that they don’t need to smoke as invalid.

The first way to reduce the critical factor is to mention lots of affirmative statements, like where you are, what you’re doing, what you like, what’s your name. At this point, your brain will be thinking yes, yes, yes, yes, and after a while you can add a maybe to the equation, like you don’t need to eat McDonald’s every day. Before this you must completely allow yourself to relax. Some people can do this naturally. Try looking at a spot on the wall for a while while sitting on a chair. After a few seconds your eyes will get tired. When you notice this happening, allow your eyes to close and think of yourself in the most relaxing place you have ever been. First focus on yourself in the place and then imagine the feeling of relaxation that you have there. Imagine the feeling of relaxation running through your body and as you do, your muscles relax. Then, as you continue to do this, mentally think about the goals you want to achieve, like exercising often and eating only healthy foods. Reinforce this by using positive words for each action. For example, say in your head that if you eat healthy foods you will feel amazing and have lots of energy to achieve your goals in life. Healthy food will taste so good because your body knows that it needs healthy food. Then allow your eyes to open after you have said all of this. After a week of doing this once or twice a day, you should notice that your motivation is incredibly strong compared to the previous week.