Heal Subconscious Blocks to Weight Loss

From Heal Subconscious Blocks to Weight Loss On-Line Course
by Sandy Zeldes

The following is an excerpt from the "Heal Subconscious Blocks to Weight Loss" on-line course. If you would like to enroll in the course, click here.
Many scientists, medical professionals, therapists and healers from Deepak Chopra, M. D. to Albert Szent-Gyorgi, Nobel Laureate in Medicine have discussed the power of energy and healing. In fact many believe that the future of healing and medicine will be about how the energy field of the human body influences health and healing. There are many wonderful tools for clearing our energy or releasing blocks. I will share with you some I found to be extremely powerful.
“Our genes dance with our awareness. Our emotions and behavior have the power to shape our biology. This awareness can make a critical difference in health and longevity.”
--C. Norman Shealy, MD, Ph.D.

An intention to lose weight may come from our conscious awareness. We aren't happy when we look in the mirror or get dressed in the morning. We don't feel good in our bodies, have low energy, may even be having medical conditions that worry us, etc., so we want to change all of that. A counter-intention may look like not wanting to exercise, eat vegetables or whatever we consider to be “healthy,” drink more water, or have to stop eating junk food late at night or during the day, binge eat, exercise, etc.
Sometimes a counter-intention includes an emotional reason for eating a certain way, a need to self soothe or comfort ourselves with food for example, or any hidden emotional need for our current habits. Counter-intentions can also often look like the resistance we put up to achieving our intentions or goals for ourselves and they are responsible for enormous frustration and hopelessness when it comes to weight loss (or any goal) sometimes. They are often unconscious to us as well and therefore significant blocks or obstacles in reaching a goal.

One of the best images I think of to demonstrate this is to think of a car driving down the road with both the gas and the brake on at the same time.
The car ends up spinning out and going nowhere most likely right? It goes forward, but is stopped! There is no shame or blame in this. I think resistance is rather normal and very common when moving towards any goal. It is often operating when our motivation feels low.
I think you will find that in releasing negative beliefs and counter-intentions you will feel much more motivated in reaching your goal and be more likely to take inspired action without even having to think about it or struggle as much.

Step One: Discover Unconscious Blocks or Obstacles I will be asking you to write out your responses to some powerful questions to discover any possible unconscious blocks or obstacles to your goal. These questions often give us information that we hadn't realized before about how we are feeling and give us a new possibility then of releasing anything holding us back.

1. Write your exact weight loss goal clearly and specifically at the top of the first page of your journal. You can state the amount of weight you want to lose, how you want to feel and what your life will look like to you when you get there for example. This is your conscious intention.
2. As soon as you state your goal, you may notice negative thoughts and feelings come up. These often take the form of “yeah, but...” and may be significant internal blocks or obstacles to reaching your goal. Common examples may take some form of the following:
“yeah, but I won't be able to maintain my weight loss, or all I have to do to get there...”
“I can't picture being at my goal weight, I have so far to go”
“It will take too much work”
“I haven't been able to do it before, so why now”
“I'll feel deprived and like I have to eat foods I don't want to eat..”etc.
“Even if I lose the weight I still won't be happy, so maybe it doesn't matter anyway”
“I don't want to have to give up... (you name the food or habit)”
“If I lose weight, others will be jealous or try to sabotage me”
“I don't want to eat differently than (my spouse, my colleagues, my friends, my family, etc)”
3. Rate the negative beliefs by giving them a number from 1-10. 10 feeling the most true or causing the most intensity right now for you, 1 the least.

Step Two: Release obstacles or blocks We have energy points throughout our bodies called meridians that can be stimulated. If you have ever had acupuncture you understand this concept except have experienced this with the use of needles. However we can also gently tap these points with our fingertips to receive benefit with emotional release as discovered in the last 20 years by two pioneering men, Roger Callahan, a Psychologist and Gary Craig, an Engineer.
A simple but powerful technique that utilizes this concept in part is the thymus circle tapping exercise. You can locate your thymus gland by finding the center of your chest above your breast line and below your collar bones, right in the middle of your chest. Using the fingertips of either hand come out toward your shoulders about two inches all around the thymus gland area and you will tap in a circle in a clockwise direction to do the exercise below.
Take the most significant or highly rated negative beliefs first that you wrote down to release with the thymus tapping as these may be getting in your way the most at this time.

1. Reverse, or reframe each negative belief. Examples of reversing or reframing beliefs using the a few of the examples above are:
“I am able to maintain my ideal weight with ease”
“I am patient with myself as I am taking steps to be healthier”
“I am making this easy for myself now”
“My past does not dictate my future as I am making new better choices right now”
It is important that these reframes or reversals resonate to YOU to be most effective so just keep playing with them until you feel it really hit home.
You will know. Also, don't worry too much about it, just play with them. Try to use “I am” statements only for these affirmations. Using energy release techniques we can make our affirmations even more effective.
2. Repeat each affirmation while tapping in a circle around the thymus gland as directed around 5-6 times for each one. You can do this exercise several times per day for this week or any time you are feeling negatively about your goal. You can add several together too while tapping and not necessarily do them one at a time but try to keep tapping for several rounds more if you do this.
3. After they feel less true, you can cross out the number to signify that you don't need to keep tapping on that specific belief. Sometimes this can take several days or a few weeks of doing the exercise with each belief. Don't worry though, this is a relatively fast and effective technique to use.

POWERFUL NUTRITION TIP:
These effective simple nutritional tips can make a significant difference fast with cravings and weight loss WITHOUT dieting or taking any foods away. In fact, I highly recommend that you DO NOT take out any foods unless you really want to. If it feels natural to, then great, do it. But the whole point is to help you find what feels natural to you based on what you desire from a place of deep awareness and knowing of what works for you as an individual- not a “one size fits all” diet as we gently build and nourish the body with new habits and foods. You may have heard some of these tips before, some maybe not. All of them make a huge difference. Small changes do add up and each tip will build on the last. The goal is to have cravings disappear naturally when we eat what our body needs. No force, no struggle, just gone. Though there is a lot of debate about how and what to eat, I think that these simple tips are general enough that they can be applied to work for anyone.
This advice is not a substitute for working with your medical or other health care provider. Please work with your health care provider ultimately when seeking to make changes with your health.
Increase water intake early in the day upon first waking and hydrate throughout.
I'm sure you've heard by now that hydration is important to good health but did you know that it can also assist you in losing weight? Water is absolutely critical to every cell in the body and after a long night of rest the body needs to be hydrated. Drinking enough water first thing in the morning helps to move toxins and increase energy to name just a few more great benefits. Make this a habit every morning and watch your energy increase and cravings decrease.
Tips to make this easy:
· Find several 24oz refillable water bottles. Stainless steel or glass are preferable for long term use. Fill one at night and leave it beside your bed. Begin to drink it when you wake up and continue as you get ready for your day over the next hour.
· Fill two more water bottles and have them where you will drink them throughout the day. Maybe one in your car, one at work or at your desk and another in your home. Having water ready to go on hand when you need it may sound like a simple thing to do, but it can help to create a habit of drinking enough water daily.

HEALTHFUL LIFESTYLE MAINTENANCE TIP: Creating a lifestyle that supports our health is also key to success. This can often make the difference between a quick fix that doesn't last and being able to sustain weight loss over time.
Create a space to inspire and restore yourself from 5 to 30 minutes daily.
So often we don't give as much to ourselves as we do to others as women. For men it can be a habit that doesn't come easily as well. And often in our busy lifestyles we feel we can't take time to ourselves. This is one of the most powerful tools I know of in creating a healthy lifestyle. You can use this space to do some of the energy techniques and exercises that are given in this course, to meditate, read inspirational books or listen to meditative cd's, write in a journal, etc.
I recommend using the same space every time for the same purpose. Once you get used to using the same space it becomes easier to use it for the same purpose over time. It becomes habitual. It doesn't matter if the space is just a favorite chair, a corner of a room with comfortable pillows, your bed, or an entire room but be sure to find a place you love being and can have time to yourself for anywhere from 5 – 30 minutes daily if you can. If you can't do it daily try to make time for yourself in this way as often as you can.