Our 90-day Beach Body Challenge is coming up soon and along with the personal training sessions, meal planning, and coaching sessions you will get 4 hypnotherapy sessions with Dr. Bruce Kaloski, a past-president of the American Board of Hypnotherapy and the author of 22 books in the field.
What is hypnotherapy and how does this help in your quest for fitness and health? First let’s define what, exactly, hypnosis is.
ABOUT HYPNOSIS
Although the American Medical Association approved hypnosis in 1958 and the British Medical Association did so three years earlier, hypnosis actually traces its roots back some 5,000 years to the healing temples of Ancient Egypt. It is only with the proliferation of the self-help therapies of the past several decades that it has gained in popularity and use. It is used in a variety of areas including weight loss, smoking cessation, self-confidence, stress management, exercise motivation, sports improvement, memory & concentration, pain management, to name just a few.
As popular and publicized as hypnosis is, however, there are still some people who don’t understand it and thus are wary of it. They think of it as entertainment, magic or some mystical form of mind control. In reality, it is none of these things. A simple definition of hypnosis is that it is a pleasant state of mental and physical relaxation characterized by increased alertness, enhanced awareness, heightened suggestibility and pin-point concentration. It enables us to capture, harness and utilize the unlimited potential of the subconscious mind. Indeed, it is the ultimate means of heightening motivation by programming the subconscious mind to work in active cooperation with conscious desires.
Actually, you are already familiar with hypnosis although you may not realize it. We all go through these ‘altered states of consciousness’, or brain wave levels, at least twice each day – upon awakening in the morning and crossing over into sleep at night. We can most easily explain it in this way. Researchers have divided brain functions into four separate levels of cycles per second activity:
Beta – Normal daytime consciousness; critical thought level.
Alpha – Relaxation level; beginning to awaken in the morning and crossing over into sleep at night; associated with imaginative thinking; corresponds to light to medium levels of hypnosis.
Theta – Early stages of sleep; deep reverie state; associated with creative thinking; corresponds to medium to deep levels of hypnosis.
Delta – Profound sleep; dream state.
That’s it! There’s no place else to go! Hypnosis can’t put you into any place other than those brain wave levels. For most people hypnosis is mid-alpha range activity and although you are definitely in hypnosis you remain fully conscious of everything that is going on. Hypnosis is simply a matter of setting aside the conscious mind, to one degree or another, and selectively focusing one’s attention on either a particular point or a whole range of experiences. Because of the hyper-suggestibility inherent in the alpha and theta levels, positive programming is extremely effective in helping to create positive change. Hypnosis is a perfectly safe programming technique that can benefit anyone!
SOME IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT HYPNOSIS
A hypnotized person does not go to sleep or lose touch with reality.
They are aware of everything going on around them. Most people don’t recognize the state of hypnosis, expecting to become unconscious. Unless they are the one in ten who easily achieves the deep, or somnambulistic, level of hypnosis, this is not at all what the experience is like. They remain completely aware of everything going on around them. This does not mean that they weren’t hypnotized. It simply means that they are experiencing an hypnotic level somewhere between a light and medium state which, for purposes of behavior and habit modification, is generally more effective than deeper level hypnosis.
Hypnosis is not being controlled by someone else.
Many people base their assumptions about hypnotism on stage acts. The truth is, these people volunteer to get up on the stage so they are, in a sense, volunteering to have fun. They willingly allow themselves to participate in silly suggestions. You cannot be made to quack like a duck or cluck like a chicken … unless you want to.
The best hypnotic subjects are not unintelligent people.
The more strong-willed, intelligent and imaginative an individual is, the better subject he or she tends to be.
Anyone can be hypnotized.
Since, as we have seen, hypnosis is a naturally occurring phenomenon, which we all experience, there is no such thing as not being able to be hypnotized. Once an individual overcomes their initial apprehension through understanding the truth about hypnosis, it is an easy experience … one in which the subject will awaken feeling more relaxed, at ease and positively motivated than before going into hypnosis.
-Bruce E. Kaloski, Ph.D.
Learn more about Dr Bruce here.
According to Psychology Today Hypnotherapy is defined as guided hypnosis, or a trance-like state of focus and concentration achieved with the help of a clinical hypnotherapist. This trance-like state is similar to being completely absorbed in a book, movie, music, or even one’s own thoughts or meditations. In this state, clients can turn their attention completely inward to find and utilize the natural resources deep within themselves that can help them make changes or regain control in certain areas of their life.
Hypnotherapy can be used to treat anxiety, phobias, substance abuse including tobacco, sexual dysfunction, undesirable spontaneous behaviors, and bad habits. It can be used to help improve sleep, learning disorders, communication, and relationship issues. Hypnotherapy can aid in pain management and help resolve medical conditions such as digestive disorders, skin issues, and gastrointestinal side effects of pregnancy and chemotherapy.
So you can see how the combination of hypnotherapy sessions with meal planning and fitness training could give you an extra boost in achieving and maintaining a healthy mindset while also helping you adopt healthy habits.
Stop by or call and sign up now for the 90-day Beach Body Challenge. This amazing fitness package is offered only at Huntington Harbour Athletic Club.
Space is limited.
Don’t miss out!