And the winner is..

Are you a winner? I don’t mean in a sport sense, but in goal setting?  How often do you find yourself consciously wanting to lose weight or to quit smoking but somehow, no matter what you do, you never seem to get the result you desire.   The harder you try, the more you want the result, the harder it seems and ultimately, you give up and fail once again.

The subconscious Mind is the WinnerYou decide:  it’s time to lose weight.  You are off to a great start, you eat well and stick to the eating healthy plan.  Everything works for a few days, then suddenly ‘the wheels fall off!’  You don’t know what happened but suddenly you are back to the old habits.  All the weight you lost, comes back, usually with another kilo as well.    Or perhaps it is that smoking habit that you decide to change. It is time to quit!  You buy some patches, go cold turkey.  This time will be different.  You throw out all the packs of smokes into the bin.  This time you are serious, because You have had enough.   How long do you last before you run out of ‘will power?’

Will Power is Not Enough

Why does this happen?   It is pretty simple.   You are fighting against yourself.    Let me explain.   When we make a decision to change a habit such as overeating or smoking, we are making this decision, consciously.  The trouble is the habit we want to change is in our ‘unconscious Mind!

If you could look at your mind,  you would see you have a conscious and a subconscious mind.  Now, the easiest way to compare the size of these two parts of the ‘Mind” is to imagine that the room you are sitting in right now, is the size of the Unconscious Mind.  The chair that you are sitting on, the size of the Conscious Mind.  There is a huge difference.  In other words, the subconscious mind is bigger and more powerful than the conscious mind, and it is always the winner.

The conscious Mind is where we think, compute, analyse, judge, decide, compare… all that ‘thinking stuff’ we do.   Willpower is in our conscious mind!

The subconscious Mind is our emotional mind and here we store ‘everything’, our beliefs, memories, habits, words, thoughts, it is the hard drive of our lives and nothing is ever erased from this area of your mind.  The subconscious mind is always trying to keep you safe and in doing this it can come up with some bizarre things.

Conscious verses Subconscious Mind

Most people start smoking to fit in as being part of group often equates to safety and survival. The smoking habit tricks the subconscious into thinking that smoking is associated with safety and survival. That is why trying to quit smoking can be very difficult.

Overweight and Abuse Subconscious Mind

You will surprised how often being overweight is associated with safety.  A lady came to see me who desperately wanted to lose weight. No matter what she did she could not lose weight. When we looked at her past it was seen that she had been sexually abused. Her subconscious mind was trying to keep her safe by making her unattractive so that she would not be abused again.  Statistics have shown that 62% of all obese women and men have been abused at some point in their lives.

Our habits, be they good or bad reside in the subconscious mind. If you want to change these habits it has to happen in the subconscious. This is where hypnosis can be very helpful and effective.

The decision to change the habit will always be a conscious analytical decision, but this decision and willpower alone cannot affect the change. The subconscious is like a five-year-old and will accept suggestions. Hypnosis allows the conscious mind to be moved to one side and the suggestions given directly to the subconscious mind. It allows changes to be made to the old habits.

Are you ready to break habits quickly and effectively, then seriously consider hypnosis as a way of doing it. Let your subconscious mind be a winner in a positive way rather than in a negative way.

About Steve Gardiner

Stephen Gardiner originates from Rhodesia, (Zimbabwe) then working around the globe before finally settling in Brisbane Australia. As a scientist, Steve always had an interest in human development, especially Mind Plastisicity and how we cope with stress, anxiety and addictive behaviours. Over the past 15 years Steve has assisted many clients to transform their lives by resolving the obstacles holding them back.

Entries by Steve Gardiner