Everyone’s heard of using hypnosis to “cure” your fear of public speaking or flying, or to “make” you stop smoking or biting your nails. But, can it actually help you to ___ (insert your personal fitness goal here)? First, let’s take a look at what hypnosis is, what it isn’t, and how it works – then we can explore how it could help you achieve your fitness goals.

Hypnosis is a natural state of being that everyone passes through at least a couple of times, every day. If you’ve ever lost track of time or felt like you were in the zone, you were probably in hypnosis. Hypnosis is usually experienced as a state of physical relaxation and mental alertness. During this time, your subconscious mind is acutely receptive to positive suggestions and that’s what makes hypnosis an effective behavior modification tool.

Hypnosis is not a form of mind control. Despite what you may have seen in the movies, you cannot be programmed into doing anything against your will. You don’t need to worry that you will cluck like a chicken every time a phone rings, or that you’ll have a sudden compulsion to commit armed robbery. In fact, most people will spontaneously exit the state of hypnosis if they are given suggestions that are counter to their morals, beliefs or standards.

How does this help you reach your fitness goals? Simple: exercising (or not exercising), and eating more fruits and veggies (and fewer French fries and pastries) are behaviors, and behaviors can be changed. Using hypnosis can increase your awareness of unwanted behavior, and accelerate the process of changing to a new behavior. Most of your behavior is driven by two motivators, pain and pleasure. You avoid pain and seek pleasure. How much or how little exercise you get and your cake to cucumbers ratio are determined by the amount of pleasure and pain you associate with each.

A skilled hypnotherapist will work with you to determine exactly what you want to accomplish and why. Together, you’ll come up with an action plan and contingency strategies. You might spend some time exploring what you’ve tried and why you haven’t been successful in the past. Armed with this crucial information, your hypnotherapist will guide you into hypnosis and offer suggestions to help you implement your plan and sustain your motivation.

Let’s say your goal is to lose weight and your previous strategy involved running and green salads. If you think running is only a good idea if someone is chasing you and you’re pretty sure you weren’t meant to live on rabbit food, you probably won’t stick to the plan. If you don’t stick to the plan you won’t lose the weight you want to lose. You and your hypnotherapist can come up with other ideas (tennis, anyone?) and figure out what works for you and help you stay focused.

The bottom line is hypnosis can be a powerful tool to help you make changes in your life. But your hypnotherapist can’t make you do anything, and she’s not doing anything to you or for you. There is no magic wand. You still have to do the work. The good news is work doesn’t have to be painful and when you have the right partner, it might even be enjoyable.

Everyone’s heard of using hypnosis to “cure” your fear of public speaking or flying, or to “make” you stop smoking or biting your nails. But, can it actually help you to ___ (insert your personal fitness goal here)? First, let’s take a look at what hypnosis is, what it isn’t, and how it works – then we can explore how it could help you achieve your fitness goals.

Hypnosis is a natural state of being that everyone passes through at least a couple of times, every day. If you’ve ever lost track of time or felt like you were in the zone, you were probably in hypnosis. Hypnosis is usually experienced as a state of physical relaxation and mental alertness. During this time, your subconscious mind is acutely receptive to positive suggestions and that’s what makes hypnosis an effective behavior modification tool.

Hypnosis is not a form of mind control. Despite what you may have seen in the movies, you cannot be programmed into doing anything against your will. You don’t need to worry that you will cluck like a chicken every time a phone rings, or that you’ll have a sudden compulsion to commit armed robbery. In fact, most people will spontaneously exit the state of hypnosis if they are given suggestions that are counter to their morals, beliefs or standards.

How does this help you reach your fitness goals? Simple: exercising (or not exercising), and eating more fruits and veggies (and fewer French fries and pastries) are behaviors, and behaviors can be changed. Using hypnosis can increase your awareness of unwanted behavior, and accelerate the process of changing to a new behavior. Most of your behavior is driven by two motivators, pain and pleasure. You avoid pain and seek pleasure. How much or how little exercise you get and your cake to cucumbers ratio are determined by the amount of pleasure and pain you associate with each.

A skilled hypnotherapist will work with you to determine exactly what you want to accomplish and why. Together, you’ll come up with an action plan and contingency strategies. You might spend some time exploring what you’ve tried and why you haven’t been successful in the past. Armed with this crucial information, your hypnotherapist will guide you into hypnosis and offer suggestions to help you implement your plan and sustain your motivation.

Let’s say your goal is to lose weight and your previous strategy involved running and green salads. If you think running is only a good idea if someone is chasing you and you’re pretty sure you weren’t meant to live on rabbit food, you probably won’t stick to the plan. If you don’t stick to the plan you won’t lose the weight you want to lose. You and your hypnotherapist can come up with other ideas (tennis, anyone?) and figure out what works for you and help you stay focused.

The bottom line is hypnosis can be a powerful tool to help you make changes in your life. But your hypnotherapist can’t make you do anything, and she’s not doing anything to you or for you. There is no magic wand. You still have to do the work. The good news is work doesn’t have to be painful and when you have the right partner, it might even be enjoyable.