Rita Black: Most of what challenges us when we are trying to lose weight, isn't lack of conscious knowledge. We know how to lose weight. If it were only that simple. The key to successful weight release depends on making permanent shifts in our habits and beliefs, which are more resistant to change because they exist in our subconscious. In this episode, I dive into our subconscious and look at how hypnosis can be a great tool to help us manage and change those deeper barriers to success. I will also give you a few self-hypnosis tricks to start doing this for yourself. So stay tuned as we go deeper and deeper and even deeper.

Rita Black: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn't start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of our weight struggle is mental. That's right, the key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there, I'm Rita Black. I'm a clinical hypnotherapist, weight loss expert, best-selling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process. And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery, I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict, and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years. Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling. I'll give you the thin thinking tools, skills, and insights to help you develop the mindset you need. Not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long-term and live your best life.

Rita Black: Okay. I looked at my calendar yesterday and I swear, I thought it was the end of July. And then I realized we were almost to the end of August. That was a shock. Hello everybody. It's been a crazy summer. Can I just say that? I mean, I call it the summer of things falling apart and getting fixed because it seems like everything in my life has broken down this summer. My dishwasher broke. Three of the softwares, not one, not two, but three of the softwares that I use for my business had issues, big issues. And some of the old ways that I gotten used to in my business had to change because we are growing, which is exciting. But you know, you hear about growing pains. Well, it's been painful and change is hard, right? Our subconscious mind doesn't like change and it always wants to go back and we have this new project management system for my team, which is again, it's awesome. It's wonderful. It's way cool. But I still want to go back to the old, broken down, old fashion, way more lugubrious and inefficient way of doing things. I just want to, it makes me want to cry like a baby wha-wha-wha, you know, like I want the old way. But you know, we are moving forward and, and I know that is how we feel when we want to lose weight. We want to change, but man, it feels hard making those changes, right? I mean, it, it, we resist, oh, even though we know what we want, we, you know, there's a part of us that just wants to put on the brakes and go back. You know, I've been having to do a lot of self-hypnosis around a lot of the changes that have been going on. I, you know, I'm telling you, hypnosis has been my best friend for, you know, a good part of the last 30 years of my life.

Rita Black: I, and now that my son is learning to drive, I'm, I'm really working on some stress management hypnosis. But I have been getting emails from a lot of you asking how hypnosis works for weight loss. And this week seemed like the perfect time to dive into how the subconscious works and how hypnosis can help us with making shifts in the subconscious mind that seemed, you know, that is, seems resistant to weight loss. And also I thought I would give you some self-hypnosis tips for releasing weight, and just FYI, if you have not taken advantage of this, today's session is brought to you by my free Shift Out of Sugar Cravings Hypnosis session. So definitely grab that if you haven't yet, it's a great session. And it's a great introduction to hypnosis if you are new to the idea, if hypnosis.

Rita Black: So to begin today, before we even talk about weight loss and hypnosis, I just want to walk you through a little bit about hypnosis itself and, you know, dispel some myths. When I started my practice 20 years ago, I would get, you know, it was a lot harder to get clients than it is now. You know, now hypnosis is a little more hip and cool. Meditation has certainly come like back in 20 years ago, meditation people weren't meditating. It wasn't the cool thing to do. You know, movie stars weren't doing it and it wasn't, it wasn't there weren't apps about it. There weren't apps at all, you know, 20 years ago, if you can believe it, it seems kind of crazy, but the lot has changed in those 20 years that I've been in practice. I think I joked if you've listened to other podcasts of mine, you know, when I started practicing, it was cassette tapes. In fact, I had a client who come in, came in and saw me. I was so great to see her. She came and saw me at the beginning of my practice and she said, you know what? I, you know, I hadn't seen her for years, years, and years and years. And she said, oh, you know, I still have a cassette tape of yours. And that just cracked me up because it was such a throwback. The world is so different now than it was, then it makes me seem very old, but, you know, I've had to keep up with the times and I've had to keep, you know, I have, my, my programs are now on apps, which, you know, makes me feel very nice. My daughter was like, wow, mom, you've got an app and a podcast. I was like, yeah, your mom's cool.

Rita Black: Anyway. Um, so, uh, yeah, the history of hypnosis, so hypnosis has been around for, you know, since the beginning of time, the beginning of mankind, I would have believed that we have been putting each other in trance states for, for thousands of years, either. You know, like prayer is trance. You know, prayer can, the mantra of prayer can be very hypnotic. We, you know, we've had medicine, men and, you know, putting people into relaxed states and, and doing incantations. I mean, you know, that's not like the clinical hypnosis that we do nowadays, but you know, the idea of hypnosis and helping people's minds make changes has been around for a long time. And since the 1950s, it has been approved, hypnosis has been approved by the American medical association. So it's kind of come into its own and been accepted is a, you know, a modality that has function in the healing healing arts and hypnosis is used by doctors. If you've ever gone on YouTube, there are some videos of doctors using hypnosis to actually do surgery. This one doctor puts this guy into a trance state and literally operates without anesthesia. Dentist as well, do that, or, you know, they help their, their patients who, you know, are afraid of needles and, or don't want to go under heavy anesthetic or, athletes definitely use hypnosis or sports hypnosis is a very big thing to focus on bettering your game, overcoming performance anxiety, you know, getting in that winning mindset teams have used hypnosis, therapists obviously use hypnosis a lot. Police departments use hypnosis for people to retrieve memory, you know, after a traumatic event so that they can give them more details. You know, top performers, I've worked with a lot of, uh, you know, top performers, rockstars, actors, people who want to perform better or do have like stage, you know, maybe they have an, like I've worked with people who have had like surgeries or something where they then need to go on tour and they needed to overcome their fear of performing after their surgery. Things like that, hypnosis is really great for.

Rita Black: Now me, as a clinical hypnotherapist, my practice has been primarily weight management and smoking cessation. Those are things that I'm very good at. I know them inside and now because I've, I chose to specialize, because those are the two things that are very near and dear to my own heart because I stopped smoking with hypnosis. And then I also used hypnosis as a way to manage, to lose 40 pounds and managed my own weight throughout the years. So, those are my, you know, that's my world. Those peeps are my peeps and I, you know, those I've walked those walks. So I feel not only, that I can help people along those journeys cause I've been there, but I also love those people. I really deeply empathize, because I have walked every step of the struggle of smoking and not believing I could stop and struggling with my weight and, for years and years and years, and, hating myself, hating my body, feeling like I was never going to not be obsessed by food and, you know, controlled by food and my relationship and my habits and my beliefs, all of that horrible, awful place that I was in and hypnosis. Wow. Just helped unlock my mind and help me get a huge shift in a different perspective of myself, my relationship with food and exercise and helped me become a non-smoker in one session.

Rita Black: Now, unlike smoking cessation where you don't need to ever, you know, smoke another cigarette in order to live, we need to, you know, hypnosis for weight management is it's a little different, it's a little more, you know, I see it as a more holistic approach. It's part of a more holistic approach because obviously we need to continue to have a relationship with food. We need to exercisers and there's, our world is set up to make us fat. Basically, if you haven't looked and seen that we walked out the door, they're like 250 food decisions that we each have to make every single day. Our brains are bombarded by food, unlike smoking, which has been somewhat marginalized. It's not in our face so much as it is used to be. So yeah. So part, for a weight management, is it a bit of a different journey than smoking cessation, but oh, so powerful and so amazing. And I will say I've been using self-hypnosis a lot too for just transformation in my business. Um, and as a mother I've used hypnosis, self-hypnosis to, overcome a lot of my shocks and like the transitions that, you know, if you've been a mother or if you've been anybody who cares for anybody, even in my marriage, I've used hypnosis for my marriage, but primarily I would say it when I work with people, my, my love for my clients and my students. And my depth of, understanding is really in the areas of smoking cessation and weight management. So, let's see, look at what hypnosis is and what it is not and why, you know, how can it, why can it be so impactful for weight management?

Rita Black: So what it is not: hypnosis is not sleep. I over repeat, hypnosis is not sleep. So I think when I first started my practice, people would call me and say, are you going to make me bark, like a dog? Are you going to make me quack like a duck? You know, I'm going to leave your office. Are you going to get me into that sleep? And then tell me all these things, and then make me go to my bank account and take lots of money out and give you lots of money. And, you know, my response was, you know, if I was that powerful, my husband would pick up his socks and I would have hypnotized him to, you know, make me, well, he actually does make me a dinner every night. Maybe I have hypnotized, honestly, the socks are still on the floor. So, yeah, the bark, like the dog, the quack, like a duck. So that stage hypnosis and stage hypnotists are completely, completely different breed in a way they are entertainers. And they really know how to put people's brains into like a sort of a trance state where you can do stuff with that where, you know, they can do some silly things, but, you know, I've worked with stage hypnotists, you know, they've told me, oh, well, I, you know, really make sure I get the, the people who I know are going to perform, you know, like, and they don't have, if you've ever gone to a stage hypnosis show, you've probably seen that they, you know, put people through a series of, you know, if those people, Hey, do we have any volunteers? The volunteers go up, they have them, you know, raise your hand and touch your nose and do certain things. And they're really watching for the people that they think are going to perform the best. And they they're getting rid of the people who they know are going to be resistant or not do what they say they're going to do. They basically want people who are going to make them look good. So they are, they're very skilled at doing that. And they, and then they get people who are what you would call. So non-ballistic who go into trance state very quickly and easily. Not everybody does. Most people can be hypnotized. I think that's, you know, something that I want to say is like, I think a lot of people think, oh, well, I'm too type A, I'm too in control of, you know, things and, and I can't be relaxed and put into hypnosis, but actually I have found that type A personalities really do work well with hypnosis because hypnosis is a state of control. And they relaxed pretty quickly once they know that they are okay and they are the ones in control.

Rita Black: So hypnosis is not sleep. You are not put into this state where you are not aware. People I think are very surprised to know that you are a very aware during the state of hypnosis. Your mind is in a relaxed state. It is in a, uh, a state between what I would call asleep and awake. But you are not out. You are not unconscious. Sometimes people, if it's an audio recording might go into a bit of a sleep state while they're listening to hypnosis, but their subconscious mind is still hearing everything that's being said to it, but it's not like you're going to see a practitioner and they're going to put you into this unconscious state and then be able to fill your brains with all these things that they want to.

Rita Black: It really doesn't happen like that. So it isn't a state of unconsciousness either. And it certainly isn't a state of being gullible. I really do think that hypnosis offers you a great opportunity to be incredibly in control, because you're really using your mind and your imagination in a very powerful way. If you think about it, most of what happens in our lives is automatic pilot, right? Like it's, it's happening, you know, just by rote. We, aren't creating, we're responding and I find hypnosis is an incredibly creative state where you actually are using your brain in a way that it loves to be used. And you are really the creator. You are not being controlled by somebody else. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. I give suggestions, but you are accepting the suggestions. You have a lot more control in that part then, you are probably aware of, or, you know, some people are aware of, so hypnosis is not a loss of control. Like I was saying, those type A people are surprised how they love hypnosis because they actually do. Once you've gone through it, you can feel very creative and very in control.

Rita Black: So what hypnosis is, is it's an awake state. You are aware and, and you hear what is being said to you, but it is a state of relaxation, very deep relaxation. And it is a state where you are engaging your imagination. Our imagination exists in our subconscious mind. And so hypnosis really utilizes our imagination. It is exercise for your mind. You're literally stretching new neural pathways. You know, you're creating, you're really bending your mind into different directions and creating new pathways that are going to take you into new habits, new beliefs, new ideas of yourself, reinforcing that. It has rapport with your unconscious mind that we, you know, like, so imagine, you know, this part of your brain that you really don't have a lot of access to in your conscious state had being able to have a more deep conversation. It's like sitting down, you know, when you have a really deep conversation with a friend at a party, how enjoyable that is, it really is this opportunity to be with yourself on a deeper level, in a very creative way.

Rita Black: And it really ultimately is the ultimate display of control. So, how does hypnosis help with weight loss? So I'd like to break this down a bit and just talk about how the mind is set up and designed and why it is typically weight loss resistant, right? Like, so why do we struggle so much with our weight? And again, if you've heard me speak or been a student of mine, some of what I'm going to tell you will be familiar to you, but, you know, this is always helpful to be reminded about, you know, that your, what, a lot of your struggle with weight, isn't the fact that you there's something wrong with you. There isn't anything wrong with your body. Why you've been weight release resistant often is, you know, why you do things like, you know, what to do, you, you know, how to lose weight. Most, you probably are an expert at weight loss in many ways. You could probably come on this podcast and teach weight loss, you know. I have no doubt in your ability to lose weight, but the problem is we have this subconscious mind, you know, so consciously, you know what to do. And, hold on a second. Okay. I make making sure I'm so being recorded. But that's the only, our conscious mind is only 12%. And the other 88% of our mind, you know, are a huge part of our mind is our subconscious mind. And in our subconscious mind is our identity. And I have to say that any transformation, like, you know, we go on diets all the time, okay, I'm going to lose weight. I'm going to be good this week, but we really never come at it from the identity level in any transformation really needs to begin with identity, you know, and the shift weight mastery process, we start with identity. You know, we, we really look at, you know, we, when we struggle with weight, we really have a weight struggler identity. That's who we are, that's the world we live in and we carry that identity around and it's so heavy and it gets in the way of everything. You know, you have a lot of other identities too, and a lot of them are incredibly cool and highly functioning and super beautiful and awesome. So it's not like this is the only identity you have, but it is certainly one identity if you've been struggling with your weight. And when we work at an identity level and hypnosis, we are really transforming you into seeing yourself differently. Somebody who is on a journey of weight mastery, somebody who is a student and apprentice coming at this from more powerful way. And, and you can make that transformation in an instant, your brain loves to step into new identities.

Rita Black: You know, think about when you, uh, learn to drive a car, or you became a car driver, you know, your mind was like, Ooh, cool, I'm driving a car. I, you know, I wasn't that before my son, well, I'm saying this because my son is starting to drive and it's, and I, as a mother watching him go from this kid that I carted around, you know, are any of you who schlepped your kids all over the city from practice to practice and this and that, you know, now that he's driving, which is horrifying, but highly gratifying at the same time, I'm like, wow, you know, he's going to be free. He's going to be able to drive himself. And so I'm seeing him through new eyes as a driver. So it's kind of, you know, I'm seeing his identity from this different place. So yeah.

Rita Black: You know, identity is there in our subconscious mind. And then our beliefs, like, you know, when we struggle with our weight, we have a lot of beliefs. I can't lose weight. I'm a carb addict. I hate to feel deprived. You know, I, I, I have never lost weight, so I'm never going to lose weight. You know, there's so many beliefs that just reinforce this weight struggler identity, and then there's habits like, you know, uh, there's habits that we do, like snacking in front of the TV at night. And there's habits that we don't do, like saying that we're going to get up and exercise in the morning. And then we don't, and we hit the snooze alarm, um, there's habits like drinking soda or there's habits like not planning, you know, when we say we're going to plan or, um, not setting ourselves up for success or, uh, not drinking water.

Rita Black: So, so we have in our subconscious, you know, identity, beliefs, habits. We have our, our emotions, the emotional part of the brain is in the subconscious mind. The, and all of, so our, the part of our mind that just runs our automatic responses, our heart beating our lungs breathing. I mean, our unconscious mind is amazing and vast and multifaceted. But when it wants, when it's used to doing something in a particular way, it, it really keeps what it is really designed to keep things as they are, because it's easier. The, if you think about it, you know, everything that we do is pretty much on automatic pilot. And there's a reason for that. It's a lot easier for the brain. The brain's got a lot of stuff to do. And so as soon as something, the brain recognizes something as like, oh, this works for us. This brings us pleasure, or this is good. Let's repeat that over again. And then let's repeat that over again. And pretty soon it is on automatic pilot. And so those habits, even if they aren't good for us, it's in there, the brain kind of things, it works for us. And so that is why it becomes hard to change out of those old habits once they're established. So then what happens is we have this conscious mind and we have the subconscious mind, the conscious mind is like I got to lose weight. I've got to, you know, I, I have a health issue or I I've outgrown all of my clothes or you know, I want to be healthy, as a mom or whatever our desire consciously the subconscious mind is like pizza on Friday, wake up and eat whatever, you know, try to be good, but, you know, by the afternoon we're going to have some snacks.

Rita Black: And over the years, so like, as we grow up, we are imprinted, right? Our parents teach us stuff. Our teachers teach us stuff. We learned stuff from life, our friends, everybody, you know, like we're, we're, we're kind of imprinting for the first 20 years of our life. And then as we get into our twenties, we developed this critical filter. So like, we're in, you know, you think about those first two decades of our life. We're like overwhelmed and, and imprinting all of this information and our minds are this, you know, they say the mind is an open book when you're a child, right. But as we get into our twenties, we become that old dog that can't be taught new tricks. And the reason for that is there is we develop a, what is called the critical filter and the critical filter is this filtering system that, again, it's so amazing that our brain does this, but we have billions of bits of information heading out our brain, every single second, our brain needs some sort of filtration systems so that we, our heads don't explode, you know, that we don't get so overwhelmed by all the information. So, you know, our mind is just taking in what makes sense for us and really leaving anything else that doesn't seem right, or is, you know, against our morals or our beliefs or our culture. Right. So, and with that is, you know, food tastes good when I feel bad. Don't tell me not to eat healthy. I mean, we, we are filtering out a lot of that information and we collect evidence to reinforce the fact that we can't be successful.

Rita Black: So, in order for hypnosis to work, the conscious mind needs to be on board with any change that is being made. And I think that's one thing that people aren't really aware of when they're afraid that, you know, hypnosis is going to be like a brainwashing. You know, in order, like when people call me, like, or when people want to quit smoking, for instance, I will get people, calling for their loved one, saying my dad needs to quit smoking. And I'm like, well, okay, great. Does he want to quit? And they're like, no, no, he doesn't want to quit, but doesn't hypnosis. You're going to just make him want to quit. I was like, no, sorry, it doesn't work like that. Your dad kind of needs to want to stop for himself in order for that hypnosis to be successful for him. So I can talk to him. We can, you know, I can coach him and I can, I'm very good at helping people, get their, you know, rid of the fear, uh, so that he can be ready to stop, but I can't, hypnosis is not going to make it. Your conscious mind needs to want your conscious mind needs to want the change in order for it to happen. And a lot of times I think that we want to want to lose weight, but that sometimes I don't know that we're always ready, you know, really weight management. And it's a journey is really a commitment and a journey to yourself. Like it really, isn't just about, like, I want to lose five pounds and get into that, those pants I can't fit into anymore. Let me pull it together. It's really like, I am changing my relationship with the way I communicate with myself. I am really here to transform my life and show up for myself differently. I mean, it's really a love story.

Rita Black: When you think about like really all the components of a true, really taking weight off and keeping it off permanently, I think about my clients, my students who are on these journeys and they're committed, they're, they're in this, not just like, oh, well, let me do this thing and, and get off the weight fast. It's like, I am embarking upon a transformational journey. And I, you know, I am doing this, not just about weight, but to be free to get out of that place of pain, to, to feel that confidence and that freedom that comes with truly taking care of yourself from a different place. Right. And, and like, that's why I call it like a love story with yourself or loving yourself down the scale. And, and hypnosis can help because it can help start to shift your identity, shift your beliefs and shift your habits when you start to listen to sessions. And, you know, and like I said, you know, when somebody goes through the shift weight mastery process, we have many different hypnosis sessions. So it's not just like one bump. We know it slam bam, thank you Ma'am, but it's, you know, like we work on identity and we work on the beliefs, like the belief that you can be successful, the belief that you can, show up for yourself, the belief that, um, you know, that, that, plate of food that, you know, healthy plate of food is something that you desire. And that it's enough for you. The belief that your body can release weight, that you can enjoy exercise. You can enjoy eating those healthy foods. And also, you know, different sessions that are working on specifically like breaking through old habits and creating new ones.

Rita Black: And like I said, hypnosis can be very creative because we are using your imagination, creating new neural networks. And, and here's the idea is like, it's not about taking away, but it's about creating something new and reinforcing the new. So for new habits to take place, what we're doing is creating a new habit and repeating it over and over and over, and the old neural networks fade. So it is, it is, like I said, it's, it's really about creating and creating this whole new space in your brain for this transformation that you are creating. It's not just like, I don't want to drink soda.

Rita Black: I don't want to eat hamburgers. It's, it's really coming at it from a much more holistic place. Some things happen right away. And some things take more time to stick. And that's why for instance, um, the shift weight mastery process is a 30-day process. And every day it's not just hypnosis, but it's coaching as well. Like I said, to prepare the conscious mind to take it on, to be open and totally accepting so that the hypnosis can really take, take effect, excuse me, I'm making noise here with my notes that I wrote down to communicate with you all of this stuff.

Rita Black: So, now I want to teach you three ways that you can use self-hypnosis to shift from struggler to learner. And one of these podcasts, it's not going to be this one, because this will take a little while, but I want to teach you how to do, um, write a self-hypnosis for yourself, you know, so that you can do it for really specific things. Like that's what I do with myself in the morning. I listen to self hypnosis sessions that I've made for myself on just very specific things like my, my son driving. You can do it too. It's not that hard. And it's super cool to do so if, if I don't, I promise to do it hmmmm by the new year, because I got a lot, I've got a lot coming up, but, it's it that's, yeah. I'll make a note to do that in the New Year. Cause that's a really nifty thing to be able to.

Rita Black: So these are three, the self-hypnosis techniques that you can utilize right now to start to make changes and start to, you know, lose weight. So let's talk about identity. Like I said, and have been talking about is we see ourselves as a struggler and we want to start to see ourselves as a learner. So this is something that you can start to do right away. And, you know, what you can do is just when you are thinking about yourself, you know, in those moments, when you're quiet and relaxed, you start to think of yourself as a weight mastery learner. And so gnosis, doesn't always happen in you know, like I said, in this like state where you're laying down and your eyes are closed, you know, we can use self-hypnosis in our waking state, you know, like when you're driving in your car, you're in a trance state, but you're thinking about stuff. So why not think about like, what, that you're not a victim of your circumstances you're in, you know, like, because what happens is when we see ourselves as a struggle, or we become a victim of things, we come a victim of the people in our lives, and we become a victim of our circumstances. And, instead we want to start to be not, not a victim, not critical of ourselves, because we are often very, very critical of ourselves and we become a victim of our inner critic. But we want to start to be curious. And when we start to be curious about ourselves and our behaviors, and we start to see ourselves as like, I'm a learner and learners are curious, and I just did that behavior. Hmm. What did I learn? What did I learn from that? That'd behavior wasn't bad.

Rita Black: I learned something from that behavior. What did I learn? Because the more you get conscious to what you're doing, and the more you get curious, like, oh, I'm doing that over and over again. Why am I walking into the kitchen and opening the cupboard and grabbing the crackers and opening them, eating them on almost mindlessly. Now the weight struggler herself would be like, oh, I'm this overeater. And I'm, you know, I I'm a snacker and I can't, I can't stop myself. And I'm just, you know, we have these attitudes and beliefs about ourselves. So, so by, by opening it up and getting curious and conscious and, and starting to ask like, well, what am I learning? Why did I just learn about the crackers situation? Like, what can I do differently? You know, can I, I maybe not come into the kitchen when I get home, because it seems like what I'm doing is I'm grabbing the crackers and I'm chewing on them.

Rita Black: And maybe I'm trying to, you know, decompress from being out on the road or driving around, and maybe I can do something differently. What could I do differently? Could I come in and lay down on the couch and close my eyes and just give myself five minutes to, uh, relax and then can I come in the kitchen and get a glass of water, you know, like, so when you start to look at like, I'm a learner, I'm going to learn from the situation I'm going to come up with new answers. You start to re identify your searches. You see yourself as a student, rather than a struggler, and that begins to change how your brain relates to you and how you see yourself in this area of weight mastery. That's kind of cool.

Rita Black: So the second way you can do, uh, you know, start to do some self hypnosis is, you can start to change your beliefs about yourself. And one of the easiest yes. Ways to do this is to do what you say you're going to do. And I know that sounds super simple, but it can, it's kind of hard to do sometimes to do what you say you are going to do. Cause why, what happens in our brains? And when we do that, when we, when we, um, when we see ourselves, because we're always observing ourselves, when we see ourselves say, okay, I'm going to get up and I'm going to go walking this morning and we don't do that. It reinforces a belief about ourselves, right? It's like, oh yeah, I, I don't do what I'm saying. I'm going to do I'm of this person that doesn't follow through. I'm kind of this person that doesn't like to exercise, you know, we can make up a little, a lot of stories and our stories create, you know, our self stories create our self idea of ourselves.

Rita Black: And, and so, you know, again, our brains, our imagination is in our subconscious mind, and we want to start imagining a new self, right? We want to start to imagining this new person who is not new person, but this new concept of ourselves. And one of the things we can do is do what we say we're going to do. Because when we do that, we say, oh yeah, I'm a person who does what I say I'm going to do. And it builds our confidence and it connects us to ourself. And again, you think, well, is that hypnosis? Is it is because you're using your mind in a different way. You're using it in a relaxed state to formulate new ideas and shift beliefs on a deeper level. Um, so practice and here's the hypnosis is self-hypnosis part of it in order to follow through and do something that you said you're going to do what you're going to help you to do.

Rita Black: This is to practice it first in your mind, right? Like ahead of time. So the self-hypnosis part is to say, okay, I want to wake up tomorrow morning and go for a walk. Then in the evening, like, as I'm going to bed, I will imagine myself, okay, I'm, I'm getting my, you know, my clothes out. I'm setting the thing, and then I'm going to imagine it like three or four times in my mind, my I'm going to get up. My alarm is going to go off. I'm going to see myself, you know, pushing the alarm to stop it, but getting up, putting my feet on the floors, feeling what that would feel like feeling what it would feel like to get into the exercise clothes, feeling like it would go outside and to feel the cool air on my face, to feel going out for a walk and my heart pumping and my lungs breathing the fresh morning air and how lovely to be, and to hear the birds chirping and doing all of that stuff, practicing it in my mind very specifically, because I'm engaging my imagination and I'm engaging that part of my brain that, is that is like, oh, that's cool. Let's do that. Let's, let's make that happen. So, but I'm going to do it a number of times. And this is what athletes do before they go out and compete is they practice it in their mind. And they're, they're stretching. It's like, you're stretching this new little road in your mind that you're now gonna walk on the next day, but you're kind of preparing the road ahead of time. Okay.

Rita Black: So, even for eating less, right? Imagine yourself sitting down, close your eyes and imagine yourself sitting down, taking a breath and imagine saying, okay, well, you know, here's this imagining this meal in front of me. And I see myself eating it slowly, chewing the bites. Okay. And it's a small portion, but I'm chewing it slowly and I'm, and I'm finishing it and I'm feeling satisfied and okay. And I'm eating that and I'm leaving a little food on the plate and I feel satisfied. I feel good. You know, like I'm, I'm imagining it first before I do it. If we just sit and eat, we're going to eat the same way. We've always eaten it. So in order to start to change your beliefs about yourself and change your habits, practicing in your mind ahead of time, any change that you want to make, um, is, so it's a really great form of self-hypnosis.

Rita Black: So here's a fun one. This is the last one is an aversion technique where there's a couple of version of aversion techniques for, you know, managing trigger foods and trigger foods. Are those foods that if you eat one, you eat a lot of them. So like, uh, French fries or pizza, or, you know, the highly palatable foods that, you know, are just so easy to consume. So imagine one idea one self-hypnosis technique is to imagine your, um, trigger food that you want to like, kind of not want to eat, imagine that it's on a plate and is covered with human hair, you know, just covered with strands of human hair. And if you want to gross herself out, really imagine biting into it, human hair bluh disgusting. Right. So that, that really is repellent for a lot of people. Another technique you could use another aversion technique is to imagine that food, put it in a cup of water and imagine what a cup or a bowl of water and imagine what it would look like, like, or taste like a day later. So like, just imagine like that lovely piece pizza, and then you submerge it in water and imagine that cheese, like getting all congealed, and, and, you know, like how cheese gets when it's like in water in the sink. And imagine that pizza crust that once, once looks so tempting, it gets all bloated and floaty. And, you know, like how, when you put, the, the wheat and the, all the stuff in the pizza, you know, gets just, what's the word to describe that, like just gross and spongy and just disgusting. So just imagine that a day later and going, Hm, that doesn't look so good or tastes so good. Right? Like, so, so if you have a thought about food, like if you've been obsessing, like craving a food, and then just imagine that food in that water, imagine that food covered with human hair. It can give your brain a little break from that. The dopamine center, the reward center going, I want it, I want it, I want it to go, oh, maybe I don't want that. So that is another, just like fun aversion technique.

Rita Black: Okay. So I hope that this has been a helpful chat. I hope that you feel a little more educated in the world of hypnosis and the world of hypnosis for weight release. And if you've never tried hypnosis, like I said, check out my free hypnosis session, curb your sugar cravings. The link is in the show notes below. And I'm so excited that coming up in the next few months, I am unveiling in the autumn of 2021, my new improved self-study version of the shift, weight mastery process. All the lessons, hypnosis and meditations are organized on a wonderful learning platform that can also be accessed through an app. So that's all coming up, you know, soon, uh, but more to come. So that is it. Everyone, if you have suggestions for me is with, you know, I know I had mentioned, I'm going to teach you how to do self-hypnosis, but if you have like Rita, I want to learn this, or I want to know more about this. You know, let me know [email protected] is where you want to send me a little line and have an amazing week. And remember that the key, and probably the only key to unlocking that door of the weight struggle is inside you. So keep listening and find it. Have an amazing week. And I will look forward to seeing you next time.

Rita Black: Do you want to dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release? Head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com where you'll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release, tips, strategies, and more, and be sure to check the show notes to learn more about my book From Fat to Thin Thinking: Unlock Your Mind For Permanent Weight Loss.