Colleen is a nurse; she has very fair skin, dirty blond hair, and big, green, catlike eyes. She works long hours on her feet. She holds hands with the dying, consoles family members, and cheers her patients on toward health. Over the years, as she became more confident in her work and as medical advancements continued to improve drastically, Colleen was happy to notice that in general, her patients were staying healthier longer with fewer complications. Overall health was on the rise over those thirty years for nearly everyone, it seemed… except for her.
While growing up, her mother had always scolded her, “You eat every meal like it’s your last.” No matter how much she had wanted to slow her pace or count her chews until she reached fifty before swallowing, she was always the first one done with her dinner. The difference was, while growing up, the food she ate was nutritious and well balanced. Once she got to the hospital, it was a different story.
It had started out as a harmless pattern. In the break room, there were always donuts, cookies, pies, and cupcakes. The patients’ families would bake these treats to say “thank you,” and it would have been rude not to accept. When you work on a busy floor, as she always had, finding the time to eat can be a challenge. So, Colleen found herself regularly running into the break room and eating quite a lot in a short period of time. At first, it didn’t appear like binge eating, but over time, a simple equation formed in the mind. It comprised of a stressful environment, lack of time to eat, and lots of delicious temptation all in one place. Eventually, the habit of eating a lot very quickly followed her home. It started with a few extra pounds here or there, which a successful diet would wipe out at first. But in a short period of time, twice as many pounds would return. By the time Colleen was approaching retirement, she was extremely overweight.
It had become very difficult for her to work. The extra weight, combined with all of those years of being on her feet, had made her knees very weak. She was in pain, she was tired, and she was ashamed. She felt that while advocating for the health and well-being of her patients, they were all noting the result of her less-than-healthy food choices and portion sizes over the years. She loved her work but she felt humiliated every day. To top it off, she was in need of double knee replacement surgery. However, due to her weight, the insurance companies would only cover a portion of the cost. The surgery would diminish her retirement account significantly. After all those years of service, she was terrified for her future.
Reluctantly, Colleen sought the help of a hypnotherapist for weight loss. She had tried every fad exercise from barre to Bikram to beach bod. She had tried every fad diet from no meat, to no gluten, to only if it fell from a tree, to everything wrapped in bacon. They all resulted in minimal short-term results and nothing long-lasting. She had tried traditional therapy, juice cleanses, and even acupuncture. For her very Western medicine–oriented mind, this was quite a stretch. But she was at her wits’ end when she figured, “I’ve tried everything else, so what do I have to lose?”
She arrived at the hypnotherapist’s office five minutes early, sat down in the waiting room, and crossed her arms over her chest. As much as she wanted this to work, she felt as if she was almost insulting her medical peers by being there. If the letters MD and PhD couldn’t help her, how the heck was a CHt (certified hypnotherapist) going to help? After a few minutes, an assistant welcomed her to the office. It was comfortable, not too big, not too small, with soft lighting, a big comfy recliner chair, a desk, two office chairs, some plants, and (oh, brother) crystals. “What’s next?” Colleen thought to herself. “A deck of tarot cards?”
In truth, Colleen was open-minded, but she was scared and so desperately wanted results that her nerves were shot. The cozy setting of this office was in such stark contrast to the sterilized, fluorescent lighting she was used to that her body didn’t know whether to relax or run. Despite her inner dialogue, she had to admit that the hypnotherapist seemed nice and knowledgeable enough as the session began. They discussed Colleen’s weight loss goal, her history, and her expectations for the session.
When they began, the hypnotherapist mentioned that they would be returning to the source of the issue to clear it up so that she could live a healthier life in the present moment. “Even when we go backward, it’s all in service of the present,” the hypnotherapist said.
Colleen replied, “Well, I know the source. It’s the brownies back in the hospital break room.”
The hypnotherapist smiled and agreed that those brownies very well could be the source, but there may also be an earlier experience, maybe, maybe not. “Simply keep an open mind, and we’ll see what comes up.”
Colleen agreed but had no idea what she was about to learn.
The beginning of the session started out as was to be expected, with deep relaxation and a safe place. When the hypnotherapist told Colleen to return to the source of the binge eating, something fascinating occurred. All of sudden, the nurse felt very, very hungry and very sad. She could tell she was still in the hypnotherapist’s office, and she could still hear her voice, but she was also someplace else entirely. The hypnotherapist would ask questions about where Colleen was and what was happening, and the nurse would answer.
Hypnotherapist: “Look down where your feet might be. Take your time. Then, let me know what you notice.”
Colleen: “I don’t have shoes on. My feet are covered in dust and dirt. I’m a boy. I feel about twelve years old.”
Hypnotherapist: “That’s right. Your feet are covered in dust and dirt. You’re twelve years old.”
Colleen: “I have dark skin, very dark skin. Darker than my brother. He just died. I’m so sad. I can’t believe he’s gone.” (Colleen starts crying hysterically.)
Hypnotherapist (in a soothing and understanding voice): “That’s right. Your brother just died, and you can’t believe he’s gone. What happened to him?”
Colleen: “There wasn’t anymore food, and he died, just died. I could hear them talking, saying he would be next. I didn’t want to believe it, but then… (sobbing) I was carrying him. We were walking to find fresh water. He was looking at me. And then he was still looking at me, but he was gone.”
As the session continued, they learned that the twelve-year-old boy lived in a village that had been attacked. All of their livestock had been killed, and many people were dying of starvation. Often, the youngest and oldest members of the family died first. The boy had lost his parents in the attacks, and his only remaining family, his little brother, was now gone. Later on in the session, the boy found a carcass of an animal and ate as if it were his last meal. It was.
Colleen: “I’ve been walking for two days since we found the zebra. I just saw myself fall down. I think I died.… Yes, I died.”
Hypnotherapist: “That’s right. Where are you now in relation to your body?”
Colleen: “I’m above it, looking down.”
Hypnotherapist: “How do you feel?”
Colleen: “Free, happy to be free, but I miss my brother.”
The hypnotherapist and Colleen continued to do healing work around the details of the session. Finally, when the hypnotherapist counted Colleen back up, and she emerged from the hypnosis, she said with tears in her eyes, “I don’t know what that was, but I still miss my brother. And I’m an only child!”
From that day forward, Colleen never ate another meal as if it were her last.
I want to congratulate you for making it this far. I can only imagine the wonderful benefits you’re already experiencing from having given your time and energy to learning how to close your eyes and get free. At this point, you may be wondering about my journey and how I became a hypnotherapist. Let me be clear: There was never, ever, a time in my life when I thought I would be writing this book. I didn’t grow up wanting to sit in cozy rooms with Himalayan pink salt lamps and Reiki frequency music while speaking to people who have their eyes closed.
My mother is an amazing physical therapist, so naturally, while choosing career paths, I never wanted to touch the word therapist of any kind with a 1,000-foot pole. In my mind, I took after my entrepreneurial father and was good at business, decent at the arts, and no good at all at helping others. Needless to say, this career came as a big surprise, and one that I’m now infinitely grateful for. My journey with hypnosis began when I had my own experience similar to that of Colleen, the nurse in our story; it was right after I hit rock bottom and booked my very first past life regression session as a result.
My first experience with high levels of stress began when I started working as an account executive for one of the world’s largest fund-raising companies right after graduating from college in 2008. This was the peak of the financial recession, and working in fund-raising at a time when thousands of people were losing their jobs and retirement funds created a precarious situation, to say the least. Even with my proven success with fund-raising for Habitat for Humanity while in college, nothing prepared me for working on campaigns that were in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Each day, as soon as my eyes opened, I felt an immediate sense of dread. Every cell in my body was resisting the day ahead. My heart would race with fear with each phone call or chime of an e-mail entering my inbox. I knew it would be one of my bosses following up on my numbers. The long days working in the trenches, so to speak, exacerbated the stress, not to mention I was philosophically opposed to just about everything about our client at the time. It just didn’t feel right. My high hopes of truly making a difference through sophisticated, large-scale fund-raising were quickly replaced by an overwhelming anxiety that I had never encountered. I had never felt more incongruent in my life and had never felt so disappointed in myself.
At this point in my life, I hadn’t learned any healthy coping skills for debilitating levels of stress, partially because I hadn’t needed them and partially because “Stress Relief Class” isn’t exactly an elective available in most high schools or colleges. The only wonderful part of this job was the friendships I made with the other young account executives. My method of managing my emotions was to party with my beloved co-workers after work, which often included excessive drinking. While most of my colleagues could manage their intake, before I knew it, I could barely make it to early morning sales meetings without being completely hungover. There was one morning in particular when I literally had to crawl on hands and knees out of bed and down the steps of my apartment to my computer, sick with pain and worry about remembering my numbers. With a throbbing headache, I was in the fetal position for the entire call, and as soon as the call was over I burst into tears. I was miserable.
When I finally left that position, I had high hopes that my new job would result in a more congruent way of existence, but no such luck. Back in New York, my partying was only getting worse. I was underperforming at my new job, I was always sick from a run-down immune system, I had put on weight and looked puffy and tired, and my personal relationships were a constant rotation of drama and upset. Still, somehow, I managed to convince myself that my drinking wasn’t the problem.
On one random evening in early December 2010, while watching a movie at my Lower East Side apartment with a friend, I found myself rummaging through the kitchen for a drink. Eventually, at the back of the refrigerator, I spotted a Mike’s Hard Lemonade, I immediately opened it and took a sip. “Ugh, this is disgusting!” I exclaimed, and then promptly continued drinking the yellow stuff. Why? Because earlier that night I had had wine with dinner and I was never able to stop drinking once I started; never in my life did I ever just have one drink.
My friend, who was by no means a saint, gave me a concerned look and said, “Why would you need to drink when it’s just the two of us watching a movie? I think you might have a problem… I really think you might be an alcoholic.” For some reason, that message, that day got through to me. I had heard it plenty of times before, and you’d think when an ex dumped me for being a complete idiot and breaking his trust in what seemed like three seconds into our awesome relationship, or when I broke my arm and couldn’t exactly remember how, or when I called in “sick” to work for the billionth time knowing my job security was already on thin ice, that one of those moments would have done it. But, no, it was this quiet night at home that finally got through. My friend gave me a hug and left. I kept drinking.
After a few hours, the fact that I might actually have an issue had built up to a feverish crescendo in my mind. I was genuinely scared. Partying wasn’t a part of my identity. As far as I was concerned, it was my identity. For years now I had felt like a superhero when I would come home from work and, as if I was stepping into a phone booth, would rip off my professional clothes, throw on my hipster gear, and boldly head out to the bars, ready to accumulate “epic stories.” But now, during this quiet night alone in my apartment, it was dawning on me that alcohol, which I thought had been my superpower, might actually be my kryptonite. It was a terrifying truth to admit to myself.
After a long, dramatic, and miraculous night (perhaps I’ll tell that story in my next book), I quit drinking and drugging and have been sober since that day.
During my first few months of sobriety, I had serendipitous encounters with strangers all over the city—people telling me about their years of sobriety without any prompting on my end. I’d be in line waiting for coffee, and the person next to me would strike up a conversation that led to a discussion about being sober. Another time, an unprompted conversation on the subway led to another sobriety conversation. It was as if all these angels were planted all over the city, who would remind me that everything would be okay just when I needed to hear it most. One day, a cab driver started discussing his sobriety of twenty-three years out of the blue and suggested a book called Journey of Souls, by Dr. Michael Newton. It’s about finding one’s purpose in life through past life regression. The driver shared that the book was fascinating and asked whether I believed in past lives. Without hesitation, I replied, “No.”
For some reason that I can’t explain, I took his recommendation and read the book. My sobriety had humbled me and I was now more open to trying anything and everything that could possibly help me. Even though I didn’t necessarily believe in past lives or reincarnation, I was intrigued. Specifically, what resonated with me was the idea that before we were born we chose our lives and all of the tough lessons we would learn while living it. “Why would I choose to be an alcoholic and get sober at the age of twenty-four?” was a question I wouldn’t mind finding out the answer to.
Before this cab ride, it had never occurred to me before that maybe I had chosen this experience for a reason. Maybe there was a path I couldn’t quite see yet. Past life regression seemed to be a way to explore this foreign concept, so I made an appointment with Paul Aurand at the Holistic Healing Center in New York to see whether my purpose could actually be revealed through a past life regression.
As the session began, Paul spoke calmly and slowly, and before I knew it, I felt deeply relaxed, as I did at the end of a yoga class while in savasana. It wasn’t a blackout. I knew where I was and could still feel the blanket. As he continued, I was guided back to my childhood. He asked me questions about where I was and what I was doing, and the answers I gave surprised me. These were things that I had not thought about for years, and some were things I didn’t know that I knew. I was unaware of these memories. It was all very intriguing to me, and I couldn’t explain why I was giving answers like these, but they felt powerful and deeply significant all the same.
Some memories triggered happy tears, and even though I knew I could, I had no desire to wipe them away because my body was in such a state of relaxation that all vanity had melted away. Mascara must have been streaming down my face, but I just didn’t care. I was so entrenched in what was going on in my mind.
Next, we traveled back even further, and I found myself in Nepal. It was incredible; I’ve never been to Nepal in this lifetime, but I just knew I was there. What followed next was even more amazing. I won’t share too many of the details here because that could fill another book in and of itself, but suffice it to say, by the end of the session, I felt I understood exactly why I had just been through the challenge of getting sober. My mind was blown.
At the end of our three-hour session, Paul was wonderful and supportive. As I was headed out of the office, he handed me a flier, saying, “I have a hypnotherapy training coming up, if you’re interested.” I thought it was bizarre that he would mention this to me rather than just recommend follow-up sessions. Right away, I declined and told him I was in sales, not counseling, but I thanked him for offering. “Why would I become a hypnotherapist?’ I thought the entire cab ride home.
Needless to say, over the coming weeks, the idea of attending the training never left me. The training cost around $2,000, which I didn’t have lying around to put toward a certification I didn’t think I wanted. But a week before the training was about to begin, I received a bonus sales check for $1,998… the signs were getting less subtle.
Luckily, I had a week’s vacation, so I could take the hypnotherapy training course with Paul. I had just moved to Brooklyn and had to travel each day to Jersey City for the training. On the first day in class, it was clear I was the black sheep of the group. Everyone was either a healer, counselor, nurse, or in some other career designed to help people already. As we went around the room and introduced ourself, sharing why we were there, I honestly answered, “I don’t know why I’m here. I work in sales as an account executive for an online marketing company.” My confusion didn’t seem to bother anyone, nor did it bother me. In my gut, I knew there was a reason why I was there but couldn’t articulate it yet.
As the class progressed throughout the week, I could physically feel a sensation as if my forehead was expanding with information. All of the ideas about the subconscious mind, habits, and being in control of your thoughts were new to me, but I somehow simultaneously felt that I was being reminded of something I had always known.
During the first hypnotherapy session that I conducted that week in class, I knew immediately that there was nothing I had ever done before that felt so natural. Immediately, all the right things came out of my mouth as I spoke to the fellow student who was standing in as my “client,” even though I had a long way to go in terms of becoming a proficient certified hypnotherapist, I knew this was something that I had an innate talent for.
That first week of class, I was partnered with another female student who wanted to focus her sessions on binge eating. We would work together for the week-long training and also eat meals together, which is where I watched her transform. I watched each day as her eating habits changed after having these sessions with me. It was absolutely amazing. The first hypnotherapy session I had ever done was with a student in that class, and she stopped binge eating!
I realized that I had never actually made a tangible difference in someone’s life to that degree, not until that week of hypnotherapy training. The fact that I had spent some time with a woman and had listened to her long enough to really hear her, that I was able to say things to her when she was in a relaxed and safe place that transformed her subconscious mind to the point where a habit that had plagued her entire life stopped… well, I was hooked.
Two additional transformative results came about around the same time that I was wrapping up this training and becoming certified as a hypnotherapist, which cemented my belief in how powerful hypnosis could be for an individual. First, up to that point, I remained strong in my sobriety from drugs and alcohol, and luckily still have to this day, but I had not been able to stop smoking. Well, in just two sessions with Paul, I quit smoking and have been a nonsmoker ever since.
Second, I had a fear of singing in public even though I was passionate about singing. This fear kept me off the stage and out of the public eye from the time I had graduated from high school until I was twenty-five… seven years later. Also during my first certification training course, I was hypnotized to overcome my fear of public speaking and singing; within a few weeks, I was the lead singer of an all-girl rock band and I am now paid thousands of dollars to speak to large audiences. I can’t imagine what my life would be like today without these breakthroughs.
My life had been truly transformed, yet I still hadn’t fully embraced the idea of being a full-time hypnotherapist. I was still working at my job as an account executive and conducting sessions with friends, family, and a few word-of-mouth clients. Every single time I worked with someone, I was utterly amazed. It just wasn’t getting old. And if anything, I was more astonished with every passing moment that the people I worked with were losing weight, overcoming their fear of flying, or healing relationships and falling in love for the first time in their life. I actually saw myself making the world a better place, and I saw people evolving into who they wanted to be. I saw the greatness they were capable of becoming.
Despite the daily miracles I was witnessing, it wasn’t until I experienced the opening story I shared with you in Chapter 1, my session with my future father-in-law, Alexandre, that I knew I had found my calling. As someone who had taken continuing education classes in human rights studies and had always dreamed of making a positive impact on humanity on a large scale, I realized this was the most profound and effective tool for personal transformation I had ever seen… the only problem was, no one understood it. And so, it was through a series of serendipitous events that I became a hypnotherapist, and I’ve been on a mission to make hypnosis mainstream ever since.
While I have hypnotherapy to thank for the vast majority of positive transformations and successes in my life, I would be remiss if I didn’t discuss the two other components that continue to be equally as important in how I ended up here today. As this book is about getting free, I feel it’s important that you know the exact formula that resulted in the incredible life I live today.
First, I got sober. Without this step, the hypnotherapy would not have been as effective, and honestly, I probably wouldn’t have been open enough to try it in the first place. If you feel you may be struggling with an addiction (it doesn’t have to be to alcohol), I’ve provided you with some additional help in the Resources section. Please take a look and know that you are not alone.
The next step in my transformation was, without a doubt, hypnotherapy. I continue to practice self-hypnosis on a daily basis and I can’t imagine my life without it. So many anxieties, fears, bad habits, and negative thoughts are now gone that I can hardly believe there was ever a time when I lived with them.
The third and final piece was meeting my husband. My life blossomed when I met Bernardo. He is the greatest gift I’ve been given in this life, and yet, had I not gotten sober first and cleaned up my subconscious mind next, I honestly don’t believe we would have even met. The universe would never have brought us together simply because I wouldn’t have been in a place to honor or nurture such a pure connection, and I don’t believe he would have been interested in me in the state I used to operate from. Our frequencies would not have matched up. One beautiful step in the right direction led to the next and the next. This is what I want for you, a healthy body, a pristine subconscious mind, and all of the successes, including the gorgeous human connections that can flourish under those conditions. This brings us to our final self-hypnosis process.
I suggest reading through the following directions two or three times before beginning so that you will be able to follow along easily. Remember, there are video tutorials and audio recordings available to you at www.CloseYourEyesGetFree.com that will help you to become a self-hypnosis pro in no time at all.
• Begin by making note of your starting stress level. 10 = a full-blown panic attack and 0 = zero stress, no stress at all, the most relaxed a person can possibly be. Remember this number.
• Sit in a comfortable chair and place your feet flat on the ground, rest your hands gently in your lap.
• With your spine straight but comfortable, take 4 deep, slow breaths, inhaling through the nose for 4 counts and exhaling out the nose for 8 counts.
• Close your eyes and imagine gentle roots growing from the bottom of your feet down into the center of the Earth, grounding you.
• Imagine a color you love flowing in through the top of your head, all the way through your body, out the bottoms of your feet, and down those roots, down into the center of the Earth.
• Bring all of your focus and awareness and attention to the palms of your hands. Perhaps you can feel your palms tingling, perhaps you can feel your heartbeat in your hands, perhaps you notice a sensation of expansion in your hands. Just notice and breathe for a few moments (you can choose whatever length of time feels best, about 30 seconds is my personal favorite).
• With your eyes closed, count down from 10 to 1, saying “I am going deeper and deeper” after each number: Ten, I am going deeper and deeper. Nine, I am going deeper and deeper. Eight, I am going deeper and deeper. Seven, I am going deeper and deeper. Six, I am going deeper and deeper. Five, I am going deeper and deeper. Four, I am going deeper and deeper. Three, I am going deeper and deeper. Two, I am going deeper and deeper. One, I am going deeper and deeper…
• (Optional Step) Next, take a nice, deep letting-go breath, open your eyes, and, if you are comfortably able to do so, pick up this book or tablet and lift it up in the air so that your eyes, are reading at an upward diagonal angle. Simply find the line where a wall meets the ceiling in your home. That is approximately where you want the center of your book to be—this does not need to be exact. If you are looking up at a diagonal, you are doing this correctly. Read the following hypno-affirmations at this upward diagonal angle until you have memorized them: Every day in every way I am losing weight and feeling great. I chew every bite until only liquid remains. Food is fuel, I only put the highest quality fuel into my body.
• Once you have memorized the hypno-affirmations, put the book back down and rest your hands comfortably in your lap.
• With your eyes closed, repeat the following hypno-affirmations you just memorized either silently in your mind or out loud, 10 times: Every day in every way I am losing weight and feeling great. I chew every bite until only liquid remains. Food is fuel, I only put the highest quality fuel into my body.
• Take another nice, deep, letting-go breath and with your eyes closed, imagine all of your weight loss goals have already been achieved. See, feel, and experience yourself glowing with health, and that you have more energy and feel more joy than ever before.
• Once you’ve spent 1–2 minutes imagining that you’ve already lost the weight from those parts of the body you desire to lose weight from, imagine the same color as before flowing in through the top of your head, all the way through your body, out the bottoms of your feet, and down those roots into the center of the Earth.
• Put a gentle smile on your lips, open your eyes, stretch your arms over the top of your head, and say, “Yes!”
• Notice your new number on the scale (remember 0 = zero stress, the most relaxed you can be) and congratulate yourself on how quickly you improved your state!
Here is a simple summary for the process in case you need to peek your eyes open at any point for a quick reminder:
• Notice starting stress level from 0 to 10.
• Take 4 deep, slow breaths.
• Grow roots.
• Color.
• Count down from 10 to 1 saying, “I am going deeper and deeper” after each number.
• Hold the book on an upward diagonal angle to memorize the hypno-affirmations.
• Repeat the hypno-affirmations “Every day in every way I am losing weight and feeling great. I chew every bite until only liquid remains. Food is fuel, I only put the highest quality fuel into my body” 10 times.
• Imagine you’ve already lost all the weight you desire to lose.
• Smile while opening your eyes and say, “Yes!”
• Notice new number on the scale of 0 to 10.
• Congratulate yourself for improving your state so quickly!
Excellent! You have completed the Weight Loss self-hypnosis process!
• Now, go ahead and visit www.CloseYourEyesGetFree .com to access this chapter’s hypnosis recording. Pop in your headphones, sit back, relax, and Close Your Eyes, Get Free.
• After you listen to the recording, please let me know how it went! Using the hashtag #CloseYourEyesGetFree on Instagram or Twitter, message me @GraceSmithTV your starting and ending numbers on the stress scale. By using the hashtag, you’ll get to see how other readers are improving right alongside you, plus I will have an opportunity to cheer you on!
• Move on to Chapter 11, and in the meantime, look out for all of the wonderful benefits you’re experiencing from the regular use of hypnosis.