How to Hypnotize Yourself for Weight Loss
“I was severely depressed, unemployed, and living in my parents’ basement. My mental and physical health had deteriorated so much that I could hardly get out of bed. I found Grace’s twenty-one-day hypnosis sessions and started doing it each morning and evening. I stayed consistent each day and focused on self-healing. Within months of believing it was possible to change, I started my dream job, had a new car, and moved into an incredible house with breathtaking views.” —Melody S., Dolores, Colorado
This book is more than a book. It is a program complete with journal pages, audio recordings, and homework assignments. The text itself is here for you to understand why each of these twelve pillars is a necessary step to rewiring your relationship with food, your body, and your self-worth. However, the real transformation comes not from just reading the text, but from doing the hypnosis. Throughout this ninety-day journey, you are going to practice hypnosis four times a day. Count ’em . . . One, two, three, four! Every day, four times per day. Three times will be with the self-hypnosis practice I’ll teach you in this chapter, so it’s important to get it right! And the remaining practice will be listening to the hypnosis audio recording for each corresponding chapter. You can find them all at www.CloseYourEyesLoseWeight.com.
The self-hypnosis process taught in this book is also slightly more streamlined than the techniques I taught in Close Your Eyes, Get Free, so even if you read my first book, you’re going to love learning this even more efficient format.
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for! It’s time for you to learn how to hypnotize yourself. I recommend reading through the following steps two to three times before following along so you’ll have a good idea of the steps before you close your eyes. If you need to peek your eyes open to double-check the next step, that’s no problem at all. I also have a video tutorial waiting for you at www.CloseYourEyesLoseWeight.com, so if you would like to watch that first, you can head there now.
How to Hypnotize Yourself
1.Notice your current stress level (0 = total relaxation, 10 = panic attack).
2.Hold your book up at a diagonal (so that it’s hovering right over where the wall and ceiling meet) and read your hypno-affirmation, which is, “I am safe, I am calm. I choose to be here,” over and over until you’ve memorized it.
3.Put your book down, place your hands comfortably in your lap, and close your eyes.
4.Say a color you love out loud (or silently in your mind) and imagine the color flowing in through the top of your head, all the way down through your body, out through the bottoms of your feet, and down into the center of the earth.
5.Try to open your eyelids, and notice they don’t want to open.
6.Say a color you love out loud (or silently in your mind) and imagine the color flowing in through the top of your head, all the way down through your body, out the bottoms of your feet, and down into the center of the earth.
7.Count backward slowly, saying,
“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.”
8.Say a color you love out loud (or silently in your mind) and imagine the color flowing in through the top of your head, all the way down through your body, out the bottoms of your feet, and down into the center of the earth.
9.Repeat your hypno-affirmation (the one you memorized earlier while holding the book up at a diagonal) twenty-one times.
10.Say a color you love out loud (or silently in your mind) and imagine the color flowing in through the top of your head, all the way down through your body, out the bottoms of your feet, and down into the center of the earth.
11.Visualize the outcome you desire using all your senses (see it, hear it, touch it, taste it, smell it).
12.Say a color you love out loud (or silently in your mind) and imagine the color flowing in through the top of your head, all the way down through your body, out through the bottoms of your feet, and down into the center of the earth.
13.Open your eyes.
14.Smile to release a hit of endorphins, serotonin, and dopamine (which train your brain that you enjoyed this and want to do it again soon!).
15.Notice your new lower level (remember, 0 = total relaxation).
Great job! It’s likely that you’re feeling much more relaxed now. In fact, the likelihood is that you’re at least 50 percent more relaxed already (see page 30 for more on this). I am so proud of you and so excited for you! Of course, it can be challenging to learn a process that requires you to close your eyes, while reading. :) For that reason, be sure to visit www.CloseYourEyesLoseWeight.com to follow along with the free video tutorial that will walk you through this process. In no time at all, you’ll be a self-hypnosis pro.
Here is a summary of what you learned:
1.Notice starting number
2.Hold book up
3.Close your eyes
4.Run the color
5.Try the eyes
6.Run the color
7.Count down
8.Run the color
9.Hypno-affirmation × 21
10.Run the color
11.Visualize
12.Run the color
13.Open eyes
14.Smile
15.Notice new number
You’ll notice that once you close your eyes, “Run the color” happens before and after every single new step, so this process is actually very easy to memorize. The only steps you have to remember while your eyes are closed are “try the eyes,” “count down,” “hypno-affirmation × 21,” and “visualize.” If you’re in a pinch for time, you can shorten this process in the following way:
1.Notice starting number
2.Hold book up
3.Close your eyes
4.Run the color
5.Try the eyes
6.Run the color
7.Count down
8.Run the color
9.Hypno-affirmation × 21 × 3
10.Run the color
11.Visualize
12.Run the color
13.Open eyes
14.Smile
15.Notice new number
To summarize, you remove the countdown (step seven), run the color (step eight), repeat your hypno-affirmation three times instead of twenty-one times (step nine), run the color (step ten), and also remove the visualization step (step eleven). This shorter version is only to be done when your time is limited. The standard practice is much more effective as far as conditioning goes, which you want since it will upgrade your self-hypnosis tool from being prescriptive to being preventive much faster than the shorter version. Still, some hypnosis is always better than no hypnosis! I’d much rather you use the shortened version than none at all. Just use the standard practice more often than not.
More Frequently Asked Questions
Take a nice, deep letting-go breath. Now that you’ve learned how to do self-hypnosis, allow me to answer all the frequently asked questions we receive about this life-changing technique.
Why is it important to practice self-hypnosis three times per day?
Great question. The short answer is: the more you practice self-hypnosis, the faster it goes from being prescriptive to being preventive.
When someone is sick, a doctor often prescribes medicine to make them feel better, to alleviate the symptoms. The prescription usually isn’t solving the root of the issue and usually isn’t preventing the issue from returning again in the future. It is a welcomed bandage that provides short-term support and comfort. In the beginning, self-hypnosis is prescriptive. You have it handy to help you when you’re feeling angry, stressed out, or afraid and can use it to change your state in a few minutes. It’s common to be able to go from an eight to a two on the stress scale (more on this in a bit) with one or two rounds of self-hypnosis. This in and of itself is life transforming.
However, what’s even more incredible is that, with enough practice, self-hypnosis goes from being prescriptive to being preventive. Preventive medicine wards off the possibility of the issue developing in the first place so we won’t need a bandage of relief later on. With enough self-hypnosis, you’re conditioning your brain to stay much calmer with increasing regularity. With time that could mean that your new peak stress level is perhaps a six or a four instead of an eight, which is more manageable and supportive of all areas of your life.
What are hypno-affirmations?
Hypno-affirmation is a word I use to describe what hypnotherapists usually refer to as “suggestions.” I found that most of my clients were familiar with the idea of repeating positive, daily affirmations and that the term “hypno-affirmation” made the parallel between these two practices clear. With hypno-affirmations we are using positive phrases (that are easy to remember) to condition the subconscious mind. Hypno-affirmations are infinitely more powerful than affirmations alone as they reach the subconscious mind directly, without the massive impediment of the conscious mind standing in the way. The self-hypnosis process will stay the same throughout this book; the only parts that change are the hypno-affirmations with each chapter.
You might be wondering how hypno-affirmations differ from traditional affirmations. Daily affirmations can be fabulous, but they only reach the conscious mind. It takes a long, long time for them to influence your subconscious. Anyone who has practiced them knows it. You might feel better for a short time, but the underlying issue remains unless you repeat those bad boys an average of six hundred times per day for a week (at least). Typically, people give up well before that happens.
The difference here is that we use hypno-affirmations during self-hypnosis, which means you are in the theta brainwave state during the conditioning process. Because you are repeating the hypno-affirmations to your subconscious mind, much less repetition is required. Usually ten to twenty-one repetitions per day does the trick. This is the difference between taking a rowboat to get where you’re going and taking a private jet. Affirmations on their own might get you there, but hypno-affirmations used during self-hypnosis sessions are a much faster and more direct ride.
The hypno-affirmation you used during your first practice round was “I am safe, I am calm. I choose to be here.” It’s a beautiful catchall hypno-affirmation because it works in every situation to make you feel better.
•“I am safe.” Affirming this turns survival mode off. The fight, flight, freeze sensations that come from the feeling of “danger” dissipate. Remember from chapter one (page 10) that these feelings produce cortisol, the hunger-inducing, belly fat–producing, metabolic-blocking hormone? If you feel safe, you produce less cortisol. Also, as you’ll see later, feeling safe naturally cuts down on emotional eating and binging tendencies.
•“I am calm.” This affirms what you want. Most people go around talking about how stressed they are and how much anxiety they have all day long. Does talking about feeling stress get rid of it? Or does it strengthen those neurological pathways and create more stress and anxiety? You guessed it! Talking about how stressed you are makes you more stressed. When was the last time you affirmed how you wanted to feel instead? This hypno-affirmation will train your brain to focus on what you do want, not what you don’t want.
•“I choose to be here.” This is a bit of a mystical double entendre. I choose to be here can mean that you choose to be sitting in this meeting, driving in this traffic, having this dentist appointment. It takes away the subconscious panic from perceived lack of control. I choose to be here brings calm and confidence because it affirms you have a choice—you are in control—and this is what you chose. It can also mean I choose to be here—that is, in the present moment. All worrying takes place when your mind wanders into either the past or the future. Peace is found right here in the only time that exists: the present moment. Find it by choosing to be here.
How to Write Your Own Hypno-affirmations
In addition to “I am safe, I am calm. I choose to be here,” I’ll also be providing you with a myriad of hypno-affirmations written specifically for the twelve subconscious areas of weight loss at the end of each chapter. In addition to these, if you would ever like to write your own hypno-affirmations in the future, use the following guidelines:
•Desirable. This is the most important factor. If you don’t want the result, you’re not going to get it. Hypnosis is not mind control. It cannot make you do what you don’t want to do. Imagine a scale of desirability: zero means you don’t want it at all; ten means you want it more than anything in the world. Hypnosis becomes effective when you are at a level of seven or above. So if you’re losing weight because someone else wants you to (a level five at highest), I’d lovingly suggest you gift this book to a friend who is at a level seven or above on the desirability scale and focus your energies on using hypnosis to get a result you desire for something else you want!
•Achievable and Believable. If you want $1 million but you earned $100,000 last year, your subconscious will sniff out an “I am a millionaire” hypno-affirmation, stamp it as “bs,” and return to its abundance-self-sabotage-business-as-usual. You can have any desired outcome you want if you work up to it so the subconscious doesn’t mark it as “impossible” before you even get started. If you’d like to lose a hundred pounds, you already know that’s not achievable, believable, or even safe within our ninety-day format. Can you do it eventually? Heck yes. You can also earn a million dollars! But make sure your first hypno-affirmations are achievable and believable and then ramp them up as you meet your milestones. If losing a hundred pounds is your ultimate goal, make your hypno-affirmations supportive of losing twenty-four pounds in your first round of this ninety-day program. In one short year from today, you’ll have achieved your goal, and you’ll have done it in a way that will last the rest of your life!
•Present Tense. Make sure you write your affirmations in the present tense. “I will lose weight” puts your success perpetually in the future because of the word will. “I am losing weight” puts your success where you want it: in the now.
•Positive. The subconscious mind doesn’t register words like no and not. “I do not like cookies anymore” turns into “I do like cookies anymore” to the subconscious. Rather than stating what you don’t want, state what you do want: “I am toned,” versus “I am not fat”; “I am happy,” versus “I am not sad”; “I am employed,” versus “I am not unemployed anymore”; “I am relaxed,” versus “I will become relaxed.” Always go with the examples in bold, the ones that focus on what you want.
•Concise and Easy to Memorize. If your hypno-affirmations are so long that you can’t memorize them, they won’t be much good to you when you get to the step in self-hypnosis where you need to repeat it twenty-one times with your eyes closed. Concise hypno-affirmations are potent and more effective than a long-winded sentence.
•One Topic at a Time. If you’re working on weight loss, just work on weight loss. Hold off on sleep, nail biting, and the rest until you’ve experienced the results you desire in weight loss. Otherwise your subconscious will experience a system overload of sorts, and that will water down results across the board. For example, imagine you’re watching a movie and are enthralled in the story line. The rest of the world melts away. You’re not thinking about doing your taxes or emails you have to respond to; you’re 100 percent in the movie. That’s what happens when you focus on one topic at a time during hypnosis. If you attempt to work on weight loss and nail biting in the same hypnosis session, it would be like you watching a movie while texting back and forth with your friends. You’ll miss key things that happen in the plot, and the texts will have spelling mistakes because you’ll keep looking up at the screen. Both experiences will be diminished. Stick with one topic at a time, give it your all, and you’ll experience lasting transformation much faster.
Why do I begin self-hypnosis with noticing my current stress level?
Knowing where you’re starting on the stress scale helps you to gauge how much you’ve relaxed by the end of the practice. I’ve noticed that about half my clients will relax 50 percent or more during their first self-hypnosis process, about a quarter will relax more than 50 percent, and the other quarter will relax less than 50 percent.
25% of clients |
Relax more than 50% with one round of self-hypnosis |
50% of clients |
Relax by 50% with one round of self-hypnosis |
25% of clients |
Relax less than 50% with one round of self-hypnosis and need two to three rounds to achieve optimal relaxation (any number below 5 on the stress scale is optimal) |
Wherever you land on the scale after your first round of practice, know that you will relax significantly more with your second round. Go back and practice two rounds of self-hypnosis right now, back-to-back, to see what I mean!
Why do I lift the book up and memorize the hypno-affirmations on a diagonal before placing the book back down?
Have you ever noticed yourself becoming tired after staring at a computer screen for hours? It’s not like you were chopping wood or doing anything physically taxing for hours. You were sitting and typing. So why the exhaustion? The light from the screen fatigues the eyes, and when the eyes become tired, it sets off a chain reaction for the entire body to relax deeply. In fact, this is why the silly swinging watch was a staple in early hypnosis; it tired clients’ eyes and gave them something to focus on. Reading at an upward angle has a similar effect. Your eyes tire more quickly when you look up for an extended period, which sends a message to your body to relax. That being said, you want to be relaxed, not exhausted, so you only lift up the book for the time it takes to memorize the hypno-affirmation. Then you place the book back down and rest your hands comfortably in your lap.
Why do I imagine a color I love flowing in through the top of my head, all the way through my body?
Oftentimes, when you love a color, it features throughout your wardrobe, on the walls of your home, in trinkets throughout your office, even in the jewelry and artwork that you buy. By continually running the color you love through your body, it not only calms you but also conditions you to subconsciously feel calm every time you see that color throughout your day. You can change the color every time you practice this self-hypnosis process, or you can use the same color each time. I tend to find that blue is the most widely used, but any color or shade is perfect and correct.
Why do I count down from ten to one, saying “I am going deeper and deeper” after each number?
This is a wonderful, simple way to instruct the body and mind to relax. The key is to go slooooooowly. However slowly you went your first time practicing, go twice as slow next time and you’ll experience even better results.
Why do I repeat the hypno-affirmation twenty-one times?
Despite its common occurrence in the world of personal development, twenty-one is not a magical number as far as building a new habit goes.24 It is, however, just long enough that you’ll get in a solid number of repetitions without taking so long that you’d skip self-hypnosis practice because of the investment of time required. If you’re busy one day and can only repeat your hypno-affirmation ten times, or even three times, that’s fine. A shorter practice is much better than no practice at all. Hypnosis is a process of conditioning. A shorter conditioning session is infinitely more effective than no conditioning session, especially when it comes to weight loss.
Why is conditioning especially important for weight loss?
When someone stops smoking, everything gets thrown away: the cigarettes, the lighters, the ashtrays. That person is now a nonsmoker. Nonsmokers don’t walk around with an unlit cigarette hanging out of their lips just to see if they’ll smoke it. The old habit is wiped out of one’s life, and the temptations are removed. Weight loss is a little different. We still have to eat! We’re never going to wipe food out of our lives. For this reason, practicing self-hypnosis right before each of your meals is an effective way to strengthen new pathways in the brain and to make sure that each meal will propel you further toward your weight loss goals.
Why do I visualize the desired outcome?
When you visualize the results you desire, you stimulate the part of the brain that is activated when you physically take that action. For example, visualizing or imagining that your body is slimmer or more toned—that you’re fitting into certain clothes, that you feel energized, that your mind feels clear and happy, or that you’re climbing a mountain or riding a bike or dancing a tango—creates a neural framework for you to not only believe these changes are possible for you but to cerebrally experience that they have in fact already taken place.
An example involving a group of university basketball players proves the power of visualizing while in hypnosis. In the study, one group of players was hypnotized while the other group was exposed to a variety of muscle relaxation techniques. According to the researcher,
Results showed the hypnosis group scored significantly better (p < .05) than the relaxation group on dribbling scores, defensive scores and three-point shooting scores at post-intervention. The hypnosis group also scored significantly better (p < .05) at post-intervention than at pre-intervention on dribbling scores, defensive scores and speed shooting scores.25
Taking the time to visualize eating the way you want to eat, moving the way you want to move, feeling the way you want to feel, looking the way you want to look, will not only expedite your progress; it is a key factor in why you will succeed with your weight loss goals. If you had any lingering doubts—perhaps you’re thinking, “I’ve tried everything, and nothing has worked”—take a nice, deep letting-go breath now and realize that unless you practiced daily visualization while in hypnosis, you not only haven’t tried everything—you haven’t tried the one thing that works! But from here on out, you will, and I’m so excited for you!
Why do I journal and track my sessions?
Without measurable data, your success will have to rely on your emotions or your willpower. Both of these will fail all of us more than we care to admit. But data is black and white—it’s not emotional. You see where you’re moving forward, where you’re stalled, you see if there have been any steps in a direction you don’t want, and then you can clearly and unemotionally make a decision about what to do next. That’s why I have included journal pages to support your ongoing success. (You’ll learn more about how to use them in the next chapter.) I’m excited for you to journal and track your sessions every day. If you choose to, you’ll also be able to share your data with our online community (www.CloseYourEyesLoseWeight.com) so we can cheer you on!
Homework
A.Visit www.CloseYourEyesLoseWeight.com to listen to chapter two’s hypnosis recording: “Mastering the Practice of Self-Hypnosis.”
B.Every day, practice self-hypnosis three times (at breakfast, lunch, and dinnertime) using the hypno-affirmation “I am safe, I am calm. I choose to be here.”
Congratulations! You now know how to hypnotize yourself. You are ready to move on to chapter three, “Prepping for Your 90-Day Journey.” You will learn how to get and remain motivated for a lifetime of helpful choices, as well as a foolproof meal prep process that will support you in eating well all week, without feeling overwhelmed. Let’s get to it!
24 James Clear, “How Long Does It Take to Form a New Habit?,” HuffPost, May 29, 2015, www.huffpost.com/entry/form-new-habits_b_7346170.
25 Brian L. Vasquez, “The Effects of Hypnosis on Flow and in the Performance Enhancement of Basketball Skills” (PhD diss., Washington State University, College of Education, 2005), https://bscw.rediris.es/pub/bscw.cgi/d4434912/Vasquez-Effects_hypnosis_flow_basketball_skills.pdf.