New Beginnings

New years are times of new beginnings. People make decisions about things they would like to change. They resolve, From this point on, I will take different actions to secure different results.

I will eat differently, exercise differently, treat my body differently. I will face my fears.

I will behave differently in my relationships. I will interact with others differently.

As I demonstrate in my classes* on Manifesting or Intentional Creation (a.k.a. The Secret, the Law of Attraction, Faith), when exercised intentionally, the human will is an amazing thing. The moment of decision, held fast, literally moves mountains.

But sometimes, the problem is in the holding fast. We can get derailed without even understanding why or what happened.

Take New Year’s Resolutions.

More often than not, just a short time after the New Year, our conscious resolve has dissolved.

This can happen, because, as good as the human will is, we are more than just our consciousness. There is more to you. There is a bigger, broader, deeper YOU than the part of your mind, of which you are aware.

Whatever the strength of your conscious will, there is far greater willpower in your unconscious. To make any sort of lasting change, our unconscious and conscious minds must be brought into agreement and work together. When all parts of you are in harmony, you have
access to some of the greatest change forces known.

Yet, often, we are a maze of hidden contradictions. Our conscious mind wants A, but for reasons of its own, our unconscious mind wants B, and B is what we continue to have. It should be a simple thing to direct our action by conscious thought, but in a contest, the unconscious
always, ultimately, wins.

Take weight loss for example.

With our conscious mind we may sincerely desire to lose weight, but we make little sustained progress. Some people argue that the answer lies in education. Yet, it is statistically unlikely for any person in the United States, with a television, overweight or otherwise, to not know how to lose weight.

There are more diets than we can list  We are bombarded with instruction about which foods have which effects. And when routinely implemented, they pretty much all work. As does exercise.

As a nation, and as individuals, we are not overweight for want of alternatives or lack of education.

Our conscious minds have been instructed how to lose: eat less, eat better, move more.

Yet, as anyone who has ever had a extra few pounds knows, losing weight is not as simple as choosing the plan that is most logical and embarking on that road.

Physically, it may be as simple as putting the fork down, but there is a struggle within, a struggle with a subconscious will that has a rationale all its own.

You are more than just a conscious being.

You are multileveled.

Just below your awareness, there are layers of unexamined, though not necessarily irrational, Self, with its own drives and motivations.

When the unconscious and the conscious disagree, the emotion-laden drives of the unconscious win, influencing us to act in the  worst interests of our conscious intentions. (It can happen with other things too, like love and relationships). We can find ourselves doing the very things "we do not want to do," despite our most valiant conscious efforts.

There is a way to bring your unconscious motivations to light and get your drives working with you, instead of against you.

Many of us have experienced the misuse of sex as an act of violence or violation, and deep inside, our unconscious may feel being heavier is safer—making us less likely to attract unwanted attention (as noted in the book, Fat is a Feminist Issue).

Given our culture’s media emphasis on images of extremely thin and non-muscular women, healthy or not, being heavier may feel more butch—more physically imposing and empowering.

Or, since we all, naturally, take our sense of self from the messages others mirror back to us (the “looking glass self”), the negative messages of others (intended or unintended) may have clouded our own internalized sense of the wonder that we are, as our unconscious busily, dutifully, paints the picture implanted by that negative feedback with every stroke of the spoon.

Similarly, there are underlying causes for the other ways in which we hurt our bodies (or even, our social selves).

Smoking provides another example. What smoker hasn’t seen the ugly photos of the effects of tobacco tar on lung tissue? And yet, those who smoke may find that quitting is harder than simply bearing up under the temporary physical symptoms of nicotine withdrawal. The habit may be more deeply rooted than mere physical addiction.

Smoking may be connected to our sense of self in the world—to images of sophistication or early images of fitting in with those whose respect we needed.

Or it may be that, in the present day, you have areas of your life over which you feel a lack of control, and smoking brings up the strength of adolescent resistance to adult pressures (individuation), temporarily providing a present-day (subconscious) sense of greater autonomy or
self-direction.

Or it may be that, in the stresses of modern adult life, not just the body, but the unconscious mind resists giving up the serotonin uplift of nicotine, despite what your conscious mind knows about the long term impact of cigarette smoke on your lungs; the day-to-day unpleasantness of smoking (outside in the cold and rain) in an anti-smoker’s age; the smell of stale smoke lingering on hair and fingers and breath and clothes; or the fact that smoking actually makes you feel un-well, today, every time you inhale.

You owe it to yourself to explore the unconscious motivations that hold back, or war against and sabotage, the change you consciously desire.

Hypnotherapy is a safe, pleasant, and self-directed means of exploring your own inner, unconscious self.

It is an effective way of addressing, through self-understanding and the (self-directed) power of suggestion, issues (as varied as habits, phobias, stress and pain reduction, relationships, social and self-confidence, sexual function, past sexual hurts, and memory healing) that hold us back in the present.

As a hypnotherapist, I have no power over a client. Rather, I function as a trained facilitator to help YOU explore and bring to light the drives and emotional motivations that underlie the ways in which you war within yourself—so that you may come to peace—and accomplish your most sincerely desired conscious resolutions.

At this time of year, when the idea of turning over a new leaf is uppermost in all of our minds, you can take a step toward self-understanding that will be truly empowering—not a donut or a cigarette as resistance against the injustices and stresses of everyday living—but an exploration to bring the multiple layers of yourself into unity.

Whether you want to change your weight, stop smoking, exercise more, be free of fears and phobias, build better relationships, or manifest* a better future—using the techniques of hypnotherapy (progressive relaxation, guided visualization, and client-approved
suggestions), in the privacy of my practice, I can help YOU explore the “reasons” underlying your (rational) unconscious motivations—and rewrite (together) the programming of your unconscious mind—to bring it into harmony with your consciously desired resolutions for a
more enjoyable future.

In hypnotherapy, YOU are always aware, always in control, and remember all.

A hypnotherapist does not, cannot, and should not replace other helping/ medical/ psychological/ spiritual professionals.

Hypnotherapy is a complementary, and can be a very spiritual, modality.

Individuals should continue their work with other care providers.

Rev. Dr. Nadine Rosechild Sullivan Ph.D. CHt.