Can Hypnosis Help with Weight Gain?
We always talk about weight loss with hypnosis, but what about gaining weight with hypnotherapy? I can almost see your headshake, and thinking gaining weight is the easiest thing in the world! The truth is, gaining weight can be just as difficult as losing weight. Actually, in my opinion, it can even be harder at times.
I know this from my personal experience. During my college years, I struggled with gaining weight. It wasn’t that I was sick or unhealthy because of my weight but being extremely skinny took away from my confidence and made me anxious. Anytime I skipped a meal or didn’t have time to eat, I would get anxious thinking that I will lose more weight and become even skinnier. In addition to that, I got full quickly and didn’t get hungry very frequently.
Imagine forcing yourself to eat when you have absolutely no appetite. Even eating the most delicious things can be a nightmare.
Imagine that you get full after two bites, the rest of the meal becomes a matter of force and battle rather than an enjoyable time.
Thankfully, moving to America helped me change my relationship with food and eating overall. But you don’t have to wait for a big change to do the same for yourself. Hypnotherapy can make this process easy and effortless.
Mind and body are connected
More and more we are understanding the mind-body connection better. More than ever, we now also understand how this connection can affect our experiences in life. Even the way you talk to yourself or the way you describe things has a significant effect on how you feel. For example, terms like “pain in the neck” or “he is such a headache” can actually lead to stiffness or pain in the body.
The same principles apply to weight gain and during hypnosis, the mind-body communication is reinforced in order to benefit from this connection. When the mind is ready to enjoy every meal or be open to eating just a little bit more, the body will follow the subconscious mind.
When the mind-body connection is strengthened, your eating patterns and physiology around digestion and eating will be in harmony. Rather than forcing and struggling, you will be able to gain weight easily and effortlessly.
Hypnosis will help with changing the subconscious mind
While working with hypnosis for weight gain, you will quickly realize that almost everything in your daily life is connected. For example, if you are not sleeping well, you may struggle with anxiety which will affect your thinking and habits.
With the help of hypnotherapy, you can regulate different unhealthy habits and thinking patterns, therefore opening up more space and appetite in your body!
Anxiety
One of the reasons why many people have issues with appetite or feel uncomfortable around the stomach area is anxiety. When anxious, we may feel a knot in the stomach which will not let us eat comfortably. Especially if you are dealing with chronic anxiety, you may be struggling with weight gain.
The problem is, as humans, our body needs food as a source of energy throughout the day. When we don’t eat well or frequently enough, the body will produce an anxiety-like fight-flight response. As a result, you may end up feeling more anxious because you are not eating.
You can easily see the toxic cycle; anxiety may affect eating habits negatively, as a result of not eating, you may actually get more anxious. Yikes! How do we get out of this?
Thankfully, hypnosis is a great method for anxiety management. You can learn more about how hypnosis works for anxiety here. Overall, hypnosis itself is a calm and relaxed state that enables you to change your relationship with your life experiences. Not only you will feel peaceful and refreshed after a hypnotherapy session but also your subconscious mind will start to adopt this new way of being: calm and in control!
Feeling of fullness
The feeling of fullness starts the moment you see the food in front of your eyes. The brain sends direct signals to your gut, even before the food actually enters your mouth. Especially if you are a slow-eater, you will start feeling full pretty quickly. Hypnosis can help with altering this feeling of fullness subconsciously.
During hypnosis, the hypnotherapist can help with retraining the mind to perceive fullness differently. So, you can increase your capacity to eat more. Instead of telling you that you are full, your mind can learn to accept more food with grace and excitement.
Subconscious associations about food and eating
If you didn’t realize by now that we all have a different relationship with food. Ask people around you and you will quickly realize that we all have different patterns from each other. Some have breakfast, some have sweet tooth, some love broccoli, and some hate broccoli. The list goes on and on.
The truth is, we learn the majority of our habits and beliefs about food and eating at a very young age. Did your grandmother make you delicious carb-heavy foods after you came back from school when you were young? Then probably you find carbs comforting as an adult.
Did your family skip breakfast growing up? Probably you are not a big breakfast person as well. Or maybe you were offered candy every time you cried when you were little. As a result, during tough times, even as an adult, you may be resorting to sweets. Sounds familiar?
We all create associations about food and eating just like that and without recognizing we live with these beliefs even as an adult. If you struggle to gain weight, you may have learned negative information about food.
For me, it was my mother constantly telling me that if I eat too much candy, I will have cellulite when I grow up. That worked for a long time and even as a little girl, I felt guilty when I ate candy.
For others, it may even be more traumatic. Imagine someone observing a family member battling with obesity, or other problems due to being overweight. They may be sad and scared for a long time.
Hypnotherapy can help with changing these subconscious beliefs. Those beliefs belong to others, not to you. As an adult, you are powerful enough to create your own beliefs about food.
Your hypnotherapist will help you become aware of these subconscious patterns while helping you change them. Often times this process may involve letting go of certain emotions, memories, or expired beliefs. At the same time, it will involve exploring new positive ways of being. The focus will be on creating healthy habits that will support the life you want to live.
All in all…
Weight gain with hypnosis may be just as delicate process as weight loss with hypnosis. Be patient and trust in your subconscious mind. Until now, your subconscious mind worked hard to protect you and help you survive -even in the most non-sense ways-. Trust that power. And use the same power to reach your ideal weight and body!