Weight loss through hypnosis, and other articles

Can Emotions Be the Underpinning for Being Overweight?

Obesity, described as having a body-mass index (BMI) of 30 and over, has our government so alarmed a hearing was held in early October, carried by C-Span featuring key figures from key government offices including the Surgeon General’s Office and Office of Management and Budget, as well as the gurus of various alternative orientations to keeping slim and achieving weight loss. Regrettably, once again, the government’s case is centered on the food pyramid. While outsized portions of food—fast and otherwise—contribute, obesity isn’t simply about food as the billion dollar diet industry would have you believe. And it isn’t about losing weight—millions of pounds have been lost for years by those who are overweight. It’s keeping it off that challenges. And the question that is never asked is, why?

Perhaps the answer is because we are addressing the wrong end of the paradigm. Diets and various weight loss plans that focus on food are about deprivation, and you simply don’t present deprivation to any human being as a good thing. Better to find out instead what is going on emotionally, physically, mentally, psychologically within the overweight client in those minutes before they eat, and ask why they continue overeating or eating the wrong things when they logically and physically know better?

I believe the answer is emotions. Emotions are what send us into the refrigerator looking for something that isn’t there and never will be. Overeating is the symptom, not the cause of being overweight. What we really are seeking through food is the same thing we seek in other addictions: a way to fill up something inside that feels empty, to numb pain, or to get our modicum of pleasure in what is becoming a stressed life beyond our ability to handle. If we weren’t coming from these emotions, weight loss would be easy. Simply eat better and exercise and we would attack the problem as soon as we realized our weight gain—if the emotions weren’t involved.

Considering overeating as an addiction helps us understand how a person can lose control over their actions. Making maintaining weight loss strictly about food and deprivation doomed to failure, just as making any other substance abuse program all about the substance. It is only when the person wants to look at their behavior for a deeper cause will they maintain weight loss. Obviously, if someone is 35 pounds overweight and still eating inappropriately there are emotional issues that need addressing. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results is dubbed “insanity” in addiction recovery groups.

One of the few books that delve into the subject of how emotions actually impact the body is The Molecules of Emotion by Dr. Candace Pert and published by Simon & Schuster. A researcher at Georgetown University Medical Center, Pert examines how the chemicals in our body form a dynamic information network, linking mind and body through our emotions, and concludes, “The body is the actual manifestation in physical space of the mind.” Although we readily understand the concept of what stress does to us in the immediate term—upset stomach, headache, and diarrhea—we tend to be myopic in grasping its long-term effects. The fact is negative or repressed emotions (including unforgiveness) create a form of dis-ease within us. Our bodies are metaphors for our inner lives.

The inability to maintain weight loss is often compounded by both low self-esteem and its’ first cousin, depression, resulting in lack of motivation. Someone refusing to let go of resentment, anger, unforgiveness for a long period of time can have these emotions actually implode and one of the results can be obesity. Or high blood pressure, heart attack or cancer. Often real weight loss is seen as just that—a loss. Nobody likes to lose anything, particularly something that is acting as protection—a defense mechanism keeping the person stuck and avoiding making a change of either their behavior, or a belief system. The weight then serves as the “fall guy” and rationalization for avoiding change. However, this is not known consciously or else there could be steps taken to truly “lose” weight. One woman of my acquaintance has been on every diet in the world, but still can’t “let go” of her weight. Further digging into the “cause” reveals in the last ten years she has lost three significant people in her life that represented her security. For her, to lose and maintain weight loss is subconsciously too fearful to behold because it would create a feeling within her of being totally bereft and uncovered.

In summation, I believe there are seven reasons for lack of success in maintaining weight loss. They include:

1. Excess weight covers up anger or resentment or holding onto something rather than letting go. One may refuse to extend forgiveness and feel quite righteous about it.
    
2. Excess weight can be a passive, misguided way of taking back control you feel you don’t really have—no one can force weight loss on you or control your eating.
    
3. Excess weight can provide a false sense of protection for those who use it as a physical barrier to avoid intimacy and the prospect of rejection.
    
4. Excess weight can be the consequence of childhood abuse—sexual or otherwise—whether consciously remembered or deeply buried.
    
5. Excess weight may be the residue of a past lifetime. While not common, during hypnotic trance a weight client may access a past life in which they died from starvation.
    
6. Excess weight can be the result of eating too much and exercising too little, particularly when no other causative factors are present. Without underlying causes, most people would take immediate action toward weight loss.

Note: This short article is based on our book, Lighten Up! Lose Weight!!, a ten week self hypnosis weight loss program which is available here in our online store along with CD’s and audio tapes.

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