Your Journey is Just Beginning - Day 1

Your journey is just beginning. Your only limits are those of your inner vision. The more you can image, the more you can imagine, the more you can visualize, the more you can dream….the more you can do!… Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht

Achieving a major lifestyle change is like a good old fashioned rope tug . While a piece of rope doesn't look hold much interest for most of us, rock climbers would certainly disagree. It is their life-line. The rope is an excellent metaphor for the steps you doing here, and I'm sure you'll agree that it does take a lot of personal power to pull lifestyle change permanently into your life.. .

I’d like to share something with you. Part of me has always fantasized about having my own private coach, someone who would tell me exactly what I should do to achieve my goals, motivate me, taking me down the Goal-den path to high achievement of some sort. The kind, loving coach was part of a multitude of glorious images, of course always including everything I desired at the end of the rainbow. Somewhere in the distance sounds could be heard, "Be careful what you wish for....." my Mother's always far too realistic way of breaking my fantasy.

I got my wish when I was about fifteen. I joined the roller skating club and Phil Pinto was assigned to be my coach. He was nothing I imagined and there were no rainbows, at least not then. His job was to take my focus away from my bruised knees in order to keep me skating when I really wanted to give up and go home. It was years before I really liked him, much less admired him. I don't think I fully appreciated his attempts at teaching me self-discipline until I was an adult.

As life would have it, I now find myself being a coach and mentor to hundreds of people. . Nursing is just another form of coaching, getting patients to follow doctors orders and to be self-responsible in their health practices. In my work as a lifestyle change educator and medical hypnotist, I work with people who want to experience functioning at their optimum levels. Many are managing sugar addiction or disorderly eating, in addition to working on other goals. Often as not, the sugar addiction has been blocking their path to these goals, sometimes for years on end., for it is very difficult to have what it takes to reach goals when blood sugars are dipping and rising like roller coasters in a giant theme park.

Any lifestyle change and especially sugar addiction management needs a super-coach, someone who is highly attentive, motivated and understands how to get into the moments and open them up. In my experience, the only coach up to this job is the "Inner Coach". That Coach resides inside our selves, in the subconscious mind. Our job here is to contact that part of us and begin the learning process. In this special work you will begin the process of re-communicating with your Inner Coach on a regular basis. The Coach will help you in disciplining all parts of yourself to turn towards what you really want on your goal-den path and to move past what you don't want. You will be keeping up the energy with a plan designed specifically to meet your specific needs and desires.

Your "Inner Coach" has tremendous advantages in assisting you towards optimum performance. First, this coach knows you best and there is no hiding behind fantasy of any sort. You already know that you live most of your waking hours on automatic pilot or lost in fantasy. Individuals lost in thought either hang out in the past, or future-paced, usually involved in replaying old negative tapes, or fantasy adventures of the future that have little to do with planned goals.

Being able to face the truth is a vital force in licking sugar addiction and optimum performance. Your Coach will be asking you to be willing to see the negatives as well as the positives. For many of us this is the most difficult part of our work because we simply do not want to see it and most certainly do not want to feel it. One of the reasons for this is that we tend to lack the knowledge that negatives are simply doorways to improved outcomes. They are like flags waving for attention. "Look over here! Correct this and find a better way."

Lucky for us our Inner Coach is ever present. No need for meetings, conferences, cell phones or emails. Your Coach is not only ready at less than a moments notice, but has access to all the inner resources you have been accumulating since birth, making those available at any time. Your Coach will be showing you how to reframe them, making them even more useful and powerful.

Your Inner Coach is aware of self-imposed roadblocks, old stale beliefs, thought patterns and automated emotional responses that keep you side-lined and off the goal-den path. The Coach knows all about how many times you've failed at nutritional change, how imbalanced your emotions can be and how many of your goals have been left sitting on the table of the subconscious mind library for so long. Once it's clear that that you are ready to move through those blocks, your Coach will present doable plans for this part of your work, while placing you right in the middle of the needed action. Wow!

Most of us have been very out of touch with this part of ourselves. You will probably need some up front time for re-communicating, designing clear cut goals and giving the Coach what's needed for his part of the job. Like any other Coach or servo-mechanism, it needs care and attention. The next mini-chapters will remind you of those things forgotten, or perhaps introduce you to them for the first time. As you work through these daily exercises, you will begin to notice the path is not as difficult as you thought it would be. Don't be surprised if you feel a kind hand on your shoulder, motivating and urging you towards all you can be. The hand will belong to your deepest and Highest Self, known here as your Inner Coach.

Day 1

"Most of the time we do not know how long it will take to accomplish our goals or our journey, the reason being that most of the time we have never been there before. So sit back & decide to enjoy the ride. You'll be surprised how easy things become from this position of power...Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht

It is time to begin. Each day I will be introducing you to different ways to utilize the tools you were given earlier. These new applications will allow you to practice "exceptional living." as well as sugar addiction management. You now have the opportunity to make the tools truly yours and in so doing you will create and experience excellence throughout your life.

In this particular program you are learning to manage your lifestyle behaviors & emotions through the practice awareness and interactive self-hypnosis "in the moment." Some readers may have eating disorders, phobias, addiction, obsessive-compulsive disorders, chronic disease or a life-threatening diagnosis. Others will be managing the regular stressors of life; looking to reach your goals or aspirations. I do hope you have utilized your Assessments, having outlined some of the first changes you plan to make as you grow towards your personal goals.

Remember that your goals are multi-dimensional. While you are managing issues, you are also self-developing in the direction of many different goals.

You are designing blueprints for future growth. Each and every time you work with the tools and techniques of this program you are etching new neurological tracks for programming your mind and body. Each and every time you place your goal pictures into your subconscious mind following Awareness Meditation Banking or regular practice, the etching becomes deeper. Your outcomes will be speeded along by frequent review of "the blueprint" with creative visualization techniques. There are times when you may feel overwhelmed by the number of changes needed, but do not despair.

Your focus is on your daily work. You already know to recognize and diminish unhelpful emotional states. As you continue to do this "in the moment" your positive changes will be quick and permanent. Lasting changes are best made in small increments. While your basic plan will present much work, keep in mind that you will be mastering your blueprint brick by brick. You will continually return to the drafting table, observing and delighting in the end goals. You do know that modifications will most certainly occur as different levels of the project take on a life of their own. You also know and accept that the end project may look very different indeed from the original blueprint. Do not be put off by this, but instead, celebrate the unfolding of the process while enjoying each step of the way.

Writing goal descriptions is one of the most powerful exercises you can do. Perhaps you will begin a special journal for this work. As you read earlier in this book, it is a good idea to divide your life up into separate goal gardens and choose one important goal for each area.

MIND EXERCISE:

Just as if you had a picture of one of your end goals sitting on your desk, go ahead and describe it in detail. Make it vivid and as complete as possible. Be sure to allow your emotions to arise that connect to this wonderful end goal photograph: ___________________________________________________
___________________________________________________

Let's go ahead and place this goal into the subconscious mind library. Take a deep yawn breath and allow your body to deepen. You already learned this work in the Awareness area, so utilize whatever images or sensations work best for you. Now tilt your eyes up 20 degrees and see your end goal picture as it plays on the movie screen. Spend some time with this. Allow it to play out in all it's detail. Bring in emotional states that benefit the goal, perhaps confidence, joy, focus and discipline. You might go back to your emotional crayon area and review the list of possibilities. Remember you will be continuing your work with this goal, so changes may be forthcoming.

When you are ready place a gold frame around the activated goal picture and following another deepening breath, apply the following affirmation instructions in the form of living images. Climb right into the affirmation, becoming part of the action. Now emotionalize it with your very own body physiology emotional memory bank.

· I make changes in small increments.
· I examine my blueprint many times a day.
· I invite helpful emotional states to color my experiences.
· I am excited about my plans.
· I enjoy change

Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, President & Program Designer for Sarasota Medical & Sports Hypnosis Institute located in Sarasota, FL & online at http://www.hypnosis-audio.com & http://www.sugar-addiction.com She is the author of Sugar....the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It, Beyond Disorderly Eating...The Truth About Sugar, Bingeing & How to Stop, as well as The MindBody Fitness Boot Camp... Lifestyle Change Made Easy. She has also written & produced +350 audio CD's & mp3's. The websites include moderated discussion groups, ezines, library & a host of other educational tools for learning Interactive Self-Hypnosis. Visit the online Boot Camp & work directly with the author. Download a free mp3 each month.

The Tools of Interactive Self-Hypnosis - Part 2

You already know that when your life is disordered on the outside, your inner landcape is also disordered. Now you are ready to work inside "containment images." You are becoming more talented at advanced life lessons & subconscious mind programming... Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht

LIFE CONTAINMENT

We need an over-arching image that will encompass all areas of your life. This is a major containment. I like to utilize an image of a goal-den path, with separate gardens for each major life area. I’ve presented an image above that represents my inner over-arching image. I teach this image to my patients and students. It seems to work quite well. Once this major containment is in place, the next step is to fill in the details “as if” you already had all of these present in your life. This is called future-pacing and is a major subconscious mind program. The more specific you can be, the better your outcomes will be for the mind will have more to work with. Remember, this is a work in progress. You will continually be adding to it.

In the drawing of my goal-den path you can see the positioning of the separate goal gardens. Notice how the major garden sits on it’s own. This is not just important when managing addictions. It is crucial for high level health and optimum performance in any area of life.

The bricks are twenty-four carat gold, sparkling their value. Beautiful gardens emerge on each side of the path, each having a signpost. The gardens extend back to the horizon, filled with flowers of every conceivable variety and color. The plants are healthy, the colors vibrant. These plants represent my achievements, my resilience, as well as my new desired goals. I image my feet standing on the path, sensing them tingle from the sparkling gold. I look up at the sky, noticing a few clouds moving slowly, feeling the heat of the sun touching my face gently, coupled with the coolness of a slight breeze. I enjoy allowing my body to fill with feelings of happiness, expectation of good things to come, including the total management of any specific addictions or disorderly behaviors I may have in my life.

I then sit quietly, allowing all of this to settle inside of me. Each time I repeat this in the theater of my mind, my subconscious mind programs the changes. It doesn’t matter what my current reality is. The mind will prefer the newly designed images and will work to bring those into my life. That’s why positive details are so very important, even if they sound ridiculous.

Remember, mind imagery or sensing is different from actual experiences, but your subconscious mind will follow what you present “as being true.” Be as detailed as you can, knowing that each time you do, these very programs will be etched further into your subconscious mind. Do not worry if you feel awkward or feel like nothing is happening. Be patient with the process and you will receive the benefits. I like to use my journal for this purpose. Writing the details down, further etch them into the subconscious mind.

MIND CONTAINMENTS

It’s time to design the separate gardens. Place an image at the top of your journal page, and follow with your detailed explanation. No need to be an artist. When I began inner organizing my life in this way I simply drew an empty rectangle to cue in my subconscious mind. If you like to think in action video, design a movie.

The master garden is called the Mind & Body Health Garden. This garden houses all of the body part “plants”. Without good care in this garden, the other life-area gardens will have difficulty flourishing. Notice that you can read the names of the plants on the little signs. To the side of the garden is a table with a big watering can. This holds your "solution." The ingredients are listed on a piece of paper next to the watering can. Read them. They include high level nutrition, self-disciplined eating, body communication, emotional management and goal setting. Go ahead and water some of your plants. Now turn and look at the gardens to your left. Each time you care for your Master Garden, the plants and flowers in all other gardens flourish as well, and so whenever you come to the goal-den path you will always stop by and water your Master Garden.

You have just completed a subconscious mind program for caring for your body at high levels and managing any disorderly eating patterns you may have accumulated over the years. The subconscious mind is very effective and efficient, developing goal action plans from simple active imagery. At any time during the day, deepen slightly with your dial, tilt your eyes up and see yourself applying solution to the Master Garden. The more you etch, the deeper the program, the higher your rate of success.

INTERACTIVE AFFIRMATION - I make my mental images work & produce for me.

Always relax deeply before planting an affirmation. Remember, once they are planted, then you can pull them up rapidly "right in the moment". The words "work & produce" are adapt well to the garden image. Climb up into the image you have chosen & see/sense yourself working & producing. Allow your imagination to befriend you here. Learn to play in the theater of your mind. Bring forth the sensation of a positive emotion that enhances the imagery & then enhance the physiological sensation of the emotion. This is key in deepening the etching of the affirmation.

Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, President & Program Designer for Sarasota Medical & Sports Hypnosis Institute located in Sarasota, FL & online at http://www.hypnosis-audio.com& http://www.sugar-addiction.comShe is the author of Sugar....the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It, Beyond Disorderly Eating...The Truth About Sugar, Bingeing & How to Stop, as well as The MindBody Fitness Boot Camp... Lifestyle Change Made Easy. She has also written & produced +350 audio CD's & mp3's. The websites include moderated discussion groups, ezines, library & a host of other educational tools for learning Interactive Self-Hypnosis. Visit the online Boot Camp & work directly with the author. Download a free mp3 each month.

Beginning Tools of Interactive Self-Hypnosis

When you are disordered on the outside, your inner landscape is also disordered. Get ready to see & experience things differently. It’s time to become great at advanced life lessons… Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht

You began your life walk with your very own unique first step. While this may have been your first walking step, every experience in your entire life had a first step as well, and you have many more first steps to experience.

Tune into the world and you will hear lots of moaning and groaning about having to begin all over again. If you take a moment to dissect these complaints, you will find the errors in these thought patterns, for every experiential moment on the path of life begins in a different place. A failure experience is simply a step in a different direction. Later as we explore the subject of failure, you will come to find that it really isn’t a bad thing, but instead a good one. We are surrounded with a multitude of teachers on these subjects.

Take toddlers for example. We can learn quite a bit from them. Observe what happens when they fall down. They may cry or not, but then they get up, center themselves, look around at their immediate environment, then movetowards where they want to go.
Your own breath is your teacher in residence. As you learn to observe it, you will begin to find that each inhalation and exhalation is different from the one before. Therefore we do know how to live with ongoing change. This realization can help you to shift out of the fear surrounding change, right into action.

KNOWLEDGE HOOK - DEEPENING

The tools you have learned so far are multi-faceted. They work to reduce your stress chemical production just by their sheer presence. The slowing of your brain waves is called deepening trance. You already know how to reach the alpha brain wave state right in the moment, even when others are around. When the brain waves are slowed, the body becomes balanced. This is called homeostasis. Your blood pressure normalizes, as does your heart and hormone production. This act of mental shifting begins changes within every cell, delivering you to the door of your subconscious mind that is located at the alpha brain wave level.

You can slow the brain waves even more, going to a deeper level of trance. Many people have the idea that it is necessary to be at much lower levels in order to practice effective hypnosis. Some believe they must be asleep in order for suggestions to be planted. Nothing could be further than the truth. We tend to be in self-hypnotic states all day long, but unfortunately most of these are negative mind programs, going towards negative goals instead of positive ones.. In purposeful self-hypnosis, you will be waking from these, releasing them and then programming your mind for what you want.

There are times when you might like to go to a deeper level, perhaps during a dental appointment or medical procedure. Deepening is also beneficial for releasing high stress levels, either in the moment or in time put aside for this purpose. There are many ways to experience deepening. While all of these can be applied in the moment, it is best to practice them in a solitary environment, without time pressure.

MIND EXERCISE – MAGNETS

A simple exercise for deepening is the utilization of mind magnets. Most of us are familiar with the sensation of magnetic pull. For example, if you have flown in a plane you do know the feeling of being pulled down and back into the seat.

Start this exercise with a deep yawn breath, holding it in your mouth for the count of four, letting it out slowly. Settle into the chair, tilting your eyes up slightly. When practicing you might like to close your eyes, but you can practice this with them opened or closed. Allow your buttocks to be pulled gently down, sensing your spine sinking into the back of the chair. You can work with an imaginary dial. Notice that as you turn it to the right, the magnetic sensation enhances. A turn to the left allows you to experience a decrease in magnetic sensation. This imagery gives you full control of your depth of trance or level of relaxation.

This exercise is very easily adaptable to any situation in the real world. For example, if you find yourself becoming anxious in the moment, simply turn your dial to the right. You will be turning off your stress chemical production, slowing your brain waves, and going right to the door of your subconscious mind where you can request information or plant suggestions. As you tilt your eyes up just slightly, your programming screen will be available for subconscious mind communication. You can also release emotional cravings in the same way. Of course, physiological cravings need to be managed with the food connection.

MIND EXERCISE – MAGIC NUMBERS

This exercise appears a bit more cumbersome, but each part of it can be utilized as a separate mind program in the moment. Sit upright and allow your body to sink into the chair. Take in a very deep yawn breath, holding it in your mouth for the count of four, allow it to exit slowly as if you were a balloon at the end of a party. After reading this exercise, close your eyes and tilt them up about twenty degrees, just as if you were sitting in the second row of a movie theater. Notice the placement of the mind screen and the number four slowly coming in from the distance. Remember imaging is different than seeing with normal sight. It’s more of a felt sense. Allow the number to touch and enter your forehead and begin to feel it absorbing down throughout your body.

Bring your eyes back to the screen and notice the number three is coming in and now entering the center of your chest, finding the door to your heart and now pumping throughout your body taking it further down. The number two is coming towards you now, entering your belly button door and disseminating down into your lower abdomen and both legs. Allow yourself time to feel the joining of the numbers, as they take you deeper. The number one is coming forward in the form of a paint brush coated in white sparkling paint and outlining your entire body. Notice you can take the outline off and place it back on. Each time you do so you go deeper down. You can utilize this portable outline at any moment, as it is now programmed. Once you are inside your outline, you are separated or disassociated from the action of the moment and in the powerful position of the observer.

KNOWLEDGE HOOK

In a strange paradox, the release of the high stress states actually opens the subconscious library door, readying the mind for programming. Your creative power is right where you want it. Each and every time you wake up to an aspect of your disorderly eating, addiction or any other stressor, choose to release it. Now program your mind for what you want. See or sense it on the mind screen “as if” you already achieved this. You could also choose to edit the inner scene that is playing out, especially if it is related to your addictions. Pretend that you are the writer, producer, director of this production and change whatever you want. Then observe as it goes forward with your new programming.

Your subconscious mind loves inner organization. To oblige, you will be building some working metaphors or inner structure that will encompass your entire life. This will make it easy for you to build multiple goals in different areas of your life, as well as manage the emotional children that either help or hinder. While this work may appear like a child’s game, make no mistake. Your subconscious mind loves pictures, especially stories that are both humorous and imaginative. You are in the process of engaging your mind to assist you in managing your specific problems, but you can utilize this to organize other areas of your life as well. Remember, everything is connected. Your disorders do not exist unto themselves.

Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht is a Clinical Hypnotherapist, President & Program Designer for Sarasota Medical & Sports Hypnosis Institute located in Sarasota, FL & online at http://www.hypnosis-audio.com& http://www.sugar-addiction.comShe is the author of Sugar....the Hidden Eating Disorder & How to Lick It, Beyond Disorderly Eating...The Truth About Sugar, Bingeing & How to Stop, as well as The MindBody Fitness Boot Camp... Lifestyle Change Made Easy. She has also written & produced +350 audio CD's & mp3's. The websites include moderated discussion groups, ezines, library & a host of other educational tools for learning Interactive Self-Hypnosis. Visit the online Boot Camp & work directly with the author. Download a free mp3 each month.