Understanding the Conscious & Subconscious Mind

As a Hypnotherapist I am often asked by my clients about the mind and the mechanics of Hypnosis. Perhaps the most common question is "how come I can't do it by myself?

The truth is that you can do a good amount of work and bring about much positive change with self-hypnosis.

Many of my clients who listen to my self-hypnosis programs report about the positive changes that they experience in their lives. Be it weight loss, body image or overcoming fears, you can certainly train your mind and enjoy the benefits. To learn more information about these programs visit mindbody101.com

However, there are many conditions or symptoms where the aid of a professional Hypnotherapist is necessary. In my office I see people every day who struggle with self-limiting beliefs, destructive behaviors, chronic illness, anxiety & panic attacks and other conditions where the symptoms are debilitating and seem beyond the client control.

With cautious I will say that the root for many of these conditions, if not organic, will reside in the Subconscious Mind, and this is why.

The mind model of Conscious and Subconscious-mind works best to explain why changing some of our habits is more difficult than others. In short these two agencies have a different job title.

Your conscious-mind, also called the critical-mind is working right now as you are reading these lines. Your conscious-mind is logical, analytical and its basic functions are to gather information, evaluate and decide appropriate respond or behavior based on the information stored in the subconscious-mind. The conscious-mind is responsible for short-term memory and will-power, both necessary for optimum daily performance.

The subconscious-mind can be compared to vast library of data or the hard disc of your computer. Every statement, image, concept or idea that you became aware of throughout your life was recorded and stored in your subconscious mind. It's hard to imagine, and yet, each and every day you draw from this library, measure, compare, evaluate and decide your behavior based on your knowledge.

For example, when you walk by the neighborhood bakery, the smell of bread may bring back some wonderful memories that were not available a minute ago. These memories surfaced into consciousness upon demand from the conscious mind to understand a new element in your immediate environment (just doing its job).

The knowledge of what fresh bread smells like, reside in the Subconscious-Mind and therefore the Conscious-Mind could evaluate the new found smell with the one already in place. The same is true for weather or not you find the smell of bread attractive or not.

Based on these "original" perceptions you will decide to act or not, or in this case decide to eat it or not.

If weight loss is your goal, then you want to change your relationship with food. Will power may work for a short while but not for long (which is why diets fail so often). Lasting result can be attained when you change the way you perceive food to be, at the source of perception, which is the Subconscious-Mind.

In a state of hypnosis such change is possible because we are bypassing the critical factor of the Conscious-Mind. Then and only then you will be able to override, replace or change your perception and therefore your life.

For more information about our Hypnosis CDs and MP3 visit our library of recordings designed to enhance your life at mindbody101.com

Some topics covered:

• Pure Relaxation

• Exercise Motivation

• Overcoming Emotional Eating

• Eating Habits Transformations