I truly don't know how much we can consciously communicate with our unconscious minds, but I like to give it my best effort. I have developed this visualization practice that is based on guided imagery, self-hypnosis concepts, conscious dreaming, and--I hate to admit it--The Secret. It's actually been very fun experimenting with all this. It's no panacea, that's for sure, but it can't do any harm, and it makes you feel good.
There are a million ways to do this, and it's a very personal process, but I'll tell you about some of the highlights of what I like to do.
I always start out with the Conscious Dreaming Technique of focusing on the very center point of my psyche and then expanding that out into "my happy place." Don't laugh at the "happy place" concept: all the insight, wisdom, motivation and guidance you need is available to you here. It's really pretty handy. In conscious dreaming the idea is to picture your own mind as if it were a beautiful and peaceful place. It took my awhile to settle on an image for this place. First it was sort of an exotic jungle, but the big leaves and humidity felt oppressive. Then it was a riverside, but I noticed I was just standing there watching the river (my life!) go by. Finally I settled on a botanical garden! Perfect.
When I've been led through guided visualizations in the past and asked to imagine a beautiful and peaceful place, the images were always much different than when I was given the Conscious Dreaming instruction to imagine my own mind as a place. Either way, this place must be, above all, a safe haven. I imagine that the images I create here are planted like seeds in the garden to grow into the reality of my life.
Try to engage all of your senses when you're imagining this place, then imagine yourself in it, yourself relaxed and radiant, with all your needs met. This alone can be a very rejuvinating process.
Most guided visualizations don't jump right into it like that but take you first through a relaxation process. The relaxation techniques are helpful in and of themselves. Most of them focus on the breath, and taking a moment to focus on your breath can totally shift the way you feel. I am breathing in. I am breathing out. Taking deep breaths, belly breathing, yogic breathing--all kinds of breathing--can help you relax, but simply attending to your breath without trying to control it is my favorite approach. You might do progressive muscle relaxation or visualize a warm, relaxing energy moving through your body.
Self hypnosis techniques take it even further in an attempt to get into a trance-like state of consciousness. It involved images of moving downward, deeper into yourself, by walking slowly down a flight of stair or floating slowly down to earth on a feather in a breeze--you get the idea--to arrive at your very center.
There are so many directions you can go from here, depending on your goals, but focusing specifically on weight loss, you might imagine yourself looking and feeling the way you want to look and feel. What does it look like and feel like to have lost the weight you want to lose? Picture it as if it has already happened. You might get a little more specific and imagine your fat cells shrinking, your metabolism speeding up to burn more fat and provide you with more energy. You might picture those clothes you've grown out of fitting comfortably again. You might picture yourself exercising and enjoying it. See yourself stopping eating when your body has had enough, putting down the fork, pushing away your plate, and feeling completely satisfied. I often spend a moment focusing on a very specific goal, i.e. the "ideal" weight I am working toward, and how my mind, body and spirit are all working together toward that goal.
You can use this process to promote health, relaxation, general well being. You can use it as a spiritual practice. You can call in mentors or guides, you can receive gifts, you can connect with your chi energy, you can have a conversation with your body. The possibilities are endless. I alternate between focusing on health and fitness and focusing on other aspects of what I want in my life.
It's important to always communicate with your unconscious with direct, positive statements in the present tense. ("I stop eating when my body has had enough," rather than "Don't overeat!" or "I will learn to stop overeating.") And it is supposed to help to finish by suggesting to yourself how you will feel when you complete the visualization. ("This sense of fulfillment and tranquility will stay with me throughout the day.") Personally, I like to end with a moment of gratitude. (There's quite a bit of chatter lately about the many benefits of practicing gratitude.)
I have a set of CDs that I ordered from Sounds True called "The Self-Hypnosis Diet." If you want to pursue this kind of thing but have a hard time getting started, that is a great resource, although I found the guy (can't think of his name at the moment) a little annoying. And I know the neurobiology is a little tangential, but if you're interested, see www.brucelipton.com, or even better, check out Dan Siegel, neurobiology guru. (His approach is all about INTEGRATION.)
Bruce Lipton says our beliefs affect us on a biological--a cellular--level, so I like to believe that doing this visualization practice can affect my beliefs in very basic and positive ways, and thus directly affect my body. Hey, it's worth a shot.
And not only neurobiology but almost every approach to wellness I've run across is promoting mindful meditation practice. Jon Kabat-Zin, the Mindfulness King, recommends 45 minutes a day, but anecdotally, 10 minutes is enough to reap some benefits. People who do it swear by it. I don't have the knowledge/experience or the patience at the moment to go into it, and there are so many resources available that could do it better justice than I could, so I will not elaborate on the process here, but let me just speculate that there is no way in the world that mindful meditation would not significantly support every single aspect of weight management that we have discussed. Or, I should say, in a direct, present and positive statement, mindful meditation supports every aspect of weight management.
