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Halt Cravings---along the same idea of Richard's dual dial for pain.and Don's Hyperempiria
Richard presented the concept of dialing up comfort while dialing down discomfort. What I realized is that you can't feel two things at the same time (old joke: headache?1? so sorry, let me hammer your toe...."
Then I ran across. I think that this is another way of using that idea. Check it out:
HALT CRAVINGS WITH THIS IMAGE
from RealAge.com
The easiest way to get your mind off that hot fudge sundae is to picture this instead: a white sandy beach in Tahiti.
Or a scene from your favorite movie. Or a slow dance with your honey under a starry sky. Just picture something -- anything -- delightfully pleasant that isn't food related. Research suggests that doing so can help stop a craving, fast.
Just Imagine . . .
In a recent study, college students were asked to vividly picture themselves engaged in a well-loved activity every time a food craving came up and to maintain the alternate image until the craving faded. Compared with control groups using other craving-quelling ...click here for more http://www.realage.com/health-tips/curb-food-cravings-with-imaginat...
Happy Holidays Everyone
Susan
Does anyone else see how much nicer this would be than imagining puke, cigarettes, bird poop, etc along with the desired food?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Don on -
Hi Susan,
That's a great idea!
In the posting entitled, Hyperempiria for the Relief of Pain, I've quoted your earlier statement, ". . .everything that we do [as hypnotists] has to do with directing attention from thoughts and perceptions that have negative effects to more positive states and perceptions. What results is not only changing a habit of thinking but creates the release of brain/body chemicals that support the state where the attention rests." By heightening and enhancing our internal states, we can have experiences which we are not capable of in everyday life, but which are just as "real" to us -- if not more so -- than if they were, with predictable effects on our personal lives."
I did use negative, unpleasant imagery in treating a case of premature ejaculation with cognitive-behavioral therapy and suggestion. In an instance such as that, it seems to me that adding the pleasure of a pleasantg visualization to the pleasure one is already experiencing during intercourse might overload a nervous system that is already struggling to restrain itself. But in the vast majority of cases, combating cravings with positive imagery is definitely the way to go.
I think it would be interesting if someone were to write a Self-Hypnosis Diet Cookbook which contained nourishing, easy-to-fix, low-calorie recipes interspersed with visualizations you could use while consuming the meal, which would result in it being experienced as top-notch world class cuisine. I'm going to try it on myself this holiday season and see how it works. (Better to be a guinea pig than Mr. Piggy!)
Don
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Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com on -
always great to see research....
Love the ideo of the alternaitve visualization.
However, you said " you can't feel two things at the same time"
I think you can.
In fact, clients think all or nothing. Its either pain or comfort. Happy or sad. But you can be sad and happy.
And you can be both in pain and comfortable. The problem is clients only listen to the pain, rather that noting the comfort they also feel.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Ellner on -
@ Richard,
Yes-- Yes! One can be in pain and comfortable at the same time!
@ Group Members -
Many of your chronic pain clients will report that the "pain" is still there, but thanks to hypnosis it just doesn't bother them they way it used to...( ©¿©¬ Our intake/pre-talk sets the stage for effective outcomes: "A small improvement can be a huge improvement in your quality of life" // "For some clients the pain goes away, for others the discomfort is still there but it's not a big deal and they barely notice it....")
@ Susan,
I can't explain the how or why, but I can tell you that we tend to attract clients who kind of jive with us "vibrationally" and if the model "you can't feel two things at the same time" works for you it doesn't have to be true to help your clients.
20 years ago, I heard Bernie Seigel say that "one could not be hungry and nauseous at the same time" and I ran with it. I enthuasitically told dozens and dozens of clients that they would wake up from surgery feeling hungry and the great news is that is impossible to feel hungry and nauseous at the same time. Three years ago or so, an internist told me that Bernie made it up and it was a placebo effect -- I continued and will continue to tell clients that it's impossible to feel hungry and nauseous at the same time because it is reasonable to believe and that belief and expectancy will help them skip the nausea, even if it is not a factual statement. My clients are paying for results - not absolute truths...
Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com said:always great to see research....
Love the ideo of the alternaitve visualization.
However, you said " you can't feel two things at the same time"
I think you can.
In fact, clients think all or nothing. Its either pain or comfort. Happy or sad. But you can be sad and happy.
And you can be both in pain and comfortable. The problem is clients only listen to the pain, rather that noting the comfort they also feel.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Ellner on
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FYI -- I have been successful in helping my clients take charge of the cravings by teaching them how they can shift out of the "hot" craving states and back into the cool non-craving states. Moving into these enhanced states automatically reduces their cravings while increasing their conviction to stay on goal. This "state" based approach can be used to help people break a wide range of habits and unwanted behaviors. Imagine how cooool it would be if assiting these clients was as easy as teaching them how to move from hot craving states to cool non-craving states. It really can be that easy...
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi Michael,
I agree. It really can be that easy!
Don
Michael Ellner said:FYI -- I have been successful in helping my clients take charge of the cravings by teaching them how they can shift out of the "hot" craving states and back into the cool non-craving states. Moving into these enhanced states automatically reduces their cravings while increasing their conviction to stay on goal. This "state" based approach can be used to help people break a wide range of habits and unwanted behaviors. Imagine how cooool it would be if assiting these clients was as easy as teaching them how to move from hot craving states to cool non-craving states. It really can be that easy...
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Permalink Reply by Don on
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Hi Folks,
As an aside, I would like to point out that it is not "my" hyperempiria, but it belongs to all of us. Consider:
- MUSIC is an art form, and is the province of the musician.
- SCULPTURE is an art form, and is the province of the sculptor.
- DANCE is an art form, and is the province of the choreographer
- LITERATURE is an art form, and is the province of the writer.
- DRAMA is an art form, and is the province of the dramatist.
- EXPERIENCE is an art form, and is the province of the hypnotist!
While all of the above art forms are intended to exert an influence upon experience ("empiria"), with the exception of the last one, they only do so indirectly.
I refer to this paradigm as hyperempiria in order to emphasize its unique potential. It is only hypnosis which enables us to work with experience directly, for "the facilitation of personal growth, the ennoblement of the human spirit, and the enrichment of human existence."
Don
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Permalink Reply by Susan French on -
Hi guys,
Thank you for your thoughts. I'm not intending to be argumentative but now I'm curious as to whether you can experience two (especially) opposing feelings (sensations and maybe emotions) at the same time or if, as I had thought I had learned, that the differing perceptions alternate in rapid success, so you don't notice it and it "feels" like it's happening at the same time.
A long time ago, when I was dealing with my own severe pain, I thought I had learned that pain is not steady. That it comes in pulses. And that the thinking was to focus on time between the pulses. I thought that's what we do for pain or any sensation or perception?!?
It was that understanding of mine (pain/pulse) that prompted my speculation. As you said, Michael, correctly, that people pay us for results." But I like to understand the mechanics when I can.
@Don, I like your idea that what we are doing is aimed at manipulation of our perception of 'experience."
@Richard, I hear what you're saying about "all or nothing," "black and white" self-defeating thinking, and I agree, but I was talking more about the mechanics of perception.
To quote the "Dear" Leader: "it shall be discussed."
Have great holidays. Talk to you after.
Susan
If you can figure out how to look it up, I'd be very curious. I'll try to do it later, probably day after tomorrow. I wonder if Ron Eslinger would be the one to ask, because of his background as a nurse anesthetist.
Isn't that the basis of our teaching of pain management: that we focus on the preferred and 'tune out' the unwanted?
After Christmas I could ask the brilliant registered physical therapist I know who has a really extensive understanding of pain. I think it was in his office that I read the "pain/pulse" idea.
Anyhow, that was the basis of my understanding. With that idea in mind, what do you think?
Susan
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Permalink Reply by Susan French on
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BTW, here is a quote of a script from the Casebook of Clinical Hypnosis, "Hypnotic Strategies for Somatoform Disorders" by John Chaves:
" ,,, as you find yourself becoming more relaxed...more comfortable...as your comfort increases...notice that you feel limp and relaxed...just like a wet dishrag...as your comfort increases...notice your mind slowing down as well...think about time expanding...as if there more and more time between each second...more time for you to relax..." etc.
????
Susan
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Permalink Reply by Lisa Mangoni on -
I have had some terrific results with a simple swish pattern to tamper cravings. The client reported having that nightly hour or two on the sofa where the refrigerator starts calling be much more comfortable in using this technique. Swish it! is a terrific loop interrupter.
Have a terrific holiday all!!
Lisa Mangoni
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Permalink Reply by Kelley Woods on -
To further support Michael and RIchard's assertion that one can experience multiple, opposing things simultaneously, at some point in my discussion, after reframing from the "pain" word, I often use Melissa Roth's suggestion with a pain client: "Would it be alright for you to be aware of the sensation, but not feel the discomfort of it?" It's a neat little mind bender that pushes past the black or white thinking that many pain clients hold.
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Permalink Reply by Susan French on
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Hi Kelley,
What a great way to approach it. It's respectful. It doesn't demand a response. It's client-centered as has the effect of getting agreement from the client.
Thanks for that. I really like it.
Susan
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Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com on
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Love that too Kelley.
Also I think flexibility is the key.
Great discussion Suan, makes me think/
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