Hypnosis can help with positive change. This article will show you how hypnosis raises motivation and replaces bad habits to make change easier.
One of the primary things that leads to successful change is motivation. The stronger your motivation, the easier it is to be successful in changing. However, most people do not realize that there is also motivation for keeping things the same and that the motivation for things to stay the same can be just as strong as the motivation toward positive change. In order to make sure that your motivations to change win out, we must find and work through the motivations to stay the same.
Motivation to Stay the Same
Most people do not realize that they have motivation to stay the samw. If you are a smoker, you might say that you have no motivation to keep smoking. After all, it’s hurting your health, it tastes bad, and you have to go outside at work in winter to smoke. However, your mind has already associated positive things with smoking. Some of these positive things could be relaxation, taking breaks from work and socializing with other smokers. Another motivation for continuing to smoke is that smoking raises the metabolism and can lead to weight loss.
Weight loss is another case of wanting to change and having motivation to stay the same. Of course, you want to lose weight. You will feel better and look better. You will reduce your risk of heart disease and diabetes, meaning that you’ll likely live longer. However, your brain has some wonderful associations with food. Maybe food has meant comfort and relaxation. Maybe your fondest memories of family get-togethers which revolve around the Thanksgiving or Christmas feast. Maybe you always meet your friends on Saturday night for Mexican food and margaritas. These positive associations make it very difficult to stop your habit or promote positive change.
Breaking the Negative Motivation Cycle
In order to make change easier, we need to let these non-motivational thoughts be heard. We need to let the brain work through its reasons for keeping a habit. Just this act of allowing these non-motivational thoughts to be heard can increase the likelihood of change. The more of these motivations to stay the same that we address, the easier change will be. We also need to give the brain something to replace the habit. If we do not, we’re just yanking away a form of comfort or coping. When you are stressed, and do not have a new coping mechanism, it will be more difficult not to go back to your former habit for comfort.
Hypnosis Motivates Positive Change
This is where hypnosis can support your change. Your hypnotherapist will help you to understand your motivations for change, but also help you understand your motivations to stay the same. Once these motivations are understood, we can address them in hypnotherapy. We will also find healthy ways to replace the habit that allows those motivations to still be met. This makes change easier and reduces the anxiety around it.
To reiterate, there are always both positive and negative motivations around change. Hypnosis helps strengthen the positive motivations and remove the negative ones. It also helps with habit replacement, which making long-term change easier. Are you ready to change? If so, contact The Columbus Hypnosis Center, your hypnotherapist is ready to help.
Roseman, I. J. (2017). Transformative Events: Appraisal bases of passion and mixed emotions. Emotion Review, 9(2), 133–139.
The Columbus Hypnosis Center is based in Columbus, Ohio, but serves clients nationwide via internet and phone. Please feel free to Contact Us for more information or to book an appointment.
