It is about the time when most New Year’s resolutions begin to wane, and the self-critic occupies residence in your mental space. It may feel like a pervasive battle of two competing parts inside your head - the healthy and caring adult part that wants to live your best life versus the rebellious child part that wants to sleep in and eat girl scout cookies. This cognitive dissonance can be exhausting as we all struggle to arm the adult part with all of the “ammunition” it needs to win the battle this time!

The problem enters when the “ammunition” only includes external resources such as a schedule, a meal plan, a trainer, supplements, a journal, a peloton, and that new book that holds the secret to finally reaching your goal. All of these things are incredibly helpful and can increase the likelihood of success. However, the one huge part that is not factored into the plan is the use of one’s subconscious mind. While it appears that there is an inner rebel part that shows up uninvited to ruin your party and strip you of your motivation, this rebel is actually made up of early life experiences (stored in your subconscious as beliefs) that you normally don’t have access to in your everyday life. It is estimated that we only have access to 10% of our mind that is conscious, and the rest of the 90% of our mind is subconscious and therefore out of our awareness. The subconscious contains our habits, motivations, beliefs, life experiences, skills, instinctual desires, fears, and a subjective map of one’s reality. So, if you have a goal of eating healthy and integrating exercise into your week, but you have an unconscious belief that you don’t deserve it, or that it isn’t safe to attract attention, or that you have often felt powerless in early childhood years, those feelings and beliefs will battle and often overpower the desire to be healthy.

There are ways to access unconscious beliefs, and they all involve slowing down while being introspective. The best way to access the beliefs that are carried inside your subconscious is by hypnosis and meditation. Both of these practices involve slowing down brain wave activity. As a result, the prefrontal cortex, better known as the analytic and problem-solving part of the brain, gets out of the way and grants individuals access to subconscious messages one may have received regarding food, self-soothing, control, safety, and self-efficacy. By accessing this inner programming, one can learn to challenge and heal oneself internally. As the Buddha said, “Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.” When we commit to healing our inner self, the outer self will follow.

I have been practicing hypnosis and hypnotherapy for over 15 years and offer various individual and small group hypnosis programs and workshops, including smoking and weight management products. For more information about my new monthly Hypnosis for Weight Management Small Group Workshops (offered both in-person and virtually), please visit www.delraypsych.com/events. Alexandria Stylebook readers receive an exclusive 10 percent discount on this workshop with code STYLEBOOK.