Suggestion for Self Hypnosis: NEWSLETTER ISSUE 3, ARTICLE 3

Suggestion for Self Hypnosis
Following on from last month’s article on self hypnosis, for those that have been practising here is a short guide to taking the self hypnosis work a step further. Continuing the self hypnosis as last month from steps one to five but this time imagine that you are walking down the steps into a large bath of water. See the water beginning at step five and as you continue slowly down the last five steps feel yourself stepping into the warm, pure water. See the water as cleansing and beautiful. Feel the water as it tickles your feet, ankles and eventually your calves.
Slowly lower yourself into the water. If you are confident in water see the water come up to your shoulders. You can stand but also float or swim if you wish. If you do not feel confident in water see the water the same depth as a bath. You can float nicely and feel calm and content.
You may have already decided what it is you want to work on. If you haven’t just allow your subconscious mind to go wherever it needs to go. See three boxes under the water. Depending on the depth of the water you can either swim to the boxes or gently reach down and collect them. Open the boxes slowly, one at a time. Narrate to yourself what is happening as you open the box.
Avoid using statements that are negative, make sure everything you say is positive. “As I open the box I feel a calming blue light engulfing me, this light is becoming a part of me enabling me to have a peaceful night’s sleep every night. Every morning I will wake feeling refreshed, happy and positive about my day”. “As I open the box a big invisible bubble surrounds me, this bubble is going to bring me confidence so that I can feel strong in any situation I want to”. “As I open the box a little yellow ball jumps out, this little yellow ball will flash before my eyes every time I go to eat something that is not good for my body, the more I see the yellow ball the quicker I am to reaching my target weight”. “As I open the box an image of me at my ideal weight, looking exactly the way I want to look pops out. I stare at the image; I watch that part of me, knowing that I can look the way I want to look. I step into the reflection of me and we become one. Every day in every way I am getting closer and closer to this reflection of myself”.
Repeat your statement to yourself as many times as you wish. Two to three times should be enough. If you are visualising something such as a reflection of yourself looking the way you want to look really look at what is around you. Study yourself. Are you smiling or frowning? Is the sun shining or is it raining? What can you smell? What can you taste? Are there any noises? What or who is in the background? Spend a few minutes really looking around at everything. Sometimes we only see what it is we are looking for, it is important to notice everything else also.
When you have finished opening your boxes and you are ready to continue your day bring yourself out of self hypnosis as instructed in last month’s newsletter.

Twitter and its place in 2010: NEWSLETTER ISSUE 3, ARTICLE 2

Twitter and its place in 2010
Ten years ago if I’d have said I was going out for the evening to meet people that I had “met” in a Yahoo chat room the majority of people would look at me as if I was absolutely mad. However today I can proudly say that on the 25 March I am going to a Twestival. I know that most reading this probably will be thinking right now,
ok she is a F R E A K
but let me explain further.
A Twestival (or Twitter Festival) is a global series of events organised by volunteers around the world under short timescales which bring people offline for a great cause. Twestival began in September 2008 when a group of London Twitter users hosted an event called Harvest Twestival to raise money and collect food for a local charity known as The Connection. The event was intended for 30 – 40 people but on the day there was a waiting list and 250 attendees. On 8 January 2009 the first Twestival Global tweet went out and a month later 202 cities around the world hosted events to raise money for charity water projects.
Twestival 2010 will be held on 25 March. This year all of the money raised will go to Concern Worldwide. So now it’s a little more interesting but still I hear you thinking
but it’s still an event at which you are going to meet a load of people from the internet and more to the point what are you doing on Twitter anyway?!
Over the past few months I have enjoyed using Twitter for business and social purposes. I have to be completely honest and say that I first found Twitter because of the race between Ashton Kutcher and CNN to get one million followers. I was nosy, so I signed up! I soon started to realise that there are a lot of entrepreneurs tweeting. Duncan Bannatyne is a big tweeter as are Peter Jones and James Caan. A lot of celebrities tweet, Jonathan Ross, Chris Evans, Matthew Horne, the list goes on. What I realised is that all of these people are simply promoting themselves. We watch these people as they answer questions on GMTV or The One Show and sometimes forget that they are not doing this for the benefit of the show or us. I knew if I wanted to move with the times I needed to start promoting myself on Twitter.
First step, get some local people following me. If I have local people following me; when they need a Hypnotherapist they will come and see me, if a friend mentions they want to lose weight or quit smoking they may say “I know a hypnotherapist who can help with that”. So this is what I did. As I started to get involved in the Twitter conversations between local people I was pleasantly surprised at what a huge networking tool Twitter is. I soon found out about a Surrey Tweet Up, which was conveniently held in my local Slug and Lettuce. Again I can see you all thinking...
The freak is back!
I wasn’t totally sure but the fact it was being held in a Slug and Lettuce seemed to make it that little bit less geeky! The event was hosted by a local PR Agency @thebluedoor , their bio: “thebluedoor is a specialist external communications agency, with a passion for PR done well. “ And sponsored by @ranjerj aka Julian Ranger, his bio reads “Career 2 as an Angel Investor and serial entrepreneur”. For them this was just another way to promote themselves. For me it meant a good night out, meeting new people, promoting myself and free drinks. Whoever thought that when I left the ‘great big City job’ I would still get free nights out?! There was a slight structure to the evening, Julian as a plus point of sponsoring the evening got to speak for a little while – his chosen topic was along the lines of social media and how our information is lost soon after we write it (along with a new Twitter app that he has invested in which will help with this problem), very apt! Then chat and get merry!
I met some great people at the Tweet Up, some who were also there to promote their businesses others who just use Twitter for fun but it really was an interesting and entertaining evening.
Now I am looking forward to another great evening at the Surrey Twestival. It is being held in Farnham Castle, sponsored by Mars Drinks (which means we certainly won’t be short of chocolate on the night) along with ibundle (Julian Ranger’s company, investing in ideas) and raffle.it – definitely worth a look at for those who like winning (http://raffle.it/). Of course the participant list is online so I have been able to see who is attending; there are some very interesting people who I look forward to meeting and telling all about my work and some others who I have already met that I know promote me to others. I will enjoy having a drink or three with those I already know and a sensible conversation with those I don’t. It’s going to be a good night for business and pleasure. They say the two don’t mix but according to the rules of Twitter Etiquette, on Twitter they have to as you sell your business and yourself with your interesting tweets (which cannot all be work related)!
It seems to me that social media is becoming more and more popular. There are many businesses using Twitter and more recently Facebook Fan Pages to promote their work. We all know that things change as time moves on and technology is certainly advancing faster than ever before. However ‘sad’ or ‘unchic’ it seems it’s only those moving with the times that are going to advance at the same pace. In the words of Mike Elgan:
“The fact is that Twitter can be a breaking news resource, a celebrity gossip site, a business workgroup communication tool, a personal diary, a way to track packages or thousands of other things. It's whatever you want it to be.”
If you are already on Twitter please follow me @jhhypnotherapy. If not some interesting people to follow are @dragonjones, @duncanbannatyne, @timlovejoy, @wossy, @achrisevans. Last but definitely not least – yes I have got some clients through Twitter!

The HypnoGastricBand: NEWSLETTER ISSUE 3, ARTICLE 1

The HypnoGastricBand
Sometimes when I am at networking events I mention my HypnoGastricBand process and people laugh. However the silence prevails as they realise the seriousness of the issue when I tell people that one of my most recent clients had actually been referred, by her doctor for a real Gastric Band. In England today about 46% of men and 32% of women are overweight whilst an additional 17% of men and 21% of women are obese. These statistics are increasing dramatically. The percentage of adults that are obese has roughly doubled since the mid 1980s. The Government have even gone so far as to encourage fish and chip shops to make fatter chips as they contain less calories and fat than the thinner version!
A Gastric Band operation is performed laparoscopically and can involve complications, as with all surgery. Between 5 – 10% of patients will require a second operation. The cost is astronomical – as much as £5000 at some clinics and it doesn’t always work! The purpose of the gastric band is to make one feel full more quickly. The stomach is restricted by the band so that less needs to be eaten to fill the stomach. Now please excuse me if I am wrong here but I do not think obese people are overweight because they are hungrier than anyone else. It’s because they think about food in the wrong way. Many of us do not stop eating when we are full, we continue because we are enjoying the food or to mask another feeling. We eat sweets, chocolate, crisps or biscuits as snacks. Again, not because we are hungry but because we are bored, fed up or something similar. So to simply create something that just makes a person feel full quicker than normal seems to be lacking somewhat. Please don’t get me wrong I am sure in a lot of cases it works wonders but what I mean is that these people need more than to just feel full. The whole relationship with food needs to be changed; they need to address the real feelings so that they can recognise when they are eating because they are hungry and when they are eating to mask a feeling. Once this has been recognised the feelings can be dealt with as they should and they can begin to eat for the right reasons.
Being overweight can affect us physically and psychologically. I always ask my weight loss clients “what is the biggest problem being overweight causes”. The answer is never anything to do with health but always something along the lines of not being able to go into a clothes shop and buy anything they want. This explains part of the problem with overeating. Many people that are overweight get so depressed with the way they look, they eat to make themselves feel better. This immediately creates that vicious circle that is so common with many problems.
My HypnoGastricBand process involves a lot of work to remove any psychological attachments to food. We also do a lot of work to help people to love themselves again. The HypnoGastricBand process is a five session program. The first two sessions involve regression work. This is where the qualified hypnotherapist uses a process known as Hypno Analysis to try and find the reasons for the overeating. It may be something as simple as when a child we were given food to stop us from crying. Immediately in this situation the brain begins to form a relationship between the feeling of resolve and food. As adults we will subconsciously head for the fridge when feeling sad/angry/lonely or whatever it was we were feeling all of those years ago when crying. Or it could be a lot more complex.
The third session in the process is the ‘consultation at the clinic’. In hypnosis the hypnotherapist will take you through this scene. Here your subconscious mind will begin to believe that you will be having the gastric band fitted on the agreed date. This is what would happen if you were really having a gastric band fitted so we make sure the process ties in nicely with this. At the fourth session the hypnotherapist will take the client, in hypnosis, through the ‘gastric band operation’. The hypnosis script was written exactly as a gastric band operation is performed. We have real theatre (surgical) noises playing in the background and the client is encouraged to really focus on the sights, sounds, smells etc that would really be there if the operation was happening for real. Parts of the script are personalised to the individual client but the operation specifics stay the same.
The final session is an open session. This is there for the client to use as they wish. If the eating has changed and they are doing really well they could have a session to ‘remove the gastric band’. If the client feels they need a top up we could have a session that involves ‘tightening the gastric band’. If neither of these is necessary then the client can just come for an hour of relaxation or to address any other issues that they may feel are preventing them from moving forward.
Each client gets a MP3 player with personalised weight loss suggestions on to listen to at home and also a session with a nutritionist is included in the price of the process. The reason for the MP3 player is because sometimes clients feel that they will benefit further by having a regular top up session. It’s much more economical to do this via a recording that they can listen to whenever it’s convenient than having to book another appointment with their hypnotherapist. The session with the nutritionist is very important. Although I can advise my clients on better eating habits I am not qualified to do so. I also know that every person is different and there is a diet that is suitable for some of us but not others. This is something the nutritionist can advise on.
The best thing about this process is that it really does work. The HypnoGastricBand was born when I wrote the script for a client almost a year ago. Since then my colleague Sue and I have developed that into the process I have just described. We now have twelve practitioners across the country using our program and seeing results just like we are. If you feel that you are over eating and your weight is becoming something that affects you health wise or maybe you just want to be able to go back into your favourite clothes shop and buy all of the clothes you love please see my HypnoGastricBand website for further information. If you know someone who may be affected in this way simply forward them this newsletter!

SELF HYPNOSIS: NEWSLETTER ISSUE 2, ARTICLE 3

Self hypnosis is something that is a really useful tool. I hope that my newsletters are starting to teach people why relaxation is so important. Just a short burst of self hypnosis can help you with many aspects of your life. Follow these simple instructions and start noticing the benefits today!

1. Take yourself somewhere quiet and comfortable. You could lie down on your bed, your sofa or if you fear you may fall asleep sit somewhere snug. Make sure you are not going to be disturbed, turn off your phone and ask others not to disturb you.
2. Close your eyes and try to rid your mind of any feelings of fear, anxiety or stress. If thoughts pop into your mind just allow them to stay for as long as they need then slowly let them disappear.
3. Begin to focus on your breathing making sure you are taking deep breaths in and then exhaling fully. You could try 7 – 11 breathing. Breathing in for a count of 7 and out for a count of 11. Begin to visualise breathing out tension and anxiety and breathing in calm and relaxation.
4. Start recognising the tension in your body. Start with either your head or toes. See the tension in the area. Allow it to float away with the next out breath. See the area calm, relaxed, lighter and lighter. If you are a visual person you may like to imagine a healing light around you that you suck into your body, see it swirling around calming each area it travels through but remember to see that tension leaving with every out breath. Move on to the next part of your body once the area you are focusing on has relaxed. From your head down or your toes up. With each breath feel yourself sinking deeper and deeper into the surface beneath you.
5. Once you have relaxed your entire body see yourself at the top of a 10 step staircase. Slowly walk down the stairs in your mind, relaxing more and more deeply as you step down each stair. Really see each step and feel more and more relaxed as you go further down. Counting down from 10 – 1 as you go.
6. Once you have reached the bottom allow the visualisation of the stairs to simply drift away. See yourself in your favourite place. This could be lying in the middle of a football pitch or relaxing on a beach. Just allow yourself to remain in that place for as long as feels comfortable.
7. When you are ready and you feel that it is the right time to continue the rest of your day simply get the image of the staircase back in your mind. Slowly and steadily walk back up the stairs in your mind, feeling more and more awake with each step that you take. Count up the stairs from 1 – 10. When you reach 8 say to yourself at the count of 10 you are going to open your eyes feeling fully refreshed and invigorated. On the count of 10 open your eyes. Take some time to appreciate the feeling, when you are ready get up and continue with your day.

For those that want to use this practise it regularly and next month I will add in some work that you can do for specific problems. It is important to practise though as self hypnosis is a learnt skill.

WHY HYPNOSIS IS ABOUT TAKING CONTROL NOT LOSING IT: NEWSLETTER ISSUE 2, ARTICLE 2

Why Hypnosis is about TAKING control, not losing it – using your own mind to control your own body.

Many people believe that when under hypnosis one loses control. The reason for this common view is simply a lack of knowledge and an abundance of stage hypnosis. Almost everyone has seen a stage hypnosis show on television or in a pub. These shows give the impression that the hypnotist has control of his subjects. Many news articles also give this point of view. This is however not correct. The subjects in a stage hypnosis show are in full control of their actions. There are various reasons why they do what they are asked but control is not one of them.

Hypnosis is in fact about taking back control. Many people see a hypnotherapist to learn how to take back control of their life. Other people are able to do this themselves and some do not even realise they have an opportunity to do so!

Weight loss is a massive issue in our country today. Almost everyone you speak to is trying to lose weight or at least ‘watching their weight’. Many of my clients are seeing me for weight loss; often they think that I am going to put a magic spell into their head that will make them suddenly slimmer. Unfortunately it is not quite as simple as that. My job is initially to help find the reasons for the over eating and then teach my client how to take back control of their body and mind. When we over eat it is due to a lack of control. For lots of people, no matter how much they know they should not eat whatever is in front of them they cannot stop themselves. Taking back that control of your mind and body means that you can stop yourself.

A study has been conducted to show that only 1 in 5 gym members use the gym at least twice a week, what is the reason many people cannot get the motivation to go to the gym? Again - a lack of control in their own mind and body. As you learn how to take back that control you can use the power of your mind to motivate yourself to exercise more often. More exercise and good healthy foods, less of the bad stuff or just less in general can only result in one thing... you goddit!

I also see a lot of people experiencing panic attacks. Panic attacks are not a result of an actual fear but a fear of the fear itself, the physical manifestations of high anxiety. It may begin with you going into a shopping centre and getting lost. You panic and feel terrified. The next time you go to the shopping centre as soon as you walk in you have a panic attack. The memories of the last time you were in this place cause your subconscious mind to feel panic and your heart starts to beat fast, you sweat, shake etc. A week later you need to go to the shopping centre again. In the days running up to this you begin to worry that you will have a panic attack again. This worry starts the heart racing and before you know it you’re having another panic attack. The thought of getting lost is gone. The fear is now all about the panic attacks. You begin to become someone that “suffers from panic attacks”, every time you have to go out you start to worry that you will have a panic attack. Although this can be quite a long process, before long you stop going out unless you have to, simply because you are afraid that if you do you will have a panic attack. Another perfect example of a lack of control.

If I had a client experiencing this I would initially take them back to the first panic attack and try to find out the reason that they panicked so extremely in the first place. I would help them to realise that there was no need for the panic. They were in a safe place, there would have been many information points in the area to ask for guidance and they had their mobile phone with them so they could have called a friend to ask if they know where the exit is. It could have been that the reason for the panic is a childhood experience, I will explain later, but I use hypnosis to find the reason. Once understood and reframed the brain no longer looks to the previous experience to know how to react. I then teach the client tools to take back the control, they can learn how to slow their heart beat down, they can learn how to stop shaking and sweating they just need to learn how to use their own mind to control their own body.

Does that mean that hypnotherapy is only about learning how to take control?
No it is much more in depth than that. As I explained in my January newsletter (please see my blog if you did not receive this) in hypnosis we can clear the subconscious mind of any emotions that may be affecting our day to day behaviour. Ordinarily to try and change something about ourselves we must use will power, to quit smoking for example or to keep up an exercise program. Will power is a product of the conscious mind. Although the conscious mind likes to think that it is in control it is really our subconscious mind with all of its past experiences that is controlling our behaviour. Every thought we have has an impact on us, negative or positive. No matter how much conscious effort we put into changing our habits the subconscious mind floods the body with messages that have been ingrained for years. So, in a normal hypnotherapy session I would use a technique known as hypno-analysis to reach the reasons that cause us to do the opposite from what we really want to do whilst at the same time teach you a large variety of techniques to help you deal with the problem symptom until it disappears forever.

I recently had a client, for the purposes of this we will call her Jenny. Jenny had recently started having panic attacks at 50 years of age. Jenny had always suffered from claustrophobia and although the panic attacks were not happening in claustrophobic situations they were giving the same feeling. Using hypno-analysis we went through a series of childhood memories in which Jenny felt that same feeling. It was always in the dark but not necessarily in confined spaces. The recent panic attacks were always happening at night, in the dark. Finally Jenny came to a memory of being 2/3 years old and playing in the garden shed. She then remembered getting stuck under a table, it was dark and confined. I asked Jenny if she felt the same feeling then but she said no. What she did feel however was extreme fear that she would be told off for playing in the shed. In the memory she could hear her parents calling her but was too terrified to emerge. Of course when she was found they were just happy, they had also been terrified that she had fallen in the pond. From that day on Jenny’s brain linked dark confined spaces with sheer terror and panic. Whenever she was in a place that resembled the space under the table she would feel afraid. Unfortunately this then grew into the panic attacks that she had started experiencing. Understanding why she was feeling like this and reframing it has allowed Jenny to take control of the panic attacks and no longer experience them.
Although I haven’t specified here why someone is not out of control when in hypnosis, it is interesting to note that medical professionals have determined that when a person is in a state of hypnosis they actually have more control over their mind and body that when not in hypnosis.

If you’re expecting black capes and fancy magician words that will make you do things against your will, you’ll be sadly disappointed. Hypnosis is a legitimate practice that is recognised by medical forums everywhere, and is a safe and healthy alternative treatment. Start asking around, I bet you know someone that has experienced hypnotherapy and will tell you how they now know how to use their own mind to control their own body.

One good way to begin to take control of your mind and body is to start saying I feel instead of I am. I feel stressed; I feel tired; I feel sad. YOU are not stressed; YOU are not tired; YOU are not sad. These things are just feelings that you may be experiencing. As soon as we let these things take over us we begin to lose control of ourselves.

HOW STRESS AFFECTS US: NEWSLETTER ISSUE 2, ARTICLE 1

How stress affects us

Stress is a normal physical response to events that make you feel threatened or upset your balance in some way. When you sense danger – whether it’s real or imagined – the body's defences kick into high gear in a rapid, automatic process known as the “fight-or-flight” response.

The fight-or-flight response was first described by Walter Cannon in 1929 so this goes back a long way. Doctors now call the body’s reaction to stress the General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS). There are three stages to the GAS, Cannon’s theory describes the first stage. He stated that animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, priming the animal for fighting or fleeing.

Normally, when a person is in a serene, unstimulated state, the "firing" of neurons in the locus coeruleus, a nucleus in the brain stem involved with physiological responses to stress and panic is minimal.

When we sense danger or we sense an environmental stressor, now it’s important to note here this could include just a perception of danger, we relay the information from the sensory cortex of the brain through the hypothalamus to the brainstem.
Now the brain stem is very important as, though small it is through the brain stem that the nerve connections of the motor and sensory systems from the main part of the brain pass through to the rest of the body. So at this point the muscles tense, the heart beats faster, the breathing and perspiration increases, the eyes dilate and the stomach may clench. All of these things are actually done to keep us safe from the danger we sense, however this is just the beginning, just a very small amount of stress can affect the body quite dramatically.

Now the previous signalling process immediately increases the rate of noradrenergic activity in the locus coeruleus, and we become alert and attentive to the environment. We begin to produce epinephrine (adrenaline). Along with epinephrine, nor epinephrine also underlies the fight-or-flight response. As a stress hormone nor epinephrine affects parts of the brain where attention and responding actions are controlled, directly increasing heart rate, triggering the release of glucose from energy stores, and increasing blood flow to skeletal muscle.

The stress response is the body’s way of protecting you. When working properly, it helps you stay focused, energetic, and alert. Now for a moment imagine you are an antelope in the South African wilderness. Suddenly you look up and sense the presence of a huge lion. Now this antelope doesn’t think like you and I. He doesn’t say “hmm I sense a Lion I must get out my gun and shoot him dead”. No what happens is the fight or flight response kicks in. All of the actions I have described start to happen and the antelope does whatever he has to do to save himself. All of the things previously described would help this antelope.

As a human, in emergency situations, stress can save your life – giving you extra strength to defend yourself, for example, or spurring you to slam on the brakes to avoid an accident.

The stress response also helps you rise to meet challenges. Stress is what keeps you on your toes during a presentation at work, sharpens your concentration when you’re attempting the game-winning kick, or drives you to study for an exam when you'd rather be watching TV.

However as intelligent human beings we sometimes become stressed over things that we do not need to. Beyond a certain point, stress stops being helpful and starts causing major damage to our health, our mood, our productivity, relationships, and our quality of life.

Long-term exposure to stress can lead to serious health problems. Chronic stress disrupts nearly every system in your body. It can raise blood pressure, suppress the immune system, increase the risk of heart attack and stroke, speed up the aging process and of course contribute to infertility. Long-term stress can even rewire the brain, leaving you more vulnerable to anxiety and depression.

The body doesn’t distinguish between physical and psychological threats. When you’re stressed over a busy schedule, an argument with a friend, a traffic jam, or a mountain of bills, your body reacts just as strongly as if you were facing a life-or-death situation. If you have a lot of responsibilities and worries, your emergency stress response may be “on” most of the time. The more your body’s stress system is activated, the easier it is to trip and the harder it is to shut off.

With the release of “emergency” hormones throughout the body, the body is on alarm, and energy is directed toward the areas needed for actual “fight” or “flight” such as the arms and legs, and away from areas the brain considers less important. Once a chronic imbalance of the autonomic nervous system is created, only the regular and consistent practice of relaxation will facilitate the restoration of the parasympathetic nervous system.

Hypnotherapy provides an effective means of establishing that restoration.

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS: NEWSLETTER ISSUE 1 ARTICLE 3

Is a New Year’s Resolution “Something that goes in one year and out the other.” Oscar Wilde

The idea of New Year Resolutions goes all the way back to 153BC when Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar. Janus had two faces, one that could look back on the past year and the other that looked forward towards the New Year.

It was believed that Janus could forgive transgressions so many Romans would give gifts and make promises at the beginning of the new calendar year. Their belief was that Janus would see this and then bless their life for the entire year. Between 153BC and 46BD the official date of the New Year switched between January and March many times. In 46BC Julius Caesar changed the calendar for the final time to align it with the seasons. He made 1st January the official New Year Day. A legend began that on the last day of December at midnight Janus could see the past year and the coming year at the same time. Romans began making promises to Janus on the last day of December in the hopes that he would see their sincerity and help them attain their goals.

After the Roman Empire dissolved middle age Christians tried to remove the Roman traditions and make 25th December the beginning of the New Year however in the sixteenth century Pope Gregory XIII revised the calendar bringing the New Year back to 1st January and with it all previous traditions of New Year Resolutions but without Janus.

Statistics show that nearly 97% of resolutions are not kept. Why?

Learn how to keep your resolutions
Some of us make resolutions that are just not possible. It is always important to make sure that any resolutions made are attainable. Decide that you will join a gym and go once a week. As the habit of going once a week kicks in you can step up the pace and begin going twice a week. Eventually you may be able to increase this to three times a week maybe four. It is not easy to begin a new routine therefore trying to add something in to your day every day will be difficult and hard to stick at. Once a week is much easier.

Get help with sticking to your resolution. Becoming a non smoker involves a lot of willpower. Have some hypnotherapy to remove the need for willpower. Losing weight is not always easy if you have some psychological blockers. Have a few hypnotherapy sessions can remove the emotional attachment with food allowing you to eat a healthy diet naturally. Take this action as soon as you decide on the resolution. Putting things off could result in them not happening.

Be specific about your goals. HOW MUCH weight do you want to lose? HOW MANY new leads do you want to get at work? WHEN will you achieve this? HOW will you achieve this? You must have a written plan to achieve these goals.

Within your written plan set yourself targets and reward yourself when you have reached them. For example:

Goal: Lose three stone this year
Target: Lose five pounds by the end of January
Reward: A massage

OR
Goal: Save £5000 this year
Target: Save £1000 by the end of March
Reward: £50 to spend on a new item of clothing

You can also reward yourself by finding a positive substitute for the old habit, for example if you are now a non smoker substitute cigarettes for a healthy snack that you really like. If you ever have a craving for a cigarette, eat your healthy snack instead. This helps you to take your mind off the old habit and rewards you for not reverting back.