Have you ever set a goal to look great by a certain date, to eat less and exercise more, to lose weight, only to discover that a cookie, ice cream, or pizza looked, smelled and felt really good? I know I have been in that situation countless times.

 

Perhaps without realizing it, at that instant a decision was made in our brain, without us consciously knowing it because it happens so fast! The decision has a lot to do with value. What do we value more, the great look and the feeling of success, or the pleasure derived from the consumption of junk food?

 

Over many years advertisers discovered that value assignment could be influenced by, well, advertisement. Yes, we all have been subjected to a disguised form of hypnosis, without our consent, authorization, or desire to be hypnotized. And it has worked well for those who sell junk food... they have made billions of dollars, but we as a nation are fatter than ever.

 

So, an emotional state of selective and focused attention, coupled with repeated suggestion, advertising in other words, can cause us to value junk food over and above our own well-being. But the same definition that applies to advertising also applies to professional hypnosis.

 

Hypnotists have known for years how to help their clients into the hypnotic state and through hypnotic suggestion, help them value their well-being over and above the manipulation exerted by advertisers. This works well for true and permanent weight loss, for smoke cessation, and other purposes as well.

The next time we are faced with something that is not good for us, such as a chocolate desert, our brain instantly assigns a lower value to it than it does to our future well being.

 

You see, its all a matter of value. If we find it more valuable to experience the immediate pleasure we think the desert will bring us we eat it; on the other hand, if we assign more value to looking great and healthy in the future we reject the desert and feel great about it. The key to getting it right is to realize that this process has been pre-programmed for us, until now.

 

Now modern science has demonstrated what hypnotists have known for years. In an article published on July 24, 2013 in the prestigious journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, Drs. Ludwig et. al. have demonstrated that post-hypnotic suggestion can indeed cause us to actually value and choose what we want to choose for ourselves, not what's best for advertisers. Interestingly, the scientists demonstrated that the use of professional hypnosis causes an increase in oxygenated blood flow to the precuneus, a part of the brain involved in these rapid decisions, when faced with value decisions.

Dr. Ludwig and colleagues, from the Division of Mind and Brain Research, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité University in Berlin, Germany, emphatically conclude their scholarly article saying: Our results demonstrate that posthypnotic suggestions can influence valuation and decision-making.

 

Many congratulations to these brilliant scientists working close to where Dr. Anton Mesmer was born and brought to the world the possibility of a better life.

 

Be well, and choose what you ultimately want.