Ready for 2004.....or Not?

Ready for 2004..........or Not?Elizabeth Bohorquez, RN, C.Ht

New Year's Resolution time is right around the corner. Mostof us repeat resolutions & often decide they are simply un-attainable. Why this inability to change such important be-haviors that threaten our health? The keys below may open some doors for you. Why not make this year the last year for repeated resolutions?

KEY: I
If you want to change, you must begin to think differently.It's not enough to daydream a resolution . The road to permanent lifestyle change takes time & a special kind of planning & execution. Pre-resolution work includes having a solid look at past failures & locating facets of the resolution that need revamping. The willingness to observe& work with past failures is key to success. In addition, it's time to grow-up, wake up to truth & move out of un-realistic expectations.

Meet Sue, a successful, but burned out executive who broughther resolution daydream to my practice. "If I lose weight,my life will balance. I'll be completely happy & never complain again! However, I've never been able to lose weight & keep it off & so I guess I need some magic! Per-haps I shouldn't do this before the holidays or while I haveso much stress in my life." It's easy to see that Sue is already lost in mind confusion, has no plan & has even pro-grammed herself for failure before beginning.

KEY: II
Sue looks for magic, but heightened awareness is the route to success. Magic erodes her personal power. Her mode of travel needs change, as well as her power of observation. She needs to train her mind to notice the unfolding momentsof her day, what works & what doesn't. These are small resolution facets including thoughts emotions & actions. As they are brought to awareness, stress is released & the facets are ready for editing change. These then become new mind etchings, the beginning of new patterns, that will en-hance Sue's ability to succeed.

KEY: III
It is imperative to uncover the auto-pilot programs. This is a matter of becoming expert at self-observation. As Suelearns to pay attention to her body communications, emotional patterns & resistances she will spot these, as well as other levels of her patterns that may have gone un-noticed for years. Once spotted, she can work to reprogramthese with those that benefit the resolution. On auto-pilot, Sue is out of the editing-game. Her heightened awareness is blocked & she can't spot the facets. She is blinded & may trip instead of skip on the stones that line her path. The chances that she will fall & not get up are very high. She might appear next year with her weight lossresolution, but this time more heavily etched for failure.

KEY: IV
The practice of heightened awareness, also known as mindful-ness is vital to both stress management & achievement. Adding Interactive Self-Hypnosis helps to position images that assist the mind in waking up in specific moments. As Sue learns to apply this practice to the facets of her resolution, she will notice that she is awakened to other moments that have connections she might have missed, es-pecially stress-related ones.

The actual practice tools are very simple, their power sit-ting in this simplicity. Sue learns to purposefully ex-perience inner stillness, fractionated throughout her day. She comes to know stillness as separate from mind chatter. As her mind wanders, Sue brings her attention back to the sensation of stillness or the goal at hand. She comes to understand that her thoughts are mind programs that are presented by her emotions & as she isolates these she can examine the contents further, simply by request to her sub-conscious librarian. As Sue goes throughout her day, she begins to notice the playing of thoughts & emotions as they apply to her resolution facets. As she contains these in her consciousness, she is free to edit, as they were caughtin a mindful moment.

It's important to know that there are many health benefits to this practice of awareness coupled with interactive self-hypnosis. When are thoughts are predominating the awake state, the brain waves are going very fast, producing a large quantity of stress chemicals. These chemicals are responsible for making important changes in the body, oftendisrupting important systems, such as blood pressure, heartrate, metabolism, blood sugar levels, gastro-intestinal functioning including digestion, endocrine function & that of the neurological system. During the practice of frac-tionated stillness, the brain waves & stress hormone pro-ductions slow down, bringing homeostasis or balance back tothe body & mind. The mind is now free for the programming of healthy active imagery.

Sue is learning to wake-up to her emotional & thoughts thatmake her life patterns & resolution facets. As she works tocouple awareness with "Interactive-Editing Imagery" she removes herself from her failure mode & utilizes this momentto transition to one of success.