Successful New Years Resolutions
By Debi Livingston, BCH, CI

New Years Resolutions. We've all made them; not many of us have ever accomplished them. Have you ever stopped to wonder why?
There's something exciting about the beginning of the new year; 365 days of fresh, new opportunities for a year we hope will be better than the last. "This is the year starting January 1st., I am really going to lose weight, quit smoking, quit swearing, quit procrastinating, stop yelling at the kids so much. I will find time for myself. I will start exercising. I will be a kinder person. I will organize the garage."
The funny thing is that we truly believe we will succeed in these plans. Maybe for the first one or two days it's actually going okay. Then why don't those resolutions become permanent? Think about this. Our brain didn't come with an owners manual. There wasn't a book that said, "How to use your brain". There probably wasn't anyone teaching you about the amazing power you have, waiting to be unleashed from within you. Growing-up, you were taught what to think and what to feel based upon what was going on in your environment. These thoughts and feelings became the foundation for who and what you believe you are, including habits, both positive and negative.
We all brush our teeth but we don't think about every step in the process. However, that wasn't true when you were being taught about oral hygiene. You had to learn how to get the toothpaste onto the toothbrush. You had to be shown, many times, the correct way of brushing. It was a while before mom felt confident you knew exactly what you were doing. After repeating this process over and over again, a habit was created. The information was shifted from your conscious mind and planted into your subconscious, which is where all habits are stored. Now you brush your teeth without thinking twice about what you're doing. This process works the same way with every habit you now desire to be rid of, from smoking and drinking to overeating and procrastination.
For example, you did not have a habit of smoking when you took the first drag off a cigarette. You had to learn how to smoke and you had to do it again and again and again before you were a smoker. Now that habit of smoking is programmed into your subconscious, including the emotional feelings you get connected with smoking. "I feel relaxed when I smoke. I feel strong when I smoke. I love that cigarette with coffee after a good meal." Now you have feelings connected with the physical act. Your subconscious mind, which also houses the emotions, has been taught to feed you the emotional response you want to experience with each cigarette. See?
Your conscious mind is the mind that reasons and analyzes why things are the way they are, though usually those are not the correct reasons. The conscious mind is also where will power is stored. Will power's function is to give you a temporary boost of mental adrenaline to help you in a situation. It was never meant to create permanent change! Yet it is the conscious mind from which most people declare their New Years resolutions.
Lets say you've been smoking for ten years. The physical habit with its emotional response has made a deep imprint or groove in your subconscious. Now you're saying that on January 1st. you will quit smoking.
Here now, is a conversation between the Conscious and Subconscious Mind:
Conscious Mind: Knock knock.
Did you hear that idea Subconscious Mind? You're going to quit smoking.
Subconscious Mind: (Yawning) Yeah, I heard it.
Conscious Mind: Do you like that idea? Shall I send it in to you?
Subconscious Mind: (Yawning again) Nope, I like smoking. I like the feeling I get with that first inhalation. I love how smoking helps me feel relaxed. I feel like I fit in with all my friends who smoke. You deal with it!
Conscious Mind: Okay, I'll try!
So now you are using your will power not to pick up that cigarette after each meal, on your coffee break, etc. Yet your subconscious mind is still sending you the feelings you are used to feeling in each one of those situations. This is why you "crave" the cigarette. After two or three days battling those cravings, will power says forget about it, and the habit continues. You can apply any habit to the above scenario, including the habit of low self esteem and lack of confidence.
If you've been caught up in negative self-talk for years, then say one positive affirmation "I'm a wonderful person" but you have no emotional feeling to support that statement, your subconscious mind is going to reject that idea instantly! You have to teach yourself how to think and feel differently about yourself and the world which surrounds you. The only way to successfully do that is from within your subconscious mind. This is known as being in 'trance' or 'hypnosis'.
Hypnotists are trained to guide you into your subconscious mind. Hypnotists act as your personal motivational coach, inspiring and enthusing your subconscious mind to want to create those changes. Once in your subconscious mind you can release the feelings connected to the habit you want to end. Now you can picture and feel what it would feel like to be a non-smoker, to truly accept yourself, to easily pass up dessert without feeling like you're missing something. Get the idea? It's a matter of re-training yourself how to think for the positive. You have the power within you to create the lifestyle you truly wish to create, filled with love and health and wealth. All you need to do is empty out the old patterns. The only way to do that successfully is to be in your subconscious mind.
Go into trance while focusing on your New Years resolutions, release blocks preventing you from achieving those goals and imagine how you'd feel if you've already accomplished them! Now you will have the most successful New Years resolutions ever! This time your resolutions will be more than a wish, more than just a hope. You will be empowered from within and confident in knowing that your resolutions are no longer a struggle. And THAT is a space called freedom, and freedom is the essence of life!