Enjoy,

Brenda

Posted: 22 Mar 2011 08:43 AM PDT

You are feeling very slim: Hypnotist who wants to help Met lose weight

Slimming down: Alison Segal lost weight in 11 weeks with Thinking Slim

Tom Harper

Before

24 Jan 2011
Cognitive Hypnotherapist

Trained by Trevor Silvester Registered Hypnotherapist

A Scotland Yard superintendant has discussed hiring a £200-an-hour hypnotist in a bid to tackle obesity levels among police officers.

Superintendent Raj Kohli discussed using “cognitive hypnotherapist”, who describes himself as “Derren Brown without the jazz hands”, about a pilot scheme for 20 fat officers in Camden.

Trevor Silvester, 51, helps people lose weight by lulling them into a trance at his surgery in Harley Street or through recordings that can be listened to on MP3 players as patients fall asleep.

In one part of Mr Silvester’s “Thinking Slimmer” programme, called Lose Those Love Handles, he talks in comforting tones to relax the patient before persuading their “unconscious mind” to stop eating.

About five per cent of Scotland Yard police staff are thought to be overweight, nearly 2,000 officers.

Mr Silvester was a sergeant in the Met for 18 years before retraining as a “cognitive hypnotherapist”. He told the Standard: “There is a concern within the Met about obesity. It’s very difficult to stay fit when you work shift patterns in that kind of environment. They struggle to eat well and take regular exercise.

“Supt Kholi wants to do the hypnotherapy programme. He was blown away by the idea as the Met are on a big health drive at the moment. My methods play on the psychological principle of ‘priming’ which helps people to make better food choices.”

In November 2009, it emerged that 16,000 Scotland Yard officers were offered “fat club” memberships and advised to sign up for a strict fitness regime to get them into shape.

Alison Segal, 38, from Ruislip, claimed she lost 18 pounds in 11 weeks through Mr Silvester’s programme. She said: “I don’t have to worry about what I’m doing during the day, I just find that I have to eat less. I’m not as hungry as I used to be and it’s just changed my life. I don’t need to eat cakes, I just don’t feel the urge for sweet things,

Mr Silvester claimed hypnotherapy is a vital tool in combating the root causes of obesity and warned “quick fix” options such as gastric bands do not solve the problem.

He said: “Gastric bands are madness. If you use them to deal with obesity you are only dealing with the symptoms. The mind needs to be brought into play. It would be much better to buy and listen to one of my clips.”

Mr Kohli, the most senior Sikh officer in the Met, has met Mr Silvester’s business partner Sandra Roycroft-Davis several times to discuss the venture.

A Met spokesman said: “Supt Kohli recently spoke informally with a professional colleague to see if there was any merit in working with the Met. No agreement has been entered into.”

Talking coppers into losing pounds

Excerpt from a 10-minute clip called Lose those Love Handles read by Trevor Silvester:

“Let’s spend a few moments going inside and see how you feel. Let your unconscious begin to do what it does each and every time you listen to my voice. It relaxes you and allows your mind to open … That keeps you at the place you have reached, your body balanced to the way you are happy with. Soon your unconscious recognises you for the shape you are … in the things it has you do, in the food it has you eat … gently noticing day-by-day those small changes in the way you live, how your unconscious mind is keeping this goal in mind, so you don’t have to.

“The habit of you becoming slimmer is becoming permanent. In all the things you do, so that, at the end of the day you might realise with surprise just how these small differences have added up to significant changes in your life … It is all your doing, your choices, your changes. Like a glove your new body fitting the you you are having fun being. And feeling it fit you so comfortably that you will do whatever it takes to keep it. Whatever it takes you have the time to do. And what you are gaining in your life is so more important than what you have lost from your plate.”

For more details on how this approach can help you lose weight and keep it off then contact Brenda Bentley, Cognitive Hypno-Psychotherapist on 01527 853424 or 0794 880 1229 or come along to one of our Think Slim workshops. Visit www.buildingbelief.com for more details.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful and thankful Thanksgiving holiday.

“If you haven’t all the things you want, be grateful for the things you don’t have that you wouldn’t want.” ~Unknown

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~Oprah Winfrey

“How wonderful it would be if we could help our children and grandchildren to learn thanksgiving at an early age. Thanksgiving opens the doors. It changes a child’s personality. A child is resentful, negative—or thankful. Thankful children want to give, they radiate happiness, they draw people.” ~Sir John Templeton

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?” ~William A. Ward

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.” ~Meister Eckhart

“Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” ~Buddha

“The grateful mind is constantly fixed upon the best. Therefore it tends to become the best. It takes the form or character of the best, and will receive the best.” ~Wallace D. Wattles

“The unthankful heart discovers no mercies; but the thankful heart will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings.” ~Henry Ward Beecher

“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say “thank you?” ~William A. Ward

“I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers.” ~Kahlil Gibran

“There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed. If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude.” ~Robert Brault

“The unthankful heart… discovers no mercies; but let the thankful heart sweep through the day and, as the magnet finds the iron, so it will find, in every hour, some heavenly blessings!” ~Henry Ward Beecher

“Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving.” ~W.T. Purkiser

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” ~Albert Schweitzer

“There has never been another you. With no effort on your part you were born to be something very special and set apart. What you are going to do in appreciation of that gift is a decision only you can make.” ~Dan Zadra

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” ~Oprah Winfrey

“Thank God every day when you get up that you have something to do that day which must be done whether you like it or not. Being forced to work and forced to do your best will breed in you temperance and self-control, diligence and strength of will, cheerfulness and content, and a hundred virtues which the idle will never know.” ~Basil Carpenter

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” ~Melody Beattie

“Feeling grateful or appreciative of someone or something in your life actually attracts more of the things that you appreciate and value into your life.” ~Christiane Northrup

“Whatever we think about and thank about we bring about” ~Dr John F Demartini

“If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul.” ~Rabbi Harold Kushner

Even if we take life’s gifts for granted all year long, most of us remember to pause and express our gratitude on Thanksgiving. I encourage you to make sure it doesn’t end there. May the spirit of thankfulness shine through you every day of your life.

This is from Louise L Hay:

Louise L. Hay

From Be Grateful for Every Moment

Let’s spend as many moments as we can every day this month being grateful for all the good that is in our lives. If you have little in your life now, it will increase. If you have an abundant life now, it will increase. This is a win-win situation. You are happy, and the Universe is happy. Gratitude increases your abundance.

Start a gratitude journal. Write something to be grateful about each day. On a daily basis, tell someone how grateful you are for something. Tell sales clerks, waiters, postal workers, employers and employees, friends, family, and perfect strangers. Share the gratitude secret. Let’s help make this a world of grateful, thankful, giving and receiving…for everyone!

Let’s affirm: I look forward to each day. I am grateful for each moment.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Research conducted by mental health charity Mind which were released to coincide with Stress Awareness Week (November 1st – 5th 2010) reveals that millions of workers lie to their bosses about such absences, claiming to have stomach aches or that a relative is ill rather than admitting they were struggling with workplace pressures.

Even though seven out of ten workers would like to discuss work related stress and anxiety with their employers, many are reluctant to make the first move and approach the subject with their supervisors for fear of being thought of as weak.

“If you’re experiencing too much stress in your life, it’s probably making you anxious, irritable and unproductive, affecting your performance at work, your relationships at home, your long term physical and emotional health and, the quality of your life in general. More often, we find that when we cannot cope with the stresses in our life, we turn to things like alcohol or food to help with relieving the stress, which can be unhelpful to us.” says local therapist Brenda Bentley, director of Building Belief Cognitive Hypnotherapy Clinic.

Brenda offers Cognitive Hypnotherapy services which blends psychotherapies such as Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). With over 10 years of experience in therapeutic disciplines, expertise in anxiety based issues, including panic, phobias and stress related concerns. If you would like to chat to Brenda regarding how you can relieve stress in a healthy and productive way, please ring her on 01527 853 424 or mobile 0794 880 1229

Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. – Abraham Lincoln

What does happiness mean to you?

It could mean, pleasant company and interactions with those you care about and that are important to you. It can be in a fleeting moment of serenity when watching a beautiful sunset or in the delight of a shared heartfelt moment with a friend.

Happiness is what most of my clients want when they come to see me… And they have many definitions of what happiness is to them. Mostly, if they didn’t have X any longer (their problem) then they would be happy. But would they?

After considering this on more than one occasion, it was worth taking some time to type up some of my ideas about happiness and what it means.

As a Cognitive Hypnotherapist my job is to teach clients how to be aware of how they are creating their experience of life. Their thoughts and feelings determine their behaviour… and how they can be empowered to make more resourceful choices in what they focus their mind on to get results they want. Which hazards the essential point that happiness is determned more by ones state of mind than by external events.

We’ve all heard the stories of people who win the lottery who after a bit of time, end up worse off or back to the way they were before they enjoyed this unexpected windfall. Or the person who was diagnosed with a life threatening illness, who after the intial period of devestation and coming to terms with their condition, they get more out of each day than they ever did before, feeling happier and more fulfilled as they are grateful for each day.

Success may result in a temporary feeling of elation or tragedy may send us into a period of depression, but sooner or later our overall level of happiness tends to migrate back to a certain baseline. Psychologists call this process adaptation, and we can see how this principle operates in our everyday life; a pay raise, a new car, or recognition from our peers may lift our mood for a while, but we soon return to our customary level of happiness. In the same way, an argument with a friend, a car in the repair shop, or a minor injury may put us in a foul mood, but within a matter of days our spirits rebound.

Now some people confuse pleasure with happiness. True happiness relates more to the mind and the heart. Happiness that depends mainly on physical pleasure is unstable; one day it’s there, the next day it may not be.

In the third century B.C., Epicurus based his system of ethics on the bold assertion that ‘pleasure is the beginning and end of the blessed life.’ In this modern age we are bombarded with consumerism — if I only had that car, that relationship, that house… then I’d be happy. A pursuit of pleasure theory was formulated by Freud late in the 19th century. According the Freud, the fundamental motivating force for the entire human race was the wish to relieve the tension caused by unfulfilled instinctual drives; in other words, our underlying motive is to seek pleasure.

The prime factor in achieving happiness, doesn’t deny our basic physical needs for food, clothing and shelter, but once these basic needs are met, the message is clear: we don’t need more money, we don’t need greater success or fame, we don’t need the perfect body or even the perfect mate — right now, at this very moment, we have a mind, which is all the basic equipment we need to achieve complete happiness.

If you train your mind and cultivate positive mental states like kindness and compassion this will lead to psychological health and happiness. Achieving genuine, lasting happiness requires bringing about a transformation in your outlooks and your way of thinking.

So how do you do this? You will learn a variety of methods to deal with and overcome the varied and complex negative mental states. Change is a process and there’s a price to pay for it. There’s a price to pay for staying the same. If you are experiencing negative results you want to change, but do not feel you can ahieve this on your own, then Cognitive Hypnotherapy can help you to reach those goals by teaching you how to culitvate positive mental states.

If you’d like to chat about this, then please contact me on 0794 880 1229. We can chat and if you decide we can work together we can make an appointment in Harborne, Birmingham; Redditch / Studley or Stratford upon Avon. See details on Appointments.

http://www.youtube.com/v/QGJuMBdaqIw?fs=1&hl=en_GB

Katy Perry \”Firework\”

Overlooking Kalalau Valley from Koke'e State Park, where Nana Veary held retreats to teach Hoʻoponopono

What I have learned over the years is that everything comes from you. Whether this is based on the meanings that you apply to experiences that you have, decisions you make about yourselves and others and within your beliefs, both resourceful and unresourceful ones. But there is more…

If I said to you Ho’oponopono… You’d probably give me a weird look and think you misunderstood what I was saying… That’s okay, it’s a big word and I can hardly pronounce it. What is this weird word? What does it mean? It means everything comes from you. Now, as I said before, this will probably not be a popular idea — it may even be resisted and / or rejected. That’s okay – please read on.

There are many philosophies, religions, spiritual and new age beliefs about personal responsibility — wasn’t it Ghandi who said, “Be the change you want in the world” and Buddha who said, “Peace comes from within, do not seek it without.” Indeed this brings in the idea that we all are on some level connected to one another. We are not separate (but we perceive it that way). Isn’t it true that we cannot survive outside of our environment? That we are all dependent on each other in some way for example, a seed needs soil, water, air, sunlight, bees to pollinate… The flower that comes cannot exist outside of its environment just as we cannot. We rely on a certain balance atmosphere, temperature, gravitational pull…

But what is Ho’oponopono besides what it potentially means? It is an ancient Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness — of ourselves and of others — that part of us that is them and vice versa. When we practice Ho’oponopono we are indeed practising ‘cleaning’ or ‘clearing’ of what’s inside of us — our limited beliefs, our unconscious programmes and all the other ‘junk in our trunk’ or as the Hawaiians call ‘memories’ that go back to the beginning of humankind. “Hoʻoponopono” is defined in the Hawaiian Dictionary as “mental cleansing: family conferences in which relationships were set right through prayer, discussion, confession, repentance, and mutual restitution and forgiveness.” Literally, hoʻo is the equivalent to the English “to”. It creates a verb from the noun pono, which is defined as “goodness, uprightness, morality, moral qualities, correct or proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, welfare, benefit, true condition or nature, duty; moral, fitting, proper, righteous, right, upright, just, virtuous, fair, beneficial, successful, in perfect order, accurate, correct, eased, relieved; should, ought, must, necessary.” Ponopono is defined as “to put to rights; to put in order or shape, correct, revise, adjust, amend, regulate, arrange, rectify, tidy up, make orderly or neat.”

Joe Vitale wrote a book in collaboration with Dr. Len (Ihaleakala Hew Len Ph.D) called Zero Limits which outlines the history, philosophy and practice of this ‘clearing’ technique. I have read this book and listened to many resources about this technique — I also am learning to practice it.

Although, I have only recently begun this practice, I can report that I have experienced an ‘easing’ within myself. Whenever I find myself becoming irritated, frustrated, hurt or downright angry with others, I repeat the mantra: “I’m sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you.” Just by repeating this in my mind I am acknowledging that something in me is in them. Whether this be just my perception of them or my limiting belief about them — it doesn’t matter it all comes from me.

Let me break this down. I’m sorry: This doesn’t mean that ME / I am sorry. Perhaps someone cut me off in traffic or said something hurtful… It means ‘I’m sorry for whatever negative / limited beliefs are inside of me that created this.’ Please forgive me: ‘Again, I am unaware of what unconscious programmes may be creating this in my life, forgiveness for myself is needed.’ Thank you: This is being in an attitude of gratitude, which leaves us open for more things to be thankful for… And finally, I love you: an acceptance and validation of the love you need for yourself (we all want to be loved) and you deserving to be loved — as well as others being loved. For we are all a part of this fabric of life which stitch by stitch, thread by thread… At the very least, you feel better than what you did — change your perspective to being more present, in the now and have the intention to let go of that which doesn’t serve you. And it’s completely free. Try it for yourself — be the change you want in the world.

Because of this, I’ve been inspired to create an audio download which will soon be ready that I will use and I hope you will too.

Please watch this video – I confess, it’s a bit hokey for even me, but it’s the thought that counts, the sentiment is meaningful and the photos are lovely to look at.