Dangers of Reading

I've been reading another book on hypnosis lately.  The author has a lot right in the book and some things incorrect.  Since I have been trained at Omni it isn't a problem to correct as I read.  As an example, let's say you are writing a suggestion for yourself to use in self hypnosis. You want to stop eating ice cream, so you write, "I will not eat ice cream."  The problem is that when you are speaking to the subconscious mind, that mind tends to drop the word not.  So your suggestion becomes, "I will eat ice cream."  So, the suggestions must be stated in the positive.  "I will only eat foods that are healthy for me," would be an effective suggestion. One suggestion that is effective, but you might think flies in the face of this rule, is, "I am a non-smoker and will remain a non-smoker for the rest of my life."  I suppose you could tell the subconscious you are a non-ice cream eater. 

At any rate, I was reading about changing habits.  Many habits (maybe all) are triggered by a stimulus.  Maybe it's the conditioning we've been exposed to.  I noticed that watching football makes me want to eat.  In order to change the habit I need to write down, "When I think I'm going to eat food while watching football, that will be my signal to instead walk on the treadmill." Use this during self hypnosis, and soon you will have broken the old habit and replaced it with the new one.  I can't help but wonder how much of human behavior is simply habit?  If you take this train of thought too far it gets disturbing.  "I am non-disturbed, I am non-disturbed!"

At the end of the chapter, the author says that if you have mental issues, hypnosis will not harm you but won't work.  People with mental problems have trouble focusing, their minds tend to wander.  Now, that hurts!  My mind tends to wander.  "I am a non-self-doubter." "I am a non-self-doubter, dammit!"

I must bring the treadmill in from the garage.