©2002 Janet Cunningham, Ph.D.
Published in Imprint Magazine, Alberta, Canada, Issue 4 2002
In today's world, more than ever, men and women are focusing on their bodies. Time is made for trips to the gym for workouts with weights and the latest technology in machinery to build muscles and to lower body fat. Personal Trainers are available to give individual attention to the improvement of your body, whether in a gym or in the privacy of your home. Powdered drinks filled with vitamins and nutrients are common in the diets of increasing numbers of people. Classes that range from kick boxing to yoga to dance-exercise variations can be found in every city. So...why is the rate of obesity for both children and adults gaining steadily and higher than ever? Perhaps increased societal effort towards emphasizing the perfect body is bringing up enthusiasm and motivation in some—and unconscious resistance in others.
After working for over 30 years in the field of weight control and counseling, I am convinced that we have been focused in the wrong direction...or at least need more balanced solutions. "Experts" continue to emphasize a yang approach with externals (diet change, exercise, and behavior). They tend to avoid a yin approach that includes exploring internal factors (thoughts, beliefs, mind patterning, and emotion). Clearly, we have not addressed the mind's ability to hold unconscious reasons to keep excess body fat. Nor have we begun to consider the "spirit" or energy-essence of the individual. Experts continue to study the effect instead of the cause.
Good nutrition and exercise are, of course, necessary for a healthy, normal-weight body. And yet, there are millions of obese and/or overweight people who cannot—cannot—lose weight and keep it off. When the external approach is balanced with an internal consideration, there can be greater success. We need to give attention to the unconscious reasons why a person sabotages herself or puts on excess fat in the first place. Those reasons are often locked in the unconscious mind.
Less than understanding friends and some experts cry out, "You just need more willpower." Willpower is a function of the conscious mind. Can one lose weight with willpower? Of course; it happens all the time...and any diet or exercise program will work for a time. If, however, there are reasons held in your unconscious mind to keep the excess fat, you will gain all the weight back.
In my work as a regression therapist, I help people find the "root cause" of self-defeating patterns. By locating the blockage and releasing stored emotion, there is a release of energy from the unconscious mind to consciousness awareness. The client is then free to begin to create new habit patterns. As long as the blockage remains, it is very difficult to move ahead to success and happiness. The memories or decisions in the unconscious mind can hold you back.
Excess body fat is very complicated. It involves childhood programming, learned eating habits, social and ethnic tastes, emotions, physical and biochemical makeup, and the influence of the society in which we live. No one diet plan or exercise program is appropriate for everyone. And, no one plan is appropriate for one person all the time.
It is essential that you learn to listen to yourself, to your emotions and to your body. In that way, you will begin to get in touch with a part that may be lost or buried inside, a part that you have been concealing in excess fat. How would you bury that part of you?
- by blocking your energy
- by stuffing down your emotions
- by keeping your own personality and Inner Being hidden
- by negating and/or devaluing your sensitivity
- by your lack of self-expression
In other words, by losing touch with who you are!
My research over the years in regression therapy has proven to be valuable in helping people uncover their reasons for staying overweight. I realized that with these clients, there was a need to keep excess body fat. That need for fat is a need for protection, in response to memories locked in the unconscious mind. The memories were unique according to each person's life and experiences. They included:
- food programming: how to eat, what to eat, when to eat, why one eats
- being overly-disciplined or ignored...and the child's emotional and mental responses
- painful childhood memories; being in a fat body...the teasing and embarrassment at school,
- abuse: emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual
Some of these issues or memories could be discussed during counseling sessions...and often were. There is quite a difference, however, when an adult discusses a memory with his rational mind, and when that same adult relives (e.g. as a child or teen) the experience in hypnosis. You see, the mind stores not only the event, but also the feelings and emotions connected with that event. "Feeling memories" are stored at the time that they happened.
Fat serves as a protective layer. There are many individual reasons why a person has an unconscious need to protect the self. I have found five major reasons that might cause you to manifest excess body fat.
- To keep feelings and emotions in.
- To keep personal power down.
- To avoid stored memories.
- To punish yourself.
- To protect your "spirit"
It is my belief that we must balance our energies among our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual "selves" for health. I have seen many clients who are focused on their physical bodies while their "spirits" are starving for fulfillment. That sense of hunger can be interpreted as physical hunger. If we try to fill the emptiness with food, it won't work.
- Physical hunger must be filled physically.
- Emotional hunger must be filled emotionally.
- Mental hunger must be filled mentally.
- Spiritual hunger must be filled spiritually.
Listen to your body — enjoy your body - value your body.
Respect your mind — honor your emotions - Be and Live your spirit!
Janet Cunningham, Ph.D. is an internationally known and Board Certified specialist in regression therapy and owner of Breakthroughs to the Unconscious®, a private practice in Columbia, MD. She is president of the International Association of Regression Research and Therapies, Inc. (IARRT) in CA and vice-president of the International Board of Regression Therapy (IBRT). Dr. Cunningham is the author of three books, as well as professional publications in The Journal of Regression Therapy. Her work has been written about by six other authors, and featured in Reincarnation International and Venture Inward magazines.