Weight Loss for People Who Feel Too Much (6 page)

THE IN-VIZION
®
PROCESS

Inspired by Swiss psychologist Carl Jung's active imagination method of accessing the wisdom of the unconscious, I created the IN-Vizion Process, now the signature process I teach to Weight Release Energetix
®
coaches who work with clients in need of personal coaching while they follow the weight-loss program described in this book. While working with a coach is helpful, you can—and are meant to—do this daily and as often as you need on your own. The versions of it I have included here are an integral part of the weight-loss program and essential for your success.

Even more important to this program than my suggestion about using EFT, the IN-Vizion Process is designed specifically to give you quick relief from empathy overload and enable a state of mind called
neutral observation
. The process bypasses analytical logic and reason, to move you rapidly out of personalized, highly charged emotional states and into the domain of the creative right brain, imagination, and intuition. IN-Vizion works by incorporating intention, guided visualization, and active imagination to help you tap into, dialogue with, and interact with your unconscious dreaming mind in order to reprogram your subconscious emotionally patterned mind.

When you use the IN-Vizion Process, you start with the intention of discovering a landscape that represents the content hidden in your subconscious mind, below your active thinking mind. These pictures and images are delivered to you by the unconscious—the dreaming—mind. Deep down, if you are asked to describe the environment of your state of mind by using metaphors of the natural world, you will know whether your emotions are an arid, lonely desert or a cluttered attic. You may not be able to articulate that feeling, but your subconscious mind will express it in the form of an image if you ask it to. Remember, the deeper layers of the mind speak in pictures, not words!

Then, when you have the image of the landscape, and you connect to the act of “seeing it” as outside of you, you can begin to meditate by clearing your mind of thoughts and focusing only on your breathing. Once you are aware of the landscape, you can experience your emotions as an objective observer might, instead of feeling that you are lost in an emotional experience that's beyond your control. After all, you can always depart from a landscape.

When you do the IN-Vizion Process exercises, the emotions you feel may be strong, but you'll be able to handle them and learn from your experience of them. You'll find that, over time, you don't keep ending up in the same distressing landscape—or when you do, you don't stay long because you easily walk out of it.

Throughout the weight-loss program, I provide you with several In-Vizion Process exercises you can use at any time to gain insights about yourself. You can also download many recorded versions of the IN-Vizion Process, accompanied with original music some of which has binaural beats brainwave technology imbedded; visit my website www.colettebaronreid.com/weightloss.

You can also find a Weight Release Energetix certified coach listed on my website, should you want help with this program. I introduced this IN-Vizion Process in my book
The Map:
Finding the Magic and Meaning in the Story of Your Life
. As a highly effective technique, it can be applied to any situation where you require a perceptual shift in order to gain clarity and objectivity when faced with a highly charged reactive emotional state of mind. The process is the foundation for all the vigorous certification training I have developed for my coaching institute, The Master Intuitive Coach Institute; to learn more, go to www.micicoach.com.

There are many exercises in the IN-Vizion Process that can help a person who feels too much, especially around issues with food. The Landscape of Your Hunger exercise (see below) is one of my favorites, and one that will help you connect to your inner wisdom about food and your body.

THE LANDSCAPE OF YOUR HUNGER

Before starting to eat a meal or snack, pay attention to your hunger. Close your eyes and take several slow, deep breaths to quiet your mind. Don't try to analyze what you're experiencing. Simply allow your subconscious mind to show you images that will help you process your emotions, as directed. Your imagination is an active part of your consciousness, and when asked for a representation of your state of mind, it's just dying to talk to you—not in words, but in pictures. The deeper mind speaks in imagery and metaphor.

Continue breathing slowly and feeling your hunger. Let your subconscious mind show you a landscape that represents your hunger. Ask yourself:

What is this landscape?

What are its features?

Sense whether the food you're about to eat enhances or detracts from this landscape. For instance, does this food intensify the weather conditions? Do the storms rage harder? Does the rain fall in sheets? Does the desert sun become stronger and hotter?

If you eat this food, how will the landscape change? Will eating this food bring into your vision another landscape nearby that you can travel to? What is that landscape? Do you wish to go there?

Will eating this food take you from this landscape to that one?

Now imagine there is a place where you can plant this food as if it were a seed that will sprout and grow. If you plant this food, what will grow from the seed? Is it something you want to grow?

Now ask yourself:

Do I want to eat this food right now?

What do I hunger for at this moment?

Listen for the answer.

Journal about this experience and the insights you gained.

Keep in mind that whatever you experience in these places in your mind, you're always in charge. No matter how emotionally painful the truth is that they reveal, you are safe. In fact, a great way to create that sense of safety is to use the IN-Vizion Process to let your subconscious mind suggest a landscape that will serve as your sanctuary. This sanctuary is one you can consciously escape to through a visualization process or by using the IN-Vizion Process.

What might you find in that safe haven that could help you feel at peace? The following exercise will help you discover an inner landscape that is a quiet resting place, one that will show itself again whenever you wish to go to this imaginary place.

DISCOVER YOUR INNER SANCTUARY

Take a few deep, long, slow breaths and focus on your inhalation and exhalation. Let your mind and body relax. Ask yourself,

Where am I?

Wait for your mind to show you a landscape. Notice the features of the land and your relationship to it. Ask yourself,

Who is looking at this landscape?

Who is observing it?

Pay particular attention to how you are experiencing the observer role.

What does it feel like to look, to observe, to be the one looking?

Notice what your relationship to this landscape is now. Are you in a safe spot on that landscape, observing what's going on?

Feel your power to move out of this landscape. You are in charge. Survey the landscape for a means to escape. What do you see? Ask yourself,

Where would I like to go next?

Allow a new landscape to reveal itself. Observe how your means to escape can take you there. Do you see a bridge? A bird that can carry you?

Use your power to escape to your sanctuary.

Notice what you feel, what you see, what you hear. What textures are you experiencing? What do you feel beneath your feet? Let all the sensory details of your sanctuary come into your awareness, making you feel calm, rejuvenated, and peaceful. Be in harmony with this landscape.

Once you enter your sanctuary, allow your imagination to show yourself as a 4-year-old. Smile, and imagine your heart opening wide with love and acceptance to this innocent little child, and say whatever you need to help her or him feel safe, then hug and breathe deeply connecting to the power of committing to loving and protecting. This can be a powerful way of healing childhood hurts without analyzing any of the details.

When you are ready, open your eyes and return slowly to ordinary consciousness.

Whenever you do an IN-Vizion exercise, you'll find it can be really helpful to write about the experience in your journal. For one thing, you can see how your inner landscapes evolve over time, in detail and impact. Your subconscious mind will respond beautifully as your unconscious, or dreaming mind, activates its symbolic language to speak to you about how you're doing and where you're headed. The subconscious is reprogrammed every time you do the same thing, over and over again. Bringing yourself out of the desert and into the sunny and lush garden in your imagination makes it easier to do that in your everyday life.

SALT

Years ago, I noticed that when I lived by the ocean, and swam in it or walked alongside it regularly, it was easier to let go of the emotional weight I was carrying. It was easier to maintain my weight and my equilibrium. It didn't make sense that the ocean was somehow affecting me, but my intuition told me it was. Then I met a classical Feng Shui instructor and Reiki master who kept bowls of salt water in the room she worked in. I asked her what the water was for, and she told me that in traditional Feng Shui, pure salts remove toxins from your energetic environment.
Hmmm, could that be why the ocean had such an effect on me when I lived near it?

As it turns out, when you heat unprocessed salt like Himalayan salt or put it in water, the molecules that have been held together by electromagnetic energy split apart. The sodium molecules release positive ions, and the chloride crystals release an even larger number of ions—only these are negative. In this case, “negative” is good because negative ions cause more oxygen to flow to our brains, making us more alert. They also remove small particles from the air. These particles can irritate the body when they're inhaled (all that dust that gathers around your electronic equipment is attracted to the positive ions sent out by televisions, computers, and the like). An overabundance of positive ions in the electromagnetic field zaps our energy and makes us feel sluggish or fatigued, or cause headaches. Negative ions are believed to affect serotonin levels in our brains; research suggests that people who have thin boundaries (that's us!) are especially sensitive to changes in the ionization in the environment.

To change the ionization in the electromagnetic field around you, you can use heated Himalayan salt lamps, or place a bowl of highly concentrated rock salt water (half a bowl of salt, just covered barely with water) around you (keep it away from pets, who might lap up the water, and change the water at the end of each day). There are also specially designed heated beds covered in salt that you can lie on, which are available in some spas or for purchase. Make or purchase salt scrubs using Himalayan salts; oils such as almond, jojoba, or grapeseed; and perhaps some essential oils as well, to use on your skin to slough off your day. Of course, if you do live near the ocean, or a natural hot springs that has salt and minerals in it, swim or soak in the water when you can, or at least visit it and breathe in the salty air.

This simple recipe is a wonderful, aromatic scrub that has all the benefits of changing ionization, which helps people who feel too much remain calmer and less stressful. This is a lovely scrub you can use on your hands, feet, and all over your body. And, I feel happy when I use it, so I hope you will, too!

Fill a glass pickling jar two-thirds full with medium-grind Pink Himalayan salt. Then fill one-third of the jar with good-quality Apricot Kernel Oil and Jojoba Oil (see Note).

Add 30 drops of Sweet Orange Pure Aromatherapy Oil

Add 10 drops of Peppermint Aromatherapy Oil

Add 10 drops of Lavender Aromatherapy Oil

It's very easy to find Apricot Kernel Oil and Jojoba Oil at a health food store or a store that sells massage oil. You can use a blend like I do, or choose one or the other. Do not use baby oil or any pre-scented oils.

You can play around with the aromatherapy oils according to your preference.

SALT BATHS

I find the most powerful way to incorporate the health benefits of pure salt into my life is to take a bath with Himalayan salt, along with some essential oils every afternoon at 4:00
P
.
M
., or at some time shortly afterward. Because I work from home as a writer, it's easy for me to do this, especially when I'm under a lot of stress. While I am in the bath, I always use the IN-Vizion Process and sometimes the Emotional Freedom Technique.