Alex: I have heard the term self sabotage banded about quite a lot in the magazines when they are talking about weight loss. I have an idea of what it refers to as it is kind of self explanatory but what does it actually mean and how does it affect us?

Paul: Put simply, “self sabotage” is when someone unconsciously sabotages or disrupts their best intentions. For example, I may decide to join a gym to exercise more. I find a local gym via the internet and tell myself I will join the following day. When the next day comes, I find I am so busy at work I never found time to join the gym, so I put it off until the next day. Procrastination and finding excuses for not doing things are an obvious form of self sabotage, along with those times when we just end up doing something we know is bad for us, such as eating tasty but unhealthy foods. However there are more subtle kinds of this unconscious behaviour, for instance, supposing I have made it as far as joining the gym and am even preparing to leave for my first session. Just before leaving I remember a friend has asked me to call her for a chat about some problems she’s having. I decide I will call her before going, and an hour and a half later I have finished being a helpful and supportive friend but its now too late to go to the gym. I could have phoned my friend after the gym, but for some reason I decided to do it there and then. My conscious mind will probably come up with all kinds of excuses as to why it was more important to phone my friend than go to the gym. But from the outside this looks more like another case of self-sabotage.

Alex: Ok so I can see how that can really cause difficulties if you are trying to lose weight but where does this self sabotage come from? Why do so many of us suffer from it?

Paul: For most people, the causes probably go back to childhood and centre around issues of self-love, self-worth and the fear of success. If we are lacking in self-love and do not value ourselves, then unconsciously we are programming ourselves for failure. If we were to succeed at anything, that would mean we were worthy of esteem and admiration, however since we deem ourselves as unworthy at the unconscious level, then we cannot allow ourselves to succeed for fear of contradicting our self image. All of this takes place at unconscious level of course, which makes the whole situation so insidious. Many of us do not even realise we are self sabotaging, we just call it laziness or bad luck. For someone who is trying to lose weight, self sabotage can be a frustrating problem and the downfall of many a determined dieter.

Alex: Well if it’s in my subconscious and I’m not even aware that I am doing it, do I just have to just get on with it or is there anything I can do?

Paul: No no, it’s not all doom and gloom. Because the mental and emotional processes behind self sabotage are all learned patterns of thinking, they can all be unlearned. There are many ways of achieving this, but here is a simple yet powerful technique which we use in a more advanced form during Hypnopuncture.

Find a quiet place and sit or lie down with your eyes closed. Take a few deep breaths to relax and then go through the following visualisation. First of all, imagine there is a golden ring of light about a foot above your head, a golden wheel of light with no spokes, like a halo of light and then in the middle of the wheel place a blue triangle, with the point at the top. Next, at the top of the triangle, visualise the words, “self sabotage”. Then tell yourself, or intend, that underneath the triangle, will be written all of the unconscious causes, reasons and conditioning for your self sabotage. Just believe that they are all there, written underneath the triangle within the golden wheel. Next, start to visualize the golden wheel spinning slowly in a clockwise direction. Let the wheel spin slowly for a few seconds, and then start to speed it up. After a few seconds when the wheel is spinning very fast, you should then flick an imaginary switch in your mind which will cause the blue triangle to be sucked up through the wheel and out of your system, taking with it all of the unconscious conditioning which keeps you in self sabotage. After you have flicked the switch, let the golden wheel spin for about twenty seconds. Then finally let the golden wheel slow down and disappear. You can then open your eyes and go about your business.

If practised regularly once a day, this technique can quickly help release subconscious patterns of self sabotage. To experience a more detailed version of this technique you may wish to try one of our Hypnopuncture CDs, or even purchase a complete pack and give your weight loss programme a real chance of succeeding.

Paul’n’Alex 03/09