Reversing Your Bulimia
By: Kate Walsh
This is the third installment in ED recovery E-course by Kate Walsh. This was sent to me two years ago by Karen Phillips. I hope it will help those who are struggling with Eating Disorders and also will enable others to understand how difficult Eating Disorders are to defeat.
Today I will introduce techniques for reversing your bulimia.You should use at least one from these techniques and practise it consequently.
Don’t expect immediate results. Stay focus and keep practicing with the full understanding of what you do. You
need to be ready to work, work and work constantly for your own
good.
START REVERSING YOUR BULIMIA…
In a big summary, you are bulimic because:
(1) you didn’t find the other way to cope with your emotions
and problems and/or
(2) you didn’t find the other way to became “perfect”
(because you wanted to be beautiful and admired)
Technically, you developed bulimia because you were repeating patterns of negative thinking and binging/ purging till the time when your subconscious mind started to believe that you are bulimic.
By repetitions, you programmed your subconscious which took
over your bulimic behaviour. You lost control and found
yourself in a situation where you couldn’t stop. Now, every
cell in your body suffers from bulimia and your physical &
mental health is in real danger.
If you had a direct access to your subconscious, you would
give it a commend like “I am a healthy person” and you
would become healthy! But this is not as easy I’m afraid.
So what can do yourself to reprogram yourself to be healthy?
What are the ways to reach your subconscious mind?
There are methods available to everybody to reach the
subconscious.I will give you 8 methods for this. 4 of them –
today and 4 – next time.
1) HYPNOSIS/ SELF-HYPNOSIS
2) AFFIRMATIONS/ REPETITIONS
3) WRITING/ REWRITING
4) DEEP BREATHING: RELAXATION/MEDITATION
(the order is random)
NOTE: Every one of these methods is good. I suggest you
should choose a method which suits you best. You will need
time to see positive results. If you try all of them at once
without focusing your attention on one method you might feel
resigned… /As everything new, this process requires
practise and patience/
1) –HYPNOSIS / SELF-HYPNOSIS–
Many of us (it might be you) is extremely open for
suggestions. As you probably know, hypnosis is a method of
influencing a person when he/she is in a deep relaxation.
Short instructions made by hypnotherapist are addressed
directly to the subconscious mind of that person. For some
people, the effect is very impressive (for example somebody
starts barking if a hypnotist suggests he/she are a dog).
Even though it seems unreal (and scary!), this is how it
works. There is a lot of evidence that hypnosis is effective
way to treat bulimia.
Not many people know that hypnosis can be also achieved by
yourself (this is called self-hypnosis). By listening
self-hypnosis audio recordings you can effectively reach your
subconscious and provide it with the positive messages (you
need so badly).
Self-Hypnosis is probably not for everyone, but for sure it
is effective for many bulimics.
There are self-hypnosis audio recording for bulimics
available online. The important thing is to choose carefully
the source you can trust (because you don’t want to buy
recordings from somebody who isn’t an expert in this field!).
If you are interested in self-hypnosis recording made by a
specialist, you may want to try this Self Hypnosis Bulimia
Hypnotherapy CD by Rachel Eccles, who is recognised Clinical
Hypnotherapist in UK (I didn’t listen to this CD personally,
but I heard good things!)
2) –AFFIRMATIONS/REPETITIONS–
Affirmations are positive statements that describe a desired
situation (like “I am healthy”). You basically repeat
affirmations many times, in order to impress the subconscious
mind and trigger it into positive action.
Affirmations are great and easy, but if you should do them
with focus & understanding (if you are very sceptical they
will work, they will probably not work for you…)
My own experience with affirmations is very positive, but I
find that for me it is better to write them down than to
speak them aloud. I use affirmations in connection with
breathing every time I feel I need them.
I will share with you one great affirmation technique I know
from one of the books I read. This technique connects
affirmations, repetitions, writing, and breathing.
You simply draw a vertical line in a middle of a paper
(divide it into 2 columns). On the left you should write your
affirmation on exhaling and on the right column you should
write you comment to this affirmation (the first thing you
have in mind). Repeat this at least 30 times for 1 message.
So for example, your affirmation is “I am pretty”;
you should:
A) Take a deep breath and when exhaling you should write
“I am pretty” on the left (staying focus on this statement)
B) On the right column you should write what your current
respond to this affirmation is
C) Keep repeating with breathing and focus
With time your affirmation will start sinking and you should
notice that your respond to it is getting less negative or
even positive (because you really want to believe that you
are pretty).
I am telling you this from my personal experience. I changed my body image into positive using this simple exercise 🙂
3) –WRITING/ RE-WRITING–
Last time I was taking a lot about writing in a context of
taking your emotions out of your chest.
You should definitely write your honest diary, where you put
your thoughts (which are probably mostly negative at this
stage). Diary will help you with understanding your emotions
and may keep you away from binging and purging, BUT you have
to know that when you write negatives you also strengthen
them up a bit…
So I strongly recommend you start writing positively as well.
Your exercises may be as simple as:
– describing your daydreams (what you desire) without using
any negativity towards yourself;
– re-writng a beautiful POSITIVE lyrics that inspires you;
– writing a positive letter to “a little you” (you from the
time you was a child);
– writing about the day of your life you had a lot of fun;
Positive writing is an important exercise. Put your effort to
keep it positive.
It will sink to your subconscious eventually (if you keep
doing so). After you write, read it back. Next time you can
re-write the same text, or write a new one.
4) — DEEP BREATHING: RELAXATION/MEDITATION —
Any form of relaxation or meditation is great for you
(without using alcohol & drugs of course). Deep, conscious
breathing is a base of relaxation and meditation. It can put
you in a state where you see and understand your fundamental
need, which is love (I mean love in general not only in a
romantic expression of it :))…
When you are relaxed, positive energy is travelling inside
your body and fear you feel every day is going away (fear is
hidden in your negative emotions and stress).
Deep breathing can even make you cry, laugh, shake, etc…
this because by breathing you let go the negatives and absorb
positives.
Everyone can experience the healing power of own breathing.
This is amazing power we all have and hardly ever use it our
daily lives.
Breathing sessions will definitively help you to overcome
bulimia. When you practice it, you should find it easier to
stop binging/ purging.
====================
BOOK RECOMENDATION:
Anorexia & Bulimia
“POSITIVE ENERGY TREATMENT”
