Sometimes weight gain can be a mystery. Sometimes it is not about he food that we eat, or a medical condition, or a hormone imbalance. In my experience of treating thousands of clients, it usually is about what we eat, but sometimes, it is not. Sometimes, there is a physical relationship between weight and grief.
Candy’s Relationship Between Weight and Grief
It wasn’t obvious to spot Candy’s relationship between weight and grief. She didn’t even mention grief in the first session, but rather we discussed her anxiety. Candy did notice that she did not experience any anxiety in the week after that first session, but she didn’t notice that feeling of holding onto the weight, shift either. So we talked some more and after a short while she realised that her relationship to food changed during her mother’s illness and death.
Candy was the care giver to her mother, and although she did all she could, it was still a difficult death. In hindsight, Candy believed that it could have been handled better. Candy’s mother was a runner. She was super fit and led a clean lifestyle. Yet in her mid 60’s, Candy’s mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, and died. It just didn’t make sense.
Candy slowly began to believe that there was no point to keeping healthy, even though she remained on a healthy diet because she enjoyed it. If a health conscious person who never smoked could die of lung cancer at such a young age, what was the point? Candy began to feel that nothing was safe. Although her eating habits did not change, her emotional response to food did change. Candy now saw the comfort in food. There was now a link between weight and grief as Candy began putting on the kilos, and holding the weight. In the year that she cared for her mother, Candy had put on 10 kilos. Emotionally, food had become a type of safety, and so for her, weight and grief now went hand in hand, despite her good diet.
Unlinking Weight and Grief
We took Candy back to a time before her body changed, and we told her unconscious mind that it could now take the essence of that happy time and bring it forwards through time, through her mother’s death and into the present. We also did some grief work around the loss of her mother. We found alternative behaviours for Candy to do instead of ‘doing’ food as safety, and I showed Candy a technique to assist her with any anxiety that could arise.
This is a snapshot of some of the key things we did to address the issue of weight and grief and to unlink the chain. Allowing Candy to restore her love and precious memories of her mother, in place of that grief, was central to her turnaround. She no longer felt as though she needed to hold the weight, and the grief could now leave.
If you have an issue with weight gain and would like to move on with your life, we can help. Horizons Clinical Hypnotherapy Sunshine Coast