Well, I'm not sure she actually became a compulsive internet user but anyway I thought this recent ABC news story could be of some interest:

Internet Saves a Life

Going Online Helped Nancy Makin Lose More Than 500 Pounds

http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=3945436

The end of the article is relevant to some of the work that we do, it'd be useful if more potential clients had this understanding:

Three years and 530 pounds later Makin is keeping the weight off. She wants people to know that crucial first step is realizing the weight is not the problem.

"I've heard so many times, I said it myself, if I could only lose 40 or 50 pounds, I'd be so much happier. I've found on this journey that the opposite is true."

Unless you focus on what's going on inside and start to feel better about yourself you won't be able to stop the cycle. "The key is to find contentment and value in yourself by reaching out and doing something not for you, and the weight will come off as a side effect."

PS. Check out this gloriously insane display of consumption gone wild, it must be what heaven is like. Gee, i wonder why people end up subconsciously associating Food = Folks = Fun!

Problem: This shocking animated graphic from the CDC illustrates the imminent danger to the continental shelf of the United States, as it threaten to sink under the nearly unbelievable growth of Obese-ness over a decade. While handmade soap production increases ten-fold as liposuctioned human fat is in limitless supply, weight loss specialists everywhere are reportedly in awe of the possibilities within this gigantic and growing market!

Solution: Breakin'! Break-dancing (as seen below demonstrated by Belgian superstar Jean Claude Van Damme) is a fantastic aerobic exercise that not only gets the heart pumping, but also increases self-esteem thru the public utilization of the latest form-fitting Lycra and day-glo Leotard technology.

Seriously though, I had no idea things were this bad (I mean the amazing increase in obesity, not the breakin'). Are people really "letting themselves go" all over the country at this pace? Did someone secretly start adding corn syrup to the public water supply?  Egads...

Worked with a client this week who grew up in a culture with a very rigid educational structure (one of those places where if you fail a certain exam in school, you're life is nearly ruined in society's view). He just did not have interest in math or science, but external pressure made him think that he had to perform well in those areas, or something was wrong with him. This contributed to a debilitating perfectionism that affected his ability to work on subjects that he actually enjoyed and excelled at.

This got me thinking more about the subject of focusing on strengths as opposed to weaknesses. So many clients are successful people who define a large part of themselves by their weaknesses or their "failures". I wonder if in the work we do we may be contributing in some way to this negative self-definition, if we focus mainly on solving their problems by trying to improve their weaknesses.

There is a school of thought which believes that it's more efficient to focus on strengths instead of trying to fix weaknesses. This is a reasonable view and might make sense from the perspective of the 80/20 rule, but for whatever reason, the idea of being a rah-rah cheerleader for someone just isn't as appealing as the idea of helping them search and destroy the source of their problems. So, how does one get an objective view of their strengths and weaknesses?

StrengthsFinder is a popular book and online personality test that's all about this "focus on strengths" approach. StrengthsFinder results are interesting, but one of the weaknesses of the test is that it doesn't identify weaknesses, just your top 5 strengths/talents. I guess that is keeping in line with the whole idea, but I'd prefer to know what weaknesses exist, if only to be more conscious and wary of them.

For example, here are my top 5 strengths/talents according to StrengthsFinder:

INPUT - People who are especially talented in the Input theme have a craving to know more. Often they like to collect and archive all kinds of information.

FUTURISTIC - People who are especially talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be.

STRATEGIC - People who are especially talented in the Strategic theme create alternative ways to proceed. Faced with any given scenario, they can quickly spot the relevant patterns and issues.

IDEATION - People who are especially talented in the Ideation theme are fascinated by ideas. They are able to find connections between seemingly disparate phenomena.

INTELLECTION - People who are especially talented in the Intellection theme are characterized by their intellectual activity. They are introspective and appreciate intellectual discussions.

What I find interesting is what kinds of talents are missing from the above list: talents related to concrete activity, implementing and carrying out routine details, and interdependent cooperation with other people*. It's possible that those are just beneath the top 5 ranking, but if you compare this to my Myers-Briggs personality profile of INTP, there are certainly some common themes.

I don't know if tests like these (especially some of the free online Myers-Briggs tests) have any real scientific basis, but they sure seem accurate to me based on other people I have known who have taken them. It'd be interesting to find out if the hypnosis profession attracted certain types of profiles more than others, and how those profiles affected people's approach to the work.

It'd be fascinating if more clients were to come in after having taken these tests and had their results available for review during pre-interview. I have already had a couple of clients walk in with Myers-Briggs profiles in hand, but I wonder if using this kind of profiling could taint the hypnotic work by adding an analytical overlay.

*I guess independent people are just not well-developed enough, according to Stephen Covey, LOL. But "thinking win-win" and being a "good team player" are not necessarily related; sometimes the team is just plain wrong, and the idea that an independent individual cannot operate in win-win relationships with others, or understand others, is silly. But that would not fit in with the underlying "Is This Good For the Company?" message that makes Covey so popular in the corporate world (7 Habits still being a great book of course). That same message that is sometimes prevalent in entire cultures, hobbling many people in the same way as the client I mention at this beginning of this post.

Listening to a client during a pre-interview, I heard a voice shouting in my head:

"If you could see the you that I see, when I see you seeing me, You'd see yourself so differently, Believe me"

Afterwards, I realized the source of this voice was from a Henry Rollins song I used to listen to obsessively: "Low Self Opinion" from the album The End of Silence.  I'd forgotten about it til that moment, but now I think it's interesting if viewed from perspective of the ego-strengthing type of work we do. 

Apparently this song is really good to listen to VERY LOUDLY while weightlifting.  The video is a bit early 90's-ish, but listen to this with the volume up VERY LOUD and you might start doing push-ups or something!

I think a lot of clients could benefit from absorbing the message in this song (uh, maybe in a different way).  It would be an interesting experience to have Rollins as your hypnotist, wouldn't it?  At least it'd prove the point that hypnosis is not about relaxation, :-D . 

I think you got a low self opinion man
I see you standing all by yourself
Unable to express the pain of your distress
You withdraw deeper inside
You alienate yourself
And everybody else
They wonder what's on your mind
They got so tired of you
And your self ridicule
They wrote you off and left you behind

You sleep alone at night
You never wonder why
All this bitterness wells up inside you
You always victimize
So you can criticize yourself
And all those around you

The hatred you project
Does nothing to protect you
You leave yourself so exposed
You want to open up
When someone says
Lighten up
You find all your doors closed

Get yourself a break from self rejection
Try some introspection
And you just might find
It's not so bad and anyway
At the end of the day
All you have is yourself and your mind

The self hatred that blinds you
Binds you grinds you keeps you down
The world falls down around you
You build up walls around you
You wear disgust like a crown

If you could see the you that I see
When I see you seeing me
You'd see yourself so differently
Believe me

I know the self doubt that runs inside your mind
I know the self that treats you so unkind

If you could see the you that I see
When I see you
You would see things differently
I assure you

Even bookworms want to get in on social networking- here is a new social networking site for people wrapped up in books:

http://www.shelfari.com

Of course we must include everyone's favorite book "Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy" by Banyan/Kein and a little tome called "The Secret Language of Feelings":

http://www.shelfari.com/o1517078213/shelf

have fun and add me to your network if you'd like!

edit: join the Hypnosis group on the site and check out the group bookshelf - http://www.shelfari.com/groups/15562/about