I took part in a discussion about weight loss surgery on Three Counties Radio yesterday.
Professor David Kerrigan says that Obesity will bankrupt the NHS. My contention is that many people who are overweight suffer from depression or anxiety which owes its origins to difficult childhoods or trauma. In my experience these unfortunate people “self medicate with food” to get them through their unhappy day. So my job is to lift the depression or help them to deal with the anxiety. If I can do this weight loss follows, without the need for expensive and risky surgery. Incidentally, several people have come to me after failed surgery and are living with the consequences. So more research needs to me done on the long term effects of Bariatric surgery. If you want to listen to the short discussion my bit is at 1.54.35 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02b3236

As an experienced hypnotherapist I’m always looking at new ways of helping people. Mindfulness is nothing new, although there have been several excellent books published on the subject recently.  Having read a number of them, I realize that I have been using some of the techniques for years.

So how can mindfulness help?  Mindfulness can help with:

• depression
• anxiety
• lack of confidence
• weight loss, if depression is the cause
• addiction

Mindfulness training helps us to get in touch with our true feelings, in a non-judgmental way.  So it enables us to see things as they really are and to manage our way through life’s challenges much more easily.  A big part of this is living for the NOW and gaining pleasure from small things, the small things we see and experience every day.